by Carla Louise | Oct 12, 2012 | Adventures, Memories, Personal Development |
I feel very strongly that this is a new phase in my life. The opportunity to work so close to home is one that I think I only truly appreciate having battled almost two years of four-hours-a-day commuting. It signifies a change in pace, and a change in attitude. To make the jump to leaving London, there is a whole mindset change. Money becomes less important, and time, though still precious, is more plentiful.
There will be more time to spend with my family, the people and also the animals that are so dear to me, and who helped me so much through the darkest times of my life, and who share these happy ones so wholeheartedly.
Time to take Bluebell for long cycle rides, Poppy for long drives, to ride Jack and Chess (maybe not simultaneously) through the fields, to photograph and record the things I didn’t even have time to see before.
Long afternoons to spend with friends, chatting, talking, just being. Time to dream and plan for a nomadic future – narrowboats and caravans, visiting friends, a gentler pace of life.
While still running my businesses and creating my portfolio life, I also want to find time to learn – through the university, evening dance classes, finally getting going on my Universal Class courses, through Free Range Humans and Escape the City (just because I’ve escaped, doesn’t mean I can’t still spend time with fabulous like minded people)…
All these things I have missed for the past five years. All these things I am so much looking forward to – and all these things and more I will be thankful for. I’ll still be busy but I am absolutely determined to make more of everyday life now I have taken the leap. I don’t want to just live for the weekends – I want every day to be worth something.
I don’t regret my time in London, I’ve met some wonderful people (you really do find absolute gems in the most unexpected places) and I’ve learned a lot, much of it also unexpected. But the time is right to move on, and I am focused on the future. I don’t think I’ll ever return to work in the City – but I will take many memories of it with me.
by Carla Louise | Oct 8, 2012 | Adventures, Personal Development, Thrifting |
So as some of you will know, I finally quit my City job last week and will be starting (work!) at the University of Essex in November. This was a fairly emotional decision as while I have been immensly frustrated, tired and cross for much of my time here, I work with a great bunch of people and it will be sad to leave.
I am incredibly excited about the new position, and the joy of knowing I will no longer be commuting on the train, and instead riding my bike for 40 minutes each way, is fabulous… but after a frankly eye-opening conversation with HR about just how much will be deducted from my final month’s pay, it would appear I’m going to have to be very thrifty for a month or two until I’m settled into the new job and money has resumed making its way into my bank account!
I will of course still be doing the things I love, but will be keeping an eye on those pennies until after Christmas. I will (sadly) be taking a break from my burlesque class until January, but I will continue to practise the routines I’ve learned, and until my train ticket runs out, will pop over and see the girls before class every Wednesday anyway.
They are some of my favourite people in the ENTIRE WORLD and I have no clue what I did before I met them! (not all of them in pic below, but I’ll have some after Saturday! That’s me in the polka dots and cherry buckled corset.)
My blogging should step up a notch, and I might even get time to do the long-awaited overhaul of DF. Between now and starting the new job, there’s the official launch of Inkdrops, my first ever burlesque performance, a huge powerpoint project and some serious work to be done with Escape the City and Free Range Humans. Excellent.
Here’s to a new life – and managing to stay in touch with the fabulous people I am leaving behind in the City!
All photos link back to their original page if not my own.
by Carla Louise | Apr 22, 2011 | carlalouise |
So this will eventually (soon, actually, I hope) become Ducking Fabulous’s new blog home 🙂 I am merging the Craft Experiment and the Ducking Fabulous Diary to come under the heading of Ducking Fabulous. DF itself has sort of evolved, so from jewellery and accessories handmade with love for sale, it’s now more of a diary and showcase of all the many crafts I love to do, with not much if anything for sale right now. I am also closing and archiving Almost-Librarian.
The majority of these changes are down to starting a new job, which happened in March. I have less time on my hands, and crucially am no longer in a library (hence the archive of AL). I also no longer have time to update my shop properly and more importantly get to the post office promptly to post things. I am, however, doing more portable crafts like cross stitch, and have recently launched two exciting collaborative projects (more on those in a later post).
I’m creating as I always have done, but in a slightly different way now. So, over the couple of bank holidays my plan is to make this blog the new one. I may or may not import the old posts – sometimes I feel a fresh start may be better. This one will cover everything – crafts, friends, new projects, work, things I’ve seen, inspiration, photography, personal projects, places/shops/people/sites I’ve experienced and loved, photos I’ve taken, my petrolhead tendencies, books, reading, horses, model horses…
And I plan to do a LOT more photography, so this blog will still be wordy (wouldn’t be mine if I didn’t waffle!) but should have more visual stuff going on as well.
Hope you’ll accompany me on this next leg of my journey!
Carla xx
