How life changes........

I would have never have believed this time last year that my life would have completely changed direction as much as it has done this last 8 months.

You seem to roll along, sometimes with a plan, sometimes just going from day to day. Then one day..........WHAM.........all change now!

Mine has taken me from running my own business in my dream house to now having taken the somewhat quick decission to upsticks and get my girlies back to our roots in Blighty!!!! Although it seems to have been a quick decission to most, once I arrived at my decission there was no point sitting and thinking about it any longer or trying to find reasons not to do what my heart tells me I  need to do.

    We have been through a lot recently but the future is waiting for us and our new life has slowly begun. With lots still left to do we are taking each day slowly, slowly finding our feet again.

We are being well looked after by "Mum" and would happily stay here forever if it weren't for the fact we need some more room!

So.........

Challenge one: Find a suitable house to set up our new life and make a cosy nest!
Challenge two: Spend some well needed quality time together!

oh........and inbetween doing these challenges start my new granny blanket with the wool I have just unpacked!!!!!!!

Onwards and upwards...........
I hope everyone in blog world are well and having a nice weekend.
Best wishes
Nicky
xxx

Just a quick Hello

Good morning,
I am just popping in to say a quick Hello to you all. I am still here, still frantically packing boxes and binning rubbish,,,,,,,,,,,,,it feels really quite liberating to be honest being able to chuck stuff away!

Hopefully this time next week I will be sorted, packed up and eagerly waiting my departure to my new life, unless someone pops up to scupper my plans!

So I must dash now, once I am settled back into Mums (can't wait) I will have the time to catch up, sort out my photos and get some much needed crocheting done, which I am missing so much as all my new yarn is packed up!

Cheerio for now!!!!!!
Best wishes
Nicky xx

A belated Happy New Year to you all.....

Well.........sorrry its late (you will understand why it is when I fill you in on the last few weeks) but Happy New Year.........May 2013 bring everyone good health, happiness and joy.

So my last few weeks.........where to start. I have payed a long overdue visit back the UK to see my lovely familly and friends. I had an absolutely fabulous time and really felt at home there with my girlies, at peace, calm and relaxed. (oh and more importantly, I stocked up on yarn!!!!!! YYYYIIIPPPEEEEEE!!!!!!

As I said on a previous posting, my Christmas this year was somewhat different to what I'm used to and I have to admit I didn't really enjoy it at all. Away from my family and friends, immersed into unknown traditions and cultures that I didn't particularly enjoy or agree with. It was supposed to be the first lovely Christmas with my farmer, the first as a new family and I ended up feeling so low and realised exactly what I wanted out of life and my future and unfortunately this was not it at all.

I sat on Boxing Day evening when the electric went off for 3 hours in the dark, by myself, just me and my thoughts and there it was....clear as a bell,,,,,this life isn't for me anymore, I want to do whats right for me and my girls, I had had enough. My mind was made up.........I had to make a serious lifestyle change. A lifestyle change that I knew was going to be so difficult to undertake but was a "Must do" for my survival.

I went over to the UK to spend some quality time with my family over the New Year to clear my mind and focus on the future and how I was going to get where I wanted to be. Like I said, I had a lovely time and came back desperately upset that I needed to come home at all but knowing I needed to to be able to deal with everything to set up my future happiness and that of my girlies.

Within a week of coming back I had packed up, moved back into my house (shared with my ex) and started frantically packing ready for a huge move for the girls and I back to the UK, back to where I came from, back to my family and friends, back to where I know, to what I know, to the calm and peace of mind and back to my mother tongue!!

I'm still here busily packing, cleaning, organising and although feeling rather panic stricken when I think about what Im about to undertake, I also feel quite excited and positive and can imagine the weight being lifted from my shoulders. I have thought positive thoughts as oftern as possible and this has helped me greatly with every huge hurdle that I have jumped the last few weeks and there have been some horrible ones to jump. I know completely 100% that it is the right thing to do for me and my girls even though I know it will upset some people on the way.  I have had to be very selfish and think of just me and my girls and no one else. However I would question: "why does is it feel as if you are being selfish to think of ones self and no one else?" ...........hmmm?

Anyway,,,, that's it in a nutshell. I have had to find a new home for my poor 2 little piggies, but they went happily yesterday to a huge field with lots of other farmyard friends and hopefully they are going to be very happy there. I have also had to let go my classic MG BG T, sold today. These were essential things I have had to let go of to help me get where I am going. I will be where I want to be this time next month and most definatley this time 2014 my life will look rather rosie. Why???????????? Because I am thinking positive and I have told myself my life will be happy, calm and prosperous!

So if you don't hear from me in a while, do keep an eye out, I will be back as soon as I get a mo to fill you in on my progress.

In the meantime best wishes to you all
Love Nicky xxxx

The Secret

Good morning my lovely followers, I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and profited from family, friends, love and peace over the last few days.

We have had a rather quiet and somewhat strange Christmas this year. Very different from our normal Christmas' usually spent with lots of family and friends, noise, bedlam, mess, food and wine!!! I am not sure how future Christmas' will pan out but I prefer the latter!

Anyway, under my tree this year "my lovely friend" gave me a book that is in the process of rescuing my mental state and hopefully my future. We have both been through a lot over the last few years and have shouldered each others burdens on the way yet know how difficult life can be, as many others I know, when your head takes over and the only thoughts you have are negative thoughts. You spiral into such a black hole with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel and you can see no way out. When you are in this place no one can help you, nothing anyone can say can get you out of there. Your trapped! Watching your life unfold before you and not enjoying a moment of it.

Well, "my lovely friend" was given this book too a couple of months ago and even after under going a complicated painful operation on her neck her mood has changed into such a calm, positive zen like state. She knows where she is going in life, what she is wants, she has made great plans and is already turning everything around. I am sure she will not mind me telling you that she had a very very negative mind set before and one terrible crisis happened in her life after another, it was never ending. So after seeing her reverting to her old self I was obviously delighted to find this book for my Christmas present from her this year.

I started it on Christmas day and have struggled putting it down. I'm only part of the way through it but already I am relating to the words I am reading. I have managed to start some positive thinking and MY GOD, its great. It explains how negative attracts negative and positive attracts positive. Thinking positive thoughts makes you instantly feel better, gives you hope, helps you get what you wish for. Helps you appriciate what you have NOW in life which is sometimes very difficult to see at times.
This book is in the process of turning around my life.

Although it is called "THE SECRET" I don't think it is a book that can be kept a secret. I know there are others out there like me who need a bit of help from time to time to find what they are looking for. Give it a go and hopefully it will help you too.

The Secret Rhonda Byrne

I can not say a BIG enough THANK YOU to  "my lovely friend" for giving it to me. Love you lots and lots and where ever we both end up in the future we will always be close at heart. xxxxxxx

OH Dear....no more yarn!

I don't know quite how it has happened but I have a very small amount of yarn left !!!!!! Nightmare!!!!!!

I can't believe my stocks have become so low, I am getting a bit twitchy! I want to dash out and restock! I must have got through more than anticipated this year! Somehow, although I only have a couple of cushions, a lap blanket, hot water bottle covers and some bunting to show for it??

I am going to restrain myself, as I'm going to the UK in just over a week, where yarn is considerably cheaper than here in France, I will stock up. I am going to productively use this time to think about my up and coming projects for the rest of winter. I want to tackle a crochet tea cosy for my, hopefully, new teapot thats on my Christmas list. As my 3 girlies have lovely crochet blankets at the foot of their beds I think its time for a lovely one for my bed! A HUGE one, every colour under the sun, I'm throwing caution to the wind and going totally random with my grannies, not easy as my mind doesn't do "Random" It likes order!

How wierd that crochet can totally take over your life and make you obsessive! None crafters would think you "Barking" if you had to explain it but it is a total addiction isn't it?
Phew!!! Hopefully I can get through the next week........fingers crossed.

Best wishes
A rather shakey, aggitated Nicky xxx

Eclectic????? Not sure!

My tastes are very very varied with regards to the style of my decoration in my home. I always seem to struggle as I enjoy so many styles I have always found it difficult to "melange" them together. I am the sort of person that can't cope with one decor arrangement as I will always have another style in the wings just waiting to take over.

I love the French Chic, I love Shabby Chic, I love Granny Chic, I love vintage, I love retro,  I adore Kidston but putting all these elements together I have found difficult. That was until I stumbled over "Country Rabbit"  A bit of everything seems to be going on there which has given me endless amounts of inspiration for my home. I am now mixing all my little bits and bobs together, not worrying that I have a French Chic print in the same room I am stuffing my shelves and units with other floral, Kidston, chinzty, whimsey type "stuff!!!!!"

Does that make sense? Mum calls me Eclectic? Not sure there is a word for it,,,,my partner thinks Im a hoarder (probably quite right too) and doesn't really "Get it!" All I know is that I am happy with my bits and bobs and my little treasures and who cares if they don't all go together but isn't that what a home is about?? Personality? Yes I think so.

Best wishes

Nicky x 

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!!!!!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Had a very shiny nose,

And if you ever saw it,

You would even say it glows.

All of the other reindeer

Used to laugh and call him names;

They never let poor Rudolph

Join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve,

Santa came to say,

Rudolph with your nose so bright,

Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?

Then how the reindeer loved him

As they shouted out with glee,

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,

You'll go down in history.