All about me

Hello and welcome to my little corner of Blogville!

My name is Ali and I live in a cosy (meaning very small) Victorian cottage in an odd location in Kent, England. I am mummy to a bright and gorgeous three-year-old girl, and wife to my lovely hubby Dan.

I am a working parent – I work four days a week for a homelessness charity in London. I find this dual life difficult at times – juggling the work-me and the crafty-homebody-me. The homebody-me nearly always spills over into my working life, and never vice-versa, which is how it should be. If I could have it all my way I wouldn’t have to commute to London ever, I would stay at home all day playing with my daughter, baking cakes and creating a gorgeous home. Then in the evening I would effortlessly create beautiful handcrafted objects that people would want to buy for large amounts of cash to keep me in the manner to which I am accustomed (so just enough for tea and biscuits and the odd bottle of chilled white wine..)

I started this blog in December 2008 to encourage myself to allow time for creating things every day. It started as a simple premise – create one thing every day. But it grew bigger than that. It became about reconnecting with my creative self, allowing and making the time to create, and sharing the process with my daughter and my family. The things I write about have expanded from crafts alone to posts about family life and all the things that inspire me.

I have chilled out since this blog began; if I fancy abandoning a piece of embroidery because I suddenly decide I want to teach myself to crochet than so be it! If I want to let my mosaic tools get dusty for a while I hone my sewing skills, so what! If I want to abandon all the above and make mini polyclay sculptures, well, I will. There are, after all, no craft police ready to swoop if I deviate.

As a result I am a happier, more rounded person (physically as well as emotionally as crafting seems to bring on the tea and biscuits a lot…) I build art and crafting into my life every day, and I am less twitchy if the washing-up doesn’t get done, though my husband might disagree.

So now you know me!

Please feel free to stay and browse! I always love to get comments and emails and to get to know you all so don't be afraid to say hello!

Ali
xx