Every year I take a little break from my blog, usually if I am away in the sun!  Or like last year when my daughter was starting at university and I wanted to spend time with her.  This year it is for different reasons, if only I was away in the sun, but I need to deal with some personal issues ... I am okay but I am needed elsewhere for a few weeks.  And my husband and I then have a late summer break in Cornwall to look forward to.  I will be back in September with renewed energy and enthusiasm and I hope a better outlook with regard to the current Covid-19 situation.  Isn't it all so contradictory and confusing?

I will be honest, I have found lockdown and easing of lockdown hard.  I have found the work from home situation really difficult.  You can read my thoughts on work from home here.  It has been a full house with my son working from home, my daughter back from uni for longer than planned and my husband working sporadic hours.  So a few weeks ago I hatched a plan to have a couple of nights away by myself.  Its the kind of plan that often gets talked about and thought about but doesn't actually happen.  But with no girls weekend this year and no little trips to Bath to visit my daughter, I decided I needed it to happen.  So once we were allowed to book an overnight stay, I did, in Lymington in the New Forest.

My #beingfiftyandfab post this month is therefore going to be about my few days away, in diary format.  I am planning a social media break but I am going to take my Mac with me and write about each day as it happens.

Many many years ago, when I was a PA at senior level working in the corporate world, an odd afternoon or day spent doing work at home was a bit of a treat, it meant I could attend an appointment or get my head down with a specific project.  Then when my children were pre-schoolers my husband did a one-off property development project and I did all the admin for him at home.  Finally we decided to set up our own business and I had a desk at home, taught myself bookkeeping and managed the admin from home whilst still being able to be a full time mother to my two children.  It worked, for a while!  Then as the business expanded my husband needed an office more, somewhere to do estimating, make phone calls and manage his own paperwork.

Slow fashion is very much on our agenda and most of us want to know more about where our clothes come from, where they were made and by who.  Not only are we more concerned about our over indulgent buying habits but we have also become more aware of 'modern slavery' especially since the Black Lives Matter campaign and the recent disturbing news about the Boohoo factory sweatshops in Leicester (not that I'd ever buy Boohoo)!  So when Nikki from Creative DeZigns got in touch with me, I was really interested to learn more abut her business as I could see from her website they focus very much on timeless, classic and long-lasting styles, a real capsule wardrobe collection.

Nikki came to see me at my home just as lockdown was starting to ease and we spent a lovely hour sat in the garden chatting about her and her small business, I learnt about how Creative DeZigns came about and she told me about her childhood growing up in South Africa and how she has developed the business since taking over from her mum a few years ago.