KABFA DESIGNS MadeMe By Miss K L Slomczynski

 https://mademe.co.uk/shop/kabfa-designs/

With so many platforms on social media now it can be a really challange to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Shoping on line or even running a bussiness is not like running a hight street shop.

Both have to deal with keeoing up with the local treads and having that unique selling point to get the attention of the customer to say.

Welcome.

Thank you from you shopping with me.

Thank you for using our services.

So with this in mind I have used a number of difftent online social media sights to see if they could work for me or anyone in the futre.

Unlike retail, that I have worked in the past, it is not about just changin the window and cleaning the shelves; or putting the sales items buy the till.

When trying to sell or promote yourself on line it is a diffrent ball game altogether.

With a picture still painint a 100 words.

It is also about knowing how to have good IT and English skills.

These are things that over time that can be learned or that you can pay some one to do for you.

But the time frame in order to get a sale is not just waiting around for pay day or hoping that people perorder or prebook.

It is about geting them to buy now!.

For years I hated to shop on line.  I loved being able to go to town, shop and then go for something to eat and pay that I did not need to buy the next size up in the dress I just purchased.

But the pet hate of shopping is the ling lines at the till, not having anything in your size, the carryign of bags and car parking.

So being able to just shop on line and have it delivered just buy setting at home not matter what time of day is a plus.

So why do people still love to shop in person?

For me it is the opertunity to just get out of the house and see the really world espically have covid 19 when you did not have a choice but to stay in.

So one of the ways I promote myslef and keep my artwork up to date is by using MadeMe

https://mademe.co.uk/shop/kabfa-designs/

So why not take a look and see if it is the right place for you to shop online to.

Pure Warrior Maiden Blog By Miss K LSlomczynski

 Please click on the image on my blaod and it will redirect you to my blog called "Pur Warrior Maiden." This covers more about my life when I use to model full full timefrom the age of 16-40.

Now that I am a full time mum, I work more behind the camera and would like to do more for this in the futre.

I am more than happy to model again for charity events, or to keep my online portfolio up to date and fresh.

The last shoot that I did was for myself and was in Decmber 2024.

I have not talked about this much yet, I am looking at doing so later in the year.

https://purewarriormaiden.blogspot.com/?zx=d46f97f31911dbde

Budget Planning By Miss K L Slomczynski

 I have included the link below, that you may find usedful if you are struggleing with budgeting for 2025.

on this blog like all have my blogs have have tryed to include this support beacuse being able to budge is a life skill and one that everyone needa helps and struggles with from time to time.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/

Not on the hight street By Miss K L Slomczynski

 Sadly again another shop on the hight streeet in my own town will be closing it doors by April 2025.

https://www.visitnorthernwarwickshire.com/nuneaton/

With this happening all over the UK, how can any bussiness stop this for happening and to beable to have their cake and eat it?

At this moment in time the only shopes in Nuneaton that still apear to be open are those that offer a more personal service to the general public.  

The question is how many nail salons and Turkish Barbara's can one town be curstainable for?

The next sercive are eateries and any where that sells food.  Most of these are now offering services though apps like "Just Eat" and "Deilveroo."

Then we have the big reatil outlets, and franchise companies that are also being axed on the high street in places that are not making sales and focusing more on; online sales to make sales.

So what is the futre for the hight stree in samll town like Athersone that is only a stone throw way from Nuneaton?

https://touristplaces.guide/top-10-places-to-visit-in-atherstone-nature-adventure-and-history/

Then Nuneaton where I live too?

IF they are failing, why?

What unique selling point can they offer in the future?

Life Models and Artists of the Middlands Facebook Group By Miss K L Slomczynski

 This is a group that I set up on Facebook, to hel and to support Life Models and Artists in the Middlands wher I live and was born.

Due to living in the Middlands and in a small ex coal mining town, I have lived in the the Heart of England/ UK for almost 40 years of my life.

It is this part of the UK that is like the centre of a spiders web, yeat never always catches the fly.

The town where I live myslef Nuneaton sadly as had it heart riped out and so many people hve tryed to keep it on live surport and to put it back.

Nuneaton on Warwickshire, where I live is full if so much history and yet we do not use this no our advantange and us what we have before it is lost of ever.

One og the main things in Nuneaotn what we are famous for Is Mary Ann Eveans, George Eiliot who is famous author and grew up in Nuneaton.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Eliot

Nuneaton is one of these places that is accessable via, public transport and by car.  it is even only about 2 hours away from most majour cities, airports and about 4 hours away from the coast.

https://www.visitnorthernwarwickshire.com/nuneaton/

So to run an art group in Nuneaton, and to work with local artisits and artist regional, nationally and then worldwide is something that I would like myslef and futre artist in beable to have the opertunit to achive.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/228637594667443/

MadeMe(UK) Review By Miss K L Slomczynski

https://mademe.co.uk/shop/kabfa-designs/ 

I set this up due to not being 100% Happy with Etsy, that is an other online cerative business shop platform for people that work more with in the Art and Media Indusrty.

The one thing that I can say is, please read the tearms and conditions of any on line shop platform and watch out for "Hiden Cost." and "How/Whe  they pay."

Also seeting up these on line platformas can be very time consuming and it it will still be down to you to manage the every day running of your "on line store." and "promoting/cross promoting." to gain sale.

I only really use mine to proote and display my work and show case what I can do when it come to producing art work.

Not really for profit due to the amount of money you could earn being commission basis usally between 5-25% (below National Minium Wage.)

So please feel free to view my on line work and work that I help to show case for local Artists and small business with in my home town and form the Heart for the United Kingdom.

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.

13 November 2022 In memory of my grandfather By Miss K L Slomczynski

Planning for the future or living for the now? Healthy Start information By Miss K L Slomczynski

   Planning for the future or living for the now?  Healthy Start information 

February 2021 Re posted with edits 08/08/2022

https://www.gov.uk/

Over the next couple of weeks I am looking at different ways to shop for the food that I need for my family and loved ones. At the moment I still get help due to Covid 19 and my children being homed schooled due to being on benefits. I also still Claim Health Start vouchers.

Again I keep saying that this is wrong and that the government should allow very parent in the UK to claim Healthy start vouchers for their children up until the age of 4. After all these vouchers are for your child and to help support and promote healthy eating.

Down falls of Healthy Start Vouchers now that they are a card from 2022.

Not being able to be used on line and only in person.

Only a selected number of places will take these vouches., card from 2022.

You can also only use them on selected items still so do not cater for vegans or vegetarian milk options.

You can get the money from an ATM or pay in store using chip and pin.

Not every child is entitled to them.

For pregnant mother and children under 4 but not every women and child due to government guidelines.

All of the full detail of how to claim and what you can use them for are in the link below.

www.healthystart.nhs.uk

So what about those of use who are still shopping on line because of Covid 19 and using online shopping as a new way to still shop?

Over the past 5 years I have used shops that I know and trust. But last year I have to think outside that box because these could not deliver.

This year I am doing the same and looking at different places to but fresh organic food locally for my family.

Yes I get healthy start voucher what works out at about £30.00 per month off my major shop, but I will only get these for any other few months. So I am looking at were these I can shop and try and save money now.

If you look online you can find information and I have include the links below.

However I find that shopping your self is the best way to find what works for you.

Useful link(s)

Best veg boxes 2020: Get fresh produce delivered straight to your door | The Independent

18 Best Food Subscription Boxes | London Evening Standard | Evening Standard

Being Closer to Nature By Miss K L Slomczynski

     Being Closer to Nature

I think that one thing that I love about home schooling is the ability to get closer to nature and to chose what items I use to teach my children and where I buy them from.

One thing that I have always done with my children is to teach them that second-hand is OK to buy despite Covid 19.

I was not brought up to use second-hand and was told to always buy new, but now that I am a parent I am happy to teach.

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Upcycle

is the new way to live life.

So one thing that I am looking at doing is to keep some of the things that I teach seasonal and to be more closer to nature and use what we have around use to learn who to live life to the full.

This year we were not really able to do any foraging like we have in the past, so I am going to use the items that I already have around the house and have not done any thing with yet.

What we will do is make then in to gifts for our family and friends and also to decorate the house with.

So please follow us during our gift making session over the next few day(s)

"Keep moving forward." By Miss K L Slomczynski

 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.

Looking at working again By Miss K L Slomczynski

 At he moment my head is full of business ideas and the one sticking point is insurance.

Yes money too.

However it is insurance that I am struggling to get.

When Covid hit help was given, in time and now every thing is slowing down again, trying to reset up self employment is a nightmare.

One of the main things is having a sold businesses plan, one that will over all eventualities, a business address, insurance and savings.

Before covid I have been on a number of training course and brought up "foot and mouth.", "911" and the "recession."

I asked "how do you plan for these things, how do you still support your self?"

The course provider did did know and quoted "these are isolated incident that only effected certain areas of employment."

Yet Covid effected everyone.

Even now trying to move forward and to plan for the future appears to be, one day at a time, for some please one breath at a time too.

So I think of the story "The tortoise and hare" and think "slow and steady will win the race."

October 2021 Nest Egg Ideas, should I have for the future? By Miss K L Slomczynski

 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.

16.00 24 hours, How to soak stamps to help remove stamps from the envelo...

https://youtu.be/1EIwdyPVSVg

Winter rising the gardening By Miss K L SLomczynski

  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.

June 2020 Covid 19 Stay at home mum looking at going into self employment

https://youtu.be/DCtfj0FgwW0

UK Produced/ Printed Fabric By Miss K L Slomczynski

 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.

HEALTHY START VOUCHERS By Miss K L SLomczynski

Please note that the information may have changed so please look on the GOVUK Websit for changes.

https://www.gov.uk/

If you have been laid off from work or have no work due to being on a zero hour contract then please check to see if you can claim Healthy Start Vouchers to buy fruit and vegetables for your children.

https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/

With your kids being out of school then you may be able to get a bit more financial support via the Pupil Premium scheme.

If you have been laid off from work or have no work due to being on a zero hour contract then please check to see if you can claim Healthy Start Vouchers to buy fruit and vegetables for your children.

25TH MARCH 2020 DRINK MORE WATER By Miss K L Slomczynski

25TH MARCH 2020

DRINK MORE WATER

“IF ALL THE WORLD WAS PAPER AND ALL THE SEA WAS INK.”

“IF ALL THE TREES WERE BREAD AND CHEESE.”

“WHAT WOULD WE HAVE TO DRINK?”

"If All The World Were Paper ' is an old English folk song that dates back to at least the reign of Charles I. The song, with six verses, is printed in "Witt's Recreations" described as a book of 'ingenious conceites' and 'merrie medecines', published in 1641.

www.bussongs.com/songs/if-all-the-world-were-paper

https://allnurseryrhymes.com/if-all-the-world-were-paper/

https://childrens.poetryarchive.org/poem/if-all-the-world-were-paper/

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-all-the-world-were-paper-2/

https://www.bussongs.com/songs/if-all-the-world-were-paper

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-all-the-world-were-paper/

OVER THE NEXT COUPPLE OF MONTHS WHILST THE WHOLE WORD OS DEALING WITH THE CURRENT OUT BREAK. THE ONE THING THAT WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT IS WATER.

ALREADY THIS YEAR WE HAD ISSUES WHERE WE WERE HAVING SO MUCH RAIN IN THE UK THAT IT WAS CAUSING FLOODING.

YET THE TABLES COULD TURN WITH IN DAYS DEPENDING UPON THE WEATHER AND THE AMOUNT OF WATER THAT WE HAVE IN RESERVOIRS AND USAGE.

THE AVERAGE PERSON SHOULD DRINK AROUND 8 GLASSES OF WATER PER DAY. LIVING ON THE CANAL NETWORK WE WOULD USUALLY FILL UP THE WATER TANK ABOUT EVERY 2 WEEKS WITH A FAMILY OF FOUR ON BOARD.

SO OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS THINK ABOUT YOUR WATER USAGE AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE COULD LOOK AT CUTTING BACK BUT STILL STAY HEALTHY.

WITH EVERYONE ALL MOST ALL OVER THE WORLD ON LOCK DOWN, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO POP TO YOUR LOCAL SHOP FOR TEA, COFFEE, MILK, JUICE OR SOMETHING ELSE.

SO IT WILL BE WATER THAT WE WILL ALL BE DRINKING (COUNCIL POP.)

MOST WILL DRINK STRAIGHT FROM THE TAPE, FILTERED OR BOILED.

SO PLEASE THINK ABOUT YOUR WATER USAGE EPICALLY DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS.

PLAN NOW!

I HAVE INCLUDED SOME USEFUL LINKS BELOW.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/water-drinks-nutrition/

https://www.severntrent.com/

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency

REMEMBER

“IF ALL THE WORLD WAS PAPER AND ALL THE SEA WAS INK.”

“IF ALL THE TREES WERE BREAD AND CHEESE.”

“WHAT WOULD WE HAVE TO DRINK?”

Time Management, Home Schooling, Working from Home By Miss K L Slomczynski

18^th March 2020

Time Management.  Time Management, Home Schooling, Working from Home

Over the next couple of weeks time management is going to be very import to everyone. How many time have you said to your self “their is never enough hours in the day.”?

Over the next few week that is how I belie many of use are going to start to feel not to mention very stressed out and tired, both mentally and physically.

All I can say is take each day, day by day and make sure that you try to eat well and sleep well.

Many people will be currently looking at changing there life style with looking at working from home and home school their children.

Many of us will not just be worry about out selves but family and friends to.

So what can we do?

The fist thing that I am aiming to do with my family is aim to stick to the same routine that I would have stuck to as much as possible with a few changes thrown in.

My aim is to still wake up at the same time every day, eat at the same time every day and sleep at he same time every day.

With my children at home full time and not able to go any where I know that this will be very challenging and stressful. I will aim to keep each day fun and interesting for them. At the same time I will aim to carry on with my own every day routine like cooking, cleaning, taking care of the baby and working on my book.

I will start by breaking the day down into units of 20 minuets and aiming to do 20 minuet tasks just like I would do at eh weekend.

20 minuets breakfast

20 minuets get dressed

20 minuets work

20 minuets rest

20 minuets play

20 minuets snack

20 minuets rest

20 minuets work

20 minuets play

20 minuets work

20 play

20 lunch

20 rest

20 minuets (you get the picture) I am only looking at 20 minuet blocks to start off with due to the change of having 3 children at home full time and confined to a small space will be challenging.

I know that my attention span and able to do any thing is about 20 minuets. To chive more than this it take time and practice epically for children.

Some time my children will be happy to engage in an activity for longer than 20 minutes like watching TV or playing with cars.

But they can not so that every day, I would like then to continue with their education and I will be

need to look at fun ways to achieve this whilst maintaining day to day living too.

So I will see what support and guidance is offered to support me before Friday and then start to plans my daily activates. 

https://a2zhomeschooling.com/