Self Discovery
Interesting facts and news on self development
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Taking Action…
For the whole of my adult life I have wanted to be someone more than just be the average Jane Doe...
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Level 3 Bridle Making…The Final Week (Part 2)
What an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable week I’ve had. So Friday was meant to be, or so I thought, my assessment day but there was no Assessor due in so I was just training and practising doing my practical piece to the clock. I certainly wasn’t as nervous as the last assessment I did against the clock for Level 2 Bridle Making. I spent all day on Thursday practising making up the paper pattern of an Atherstone girth as well as making it out of leather. I’m not really sure why we have to make a girth in a bridle making qualification but it probably has something to do with…
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Level 3 Bridle Making…the final week (Part 1)
,Hi Everyone, I am sat on the bed in my guest room at Websters B&B in Salisbury on day 2 of my week-long training and assessment for the Level 3 Bridle Making qualification. On Monday I started the journey to Salisbury which usually takes me 2½ hours (120 miles) mainly down the M5. I reached the Saddlery Training Centre 10 minutes early, for a change, and settled in. I had already completed most of my double bridle at home which is the 2nd piece of work that will be assessed later this week. However, there was a bit of stitching left to do, blocking up, creasing keepers and polishing…
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Wearing More Than One Hat…
The time has come to spill the beans on an additional path of my journey I am about to start treading. Most of you will be familiar with this blog through my transition from a corporate office job to a qualified Saddler. Ultimately it still is but since my journey started in 2015 so much has happened and although I am still on track to qualify as a saddler I have unintentionally added another string to my bow which I feel will give me a wider variety of experiences as well as expand on my self development and networking circles. Have you heard of the phrase “Which hat will you…
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How Many Pieces in a Double Bridle?
Recently I attended week two of my City & Guilds Level 3 Bridle Making training at the Saddlery Training Centre. During this week I learnt what pieces to cut out and how to make a double bridle. OMG! Like how many pieces are there to a double bridle? Have you even ever realised? Try counting how many individual pieces there are to a standard bridle including keepers, billet platforms and buckle turns, then double it lol. This is the last but one practical piece to complete before I undertake my exam in July and all week all I seemed to have done was cutt and prepare the leather without anything…
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Starting a project…
When I feel the world is against me or I need to have some ‘me’ time I usually like to go horse riding but these last 4 weeks have been really tough and I don’t have the desire to do anything physical. I blame this feeling partly on the time of year; it’s still winter outside and the dark nights and grey/wet days are having an affect on me. However, to relax most people sleep or walk their dogs but not me I have found that I relax best when I am being crafty. With my newly learnt saddler skills I have been playing with some leather recently by carving…
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New Year’s Resolutions, Goals, Plans or Dreams?
I don’t know about you but I stopped making New Year Resolution’s when I was a teenager. I mean really, who has kept to the ‘I must lose weight’ statement anyway? For years I never made a bold statement or even make any plans for the future. I lived for the moment and that was fine by me at that time. For as long as I can remember I’ve wrote in a diary or journal about what is happening in my life at that given moment: who I love; who I don’t love; what events I’ve been to; and any juicy gossip I’ve heard. Nowadays I tend to write my…
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Depression and my five tips on how to help yourself
I am not proud nor ashamed to say that I have and still do suffer with depression and anxiety. However I did used to believe that only ‘mad’ or ‘attention seeking’ people suffered with these characteristics…wow…how wrong was I?! I grew up in what seemed a tight knit family. My father was a hard working self employed gardener and my mother was an equally hard working employee. My grandparents, from my mothers side of the family, whom I spent a lot of time with were very well off. They owned a Wet Fish and Poultry shop in town and a large house with a Rolls Royce in the driveway. There…
