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Our Summer Holidays so far!

August 4, 2017 by Bel Leave a Comment

The kids have now been off for two full weeks (and a couple of days) so I thought I would update with what we’ve been up to so far – especially since I’m not keeping up with my monthly updates at the moment.

The school holidays couldn’t really have been off to a worse start, than a weather forecast like this ^^ However, I am grateful to work from home and so no matter what the weather, at least I get to spend time with the kids! As they broke up on the Wednesday, we had a couple of extra days that week, to fit in some fun. Thursday was one of my favourite days actually as we went to see Despicable Me 3 (which was average in my opinion), then went to Chimichanga for dinner (which we had never been to before) and finally we went to our local park – Hartsholme – for a lovely walk around the lake.

On the Friday, the girls made a video of themselves doing the Beanboozled challenge and I really must remember to upload it, plus we seemed to watch a ton of movies over the first few days including; Definitely Maybe, 10 Things I Hate About You, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Phantom of the Opera and Save the Last Dance. We also got an invite to my mum’s on Sunday for a roast dinner and that was amazing.

The following week was the first full week and for the first four days we had visitors in the form of Amy and Liv. The girls were at their dad’s on the Monday so Amy and I just spent time catching up, then in the evening Chris, Amy and I had chinese takeaway and watched Game of Thrones. The other days were mostly spent sewing, though Amy and I did manage to go fabric shopping too.

The weather was fairly rubbish all week, starting off raining and ending up sunny or vice versa. After dropping Amy and Liv at the station though, the girls and I took a trip to Norton Disney (a place we had joked about visiting for a while) and luckily the sun stayed out for some pics.

That weekend, we went to LFCC (which is London Film and Comic Con). I had been once before and really enjoyed it, but this time was a flying visit really – all so I could meet Wil Wheaton. Chris was working until 4.30pm Saturday so we headed off down to London after that and stayed at a Travelodge near Heathrow. In the morning we drove to North Ealing station, parked there and caught the train to Earl’s Court and then walked to London Olympia. Grabbing a virtual ticket for Wil Wheaton’s queue was first priority but after that we did some shopping and wandered around stalls. We ate lunch and shopped some more until finally we could meet Wil Wheaton. I had taken a blank Flux card with me for signing and had decided a CREEPER would be best. These are cards that if laid in front of you in the game, means you can’t win. Since Wil is pretty notorious for not winning on his YouTube show “Tabletop”, I thought this would be perfect. He seemed to agree and wrote “IT SUCKS TO BE YOU” and then signed it. Sadly as he was passing it back, he smudged the card but I didn’t mind as I still knew what it was. He said “Now it really sucks to be you!” which made us all laugh.

As I’m writing this post, I realise this all happened almost a week ago (it was Sunday and today is Friday) but it honestly only feels like yesterday! Anyway the next day the girls were with their dad and went to a National Park and built a den. They have a video of that too which I hope to upload soon. The rest of this week has really just been spent at home. I had a lot of work to catch up on after Amy’s visit and so the girls have really just entertained themselves on Minecraft, Slime Rancher, Theme Hospital etc. Yesterday though they started a jigsaw with my mum and once my work was done I joined in too. Then mum left and I couldn’t bear to leave the jigsaw unfinished so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening making sure it got done!

That pretty much sums up the last two weeks and I’m so glad its been a combination of lots and nothing. I always think its important to have plenty of down days during the holidays so you don’t feel completely knackered, but you also need days were you do things together, or else you end the holidays feeling like you didn’t do anything! Hopefully I’ll update again soon with whatever else we get up to!

October Round-up

November 9, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Watching: I honestly don’t remember much of what I’ve watched this month. Here’s the list; Luke Cage (Series 1), Big Bang Theory (Seasons 1-10), Designated Survivor, New OUAT eps, Captain America – Civil War, Knights of Badassdom, X-Men First Class, Walking Dead (first ep, new season), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
Reading: A Frozen Heart, Cinder.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): As of the 19th October, I’d had 214 orders since the beginning of September and 41 were dresses. This compares to 56 for the same period of time last year, 35 of which were dresses. So mostly, I’ve been really really bloody busy! Mostly I sewed Wendy dresses but clearly there were another 150 or so orders on top of that too. I also made a Jane Porter cosplay for someone to wear to Disneyland Paris Halloween party and I was SO pleased with it.

And in other news…
– Adam came to visit for a week, after not seeing him since February.
– X-Factor Live shows started… (yeah sad, but I like it).
– Chris and I celebrated 4 years together. We had a night together by ourselves while the girls were with their dad but our actual anniversary was spent as a family.
– Insanely busy with Closet Geek as I mentioned above but finally it died off in the last week of October and it was actual heaven to have time to breathe again.
– Megan went back to school a day before Lily after half term and so Lil and I enjoyed a rare day together, just us. Sadly we both ended up ill the following day and Lily was off school for two more days!
– My new ear stand arrived. Chris bought me a Minnie Mouse Disney Tradition. We got a new coffee machine. Chip and Dale in Christmas form Tsum Tsums are now on our mantelpiece and I’ve really enjoyed some Lush baths!

Looking forward to in November:
– Being calmer to some extent, because Halloween is well out of the way and the drop in orders has been significant. However since I’m getting ready for Christmas market, I still feel a lot of pressure to work and build stock.
– Honestly there’s not much else to look forward to I don’t think. More Lush baths. The new “Harry Potter” movie. Celebrating mum and dad’s wedding anniversary. Nat’s birthday. Okay so I guess that’s more than I thought…

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September Round-up

October 4, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Watching: I watched so much this month! Here’s the list; Jessica Jones (Series 1), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Series 1 & 2), Shadow Hunters (only a few episodes so far), The Shanara Chronicles (Series 1), Containment (weekly episodes), GBBO (weekly episodes), X-Factor (weekly episodes), The Purge 1 & 2 movies, The Smurfs, Criminal Minds (Seasons 2-11 and started 12), Suits (Season 6, weekly episodes), New Girl (weekly episodes), Designated Survivor (weekly episodes), plus the usual Casualty, Holby City and whatever else I normally watch! I of course started watching OUAT when it restarted too!
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): The second September started, so did Halloween orders. I’ve mostly been making Wendy dresses, but there has been a few Belle and Briar Rose thrown in there too. I also made a Jane dress for Liv to take to WDW and a boys Peter Pan costume. Other than that, it’s been the usual bows, pencil cases, bunting etc.

And in other news…
– Megan started Secondary School (which was major news) and Lily went back to school.
– Amy and Liv came to visit for the weekend.
– Nat moved out.
– Megan started helping me out with Closet Geek. It was hard work the first time but on her inset day she was a massive help.
– I ordered Rent on DVD and found out my Patronus on Pottermore was a Red Squirrel.
– It got cold. Like suddenly. Summer is definitely over.
– I watched a TON of TV this month (mostly Netflix) and worked pretty much constantly due to the amount of orders pouring in.

Looking forward to in October:
– I want to say orders calming down but I know they will still flood in for most of October, for the Halloween rush. Even when they do calm down, I have prep for Christmas Market to do but even still I would like to make a start on that.
– Half term. We don’t have anything planned but its nice when the girls have a week off as I don’t have to turn out every day and occasionally get a lie-in.
– Mine and Chris’ anniversary. It’s not really a big deal and it’s not for a wedding or anything, just dating, but this October we have been together 4 years.

Happy Birthday Closet Geek

August 22, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Can you believe it’s been a year? I can’t!

Yes, that’s right, one year ago today, I opened my Closet Geek store. Something that started as just sewing for my own children, for Amy and I to cosplay and for Liv to wear to WDW, turned into this tiny little business selling hair bows, pencil cases and girls dresses.

Now a year on, I honestly can’t believe how much support and love I’ve had. I hit 1000 followers on Instagram a few months ago and I’ve had over 1500 sales on Etsy. In addition to the dresses, pencil cases and hair bows I started with, I now sell Disney ears on a fairly regular basis, bunting and cushion covers. I take inquiries for custom skirts and cosplay, along with anything else people are interested in.

Though I’m yet to crack it yet, I bought a laser cutter a while back and I also experimented with screen printing. In the next few weeks I hope to dedicate more to time to them. I’ve also signed up for 4 days of Christmas Market in Lincoln during December, so prep for that will begin soon. I made a post called “Almost a year on…” on the Closet Geek blog, discussing some of my popular items and some of my favourite.

I’d love to explore the possibility of Subscription boxes throughout the next year, plus more fandoms that just Disney and Harry Potter. I can’t wait to be writing a post that’s “two years on” and I hope that you’re all still following me to see it! Thanks again for all the support.

February Round-up

March 8, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Somehow the beginning of March seems to have escaped me already and I realised I never did my monthly round-up! Despite the fact February actually ended at the beginning of last week, I thought I should make the time to sum up anyway!

Watching: Vampire Diaries (Seasons 3-6), new series X-Files, current series NCIS, Limitless, Blindspot, Mean Girls, Tron Legacy, Moulin Rouge, Terminator Genisys, Ant Man, Deadpool, The Walking Dead,
Reading: George’s Marvelous Medicine, Fantastic Mr Fox, Six Lies
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): Custom dresses – it’s been really nice to sew a few different things. I made a Snow White fabric dress, a Mickey travel themed dress, an Alice in Wonderland fabric dress and a Thumper fabric dress. I also made a few other dresses including Belle (blue) and Honey Lemon. There was a Marauders Map passport cover and a few new pencil cases too. Finally I knocked up a Wendy Disney-bounding dress for Amy to wear on her birthday in WDW.
I also pimped out a Locker for a competition and I’ve done a fair bit of cooking this month!

And in other news…
– Spent the first week of the month feeling completely ill! Was so glad when I finally got over it.
– Pancakes on Pancake Day – yum! We had stuffed savoury pancakes for mains and sweet ones for dessert.
– Had probably one of the best Valentine’s Days ever. We spent it as a family and it was fab from start to finish.
– Lily was in a class assembly and Megan was in her first Shine assembly of the year.
– Booked extra tickets for the same Harry Potter convention as before, this time for a Yule Ball.
– Celebrated a belated Galentine’s Day, Amy’s birthday and Easter, all in three days while Amy visited.
– Lily had her first ever sleepover – and I cried because she’s growing up!
– Chris and I traveled to London and Walker Stalker. It was a bit of a flop but we made the best of a bad situation. We did have a nice hotel room, bought a few nice things and had a lovely meal out.
– Finally made headway with the house. We made a list of all the DIY to do, booked people to come and do valuations on the house and started looking for houses to buy.
– The girls attended their first school disco together, at the same time. Usually Lily fell in to the lower school part and Megan the higher, but for the first year they are together. They looked so grown up too!
– My GBF Adam came to visit for the weekend. I only saw him once last year so it was really nice he came to visit so early in the year!
– My mum finally returned from holiday. She went away from 1st Feb to 29th Feb and it felt like a long time! I cried when we first chatted afterwards…

Looking forward to in March:
– Finding out which secondary school Megan will go to (I know by the time I wrote this since it was 1st, but it was a major point in March). This will begin our house hunting.
– Lily’s 8th birthday. Technically this has already happened by the time I wrote this post but I definitely was looking forward to it.
– Chris’ birthday. It falls a little later in the month but I always enjoy celebrating anything with him.
– Getting a handle on selling the house. Making a good dint in the DIY and getting the house on the market.
– Closing Closet Geek for 10 days. This is connected to the last one really but because of all the DIY we have to do, I’m closing my store for just over a week. I do love to work and sew but it will be nice to have a break too.
– Easter Holiday. Just like Half Term in February, I enjoy having the kids off school. This is partly because I enjoy their company and partly because I love not having to trek out in the morning and can stay in my PJs!

January Round-up

February 1, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Last year I gave up on my weekly round up posts during about October, having done them for all 2015 and all 2014 as well. Instead I’ve decided to try and tackle monthly updates instead!

Watching: The Fall (Season 1 & 2), Making a Murderer, Criminal Minds (Season 1-3), House (Season 1-6), Before I Go To Sleep, Thor 2, James and the Giant Peach.
Reading: An Abundance of Katherines, Disney After Dark (Kingdom Keepers)
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): As well as the usual; Young Lottie from The Princess and the Frog, Hiro from Big Hero 6, Marauders Map cushion, Valentine themed hair bows, mouse ears, scrunchies and bows on bobbles.And in other news…
– At the beginning of the month, we all wrote our New Year resolutions. We sealed them up to reveal on NYE, but I honestly don’t remember what half of them were already!
– We’ve been lucky enough to eat out a few times this month; once for breakfast at Mill Lodge, once at The Nosey Parker and again at Gateway Park.
– We finished decorating our bedroom on January 10th. This is about 6 months after we started!
– Booked to go to a Harry Potter convention in August.
– We had the first snow on 14th, but sadly it didn’t stick around. We’ve had a lot of cold weather this month but still no settled snow!
– Bought a new toaster for the kitchen. I’m gradually getting all red bits.
– Tried to diet and failed miserably. January has been a tough month, with motivation and with being busy. February is my start over, so we’ll see how it goes.
– I did something really crazy and paid a deposit to do Lincoln Christmas Market this year. It’s a 4 day event and god knows how I will manage to get stock ready for it, but I’m committed to doing it now! I also decided cancel another event I had paid a deposit on, realising it was going to make life too crazy.

So there you have it – the highlights of January.

Looking forward to:
– Valentine’s Day. For me it’s not so much about it being a romantic day, but showing love to my family. All four of us are planning a special day together, followed by a special meal.
– Amy coming to visit. Though I saw her briefly in December, it feels like a long time since we had a proper catch up! It will be nice to drink wine, probably order takeaway at least once and catch up.
– Walker Stalker. Chris and I have booked a one day ticket at London’s Walker Stalker and I’m really looking forward to it. Not so much for the con (though I hope to meet Norman Reedus) but also because we’ve booked one night in a nice hotel and it will be nice to spend time as a couple.
– Half Term. We don’t have any plans, other than Amy visiting and technically Walker Stalker falls into that week, but I love not having to get up and dressed, take the kids to school etc. I also really enjoy having the kids around the house.

Sexism Vs Home Making Skills

November 30, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

There was something on TV this week that got me thinking about sexism and how there is a thin line between sexism and being chivalrous for example. The topic in question was something on I’m a celebrity get me out of here, whereby a female was given the job of carrying logs and some members thought this unfair as she was a female and as such not as strong as the guys, where others argued women were just as happy to do those jobs and prove their strength. I personally felt it was a sexist thing to suggest, knowing that had I been in that position I too would have wanted to prove I could carry logs just as well as the next guy. HOWEVER, that’s not to say I wouldn’t be more than happy to accept if a guy offered to carry logs for me.

Growing up I think I’ve always been a fairly traditional thinker when it comes to getting married, having kids, being a stay-at-home-mum etc. but that’s not to say I believe it should be the same for everyone. I do think life is incredibly unequal and as per Jennifer Lawrence’s rant about actors being paid more than actresses, it may never really level off. Some women want the high power jobs and same rates of pay, some wish to run for parliament or to be head of the church etc. In this day and age I think it’s sad that we aren’t more equal, but at the same time is it really that backwards thinking to want to stay home, do the cooking and cleaning, sew/knit etc and have the guy earn the money and then come home to do the DIY.

A recent article I read on Craft-O-Maniac featured a survey done by Baytree Interiors that showed many people still want to learn home making skills and this is backed up by how many DIY, baking and home interior shows are on TV these days. Admittedly there is no gender specification as to who can watch these programs and it’s just as likely there are men out there who can knit, compared to women who do DIY. The survey showed that 31% of participants chose baking as their favourite hobby and 21% expressed the desire to learn sewing and altering clothes. As a stay-at-home mum myself, I love to cook (especially bake) and I recently started working on many sewing projects.

Am I a girlie girl? Sure. I do a lot of “typically” female jobs around the house, I paint my nails and wear makeup. Do I consider those jobs “women’s work”? Absolutely not. Chris does a lot of the DIY in our house but when I was single for four years I was more than capable of doing those jobs. And while I mend a hole in Chris’ trousers when he gets them, he’s also more than capable of doing so himself.

I don’t think that learning homemaking skills, or wanting a traditional lifestyle, makes you a sexist person. Just because we’re living in a modern society where things like jobs should be equal, it doesn’t mean we can’t have more old fashion values that still go hand-in-hand.

Making a Cosplay Costume

November 10, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

In Summer, Amy and I (plus Kariss who we met there) attended SFCC (Sheffield Film and Comic Con). Last year we were attending LFCC (London Film and Comic Con) but unfortunately the timing just wasn’t right to get to that one this year. I’ve also attended MCM Comic Con in London this year, back in May. However in the end we decided not to cosplay for that, so SFCC was our first cosplay of the year.

Amy and I decided on Disney cosplay (surprise surprise). She was going as Briar Rose and I was Belle. Both choices are their “peasant” dresses, so in a way we’ll be a pair.

I started on Amy’s first as I couldn’t get the fabric I needed for mine without ordering. The first thing I did was find a pattern that would work for what I wanted (I only ever work from patterns). It was pretty easy and didn’t take me too long. Ironically it was another Disney pattern, one used to make Elsa’s Coronation dress.

Next was to pick out some colours. Luckily both costumes comprise of basic block colours, so cotton poplin is perfect for what we need. I headed off to Boyes, picked out come colours and then started to work with the pattern and fabrics.

So once I cut out all the pattern pieces I was sure about, there was the grey to figure out. I picked one that I thought might be a bit dark and when placed together with all the other fabrics, it was decided between Amy and I, that it was too dark. Sadly this began our own 50 Shades of Grey disaster which took about 8 fabric samples from Ebay before locating. However with the grey only effecting the skirt, it was easy to still continue and make a start.

Once the top was done and the grey was found, it didn’t take long to sew it all together and add the zip. It was lucky too as I ended up making Kariss an Alice in Wonderland dress and apron, before also making my own Belle outfit. I was fairly pleased with how they all turned out too.

I have a post on Closet Geek dedicated to all the Cosplay outfits I’ve made so far. But keep an eye out as I will be updating it before too long I’m sure!

Week 43 – Monday Round-up

October 26, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Another hectic week this week, leaving little time to blog. Right now I’m actually sat on my sofa, with a cup of tea, updating from my phone!

So last week was a fairly regular week. Girls at school and Chris at work. Monday I had a super lazy day. I did do some work in my computer but as of taking the girls to school, I really just sat on my butt watching tv all day. It was so great after weeks of working endlessly on orders! Tuesday I went into town and what should have been a quick pop in turned into a wander around but that was nice too and I picked up some bits and pieces for Christmas. That evening, after school, the girls and I played Hey That’s My Fish, which was a lot of fun and nice to do something together.

On Wednesday it was mine and Chris’ anniversary. We’re not married but we have been together 3 years so we celebrated with a few small gifts, dinner and some TV. Sadly he was at work during the day but Nat kept me company instead, most of which was planning her birthday party next month.

Thursday I was sewing again plus getting ready for a little mini market at my mum’s. I made bow boards out of my noticeboard and organised all my jewellery. When I picked up the girls we went out for dinner and then called at mum’s to drop my things off. We didn’t stay long before heading home though and I spent the evening watching Chris and Jon play X-Wing and then the three of us played Betrayal at the House on Haunted Hill.

In the morning mum sent a picture of my mini market and I was pretty pleased with how it looked. Sadly not many people turned up to her coffee morning but I did make three sales. I spent the day printing out all the sheets for Nat’s murder mystery and then went on to sewing Christmas stockings. Sunday was similar to Saturday, in that I sewed most of the day. We had Charlie (my brother’s, girlfriend’s son) around for some of the day but he just played with the girls on DS and Xbox etc. Chris bought us Chinese takeaway for dinner and it was the end of a very pleasant week

Theft at Work

October 22, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

As you know if you are a frequent reader of my blog, I recently set up a small business called Closet Geek – sewing kids clothes, making cosplay outfits, putting together jewellery, hair bows, pencil cases etc. I’m so pleased with how it’s been going too and in the last 3 weeks I had a total of 56 orders, 35 of which were girls dresses. Though it was crazy busy at times, I got through it and it’s all calmed down now. I’m currently planning what I might do for Christmas promotions and so forth. However during the crazy times it did get me to thinking how it might be to be so busy I might have to take on employees. Luckily for me, my daughter Megan and my mum pitched in at times over the last few weeks, but if this small business ever really got off the ground, would I have to consider taking on staff?

I read an article on Small Biz Viewpoints that contained a survey conducted by Data-Label. The article itself is about how to stop stealing in the work place but the survey showed that 20% of people asked (nearly 400 out of the 1,986), admitted that they had stolen from work.

Now admittedly the odd pen here and there won’t kill a business but it does all add up. For Closet Geek I hold stock of fabrics, ribbons, thread, hair clips, necklaces etc etc. and there is no real way to keep track of it all. Again, while the odd thing here and there wouldn’t make much of a difference, if someone took a few metres of £10 fabric, it would soon start to dent my profits!

The article shows that while some people did it because they didn’t think it would really matter or be noticed, some people actually did it as a sort of revenge on the company. That’s really all you need when a disgruntled employee decides they are going to steal half your stock, just because they think you don’t treat them well or don’t pay them enough etc.

Obviously at this starting stage in my business I am a long way off getting any employees. And even if and when I do, my first port of call would probably be to see if I could find someone I know to join me. However reading an article like this and the results from the survey, it would definitely make me think carefully about whether or not to take someone else on, or whether to continue sewing to midnight every day!