8 months in the UK

8 months, 8 months ago we embarked on a massive life change that I have talked about before, we decided that we were going to move our little family of 4 to the UK. We wanted to leave with enough time to get used to the UK and have a rest before starting the girls in school to start a new school year with all the other kids. We are now half way through that so I thought I'd pen a little post about the move, I actually wrote most of this 6 moths ago whilst on a trip to London for a couple of nights. I want to share more if anyone is interested in the logistics of moving a family across the world with only 5 suitcases ( not for the faint hearted). So here is a little about how we packed and left Australia.

 Packing up our house

First of all lets talk our move and how it was finalised. We had a good plan and we stuck to it, but little things change how you feel, it doesn't matter how much you plan, things will go wrong. We booked our storage shed and then I had fun selling things on Gumtree. I went as far as drawing a diagram of the dimensions of the shed and the size of our furniture and then worked out how they were all going to stack into the shed, and we ended up stacking it in a perfect Tetris order. The whole time I had a vision of sitting on my sister in laws back deck drinking a nice glass of red wine, this vision is what I thought about as my final destination, the end of everything we were going through.

So much stuff!

Now, this my friends is were my mood changed, and the stress levels reached an all time high. A time when you start questioning your life choices and realising the magnitude of what we were actually embarking on. We began putting things in the garage as we emptied the house as we needed to get it out so the cleaner could clean it (This was my happiest decision as it meant one less thing to worry about, this is what sucks about leaving a rental), the reality of this was that our garage soon looked like the house of one of those people on Hoarders, it was full of stuff that we just didn't realise we had. Even after doing a car boot sale and selling loads of things, there still seemed to be mess, and lots of it. Where did this all come from? was uttered constantly and I'm surprised I wasn't found rocking in the foetal position at any given time, and I almost cried when Chris suggested we buy a bottle of wine for the evening.A full trailer load was taken to the tip and we ordered a double council pick up. We managed to finally get everything out and into the shed, we stayed with my Dad and I went though everything that was left and then took the last lot of stuff to the shed.

My mini breakdown

Now at this point with only 2 days before we flew out, a little memory dawned on me, something I had thought about and that I had actually thought of and sorted out. CV's! You know those things? They contain all your working accomplishments and you need them when you want to look for work, where the bloody hell were they​​??? I had kept them out especially and I put them in the garage on a shelf, this is the same garage that began looking like an op shop on steroids, that had been completely cleared out! I was a mess, I've not lived with my Dad before and for the first time he saw me freaking out, I'm normally the laid back one, if things are getting to me, no one knows about it, I keep it in. This could not be kept in, how was I going to work? All my certificates and references and documents where gone. Dad quietly went off and made me a strong coffee whilst reassuring me that it wouldn't be that bad. It wasn't so bad for Chris he started his own business and his work have kept him on doing contracting work. But for me I have no idea! I calmed down and got a moment of clarity and thought that “I love buttons” will be my full time job and I would make a good go of it as I would have the time.

Off we go

We left, I was so upset to leave my family but we have our little family and that has 2 parts to it. There is a part from Australia and a part from the UK, we had to give this a go otherwise we would never know and would eat away at us for the rest of our lives. The plane was the best and the girls watched Boss Baby 53 times, or near enough. I couldn't believe when we landed that we had actually done it, all the planning and work had finally met its grand finale when we finally landed on UK soil, and I was finally drinking a glass of wine looking at the beautiful English countryside.

I'll leave it there as that s pretty much how we got here. I want to write some more posts regarding how we have furnished our house and what we have done since being here. We are really enjoying our time in the UK and loving what it has to offer.

Em xx

Some of my Orders

I often get orders to make bespoke toys which I love to do. Here are a few of my last orders

This was an order for a 3 yr old girl who had just had to get glasses, her Aunty wanted a toy for her with glasses. The glasses do look a little like a mask, but I wanted them to be soft and stay on as I know how little girls work. She did however cause me problems as I'm a perfectionist and I wasn't happy with how it was coming together, but she turned out exactly how I wanted, so I was very happy.

And this was for her brother, the cutest little dragon

This was a gorgeous order from a lady who had just dicovered me and wanted some things before I left. I just love taking photos of a group of my creations.

And this little guy was for a lady who loved Giraffes and had a theme in her sons room, I was lucky enough to see him get it at the market and he was so happy and it was super sweet.

So these are all Australian orders, I'll be able to do UK orders soon when I'm all settled in. I'm also looking forward to the prospect of doing some more markets in the UK too. It's all very exciting and I'm really looking forward to this new journey. I think I will be opening an Etsy shop at some stage too, and using more of my spare time to my little business.

Emma xx

Packing

To tell you the truth, I wold love to be a professional organiser, go to peoples homes and sort their stuff out. In theory I wouldn't practice what I preach very well, I love a good sort out and tidy up and love looking at the work I've done. But soon you cant be bothered and you don't put things back properly and before you know you are doing another clear out!  

This is Olive's room before we moved her into Ruby's room, I'll miss this sweet space. The contents of this cupboard had a major cull, it was great!

So this is me, all the time, ALL the time. I will say kids make it hard, my girls see a clean floor as a blank canvas, they see an empty draw or shelf as a challenge, how many toys can they fill it up with. So this is my life at the moment I can't believe the amount of things I pulled out from around the house to take to the car boot sale. It was a crazy amount of stuff that was just living in our cupboards, sitting there, not being used. It astounded me that even after selling it and taking the rest to the op shops, the mess and clutter we still have is huge. I don't even understand how it happens or where it comes from.

This is the stuff we pulled out to take to the car boot sale, all of this was just sitting in cupboards. After getting rid of this I think I have made another similar sized pile of more things!

So it comes back to what I was saying a few posts back about what you buying and clutter, which at some point when you die, someone will have to go through and probably just throw away. The things that are going into our packing boxes are things we love and that we want to treasure. It's hard to be so ruthless but when we come back in a couple of years we wont be just opening boxes of stuff that will just be stuff, things that are just there. They will be the things that bring us joy and hold some meaning.

This is Ruby's desk, it has since moved and this is where Olive is now sleeping. I'll also miss this cute little creative space.

With less than a month to go we are starting to do all the things we need to do before we leave. We have just got a storage shed and we have started to take things over there. It's good doing it over time and not all at once, we will need to tetris pack the shed when all the furniture is out of the house. I've even gone through the house and drawn little sketches with dimensions of all the furniture we are going to keep. And then we have a list of the things we aren't keeping which we will donate, giveaway or sell. We even put a whole heap of things on the grass out the front of our house saying "free stuff", I couldn't believe how quick it all went.

I'm going to be sad to leave our little place, but I'm looking forward to our new adventure. I'm quite looking forward to sharing what will be happening next. One thing will be filling a new home for super cheap with ideas on decorating on a budget, I'm really looking forward to this and I've also started a new Pinterest board with my dream op shop finds. It's going to be a great little (or big) project for when we get our own place.

Right, better get back to packing

Emma xx

Crafty time

Easter was a busy time for me, I have no idea how many of these bunnies I made but I think it was pushing 60! I have been asked for the pattern but at the moment I haven't written one, its all in my head. Maybe I will do one once my life settles down after the move. They proved to be a very popular gift for Easter.

 Part of the many made

 I love coming up with new ideas and this is what happens when I buy loads of tulle, I was going to make the girls some tutus, but this is all I ended up making.

 Here is a small bit of my stall from the March Shelly Beach Market I did.

 I cut up an old dress of mine and made Ruby a skirt and head wrap.

 My March makes

 I managed to make myself a top for myself

 My last stall at the April markets

This was my April round up

I just thought I'd post a bit more of my crafty things I've done.

I am also looking at doing markets in England, so stay tuned to see what I end up doing.

Emma x

3 months till the big move

3 months! 3 short months till we move to the UK. So lets look at the things we have had to do already.

Schools

So Olive is 4 in July and will have to start reception in September (crying) she is my baby and isn't meant to be starting till January 2019 in Australia, she is joining in with the older kids at her preschool doing the school readiness program. Some of these kids are nearly 5 and starting school next year, not 3 and starting this year! But she is a massive joker and has taken to preschool like a fish to water. My sister in law informed us we better get our applications in toot sweet and we missed the deadline by a couple of days, lucky they rang the school and explained our situation. They quickly processed Ruby's application which would help our application for Olive as she would have a sibling enrolled in the school. We didn't have a second choice but luckily Olive was offered a place and then we felt relaxed.

Ruby is in first class in Australia but will be jumping up to year 3 in September. The poor thing will have only have done 6 months on year 1, skip year 2 completely an go straight up to year 3. This obviously causes a few issues as she will be behind, but thankfully she is quite confident and is looking forward to making new friends.

The reason we are leaving in July is just so the girls will start the school year with everyone else. We wanted Olive to be able to start at the same time as everyone else so she wouldn't be behind. And at least Ruby has already learnt all the fundamentals, so she might need to have a bit of one on one time with a teacher to help get her up to speed with the rest of the class. 

So that was our fist port of call, second was our passports, I still cant believe we sent off 3 applications to the UK and got all 3 back in 2 weeks, I was shocked at how quick it took. So everyone has a UK passport. We should have had Chris apply for citizenship but we didn't and we rang and they advised to just apply for the same visa he is on, this is just so he can get back into the country when we come home.

Look how big they are now!

We will be moving to Hereford, it's a lovely little town. I really like it, I've never lived there, just London. I couldn't do London again, although Bristol is the next city we would move to if we need to look for work further afield. I am however excited to take the girls to London, I really want to go at Christmas and see the lights. I love London at Christmas, although it does remind me of morning sickness. I was pregnant and working in London. I remember having to get off the tube and take a breather as the train was making me sick. luckily it passed and I got to enjoy it sick free before we left. 

This was 2 years ago, this is where we will be living until we get our own place. But I think I can live with this😊

My next posts will be about packing and purging.

Em xx

Loss, clutter and moving

Sorry this is a bit wordy but I have felt better for writing it.

Loss 

I mentioned before that I lost my beautiful Mum to cancer late in 2015. Mum was brought us up from when I was 8 as a single parent. I'm the oldest of 3 and now as a parent myself I appreciate how hard that must have been for her. I only have 2 kids and I have a partner and I find it incredibly hard sometimes. So losing her when I was 37 was devastating, not just for us but our kids. My Nanna played such an important role in my life when I was young, so many of my memories involved her. I feel incredibly sad as my girls and my niece and nephew and any future kids will never get to experience her great love again.

On the outside I look ok, my life has just gotten back to normality, life with the girls went on and I just went along with it. But I do have an incredible sadness that I don't talk about. Seeing a lady dressed like my Mum sends a lump to my throat, I feel jealous when I see a grandmother and daughter with the kids. Every day I think of my Mum, I just want to pick up a phone and call her, have a chat meet for a coffee and talk. There are so many questions I would love to know answers to, complain about my Great Aunty and advice on helping her. I feel like a part of my families history has closed with us knowing only parts of it.

I will finish with that here, its sad and awful and its coming up to Mother's Day which is very bitter sweet. I'm a Mum and I get to be with my girls, but I'm missing my Mum, our Mum.

Clutter

As Mum was by herself in the house we spent a good part of our lives in. We moved to the Central Coast in 1991 when I was starting High School. This was our home for so many years and then we had the hard task of clearing it out. We only went over a few times after Mum's passing, we just put it in the to hard basket. After a few months and when Ruby started school I began going over by myself and began sorting through things. I'm sure we could have been loads quicker doing the house but the time we didn't spend there made it easier for us to cope with.

I think we all took something different from the experience. For me I started to look at possessions differently, when you leave the earth, you are gone but everything is still here. Things, stuff, clutter and memories. We tried to organise things in three classic piles keep, donate and sell. We also got a storage shed which I called the "band aid" we still have it, its filled with things we just don't know what to do with. The keep pile began getting so big, extreme guilt over items became apparent. "Mum said to never get rid of that" "where are we meant to keep it?" these where the kind of conversations we were having. My sister's house is full of boxes as she found it hard to let go of some things. Lucky we spent  so long at the house as it made us re evaluate what we were keeping, and we turned 3 boxes into 1 and felt better about it.
We had a garage sale and I knew it would be interesting to say the least, I didn't realise how crazy people were. I was exhausted  at the end, I even had to tell a lady to leave as she was quite possibly the rudest and crazy woman I have ever encounted. We donated lots of things also, and then filled the storage shed and walked away.

We eventually cleared it out and we were happy to have another single lady around Mum's age buy the house, it seemed fitting and perfect.

I live in a very small townhouse, we simply don't have the room to keep things which for the past 3 years has been good as I really cant buy anything as we don't have the space to keep it. So what I did take from Mum's where the things I loved and held memories for me. I also stopped buying little things, cute things, things that have no meaning or value. Why? whats the point? it will be just stuff at the end, stuff that someone will have to get rid of or maybe keep. It really made me re evaluate my spending habits, and try and stop the clutter creeping into our house.

Moving

My main quote whilst getting rid of things was "I'll be moving I cant take that", we aren't doing a small move, its a big one. But I made a small decision which made me feel better and more at ease and less stressed. My partner is English and we had talked about going back to live for a couple of years. So after Mum we made the decision to go. Chris has a lot of family and his Mum and Dad are still alive and we thought it would be good for the girls to spend more time with their other side of the family.
At first we were going to take everything, furniture and all, but this was making me stressed. So we are getting a storage shed instead. It will be cheaper than moving furniture twice across the world and make life so much easier.

So it's all quite exciting and sad as I'll be leaving my Sister and Brother and Dad and nieces and nephews. But that's how Chris has been feeling the past 7 years, and I want to come back so I feel doing this when the girls are younger is the best option.

I have so much more I want to talk about with this move. I will do some more posts on the logistics of moving a family of 4 overseas.

But we have passports and the girls are both enrolled in school so the main 2 things are done and we also have booked tickets so it is all very real now.

So that is my story, it has been quite nice writing this, quite cathartic.

So we are England bound in July, What? 3 months....... I better get a move on


Em xx

Part 2 of things I made in 2016

Here is my part 2 of some of the things I made last year. Looking at them I've realised that the only things that were from a pattern are the Storm Trooper and Darth Vader. The rest of them I made the pattern up. As I said before I'm really bad at writing down a pattern and quite often no two are the same as I cant quite remember how many increases or decreases I made. I love coming up with new ideas then seeing those ideas come to life.

 I made a Giraffe and put spots on him and loved him, Also the fox has become a new favourite of mine

 After making just pears I experimented with other fruits, I was super happy with how they turned out.

 Christmas decorations for Ruby's teacher

I've been making some more of my Giraffes as I haven't made any in ages. I'll be making more of these bunnies for Easter I think, they are super popular.

Em xx