In 2012, I decided to write a blog for a year.
It was New Year’s Eve and I felt heady with champagne and a sense of possibility; itching for a new adventure but keen also to observe, capture and immerse myself in the early years of motherhood that seemed already to be passing at warp speed. The next day I signed into WordPress, chose the first available domain name I could think of and began to write.
My first few posts went almost entirely unnoticed, which allowed me to quietly wrestle with basic coding, to find my voice and master the elementary settings of my camera. I wrote when Harry was napping or in the precious evening hours after work, dinner, bathtime and bedtime. I carried an A5 notebook everywhere and jotted down ideas and plans and sketches; I still have them all lined up on a shelf above my desk.
Almost immediately I discovered a community of fellow novice bloggers who were encouraging, amplifying and reassuring. I learned so much from them, and still do. And then one day; the miracle of a comment from someone I didn’t know, who had discovered the blog and liked it! It was indescribably thrilling.
Over the years that followed, this magical community grew as I did. I documented the gradual restoration of our period home with all its highs and lows and a myriad of projects with Harry – from his toddler play kitchen and theatre through his obsessional Harry Potter years and beyond. We planned costumes together and built cities, enticed the tooth fairy and then the house fairies who lived with us for several years before eventually moving out. I learned to sew and dabbled in textiles and quilt-making, and was so thrilled to master the art of pyjama-making that the family eventually had to beg me to pause.
Maintaining the blog gave a cadence and structure to my crafting and creativity, and encouraged me to experiment and constantly try new things, including some decidedly niche arts (fish-printing, anyone?). It was also pivotal in creating recurring family traditions like the Fir Lady, the Odd Egg Easter piñata and many more.
I have loved being here; the journey of Kate’s Creative Space has been one of the highlights of my life so far. And now after all these years, it feels a natural time to pause and take stock. The all-consuming demands of career and family life, coupled with Harry’s own growing-up and independence, lessen the available time and impetus to create that I’ve felt so strongly over the years. I’ll still continue to share pics on Instagram, so do come and say hello there – and the archive blog will also continue to exist here for reference (I find myself using it to look up my own archive recipes and projects sometimes).
I put together a retrospective of some of my favourite projects from over the years as an online book here – it was a lovely and poignant process to go through all of my posts and photos and pull out the ones to include – hopefully you’ll find some favourites there too!
And for those who’ve followed for many years and want to easily bookmark or find old posts, many are curated with hotlinks here on Craftgawker and on my Pinterest gallery too.
Which leaves me to say the most important thing of all, which is thank you – for following and reading and commenting and being such an amazing community over all this time. Your comments have made me laugh, made me teary, and most of all made me keep going on the many occasions I was tempted to give up due to tech glitches, bot-hacking or the more fundamental sense that my own creative well might be running dry.
You are the best.
So for now I will say not goodbye but au revoir – and I wish you all the best of everything in the future!