A New Year and a New Project

I made a big change at the end of last year: I moved across the country (to the seaside!) and bought a flat.

I rather optimistically assumed I'd have time to go sit in cafes a few days after I'd moved in, drinking tea and using the free WiFi to write some blog posts about the move and my Christmas plans and so on.

Did this actually happen? Of course it didn't!

Instead, I spent a couple of busy weeks moving boxes and cleaning and doing DIY (with help from my parents) and shopping for important but rather boring things like a fridge and a cooker and paint and a new thermostat for the central heating and a plug for the bathroom sink...

... and then after all that, I collapsed in a heap under a blanket over Christmas :)

Now it's 2017 already!  

I love the possibilities a new year brings, and I'm really excited about this one: putting down roots in a new place, exploring the local area, and making this flat my own.

The flat is going to be my big project for the year - I've got lots of DIY to do, and of course I have already started a Pinterest board of decorating ideas.

I'll still be blogging about crafty things and my Nice Days Out though, don't worry! This isn't suddenly going to become a home decorating blog (though there might be the occasional update now and then!). I've got some fun work projects coming up and lots of creative plans in my sketchbooks which I can't wait to share with you all.

It's been almost 10 years since I started this blog (can you believe it?). I hope you guys will enjoy following along with my crafty adventures for another year.

P.S. The fab minimalist calendar on my wall is a free download from Foreign Rooftops.

Springing Forward

If you've visited my Etsy or Big Cartel shops this week you'll have seen that I've been taking a short break.

It's been a busy week, with a jam-packed Nice Day Out in London, then a trip to Manchester (for my first proper holiday in years, hurrah!) and now lots of designing and typing and sewing as I catch up with emails etc and work on some projects with looming deadlines.

My shops will both re-open on Tuesday (1st April) (how is it almost April already???) and I'll be blogging about my recent travels as soon as I get a chance to sort through the photos. I've been to lots of awesome places this week, I can't wait to share them with you guys!

Obviously it's never too fun to get back to work after some time off, but I feel really refreshed by my break and excited about the stuff I've got planned for the next couple of months.

Here on the blog I've got some awesome guest posts lined up, lots of new tutorials in-progress, a whole bunch of cool craft books to review and there'll be some giveaways too! I'm also really looking forward to the next crafty tutorial link-up in May (this time the theme is flowers - check out this post for all the details).

Behind the scenes I'm working on a bunch of fun projects for different books and magazines which I'm delighted to be contributing too - I've got to keep them secret for the moment but I will of course share details as soon as I'm allowed to!

I'm also determined to schedule some more Nice Days Out now that the weather's getting warmer... especially as lots of the National Trust properties I can get into with my Art Pass are re-opening after their winter closures and there's a whole bunch of exhibitions in London that I'd like to see before they end.

As I'm sure I've talked about before, I've been finding it so rewarding to schedule proper time off instead of working every day (even if just for a little bit) like I used to. Okay so sometimes it doesn't quite work out and I work long days for two weeks straight but most of the time the prospect of going somewhere nice / seeing an exhibition I really want to see / etc proves to be a great incentive for me to get my act together and get my tasks for the week finished... or just to force me to take some time off instead of being a bad boss and making myself work all the time and never switch off.

Having resolved to have 50 Nice Days Out this year (plus two short breaks) is working very well for me, as it's roughly one a week but I can fit them in as and when it suits me. I'm going to be trying the same "system" with Making Days to "force" myself to make more time in my schedule for being creative and working on new designs.

Oh, and I've also bought a ticket to this year's Blognix which should be fun! :)

A Change in Direction & A Very Big Sale

I've got some news to share today... I've decided to make a big change to my business! I'm going to stop making/selling my range of handmade felt things (for a while, at least), and instead focus on designing, blogging and writing.

I've loved making and selling handmade things over the past six and a half years, but it's time for a change! There are a lot of reasons for this but a big part of it is that juggling my handmade shop with my other projects means that one side of my business is always a bit neglected as there's just not enough hours in the week to do both - not without going crazy from overwork, anyway! Instead of continuing to not-very-successfully juggle both sides of my business, I've decided to take the leap of picking a side and devoting all my working time and energy to it.
 
Making a big change like this is quite scary (okay, very scary!) but it feels like the right direction for me at the moment. I love designing things and I'm excited about having more time in my week (and space in my brain!) to do this.

I'm still going to be doing lots of crafting, and blogging about it here... and actually I'm going to have more time for blogging than usual this autumn/winter, so expect more free crafty tutorials, book reviews and other fun stuff :)

And though I'm discontinuing all my current designs (all the brooches, headbands, masks & other handmade things I currently sell in my shops), I'll still be selling a few handmade things from time to time, as I'll have samples from tutorials that'll be in need of a good home.

There will also be lots of new PDF patterns popping up in my shop(s) next year ... including tutorials for making some of my most popular designs, like the British Birds. (Psst - if there's a particular design of mine that you'd love to see as a PDF tutorial, do let me know!).

I'm excited about this new direction, and I hope you guys will be too xxx

So, I'm having a big clearance sale to sell off all my current stock! All my handmade items (the brooches, headbands, masks, ornaments, etc) in my shops are now on sale - at least 50% off their original price. Hurrah! 

The biggest range of stock is available in my Big Cartel shop, but you can also shop in my Etsy, Folksy or DaWanda shops. 

 

Thinking about Work

I've been thinking lots of big thoughts lately about money and work and happiness... about my plans for my business (and my life!) for the next few years ... and about how I can make as much of my working life fit into the middle of this Venn diagram as possible :)

Big News: Farewell Felt Squares

I've got some (slightly sad) news to share today: I've decided to stop selling felt squares & craft supplies in my shops.

I've really enjoyed selling supplies - especially all that colourful felt! It's been a big part of my business identity for years now, and I've loved sending parcels out around the world and seeing what people have been making with the felt, etc.

But it's been increasingly hard for me to juggle the handmade side of my business (and my writing work) with the demands of running the supplies shops. My parents have been helping out in busy times this past year but I really need my business to be something I can sustainably run myself as a single lady without making myself nuts from overwork.

And while I currently have the space to store lots of felt squares etc because my parents are letting me run my business out of their spare room...  I'm not likely to have that space for much longer. I'm not sure exactly what my life is going to look like in the next few years, but I definitely want it to involve moving out of my parents house and into a shared flat or a small place of my own and needing space for loads of felt & other stock definitely makes that plan a lot more complicated (if not impossible!).

I'd been thinking about this stuff for a while and had been planning on gradually putting more time and energy into the other parts of my business and then winding up the supplies side of things in the next year or two, but in recent months the cost of my supplies have gone up and there have been some quality issues... and then the Royal Mail announced their new prices, and it turns out that the majority of supplies-filled parcels I post will be more than doubling in price from April (the rate for that size & weight category is going up by almost 110% which is just crazy!)... so, well, it just feels like a good time to make a change.

So, if you want some bundles of felt or any of the other supplies I've got listed, grab them while you can! The biggest selection is available in my Big Cartel shop, HERE.

I'm sad about saying goodbye to this bit of my business, and I'm sorry to be disappointing any of my regular customers...  but I hope you guys will support me while I make this leap into new things! And once all of my stock has sold, I'll be doing a post with lots of links for alternative suppliers for felt squares so my old customers can find new supplies shops to buy from.

I'll still be blogging and crafting and making handmade items and writing tutorials, and when the supplies shop is closed I'll have even more time and energy for all that stuff (hurrah!)

This sort of change is scary, but exciting too and I have lots of fun crafty things planned :)

Recharging My Batteries

Boy am I tired. I've been crashed out on my folks' sofa all day, even out-snoozing the cat!

I definitely needed these few days a way to catch up on some sleep & generally get a bit of rest & relaxation.

It's also (already) nice to be thinking about my crafting without being able to get on and do it, if that makes sense. I can make plans, but there's no pressure to get started on any of it cos all my supplies are elsewhere and I can't access my files or my photos or my accounts or anything like that. It's just me, and my head, and thinking about things. Which is rather nice.

Two things have come up already:
1) how much time supplies selling has taken up over the past couple of months (and how much space it takes up in my spare room!)
2) how many designs I have sketched and scribbled on scraps of paper awaiting sewing

These two do seem to be vaguely related. The supplies thing was a bit of an experiment and I definitely want to make being creative my priority, devoting as much time in my week as possible to actually making stuff.... so I think I'm going to cut back on the felt squares available in my shop sometime soon. I'm definitely going to carry on selling my 60 mini squares packs for the time being because I love them, but the 9 inch squares will probably disappear once my current stock runs down (I'll put a proper announcement about it in my shop & my felt listings soon). I love sending out little bundles of colour to crafty people, but I have to be selfish and make my own crafting a priority.

Crafting-wise, I have been sewing together a bundle of bird ornaments that have been in my wip box for at least a year I think. Three of them won't be coming home with me as my mother has already nabbed them for her tree (an early Christmas present!). I've also started turning lots of those roughly scribbled designs into pattern-ready drawings to work from when I get back home.

Oh, and one of my brooches was on the Etsy front page last night (or was it early this morning? while I was asleep at any rate). Thanks so much to lazygiraffe for including me in her sunset-inspired selection and to fivedot for letting me know & for the screenshot!
(oh, and belated thankyous to Munieca and Bombus for sending me screenshots of previous front pagers - lovely Etsy people one and all!)