How Handmade Imperfection came to be...

While I'm still in the process of finishing decorating my study, and putting the finishing touches to my latest few projects I thought I'd write a bit about how Handmade Imperfection came to be.

I've always been a crafter - no matter if it was trying to make my own costumes, insisiting on decorating my own bedroom, or collecting bits of junk and trying to fashion them into something beautiful.

Shortly after leaving home I brought my first sewing machine, and spent most of the following year making various adaptations of Lord of the Rings costumes for myself, family and a small theatre troupe who were planning to film a spoof of the movies (sadly the film never came to be). When I brought my first house, two years later, I was determined to have a whole room devoted to my sewing and crafting...sadly after a few months the room had to be converted into a spare bedroom and my crafting was relegated to one corner of my own bedroom, plus any odd corners of the dining room.

Lucky for me, all this changed in March 08 when I moved house again, and I have spent the last 12 months decorating and have finally transformed a tiny back-bedroom into the perfect crafting space! While all of this was going on, I stumbled across the Modish Blog, and it happened to be the very week Cathe Holden of "Just Something I Made" was featured in "Modish Handmade Spaces". As soon as I saw Cathe's beautiful craft space, I was even more inspired and driven to create myself a little sanctuary of peace and crafty-tranquility.

After this, I started checking Modish and Just Something I Made almost every day... (I read JSIM pretty much every morning now - usually right after I get my fix on WeddingBee.com!). With my own little "handmade space" taking shape, and lots of inspiration from Cathe's wonderful creations, I have become a more productive crafter, a more aspiring and confident 'artist' and ever keener to try and find enough hours in the week to make a few beautiful things to give or sell.

As I explained back in my first post, the blog name, Handmade Imperfection came from my love of the "uniqueness which comes from something hand-crafted, not mass produced". All the lovely things which so many talented crafters out there are producing right now come under this banner, and I will be sharing some of the most special finds with you all over the coming times.

So, that's my story, I hope you'll check back soon for some more items of Handmade Imperfection!

The writing on the wall...

Typical isn't it? The moment I decide to actively try and keep up regular postings, work goes completely manic and there's no time to eat, breathe, or sleep, let alone to blog!

Ok, so this may not be completely true, I have found time to keep up to date with JSIM and Weddingbee, but just not enough time to actually start any of the craft projects I had been promising myself for so long, or to blog about anything else!

I have lots going on now though, having spent the last two weekends attempting to sort and tidy my study/creative space, I've finally managed to smooth over the walls and I'm ready to decorate! YAY!
I wanted to wallpaper one wall in "Isabelle" from Graham and Brown, but since there's a risk that wall might be damp I decided to paint instead. However I still want something interesting, so decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at a mural... It's going to be part 'graphic' part 'inspirational text' - stay tuned.

source

In other news, inspired by Cathe's 'bird nests' on JSIM this week I have ordered some cute little turquoise beads on eBay and I'm planning to do something cute combining them with another gorgeous Cathe share - this vintage image from The Graphics Fairy

source

As well as all that, I'm about to renovate my bathroom cabinet into something a bit more shabby chic and 'seaside'. Pics to follow soon!

xxx