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2024 has been messy, there's no other word to describe it. It started nice and organised then one huge life event and I feel like I've been just about keeping my head above water ever since. There has simultaneously been so much happening, but at the same time, so little. So here's a little review of everything that's been happening at TSK HQ in 2024.
Trigger Warning - within this blog I will be talking about childbirth, breastfeeding and post-partum recovery, so if that's triggering for you then big love and hugs to you, I totally get it, and I'd recommend picking another blog post to read HERE.
I began 2024 by prepping for Baby's arrival. Decorating the nursery, getting hospital bags packed, putting all her new little clothes in the wardrobe, prepping all her new little cloth nappies, and prepping TSK for my maternity leave. I pared the website right back in January and finally handed the reins to Sarah on the first of February.
Two weeks later and our beautiful little girl arrived.
It goes without saying that meeting our little girl for the first time was wonderful and our hearts were so full every time we looked at her. However... people talk about it being a magical time within the 'newborn bubble' and honestly, I really don't know where they're getting that from. With a body and mind still recovering from an emergency C-section, hallucinating due to lack of sleep and so many strong painkillers (either that or I could see ghosts... not sure which is preferable), horrendous pain trying to breastfeed, and hospital stays for tests because she had lost too much weight, it was not a fun time. Then, at 2 weeks, just as Jonnie had to return to work, I developed Mastitis which just got worse and worse, and after a lot of antibiotics, hospital visits and hospital stays, I eventually had to have surgery towards the end of March (on Jonnie's birthday of all days), and then spent all of April recovering from that as it involved daily hospital visits gradually reducing to weekly through the month.
To be honest, after all of that, I was glad to return to work at the beginning of May. I needed something else to focus on and distract me from the residual mastitis issues, but also I needed to find a part of me again that I recognised from 'before' and that didn't just involve pain.
I'd like to say I eased myself back into it but there was just too much to do for that. Sarah and I worked to restock the website and fulfil all wholesale orders for The Sill and BALTIC , as well as fulfil an order from a brand new stockist! The lovely Michelle from Very Crafty contacted me to ask if she could stock my kits on their website and I was more than happy to as their website is a great place for needleworkers to buy kits from a variety of designers, including indi designers like Emma Louise Art Stitch and Meloca Designs, all in one place!
The rest of May was spent getting the website back to normal (bringing back hoopless kit options, free colouring sheets, thread bundles, lucky dip kits, gift sets and cross stitch kit subscriptions), releasing a new free pattern and finally releasing my first brand new cross stitch kit of the year, Stars Over Souter, showcasing Souter Lighthouse. I'd had this designed and 95% stitched before mat leave (literally stitching it the day I went into labour to try to get it finished!), so I was so pleased to finally release it and to such a lovely reception!
In June it was time to say goodbye to more kits. Since TSK started I have created a total of 19 cross stitch designs and unfortunately I simply don't have the capacity to keep them all in stock as kits, so as I did last year, I added two more cross stitch kits to the clearance section of the website. Some have sold out completely but don't worry too much if you missed out as you can still stitch them by purchasing the PDF download patterns, thread bundle, fabric and needles separately.
I was also starting to design again in June and July... or at least trying to. I found it so hard to do as I was, at the same time, trying to cope with a 4 month sleep regression which had me up for hours every night, meaning that through the day my brain just wasn't working when I needed it to. It normally takes me about a week to develop the first draft of a design, then I return after a week to 'tweak it', then I stitch it and tweak as I'm going which usually takes another 4-5 weeks, so in total it usually takes me about 2 months to develop a kit including the time to create the kit materials. This one, however, took me just over 4 months in total. Luckily my little brother helped me make kits for a few weeks through summer otherwise this kit would never have been designed!
August was another busy one!
It started with the return of the our monthly newsletter, The WIP Around. I'm forever grateful for my readers with a whopping 600+ of you reading it (or at least opening it) every month! I sometimes wonder whether to keep going with The WIP Around because it takes a lot of time to do each one, but a few times at events this year people have come up to me to tell me that they really enjoy reading it every month, so I will definitely keep it up!
Then I had my first event of the year, the Made Up North Summer Fair, and I absolutely loved it! A whole day to stitch and chat crafts! I had a visit from Little Miss TSK so that I could feed her at least once as this was my first day away from her and I wasn't sure how my milk supply would cope.
Breastfeeding has been a constant struggle to be honest. From the first days of excruciating pain and delayed milk due to the C-section, then through the mastitis issues, trying to find a breast pump that actually worked, having to spend whole days away from her at events and then my supply plummeting every time I get an illness. When people say it's not easy they never really explain why, so you're really not prepared. Luckily I had brilliant support from a local lactation consultant and I'm so proud that I made it this far. I'm desperate to make it to 1 year (though preferably longer), so just a few weeks to go!
Mid August we managed a little holiday away to the lakes with family, but I did have to take my laptop as I had naively promised to release the newest kit just after the holiday but hadn't banked on it taking so long to create! So during nap times I worked on the kit materials (instruction leaflets, patterns etc) and managed to get it all done so that finally I could release Beach At Bamburgh! Bamburgh Castle had been one of the top requests for the last few years alongside Angel Of The North, Tyne Bridge and Sycamore Gap, all of which I had done previously, so it was about time I finally did Bamburgh! As mentioned previously, I found designing this one really hard, but the love you guys have shown the design has made it totally worth it!
During summer I've usually designed another landmark kit, a Christmas bauble kit and at least one new needleminder. I do this because there is just no chance to do anything of the sort from September onwards as it all gets very busy starting with the Christmas bauble kits being re-released at the beginning of September. However, this year, none of that happened and before I knew it the busy sales period was upon me. I felt like such a failure, particularly when I kept comparing myself to other businesses with babies (I know I know I shouldn't compare myself to anyone, it's just so hard not to), but my lovely customers kept my head up with their kind messages and words of support and reassurance that they would still be there when I did manage to create something new.
Luckily, just before the rush, we managed a little holiday away in the sun for our wedding anniversary, our first one abroad with little Miss TSK. We both completely switched off from work for the week and I'm so glad we did, because I definitely needed my batteries fully charged for the months to come!
As autumn began I soon realised I'd bitten off more than I could chew by booking so many big events in a fairly short space of time. I had naively relied on Little Miss TSK being in nursery two days a week and being looked after by mum once a week, however what I didn't foresee was so many stomach bugs which meant that I had no childcare and it was back to working every day during naps and every evening after bedtime. Typically she also stopped sleeping for a month (who knew the 9 month sleep regression was a thing?!) so when I turned up at The Hearth Arts Winter Fair after 3 hours of broken sleep, I was at serious risk of crying and kept welling up every time anyone spoke to me.
Yet again I found myself having to ask for help. This time it was my brilliant friend Anna (another of my bridesmaids) who stepped in to help make lots of kits for the rest of the upcoming events.
October and November went by in a blur of kit making, events and keeping up with web orders. I worked every minute I had, every day for over 6 weeks and at the start of December I hit total burnout. It happens every year and I'm yet to figure out how to prevent it. I was really pretty ill with the combination of the burnout and a few other things, so when the last post was finally sent on the 13th December I breathed the biggest sigh of relief and I'm so grateful for everyone who has been so patient with any orders put in since then which I will be posting in the next few days.
Thankfully, having that time to recover ahead of the festivities meant we ended 2024 with some really lovely quality family time with plenty relaxation. We've seen lots of family and friends, watched Christmas films and comfort films (Harry Potter for me!), eaten a huge amount of very lovely food, managed a child-free night away at Matfen Hall, and had our first Christmas with our little girl. She's loved every minute and it's been such a joy to see her little smile and hear her little squeaks of excitement!
To be honest though, this year has been really hard and even as I've been writing this it's made me really emotional and I've had to stop regularly to mop up the tears. Juggling a new baby with being self employed is not for the faint hearted. There's a constant feeling of not being enough because you have to make sacrifices on all fronts. But I've been so lucky to have the support of so many wonderful people and I can honestly say TSK wouldn't have survived without them.
So thank you to my customers who have continued to buy from me, read my emails and send lovely messages of patience and reassurance. Thank you to my wonderful friends Sarah and Anna and brother Thomas for helping TSK keep going when I most needed help. Thank you to my stockists who have kept my business going with their orders. Thank you to my lactation consultant (another Sarah) who has worked so hard to help me keep breastfeeding despite having to work. Thank you to my Mum who has given up so much of her own time to look after Little Miss TSK so I can work. And the biggest thank you goes to Mr TSK who remains TSK's biggest supporter.
I like to think that next year might be a bit calmer and we might be able to get back to some normality, but at this point, I've decided it's better to expect less and be pleasantly surprised!
See you next year!
J xx
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