New Year, New Name, New Outlook

Over the past few years, in between all the other things that moms do, I've taken some time to be creative. Blissfully quiet time where I can focus on the task at hand and lose myself in the moment. I've heard this called "being in the zone". For a few years after the birth of my son I had a hard time finding that zone, and I now know from experience that it is absolutely essential to my well-being. Now I can tell when it's been too long between creative bursts. I catch myself feeling stressed and flustered. Then I know it's time to take some time for me.

During this period I started crafting. A little bit over time, gaining more confidence with each success. Lots of experimenting with different ideas and projects. And soon I found a couple of grooves that I fit into perfectly. Strangely enough, I didn't expect to be so into repainting old jewellery boxes that I would have a stack on a shelf in my office waiting for me to get to them. Nor did I expect the bin of crocheted play food that sits on a shelf in the playroom, where my son is oblivious to all the effort that went into each piece.

In the past few years I've learned a lot about myself. I love spray paint. I love the way that paint transforms things into something completely new. I love looking at things and imagining how I would make them over. I can picture something in my head and make it a reality. It's a very liberating feeling. It's given me confidence to try new things, like sewing. It's a journey I started without ever meaning to.

As a result of all of this experimentation I decided to try another new thing. I loaded up my car and took my items to a couple of craft sales. And I learned another thing about myself. I find it rather hard to be a salesperson. So I took a break from the craft sale circuit. However, I realized after some conversations with customers at the craft sales that my previous name, AppleCinnamonCrafts, wasn't clear enough. Several people asked me if my items were scented, and I soon realized that unless I was going to start selling baked goods a name change might be in order.

So AppleCinnamonCrafts is now LittleOrchardOwl. Owls have been an obsession of mine for the past five years. When choosing a theme for my nursery, which I had always said was going to be Noah's ark to justify having twice the normal amount of stuffed animals, I settled instead on owls. Besides them being seemingly everywhere at the time, they also reminded me of happy childhood memories. They played a big part of our Brownies unit, where we called the two main leaders Brown Owl and Tawny Owl. And once I got started collecting owl things, I kept right on going. The rest of the new name refers to the fact that we have an apple tree in our backyard, which is our own little orchard of one.

It feels good to finally have a place to collect all my creative pursuits and share them with the world. I'm excited to start anew, with a new name and new energy. And if nothing else, it's a very good excuse to do some more crafting!

So welcome to LittleOrchardOwl. I'm glad you're here.