Starting over...

DebtFreeDuo

What a fantastic achievement, you must be feeling so proud of yourself. You are doing so well with your finances and life sounds like its just getting better for you. What a difference a little over a year can make!

If you are feeling like things are a little too much you should definitely take a little time off, even if its just a couple of days. I hope you have planned in some time off over the year too, I know you love your work and that's fantastic but we wouldn't want to see you exhausted!

ladymay

DebtFreeDuo wrote: »

What a fantastic achievement, you must be feeling so proud of yourself. You are doing so well with your finances and life sounds like its just getting better for you. What a difference a little over a year can make!

If you are feeling like things are a little too much you should definitely take a little time off, even if its just a couple of days. I hope you have planned in some time off over the year too, I know you love your work and that's fantastic but we wouldn't want to see you exhausted!

Thanks DFD, I'm really excited about this year. I'm getting better at taking time off, but my guilt complex is still a little too sharp at times

Lots to get done today:
Life
- msg new landlord to sort out bank details Done; deposit sent and received
- finish two study modules HA. Hahahahahahaha
- check what dates my friend from Canada is coming over Done
- sort out volunteer shifts for the months Done
- go for walk/jog Done
- start writing epic 'week off' list for w/c 18th Done
Work
- keep learning music for first duo/band gig next Saturday Started
- go over Valentine's show Nope
- invoices Done
- email bridal client Done
- check all my dates and availability and email booking agent - I'm paranoid about making mistakes in my diary now! Done

I should definitely be studying right now but I've run out of steam a bit. I'm covering a volunteer shift at midnight for a few hours so I've napped; as part of my procrastination I've also applied for some deputy work for a band later on in the year, watched some Netfl!x and chatted to the boy most of the evening. If I can get a solid hour of study in before I head off I'll be happy.

Right, back to the books!

ladymay

Morning!

It's been a busy and sleep deprived week, not helped by the fact that I had a migraine on Wednesday that had me out of action for 24 hours and some delightful stomach cramps at 3.00 this morning...

Good things:
- Five more gigs booked in for March and April
- All invoices for last year have finally been paid
- The sun is shining bright!
- I've been booked for some bridal modelling

And the slightly-less-good:
- I still haven't started packing! Considering I'm moving in three days and I have a full work weekend, it's just as well I can move out in bits and pieces!

All budgets are up to date, I have a full tank of fuel that should last me the rest of the month, I have a healthy amount to get a week of groceries when I move into my new place (I'm at the boy's from next Sunday and he tends to pay for everythingbecause I travel for hours to get there ), all coursework is done - a week early no less! - and I'm really looking forward to moving into my own space again and getting organised once more!

My duo is debuting the show with the Motown band tomorrow. In true procrastinator style, I'm still manically learning lyrics - I do sometimes wish I didn't work best under pressure :rotfl: I'm really nervous and excited about this project, I hope tomorrow goes well!!

Plan for the weekend:
- nursing home gig
- drive to London to my duetting partner in crime to go over the show
- head to the gig and smash it (fingers crossed!)
- drive back, get a few hours kip before a wedding fair on Sunday
- meet organiser of bridal modelling shoot to go over plan
- COLLAPSE IN A HEAP

Happy Friday! x

ladymay

Plan for the weekend:
- nursing home gig
- drive to London to my duetting partner in crime to go over the show
- head to the gig and smash it (fingers crossed!)
- drive back, get a few hours kip before a wedding fair on Sunday
- meet organiser of bridal modelling shoot to go over plan
- COLLAPSE IN A HEAP


Managed to get all that done plus be admitted to A&E on Friday night I had a bad reaction to some medication I've taken dozens of times before (that's the prevailing theory, anyway), got discharged at 6.30am on Saturday and proceeded to do the gig in quite a bit of pain... Still did the wedding fair, glad I did because I got a booking for next year :j but spent a lot of yesterday in a confused fog - not helpful when moving house! I'm feeling a bit better after 10 hours sleep last night but still quite achey and spaced out.


I think this week I need a "to aim for" list rather than a "to do" list :rotfl: so here it is for today:


- Shopping
- Check course feedback Already done, passed! One more unit to go and it's finished.
- Hoover room
- Get as much of the rest of my stuff to the new place as possible
- Handwash all necessary laundry
- Finance catch up
- Figure out what (if anything) I need for my new place
- Double volunteer shift



I have £91.47 in my purse which I'm hoping will get me through a hair cut, my grocery shopping, a small fuel top up and a couple of drinks on Friday night; I'd really like to not touch my account at all except to pay for an outstanding wedding fair stand. Next week should be a cheap one as I'm up with the boy.


I feel like I need a nap already haha!


Hope everyone has a good day x

ladymay

Evening!


Starting to feel better, still really tired but I'm not in pain any more. Had a nice chat with my nurse and GP and due to a number of factors, they think I had a massive hormonal surge that convinced my body into thinking I was in labour. The pain I was in last weekend was contractions :eek::eek::eek: after three pregnancy tests, I'm definitely not pregnant and now I know that this may be an issue hopefully I can avoid the reaction in the future.


I had so much planned for this week but I'm still unpacking - every time I move a few boxes, I have to sit down and have a rest for a minute; and because I've been on codeine my brain has been foggy to the point of me avoiding work like the plague :rotfl:Today is the first day I've felt like I'm getting back to normal (although I've had to fight off another migraine booooo!) so fingers crossed I can start working again from tomorrow.


I've got about £9 in cash to last the rest of the week, so I won't be going out to see my mate sing tomorrow night. Annoying but I'd forgotten how much it costs to get all the cupboard essentials when you move house. Ah well. One good thing is while unpacking today I found a fruit-branded tablet that I thought I'd already got rid of. I haven't used it in over a year so I'm going to pop into C3x tomorrow with it. Online it says they'll buy my model for £65 which would be fabulous and could possibly mean I can leave off using the bank account for another week :j


Plans for tomorrow:


- Volunteer shift
- See the Mothership
- Put some gig money into bank
- Pay for Sunday's wedding fair
- Finish unpacking and give everything a home
- Try and do a gentle workout


xx

ladymay

- Volunteer shift Done
- See the Mothership Done
- Put some gig money into bank Done
- Pay for Sunday's wedding fair Done
- Finish unpacking and give everything a home I have ONE box left!
- Try and do a gentle workout Done


Good day today - more energy has meant I've managed to get more done than I have all week. The fruity tablet has gone and an extra £60 has gone into the account (decided to put it in there after all so I can track everything in YNAB). Also I had £20 payable from TCB so that has been put into @mazon vouchers for the mothership's birthday present (she has been VERY specific about what she wants ).


Tomorrow, I tackle my paperwork :eek::eek::eek: getting all the boxes of receipts out, sorting and grouping them. I'll feel great when I'm finished but I'm not looking forward to the task. Other plans are meeting my cousin and her little one for a walk, getting prepped for Sunday's wedding fair, and making my list for next week (largely this week's list plus more :rotfl:).


Have a fab weekend! Off to watch an episode of The Orville x

ladymay

I did write a super long post yesterday, only for my laptop to decide to update and restart before I pressed "submit reply" :mad:

I did not get all my jobs done on Saturday and had a lovely relaxed day instead. I walked to the park to meet my cousin and her little one and we had a lovely few hours - lots of excitement about seeing a 'unicorn' (a shire horse with a unicorn hat on), we ate a very tasty cream tea (which apparently now is suddenly deadly - who knew thick cream was bad for you before? :rotfl:), and then I cousin and I dodged several questions about why all the frogs in the ponds were jumping on top of each other.... Also watched the rugby, but let's not talk about that!

Sunday was another wedding fair. A few of my friends in the area came down to say hi which was lovely, and the fire alarm and consequent half-hour evacuation was great fun ha! The fire alarm was set off my someone letting off their "indoor fireworks display"; that someone being Idiot Boy who messed me around at the end of 2017. And that is all I shall say on that Spoke to a couple who are hopefully going to book me for their wedding, and another renewing their vows. It's always hard to know until the deposit is in your bank account... Anyway, drove over to Kent to see the boyfriend after and we celebrated Valentine's Day. I left his present at home because I'm a dum dum, but he gave me my favourite Valentine's gift ever - the Mary Poppins umbrella with the parrot head handle! I love it so much! We're both big Disney fans so it was 'practically perfect'.

Yesterday was spent finishing my final assignment for my Dementia Care course - got an email from my tutor today congratulating me on passing :j:j:j it still has to be approved by the higher ups but I'm really chuffed. I've learned a lot on how I can improve my interactions and add value and potentially new services to my business; plus saying that I've done the course will be a nice USP for me so yay!

I'm feeling 100% again and am motoring on with behind-the-scenes business work. The list this week for everything is pretty epic:

Solo work
-Website
- Check GDPR compliance
- look at SEO
- create care home page
- create gig diary page
- check similar sites to see if I'm missing anything
- Social Media schedule
- Sign up for conference Done
- Sign up for more networking Done, three more events in the diary
- Confirm details for digital marketing session Done, I've got a three hour 1-2-1 session with an expert coming up, really excited to learn as much as I can
- Find video editing app I can actually get to grips with
- Find app for visual marketing to play with Done
- Ask for testimonials from care home clients
- Double check I'm up to date on emails
- Catch up on recent networking
- Check status of unpaid invoice
- Contact the people on my 'useful people / potential gigs' list

Duo work
-Website
- GDPR
- SEO
- Edit video into showreel
- Look at song options

Life
- Finish final unit on course Done
- Categorise files on phone and laptop
- Categorise emails
- Apply for Tipping Point (because why not?)
- Work out three times
- Book onto dressmaking course (birthday pressie from Mum)
- Apply for casual job at my old school
- Create March list

SO NOT MUCH THEN :eek:

Hope you're having a good week so far xx

DebtFreeDuo

Sorry to hear you have been unwell, glad you are doing better. How strange that your body was tricked, I remember the pain of contractions all too well so can understand how much pain you would have been in.

Glad your show still went well though, you must let me know when you are somewhere near me so I can see you!

Sounds like your boyfriend done extremely well with the valentines gift! What a difference compared to idiot boy! As soon as I saw idiot boy I knew exactly who you were referring to!

ladymay

DebtFreeDuo wrote: »

Sorry to hear you have been unwell, glad you are doing better. How strange that your body was tricked, I remember the pain of contractions all too well so can understand how much pain you would have been in.

Glad your show still went well though, you must let me know when you are somewhere near me so I can see you!

Sounds like your boyfriend done extremely well with the valentines gift! What a difference compared to idiot boy! As soon as I saw idiot boy I knew exactly who you were referring to!

Thank you DFD - I'm so lucky in that by and large I'm extremely healthy and am very rarely sick, so it was a bit of a shock! And I solemnly swear that once the show is up and running more regularly I'll let you know He did so well, early days but I'm very happy. Haha, well IB's living up to his nickname I guess!


Super productive day yesterday - a lot of it was spent sorting out what I needed to do to be compliant with GDPR and optimising the websites for SEO. I'm really chuffed it's done for now. There's so much to learn and IT stuff isn't my favourite thing to do, but until I'm fabulously wealthy and can afford a PA, I still have to do everything I've been getting a lot of support from other musicians, creatives and wedding suppliers recently and I have an ever-increasing list of people to cold call and offer my services to, so as I tick off a task on my to-do list, I add at least one more task on. The joys of self-employment!


A bit of excitement last night - my aunty has asked me if I can go and look after my (much younger) cousins for a week while she and my uncle head away to see friends and attend a wedding. The reason this is exciting is THEY LIVE IN LA and want to pay for my flights :j LA is not by any means my favourite place, but I haven't seen this part of my family for three years and I also have a bunch of friends that live there that I'd love to see, so hopefully I can go over there for about 11-12 days and have some quality friends and family time. Timing is a bit rubbish in that it falls over National Dementia Week, which could be a busy work week for me, but this would be my only chance to go abroad this year, I'd be doing my aunty a huge favour, and I miss my family, so overall it's a big yes!


Right, to the list:



Solo work
-Website
- Check GDPR compliance Done
- look at SEO Done
- create care home page
- create gig diary page
- check similar sites to see if I'm missing anything
- Social Media schedule Done
- Sign up for conference Done
- Sign up for more networking Done, three more events in the diary
- Confirm details for digital marketing session Done, I've got a three hour 1-2-1 session with an expert coming up, really excited to learn as much as I can
- Find video editing app I can actually get to grips with
- Find app for visual marketing to play with Done
- Ask for testimonials from care home clients Done, awaiting replies
- Double check I'm up to date on emails Done
- Catch up on recent networking
- Check status of unpaid invoice Done and confirmed it'll be paid asap
- Contact the people on my 'useful people / potential gigs' list

Duo work
-Website
- GDPR Done
- SEO Done
- Edit video into showreel
- Look at song options

Life
- Finish final unit on course Done
- Categorise files on phone and laptop
- Categorise emails
- Apply for Tipping Point (because why not?) Done
- Work out three times Cardio and yoga done yesterday, two more to go
- Book onto dressmaking course (birthday pressie from Mum) Done, really excited!
- Apply for casual job at my old school
- Create March list


Can I make my whole list blue in the next two days...? Here goes nothing!

ladymay

Evening all!


I'm on a mission at the moment and super focussed :cool: Some tasks are taking longer than I'd thought but I'm getting through my list. In addition to my list I also ordered my mum's main birthday present and sorted out her birthday evening, and spent some time putting together a wedding package for potential clients.


Solo work
-Website
- Check GDPR compliance Done
- look at SEO Done
- create care home page
- create gig diary page
- check similar sites to see if I'm missing anything Done, think I need to add a 'set list' page to my website
- Social Media schedule Done
- Sign up for conference Done
- Sign up for more networking Done, three more events in the diary
- Confirm details for digital marketing session Done, I've got a three hour 1-2-1 session with an expert coming up, really excited to learn as much as I can
- Find video editing app I can actually get to grips with Done, on a free trial atm
- Find app for visual marketing to play with Done
- Ask for testimonials from care home clients Done, awaiting replies
- Double check I'm up to date on emails Done
- Catch up on recent networking
- Check status of unpaid invoice Done and confirmed it'll be paid asap
- Contact the people on my 'useful people / potential gigs' list

Duo work
-Website
- GDPR Done
- SEO Done
- Edit video into showreel Done and posted everywhere I can think of!
- Look at song options

Life
- Finish final unit on course Done
- Categorise files on phone and laptop Started
- Categorise emails
- Apply for Tipping Point (because why not?) Done
- Work out three times Weights and yoga, two down one to go!
- Book onto dressmaking course (birthday pressie from Mum) Done, really excited!
- Apply for casual job at my old school
- Create March list Started


I'm not working Friday so really need to get the rest done tomorrow - fingers crossed