My other half, also known as his lordship, decided to leave his job and become self employed. He is a talented web developer and has always wanted to work for himself. He was also feeling stuck in a pattern in his job. A window of opportunity opened to him and we thought it was worth taking.

For the first few days after he finished his job, we had fun being at home together and not being restricted by my lack of driving ability or his old job’s office hours. It was lovely having some time to ourselves and being free to go out for lunch together or not start work until after lunch. Sure enough though, we settled down into a new pattern and he actually got some work done.

We started looking into some options for his business, including becoming a limited company. This was always something he had wanted to move towards, but we didn’t know much about it and we weren’t sure it would be cost effective, at least to begin with. We were referred to a friendly accounting firm who gave us some great advice and suggested that we become a limited company together. This was the first time I had considered the possibility of becoming involved in his business, but it made sense for us.

As work started to pile up, it became clear that I could be more than just a company director who made the ocassional cup of tea. I took on the bookkeeping and administration, but his lordship was starting to struggle with the amount of incoming communication he was receiving. It was interrupting his workday to a point where he was hardly able to get any work done. I was glad to find something I could help with, and I began to take over dealing with incoming emails.

The first couple of weeks working together at home went well. I was enjoying having something new to do, and it was great to be able to choose our own hours and come and go as we pleased. As the novelty wore off, we began to feel a bit restricted in other ways. We were working from a couple of desks in the corner of our bedroom below a beam in a sloping ceiling, as this was the only space in the house they would fit in together. We banged our heads several times and the view of a wall was less than inspiring. Also, being upstairs while working left the kids downstairs by themselves, which was clearly not going to work on a long term basis.

We started wondering about the possibility of getting an office to work from, and trying to figure out how we could make that work with the school run. We also worried about whether it would be affordable as we are still a very new company and we’re just finding our feet. As it happened, another opportunity opened up to us out of the blue.

Whilst visiting one of our clients to discuss a new project, we mentioned that we were considering looking for office space, and by pure coincidence this client had an office unit that was about to be vacated. We had a look around and it seemed to be just the kind of place we could see ourselves fitting in nicely. We would also be able to take on more work from that client which would help to offset the increased outgoings we would have. We went for it.

I’m writing this post from my new desk in our new office, in a quiet moment between answering emails and bookkeeping. We’ll be leaving early to pick the kids up from school until our nanny starts in a couple of weeks time. In the last six months, I’ve gone from being a bored housewife to a company director. It’s been fun, exciting and unexpected. I’m looking forward to the future. Who knows where I might be a few more months down the line?

If you’d like to find out more about our company, you can visit the website at http://qweb.co.uk.

QWeb Logo

Today, we have got most of the clearing out and setting up jobs done. Here’s what we achieved:

• Broke up old rabbit hutch, broken grow houses and storage thingies that were of no use to us.
• Took these and some other things to the tip.
• Swept and cleared the paved areas.
• Rearranged plant pots and tubs that had been randomly plonked down when we moved in 18 months ago.
• Repotted two trees (eucalyptus and twisted hazel) that were in large tubs that didn’t drain, adding drainage holes and fresh compost.
• Built the new wooden grow house and cleared a pile of dirt out of the place it now lives.
• Raked over and removed remaining weeds from the area we did manage to rotavate.
• Rebuilt the kids’ bike storage tent.
• Packed everything that was left outside into the shed finally.
• Emptied waterlogged compost bags onto the veg patch to be rotavated in.

What’s left to do:

• Rotavate the rest of the veg patch.
• Weed the herb patch and the pots and tubs.
• Plant some things out that have been waiting in pots all winter.
• Rotavate the end of the garden where brambles and weeds have taken over.
• Plant fruit trees at the end of the garden and surround with grass seed.
• Sow seeds.
• Chop up leftover wood from the apple trees we cut down last year.
• Build a circular seating area with chopped up wood and the mound of earth that remains from the lawn we dug up last year.
• Sow grass seed on the seating area.
• Remove horrible plants from the side of the path.
• Transplant rose bushes from the front garden.
• Grow vegetables.

I’m pleased with our progress, but there’s still a lot to do. I am excited to get this all done, and I can’t wait to share the pictures of our lovely garden when it’s done. I’m really looking forward to gardening this year, and hopefully we’ll have better weather and a much better harvest than last year.

Last year’s gardening weather was terrible. Every time I planted seeds or seedlings, we had torrential rain and almost nothing grew. For parts of the summer my garden looked more like a pond than a veggie patch.

Here’s to coaxing spring out from wherever it’s hiding, and hopefully I’ll be able to get everything started out there in April. Fingers crossed!

I stuffed the unfinished tie into my yarn storage box and forgot about it. Then his birthday came around and I thought I would be nice to him. I ripped out the original tie and started again with the “flat bit” he had asked for. Here’s the result, along with a free pattern in case you also have a fussy brother who wants a hand knit tie

Tie

The pattern creates a straight tie with square ends, and decreases that will be hidden under the collar when the tie is worn.

Supplies

• Approximately 50g DK yarn
• 2.25mm needles

Tie Knot

Instructions

Cast on 17 stitches.

Knit 6 rows in stockinette (knit a row, purl a row).

Switch to moss stitch (*k1, p1* repeat to the final stitch, k1) and continue until work measures 80cm or 31″ ending on a wrong side row.

Work across to the centre three stitches in pattern, knit or purl three stitches together, work remaining stitches in pattern. Whether you knit or purl the decrease depends on the previous stitch. If you just knit, purl the decrease. If you just purled, knit the decrease. This preserves the moss stitch pattern.

Tie Ends

Continue another 2.5cm or 1″, decrease as before. Repeat until 9 stitches remain.

Continue working in moss stitch until work measures 140cm or 55″.

Work 4 rows stockinette, cast off, weave in ends.

Linux Mint

I have been using Linux for almost ten years now. I was a loyal Ubuntu fan until a few years ago when it started changing more than I liked. At that point I switched to Mint, a derivative distribution which kept everything I liked about Ubuntu and cleared out everything that irritated me about it. Lately, however, I was beginning to get frustrated with Mint, so I searched for an alternative.

After reading up on various different options, I decided Mint really was the right distro for me, but I didn’t want to have to keep upgrading every six months. This involved backing up my files, formatting my hard drive and installing the newest version from scratch. I like to be up to date, but I don’t like the hassle. I decided to try Linux Mint Debian Edition, or LMDE.

LMDE is a version of Mint that is known as a rolling release. This means that rather than installing a new base version every six months, you continuously update your existing system. It is based on Debian rather than Ubuntu, which means that there are some minor differences from the main version of Mint, but these are mostly behind the scenes and don’t affect general usage. The downside of LMDE compared to the main version of Mint is that it may be less stable, a bit rough around the edges. On the other hand, the regular updates should take care of these.

I downloaded the .iso and made a USB live disk of LMDE 64 bit, to match my computer’s architecture. I backed up my files to an external hard drive and set about installing my new system. The process was a little more DIY than I was used to, I had to set up my own drive partitions, but it was easy enough. Once installed, I booted into the familiar Mint desktop (I like the Cinnamon variant) and copied my files back in.

I noticed some problems right away as I set about installing the programs I use and setting things up how I like them. Firstly, my printer wouldn’t install, and it wouldn’t tell me why. It just popped up an error to let me know that it hadn’t been able to install it. Useful. Next, I had trouble with Skype. I had to download it from the skype website as it wasn’t in the repositories. I was able to install it, although it pulled in over 50 32 bit dependencies so it took a long time. When it finally installed, it wouldn’t play nicely with my sound. It showed me a lot of sound output options, none of which worked. Interestingly enough, it showed the same output options as microphone choices. Needless to say, none of those worked either. I also couldn’t get Picasa to connect to my web albums. It told me I needed a 32 bit library, and offered to install it for me. When I accepted the prompt, it told me that it didn’t know how to handle it on Mint.

There were a few other problems that I encountered. For example, when I closed the lid on my laptop it didn’t always go to sleep, and when I opened the lid after it had slept, the wifi refused to connect to my network. There’s rough around the edges and there’s simply not working properly. I wasn’t satisfied.

I decided that since the bulk of my problems were caused by the software that needed 32 bit libraries, I would try the 32 bit version instead. I copied my files back to the external drive, downloaded the 32 bit .iso and installed a new USB live disk. I went through the identical installation process and once again booted into Mint.

This time, things were a breeze. Skype installed easily and picked up my sound and microphone settings without me having to do anything. My printer installed happily. Picasa didn’t complain about connecting to my web albums. I haven’t had chance to close the lid yet, but if it didn’t work, I would get used to shutting down, I’m sure.

I came to copy my files back over, and at this point I started having real problems. Half of the folders I had copied were empty or corrupt. Thankfully, I had a few of the missing files saved on the internet, and an afternoon playing with testdisk and photorec brought some of the files back to life. I am now just missing one file that I’m bothered about. Typically, it’s the one file I actually can’t manage without. My finances.

I use KMyMoney to keep track of our household accounts, scheduled payments, direct debits and past transactions. I have been using it almost as long as I’ve been using Linux. I depend on it to make payments on time, make sure we don’t overspend and generally keep our finances in check. Without it, I have no idea what’s going on.

Photorec is able to rescue KMyMoney files, and to its credit, it did find my file on the corrupted drive. Unfortunately, the rescued copy was also corrupted. The best I could do was recover a backup I made to google docs five months ago. This means I have the backbones of the data, the payment schedules and transaction amounts haven’t changed much in that time. It also means that to get back up to date, I will have to go through five months of statements from five different accounts and reinput all the transactions. That is not going to be fun.

Lesson learnt. Back up mission critical files properly, regularly, and to somewhere safer than an external hard drive that has been misbehaving for a long time. I’m thinking a weekly back up to google docs should do it. It’s been added to my to do list (another thing I can’t do without, thankfully it’s online).

I suppose I should stop putting off the inevitable and get started on those bank statements.

Paganism is an umbrella term for a wide range of belief systems centered around nature. Practitioners range from reconstructionists, who aim to follow the traditions and beliefs of their ancestors, to eclectics who mix together bits and pieces from a range of religions and belief systems to create something quite unique to them. Beliefs about god range from polytheism to athiesm, and some also believe in spirits, angels, fairies and demons.

Witchcraft is another term with a broad meaning, and can be practiced by an even wider range of people. It can involve anything from ceremonial magic to gardening and cooking, and can be described as using the forces of nature and/or magic to affect change in the physical world.

My personal relationship with paganism and witchcraft began a few years ago as a curiosity. I wondered what it was all about, and the more I read, the more I found it both fascinating and relevant to my own point of view.

I would describe myself as an eclectic solitary pagan. I don’t believe in any gods or spirits, instead I feel there is a kind of energy flowing through everything that one could call a life force, the power of nature or chi. I think nature is incredible, and deserves respect and reverence. For me, paganism is more a worldview than a practice.

My version of witchcraft is quite basic and simple, and is closer to working with nature than creating elaborate ceremonies. I like to think of it as positive thinking with props. As I don’t believe in spirits or gods, I am not calling out to any entity in particular. Rather, I am focusing my own energy on the positive things I wish to see or bring into my life. I like to use candles, incense and herbs as well as tarot cards and visualisation. I don’t believe that casting spells affects other people or that one can create harm by using the wrong incantations. I just know that focusing on the good I want to do and the experiences I hope to have, I can improve my mood, motivation and drive, which in turn helps me affect positive changes in my own life.

I would like to reiterate that these are my personal views and experiences, and they don’t represent the views of the pagan community as a whole. In fact, they probably don’t even represent a “typical” pagan or witchcraft practitioner. The great thing about the pagan community is that there is so much variety and everybody is entitled to believe and practice however they feel is best for them individually. There is no official doctrine, no particular requirements, just a shared reverence for nature and a collection of fascinating worldviews.

There have been times in my life when I’ve grabbed chances by the horns and made seemingly rash decisions that often lead to great things. There have been other times when I’ve hoped and longed for something to be just right before I go for it. There have been yet more times when I’ve laid out all the possibilities available to me, but I haven’t chosen one, because to walk down one path means to leave the others untrodden. Rather than let go of the possibilities, I didn’t take any of them. I waited.

Looking back, I am proud of the crazy choices I made. They led me places I wouldn’t have got to otherwise. I found my wonderful partner by making a string of what others would call crazy decisions. I lived abroad because of a spur of the moment decision. Obviously, not all of my choices have worked out well. I’ve been divorced twice, I bought a house that turned out to be a complete disaster, and I tried moving to France without a hope of it working out well. I’m still glad I tried these things though. They were learning experiences that taught me all sorts of unexpected lessons.

What I regret most are not the bad decisions I made, or the ones with disastrous outcomes. I regret the choices I didn’t make, the opportunities I didn’t grab and the chances I let pass by. I regret standing at the crossroads and not choosing one of the paths for fear of losing the other possibilities, or because I couldn’t see which one would lead me to the best destination. I didn’t go back to school because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my future. I could have taken any course that interested me and decided further down the line, but instead I waited. I didn’t throw myself a birthday party because I couldn’t think of the perfect way to celebrate, so I waited for next time. I didn’t start a diary because I missed the first few days, so I waited until next year.

My twenties was a roller coaster ride of fantastic highs and terrible lows interspersed with a lot of waiting. I hope my thirties will be more like a road trip, always moving, always going somewhere, seeing as many sights as possible, but having the option to turn around and go a different way at any time. No more waiting for the ride to start, I’m taking control. I’m sitting in the drivers seat and it’s going to be a grand adventure.

Curled Cowl

The UK has been hit with a blast of freezing weather and the ever threatening forecast of snow. To celebrate (for those who like snow) or commiserate (for those who hate it) the occasion, Strawberry Moonbeam is having a sale on hats, scarves, gloves and cowls. Wrap up warm with 10% off winter woolys using the discount code COLD2013, valid until the end of January.

This year, rather than set a resolution or try to start a new habit or drop an old one, I decided to set my major goals for the year. So here they are:

1. Learn to drive – Not being able to drive is becoming a problem for me. It limits my ability to get about, it means a very long walk each day for the school run, and it leaves me stuck in the house a lot of the time. It also leaves my other half to get groceries and drive me places when he has other things he needs to be doing instead. It’s time to sort that out.
2. Finish my course – I started a home study back in summer, and because of a series of overlapping problems and difficulties, I put off getting started. I have now made a decent start, I want to make sure that it is finished in good time.
3. Apply for university – The home study course is a prerequisite for the degree I want to do, and I have promised myself that by the end of the year I will have at least submitted my application for the degree program.

It’s going to be a good year. Getting those things done will lead to great new things becoming available for me in my future, and I’m excited about where they may lead me.

Egg Basket

My very talented fiance has just released a new eCommerce platform called Egg Basket and I’d like to tell you about it.

Egg Basket began a couple of years ago as I struggled to find an eCommerce platform that I could use to run Strawberry Moonbeam. I tried a few existing platforms but I wasn’t happy with any of them. A wordpress plugin I used broke when I tried to update it. Magento and a few others I looked into had such complicated admin panels that it was difficult to add new products.

The main problems that I had with the platforms I tried were the admin panels. They were a monstrous jumble of product management and store set up options. Once the store was originally set up, the store set up options were irrelevant to me, yet they seemed to be the main focus of the admin panels, especially with Magento. Adding new products required me to wade through so many options that I didn’t need, and spotting the ones I did need was quite difficult. I felt that even adding products was expected to be part of the original store set up and should be left well alone.

What I wanted was a simple, easy to manage store that only showed me the administration options that were relevant to me. I wanted to be able to easily add and update products, since what I make is usually one of a kind. I had sold on Ebay and Etsy before, and wanted a similar style of product management. I also wanted some quirky features, for example the images for the categories should be taken from one of the products currently for sale within that category. This didn’t seem to be possible with most of the platforms I had tried.

My other half, the web developer behind QWeb, had been working with Magento and some other eCommerce platforms and like me, found them excessively complex and difficult for his clients to use. He had been thinking about building his own store engine for a while. He started working on it with the promise that I’d have a fully working, bespoke eCommerce website within a fortnight…

About a year after he started working on his store engine, I was finally able to launch my new store. It had all the features I wanted, it pulled category images from currently available products, showcased newly added products, and most of all had a very simple admin panel that only showed me options relevant to actually running the store.

Another year has passed and after a lot more work there are a few more stores running on the Egg Basket platform. It has grown from a single store that met my particular requirements into a fully featured eCommerce platform that anyone could install and run even without much technical know how. It has new features such as automatic currency conversion and a powerful discount system.

Egg Basket is currently available to web developers and agencies with a license to create and sell eCommerce websites to their clients at Egg-Basket.com. You can also try out the online demo to learn more about the platform and its features. Individuals interested in setting up a website for themselves or having one created for them should contact Richard for a personalised no obligation quote.