Hi everyone, it's been a while since I did a blog post hasn't it 😬! I love the idea of having a blog but sitting staring at a blank pages knowing what to write seems daunting sometimes! But Anyway, I thought it's about time I did a little catch up on here, (if you want to stay caught up in real time it's best to follow over on Instagram) but anyway a little round up of the past few months..!
As alot of you will already know I've always suffered badly with anxiety and emetophobia (fear of being sick or anything to do with sick)! and this summer it peaked and got so bad I couldn't leave the house, basically I became agoraphobic! Aswell as my jewellery making me and my partner Dan had a little pet sitting / dog walking business but my anxiety got so bad I just couldn't do it anymore so we had to have a break from it. It got to the point I was just sitting in the house having anxiety attack after anxiety attack so that was when I decided enough was enough and I had to try and get over this so I enrolled in The Thrive Programme which is the best proven cure for Emetophobia! So I've been working really hard at that since July and I'm slowly getting there, it's all about feeling powerful and taking control of your mental health and managing your thoughts better and also understanding why you created the phobia in the first place! Once you've learnt how you created it and are maintaining it you can learn to uncreate it! That's the theory anyway, it obviously takes alot of work and effort to completely change your thinking and your life but you do it at your own pace in a way that feels comfortable for you. If you're reading this and also suffer with this phobia it's really worth checking out @emetophobiafree on youtube as they have a brilliant series of podcasts which have honestly got me through this year, every time I had a wobble or was doubting myself I put a podcast on and it helps me re set my thinking! But anyway I'm doing ok! I've been challenging myself lots and yesterday I managed to go out christmas shopping for a couple of hours and I coped and actually had a nice time! I still have work to do - but I'm so much more happy about everything in life. I've been working hard on building my self esteem up too, it turns out it actually feels so much nicer to be kind to yourself - instead of beating yourself up all the time - that's probably the biggest change I've made so far! Also I know now that if I was sick I would cope with it and I'd be ok (which probably sounds silly to an non emetophobe but a massive part of having this phobia is believing that you wouldn't cope!) So yes.. that's where I'm up to now! My jewellery making has also been my saviour through all of this, I'm very lucky I have a lovely studio space at home that I can work from and giving up pet sitting has meant I have much more time to make jewellery so that's what I've been doing!
I've just done a massive shop update - my biggest ever! Including restocking all the nose rings that had sold out, made some fancy new nose chains and got them measured and listed, I've made some pretty open heart pendants hung on animal friendly faux suede coloured cord and my favourite pieces I've ever made - the sea glass necklaces! So excited to have some sea glass and sea pottery pieces for sale at last, it's something that I've wanted to do for ages so I'm glad I've finally done it. One of my goals through out therapy was I want to have a trip to Seaham next year, the famous sea glass beach where you can find lovely multi coloured pieces, it's sadly a long way from Northamptonshire but I'm determined to get there one day! In the mean time I've got some glass that I've been hoarding for years to use up so that'll keep me going for a while! There's 6 pieces listed here on the website and six over on our Etsy shop, I'm hoping one day I can just use the website for my new work but as a very tiny business Etsy has been helpful in getting me started selling pieces so I'll continue to use both for the time being!
When I first started silversmithing I met a lovely lady at a craft fair (also selling silver jewellery) and she said to me 'people don't realise that a little piece of you goes into everything that you make' and I have remembered it ever since and often thought about it because it's so true! You really put your heart and soul into your creations even if it's something small like a nose ring, it's still gone through alot of processes and that's the magic of buying something handmade🥰 so please keep small businesses in mind when shopping this festive season, it's been a really tough year for everyone and when small businesses owners get an order they really do do a happy dance 😄 as it means so much that people choose to spend their hard earned pennies to buy something you've created - it really is the best feeling in the world!
Right I'm going to shut up now and stop being so soppy (not like me at all lol) if you made it to the end of this you deserve a gold star 🌟!
Thank you for the support as always, Jules 🖤 x
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