When I was pregnant I came over ‘all creative’. I was in nesting overdrive and I wanted to make my new baby feel very welcome and loved when he arrived. I don’t really ‘do’ cooking, so I didn’t ever get any major drive to start baking – which many women do. Instead, I  found myself making a decorative hanging thingy for his little travel capsule (see above). I loved making the accessory. It was brightly coloured. A fun design. Had some bells so it rattled. I loved it and proudly hung it across his capsule, awaiting his imminent arrival. Some people questioned if he might choke on it – my thinking was, he can’t lift his own head so doubt he will be gnawing on it too soon! More people questioned where did I get the decorative hangy thing from. Apparently it was quite cool and a refreshing change from all the naff plastic stuff available! It was also the reason I got chatting to a girl who worked in a gorgeous homewares store (which I used to be able to afford to shop in & cannot wait to be able to do again – whenever I go in there I am reminded of a favourite ‘Ab Fab’ quote where Eddie says, “I want to be all of these things!”). She asked me where I got the accessory from and when I explained I made it she suggested I might like to make them for the shop. “The local mums would luuurve it!”. I thought about it but decided I would never make money out of ‘my art’ – handmade is labour & time intensive and I thought it would be near impossible to even cover my supplies costs, let alone my time. So, I didn’t try it.

Funny thing is, I now have a business that is all about hand-made. It is all about making money out of my ‘art’ too. And, it is all about colour and design. Everything that I love and which was so clearly demonstrated by the capsule decoration I made 5 years ago.

The girl who used to work in the homewares store now owns it. She now stocks my handmade leather notebooks.

So, the point of this is not to discount doing ANYTHING YOU LOVE. Anything that suddenly inspires you to act is a step forward to being authentic you. There are so many stories of people turning their passion or hobby into a business. It IS POSSIBLE. And, that really excites me. You just never know where that little bit of inspiration could lead you. It’s all about listening to your heart and taking action.

All of these thoughts came to me after making a delivery of Valentine’s Notebooks to ‘Villandry’ in Lindfield this-morning. Feels good to remember all the history that has brought me to this point. And, it took Finn and I on a trip down memory lane this-evening looking through his baby photo’s and videos. Made me a little clucky……uh oh!