What Does the Future Hold For Brocante?
The truthful answer is that I don’t know. It is exactly two weeks in to the New Year and the only realisations I have come to are that A) I feel all at odds with myself when I am not blogging. B) Finley will ALWAYS manage to get sick during the second week in January and C) I will always be ridiculous.
Heckity pie yes. The kind of ridiculous that falls over in hospital car parks, faints, vomits and fails quite dramatically to worry eleven year old son, who nearly falls over himself laughing after watching me hurtle towards an unsuspecting Volvo, (while falling off both pavement and high heel), and then decides after seeing it on a hospital poster that I must have carbon monoxide poisoning and promptly phones my Mum to inform her of this sorry turn of events.
Oh yes my dears, I am back. I am back without the sensible head I was hoping to stitch on before I came back. Back without a firm plan for going in to battle with #Vatmoss and back after talking to everybody I know and coming to the conclusion that what I really want to do, above all else, is write.
And so rather than trying to re-invent the wheel behind the scenes, I am back with a head full of ideas and a new raison d’etre: to help you create a life abundant with good old-fashioned well-being. I am back with a bare-bones site and the resolve to get back to the real business of blogging: not drowning myself in admin and troublesome kerfuffles, but inspiring you daily with all the little things it takes to live life the
Why have I changed the tag line from Vintage Housekeeping to Vintage Well-being after all these years? For oh so many reasons. Because I spoke to a lovely, wise former marketing man who said that “housekeeping” did not encompass the way of life I wanted my lovely readers to embrace. Because I want to be able to talk about things that fall outside the remit of “housekeeping” while still staying true to my belief that our homes shape who we are. Because I want to be able to talk about whatever takes my fancy with you in that moment: to stop censoring my writing and to just let it flow. I have grown up. And I want
I know you have a lot of questions. Indeed I have dithered about coming black to blogging before I have worked out a firm plan for the continued monetisation of the site in light of the new EU directives on VAT, but I know this from all the lovely emails you have sent me in the meantime- that you would rather I carried the conversation on here, allowed you to help me shape the future of
This then is for my sanity and yours. So in the words of Miranda’s charming little friend: bear with won’t you? As soon as I have made firm decisions about the future of my downloads, books and Superstar program I promise you will be the first to know, and all existing obligations will be met…
In the meantime, roll on 2015: I do believe I am ready for you and whatever delicious madness, you may, this way bring!
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Welcome back!
I hope your young man is feeling better. May you soon get things straightened out the way you want them.
OH WELCOME HOME, A~
I have missed you, dear~ So, lovely to log on this morning, and there you are, front page and center!
Life is restored!
Onward~:)
Lovely to hear from you again!
So very happy you made it to the other side of health, uncertainty and all. You were missed and so welcomed back. Hugs.
I’m so pleased you’re plugging on regardless. I’ve always enjoyed the way you write and thought that the ‘Sledgehammer-to-Crack-a-Nut’ EuroBureaucrats had managed to snuff out your creative light. I even asked my, in-the-know, husband if there was any way at all to help you (… we live in a well-known UK offshore island) …but no. ‘Rules is rules’. If others are right, and you can be exempted from all the extra expense, form-filling and probably ensuing accountancy fees, that’s great. If not, I hope anyway, that you will always carry on writing. …Maybe consider a book of hints and tips???
Really, it’s good to see you’re back online. And don’t worry – you’re not the only one who tends to fall in car parks. Happened to me all the same – when I had some S****bucks Coffee in my hand. You can imagine the mess I left…
Yippee! You’re back! Happy New Year Alison and Finley. Really looking forward to reading you again xxx
Hi Alison. A very Happy New Year to you and yours. How lovely to have you back. I am sure that everything will work out just as it should. Things always happen for a reason and even if it doesn’t seem so at the time, when you look back it will be a case of “Oh yes, now I understand”. There is a saying my dearest Mom used to say
Life is to be lived forward and understood backwards.
Oh what a lovely surprise in the middle of my challenging day. Finding your return gives my heart just the little lift it needed.
My darling Alison, I’m so happy to see you again!
Would putting all your works into a Kindle format and selling via Amazon help you avoid the vatmoss mess?
Good to see you! I sympathize with Finley; if I’m going to get sick, it will be in the second week of January.
Welcome back lovely Alison!! How I’ve missed your wise words on your lovely blog. Hope Finn is feeling much better soon. Take care of yourself xxx
January should just be renamed too, Sick-You-Wary! Hoping Finn and yourself feel better real soon! I’m glad you’re back. I’ve always adored your writing. Carry On!
I was wondering the same thing. If you wrote workbook type things and published them in Kindle form would that aleviate the tax drama?
Hello!
This is my first visit to your blog-I had to come along after reading your books.
Can’t wait to keep up to date
Ashley x
Glad to see you back, Alison. Your words are helping me through a tough time at the moment. In regards to VATMOSS, it means I’ve also had to scrap my plans for 2015 and I haven’t entirely worked out how to move forward. I had written an ebook which I was going to publish on my site – no longer possible. I had just published a pdf of my stories on my site – had to remove them. I’m not even sure if publishing on Kindle will avoid the new rules, there don’t seem to be any clear answers – it seems as if some of the bigger sites are trying to put the onus on the sellers using their services. As unlikely as it might seem, if we try to Kindle our work, Amazon could still hand the responsibility for VATMOSS over to us rather than deal with it themselves. *Sigh* This site ( http://onemanbandaccounting.co.uk/eu-vat-changes-2015/ ) seems to have a lot more info and is staying relatively updated. There are campaigns in place over the issue. The only exception that I’ve found is in keeping some kind of live element to the course – in my case this means turning the “Getting started in theatre” ebook I wrote into a course for would-be playwrights, in which I offer feedback on the scripts participants create during the course. Would there be a possibility of doing something similar with your work? Obviously it limits the number of participants, and it’s more work, but you could potentially run your existing courses throughout the year by tweaking them slightly and setting “homework” – the participants report back to you and you can give them individual advice and feedback? I don’t know if running a Facebook page for participants, or hosting a live call during a course, or having some kind of forum might also be solutions – but I know if there’s an element of live interaction then the rules no longer apply. It might be a way of keeping things ticking over for you until we’re all more certain of our positions with these crazy new laws.
Two more good links about the EU VAT:
http://euvataction.org/updates/
http://www.clarejosa.com/articles/from-passion-to-purpose/updates-from-our-meeting-with-hmrc-hm-treasury-and-a-minster-on-4th-december-2014/
It’s clear that we need to apply pressure to MPs and MEPs, and this is particularly important for anyone in a non-UK EU state, otherwise it sounds as if it’s just the UK complaining about it.