WOW!

Don't you just hate it when people gush? Well, it pains me to admit it, but I'm having a gushy kind of day!  I woke up this morning in a home that my husband and I built together that we both adore, our utterly adorable German Shepherd (Joseph - aka Poopy) came up to say hello and give us kisses, our daughter arrived onboard from her own boat to make her lunch, and then off we pootled to the day jobs.

I'm a very lucky gal as I honestly adore my day job. It may surprise many of you who know me only as the scatty nutter behind LFCC to learn that I've been an Office Manager for around fifteen years now and I thrive on a hectic environment where I'm responsible for many many things. As well as processing complicated quotations, managing purchasing and shipping of specialist laboratory equipment all over the world, corporate marketing literature design, website maintenance and design, newsletter design and build I also do accounts and invoicing! The joys of working in a small company means you have that luxury! 

As you can see from the eclectic mix of mediums I work with in my photo albums or shops, I don't enjoy being pinned down to one area and on analysis by one of those very hi-tech personality guru thingies it turns out it's because (apparantly!) I use all aspects of my brain equally which is rather rare. They split the way you deal with others and the way you work into four main colours: RED - typical MD types who bark an order and don't care what you do to achieve it they just want it done, BLUE - great attention to detail, like the facts and figures straight and get very frustrated if you don't get pinpoint accuracy, GREEN - the nurturer who wants to help everyone achieve their goals and equally to be happy, and YELLOW - who is a very people orientated enthusiastic bubbly type who will come across as very scatty in all likelihood.
You can have a main part of one of those aspects but with a strong leaning towards one of colours on either side, or perhaps your out of work persona is contrasting and your work colour is because you're compensating for how you "really" are. I was very bemused to find that I have a work persona almost exactly split amongst these with a slight bias towards the red and the blue which you wouldn't necessarily expect from a creative type.
I was told that it is probably this split which means I can bounce from balancing a complex set of figures to quickly design a new page for our company website - something that others would find exceptionally hard to do! I ping around from task to task, wherever I'm needed and it's fantastic!

So anyways... I went off to my fantastic job where I work with the loveliest people, and came home again afterwards to this awesome place. I look around me now where I'm relaxing on the sofa with my laptop and see Poopy asleep on the floor in front of me, the photos beside the sofa of my darling daddy who will always stay in sight and in mind even though he's been ripped away from us (small cell lung cancer, total arse...) the stunning lamps we bought for a snip in Amsterdam, the twenty five year old Lost Boys poster in a frame on the side, and the family photos on the wall next to random album covers from the Beatles and Rage Against the Machine and I think, who could fail to be happy here?  But this happiness is utterly inspiring. I'm surrounded by love and affection, and lots of laughter (to be fair, quite a lot of it at me because I say the daftest things like "look at that pheasant (male btw) - do you think it's pregant? What a tummy!!"... sigh....) and it gives you the most amazing amount of confidence to try things, and once you've tried them, share them.

I still remember very clearly the first things I put on the LFCC page and I was petrified. I still get very anxious about sharing photos on there as there will of course be people who don't like what I've made. BUT they're very kind and they keep quiet unlike the folks who DO like what I've made and say the kindest things. I am so very lucky to have many regular customers who entrust their most special occassions to my skills and my ideas with the very briefest of briefs and a "do whatever you think" kind of guideline! Scary, but such a huge honour and so much fun!

So, to end this gushy post, I want to say that on this day, mine and Mr LFCC's wedding anniversary, of all our gorgeous days, today has been particularly wonderful for the amazingly beautiful words you guys have shared and because I get to read them while I'm sat next to the love of my life. Don't tell Mr LFCC though as he'll start taking the mickey again! We're taking the campervan out for dinner by a different bit of river now though, so last one out, switch the light off and take the door off the latch will you?

Much love
Kirsty
xxx