by Karen J Mossman

I’m retired, although I didn’t intend to 2013. I was made redundant from my job at the RAC. Hubby and I jiggled money around and I didn’t have to go our find work. Initially I thought I could start writing books and earn a little cash. How wrong could I be!

Yes, I wrote, and to date have fourteen books. I’ve always loved writing and what better idea than to do something you love?

What I didn’t foresee if the Indie market flooding. Everybody wants to write a book. Readers have so much choice and just like everything else want bargains and free books. Distributors, like Amazon offer a platform to sell, but take three quarters of any profit made. Now I write because I love it, if someone buys a book, then I’m thrilled but don’t expect it any more.

When my husband retired and we lived off one pension. The government in their wisdom moved the goal posts and instead of receiving my state pension at sixty like I’d always been been led to believe, they moved it to sixty-six. Same for him, so we have a few years to wait for that. I still needed a small income and as I couldn’t do it with books, I turned to my other passion, crafting.

It is so much nicer to give and receive a personal gift, isn’t it?  Initially, I discovered I could make cards, and as nice they were, people didn’t want greeting cards any more, and although I sold a few, they much preferred putting a notice on Facebook instead. That’s such a shame. I love to receive a beautiful card, it makes me feel cared for know they have have taken the time to select it for me.

I then began making things and its been a real learning curve. YouTube has been my best friend. It’s amazing what you can learn from there. My imagination went into over drive. It takes time to build up a stock and I’ve enjoyed experimenting with different things.

I got this idea from a craft fair I did. The stall next to be did recycled tins, I went one step further and adding these pictures to to them.

I’ve got two more craft fairs coming up, so am busy making new things..
Having said all that, I haven’t introduced this to the Magic of Stories just to sell, although it would be nice to do so. I want to share crafting stories, share my discovers, and write about what I’ve made, the difficulties and fun bits, and where the inspirations came from.

I also want to host other crafters as it’s great sharing stories or just seeing photographs of beautiful handcrafted goods.
All links to the blog posts will appear on the Gwenfro Gifts page, and if you subscribe to Magic of Stories, posts will land in your email box if that’s what you’ve selected, or just in the WordPress reader. So please reblog, share, and let’s bring crafters together!