New Year Catch Up 2018

Hi Everyone
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year.
My mind is buzzing with ideas at the moment, so I am not focused enough to concentrate on a specific topic for my blog. So as its the first of the New Year, and first in while infactI have decided to touch base with you and let you know what I have been up to and what my plans are.
After the Pop Up Shop (which was a success (albeit cold most of the time)), Foxy Lady spent the Christmas holidays out of town at the beautiful Marsh Benham. Literally this is just a couple of miles out of Newbury, but out enough in the sticks not to get WIFI or phone or TV signal (aggh, this did spoil my Christmas TV viewing, although I did get to see the proverbial Top Of The Pops Christmas day special.
We spent time with friends on other boats, went for some lovely walks and ate lots of cheese and biscuits (washed down with wine of course). I got a much wanted new digital solar powered radio, Mia got a tablet (a proper grown up one, and made me redundant Christmas day spending all her tie playing Mine Craft), and Richard got a wildlife camera (Trail Camera) that you leave outside at night and it records the wildlife by motion sensor. We have had lots of fun with that this week, positioning it near our bird feeders to see who's eating, we counted 12 different species of birds that visit the mooring, which doesn't include about 6 varieties of water fowl. We live on the edge of town, and I am amazed at how much nature is before my eyes every morning.
In case you didn't see my photos on Facebook, here are a couple of beautiful shots from Hamstead Park at Marsh Benham, on a snowy day.

Winter Wonderland at Hamstead Marshall, West Berkshire

Making a Snow Angel

One of the best things about boating is that you can stay in such beautiful places that you wouldn't be able to afford to live in a house. Also, you can move on when you've had enough.
So we return to our Newbury mooring New Years Day, to readjust ourselves for returning to work and school.
Then we have storm Eleanor. Wow, that's was something, a sleepless night was had by most of the people on the mooring as it was so noisy, and we are all lay awake worrying about what we may have lost off our roofs, or what has survived on the mooring e.g Trampoline, Guinea Pigs hutch... Tepee. Unfortunately, the tepee, although stayed standing, took a bit of a battering, and shifted slightly and therefore ended up with a nasty rip in it. It was a year ago since we erected the new and improved tepee, but what we didn't do, was protect it enough from the ground, so unfortunately the bottom part was wet, and weakend it.
So we spent the whole of last Saturday, all hands on deck (no pun intended), taking it down (no easy feat) and putting it back up, stronger and better than before, albeit with a rip in the side. Guess who will be repairing that in the warmer months???

Putting the tepee frame up

Tying the tepee poles together

Men at work

This week has been my first full week back into my routine, hurray, exercise, time to think, time to sew, time to make plans for Foxy Lady Creations.

I love my routine, and missed it. I find it easier to be creative if I have routine funnily enough, when I have allocated time, purely to do what I need to do for myself.

This week I started a memory quilt, which someone has commissioned me to do. I like doing new projects, and I will possibly do a 'How to Make a Memory Quilt' You Tube video when I have finished it. Basically the memory quilt is lots (and I mean lots) of  a childs old baby grows, cut up into squares, which I am patch working together to make a quilt. Its quite involved, but if you are methodical about it, is a rewarding task. I think they ( I am doing 2) are going to look beautiful and will be another Foxy Lady Creations show piece,

This week I also started a new venture. I have started tutoring again. Whoopee, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it, and it has given me a confidence boost. I am teaching a home educated 12 year old girl Fashion and Dressmaking, she is really keen, and it was good for us too feed off each others enthusiasm for the subject, even though there is 33 years difference between us. I'm thinking I might expand on this at some point and advertise as a tutor. I have a teaching certificate, and have taught to City & Guilds Level Fashion (gosh, I'm not sure if this even exists anymore, I need to look it up), but not for well over 10 years. How time flies.

I have a few other plans for my business and career in the pipe line, but need to make some decisions and do a bit more research before I share my ideas with you. Exciting.

So, I think I will leave it at that for now. I have missed the blogging, as I find it cleansing and therapeutic, to share my thoughts in writing. 

As soon as I have posted this, my mind will be wondering as to what I will blog about next week.

Have a great weekend, and I'm glad to be back