For the Dutchies: Het bericht vandaag is even alleen in het Engels, sorry! Ik moet dringend wat slaaptekort inhalen, dus tweetalig schrijven zat er even niet in. Het volledige bericht over de Handmade Awards komt er wel in het Nederlands én Engels! Instagram had trouwens wat kuren, maar ik wil heel graag nog de lieve mensen bedanken die me feliciteerden! Dus: dankjulliewel!!
Yesterday I attended the first edition of the Mollie Makes Handmade Awards, where I was shortlisted for the Youth Award. As many of you already saw via Instagram, I was incredibly lucky and won the award!! I’m excited and grateful beyond words, I’ve been feeling all warm and fuzzy since! The Mollie Makes team and the judges loved my enthusiasm for crafting and sharing the passion, and they thought my birds had a lot of potential! I was overwhelmed by all the kind words and the cheering of my fellow contestants at the end of the day. I’m so happy for all the other winners too! Have a look at their websites:
Yesterday was probably the best day I’ve had this year (so far), and don’t worry: I’ll write another blogpost to cover that part! I met all of the other 24 contestants and of course the Mollie Makes team and the judges. Everyone was so nice, we were all friends by the end of the afternoon! At the end, it wasn’t really about winning anymore (such a cliché, I know), but it had been totally worth it to fly to London just to meet all the crafty ladies. If one of the other girls in my category had won, I would be just as excited! For those of you who missed the other contestants, click here. I had brought my crochet birds with me yesterday, because I feel that they’re the most special to me. There actually a combination of my passion for crochet, and my boyfriend Tim’s passion for wildlife (such a cheesy story lol). At first, I just made chickens, but Tim suggested I make different species as well! So now I have made kingfishers, blue tits, robins, woodpeckers, pigeons.. And many more to come! Meeting the judges was kind of scary at first, but as soon as I sat down and we started talking, it became so casual! I got a few squeals when I showed them the birds (yay!), and they had such good suggestions about how to improve them. Things like giving them names, and making a mobile for a nursery. I’ve been writing all of their advice down!I’m really excited to be creative about promoting my work more, I wish I had finished writing my thesis already! That’s the main drawback at the moment, it’s just a teensy bit higher on my list of priorities. Ooh, and did I tell you about the prizes? I will be getting a half day mentorship from Lisa Comfort from Sew Over It! I’m so excited to see her again and talk some more about making a business out of a hobby. I want to keep a healthy balance in the businessy part though, I still want to craft for fun, and not because I have to. But we’ll figure something out! Other than that, I will also be featured in the Mollie Makes magazine (OMG), and I’ll receive a subscription as well! I can’t believe I have an actual award on my night stand now. It will be there for quite some time, I think it will cheer me up instantly when I wake up!
I would like to thank the Mollie Makes team for organizing the Handmade Awards! It was such a great experience and an eye-opener for me business-wise. I feel like I can really start my own business now! It was also a great opportunity to meet other crafters, I was so inspired I thought my head would explode, haha. I haven’t really slept much last night because I had an early flight, so I’m going to get some sleep now! The full blog post about yesterday will be up in a few days I think. To be continued!
