Annnnddddd I'm back in the room!!!

Wow! Such a long time between posts. Been a busy time around here. Let's see if I can catch up in one post. We started a totally new business in January 2014. We are Sussex Bread Company. We hand make gluten free bread, pastries, cakes, pizzas & food. 
We are open 7 days a week. 
I still run Lush Mobile Cafe.
Life is indeed busy.
These are some of the first loafs we made & sold. They look a little different to the breads we make today but not as how you would not recognise them.

 This was the takings of our first days sales. We were over the moon with excitement!

 Our range expanded. These are still 3 of our most popular products. Cheese Straws, Custard Tarts & Chocolate Brioche.

This was our first delivery to a direct customer. We deliver UK wide via overnight courier.

 Home life was interesting. Chaotic and interesting.

 When the inbuilt fridge stopped working, we just turned it into a cupboard. Needs must.

 Then we went large portion!! We have our first shop. We love it & thankfully so do many many others. Hard to believe but this was the end of September. 6pm evening prior to opening, everything outside on street, including the ovens & coffee machine. How we managed to pull off a fully functioning bakery & cafe by the morning still astounds me but we did it & we continue to do it. Just like magic.

Mostly with laughter. Lots of maniacal laughter :)

 We love our counter & our floors. Thanks to the talented Mark for his carpentry skills & even more for his unflinching efforts the night before opening.

 Here is the big picture.

 & the even bigger picture. We love our building, used to be the tax department, built around 1910.

 Then we received this. To say we were chuffed is an understatement. SO proud of my Prince, his vision is fantastic.

One of my business partners, the Goth Chick & I at the awards ceremony in London. On train on the way home we discovered that we had taken out 1 Gold, 2 Silver & 2 Bronze awards. Yes, there was squealing. Much, much squealing!! Our Focaccia won Silver in an Open Category. Open. That is against wheat bread! Amazing!!

 Pride of place in our cafe. So. Damn. Proud. Constantly pinching myself to see if it's all real.

 For the last 8 months this is about the most personal creativity I have managed. Guess what they are.

Don't think it has been all roses, it definitely hasn't. We have had business partner issues, staff issues, building issues, no money for ourselves, no money for the business, relationship issues & not just survived but thrived. Adaptability has been & remains our watch word.

But we LOVE it!! We live, work, eat, play, sleep & breathe our business & we would not have it any other way. Well, maybe a pay check would be good. Still, not going to complain. We are growing & we get to decide our path.

Life is good.

Really loving what we do.

Lush x

PS: A little Sewing stuff soon.

Oh my what a week!

So I started on the new seafront pitch last week & let me tell you, it is so different to last year that it is like chalk & cheese. Weekdays are a little slower but on the weekend especially Saturday, we were slammed!!

I am really looking forward to the Summer :)  I am really looking forward to catching back up on the finances side of life. The sad thing is that I now have no time to spare at all so no sewing being done here unless you count the frogging I am doing on some quilting that went horribly wrong. Mind you, the insomnia seems to have been instantly cured. Too damn tired not to sleep.

In the meantime, heres a picture from my office window. Not bad huh?

Loving what I do & especially where I get to do it.

Lush x

Last of the Summer Whine

So alright, I have been going through the photos & not ALL of the Summer was a wash out.
Here are some of the better things that happened.

 The Prince's brother & his girlfriend came for the weekend & we wandered into the village & had dinner while watching the fun fair. Wandered back along the seafront home again. Nice.

 I remember the part of Harry Potter that described a tinder dry countryside & hosepipe bans etc & thought "well she seems to have lost it there". Turns out she was right. The "Green & Pleasant Land" does indeed dry out to an alarming extent. Who knew??

 Loads of lovely walks along the beautiful seafront. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE where we live??

 Turning one room in the house into a B&B & 2 into accommodation for student leaders turned out to be a great idea. We met some lovely people & I supplemented my income.

 I did some events. This is a Sunday morning on the hills behind Brighton, 10km run. My fave was the guy who turned up last, took off running, finished, jumped back in his car & left. All in under an hour!! Sicko!! LOL

 Morning visits from this little guy. Hard to see but in the middle on the garage roof. Diego is convinced he can catch him. Helped along by the little guy waggling his tail in a "come & get me" motion before scampering off in hysterics. Poor cat has no chance even if he has become an aficionado at catching mice in the neigbours shed.

Discovered an excellent local restaurant. Chef has worked in "hatted" restaurants & now has his own restaurant. Best pork belly I have ever tasted & The Prince said the fish was damn fine. Crescent Road Restaurant in Downtown Worthing. YUMMO!!

The Prince. Not drowning. Waving.

Had loads of swims with the Prince. People think we were a bit weird swimming but the water was warm & definitely inviting. I would rush home, change & off we would go. Lovely. If we had this kind of location in Australia it would be packed! Not that everyone stays out of the water, there are tons of these every week.

Weird fungal growth on tree in the park. Hope the tree survives.

Things to do when you are left with 6 pints of double cream? Make caramel sauce! Recommend you only keep one jar. Thankfully the Prince needed some gift bags for some project participants. Lush Home Made to the rescue. I even made the patriotic bunting.

 Now I need to go finish this baby quilt. Said brother, girlfriend & new baby are arriving at 5pm. So far it is still in rows. Can I give a top then take it back for finishing?? I am sure it's been done before. Right??

 One final tip. Don't quilt tired!! LOL
Loving what I do

Lush x

Welcome to Worthing!

Well the UK move is done & we are in the new house. The day was not without it's challenges but they were not too major so it was not too bad but we were so glad to put our heads down.
Just a small word of advice, don't move house on both sides of the planet at the same time. Let's just say it's a leetle bit stressful!! We are still getting over it I think.
We have barely any furniture here but that will definitely be taken care of when our things land from Australia. 
We have a whole shipping container o.O
OMG, no idea how that happened but we will deal with that when it comes. May need to do some serious culling but need to work out what is in the container first. Amazing how you forget what you own after 2 years of not seeing it.
We did need to get some furniture so I went hunting the car boots, charity shops & Brighton racecourse auction.

This 1930's cane table set me back a massive 25p!!

Bit of a rough drop leaf table for a fiver

Really ugly upholstery

But check out that timberwork!!! This is an Erkol chair, great score for 50 quid.

Freaky!

The kids just love having proper window ledges from which to view the world.

 I can't tell you how much I love this town! I have been getting in the habit of going for a walk along the seafront into what I like to call "The Village". LOL

And there is no way I can forget my friends. This is the street behind ours. Heya Spotty!!

Loving what I do, especially where I am doing it.

Lush x

Everything & nothing!

Everything & nothing around here. Everything is in full tilt mode for the move to Worthing, the purchase of things for the business & getting the rest of our stuff over from Australia. Looking forward to being one block from this.

Nothing to show on the sewing front, still working on my stripey flannel quilt from fabrics I have had for ever. Photos will come in due course when the light cooperates.

Here is my study buddy trying very hard to get my attention

Here he is watching his favourite TV program. He is a massive David Attenborough fan. I think he recognises the voice LOL

Random fact from my recent food hygiene & safety studies. What causes the most food poisoning per year? RICE!! Yes, rice. Once cooked, make sure it is completely cooled to room temperature before storing in fridge and make sure it is reheated to steaming hot before serving. Apparently there is a bacteria on the outside of the grains that grows exponentially at warm. That's rice off the menu then.

Our street tree in front of the house, nearly naked

Golden carpet starting to go brown.

Off to go and start the boiler again. Looking forward to not having to do that 4 or 5 times a day!!

Loving what I do (even if it IS very stressful at times!!)

Lush x

Lottery win!

We were off to Brighton for a friends birthday last weekend. Saturday was fabulously sunny & we had a lovely time laying on the beach watching the waves & examining the rocks. We love rocks & can talk about them for hours. Why yes, we are that nerdy, thank you for asking.

The party was a fancy dress & we went along with the spirit of the event & dressed up in our finest fashions. We had a lovely time catching up with old friends & making new ones. A good time was had by all.

This is kind of what The Prince wore to the party. Cake at Chocky Wocky Doo Dah.

On the Sunday we had another lovely day, albeit colder, freezing our butts off sitting in beach chairs having fish & chips like proper Brits. The weekend was so very relaxing & it was wonderful to be beside the seaside. So much so that we ramped up our thinking about where to move. We need to make a decision soon if we are to move from London & we are very keen on the seaside. We really miss the sea.
So this week has seen us focusing our thinking on real estate & business opportunities. Oh yeah, ain't we been having fun? Stressful? You betcha!! I have been doing some therapeutic mending & button sewing in order to relax.
We are off for a walk in the beautiful afternoon sunshine & then I am going to finish my first ever bee blocks for Helen & try to work out what I am going to request as mine.
Oh and the lottery win?? Six pounds!!! Not going to buy us our luxury Georgian mansion by the sea, hell not even going to buy us both fish & chips by the sea :/ Oh well, keep buying tickets I suppose?
Still loving what we do.

Lush x