Well 2012 was a big year for Great Britain and for me and HandmadebyKatherine. With 6 months of being live on the web, I thought a review of the last year would be interesting.

The year started with a New Year’s Resolution to do more crafting and try to promote myself further than family and friends. And so was born HandmadebyKatherine. My husband spent a lot of time and effort putting the website together. It took several months of photography and designing to get the site up and running, but finally in June we were ready to launch and show the site to the world. There has been a steady flow of traffic to my blog and I have enjoyed my time talking to the virtual crafting world. It’s fun putting down thoughts, ideas and makes and seeing what the wider world thinks.

Following the web launch, came the delight of my first craft stall. Unfortunately, this also brought my first lowlight with the fun day at Margaret Haes riding school being cancelled due to the torrential rain causing the access road to the stables to collapse. But there’s always next year!

The summer was filled with baking for the Diamond Jubilee and various community fairs, and knitting for craft stalls and Christmas whilst cheering on Team GB at the best Olympics I’ve ever seen. What a great time to be British.

Autumn brought more knitting for the Innocent Big Knit and a start on personalised Christmas cards, which continued right up to the middle of December. In between I finally had my first craft stall at the Summerseat Christmas Fair. A very nerve-wracking experience, but great fun and something I aim to repeat in the near future. Planning my stall and putting together stock was a busy time but very enjoyable. It was lovely to meet up with some old friends, make new ones and interesting to gauge what sells.

I’ve met some lovely new crafting people this year – Nathalie from The U in Cute, Bello Bimbo, Little Me Designs and Judith at Painted Canvas.

This year my crafting has seen me rediscovering my love of knitting as well as continuing with cardmaking. I have been particularly taken with bunting. It works so well on all sorts of card projects and linked beautifully with the trend for all things British.

My most popular cards have been the personalised Christmas Bows, wreaths, handbags and the bunting. In terms of knitting, my cats and Christmas stocking tree decorations have proved popular and I have plans to use them differently next year. I’ve also been re-inspired to pick up the paintbrushes again having used one of my watercolours to make prints for the family Christmas cards. I shall see where this leads….

I have ended the year on a real high with some lovely feedback from customers, and the wonderful feature in Craftseller Magazine.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year