I must be honest I hadn't realised how long it was I actually posted a blog here. I knew I hadn't done one this year but not that it was about 10 months since my last one.
In my defence there have been a lot of changes since I last wrote a blog, most of which pushed Gilli’s Flowers rather down my list of things to do. The eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed a change in my list of events posted on the homepage. To put it briefly, mid-December last year I upped sticks and moved from Walthamstow to Yaxley, a lively busy village a few miles south of Peterborough.
Many of you will know what a stressful time moving house is let alone with the added complications of moving to a completely new area and having to manage it alongside a selection of chronic illnesses. It was wearing to say the least. The summer was a gradual process of de-cluttering and tidying up.
September was making sure it was super tidy to have photographs taken and viewings plus a couple of visits for me to Peterborough, October and November were a stressful period of buyers dropping out, and price negotiations with new prospective buyers until finally I moved. Even then it was a near run thing as contracts weren’t exchanged until four days before the move and on the day of the move itself there was a delay in the money being paid – and then to top it all the central heating in my lovely bungalow wasn’t working that night!
My new “forever home” is perfect though. A fully refurbished two-bedroom bungalow in a quiet road complete with a garden which is like a miniature scrap of woodland. The first time I was I actually able to buy furniture that I wanted to buy rather than going for a cheap and cheerful. An upgrade from Argus to John Lewis!
As well as the move there was another reason why Gilli’s flowers was quiet, obviously it took a lot out of me and so physically things were a real struggle, plus on a practical level I had nowhere to make my jewellery! I was able to do a few bits in the kitchen once I got my kitchen table sorted but there wasn’t much space for all the glueing and varnishing my jewellery needs, let alone the assembly and my papers, varnishes and tools were in boxes.
This brings me to the most exciting thing, in my garden was a brick built garage!
Over January to February this was transformed into a purpose-built jewellery studio. It was so exciting seeing it take shape from the installation of the floor wall and ceiling through to putting in flooring the lights shelving and workstations and all just as I wanted it. I love it! Places for me to store everything neatly, good lighting for photography and workspaces at the perfect height for me. It was so much fun working with the company who did the conversion and with the builder who took charge of this making sure that everything was just as I wanted it. It really feels like a dream come true as I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I’d have somewhere so wonderful to work. I am so incredibly lucky!
I’m really settling into my new life in Yaxley and although it sounds like an overstatement it has been life changing. In Walthamstow, parking was a nightmare even with my blue badge and thanks to the “Mini-Holland” scheme driving even to local places could require long complicated routes. There were things going on but often they were just not practical for me to go to and I couldn’t get into the centre of London as I couldn’t use the tubes. Now though things are so different, I was determined to meet people and get involved in the community and I don’t think I’ve done too badly so far. I’ve joined Slimming World with the aim of making friends as well as losing weight, the WI, and I’ve become a school governor. I’ve also been to a couple of coffee mornings and Quaker meetings. I still have to be careful to manage my energy levels, pace myself and plan out my weeks carefully I’m so glad I made the move.
So this is the end of part one of my catch up blogs. I’ll update you again next week and tell you about my new jewellery business.