If you're anything like me you're a tiny bit nosey... or maybe a lot...
I think it comes with being a scrapbooker, I love looking at people's albums and hearing their stories....
I thought you might like a little glimpse into my world.... here goes.......
My why......
I spent 25 years working for a big UK corporate in the IT department.. Travelling across the UK, long hours, 5 weeks holiday a year. I really enjoyed what I did (I'm still a geek when it comes to technology and computers), but it was stressful, and I missed seeing my children as I was often away for a few days at a time.
I always had a part time craft business too, I dreamed of being my own boss, not answering to anyone except me. My first business was a craft stall selling my own sewing when I was in my early twenties. Then I got the bug for cross stitch, I started a stall on Uxbridge market selling stitching supplies and started commissioned birth samplers.
I'd always enjoyed photography, and a friend introduced me to scrapbooking. I found my absolute love and quickly moved to running scrapbooking and papercraft workshops, and then supplying the products too. but it was still part time - organised around my work and family life.....
Trapped....
.....mortgage payments and raising a family meant it never seemed the right time to quit the guaranteed money of the 9-5 grind.
Over the last few years, a few massive events in my life have changed everything and made me realise that I want my life to be EXTRAORDINARY, not just average.
Lifechanging events
I was made redundant, my husband left and my brother had a life changing illness that has left him confined to a wheelchair.
All of these things made me realise that I needed to grasp every opportunity with both hands. It’s a cliché, but we’ve only got once chance at this, life isn’t a rehearsal….
About being fearless.....
I made a promise to myself to do exactly what I wanted, to be brave, to make my own path and not follow the one that family and friends and social convention had written for me….
That has involved travelling across the world, trying new experiences, changing my lifestyle to something much more healthy, embracing exercise, but also being my own BOSS
Finding the joy
……It’s not easy to work for yourself, but my business - Memories and Photos, and the people I’ve met through my Craft retreats give me more joy, and more pleasure than I ever had in a J-O-B…. My customers have become my good friends, and I look forward to every craft retreat with excitement and anticipation…
.and my business gives me FREEDOM….. and for me, nothing is more precious than deciding for myself how I spend my time and who with……