Right Now : I Love What I Do

Yesterday morning I woke up and it was pouring with rain.

I groaned inside as I had a market on and the thought of

loading and unloading everything in the rain was not a pleasant thought.

Then I thought of all the people I would see, the friends I have made,

the customers both new and old and my heart was filled with joy because
I love what I do.

You may remember that in September last year I took voluntary redundancy

from working for a company that I had worked for, for 19 years.

I was feeling a little lost to start with and I thought I would take my time

before I found a new part time job.

My plan was that I would focus on my craft and do all the things I had been
meaning to do but never had time to.

Then in the New Year I would look for a new job.

A week later Master O's school sent home a newsletter and at the bottom of the page the 

special needs coordinator at Master O's school had posted an advert for someone to work 

with two boys every school day from 8.30am to 9am.

When I saw this advert I thought I can do this whatever it is!

I had a little free time.

I also thought it would be nice to give back to others.

I had no idea if it paid or not.

I had a meeting with the special needs teacher only to find out that I would be
working with the school and a Developmental Optometrist helping
these two young boys do eye training exercises .

Master O struggles at times with fine and gross motor skills.

Three years ago I took Master O to see a Developmental Optometrist.
Mr O and I ended up doing  eye exercises every day with Master O for months to train him to track
with his eyes and not his head.

(Master O is now one of the top readers in his class)

Well when everyone found out that I already had some experience with Developmental Optometry
I went from having two students to having seven students and working two hours a day

in paid employment.

So 3 weeks after taking redundancy I had a new job.

Its a job that I absolutely love, it is so fulfilling and rewarding for both myself and the kids.
 It is also so very different from my last 19 years of working in many different
roles in the travel industry.

The eye training has been so successful that we are now

 the pilot school for trying this out with children in New Zealand.

We now have 4 trainers and over 20 students on the programme.

You can learn more about Developmental Optometry here
 

 So now I have a great part time job and time to do the things I wanted to with my craft business.

I have set up a wholesale list and approached stores about selling my wares.

Many years ago I was a Business Development manager winning business
for the travel company I worked for.

Now I am trying to win over suppliers for my business.

Its much more personal when its your own product that you are trying to promote.

There are times when I have thought life would be easier if I went back to travel and

just made my sewing a hobby not a business.

Being the creator, the marketer, the book keeper etc can be full on.

I have a new motto this year that is on the blackboard in my kitchen.

It reads:

It would be easy to go back to travel and I may one day as it is another passion of mine.

But today my passion is my little craft business that is growing daily

thanks to my new suppliers and my lovely customers.

So I do get out of bed on rainy days with joy in my heart.

Because I love what I am doing right now.
As it was the sun came out and I did not get rained on at all!

 

Flowers everywhere

I had a lovely week away with Master O and his best friend Miss B.

As I could not take my sewing machine with me I did quiet a bit of

hand sewing.

I have some beautiful new Fairy Sprite Crowns that will

make it into my online shop later this week.

Plus I worked on some new Hydrangea purses for a store order.

Here is a sneak peak of a few:

Large Essential or Ipad Cases

We are in the middle of school holidays here in New Zealand.

Master O is off school for 2 weeks.

He has a big assignment for school all based on his family tree.

So this next week we are off on a road trip to visit his grandparent's 

to find out all about where his ancestors came from.

In amongst all this I have been sewing away at 

Ipad Cases, Purses and Cushions for 

Mothers Day.
Here is a peak at some of my creations.

I love this lining in the Owl Ipad or Large Essentials Case.

You can find the cases for sale here

Laptop Case

I had a lovely lady contact me from Boston 

through Etsy to ask me if I could make her

a laptop case using my fox pattern but adapting it to look 

like her dog which is a "Shiba Inu".

I looked up pictures of Shiba Inu Dogs

they are just beautiful.

Here is a picture of one here:

Here is the case

While I made this case I made another to sell that is slightly different in design.

This case is in my Etsy Store

It is designed to fit a

13 inch Macbook Air
13 inch macbook
13 inch Macbook pro
13 inch Laptops

The case measures approximately:
15 inches by 11 inches or 38cm by 28 cm

I am so enjoying doing the fox design.

I thought I would share some other pictures with you that

helped to inspire me.

 

Where is the time going?

I came into the start of this year feeling wonderfully relaxed.

For the first time since having Master O  (10 years ago)  I had a 6 week holiday.

I spent most of the summer at the beach truly relaxing and unwinding.

Here I am at the beach relaxing with Master O.

I set myself some New Years resolutions and some I have achieved.

* I lost 6kgs (Some of it unfortunately came back at Easter)

* I wanted to make some new products (ipad cases, Laptop Cases and Cushions have come about)

* I wanted to get my product into more stores (I have 4 new stockists)

*I wanted a beautiful new veggie patch. This proved to be a big job. Here I am helping to move 6 cubic metres of top soil in the rain!

Here is the planting team of  Mr O, Master O and his best friend Miss B

These planter boxes are now beautiful to behold.

Every night at least one thing on our dinner plates comes from our new veggie patch.

* I wanted to make Master O a MILK BOOK of the first 10 years of his life.

This also proved to be a big project.

I finally finished it and it arrived in the post about two weeks ago.

Master O looks at it almost every day.

It was a huge success.

I highly recommend Milk books.

*I wanted to do more exercise. 

I started the year walking every day with a hiss and a roar.

Now I am truly a back slider!

These were just a few of my resolutions,  there are still more and it is already April. 

Where does the time go!

I started this blog to share with others and lately I feel I don't get to do this blog justice.

So I will add to my list to make more time to blog!

I do want to share with you one of my proudest moments from the past few months.
Master O achieved one of his New Years resolutions.
He entered and completed the "Weetbix Tryathalon"
This was huge for him as he has challenges with his fine and gross motor skills.
This young mans drive and determination is just so inspiring to me.

I leave you one very busy proud mother
(Who has been sewing I promise I will show you soon)

What New Years resolutions have you achieved?
I would love to hear from you.

Teal

Just recently I found a beautiful Teal blanket.

A few days later my lovely friend Alice found me a second

Teal blanket.

Anytime I do colourful designs on Teal they

just seem to pop!

Here is my latest Teal Cushion

You can find this cushion for sale in my 

Felt Store.

This past week my good friend Renee had a birthday.

She loves Teal and Owls so I made her

an Ipad or Large Essentials case.

I so love this linning.

Little Big Market

I had a lovely time at the
"Little Big Market"

at Mt Maunganui on Saturday.

Mr O came along and snapped a few pictures of my stall that I

thought I would share with you.
Can you spot me I am dressed in turquoise.

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