Getting my Craft On

Pre-children, I loved to craft. Looking back, I'm not sure I was that good at it but I enjoyed it. Any spare time that I had after work, I loved being able to sit down and play with fabrics and see what I could come up with.  

My first sewing machine was my MiL's old Toyota one. It was clumpy and quite basic and I was bloody terrified of using it so it sat on the floor of my office/workspace for a good six months or so before I even dared to open the box up and have a good look at it.  After I got over my initial nervousness, D gave me a new sewing machine for Christmas and I immediately loved it.  

After a while of messing about in my workspace and after doing a little research, I opened my little shops on Etsy and Folksy and managed to sell a few bits, 75 sales in total, which isn't too bad for a hobby. And then, I found out I was pregnant with E and slowly but surely the time and motivation to make dwindled and then, when she was born, it was just impossible for me to get anything done!

We have since moved so all of my fabrics, cottons and other materials and tools are packed away as I have nowhere to store them just yet.  The long term plan is that I will have my own workspace again but that's quite some time off and so, since then, the only time my sewing machine has been used is to adjust hems and mend clothes.  I have worked a little on some hexies that I've started putting together but to be honest, that's a long and time consuming project that I dip in and out of. I'm still not even sure what I'm going to do with it once it reaches a good size! 

The last few nights have seen me starting to sort & join my hexies. I don't know if I have enough or what I'm even making with them but I'm enjoying it all the same. The last time I did anything like this was before E was born! Can't wait for my own work space to be able to leave everything out...

A post shared by Kate (@newmummykate) on Jan 29, 2017 at 1:45am PST

Earlier in the year though, armed with chalk paints, I slowly started to work on some new things.  First of all, I painted some shelves that I picked up for the girls bedrooms, followed by a hippo head that I had hanging in our conservatory and a few other items I found along the way. 

Recently though, D and his family have opened a new shop which has given me the opportunity to pop a few bits in there.  The shop has only been opened a few weeks so its still very early days yet but I popped a towel rail in that I had picked up cheap on Shpock and painted green... it sold in less than a fortnight. That's given me a confidence boost and so I've started picking up a number of items to refurb and sell on.  I currently have a glass display cabinet, a side board, a corner cupboard and a table and chairs to work on!  (Are you following me on Instagram? I share some of what I'm up to over there!)

(excuse the clutter in the background, I'm working in my conservatory with lots around me!)

I'm not sure that this is something I'll ever be able to make a living from but its something I'm enjoying doing and if I have the chance to make a few pennies from it, I'll take it.