Post 20: Resolutions Review February! 102 to go!

Kat doodles about life and reviews month of February as part of 3 Days challenge:

Design career–  Right, I will be very honest, there was not much art or design going on this month. I have been so busy earning money in other ways, I only managed to do a sketch of Fyodor Dostoyevsky on the train. I also had to move the furniture in my room once again, which means I have not finished Darwin on my wall yet and there were things everywhere for quite some time. However I did buy subscription to a new interior design magazine as I got discount since being subscribed to another one already and I have managed figure out some plan of how to be more organized when it comes to following all my resolutions. Alright, swiftly moving on.

Blog every three days– I am on top of my list with all the posts I should have written, so that is all good. If you search through February posts with numbers 12-19, one of them is dedicated to posts and links worth to be to be mentioned and one of them is about books. There are few other interesting ones which include mentioning spelling book for children from Carol Voorderman and great recipes to try.

Translating blog into Czech– The young man, who expressed the interest of translating my blog after he did it for the first time, never got back in touch after receiving my reply with comments on his translation. Looks like he is no longer interested then. I had a chat with a friend and he said he is more than happy to help me with the correction, when he is off work, so I just need to get myself into translating all my posts.

Social networking– Running between jobs and barely being at home, there is not much update on social networking either. I have not really had a chance to look that that traffic via Facebook adverts yet, and I just about managed to keep up reading my favourite posts. Most of them on my phone in bed just before bed time. Hopefully with my new schedule I can soon catch up and do little more.

Teaching and interpreting– Lots going on in this section! Obviously you may know I got offered a job interpreting for another company and I have done quite a few assignments with them this month. Definitely interesting new experience worth to have.

Next wonderful news is I managed to get another student, so that will also keep me busy working from now on. He is little more advanced than the other one. I spend few days preparing lesson plans and managed to get some books to use during the lessons. Getting my student-chef speaking more, I slotted in one very practical session and it was so much fun. You can read about our ‘best ever spaghetti bolognese’ and blueberry & banana pancakes in one of the posts.

Learning how to drive– That is a bit of disappointment as I have not done any driving or any theory learning this month at all. I know, shame on me. Do not worry, I am aware of that, every time I pass a car with L sign. But I did a bit of thinking and I decided to leave the lessons until I have lot more spare cash to go and pay for frequent slots and have them something like once a week. Until now I was practicing every two to three weeks and it is not quite working out with the money flow for other things and the work timetable. I need to learn often enough, so it becomes a second nature.

New people, new opportunities– I met up with few friends over the last month catching up with what is going on in town, getting carried away having a bit way too much fun as usual. If you are reading  my blog regularly, you must have noticed also my post about my upcoming birthday and having a bit of that question time of what I am I doing with my life, so hopefully things are going to turn around soon for the better. And I need to learn how to be less scattered and let things roll more.

Learning Autocad, Sketchup, creating a website, saving money– I have turned into my mother and finally wrote down all the receipts from the last few months. I ‘spoiled’ myself and got new cycling shorts (and they are ever so comfortable, better be for that price), few books, got the magazine subscription and paid few bills and sent some money to save. Regarding the AutoCad, I was in touch with someone, who is offering private lessons, but I have not really discovered it any further.

Overall February was not perhaps as productive as it could have been, but I have done lot of teaching, interpreting and running between my other two jobs, so hopefully that will give me better start in March when it comes to other things. Last two weeks have been definitely more pleasant to cycle around and you can smell the spring in the air. Mind you there are still those horrible unexpected showers and you never know about possible March frost appearing. But March has always been my month, so I am hoping things are going to get going and I will put that timetable to a good use. Back soon Kat xx

Post 18: Another ‘Little Steps, Bigger Picture’ Post! 104 to go!

Kat doodles about life:

Working many hours during the weekend and then sleeping until lunchtime on my days off turns me at night into an owl. I had one of those moments this week after finishing my post. ‘Hmmm what can I do to use up that sudden whirl of energy’, I thought to myself. Finally I decided to tackle my studio table, which over the time got covered in piles of receipts, notes and all sorts of objects. My ‘in’ basket included reminders like driving theory book, bank statements and notes of what to do. As we all know, there is always something better to do than writing down your receipts.

End of the month is just gone and it is time to write one of my monthly reviews about resolutions of this year. And when clearing the table I soon realized there are too many to deal with in my case especially because I want to do them all at the same time. And right now in the best case scenario. I decided to find a way how I can get them tackled often enough, even in small amounts, but at least getting them moving in the right (or perhaps just some sort of) direction.  My 3 Days Challenge seems to be working well that way, so I decided to write down how often I need to do each of them. They vary from every two days to once a week. I then organized all the pieces of paper and wrote the plan for the whole entire month ahead. I was right on it, so if I had an actual diary for 2014 I would keep going until I reach the end.

So the next morning I woke up and here are four things I planned to do- write a blog post, deal with social networking, figure out all money related things and do prep for my teaching classes and interpreting. The first two I thought they can be postponed or dealt with another time, so I wanted to tackle the money next. I have finally ordered Moleskine for this year (I know, I know 2 months into year already, shame on me) and shorts for cycling as unfortunately the other ones are on their way to fall apart soon. As you know clothes in my wardrobe must be practical and they stay there until no longer repairable. Than I paid some bills, sent money to save and treated myself (shhh) to a new cheap offer subscription of an interior design magazine.

Do you feel like you are turning your parents sometimes even you really do not want to?! Especially doing the things you hated or had no idea why they do it?! There is definitely one thing, when I have turned into my mother. But I guess a good one. I write down every expenditure I have made. I have been doing it for years- actually way more than last ten. When I let myself go on a shopping spree sometimes, I look at the items and if it was the ‘stocking the cupboard’ kind of shop, it is fine. However if there are too many ‘night out’ expenses on the Emergency/Entertainment list, I better watch out. With transport, clothes and shoes I spend only the absolutely needed minimum as I still treat it as a luxury. Writing things like this make me feel less guilty about shopping as I know the purpose.

After I started catching up with the lesson plan for both of my students now I have two. It was great to see the improvement my first student did in such a short amount time just by looking for other relevant materials and preparing more topics to talk about.

Obviously the schedule for next month is just a guide, but it will be nice to have something to follow the progress. Back soon Kat

Post 17: Breathe And Just Let Things Roll…! 105 to go!

Kat doodles about life:

At the moment my life seems to be either hectic working and cycling between jobs or being exhausted, not doing much or having way too much fun. (I will leave it up to your imagination.) All that means I am not very good at following my 3 Days Challenge at the moment,  so I am not very impressed with myself. This weekend I topped it up by doing another extra shift on top of the five I already had to do anyway and as a cherry on top of the cake I added the first lesson with my new student! I have now three days off, so today I was snoozing until early afternoon with my phone on silent. It was a bliss, if you ask me!

As I just mentioned, I have now new student! I was recommended to him by my student- chef, so it is great to see that someone is enjoying my lessons and passing on the work. He is more advanced, so we will be practicing more speaking, particularly pronunciation . He loves to travel and lived in Spain for a long time, so I am planning to spend most of the lessons dedicated to Geography and topics related to interests he has. They are both very keen to learn and it makes such a difference, because it helps me creating exciting lessons, which we all enjoy.

Although working a lot this weekend, after my slightly too depressing post last week about where I am in my life at the moment, this first lesson brought little bit more happiness back. Sometimes I know I want things too quickly or I feel the whole world is against me, when I do not get it RIGHT NOW and I have no idea why or what to do.  Over the past few years I realized that when I just let things roll, they happen without even me doing much. It almost feels like it is all given to me on the plate. Obviously now I am exaggerating, it is not that easy! However at the moment it seems to be happening with interpreting for this new company and teaching privately. I know it took years of hard work to get myself to this point catching every colloquialism and blending into society that now I call this place home. So I am learning how to do it with all the other things I do. It seems to be working in my private life, although there is always way too much excitement going on and now I just need to apply it on my design career. Patience and focus are the key words. I get that great thinking time, when I am on my bike,which is a lot at the moment, so perhaps I need to find another activity to calm my thoughts.

The events of the past few weeks also made me think that I do things differently than others. And I always did. So really I should  not be too hard on myself, because that is just simply who I am. Somehow I always choose more complicated journey even I know there is a simple way. May be it is the addiction to adventurous life and all unknown. And I guess that will never change. So yes, I just need to breathe and let things roll…! Something will happen!

With love. Kat xx

Day 92: Challenge accomplished!!! 0 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

I have done it! I got to the end of the tunnel of 92 days to the lights of 2014!!! What a journey and by saying that meaning still on a journey, but with so much more exciting stuff ahead, who knows what happens?! Before I do all do thanking, let me sum up this rather eventful year and as You can see on my PF 2014 card I have included some of those moments.

So this year I:

• celebrated 9 years of living abroad and in the UK alone, you can read more about it in Day 20. I know- way too long and I only planned three months…
• got more design and decorating working for private clients, and discovered some delicious cupcakes on the way.
• went back to theatre design and scenic painting, when working on a show based on Nick Cave’s songs.
• realized how much I enjoy teaching and motivating others, so I did some lecturing and workshops of all sorts.
• moved a house, which was big chapter of my life,  and created myself a big studio space in a new one with wall ready to be painted on.
• was blatantly reminded of my fears stopping my career, so I finally started learning how to drive. Yes, what a drama queen… it is not actually as bad as I thought!
• went home to The Czech republic after year and half, enjoyed it way too much and looked for going back home to the UK again.
• started a challenge to be productive for 92 days in row and succeeded. As right now you are reading the last post!

• lost the man, who I thought shared my soul, but nevermind I wish him all the best and I am ready to meet new friends again.
• am very proud of my little French sunshine, who never seem to stop to surprise me and who was accepted into Sorbonne, although I now miss her dearly.
• finished the second course of Designing for Interiors and ever since I am thinking how to make it happen for real.
• …  and there is so much more, but not enough of virtual space…

My lovely readers, all of You who read my doodles on regular basis, all of You who read them sometimes, and You who are here for the first time, I THANK YOU ALL!!! I Thank You for Your support coming from the ones I know, who are reading, the ones who I think are reading, but do not want to admit it and the ones who read, but I do not know. I appreciate all the likes, comments and shares during this journey. You have been my silent whip getting  me up and making me do things. In 2013 I had some pretty sad times, good times and some really amazing times and met lot of great people. And of course as You know me, there is always something exciting happening in a life of Kat. So whoever was part of the journey, I am lifting my cup of currently full of honey, lemon and camomile tea and I say: Na Zdravi and have a great New Year 2014!

See You all in 3 Days time with my new challenge full of dreams and resolutions, take care and all the best! With Love Kat xx

Day 52: Liebster Award! 40 days to go!

Kat is honoured, gets arty and doodles about life:

Last night I decided to clean up little bit of my WordPress Dashboard and put the things into the right place. I got rid off the category Kat shows her work, since it only had 2 posts. Over the time, especially since starting the challenge, I have realized I talk too much about all this art or what is happening, it becomes more relevant for category Kat gets arty. Plus I finally got the hang of tagging other categories within the post. So I can keep calm, it is all making sense and it is organized! Ufff.

The other thing I added is new 92 days challenge as a category and in the last few nights I have been thinking what will happen after I get to the point of 92 days. Quite honestly I am actually really enjoying this and I feel like it is certainly pushing me forward, so I do not want to stop. Not even for a little holiday, because knowing myself, I won’t start again. So what I am going to do? I was thinking perhaps do one, which is year-long? I know you all love to read about my unconventional life right? But then what happens if I find that job and become full-time art person? What happens next if I cannot write about what happens at work, because of the confidentiality clause?  So I thought the other option is to keep my challenge sweet and short. By month. And by tasks. I could perhaps do month of scenic painting, month of model making, month of.. hmmm let me think.

The other issue about my blog is: What do I do with my Czech version? I have become so bad with my own native language, I should really go back to it. At the moment is has only few posts and I have properly neglected it. Shame on me. Unless there is enthusiastic linguist, who would love to take on the challenge and translate my 70 posts so far.  However being witty the same way as me. Now that is a challenge! Working on two blogs is quite hard work whilst everything else is going on in my life at the same time, so I will have to give it a bit of a thought.

Last but not least in this post is Liebster Award! How amazing! The very lovely learnermother has nominated me, because she thinks I’m pretty awesome. Eeeh or rather my writing is pretty awesome. “Kat, where is your modesty?” Alright, alright, I am just too excited someone actually likes my doodling.

Ok, call me a bit stupid, but I have answered the same questions as learnermother answered, so when I found the real questions, I realized I have to do it all over again…dddhhh obviously my brain is not on back on track yet. So I thought at least I keep this one, because it has some entertaining you tube videos.

5. What was or would be your first dance at your wedding?

I am really bad with dancing or any steps, so it would have to be one of these Greek type of songs I learnt and have not forgotten yet: Zorba’s Dance or if you see me later on with little more to drink I will be more in touch with my Central/Eastern European roots looking like these boys at 03:45 holding my hands and kicking my feet into the air. Although might prove a bit of a problem with a wedding dress.

So here are my answers to those real questions.

1. What tipped you over the edge from thinking ‘I’d like to blog’ to actually writing your first post?

My friends always tell me my life is so exciting and so unbelievable I should write all my stories down. So I did and it was very much like watching Sex and The City. However being a blog novice I struggled with how many people know me and how do I protect my privacy, so I stopped. Sometime after I revisited and decided I should rather write about my non existing art intentions instead, so there it was.

2. You could be anywhere, right now. Where? And why?

Currently it would be nice somewhere nice and warm, not too hot, not too cold, I have not had a holiday for a long time, so nice trip away with a friend would be very welcome.

3. Twitter. Love it or hate it?

I would not say hate it, but it is not my favourite.

4. What’s your favourite joke?

I make people laugh, because none of my jokes are funny, so they laugh at me. But if its has to be my favourite ones are the ones, which come out of my mouth in a spare of a moment. “My standards are so low, I can’t go any lower” (on looking for a boyfriend)

5. Are you a shouty stormer-outerer, or a silent sulker?

A bit of both, it depends on the situation.

6. What’s your absolute worst fear?

I am getting over the fear of driving, so the next fear would to be not being loved I guess.

7. How often you do you cry?

All the bloody time. Give me X factor audition, Notebook- the movie or too much wine and good looking man, and I will be weeping rivers.

8. Are you superstitious and if so in what way?

Nooo. It is all in your head. Stop it.

9. Which blog post are you most proud of?

I noticed in your cv that you don’t currently drive ,

Day 20: A place you call home. Crossing that nine year mark!72 days to go!

Day 30: No passion for fashion! 62 days to go! ,

So who I would like to nominate

Learner mother– Can we nominate someone back? If so I would do the same. Very witty, admirable lady with three children, two business, and one husband (he was my boss, so I guess that says it all, right?)… and she has always something on the go. She is just simply great. Definitely worth checking her blog. I do not know how she does it all.

Mason Bentley style– Well, well, well, what do I say. Very interesting lady, fashion blogger, great photographs, wit, blog party organizer, mum. She gives to fashion that rather more human look and I enjoy reading her post very much.

Fashion Mayann– I love, love, love her blog. Very artistic, very creative and very fun. She combines fashion with real life and her posts are about conceptual or realized designs of other designers. For me as theatre designer it is a joy for eyes, as the images she picks up are starting research point to my work.

Culture Monk– Alright I know I have talked about him so much, probably to the point of annoying now. If you like to know more read the post Day 51 or simply click on his blog to read. It is pretty good.

The crazy bag lady– Fab illustrator and a challenge lady. She has been pushed by a friend to get creative and her latest project was two hundred black and white illustrations of animals, objects and all sorts of other things. Her next? challenge is now to colour them and get them out there.

Project Pontcanna– My friend Mandi was illustrating her life around when living in Pontcanna in Cardiff. She is no longer living there, but I hope there might be a new project coming up based on where she lives now… 🙂

Spoonful of style- Another mum, who blogs, who is very stylish. Her posts are filled with glam, designer recommendations and trips out with children.

And here are my questions:

1. Who are your three favourite comedians and why?

2. What made you decide to be Kat’s follower or a friend?

3. What is your favourite book now and which one was it as a child?

4. The shoes to wear in Prague are..? Heels or flats? Do you have any connections to anything Czech?

5. How about everyday challenge, as Kat writes right now, would you go for that and what would you write about?

6. Do you have any regrets in life?

7. What is your next project? And did you start already?

Lots of love and looking forward to the answers, plus back tomorrow with the rest of you. Byyyyye Kat xx

Day 8: Costume scrapbook, part two! 84 days to go!

Kat doodles and recommends:

So today’ post is a bit late. I did the actual creative part on Tuesday as I was suppose to, just run out of time to post about as I went out for the evening. If you live in Bristol, there is always something going on and although my weekends are dedicated to work and during the week I prefer to meet up with friends for a quiet drink rather then standing somewhere loud doing  whatever you feel comfortable with under the expression “night out”. I went to a gig of the band Lanterns on the Lake in Rise, record shop, which is also known as Friska cafe  at the Clifton Triangle. They had a problem with the sound at the beginning, but it got fixed, but just I as I was just getting into enjoying it, they stopped. It only lasted half an hour, but it was worth it. It is very dreamy sounding music, very instrumental, mellow and lovely to hear. The lead singer is certainly very talented, she has that little girl’s voice, not quite sure how you call it, and although she was shy at the beginning, by the end she was cracking jokes about alarms. Personally I think it was freezer or fridge telling the owners of the cafe, the temperatures are getting higher then they should be. Who knows what it was…  Anyway if you fancy listening to Lanterns on the Lake in full on gig, they are playing next Thursday in Thekla or simply checkout their web or Youtube.

So on the day of me supporting someone else’s creativity, this is what I have done… There were still few more images to be glued in into my costume crapbook, so I have taken five more photographs, so you can get more inspiration what to put in.

Tomorrow I will be catching up with a blog post, which should have been posted tonight, but it will be all about challenges and feedback  people have given me. Stay tuned, with love Kat xxx

Day 5: Are you a quitter or a goer? 87 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

I was hoping to write only about relevant stuff on this blog, avoid my actual personal problems, names or soapy moments. However I will do the opposite today and I am sorry if I offend anyone with my emotional diarrhea. Because it is relevant to this challenge I am working on. Last night, the relationship I was in for pretty much nearly a year, has definitely come to an end. We were together for nine months and two months ago it came to end. Since then we have been both going through moments of sadness to moments of joy we are no longer together and can move on, meeting up and arguing, spending really nice days and evenings together, getting merry and promising each other new hopes. However last night when having another conversation about us giving a second chance to this relationship, he suddenly refused to do so. Hang on I am thinking, isn’t a relationship about giving each other support, working on it, doing compromises, improving for yourself and the other person?! Surely if you plan to be with someone for the rest of your life, you need to be prepared to solve few problems on the way to find compromise. Apparently not everyone shares the same view.

I realized that really- I am a goer. For me quitting is not an option unless I feel I have done my personal best, it appears I do not have relevant skills, or I should think about changing a direction. If I had quit, I would never come so far where I am now and experience so many amazing moments. I have run away from the au pair family. I have been walking around streets looking for a job in freezing temperatures. I cycled miles in darkest nights to wash dishes. I shed sweat and tears during my theatre design degree. I went through hell went my father had cancer and then died. I can think of so many more pretty dark moments in my life and could have gone: “You know what I do not care anymore, I quit, I am going home to that sweet little pink protective bubble”, but I did not and I do not think I ever can. And that is the same thing, when you look for a job or want to really achieve something. A bit like X Factor, some people just want it lot more than others. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to get to it, you know it will happen eventually.

So you know what, I am moving on. In a relationship or in a job, you cannot force your partner to be with you or boss to keep you, but you can learn from it and find someone else, who does. You will push each other further and make it work. I guess I just have to find another goer so we can share our dreams together and make them happen.

With love Kat xx

Day 4: Joining Twitter! 88 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

So today it is going to be a quick post, as it is Friday and I only just got back this afternoon from night out watching Driving Test Success DVD. I am seriously not joking. And it was rather successful, if anyone wants to know.. For the first time ever I have to say, it really helped that someone else motivated me during this challenge. Someone who I normally have to motivate and give him a kick to do things. Obviously not too literally.  I was forced to watch and practice the whole dvd! That included 3 sets of 50 test questions, 10 hazard spotting videos, 13 questions of Show Me, Tell Me and way too many of Highway Code questions. Well exhausted afterwards ,but pleased to tell you I have passed all three tests with scores 44, 47, 46 points out of 50.  But I did obviously discuss lot of the questions with my helper and had to have it explained. Overall it was not as difficult as I thought it is going to be. Unless I was just lucky to get all the easy questions. It might be combination of cycling, common sense and luck, that I came with the right answers. Now I can happily sit down, start reading through the theory and practice on my own.   As soon as I get my provisional licence back, I can understand what is this steering, breaking, lights in a fog and different gears kind of questions all about in real life.  So thank you everyone for the support, especially Mr. Helper last night, I am getting there.

Regarding my post yesterday, there is a new e-mail in my account from CV Site about general help on cv. I will share it, when I get to write another post on changing my cv again. I am reminding to everyone if they think they have the perfect cv and would like to share it with everybody or tips on how to write it, feel free to send it to katerina.t.designer@gmail.com or if you know anyone, who would like to join the challenge and achieve their dreams in 92 days. Apart from that I also managed to get some changes done to my e-mail account like updating addresess and changing few folders. As seen on the picture in my post on Day 1, both ‘E-mail account’ and ‘Email to:’ boxes are empty with only one task to do. So pretty cool going.

Lastly- I have joined Twitter. I have been avoiding to do so for a long time as I never really liked the idea of spending more time on social media and did not quite get those weird looking links flowing around the world wide web. However since I am writing and working on this challenge, I thought I will give it a go. Surely it cannot hurt and I can always cancel it. So if anyone fancies following me there or giving me tips on how to use it properly, feel free to find me as @katerinatdesign and you should see my first tweet linking Day1 here on WordPress. Since we are helping and supporting each other to find jobs, stop smoking, loose weight, save for exciting trips or as certain someone mentioned to me  find half an hour of indulgence every day, let’s do everything what we possibly can to go us there.

Have a lovely Friday evening. Back tomorrow Kat xx

Day 3: From High to Low! 89 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

Alright, it is nearly 4pm of UK time and I am already writing this post, whilst outside it has not stopped raining second day in row. I think that is it for today, enough me sitting at the computer. I have been doing so for the last three days, wrapped up warm, recovering, drinking countless cups of tea.  I fancy a change. I started high and now I am feeling my energy levels are going down. Well there might be few reasons for that. Sleeping too much in the last few days and staying awake last night texting past my usual bedtime, being woken up by three demanding phone calls at 5 am, was the start.

When I got out of bed feeling fairly shattered, Ilooked into the fridge, finding it empty. Forced walking out of the house, I came backa with a treat in a form of nutella jar. How wrong I was. I stopped eating chocolate about three or four months ago and felt much better ever since, so hoping that little chocolatey treat will make me feel better turned into something like eating gurkin. It tasted horribly sweet and I am thinking Oh no, I have lost this little life saver. Never mind this sugar rush which brought me down few hours later.  There was a little hint of hope, when I managed to clear and response to my e-mails within only 7 minutes, but not long after there was this reply from CV Site waiting to tell the truth I didn’t want to know.

So apparently there are few issues, which prevent me from communicating my skills in optimum way. The first paragraph states following: There are grammatical issues …, … it is too colloquial…, …if an employer reads that you are ‘stubborn’ it would be off putting within the context …, … mentioning four jobs doesn’t send out positive impression. Alright with grammatical issues I can agree. That has always been a problem, I am not a native speaker, I can only keep learning and trying, because I know it will always follow me. I am not entirely sure why ‘stubborn’ used together with ‘perfectionist’ and ‘willing to learn’ does not translate as ‘motivated until achieving the goal’. I guess the negative feel of the word used without its context coming from someone, who is an Aries in zodiac, is not exactly giving the friendly willing approach. Lastly what is wrong with having four jobs? Is it the lack of focus I might be giving impression off? Surely having two different self-employed positions show that you are on your way to turn them into careers, whilst the other two part time jobs show commitment and secure regular income in order to pay bills and food offering to take time off when needed. Why all the cv gurus, employers or general advice out there tell you to keep going and making sure there is no gap on your cv and now being told that if you work too much sounds wrong. Anyone else had similar issue before?

Second paragraph is focusing on employment history. It is vast…, …for very brief periods, this would not instill confidence any potential employers…, You clearly have a lot of skills but CV needs focus…, … I appreciate that a lot of jobs are short term…, … better to provide details of the work and the props you designed rather than the designer/directors names. You clearly have a lot to offer, …you are creative and have flair but a CV is still a formal document and you need to adopt a few conventions in order to illustrate your talents and competencies without coming across as disordered. Looking back at my cv after reading this, was so painfully true.  I think the problem is when you are preparing your cv during your graduation time and not having that much professional experience, you are told it is important to tell all the directors and designers you worked with having to stretch it making it look reasonably good, but as time goes it may become a bit too much and I think that what happened to me. Taking your cv and giving it to people asking them to look at it with their critical eyes is nerve wracking and depressing, but the most helpful as knowing the weakness of your enemy.

They finished the e-mail by saying this: … Overall Katerina, it is a quirky and fun approach but that just doesn’t work for a CV and it would benefit from a rewrite for ease of reading… Further down were priced packages to make it perfect with extras added in case I would like to take this offer to improve it under the professional eye. Alright Thank you very much, but I think I need few days to take this all in and think about this changing it completely. In case anyone would to share their cv, which bagged them that job they wanted, feel free to send it to katerina.t.designer@gmail.com and perhaps share few tips on how they think which is best way, please do so. I am sure everyone reading will appreciate every handy advice.

I am ending this post with photograph of my ‘fun’ evening ahead. I have been offered emotional support and forced watching Driving Test Theory DVD, possibly so I am prevented from covering my eyes and having to focus. So I guess I will update you how it went tomorrow. Lovely evenig to everybody. Kat xx

Day 2: Oh the CV malarky! 90 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

So day two of the challenge.  I woke a bit tired after not being able to sleep much last night thinking about the challenge plus I blame two cups of strong tea I drink straight after each other. Yesterday after posting, I sat down and cleared all the e-mails into relevant folders and made all tabs clear, so every day, when I wake up, I can deal straight away with what is relevant. There is lot more deleting and organizing within my e-mail to be done, but that is for another time. This morning it only took me less then hour to reply and organize all e-mails and social media I have received during the night with nothing more hanging to be done in my account. How brilliant.

When going through tasks and trying to get yourself out there, I have realized that keeping up with cv and updating all social media is the most important thing nowadays. I decided to dedicate the day to updating my cv and uploading it to different sites.  Recently I did that with LinkedIn account. That is quite a good one to use as a starting point. However they allow you only to put limited amount of characters under one job, so when you work as self employed, listing all the little jobs in one may not be enough.  So I looked at all sorts of the jobs I did and under my company name created three kinds positions. One for theatre design relevant work, one for painting and decorating, interior design and decluttering and the last one for general artistic work. It suddenly made lot more sense for everyone to look at and understand what I do. I have applied the same system onto my cv today, but just make sure you keep saving the document as you go.

In the summary of who I am I used to use one particular paragraph for years, which may have sounded professional , but I felt it no longer had that crisp fresh sound, so I wrote, who I see myself as with simple few adjectives characterizing my life and work attitude, current state and aspirations into the future. No more then five sentences should do the trick.

Within my e-mail account I had e-mails from about 4 different job sites. I went through each of them and with different levels of luck managed to upload my cv. Jobsite as first, which keeps sending me not very relevant job offers for design positions. Unfortunately all the ones, where you need to be computer  geek and somehow the beauty of designing or building real model is no longer needed. You would think that website like which is advertising on national level would have different options for uploading your cv apart from word file. Perhaps jpg or most likely pdf, separate fill in  boxes, if it comes to the worst as txt. Especially after you have just spend hours tweaking your pages to making it look the part. Several uploads of the files have failed. Well not only that, after I spent updating details in the form, they have disappeared after the file hasn’t uploaded properly, so I had to do it again.  Cup of tea break was needed to lift my spirits up. As soon as I sent in the help line form in I have finally figured out the problems. Turn your fancy word document into plain text with no columns or anything else. When saved as rtf, after save it again into document, but keeping it plain. Hallelujah, it uploaded, but let me tell as a designer, it is not looking exactly great. If you are not able to change your details within the site program, it feels pretty useless even having to upload it in a first place.

Guardian website was lot more user friendly. They had all my previous details saved already, so I just checked if they are correct, updated and moved around jobs and ready I was. Highly recommend it. I did not have that many e-mails from them as website in the past, but now with fully updated previous jobs I am hoping for more luck.

CV Site e-mail ended up in my account somehow without really knowing how. I have a feeling it came together with paid membership for LinkedIn I had once tried. They offered me free CV check as a member of their anticipating partners, but have never used it, so I decided give it a go since it is needed now more than ever. With technical issue of not letting me to the free check up as advertised I e-mailed them and within few minutes I had lovely lady messaging me back asking me to send her my cv. Brilliant. Will definitely post you on that one. Their site has a partner site called CV library, so I will be uploading cv there once it is returned.

Lastly UK Staff Search  was probably the most quickest in the whole process. They simply asked for e-mail, uploading the file and within second you had the form with all boxes filled with relevant information taken from the uploaded cv. I have corrected the employment and education history just by simply copying and pasting information from my original document and here it was , done.

So that is for today, enough for sitting around at computer. I am reminding everybody join me in my challenge, or please spread the message around and let me know what is your dream. Keep that 92 days spirit and get it achieved by the end of the year. Better start now and really make it happen, than attempting to turn it into New Year’s resolution. Have a lovely day a take care. Kat xx

Day 1: Keep motivated! 91 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

Staying focused can be very difficult. I am bright example of that. Unless it is exciting enough and does not involve food or paint brush, my mind wonders off miles away from thinking is it cup of tea or lunch time yet or what is going on in the world of Facebook. Getting myself recently into position, where my room/studio is getting into the right shape, purchasing new A3 printer and just generally sorting stuff out, things are moving in the right direction, but how can I stay focused and motivated.

Well, I turned back to my “friend” David Allen and his theory about “Getting Things Done”, which I have been practising for more or less year and half and it worked wonders for me. I recommend to read his book to fully understand the theory and how it works. In a simple way he is telling how to make the things happen from little idea in your head into the final outcome by following simple rules. So for example when I have been hassled for years by my family members to get that English certificate done. To me although I did not feel I need to, as well as looking like a very daunting task. I went from little tasks such as researching online to doing little practice test on the Cambridge University website. Then moved on to researching the exam days, paying application fee, ordering test book, going for the first part of the exam and then passing the second part. Now more than year late holding my certificate, it feels like it was not difficult at all. Why was I even scared of it for all these years? I am applying the same technique now with learning how to drive. Some of you surely know from reading my previous posts.

So here I have my challenge. Today as it is 1st of October 2013 I start and by the end of this year, which is another 91 days away I would like to be fully free lancing or employed as an interior designer or anything to do within the theatre/ visual merchandising/ decorating industry. Turn my four jobs into one and show there is hope and it is achievable since I am sharing this blog with readers in similar situation.

Recently ordering my new set of business cards I ended up with many empty boxes, so I turned them into reminders and I keep them now next to my computer. Each task with a date on it is written on a separate piece of paper and they are constant reminder of what to do even I wonder of somewhere else for a mili second. You start with ‘In basket’, where you put any pieces of papers, receipts, objects, notes of things to do you need to deal with. The next step is ‘Process’ them, after ‘Organize’ them, ‘Review’ them and finally ‘Do’ them.  During practising this theory I have realized there are two types of tasks I tend to do. Practical ones like file this bank statement into right folder and computer based ones like research this particular company.  I have decided to divide second group into four different boxes and name them : “At mac”, “When Online”, “E-mail Account” and “E-mail to:”.  As I am not feeling very well at the moment, I have taken that time off today to go through “E-mail to:” and managed to sent 19 e-mails,  11 Facebook messages and 2 LinkedIn InMail messages.  Obviously you don’t want to spend every day just answering e-mails. However  it is that little by little, which gets you, where you want.

To finish this post I am adding the basic diagram David Allen is using for working out tasks to give you an idea. Are you currently thinking of starting personal challenge yourself?  Is it loosing weight, learn certain skill or saving money for trip to Australia. Please do get in touch here or send me an e-mail katerina.t.designer@gmail.com and share your challenge. We can support each other  in this process and make it happen. Take care for now and looking forward to hearing from everybody.

Designing for Interiors. Task 1. Image.

Kat gets arty:

So far, Angela proved to be my little angel. I have realized how hungry to learn I am again and that only two years since graduation feels like forever. We had five classes already and Monday evenings became religiously something I cannot even think to miss. Not even when I am fighting with flu like last week and honestly, I felt quite bad for coming in and probably passing it on to others. I just simply could not resist.

Right, for the first task we had to choose an image and had to do following. Choose three key words to describe an interior and then talk about ‘background information’, ‘physical proportions’, ‘content and decoration’ and ‘physical feeling’. Over the past few weeks I came to a realization that theatre is massive part of my art thinking. Whilst most of the class has chosen some pretty images of kitchens and living rooms, I have chosen this one:

Image taken from the magazine World of Interiors, issue February 2011. It is an advertising campaign for Italian furniture company Chelini.

To describe this space I would use words such as ‘old’, ‘grand’ and ‘full of character’.

Background Information

This is a large entrance hallway. Most likely it is in a big grand house, perhaps before renovation, but most certainly it is a period property. Since this photograph is taken for an Italian company and their advertising campaign, I would say the location is Italy. However, it could also be in Prague or Paris as the flowery decor on the staircase gives impression of art nouveau style.

Physical Proportions

It is a large space with high ceiling and curved wall. We cannot see any windows, but enough natural light coming from the right hand side gives a clue of an alcove with a window. Main architectural feature is the spiral staircase, which leads the natural traffic and flow around the house. There is a door on the left, but does not look like the main entrance, which I would expect to be more grand for this kind of property.

Content and Decoration

Style of this image makes the property period and makes it feel very theatrical. Colour scheme supports this impression. Metal and stone colours, mostly in hues of white and grey are in contrast with bright velvety purple. Plaster wall finish covers bricks and stone. Natural stone is in use for the floor and staircase. To soften the feel helps the upholstered sofa and flowery ornament decorating the banister of the spiral staircase. Risen floor level in front of the sofa must have been a feature or had an important purpose in the past. To decorate the space I would use sculptures, vitrage, flowers in big pots or tall vases, perhaps even little trees. Hanging mirrors or artwork would give more statement to the space, however with curved wall may be proven difficult to find a space, where to hang them.

Personal Feeling

I love this kind of property and I can imagine quite happily living there. I appreciate craftsmanship and would love to renovate house like this. Old things, furniture and interiors excite me and by upcycling them, or using my theatrical background would make them look more expensive for no money.

Suggestions

Before renovating this property I would research the type of heating used in the past and modern alternative to it, which would be complimentary to the style. When looking at the state of plaster finish, I would suggest looking into either renovating it according to the rules for renovating period property if this is a listed building and getting some professional advice. The same would apply to cleaning rust of the banister and cleaning the steps. On curved walls, I would use bespoke pieces of art or adjusted mirror pieces. Part of the research could be visiting another grand house or visiting local theatre.

Have a Fab Day!

Kat doodles about life:

17th September! I have been awaiting this day for a good while! Not only because it is dad’s birthday but also my course Designing for Interiors was going to start today. Hurray! As I have finished seven long weeks run in the kitchen  I thought I will treat myself to a day off in between doing interpreting session tomorrow and back to peeling carrots and working at the door on other days. So not only I put on my burgundy heels, favourite black&white dress and had fab haircut, I also had a positive search for a voluntary design experience. You need to start somewhere! I thought! And by being enthusiastic, open and patient it can be achieved. So fingers crossed! Looks like I will getting haircut more often.

So now! Designing for Interiors! Taught by Angela Morris at City Bristol of College. Very lovely lady, who used the teach full time version of this course, who definitely has ton of knowledge and I certainly felt like the kid in the front row, who wants to know everything. Looks like two years out of education did well to my enthusiasm. We discussed the plan and what we can expect in the other parts, introduced ourselves (we have everybody from a theatre designer to a surveyor, mum, crisis coordinator and Spanish teacher) and talked everything and anything from design process and Kelly Hoppen to World of Interiors and Cabin Porn including exhibitions 100%Design and Decorex. As you can imagine very interesting.

Homework is to find a picture and describe it! When I will, don’t worry you will be informed. I attempted to take some photographs to make this post more interesting  and show off new hair, but rather worryingly none of the pictures looked quite right especially the ones taken with pin hole effect. I want to keep my readers, so I rather skip this action for a moment. So have a fab day! Or do something to make fab! And let me know what it was! xxx

We talked about types of designs and one of them was when shipping containers used as a budget hostel. These types of containers were also used in advertising in Homebase campaign.

My Little Garden.

Kat gets arty/green fingered and doodles about life:

I grew up half the time in the city, half the time in the country.  As a child I was forced to help gardening. I hated it. As a teenager I have grown to like it. Now I love it. It is beautiful experience to see something developing from a seed you put in a pot in March and in August it will turn into something you can eat. Here are my favourite shots from last year and this year so far. Enjoy.

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Badaude: Street Style Sofia

Kat recommends:

So I am sitting on the train to work and as I pick up one of those newspapers from nearby seat and flicking through The Times, my attention is suddenly crossed by one bright funky illustration.

Baduade: Street Style Sofia

I guess even more than the illustration was the name Sofia written at the top. I lived in Bulgarian City for three months during my Erasmus Exchange in my second year of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and I loved it so much You cannot even imagine. It was the place where I truly felt happy again about year and half after my father died. I could simply be simply be myself as my Eastern European roots were grown in similar ways and I was cocooned in this magical world of the past.

I started to study the illustration and couldn’t believe Badaude mentioned National Academy of Arts on Vasil Levski Bulevard, because that is where the main building is and has its own nickname Shipka. I used to study at one of those beautiful old broken buldings on bulevard Tsarigradsko shose surrounded by greenery and wonderful views as our scenograghy studio was on the top floor.

Every morning I walked through this path, which runs along the Tsaregradsko shose bulevar. Academy is hiding right at the end.

Academy hiding behind the trees in still cold days of early spring.

That was the first thing, which came to my mind looking at the pictures of three funky dressed like ladies and reading Baduade’s comments. I wondered who she is, so I found her blog.

It is full of lovely Illustrations, drawings and her I guess the story of her artistic journey. She started blog in July 2006 and since then came a long away.  She even published her own book. There is actually too much to say and I will have to dedicate more time to this wonderful young lady and checking out her work. She draws anything, anywhere on anything. Yes from drawing naked ladies in crowded cafe to drawing pretty things on tents at festivals. I know what are thinking? What? Drawing on tents??? Oh yes!!!

So Thank You Baduade for brightening up my day and bringing back happy memories of Sofia.

My Life Is Far Too Exciting!

Kat doodles about life:

Hello guys!

Thank You so much for all your support, liking, following and everything else You have done for me recently. I appreciate all the attention coming from all around the world!!! So now back to business. I know you have probably wondered, where I have gone, but believe me although I was, still am, very busy with making pots and pans clean and shiny, I did not forget. I have been thinking about the blog at all the times. Even when I walk to work every morning through Whiteladies Road here in Bristol! There are so many  amazing designer (mainly interior design and furniture) shops and I am thinking I have to tell you more!!! Now I have been making notes about little topics and articles I want to write about, so brace yourself and expect very soon me going on about these and many more subjects:

1. Young lady called Baduade. I came across her drawing as a feature in The Times newspaper. I will be posting more straight after this post.

2. I am learning French again. Well attempting! My beautiful French teacher Camille has got a lot of patience and I am introducing her to beauties of English language and magic of “being British”.

3. Newspaper Metro had recently very interesting article about Job Hunt Roulette by John Lees. So definitely one to follow for all of You looking for a job.

4. What else can be Ikea tape measure used for? (I know this not the answer, but did you get Your new Ikea catalogue through the door yet?…Ooooh I know what are You thinking:-)Better hide that debit card!

5. I have been thinking about this for years: People, who design dishwashers, have never been kitchen porters before! Otherwise….

6. Bookcases. I will be exploring this more as mine is overflowing. And whenever someone says bookcase I always think of my best friend Jan Sipek and his beautiful wall covered with books and simple wooden shelves. I will do my best to get a picture for You to see.

7. Mathmos lamp.  Magical geeky lamp. To me this is a symbol of a Czech film Samotari (Loners). I watch it everytime I feel homesick.

8. Sizes of rooms. How do we perceive them? Where is the door?  Can the double bed fit in it? Does it fit only in one corner? Do we look for the rooms with high ceilings or cosy little rooms with angled roof. I have been recently visiting few houses and it got me thinking. Size versus purpose of the room.

9. My friend’s blog- it is so cool! His actual nickname is a Good and he blogs in Czech, but definitely makes my days better. Once You find a good online translator, you will never want to stop reading his blog.

10. I got myself a design project!!! Redesigning a pad of two bachelors including sorting a lot of hoard. All of  You who know me, you can  imagine how excited how I am.

11. I am planning on posting few pictures from my garden. Otherwise getting ready for the autumn. Slugs definitely won this season!

12. I am obsessed with storage boxes and storage solutions, so there will be more of that coming up.

13. Ikea-once again. They have fantastic blog called Ikea Live.

14. This wonderful lady Michelle, who I admire very much, has been going  on about Coworking in Cardiff for the last few months and now finally something is happening. She has one husband, two businesses to take care of  and three awesome children, who I had the chance to babysit good few times. I don’t how she does it, but let me tell You, she is one to watch!

15. I passed Certificate of Proficiency in English! After eight years of waiting and trying to gain the confidence, here it is. Confirmed by Cambridge!

16. Start to my part-time course Designing for Interiors at City Bristol of College is in less than two weeks. I am sooo excited! Unbelievable!

That’s it for now! Now you cannot tell me I have not been thinking of YOU! Lots of love from Kat xxx