In Sickness and in Health

As I type I’m sipping a max strength anti flu drink, blackcurrant flavour, too many nights on limonchello at Garda (fellow shoe folks will know what I’m talking about) means I struggle with lemon based beverages. In my household sickness is only allowed for a designated 24 hour period, when you have a kid/ work for yourself it’s just not really allowed. Truth is I just have a really bad cold but for the purposes of sympathy I’m calling it a touch of man flu. My Mum was from the school of ‘if you aren’t dead or have a limb hanging off then you are not really justified to having sympathy bestowed on you’. She once zipped my back into my tutu when I was about 7 I explained it was hurting but she insisted I was fussing, every time I raised my arms I felt a sharp pain but in true ballerina style danced through the pain, it was only afterwards that she admitted what she’d accidently done (Gawd bless her!)... I have inherited her lack of bedside manner.

Anyway life goes on, I’m currently sporting a red moustache from too much nose blowing and watery eyes, I think I scared the poor check out assistant at Tesco’s (other supermarkets are available). Things aren’t helped by the fact that we have some work being done on the house and the bathroom is pretty much out of action...I dream about soaking in a hot bath or rejuvenating under a steaming shower. The little ‘un told me yesterday that my face looked messy I thought that was a very accurate description. Luckily thanks to the freelance projects I have at the moment I am able to work from home tucked up in my pj’s. Tomorrow I’m venturing out to purchase a much needed new i Mac, and hopefully some Spring Summer wardrobe finery to make me feel better. I’m feeling some colour flood combos, some 70’s floral finery and lil’ bit more leopard print. I love ‘what I call’ an occasional jacket and if only I could get a job designing Whistles footwear I might not always be so brassic from buying their blazers! Footwear wise it’s got to be wedges, great with tights (woolly or otherwise) some much needed height to elongate the frame (hiding the post Chrimbo paunch).

To all fellow snotties I wish you well and hope that you make a speedy recovery. Spring is a coming...- maybe?

xx

It's a Laaaaaaandan thing (It's a London thing)

Yesterday I went to visit a shoe factory in East London, my maiden UK factory visit. Just a short jaunt through the Blackwall Tunnel with Miss ‘M’ the little un in tow, armed with a backpack of play-doh, colouring pens, paper, comics, puppies and ponies in my pocket (other miniature animals are available) biscuits, juice cartons, spare pants and an oversized cuddly puppy (Miss ‘M’s backpack not mine I’d like to add) we were prepared for every eventuality. The factory wasn’t easy to find hidden within a sprawling Industrial Estate where you could buy anything from waving cats to welding equipment, my vision of a little cobblers shop with a back room quickly faded but once inside it was a little Aladdin’s cave. We were met at the door with a warm handshake, with the type of hands you only get if you’ve spent your life making shoes. The factory is a family run business and the brothers made ‘M’ feel as if she was one of the family. After settling in and learning about the brother’s history and their shoe factory I couldn’t wait to look round, these guys are passionate people who know about footwear not only do you get shoes made you learn along the way. They work with designers on their catwalk collections, high end retailers and new exciting brands, these guys produce high quality footwear which warrants the prices these shoes retail for. ‘M’ instantly made friends with ‘L’ who was hand lasting the shoes, sitting on a stool watching him whilst surrounded by half made shoes and the factory cat ‘Stitch’ (you know you’re going to love a shoe factory when they have a pet with an appropriately themed name.) I was able to do some developing and finalise some designs, in a lovely little room surrounded by lasts and leather- bliss, listening to the sound of banter and bustling sewing machines.

Anyway we were only meant to be at the factory for a couple of hours, but nearly 5 hours (and a tin of posh chocolate biscuits) later we were heading back home to ‘M’s question after question about the factory and whether as she’d been such a good girl could she have McDonald’s for her very late lunch. Well we had to have something to counterbalance all that GB pride and earth mother-ness. One happy meal and quarter pounder with cheese meal (yes I did go large) later we were both shattered but ‘M’ definitely had a full day’s education at the factory, she now knows all the many components, effort and hard work that goes into just one pair of shoes.

I wonder if they’ll let us go back and work again today?

Spk soon

x

Selling Myself or Hot Shoe Shuffle

Before you think it’s all got too much and I’ve resorted to the oldest employment in history, this post is about those embarrassing interview questions we all hate. Last week was all systems go for me, lots of phone conversations, interviews and meetings after the Christmas break. I no longer have the security blanket of the full time job nor the ability to rely on my reputation as I am working with all new clients this time. Interviews are almost like embarrassing first dates, they don’t know you, and you don’t know them. My usual response to nerves is humour and luckily the new clients I meet are usually creative or entrepreneurial types who are up for banter. However my comedy juices always run dry at the following question...’how would your work colleagues describe you?’ At this moment all I can ever see is David Brent lolled back in his executive padded chair describing himself as a ‘chilled out, laid back entertainer’. Nowadays I’m a bit more honest when I get this question and say that I find it cringe...but still try to answer it.

Anyway Friday last week was a big day I had a few interviews and so spent Thursday checking that I had all of my folio up to scratch, had researched into the clients and tried to mentally prepare for an onslaught of meetings. I wasn’t quite so prepared for Thursday evening though which was more of a shock. It was the first night of adult tap classes for me and a friend (I shall call her ‘C’), I was more nervous about the lesson than the impending interviews the following day, having not tapped for about 20 years.  Let’s just say I knew things were going badly when it appeared that there was only one other student, a guy, who appeared to be about nineteen and was obviously an extra from ‘Stomp’. The teacher then arrived who also seemed to have only just reached the legal age for drinking and began chatting with the guy about Pineapple Dance Studios ( to be honest at this point I was expecting Louie Spence to step ballchange into the studio and to find myself in some sort of reality game show with Ant n Dec). Were it not for ‘C’ I think I would have legged it but she cast me an ‘It’ll be alright’ look and I felt in safe hands. Alas I was only able to do the soft shoe shuffle  as I was couldn’t find my tap shoes in the loft so danced the evening away in my Bertie brogues (which I may consider attaching taps to as they did cut rather a dash.) ‘C’ suffered most of the dancing teacher’s eager ears as she could hear every sound her feet were making and whether she was missing a beat. I on the other hand could use the smoke and mirrors of jazz hands and a smile that would penetrate polar ice caps. As we sweated and wheezed our way through, what was titled as ‘Grade 5 warm up’ on the cd player I began to doubt whether this really was the advertised beginners class that we were promised. But ‘C’ and I refused to be beat by children at least 10 years our junior and soldiered on, even in extreme conditions, when ‘C’s tap shoes split during some extreme ‘riff-in’. By the end of the class we were broken women but have already vowed to go again next week, maybe tapping produces the same hormones produced post child-birth?? 

For those concerned, it's not a cat on my head.
It's my hair, I have a double crown that's all...OK



Friday morning I could barely walk and managed to miss the train thanks to a serious case of jelly legs. All I could remember from the previous day was the dance teacher telling us that a 12 beat riff was just like walking, I was walking more like I had had an accident Friday morning. But when the cheesy questions came up about how I would describe myself and what hobbies I had, I felt I could put my hand on my heart and say that I was an entertainer of sorts and I had the tapping injuries to prove it.

Anyway must crack on, have exciting work on the go. Can’t wait to tell you more about it, but need to wait until it launches.

Keep Dancing

x

Tyred Out

Right, well I knew this morning today was going to be tricky I felt it in my bones. Especially as I had slept on the edge of the bed thanks to ‘M’ refusing to sleep and me crumbling and letting her sleep with me. (Apparently her feet were not at the desired temperature, tonight she will be wearing socks- that’ll stump her! hopefully?) So I managed to get through the morning managing to minimise my clumsiness. There were close encounters with slippery glasses when washing up, my slipper nearly came off when I was trotting down the stairs and I nearly rammed the shopping trolley into the car (more on the car later). So after some ‘aggressive hoovering’ therapy I felt a bit better so much so that I almost made ‘M’ late for preschool. After cajoling her into school I made a hasty retreat home for a lunch date with a friend. As I hurriedly parked, mounting the curb (I know Mr ‘C’-‘I told you so') I felt the tyre do something strange and lo and behold I had ripped the bl**dy thing. This is when the catalogue of embarrassment began... firstly I had to ring the AA, they were exemplary in their customer service and lack of sniggering when I told them what had happened. The nice young man came and fitted the spare without the slightest hint of smuggery – bravo. My faith in customer service restored I then set off to the local tyre store (I shan’t mention their name it still sends a shudder down my spine). Buoyed with the confidence of the nice young man (oh what a nice man) I enquired about the tyre. Bad idea! The boy, oh yes I shall call him a boy, showed no discretion about my parking skills and then proceeded to try to charge me over the odds for the tyre, whilst simultaneously trying to sell me another tyre. Just when I thought he could utter no more clichés he said the immortal words ‘that other tyre’s a bit of a death trap, not that I want to scare you’. By this point ‘M’ is protesting that she needs a pee and that the tyre shop was boring. Just then Mr ‘C’ rings to check how I am progressing in the world of tyre procurement, after several expletives he asks me to pass the mobile to the young boy. Suddenly the tyre price has dropped £30 and we no longer require the 2^nd tyre. I couldn’t decide who I was more mad at Mr ‘C’ for making me feel like a pleb or the boy for taking advantage of a stressed mum- sometimes it still really is a man’s world...

Anyway we still haven’t replaced the tyre, I couldn’t bring myself to spend money there so tomorrow I am going out solo to buy a tyre and woe betide any boy that tries to get the better of this lady I am researching all things tyre related tonight and practising my macho stance and man swearing.

Think the NY resolution of meditating may have been replaced with medicinal drinking

xx

Tecknologie

Ok, so maybe I’m a bit behind the times, I have only just had the i phone versus htc debate, and thanks to my own personal Dobby* (sorry ‘S’) I have plumped for the htc- technology triumphed over design (so sad- sniff). I’m sure ‘M’ will be able to find ‘My little Pony’ before I can find ‘My home page’...It will be a revelation to be able to check my emails/ surf on the go, explore the apps. I’m not a technophobe (some of my best friends are geeks) it’s just that small electronic gadgets don’t seem to last long in our household. If truth be told we’re just a bit nostalgic in our house where technology is concerned. Mr C still has a huge collection of vinyl which is secreted in every unused hollow in our home. He refuses to get rid of them, I don’t blame him some of the album artworks are amazing. This year though it’s all going onto the laptop and I’m sure the beloved decks won’t see the light of day again.

On the freelance front I’m now day 3 into it all and I’m starting to decide what I want to do. I have some meetings lined up next week and I want to start to get together a network of freelance friends. Some of my old colleagues and good pals are also at the same point in their career, they love what they do, they love design, fashion and footwear. But at this ripe ol’ age design jobs for us are senior/ management or head of dept roles and at this level the ‘design: meetings’ starts to tip off balance and you find yourself losing sight of what you really love. This is where freelance is great, you get to design and you get to use your experience and contacts and create your own job spec to some degree, and you get that elusive work/ life balance..............in theory...

Anyway hope you’re all keeping to your NY resolutions, I’m still wading through the chocs and cheese n crackers

-Such fun x

* see Peep Show for those not familiar

New Year, New New New !

And so the New Year’s resolutions begin, ‘I’m making a list, I’m checking it twice’-oops sorry we’ve done Christmas now haven’t we... It’s that time of the year when we all make those fantastic sweeping statements about ourselves ‘New Year, New Start, New Me’ ( well at least until January 20th when quite frankly it’s too exhausting keeping them all going!) So the list starts:

‘Getting Fit’- Firstly there are problems with this one. I hate gyms, I hate the changing rooms, hate the mirrors and the exercising feels very unnatural. So no gym for me, but I love dancing, so I have decided to join an adult tap class with some friends. I’m sure you can burn calories from ‘jazz hands’ and stamping a bit. There’s no uniform for the class, but I may just purchase a unitard- if it’s good enough for Madge then it’s alright by me.

‘Healthy inside Healthy outside’- Now I’m going to sound like a hippy, but I’m going to try to not get stressed. Well as least stressed as you can get working for yourself and having a toddler in the mix -school starts again this week so this should be achievable (?) When I was pregnant with ‘M’ I did a lot of yoga and meditation and it worked a treat, so I am going to attempt to do the same (yoga and meditation not the ‘with child’ part).

‘New Look, New Me’-(This is my personal favourite) It is about this time of year that my

skin is the colour of corned beef after too many brisk walks in brusque weather (and the copious amounts of alcoholic beverages consumed over the festive season). And a hair cut is the easiest way to perk myself up visually. This is not a decision to be made in haste, for those that know me my tresses take a lot to be tamed; (see right) I’m sensing a return of the fringe...

-I am fancying a new wardrobe too but the above two New Year’s resolutions need to take effect before I go spending money on new outfits.

‘New Challenge’- Well this will be the freelance, there’s big decisions to be made. Which projects to commit to? And how much to take on? I can’t wait..It all starts tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be able to get the balance right like before. Last time I was freelancing I was doing work with three main accounts, women’s, men’s and children’s footwear and the diversity was great.

So that’s it my resolutions laid bare, I do love a list be it NY resolutions or otherwise, right I’m off to laminate it and get my highlighters out (hop shuffle, tap step ball change).

Happy List Making!

xx