Archive of ‘Craft and Creativity’ category

How do you manage it?

I used to be scared of people asking me how I managed everything, because I really felt like I didn’t. I had a big company, a house to run, 4 children and from the outside everyone thought my life was perfect, but it wasn’t - it was one big fat juggle of a mess that left me crying myself to sleep most nights.

Over the past 3 years I have learned a lot about how to manage to do everything I do. I am one of life’s big achievers, yes. But I also have a fair amount of the lazy bitch inside me, I love to do nothing as much as the next person!

What I’ve learned is that it’s OK to be me. In fact, it’s great to be me.

I currently have 2 busineses that I am building, 4 children, a partner, a big 5 bedroom home with a huge garden to look after, 11 pets and still have time to myself to read, run, go out with friends and just be ME.

I’ve never realised that there was anything special about this, until I have been more in touch with myself recently and have learned to stop and listen to what is being said to me.

This is what I’ve learned :

- Feeding a family of 6 on a budget of £80 a week and consistently not spending more than that and being able to buy whatever you fancy and cook lovely homecooked meals from scratch most nights is not normal. It is a superhero skill and it is something that I can teach other people how to do.

- Being able to go from building a lego house to building a business and back in the space of just a few minutes is awesome.

- The same principles you might apply to growing your business can be applied to growing your life. To growing your relationships. To growing YOU.

My personal development and growth has been huge over the last 3 years. I have learned so much about myself and now I want to share it with you. I built a business from scratch to over 1 million pounds, and lost it. I suffered serious cyber bullying. I split up from my husband and parented my 4 children alone. We were technically homeless for 2 months. I have had to go to foodbanks to feed my family. I have lost everything, and still been able to bring my children up in a way that makes me smile and be thankful for every minute.

If you want to know more about my story and to hear about how I can help you if you feel that you are juggling family, house, business, relationships, children and more than please join my webinar list, I’ll be running the first one next week and will confirm the date and time as soon as I can.

Hugs
xxx


Sketching

I’ve started drawing again which is something I haven’t done for years but I love it and I missed it, more than I realised.

Last night when dinner was cooking I set myself a 5 minute pencil sketch challenge. This is one of my all time favourite photos of Reid when she was a baby.

 

So 5 minutes and a pencil and a piece of paper and I came up with this

 

I’m pleased with it, wish I’d had more time but I like the discipline of setting myself a time limit.

Crochet, away!

I have been practising my crochet more and more these last few weeks, I think I’ve got the bug. Today I decided that I wanted to learn how to crochet hexagons so off I went to Lucy’s blog over at Attic24 and used her Hexagon How to Tutorial.

I’m really pleased with the way they came out, I’ve made 4 out of scraps of yarn and plan to carry on and make some more from some of dad’s silk I think, nice and drapey.

Free pattern, man’s tank

This is a man’s tank pattern I designed for Yarn Forward last year (or maybe even the year before)

It’s been available as a free download on the KNIT blog for a while now but I thought I’d share it here with you too.

Click here to download the pdf pattern.

 

Modern Quilting Launch party

We had a great time at the Modern Quilting Launch party last Friday night in Ray Stitch. Around 40 people came along to help us celebrate the launch of this new magazine and we shopped, ate cupcakes and saw some great demonstrations from quilting machine stockists.

It was fab to see both advertisers, stockists, quilters, designers and readers alike all in the one location chatting about fabric and quilting.

Thanks to Vick for organising it and to Rachel at Ray Stitch for hosting.

Modern Quilting goes on sale tomorrow in WH Smiths and independant news agents around the UK. Your last chance to pre order at £18 instead of £25 runs out today so if you’ve been meaning to subscribe but haven’t yet then click here now!

Creative Scribbling

I love encouraging the kids to draw and write. I found this old envelope with Brooke’s interpretation of how our family will look in 2018.

I love the fact that she has us living in a cottage with Wayne doing the gardening and me riding around on a horse while she drives Trin and Cam around in her car. I plan to save this and show her it in 2018 and see how right she was.

Here are a few of my favourite 2011 bookmarks

Here are a few of my favourite things….

- I am going to buy buy a pattern and make a skirt

- I have a million bags, and one other Cath Kidston messenger bag already but I’d love this one too.

- This headband is really cute, as are lots of the other goodies on this page.

- One of the online people who I respect a lot is Denise from Matilda Jane. She has no idea who I am but her excitement and business passion is contagious, I love her clothes, I love her blog and I love her writing style.

- This website makes me want to get married all over again. And since we found out that the wedding Wayne and I had back in 2003 may not be legal (the short story is church wedding, vicar later arrested for fake marriages, no record of our wedding anywhere at all, he either destroyed records or we were never actually married!) then we may just have to do it. Either that or both run very fast in opposite directions, we haven’t made our minds up yet.

- This post touched me and made me cry. Its in my favourites and I go back and re-read it every now and again. The subject of depression is a whole other conversation that needs to be had but not right now.

- Brilliant hats, I have a whole bag of T shirts to one side to make them.

- I discovered this clothing range in New York a few years ago. Still love everything about them. Now they ship to the UK. Dangerous.

2011 - a brief recap

With only 6 hours to go until next year its time for my mini recap of 2011. I’ve spoiled myself with lovely Marks and Spencers food for this evening, I almost can’t wait to get these kids to bed.

A lot has happened this year. Business wise we’ve had some good times and some very very bad times. Personal wise its been OK, but next year needs to be better!

The best thing that has happened this year :

Launching Handmade Living and seeing the amazing response to the magazine that Charlotte and I have dreamed of for the longest time. Mum and I saw a lady in WHS in Cambridge today who picked it up off the shelf to buy, I think we scared her though when we announced who we were and practically stalked her to the checkout!

The worst thing that has happened this year :

KAL Media going into liquidation.

What am I most proud of?

Keeping going. When I’ve wanted to curl up in a ball and quit so many times these last 12 months I’m really proud of every day that I manage to get out of bed and get on with it.

What have I learned about myself?

That its OK to admit to making mistakes and its OK to hate yourself for making them, but don’t dwell. Move on.

What new skills have I learned?

How to run! This time last year I had never even run for a bus. Now I can run 5 miles. I was also reminded by clever mum in Cambridge this afternoon that you can only rely on YOU to make YOU happy. If you’re happy then anyone else can come along for the ride but you can’t rely on them to make you happy.

Here’s to a successful 2012 for us all!

Happy New Year! xx

A little bit of knitting

I’m knitting a jumper at the moment for KNIT magazine. The photographs that we had were good but not quite good enough for what we wanted but we weren’t given a sample to work with so we decided that the best course of action was for me to knit one over Christmas. I’ve knitted the body from from bottom up to armpits in one piece and am halfway through the first sleeve. I hope to finish both sleeves this weekend and then get onto the yoke on Monday!

This is a not very good photo of the progress so far, I’ll take a better one later.