New year new studio! - Studio tour

I cannot believe I finally have a proper studio to work in! I have worked in my parents loft, a spare bedroom, the corner of a living room and a dining room,  now I have a purpose built building completely separate to our house! It feels like I have a 'proper' job, I can go to work in the morning and then at the end of the day shut all my work away and head home - the long commute home!

I thought I would share a few photos so you can see where I work - 

If you prefer a video tour head over to my instagram to watch a tour on IGTV 

I set up the room into sections , George built this amazing desk which I have one section as a laptop/admin space, a design area and then my favourite area! The hot chocolate station :)

The next area is the back wall where I have my two embroidery machines , then a large blue work station which I found for super cheap at a car boot sale in the summer! I think its supposed to be for a kitchen but it works perfectly in my work room.

I have my janome sewing machine which was a gift for my 16th birthday! its still going strong 14 years later! Bea is a big fan of the new space , she gets to snooze in the sun whilst watching the birds in the field - best life ever or what?!

I hope you have enjoyed this little look around! Links to everything I can find below in case you want to shop! 

Yellow office chairs

Do what you love neon - we took the plastic backing off and replaced with wood 

similar pink heart neon

Flamingo neon

Iridescent Biscuit tin

Pros and Cons to being self employed

I thought I would share with you my pros and cons of being self employed. I have been self employed for just about three years, for me it seemed like a huge and scary jump but it has actually been the best step I could of made and has allowed me to be involved in lots of different creative projects and has developed my design skills further as I am now not only able to work freelance for other designers but I can set my own briefs and really push my work experimenting with styles and techniques as I am my own boss.

Pros -

- I am able to set my own work schedule with flexible working hours 

- I have the ability to work from home which means I can just roll out of bed into my studio

- No Boss- I only have myself to answer to 

-I work only for me , I work a lot but I know that what I do is for myself, all the work is for my own good and knowing that it is much easier to work all night long.

- I get all the credit. When you have a boss the credit goes to them when you work for yourself it all goes to you! I get to hear first hand all the lovely feedback

- You will learn everything - As I am my own company , I have learned to be my own IT , marketing, design  and sales. I learn so much more working for myself then I would ever learn as an employee.

Cons-

- Not being able to switch off - Even though one of my pros was the fact that I can plan my own working day I do often find it hard to switch off and I can never really fully leave my work at work.

- I am my own boss- This can also be a con, as technically I can tell myself to have the day off or take a longer lunch break, sometimes when motivation is low this can be a con!

- Working alone- I found working everyday from my studio alone to be incredibly lonely and for someone that suffers a lot with anxiety this does not help.

- I do everything myself- This can be extremely over whelming as I design, make , promote and post all my products and sometimes this can all get on top of me and if anything goes wrong I am always to blame.

I feel like at the moment I have the perfect balance and a couple of things that have helped me would be having my own studio - even though this is still in my house I am able to shut the door and keep it separate from my living space. 

Another thing that has helped me massively is having a little job on the side, just a couple of days a week helps me have more of a routine and having worked on my own for a couple of years from home It actually made my anxiety a lot worse, I found myself going days without actually speaking to anyone and just working away in my own little world so personally for me working completely for myself didn't work, but now I have that balance I am much more productive and motivated to work on my own projects. 

I hope this was helpful to anyone thinking of going self employed! It was definitely worth it for me now I can see all my work starting to pay off . I am able to create the things I want to create and put what is in my head into reality.

 It is just about finding a balance that works for you.

A day in the life - Working in my studio

 I thought I would share with you a normal day working in my studio, so when im not an embroidery assistant for a local company I work around three days from home in my studio on freelance textile jobs but also on my own products for my ASOS boutique , I love days like these as my studio is defiantly my favourite place. To me its really inspiring and helps me come up with my new collections.

 On a usual day I would wake up around 8am and make a little fruit smoothie get back into bed skim through some magazines and put something on my laptop to watch whilst I add a little make-up to my face! Even though most days when working from home I am only popping out to the post office I still like to get dressed as it helps to motivate me into getting moving! 

By 9am I have made it into my studio room and set up my laptop responding to emails, checking my social media accounts and of course making a list! This helps to plan my day and ensure I best make use of my time.

I will then write up and package sales from the previous day which I will either go straight to post or set aside to post later in the day. Then I will either start designing or creating my products. On this particular day I was starting to create products for my SS15 collection which involves tropical marble prints for a range of bags and clothing.

At the end of the day I will check back over my emails and plan a few social media posts! I would usually finish my work day around 5pm but sometimes I will write up product descriptions or plan shoots in the evening in front of the TV :)

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of what I do I would love to hear what you guys get up to day to day.

What I am wearing -

Black crop  , Primark sandals, H&M loose trousers , Bee necklace, Engagement ring (custom made), Small heart ring  , Turquoise ring  , Glitter ring

The Janome overlocking machine is a new addition and I would highly recommend! So easy to thread and makes for a super professional finish 

Instagram  Facebook page , Boutique, Bloglovin

Valentines Palm House

I thought I would share a couple of photos taken over valentines weekend, This is our seventh valentines together and our first as an engaged couple! 

 Over the valentines weekend we took a trip to Oxford mainly to visit the botanical gardens as I am starting to research for my next print collection, but also to roam the pretty streets of Oxford which are full of independent boutiques and cute little cake shops. The gardens are so pretty even at this time of year, the palm house was my favourite and as you can see from my photos it was pretty dreamy. I am excited to see how my lomography film has come out too!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend :)

New year Organisation

There is nothing better in the new year than an organised desk!
For me organised means that I know where everything is but is somewhat of an organised mess, to some my desk would be their idea of hell!
I like to be surrounded by things that inspire me and make me happy whilst I work.

The wall behind my desk is used to display cute photos, stickers and my handmade mini pom pom garland, but it is also used to inspire! I used these nifty little hangers from ikea to hold any current inspiration from magazines , photography and fabric swatches, these are super useful as I can easily switch them up when it comes to my next project. The curtain rail is from ikea that we have just cut down to fit which I use to store my ribbons and washi tape to package my orders. The little globe was a Christmas present from my dad as he knows I love globes! this is perfect for my work space it has a little light and it rotates which is really cute!
I thought the desktop background would help inspire me I downloaded it from corina over on her pretty blog.

New Years resolutions