New for 2024 KABFA/KABFA DESIGNS By Miss K L Slomczynski

 I can not belive that an other year is all most over.

Today I would like to take a few moments to remmber a very dear freind of mine that past away.

I is during this time of reflextion thatI always come back to nature and how important wild life and conservation is to me.

I always love being close to nature and aiming to recude my own personal carbon foot print.

So again for 2024 I am going back to the drawing borad to see if self employment would be an option for me in 2024 and for me to leave a positive futre not just for my children, but for my childrens children too.

"Keep moving forward."

 With Covid still hanging over everyone aiming to move forward is not easy.  It feels like all that we are doing is asking one step forward and the having to spend 14 days staring at 4 walls all over again.

So one thing that I am working on is how to set up some more community led projects/groups for 2022.

Living in the Heart of England means that getting to Nuneaton is probably one of the easiest places to reach.  You can get here by pretty much any form of transport and walking from most places usually takes a few hours too.

The main thing is to KEEP SAFE!

So I am looking at a number of places where I could run community groups from that are disability friendly, have car parking, toilet facilities and can offer basic catering options too.

The main thing that I need to look at is having the right insurance both public and employee support when required.

So please bear with me and feel fee to follow my blog(s) or other social options.

Thank you.

October 2021 Nest Egg Ideas, should I have for the future?

 October 2021 Nest Egg Ideas, should I have for the future?

This is a question at I often ask me self and one that every month I try to think about.

You can not go a day without hearing something about saving and investments.

Most of the time adverts are about death and life after death, for your family and loved ones.

They are about planning for your referment and also your funeral.

For me personal may saving and investment adverts never seam to be about the now.

When Covid 19 hit everyone was effect in one way or another.

In many ways those with saving and investments that could not be easy accessed or liquidated into cash I believe struggled the most.

It was these people who may have had to have made the decision about keeping their savings and investments and not looking at claiming government aid or seeing if they could "cash out" so they could.

This was due to the basic rule that if you had savings/investments over £6,000 you could not claim benefits from the government during lock down.

What a believe is that a lot of people forget about the now!

Yes in the past I did look at the future, I looked a ISA's, Help to buy my first home property schemes, yet they all seamed to have a lot of red tape wrapped around them.

So for me they where like the perfect Christmas gift, but it was like playing the "Chocolate game to get it"

Now the chocolate game for those who do not know what it is is this.

You have a block of chocolate wrapped up on a table.

To get to it you need to roll a six on a die.

You them need to put on a hat

Put on a scarf

Put on a pair of gloves

You them must run/walk over to the table that is about 3 feet away froj you.

You then must use the knife and folk to open the warped up chocolate with.

In the mean time everyone else's who is playing the game, can take it in turns to roll a six on the die too.

If they roll a six you must hand over every thing to them so that they can try to open the chocolate , you have to go back and start all over again.

Once the cholate is opened you are only allowed to eat one piece at a time, in full.

I have played this game may times ion my childhood, the winner is the one who gets to eat the last piece of chocolate and they won a full bar.

So in many ways it paid to not get a six and to let everyone else do all of the hard work for you.

Another game was a flour hill with a chocolate on top.  For this one you had to make sure that the chocolate ever fell, if it did you have to eat it.  So a bit like life, being a house of cards so to speak.

So one thing that I posted "gear change." was making sure that before anything else's that maybe you look at your budget first.

I try to do this once a month, and then if you have time look at how to save money, cut bill costs, spending costs and then maybe savings and investments.

One website that I do use and have found to be helpful is I have listed below along with some others.

https://www.gov.uk/

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/Migrated_Documents/adviceguide/d-budget-sheet.pdf

Good luck.

Redbubble Volksbolts and KABFA Designs

 Redbubble Volksbolts and KABFA Designs

  https://www.redbubble.com/people/KABFA/shop?asc=u

We have been updating our Redbuble account over teh last few weeks now that now products can be designed by our staff and produced.

So if you are loking for a gift for a friend, family member, that extra person in your life and even for your self; then why not few our Redbubble Store.

For more information please contact use direct.

Up dating information

 Hello thank you for viewing my blog I aim to update every thing over the next few months.  If you have any questions then please ask.

Winter rising the gardening

  Winter rising the gardening

One of the thing that I still have not done yet this year is to winter rising garden and to plant my bulbs for next year. I always keep saying tomorrow and then it rains or the boys need me.

So my aim is to wineries the garden by 1st December this year and to make sure that I am ready for next year to start all over again.

Wednesday 18th November 2020

  Wednesday 18th November 2020

I can not believe that we are drawing so close to the end of an other year and the one thing that I can think of is how lucky that I am to still be alive and to be able to watch my children grow each day.

The hardest job I have had to do is to not just take care of myslef because no one else will do that for you, but to take care of my family.

I have used this time to go back to the drawing board and to work on my future goals and who I can hopefully move forward in 2021 and how my children will also.

One of the main things that I have done is go back to basics and I have done this by taking the time to draw up a budget plan and to try and average out my incomings and outgoings over the last 6 months so that I can start planing for the future.

I will add a budget plan link to this blog, if I have not already added one.

UK Produced/ Printed Fabric

 UK Produced/ Printed Fabric

One of the things that I am passionate about achieving for when I become self employed again is to have at lest 99.99% of everything that I sell to be hand made by self or my co-workers and to be made and produced with in the UK.

Dearly I am looking to work with business with in a 30 mile radius of where I live or work.

One thing that I have been looking at if Fabric that is produced or printed in the UK.  I love working with raw materials so that you can then use then to design anything you like yourself and to enable you end product to be bespoke or mass produced.

By aiming to keep my suppliers local I am aiming to create jobs within my local area and it will also enable me to work with these companies on a more personal level.

Yes Could have things made oversea and at half the prices but what quality will I get and what with the environmental impact be by do so in the long run.

SO my aim is to still make a design products for  Campervans, Classic Car and Narrowboat industry  and also people that are interested in natural handmade products with in their lives.

KABFA, KABFA Designs Not on the high street 2020

Not on the high street

one thing that I loved to do with my mum when I was little girl was go shopping.

I miss that.

I miss window shopping too where all if the shop widows would be dressed up with the latest product that the shops have to offer.

Now when you hit the hight street all you see are sale/discount stickers on the windows, closing down adverts or charity shops.

Sadly the high street is not the one that I remember from my childhood dream but now one that I today rarely visit and dread to take my children.

In part I am guilty of this due to taking to my online shopping choices then to brave the elements and stand in lines. to pay or self checkout If the internet had away of enabling you to smell bread when you buy it then no one would every leave home.

Yet I miss it and would have loved to have had a high street shop because without using all of your 5 senses you are only really using your eyes to buy anything.

Yes it is true that we shop with our eyes, but when it come to buying any thing it pays to able able to use all five senses when doing so.

When buying on line you so not always get the right product or services and at times end up keeping the item because or the hassle of sending it back or complaining, but if you have brought it direct. You may not have brought it at all.

When I go shopping of clothes I love to try them on, to touch the fabric and make sure that the sticking is good quality and the print too.

Yet I still do a lot of my shopping on line now especially when I know what I am buying and it is the same items every week.

Yet when it comes to wanting to buy something different and gifts for friends, family and love one I like to look for something new and outside the box.

So I like places that offer this on the high street and on line.

I love charity shops you never now what you might find and I like online stores like “Studio”https://www.studio.co.uk/

“Not on the high street.” https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/

Or when it comes to taking photos and personalising them of loved ones the list of online photo business is endless

It is the same when I look for jewellery I would love to have an item custom made and personalized. Some thing like this is more of a skill and a specialized trade one that we are losing. This is mainly due to items being mass-produced.

KABFA, KABFA Designs Make Do and Mend 2020

Make Do and Mend in 2020.

Now that we are in 2020 I think that it is time to STOP and THINK and learn to “Make do and Mend.”

For years even in my own childhood we seam to have become a culture and society of

“Use once and throw away.”

“If it breaks buy a new one.”

“It is cheep to buy a new one than to fix the old.”

“I have not got time.”

These are thing that I have heard my children say time and time again and they have not even reached their teens. Already my children are being influenced by the media and how easy it seams to replay things, things that can not be replayed so easy are the things that we need.

When we think about the things that we need we think of things like.

Food.

Warmth.

Shelter.

Money.

Employment.

Entertainment.

Not always in that order.

We do not seam to think about things like.

Oxygen

Water

Food

Clothing

Global Warming

The Ozone Layer

Fossil Fuels

Animal/Plant Welfare

Human Rights

Education

Health and Well-being

The Economy

Which are also important things to think about too.

Now that we have reached 2020. it seams that we are now come full circle when we start thinking about our lifestyle and how we live our lives and teat the world that we live in.

A lot of this is to do with the media and how the media influences us on a daily bases.

Yet the one thing that I think people tend to for get is the number 1.

When I say the number 1 I mean you, you and who you choose to live your life and how your life lives you.

Every one hows the saying do you “live to work?” to “Work to live?”

This is only something that you know and about how you chose or try to live your life.

It is easy to think about other things in life when your own personal life is how you chose to live it. Whoever went it comes to living some times it feels like that is all that you are trying to do.

Live.

So what can you do?

I always think about Alice in Wonderland when she says. “I always try to achieve 6 impossible things before breakfast.”

By Lewis Carroll.

Now the things that Alice try to achieve are strange and rally make no sense at already like “Why is a Raven like a writing desk?”

Now if you look at the 6 impossible things more closely could you apply any of them to your every day life?

1. There's a potion that can make you shrink.
2. And a cake that can make you grow.
3. Animals can talk.
4. Cats can disappear.
5. There is a place called Wonderland.
6. I can slay the Jabberwocky.

Now I would not want any one to think or 6 impossible things that that could do before breakfast but 1. 1 thing that you may be able to do every day.

Now everyone makes New Years Resolutions, BUT who sticks to the?

Some of use also focus on Lent and chose those 40 days and 40 nights to try and make a difference to our lives or give up something.

At lost of people seam to go though what I would like to call FADS or are they really “Life Style Changes.” Do they really make a difference to our own personal lives or other peoples?

One thing that a lot of people have been fortuning on is the “War in plastic” in 2019, by not using single use plastic items.

Will you continue to do this in 2020 and what else will you try?

The other thing is that people have become more paperless and are more dependent on receiving things using IT which means more online date is required and internet speed with 5G planed for 2020 in most places.

Question are we not just trying to reinvent the wheel and in time will we go back to pen and ink when the world can no only support IT or provided us with what we need to life our ever increasing “Buy now worry later.” Life styles?

When we buy any new technology what effect dose a new mobile phone, Laptop or IPAD…. Have no our health and the world health?

One major worry is the worry to our health with regards to poor eyesight due to blue screens and causing cancer and other long life health problems?

So what is this currently add to my blog all about?

What do I mean buy “Make do and mend.”

What I mean is that maybe it is time to STOP and think! Before we go out and start buying the latest FAD until really need something. Also that it might be time to learn a new skill or should I say an old one.

With so many skills being lost include the ability to read and write due to IT and the ability to buy almost any thing. Then maybe it is time to learn something new that could help you in the future and become independent.

I am not talking about things like learning a new language, which is a possibly I am talking about the basics like.

Life skill.

Learning to budget

Basic reading and writing.

Basic Cooking Skills

Learning to sew

Learning to Knit or Croquet

The art of conversation and basic manors

I feel that at time that some of the basic things in makes use human are lost like being able to communicate with each other without technology to do so even with our own children.

Now that it is 2020 a lot of educational establishments will be sending out information about up and come course that they will be running some of these may be free to attend so it might be worth looking at what is on offer and possible attending if you have the spare time to do so.

Another way is to use the public library and read and book to learn something new.

You could also obtain sometime online and possible use how to advice or you tube to help you and learning too.

“Make Do and Mend” in 2020.

Apart from my blogs I also have a few Facebook pages and groups that I manage that I try to post to with local training and information.

I have include the links below that may interest you.

So why not today think of one Possible thing that you could do in 2020 to “Make Do and Mend” in you life of 2020.

KABFA, KABFA Designs KABFA October 2019

It is all most November 2019 and an end to an other year.  My little one will finally become one and once again I will be looking at going back to work and setting up my own business again.

I am aiming to become self employed by April 2020 or April 2021 so that I am at the beginning of the financial tax Year.

But for me the main sticking point is money so that I can set up my business and provide for my little ones at the same time.

Being on rented accommodation is my main sticking point because I am unable to work from home and therefore I need to look at renting a business property.

Although I am mainly looking at an online front to my business I still need a business address and I have been struggling to find a business address that I would be able to use that would Benefit me.

One thing that I currently can not afford to do is invest money into stock and to paid for storage too.

So I am looking for a business property that may be able to include accommodation too.

So that is my aim for the next 6 months and work on my portfolio too.

One thing that I would like to get back into would be teaching and modelling again too.

I am looking at updating all of my images in 2020 and setting up my own model website so that I can be employed direct and also advertise local Artistes direct too.

This will be along with my Facebook groups where local artistes can advertise and sell work.  They are also able to post employment opportunities too.

https://www.facebook.com/KABFAArt/?modal=composer

https://www.facebook.com/Working-In-the-Arts-Entertainment-and-Media-Industry-Safety-159918284096961/

https://www.facebook.com/klslomczynski/?ref=bookmarks

https://www.facebook.com/pureorangerainbows/?ref=bookmarks

https://www.facebook.com/groups/228637594667443/?ref=br_rs

For more information please contact me and subscribe.

"When it is nort Lemons?"

“When it is not Lemons?”

“When it is not Lemons?”

People say “we are what we eat.” but how can this be “when it is not lemons?”

One of the things that I started to do last year was reading the packaging of what I buy, this 

made me look at where I buy things from and how much I spend.

For my main shopping I have been using Tesco's on line and have signed up to a fixed

monthly delivery service that means that I can have a delivery 3 days per week every month

providing I spend £40.00 per delivery.

This year I will shop around and see if I can cut my spending and only buy “lemons” and

 not be Sold a “LEMON.”

So last year I started looking at items and tried to STOP but any thing with Palm Oil in,

 

MSG and Artificial Sweeteners.

I am all for sugar and do not feel comfortable with eating a Chemistry set every meal so the 

more basic the ingrediency the better. (personal chose)

So back to the Lemons, I hate it when something claims to have Lemons in but then it says 

on the packaging, lemon flavouring, lemon essence.

I can not stand in the super market all day reading packaging so I do it at home when the 

boys are a sleep. I also look at who things are packaged to try and reduce the amount of 

products that I buy that have load of packaging that they do not need.

This year I aim to cook more at hoe form fresh so in January 2019 I will do my first shop of 

the year and by December 2019 I aim to reduce the amount of LEMONS I buy, sugar, Palm 

oil, MSG Artificial Sugar and packaging I use.

So the amount I will be spend on my January Shop is…