the long silence.

Oh dear me. My blogging has been terribly slack lately.

It all started with training for the marathon: all interesting cooking plans were dropped in a haze of exhaustion or due to complete lack of time to get to the shops for interesting ingredients.
Then straight after the marathon came the final few weeks of organising our wedding. Small and low key, but still plenty to be done. And by keeping it low-budget it meant lots of crafting and baking to be done by yours truely.

And now? What's my current excuse? Well, concurrent with planning our wedding I started the process of launching a mini business. Why? Well, next year I hope to start training as a tailor. Its a bit of a leap into a whole new career, but one I've longed to take for years: Well, I'm finally doing it folks! I have a place on a bespoke tailoring training course starting February 2013 in London.  This does of course mean that I will have to leave my sensible, full time, pension-providing employment and take a leap of faith hoping that the new career will pay off. Its looking possible - I've approached some menswear shops in my local area all of whom tell me they haven't enough alteration tailors for the volume of work they receive. I now have about 7 months to save up some money to help me get to and from London for the training course, and also to establish some earnings from sewing that will help bring in at least some cash to our household during the first few months of my training. - Hence the new business.

I have tentatively dipped a toe in the water of becoming a Crafty business. I've been experimenting with designs and making up childrenswear. I've taken on a few orders from friends and colleagues to make dresses, skirts and jackets. I've made a few trinkets and gifts; pocket squares, hankies, hair slides. Last month I took a stall at our local Farmer's market.

Market stall

So far I couldn't honestly say its been lucrative, but there's a little drip of money, some good feedback, and so far minimal outlay. And afterall, I've only been going for 6 weeks! I have a few skills I must prioritise and put time aside to learn, but I'm on my way.

I will be creating a blog for my business and so I don't expect to be having time to regularly write on this one too. To be honest, I feel that the cookery challenge has come to a natural end. It was hugely enjoyable and brilliant for learning new skills and braodening my food horizons, but now I'm saying "over and out".

If you would like to keep up with my sewing business I will update with a link to the new blog shortly, or you can find me on facebook: Whim wham clothing