Ok, so it’s seems appropriate to write a little about who I am, what I do and where I’ve come from. I won’t go into too much detail here about everything as I’d rather leave that for more topic-specific posts in the future.
I’m Michelle, a 30-something mum of one wonderful, funny, sweet, frustrating toddler who shall be known on this blog as No1Son. I’m Australian, but I now live in New Zealand with my patient, creative, successful, fabulous husband who shall henceforth be known as Mr N. My professional background is in Information Technology (IT) - before becoming a mum I was IT Manager for a medium sized winery. I really enjoyed this work, I just didn’t enjoy “working” as such - alarm clocks, office politics, inflexible working conditions, ownership changes, etc. The actual work and (most) of the people I worked with were wonderful.
My work was always very right-brained, technology based which I enjoyed. I love having a problem that needs solving, I like analysing current systems and coming up with better ways to do things and I like having set tasks that I need to complete and getting the satisfaction of finishing something.
But, outside of work I have always felt very drawn to a left-brain type of life. When I dreamed about the perfect job it was never in an office, it was always creating something unique in a beautiful studio, working to my own schedule, hopefully making a reasonable income. As long as I can remember I have always made “stuff” - clothes for my toys, handmade cards, curtains and cushions for my bedroom, etc as a child. I then went through a stage of making cloth dolls, which I really enjoyed. Then it was mohair teddy bears (I actually sold a few too). But I have always loved wearing and buying jewellery and a few years ago I started making my own. Family and friends liked what I made, so I started making them birthday and Christmas presents. I realised that I lost myself and I lost time while I was working on jewellery. Being able to spend a couple of hours in a gem shop made my heart skip a beat.
So, for many years I dreamt of escaping the office and making a living following my creative pursuits. But I never truly believed I could actually make a living out of it, I had family members depending on me, I got married and we had dreams for travel, a home, a family. I doubted my ability to succeed - my inner critic constantly whispered in my ear that I’m not good enough, no-one will like my stuff, I’ll fail and then look a fool. All these things stopped me taking this dream any further.
Then one day at work I was surfing the Internet and stumbled upon Another Girl At Play and it was a revelation - creative women living amazing lives, expressing themselves and actually making a decent living from it. This site was the start of quite a journey through the wonderful world wide web of successful, interesting women sharing their stories, information and inspiration. I now have over a hundred blogs I subscribe to (thankyou Bloglines!) that constantly inspire me.
Then in the space of 2 years I experienced so many huge things that led me to a place where following my dream became possible. My Mum was very ill, my husband and I were both made redundant from our jobs, we travelled the world, I got pregnant, my husband got a job in a different country, I became a mum. So I found myself a lonely stay-at-home mum with no plans to return to traditional work until all our (current and possible future) children are at school, I’m married to a man who is happy and satisfied in his new job, my mum’s illness reminded me to make the most of everyday. The Internet has provided me with the information and inspiration and life has presented me with the opportunity.
So I plan to take this opportunity to risk failure, to put myself out there to the world, to maybe feel totally satisfied in my creative pursuits, to hopefully have some fun along the way and maybe even make a little money!
I hope to share here with you some of the process of setting up this type of business, the challenges of balancing career, family and home and anything inspirational I come across along the way.
