bank holiday

Well bank holiday came and went far too quickly. We managed to achieve loads and have a skip that is half full of rubble and glass from our numerous sheds and greenhouses that we do not want. The garden is being retrieved. I seem to have managed to get covered in cuts and bruises tho which is not good. How I got half of them I really do not know. I have also put down an impromptu path made of bark chipping. Shame really cos it isnt done right so will eventually need to be redone. It was really an emergency since it was too muddy and slippy to be carrying glass panels from one end of the garden to the skip. Bearing in mind the garden is 83m long its a long walk with each pane of glass! Anyway was too dangerous so went and bought 6 bags of bark chipping and have to say it looks ace. We are going to add some edges and keep the path like this since it looks really good with the sort of rustic garden we have. We are also intending to rebuild one of the sheds on the boundary line since that way we can define our boundary and hopefully stop next door neighbour from stealing any more of our garden or chucking any more of our roses. The roses are on our land but are on her side of the fence since we put it up infront of the leylandii ( which are also ours) when we moved in since was winter, very rainy and we needed to secure the garden for the dogs. Anyway they are My roses and I intend to keep as many as I can. We have removed nearly all the leylandii now and have only about 10 left to cut down. WE are also considering cutting the apple tree down since if left where it is it will eventually destroy the fish pond with its roots. Oh and we have loads of gold coloured goldfish now since lots of teh babies are changing. The pond is now looking really good. The whole garden could be brilliant if we ever get to sort it out. Everything takes so much longer. I wish I could just wave a magic wand or wriggle my nose like Genie and just make it all happen. M found it very funny when next door neighbour is trimming the leylandii one minute then he comes along and cuts same tree down. yes not nice to laugh but shes nasty and a garden theif and also very nosey. Apparently shes one of these strange people who like leylandii and hate deciduous trees. Well they are our trees and they are being replaced with nice indigenous hedging come november time. Also we get all this free wood to burn on the woodburner. Alright has to be weathered or whatever its called first but in the end its all free wood! We are building a store for the wood too which we really need since have a pile that is about 10m long and 3m wide so far and more to come home.

friday at last

Well its Friday. Weekend is nearly here. Loads has happened in the last week. I am very happy. They are going to give me Vegan Society certification for my soaps which will open doors for me I think. That also means when I have the meeting next week to finalise my lablels I will be able to include the sunflower logo. Not really sure it will sell my products better but its worth a try and at least I may get listed on the ethical sites now! hey I am happy and its nearly the weekend since the weather is looking good and we are intending to cut down about 15 trees and reclaim our garden. We have a problem with nosey old bag next door in that we put our fence up on the outside of our trees ( to keep dogs in etc) and she is now gradually nicking our garden so we have to act now and get it back before she plants more of her stuff in it. The original fence is actually still there so we are going to cut the trees to the ground and put our fence up immediately next to hers! Any plants she has put in will either be bent over or she had better move them. In some parts we are currently looking to lose 2ft of garden so we really need to get round to this. There is one bit she nicked the day we moved in and while I am willing to let her get away with that rather than take her to the civil courts ( makes it much harder to sell your house tho she has nicked about 18 inches of our garden and its about 10 ft in length in the dog leg bit) she has planted (non-indigenous) hedging tho so not all bad. But she aint getting any more! She has also which has really infuriated me removed loads of hedging roses which were really ours but are currently behind our hedge. They were still on our land tho. Anyway going to move the fence and plant blackthorn ( sloes in future) hawthorn, hazel, dog roses etc and they are good for wildlife, make a great hedge, we can coppice to keep in check and burn the wood(bonus) and she absolutely hates all those plants so I will get real satisfaction planting them!!!!!!

Trouble is I bet I will be knackered come monday with all the gardening we have to get done. Its one step closer though. I havent looked at weather forcast but its hot today and a few showers wont stop us anyway. WE will just have lots of tea breaks! hopefully we will not have to kill any deciduous trees. There is one that may need to be pruned but I think we can get away with not cutting it down completely. I hate leylandii and they are not only allowing next door to nick our garden they block out most of the sunlight. They will probably stay in the middle garden cos its nice and secluded and shady and where we sit and have BBQs and sometimes if on holiday we have breakfast there, but I think they will all go at the bottom end.

WE are going to get rid of both sheds and put some new ones up so they will mean we can access the sides of the larger shed to take it down. The neighbour who is nicking our garden likes them( leylandii that is) and wants us to keep them but the rest of the street ( who have lived there all their lives!) all hate em and agree with us so it will only annoy the nosey theif woman. She is too...........nosey. We cant even walk up the garden without her coming up to see what we are doing. She has also broken a whole side of the greenhouse where it was one of the few bits that was perfect. Possibly by accident but more than likely to see what we are growing in it ( tomatoes but I have a suspician she thought it was something more subversive! silly woman!).

The glass was all moved inside the green house and stacked against the bit of glass next to the hole - theres no way it was just the wind or something natural! havent accused her cos whats the point. WE are intending to buy a new polycarbonate one next year anyway. It did irritate me tho. We are intending infact to put some natural willow type screens against the fence once we have moved it. I bought 3 large ones last year in winter reduced in Wilkos but decided not to use yet cos the fence was definitely not in final position and we never trusted this neighbour. Did not actually expect her to do what she has done tho. On August 30th assuming all goes to plan and I have a strange feeling it will I will make my/my soaps debut then at this Creative Arts Fayre in Spon End. I will also begin my tax hammering but that is inevitable until i can give up my day job I think. I cannot afford to give up my day job yet so will just have to put up with paying extra tax until I start to have a real turnover with respect to the soap. I have hardly made any this week ( only 3 bars) since ran out of just about everything but its all been re-ordered and is on its way. Getting 80L of olive oil this time next friday since I am on holiday ( to work for myself!!!) over bank holiday but I am so happy. It seems if you follow your dreams they really can come true. Still waiting to find out more about this hotel that is interested in my soap but its all happening for me at last. Only 2 hours left at work.............there I am wishing my life away again! Gotta get out of this rat race and start to really live again. I suspect its bad for the face this self employment but what the hell...........we all have to get old and wrinkled and I rather be happy and over worked than bored and doing what someone else wants me to do. I have to go to a company dinner after work next week. Dont really want to go but really need to make the effort after I upset everyone when I refused to go horse racing. This time its a chinese which I dont particularly enjoy but has to be done. At least it might mean my job still exists for a while longer or at least till I tell em where to stick it and go self employed.

a great day at work

I had a brilliant day today. Was at work but did very little. Spent the day sorting stuff out. Got this email when I arrived from a business development agency I am registered with about a creative arts fair on 30th August. No idea if I will be ready to Trade but its only £5 a stall so decided to go for it. Rang the organisor who is a woman and explained the situation and she was very encouraging and helpful and even told me who to contact to try and get a grant. How good is that. Also apparently a local hotel is after some soap that is different and may be interested in mine and she knows of a potter who sells all sorts of other peoples crafts and may be interested in my soap. How wild is this. Then after got back to desk after long phone call to sort all this out had another email from Vegan Society about certification so rang both my suppliers. Have to get em to fill a form in for me to state no animals or animal tests in my products. No problem with one who supplies most of my stuff but the olive oil supplier is being a bit awkward. Hopefully they will make the statement else I will have to find a new supplier which is a shame cos it makes lovely quality soap. I do not believe the olive oil has any animal content either its just the hassle of having to fill in a form they do not want to bother with. Ah well if I have to change supplier so be it. I will get certification in the end one way or another. Finished the allergens declaration for the last 3 soaps too so emailed them to printer and its all looking like its coming together amazingly. Also due to 2 requests I made coconut soap last night. It smells and looks lovely but it is not natural since you cannot get coconut essential oil. I will see what its like and get some feedback but not sure if I will want to sell this one really. Just made it cos 2 different mates have asked me to.

time to stop dreaming and get real

The more I consider it the better is seems the right thing to do. I could rent a shop in Devon or Cornwall .............just for a season, make and sell soap, and keep the house on at home. So long as I make enough to pay the rent and mortgage and to eat it would be the perfect summer. Alright its going to be hard work but I really think it may be the answer to the things I truly want in life. Move to the seaside and make soap. Then if it worked well could sell the current house and actually move. The we wouldnt be risking much since we would only buy a company at the seaside if it worked out well. I am off to Cornwall in October for Ms birthday so intending to go and talk to some estate agents and see what a shop would cost me to rent. then will see if its a really viable idea or not. Till I know more it will just remain a dream. Sending off to get vegan society certification tonight and once i have that I will get the labels printed. My graphic designer is on holiday this week so cant move forward anyway till he gets back so I need to get this all sorted for next week. its meant to take about 4 days to get a yeay or ney on the Vegan Certs so should know by Tuesday next week if they are going to give it me for my products. I have to try and focus now on actually getting round to selling cause all I am currently doing is supplying my mates with free soap and dreaming!!

lazy at blogging

Well I feel that I have been very lazy. Should have got round to blogging. Its been nearly 3 weeks!!!!! Lifes been a bit hectic. Been making loads of soap. I have been doing a full day at work then going home and working making soap for 3-4 hours a night so that I will have lots of stock to sell once I can start trading. Have also had to sort out commercial insurance which is not too expensive ( £300 ish) so better that I expected. On top of all this spending ages talking to graphic designers and still making new soaps for next years collection so its all very hard right now. I havent had any time to blog or even to email most of the people I normally keep in touch with! I really really need to spend less time doing my mindless job. Its so frustrating now that I am stuck doing something that seems completely pointless and I hate. I think the real problem is I do not feel at all Stretched at work and you do need some sort of stimulation. My old job working for a local council was at least stimulating and made me feel I was achieving something even tho I hated most of what I was expected to do. I worked in enforcement of environmental crime then and most of what I enforced was just petty and I simply didnt believe in my work at all. Still it may have paid less but was much better than my current work from the point of veiw I was less bored. I suppose at some point you always get bored at work but where I am now its just constant boredom with little interest at all. I suppose it pays the bills. Other than that its simply not worth the effort of getting out of bed! And I spend the majority of my life feeling this way. Its such a waste of a lifetime. I am sure the majority of workers feel this way. There just has to be something better. Now tho I have to face the possibility my own company will just not take off. Its all quite scary really but if I do not go for it what else will come my way to improve my life. I envy these people who have the courage to just up sticks and run off to live at the seaside not even knowing how they are going to eat when they get there. If I didnt own a house it would all be much easier to do but I do own a house and its currently not in a fit state to sell even if they were selling at the moment which they are not due to financial climate in this country. I can plan ahead and think of the future and maybe in 2 years move to cornwall or devon but right now it all seems really frustrating and pointless. It all a bit sad really cos you go to work and spend the day wishing it will end so you can go home .........wishing your life away. Sad to say but sometimes I truly wish I never went to Uni and had stayed unemployed and unemployable without qualifications and on a low income cos at least then I was free!

Bored

I am so bored at work. It all seems so pointless. Thought I couldnt get on work email today ( no internet) but after having closed PC down several times its working. No idea what I shall do if it goes down. Since end of June had to access my emails from external site cos program went wrong on PC. They fixed it last thursday but since then have had no database access. Cannot do my job without it. Very very bored. Will need to cover reception tomorrow anyway cos 2 pepes are off and to be honest cant wait! At least I will have something to do. Boss still doing my head in over horse racing. Rest of staff as bad too. Mind you I couldnt resist telling my boss my union have asked me to strike. His face was a picture when he realised I am in a union. Ha! Totally pointless tho since no unions where I work. I just stayed in it since I feel safer. They cant stop me after all and if they are going to get rid of me I doubt it will make any difference either way. Just means they know they have to have a good reason. I dont actually want to wind em up and I suppose if they had got rid of me unfairly I would have had an ace to take action with legal support. I still have that tho and really i would prefer they just dont get rid of me cos sadly I need the money. I started a new blog the other day to stick my poetry on. Normally I just write on the walls but once the house is done up I have to use a note book. Well I think M would object to graffitti on teh walls once its all nice inside. Right now it doesnt matter. Have decided whats the point of writing into a note book. I will never get round to real publishing but can do so anyway by blogging it and at least then the odd random person will actually find it and read it. Rarely write anyway so there will not be loads. Usually only when something happens like the race course/work corporate do incident. Frustrated with having to work in a boring under paid job when could be sorting out my own company. I have so little time it seems to do anything for me. There has to be a better way to live than this me thinks. Had a meeting with the guy who will probably be printing soap labels on saturday morning. Normally would avoid doing anything work related at the weekend but its so different when its for your own company. Didnt mind at all. Was also quite an eye opener when M said he would like to run a shop. Maybe that will be the away forward for us. In theory as well we would then both be self employed. I am abit worried about just how much soap people will buy tho. I mean at £1:50 to £3:50 ish a bar (thats another thing - must actually get round to working out realistic prices!) thats alot of soap I need to make to be giving up full time work!

help with our boiler disaster

This really nice guy came to visit from Advance Heating. Decided to plug the name since have never had a salesman before who didnt try to sell us anything but actually helped us to move forward. And we havent spent anything yet! All he did was advise us. He says first we need to insulate all outside walls with Trisol 13 and need 2 layers. Lower our ceilings in the bedrooms slightly so we no longer have "caravan" curves since these cause more heat loss. Also insulate under floorboards in lounge. Then invest in stainless steel hot water tank - can add solar panels at later date if we ever afford to. He reckons if we do this soon we will cut our heat loss by around 50% and probably find it much easier to heat the house using current woodburner. That sorts us out for hot water and warmer home for very little and we only need help installing hot water tank. He said we can do most of what is needed ourselves. He is also making us calculate the BTU for every room. He said he could do it for us but charges £240 and we should use that as our incentive to get round to doing it. There are programs you can use online. I have done it for the upstairs so far and just need to do the downstairs now. He reckons we need to replace all radiators but can do this ourselves. I agree they are very old and probably inefficient. Also all are the same so not right sizes for rooms. Nice guy tho. Most people would have tried to blag us for them to do it for us. He gave us lots of leaflets on wood burning stoves and stuff with costs even tho he knows we wont have the cash for this till next january at earliest so he is not really getting anything out of this. He spent 2 hours with us and I feel dead guilty since forgot to offer him a cup of tea even. Very rude of me and he was a really nice guy. Well thats who we will be going with when we do save the money for a new boiler!