I'm Claire, I am many things but most importantly I am a mother. Whenever I used to day dream about being a mother I would imagine working part time on my own business a few days a week while my mum looked after my children, she had a very successful bookkeeping business and was able to choose her hours, we use to talk about it all the time, she would tease me and say that my kids wouldn't ever wa
nt to leave her house because she would spoil them rotten with treats and fun activities. We sadly lost her in 2010, fast forward 6 years and I am now a mother of 1 very cheeky 2 year old! I am also running a farm while my husband works away, and I am lucky enough to have inherited my mums' sewing machine. Though her smell has expired from items of clothing I'm blessed to be flooded with memories of her and my dad teaching me to use the same machine when I was in high school. I first started making back packs on a whim, I was always carting around a big bag full of my sons things until I noticed him putting cars and trucks into one of my old ruck sacks and carrying it around the house, it was far too big for him so it was more like dragging. I hadn't blown the dust off mums sewing machine for fear of an emotional meltdown, but this day it didn't even cross my mind, I had a mission to accomplish and I did it, I created my own patterns and made my first ever back pack, it was a mess! The needle was blunt, the machine needed oiling, the tension was all wrong and there was thread everywhere. I figured Leo's backpack really didn't need to be pretty to start with, it just needed to be functional, and it was, so much so that I gave my mums machine a birthday and made Leo a new neat backpack, he loves it and uses it every day, out and about or just around the house, packing it with snacks, a book, nappies and toy cars, he's using it, it gives him a taste of responsibility and now I get to have my pretty pale pink handbag all to myself , with the exception of a few toy cars, but that's exactly how I like it! I sincerely hope that my toddler backpacks help your family as much as it has helped ours. I may not be dropping my son off to my mum but I am lucky enough to be spending time with her and Leo while I create beautiful pieces for other families, and building a little business of my own. In loving memory of Amanda Fear.
