Happy New Year!

I'm staying over with my niece and her friends tonite for her birthday- 8 girls, 8 years old. :) Living Proof friends I will see you Jan 8 since I'll be up all night tonight. :) Love you all!


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I'll be home for Christmas!

It's official- I've got my tickets and will be Stateside soon, Dec 19-Jan 9! Really can't wait!

My Stella & Dot launch went well, I'm aiming to hit some big targets before end of December. I'll be ready for a rest tho!

Can't wait to visit!!


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David Smallman from Pathfinder Consulting

We had the great pleasure of doing the video for David Smallman at The Business Club Cambridge last night. David is an international businessman with 45 years of experience, and he took questions from local businesses, sharing his wisdom with us.

Star 107 radio was also there, and I won an interview on Business Hub for fast thinking and identifying Kazakhstan as one of the countries David has done business in! Exciting!!


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Update!

It's 1am (yikes!) and I realised I hadn't posted an update! :) Last Sunday I placed my Stella and Dot order, this weekend I got it and sorted through it all. 361 is going well, I've been able to have more one to one (aka 121) s with networking business contacts. I fell behind when I started feeling too tired to cope with them, its great to get back on track. We have a pending weekly shoot for a car sales company which will be a set monthly income for the first time for 361- yay!! :)

I'm finding it hard to make it to the women's morning bbl study group now that I'm getting back into business. Honestly I miss sweet times in A2 with Thelma, Joyce, and Dorothy working on the Lottie Moon quilt. Missing you dear friends, and I've been passing on the things I learned from you all! The group here isn't quite the same- they are busy Cambridge moms, ferrying children to various schools etc, and I find them hard to get to know as few have time for me outside the study. :( It's hard here- I joined this group well over a year ago and I still feel unknown. Not for lack of trying- I share deeply but still nothing much in return. Young women having babies get better support. Enough about that anyway.

Did you know there is no Thanksgiving here? I may celebrate with some friends here anyway. :)

Pr that I'd find a new chch in my village, I'm hoping to move after Xmas. Also praise that G's Korea and Thailand trip went well and he made it safely back!

oh dear the clock is pinging the half hour! Nitey nite and missing you all back home!


putting a rug / blanket on a horse


- unpacking a Stella and Dot box




Crazy girls on the London subway train




Paper cone clothes?!




Do NOT eat these mushrooms!!

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Stella and Dot training in London

Really loving Danielle's training- I've been loving her charisma and energy! And her Canadian accent. :)


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Your Horse Live!

What a week it's been here! I've been hard at work this week raising money to invest in my Stella and Dot business, and making good use of all the business knowledge I've gathered here over 3 years. I've been really really pleased to help the enterprising ladies here- 300 ladies joined Stella and Dot as founding stylists, the core 300 people to help the business grow here. Really exciting. :)

Today I went with the friends I've been making in my horse care class to a big expo called Your Horse Live, which is a great shopping opportunity once a year for the entire UK horse community. The horse class has been really amazing, and though it is hard work at times, you all know that I'm no stranger to hard work. :) The stable hands keep apologising for my having to do so much mucking out (that's pitchforking all of the stable hay out. It reminds me a lot of having a massive massive cat. :) I clean out Nelly's litter box every day, and horses stables need cleaning out daily too- there's just a lot more poo and wet bedding! A horse's stomach is the size of a rugby ball (an extra big football) so everytime they eat an enormous pile of poo is the result, which needs picking up. As if picking up poo in stables isn't enough, the fields where the horses are kept when the weather is good ALSO need poo picking! A wheelbarrow, flat rake, and over an hour later the poo has all been collected. 16 horses are no joke to clean up after. I've learned how to communicate with horses, about their different temperaments, which are the friendliest and which are a bit shy or sad.

I've been riding a horse called Ted- Ted is a multicoloured horse, like a very big pinto. But with a short cut mane, and not hairy legs. This week I finally started to feel like a horse rider- the first time ever. I ride on Wednesdays and this Wednesday I actually felt like I could get onto any horse and be able to ride. I'll get some photos this week. :)

I'm already starting to think about my Christmas plans, and really looking forward to seeing you all soon!

£300 left to go

Soooo close! I keep doing random spot checks in areas of my house to see if there's anything else that I would be happy to sell, and bit by bit finding odds and sods I'd forgotten I had. And I'm still considering having a table at the Huntingdon Racecourse car boot sale this Sunday to clear out furniture and other bits that I no longer need. Wish me luck in my last few days of fundraising!


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Gunpowder treason and plot!

It's Guy Fawkes Night here, November 5th- bonfires in every village and fireworks! I went into town to see the big show, it was really good!
















It's been fairly quiet here, pressing on with my goal of raising £2000 for my Stella and Dot samples- I'm over halfway there! I've started a blog to keep track of my adventure of joining at the beginning of Stella and Dot UK- it's www.iamastylist.blogspot.com.
Please PR for the ladies I am meeting that I would be a good witness to JC and for opportunities for sharing Truth with them as I know them better. Especially PR for B and M who I'm getting to know better as a result of this new business bolt on.

Praise Gd Nelly's hearing and sight are returning- this week I noticed it!



Please be PRing for G as he's in Korea giving talks at a conference. He'll be visiting family in Thailand as well.

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11 days left to go...

Update on my ££ raising- 9 days on, and I have sold my spare camera for £355, spare tripod for £25, various polos and clothes for £150. So £525 so far, and plenty of things still on ebay with more to go.

It's time to get a bit more serious about what can be rehomed via ebay, or else I won't reach my goal. I may have a go at car booting as well on Sunday to sell off the small stuff. I'd love to make it to £1000 at the halfway (10 days) mark.


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Busy Saturday

Manic day today!! It's 00:21 here and I just got back home- left around 11 so 13 hrs. First I photographed an equestrian event, then Cambridge rugby, then off to celebrate a 2 yr shop opening!

It's halfterm here, a sort of spring break that happens every 8 weeks here.

Oh dear I've just fallen asleep! :)












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sewing

I've had plenty of sewing projects this week- besides teaching a girl to make a quilt, I've repaired jackets and jeans, made covers, let out and taken in!



Nice jeans but seat wore thin, patched now




-sewing machine cover




horse blankets for quilts

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free food :)

Those of you who lived during the Depression era will appreciate this post. :) I've been trying to set a tighter budget so I can save more, and looking for cheaper sources of food. It's harvest time, and there are lots of good apple trees on the roadsides, so this week I picked a massive bag full of apples- sweet ones too, very tasty.

My village here is on the edge of a huge farming area- our region is called East Anglia, and is known as the breadbasket of England. It was marsh until 300 years ago when it was drained and is black peaty soil. They grow 4 crops a year on it. Wheat came in 3 months ago, and there are massive walls of bales in the fields. Beets, potatoes and sugar beets came in about 10 days ago and the local produce stands have had such tasty fresh veggies!


Farmers load potatoes, beets and sugar beets into big wagons pulled by tractors down the road. The roundabouts here mean sometimes crops fly off.I spotted some beets on the side of a roundabout, so I stopped and picked them up. They had minor impact damage but otherwise ok. So that makes apples and beets.

Today as I was driving I spotted a pheasant 15 ft from the road- clearly flew into a car and broke his neck. He was a first year but lovely feathers, which I'm after for native headgear. So I stopped! Its been cool here and so the poor thing was still fresh, so I've taken him back here and hung him up, and tomorrow plucking and dressing. I'll cook the rest, and make special food for Nelly. :)

So what's next? I'd take a deer if I found one. :)


Gorgeous lad, glad to put him to good use.


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Piccies

One of my happy new sewing friends with her project




Learning to clean out horse stables at my new horse care class




Camera club trip to Aldeburgh on the seaside




Found out Nelly is a breed called Nebelung! She's not impressed. :)




I got to groom a horse! It was really special




Very big car boot sale, hundreds of sellers




Massive pot of borscht made from fresh veggies




-Roadside farmer stalls




Roadside apples for free!




Typical Cambridge Victorian row houses




Farmers lose tons of beets from their wagons- falling off does leave a mark but I'll just cut it off


These were pants- I sewed the wrong legsides now its a skirt. :)




Adding red detailing to a pocket

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October 15, 2011

Sorry I've been offline for so long! It's not been a very good 2 weeks here, my mood has been quite low and I've just been following the keep on keeping on advice. G has had a decent few weeks, he's getting ready to spend a week in Korea and a week in Thailand for work, very exciting! He and some of the guys from his office are getting into steampunk, a sort of nerdy dressing up thing for conferences. :) Seems pretty cool.

I've had a few projects on but I really had to slow down for the last 2 weeks. Antidepressants are great in that they help your brain retain serotonin, but even with them the chemicals in our bodies fluctuate. I've switched to taking them in the mornings which was noricably better yesterday. PR for sound sleep and getting into a routine that doesn't involve late bedtimes and late morning starts.

Besides carrying on with business I've been teaching a bit of sewing on the side- creating patterns and altering clothes. I've been finding ideas online for refashioning old polos and stuff, which has been great fun! I showed a girl how to make a patch quilt, and she was amazed- I'm so glad to be able to pass on skills that were passed to me. I just bought a load of old horse blankets that I'm going to use for quilt backs, I'll let you know how it goes. :)

My nutritionist recommended a new eating regime to help my allergies- it has worked so far, but it means no wheat or dairy, no sugar, reduced caffeine and salt, and loads of fruit and veggies. I've been eating homemade borscht for just about every meal, and wheatfree bread. Plus some herbal supplements in my water.

Tomorrow before church I'm going to a massive car boot sale- think garage sale but where you load up the stuff and take it to a big field where everyone else comes too to sell and buy stuff. Great for finding fabric and cheap clothes for refashioning!

I'll upload a few photos of the past week or 2 for you. Miss you all!


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Kristi iphone test

Can anyone see this? :)


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First day of school

I decided to go ahead and take an 8 month course here at a local stable- it's called NVQ, which is a trade degree system that is work based. I'm taking level 2, which is in horse care. I need more regular exercise, and I'd rather do it this way than go to a gym. :) I'm getting on well with people so far, they're not used to hard workers who enjoy physical work. The only down side is after 4 hours today I breathed in a lot of dust and my lungs are not happy. Next time I need a filter.


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September 18, 2011

I'm playing around with the settings on my blog, jazzing it up a bit and trying to make the fonts easier to read! It's been chilly here today, and yesterday it rained off and on. I did a bit of work trying to clear out the garbage from the soon to be 361 office, and discovered that it needs some structural work done to it. Great. :) I'll need to rent a dumpster (which we call skip here) and remove the flooring and roofing. It's not a very big shed but big enough and full of enormous spiders!


I've also been working on creating some riding shirts for my horse care class- we have to do stuff at the stables and it gets a bit messy. :) Hope you're all enjoying the weekend!

More London photos

Typical scene from the Cambridge to London fast train. 45min journey, everyone with smartphones

St Pancras Station ready for 2012!

George's namesake- George Washington! A gift from Virginia. :)

Tourists posing in Trafalgar Square

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London Carnivale

There was a big festival this week in the City on the river, so I took some photos of the parade and fireworks!

-The London Eye all lit up

Fireworks over the Thames

My interpretation of a halo :)

Me and Big Ben

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Weekend again

It's been an up and down week this week. A few weeks ago I reduced my anti-depressant dose a bit because I've had side effects to it, but the lower serotonin levels have caused really violent dreams, so I've been tired a lot.

The beginning of the week was great- 2 dear friends came to visit! I was really blessed by them. :)

The family that owns the house where my flat is are in the process of selling it, so Lord willing I'll be looking for a place to rent, possibly the end of October. Housing is very expensive here!

On a funny note- I played the bugle today! :) And tried on an antique hat. :)

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Settling back in

I've been back in the UK for about a week, was hit by a particularly bad cold, and now hard at work on creating adverts for the weddings business. phew! It is SO cold here- 50s at night, 60 in the day. Lots of rain. I feel like I've been cheated. :)








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July 29, 2011

Research for photography trips has gone well- Gd has blessed me by putting the right people in my path. I was meant to go north today to Traverse City but actually we had a rest day instead- it was badly needed and lots of naps were taken. :)


The current plan is to head off tomorrow morning early, since we need to be to Marquette Monday morning.


I've been really enjoying the time with my family, and managed to buy a used Ford Explorer Wednesday for getting around in!


Thinking of you all, Living Proof friends I haven't forgotten you- I hope to see you next Sunday!


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July 20, 2011

Hi all, just a quick update to let you know I made it safe and sound to Clinton, and that the big storm a few days ago knocked out our phones and wifi, so we're doing without both for the week. Please stay safe in all this heat, don't drive if you don't need to and stay cool! I'm trying to get a tmobile card for my phone today, and to forward the vonage on. Right now it forwards to George, but later today it should go to my number. So 734-915-5344 is still my number.


Gotta run, I'm at a coffee shop and it's time to go.

July 3 The week in photos

A few pics from this last week



A house in the village, at night




Climbing out a window after blackberries




Some business friends got engaged, I went to their party




A privet hawk moth from the moth event




Setting up a moth trap




Took photos of a ladies guest event at chch




Amazing sunsets on the fens

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