I also owned a kiln at the time doing pottery from home too. So I then began doing baby feet imprints in clay and firing them and framing them. People would book a slot in the morning and arrive at my house with their newborn babies for me to imprint their feet. They made beautiful keepsakes. Something you can probably do here quite easily but in Qatar, in 2012 it was a total novelty. Word quickly spread and I was really really busy. The twins started nursery at 2 years old which gave me more time to focus on my hobby/ business.
In 2016 we were expecting our 4th baby and I had a very difficult pregnancy with sciatica so I stopped doing prints and embroidery. I also needed some time out 😂 When Ava was born my husband was relocated to Dubai. Life was hectic with 4 kids and another international move, new schools etc so I focused on the kids until Ava got to school-going age. At that time we decided it was best to finally move home as our eldest daughter was 9 and I always wanted her home by the end of primary school… so, another international move 🙈
We arrived home in July 2019 and in Sept 2020 Ava started school.
My mom passed away in 2017 so I don’t have much family support here in Ireland. It was a no brainer that I’d be a full-time mom. We struggled finding school places when we got home so as a result .. I now have 3 different school runs. Not ideal! But I got bored quickly, I suddenly had 4 kids of school-going age. So I got my machine out and gave it a go. The first hamper I did was a communion hamper. I advertised it amongst friends abroad and so many people had nieces/nephews making their communion so word spread. I became very busy very quickly. There was COVID but there were communions happening too.. and I was flooded with orders straight away. I never imagined I’d be as busy in Ireland because personalised items are easy to find here. I couldn’t handle all the texts so I decided I needed a website to help manage and track my orders – so that’s when I found Lignin! 🙌
I’m always thinking of new ideas and customers contact me with ideas too which is great. I love being a busy mum but I also think it’s really important for mums to have a focus or a hobby and find time to focus on something they love doing too. ☺️
In an ideal world, I’d love a shop. Working from home is great for now but it would be nice to be able to interact with the customer too. Maybe one day…