Sunday 31 May 2026 Dear Diary, Guess what? I made a website this week! Well, it has actually been in the works for some time, but I did finally publish it yesterday, amidst some nervous heart flutters and a bit of imposter syndrome. I've named it Fantail Cottage Dreams, after my design brand which has my second pattern collection featured here and is available for licensing (wow! shameless self-promotion, sorry about that).
Why Fantail Cottage Dreams? You may ask. Where did the name come from? In 2020, during lockdown here in New Zealand, I spent five weeks at home with plenty of time to kill. After completing five quilts, and a lot of baking, I mean A LOT, plus almost 40 days of writing a lockdown diary on Facebook to stave off cabin fever, I was really getting into the laid-back feeling of "practice retirement". I began to daydream about building a cottage studio in our back yard and becoming a full-time creative professional. I imagined sitting on the porch of my cottage studio early in the morning, enjoying an emotional support coffee after hubby went to work, with a visiting fantail chirping nearby and our dogs for company, before going inside my studio and embarking on a day of making beautiful things, to make people happy.
Fast forward to now. I call myself a chronic crafter (if you read the "About Me", you know this already), there are two reasons for this. Firstly, because I am a lifelong crafter, I sew, quilt, draw (sort of, more doodling), cross stitch, crochet, upcycle chairs with macrame (well, only one so far, but you get the point) and I actually had a knitting "side hustle" from the age of 15 until I was 31, funnily enough, it paid to build a small sleepout studio, when I still lived at home, My first "cottage" if you will. The second reason for the chronic crafter title, well, that one sucks. I have Fibromyalgia, Ankylosing Spondylitis and Psoriatic Arthritis, Yay for Me! Fortunately, being creative is great therapy (distraction) on the tough days. Recently the tough days overtook the good ones, and several medication changes later, I was just beginning to feel better when I ended up losing my job.
While the timing sucked, it gave me the freedom and time to finally learn how to be an artist and creative full-time. And maybe, just maybe, it will become a way for me to independently earn a living again on my terms, and when my health allows, so that one day, I will get to sit out on that cottage porch with my coffee, my awesome hubby, and our dogs, and be serenaded by my little fantail buddy.
A girl can dream, can't she?
Shameless self-promotion number two....
A mockup of THE sweetest teapot, featuring my Pear Harvest pattern in Moonlit White, from the Twilight Magic colourway in The Healing Garden collection, which is "coincidentally" (wink) currently available for licensing, possibly on fabric, or maybe on an actual teapot, or coffee mug.........