Out with the Old - In with the New

Spring has arrived.. Changing of the seasons and everything else. So much is happening here.
I've been talking to my fella about a change in career for me, I want to make a change and do something different. You get to an age as a woman that you don't want to carry on the same as when you were younger, your tastes change and attitude and it looks like I've arrived at that place.
Im sick of clothes and want to do something different now, using different skills and adding to the ones I have already He's agreed whole heartedly, so we are doing something together that's a bit different, I've also been offered 2 jobs running companies for 2 of his past customers,that I can run from here easily, will allow me enough time to still run this place as mum and still run my project with Steve. Im nervous and excited all at the same time. Will fill you in once we are up and running... You will like this one!
My fella meanwhile is going from strength to strength, today he's spending half the day managing a big site in Essex then he's off to Manchester, I put my machines up for sale yesterday and within 60 mins had sold the 4.. Poor bugger has to deliver them for the chap though but I actually made a good profit on them as well as had use of them for years.. Its enough to help along our new business so he doesn't mind a small detour (huge one more like)
He was headhunted by a good firm a couple of months ago and is now running a Norfolk branch here for them, its a lot of thinking and organising, but he's in his element and it shows. His new van comes next week also, so I get to keep the car for a change, Im really pleased he's done so well, I knew he would..
We have a new unit tucked away where we will go to work on the new business and have been getting it ready to use over the last 2 months (I've been painting and he's been making) I have been thinking about changing my work for a long while now, some will say im mad as its doing so well, but I want something different to get my teeth into, a new journey and I don't believe you can sell clothes to people in the same way as you can when you are younger, unless the clothes are older styles, and I've always been a jeans girl at heart. It just doesn't excite me anymore, I want something I can do as a hobby for the next 20 years but have fun while I do it, so im going to follow my heart.
 I've had years of people copying me and mimicking any new ideas I had and this change means that I will get to spend more quality time with my fella as we both love this and do it as a hobby now, I wont be reliant on earning money as I'll earn enough on the Monday-Friday ones to add to the house pot, but it means weekends away and plenty of walking with my fella and that's what matters most now. I asked my kids what they thought I was good at: the answers came back from cooking, sewing, gardening and creating, but they all said I was good at making something old look amazing, im the first to admit I love charity shops and car boots and this means I also get to up-cycle things and give them a new lease of life.. Perhaps to last another 100 years. There is so much waste in the world, im hoping I can help a little in my own way and have fun at the same time...

Im going to sell everything off in my shops and see where this leads. If it takes off and I do these other jobs well, I will make a complete change and close them all down. My kids all have their own paths to follow and my daughter doesn't like clothes and I don't want to end up like a woman I once knew who we called racing blonde, she would sell young peoples clothes and model them herself even though she was in her fifties.. She was the brunt of so many cruel people but I blame the husband (he was the photographer) for not telling her she was too old to model anymore.. That man was never honest with his wife! and cruel with it.. Our tastes change and so do mannerisms and no one wants to be looked on as mutton dressed as lamb anymore.

Meanwhile, as I think about the kids.. They are currently doing GCSEs  and are studying (yes properly up the table and all) they are all so different in their ways. My daughter and I have grown so close walking our blind dog, we now get time alone that we use to learn about each other, she has grown up so much and really is a lovely young lady, she told me she was struggling with Ryan's girlfriend using all my stuff (my make up, shower stuff, perfumes clothes etc) as she finds this rude! and to be fair sometimes I do get pissed off when I go to pluck my eyebrows and my make up bags disappeared but I don't let it get to me. She only acts how she has been brought up to behave so its simply lack of parenting skills there, im sure we can help her adapt to understand things better as time goes by and now at least Lauren understands that decisions we make as parents do affect our children most, as some kids simply are left not knowing how to behave through no fault of their own..

Lauren wont ask for anything, she wont take any clothes from stock if I ask her what she needs as she thinks this is bad as its a company and not free stuff, so she earns jeans etc for doing chores for me, she's grown up into a little me, she's a jeans girl to the heart and it will suit her in her life's journey of working with animals. Its the sort of job where you get your hands dirty and she doesn't mind in the slightest. She's so much like me that way.. Im always happy with im up to my neck in muck or paint.
Callum was interested in renewable engineering, and has now been accepted into a brilliant college, hes the thinker and puzzle maker in the family and is so much like my real dad its scary. He will always look at what needs doing and find the best solution to get it done. Except empting the bins every morning, he will always go for the recycle bin first and quickly, so Brandon gets the messy household one for not doing it as soon as I asked!

Brandon has learning disabilities and suffers from dyspraxia and  is also dyslexic so hes not as bright with literature etc, but where he blossoms is with art, music and computers so is now hoping to attend college to study animation, his interview is next week. He has already been accepted into college for graphics but he knows what he wants to do and is working his arse off to get into the market he wants to do.. I think he will do it, hes the worker in the family and no one tries harder.

Ryan meanwhile is a year away from being a fully qualified electrician and had his first driving lesson last night with mum hanging out of the window smiling away.. Poor lad!
He's installing his first ground source heat pump next weekend with one of Steve's partners (another business he's built up running in the pipeline) and is now going to work weekends so he can get his lessons done and buy himself a little car.
Im gonna need a list soon to keep up with everything that's happening here. But im strangely very happy with my life at the moment...