I stopped teaching because I was afraid to fail again

But I'm ready to get back into workshops and I'd love to teach you!

A workshop at my old studio in 2021

It’s been a while now since I taught a creative workshop. Almost two years in fact. The last time I taught one was at my old studio, which I moved out of back in August 2022.

Pre-pandemic, workshops were the biggest part of my income stream, and this was the main reason I decided to go self employed in January 2020 (but then we all know what happened next!). I have always had a passion for teaching; it’s wonderful to be with a group of people, to chat to them and watch them learning new skills before they head off home to continue developing them. Holding space for this and passing on my skills and encouragement brought me joy every time. It might sound a but cheesy, but this always felt magical to me.

But when I took the decision to close my physical shop, I felt like a little bit of that magic died with it.

Ever since then I have had big feelings that I should be teaching again at some point, but I simultaneously felt a huge sense of resistance when it came to actually going for it. I think know that I actively looked for reasons not to give it another go. I told myself that I didn’t ever have to teach again if I didn’t want to - it was like giving myself a permission slip to give up on the thing that was once a dream. I also told myself that nobody wanted come to a workshop with me, which is ridiculous really given how many people I’ve stitched with over the years!

I tried to push it to the back of my mind whenever I thought about it, because I didn’t want to think about the real reason for not giving workshops another try.

In truth, I stopped teaching because I was afraid to fail again.

Putting yourself and/or your work out there after things have gone wrong is really bloody hard. I know I’ve been avoiding booking in new workshops because giving it a go again opens me up to feeling all of those feelings I’ve felt in the past when things didn’t exactly go to plan. I don’t really want to feel like that again, so I have avoided it to avoid those feelings.

But one thing I’ve learned over the past few years is that letting my fear dictate my decision-making means that I end up just being stuck where I am. Making progress involves a little risk taking, so you can’t really have one without the other. You can still move forward and feel worried or scared. I know now that even if things don’t work out there is a lesson for me in there somewhere, or something to take forward for next time at least.

I made a big mistake with taking on the least for my old studio (read about that here) but now I know that: a) retail isn’t for me, even though I wanted a shop for a long time, and b) I will always be glad I gave it a go, even though it went very wrong. It has taken a long time to feel like I want to start teaching again, but I am now at a point where I’m ready to give teaching workshops another go. So…

Come and stitch with me!

You can stitch with me in a few different ways, online and in person:

Book a 1-2-1 online lesson, and we’ll stitch one of my new kits together! This option is £49.50 and includes the materials in the post, which is great for anyone UK-based (free postage included). This option is also available outside Northern Ireland and the EU, but you will need to pay additional postage to get the materials to you.

For anyone outside the UK, or if you have your own supplies and just want to learn the stitches, you can book a 1-2-1 hand embroidery basics online workshop for £35. In this 90 minute session, we’ll learn 8 basic stitches and have a good chat along the way!

You can also come and stitch with me in person next year! I’ll be at the brilliant Flaura Rose in Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne on Saturday 25th January (1-3pm) and again on Saturday 22nd February (also 1-3pm). Book your place here!

These workshops would make an excellent Christmas gift - what could be better than the gift of creativity?! It’s also so lovely to have something in the diary for the new year too 🥰 If you can’t make it in person, then these designs are available as a kit too - see all my kits online here 👇🏻

A quick note for friends in Northern Ireland and the EU

You may have seen a few posts recently on social media from small businesses announcing that they can no longer post to NI and the EU from next month. This is all due to the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) rules that are coming into effect on 13th December, which is replacing the old safety directive.

This is yet another huge blow for small businesses, and for customers in these regions too. It feels like we’ve been hit with one thing after another following Brexit, and this is yet another frustration. The lack of clear information has made it difficult for everyone to know where they stand, but very simply, businesses need to pay a lot of money for a representative within the EU who can work on their behalf. This is a yearly cost and it makes it pretty much impossible to work through, especially after Brexit wiped out EU sales for so many of us.

Like many other businesses, I’ve decided that the simplest way forward is to stop sales to NI and the EU, and I’ll be doing that from Thursday 5th December (which is in line with my last Christmas post dates for international customers).

I’d rather do this at this stage than be hit with a big old fine! Hopefully there will be more info soon, and if it is possible to resume postage to NI then I would love to do that if possible. I don’t think this is something I’ll be able to resume for the EU unless things change.

My last post dates are as follows:

UK - Monday 16th December

International - Thursday 5th December

It’s unclear at the moment as to whether or not digital products are included (e.g. pdf patterns), and this is really frustrating for small businesses. Even Etsy and Folksy seem to be suggesting different things at the moment! Let’s face it, the UK government and the EU should have done better on this - instead, they’ve left everyone speculating and things are as clear as mud.

Times are tough for small businesses at the moment, and every sale helps. So please shop small wherever you can over the next few weeks, it really makes a huge difference to real people who are working on their dreams 🩷

From the archives

It’s time for a few festive projects from my blog! I’ve dug through the archives to find some ways to help you get creative over the next few weeks:

• Make a super easy Christmas bauble garland

• Try these really simple Christmas cards if you’d like to make your own

• This Christmas shortbread is amazing - I had completely forgotten about this and definitely need to make it!

• And these are the most amazing biscuits that we make every year!

Wishing you a creative month ahead!

However, I also want to remind you that December is a really busy time, so be extra kind to yourself. There’s a lot of pressure online to do things a certain way or make your Christmas look like this or that, but you don’t have to do any of it. If all you do is get through the month then that’s okay. If you don’t have the time to be creative this month, that’s okay. You’ve got this! 💖