Looking back through my old blog I found this post. I wrote it in 2013 when i started making things as a hobby. Its good to be reminded of why you do what you do sometimes…
I have always loved crafting and anything creative. However having children can lead you to put so many things on hold. For me I always saw a distinction between what I needed to do and what I wanted to do.
Anyone who has ever tried to manage work / children/ dog / housework / life generally… will know that there are not enough hours in a day. And that from a mum whose son likes a 5am start to the morning!
The first thing you do is to drop the ‘what I want to do’ stuff and hope that leaves you with about enough ‘what I need to do’ time.
I recently moved from making and crafting as a hobby to developing into a business online. Now I see life in a very different way.
I used to see hours of must do chores in front of me by the time the children were in bed. There are, I find, two responses to this
a) spend evening fiendishly cleaning/cooking/being a goddess which leaves a tidy house and well fed family but isn’t particularly restful; or
b) realise it will all be messy again by lunchtime tomorrow so spend the evening watching TV and eating biscuits instead.
Since I moved into taking my crafting seriously enough to develop a business I spend a lot of my (child) free time either creating new ideas and restocking, or connecting through various social media tools to others in the same ‘business’ to learn from and engage with them. As a result the chores have taken a bit of a nosedive. Funnily enough no one but me even notices!
Before I began on this journey I used to get to the evening feeling tired. For a long time I thought about setting up a business online selling what I make. I assumed I wouldn’t have the time or energy for it, so I didn’t take the plunge. I really wish I had.
Having something in the day that is about me and for me makes me feel so much more invigorated about all areas of life. Somehow staying up until midnight to stuff lavender hearts means I wake up less tired than I used to after an evening on the sofa. There is a great satisfaction in creating something completely new and it doesn’t even connect to selling. It is about having an outlet that reminds you who you are.
Every mum should have a hobby. After all if you can make a real person who knows what else you can achieve!!!