Tuesday 1 May 2012

Back from hibernation...x

Oh where to begin..? First of all I must apologise for disappearing in mid-December.  I have to admit that at one point I thought I might have gone for ever (from my blog that is) but I have made the brave decision to start typing and just take one small step at a time.  Sorry if I sound super dramatic, it is after all just a little blog about little old me and my slowly growing baby business but in November and December things got quite crazy as I had taken on so much and I realised that the most important thing was not nurturing my floundering little business but nurturing my precious little baby boy. 

I think I set myself the impossible task (or very difficult at least) of taking my business to the next step in the hope that I might at one point in the near future be able to be a stay at home mum.  This meant not only making lots of lovely things but the all important selling!  I therefore needed to get my products to the people so signed up to do five fairs between mid October and mid December. All sounded fine in theory but with the preparation of making all of the products and then the time spent at the fairs I realised that turning one/ into a full time venture with a full time job to return to and a little boy to get to know was just not possible at this time.

So I literally returned from my last fair, put all of my cushions and trees in the loft and became a full time mummy for a while..and my little bundle has very quickly grown from this...




To this...I definitely made the right decision!  How could I miss a moment...



We had a lovely first family christmas together and have played, walked, row row rowed the boat in sing-along, stretched in baby yoga, made our first splash in the swimming baths, dipped our fingers in the sea and thrown countless plates of food all over the floor...it has been great, but now I am ready to come out of hibernation and stop being scared of failure.  I realised that having my business and designing and making lovely things are as much a part of me as being a mum and to stay whole and happy one/ is an important part of that.

Maybe I will never sell in Liberty or make a name for myself like Donna Wilson but I will keep designing, making and trying!  Hundreds of one/ products are already all over the UK as well as in many different countries so I am moving in the right direction.

Well anyway, sorry for the slightly rambling and hopefully not too tedious blog post, I just wanted to try and explain and hopefully have made some sense.  I can't tell you how many times I have sat at my laptop to write this post and haven't been able to, so now that it's written I can move onto lighter and more colourful things and will show you some of the new things that I have been working on as well as giving you a little peak into my studio.  

I promise to be back soon x



5 comments:

sweetpea family said...

so glad you are back ........can't wait to read more x

The Little Cloth Rabbit said...

Ah bless you- you are so not alone! you will prob. find yourself asking the same questions every few months. "Am I too tired for this?" "Am I being fair to my son" "should I just go back to my original job" etc etc but I think you've hit the nail on the head when you wrote 'creating is a part of me' I tell myself this everyday because I don't think its right to give that part of me up so to speak as it is so important to me. I want to be a great Mum but I also need to design. If you're interested have a read of my Mummy Monday posts & if you want to join in let me know :) Obviously no pressure though as clearly I know how strapped for time us Mummys are!

If you read this post first it explains why I'm doing the Mummy posts:

http://littlebrownrabbit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/summers-walk.html

then this is an example of one of my mummys and her typical day:
http://littlebrownrabbit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/mummy-monday-with-cupcakes-for-clara.html

I think its so important for Mums to realise how hard it is juggling work and being a Mother & it made me feel comforted to know that I'm not alone & that there is no special answer- you just need to work out what balance works for you :)

Hope all this made sense! Am hurrying as I need to wake the little one up now!

one/of a kind boutique said...

Emma, thank you so much for your comment, you have made me feel so much better, I can't tell you! I have just put Jake to bed and am now juggling my dinner (plain chicken and 25 pieces of wholemeal pasta...as I am dieting in preparation for my upcoming wedding, and have been living on chocolate buttons and organix baby crisps for the last few months!) with my laptop and notebook full of to do lists!

I am back to work in five weeks and am still without a nursery, in the middle of planning a wedding and trying to bring my business back to life after I abandoned it in December.

It is so comforting to know that I am not alone , your email and posts have really motivated me and also made me feel like I am not failing. I would love to be part of your Mummy Monday x x

The Little Cloth Rabbit said...

Youre very welcome!

I had to plan a wedding (and diet ;)) too which we had just after Evie turned 1! arghhhhh!

Just keep patting yourself on the back- you are doing a grand job.

Anytime you feel ready- there is no deadline- send me an email of your typical day to show how you are juggling everything & I'll write a post & include some images of your work. :)

if you write it in bullets like the other mummies its much quicker to do :)

Don't forget if you need a break- take one! I've found if I don't I get so exhausted it takes me longer to recover.

xx

Jeffrey Finley said...

Loveed reading this thanks