Colouring books and Baby books

At the moment most of the books I am making are for gifts, for people who like drawing and making notes, for people with new born babies and for the babies themselves. I recently made a colouring book for a two year old girl, it was personalised with things I know she sees most days, with words to colour in and her name on the front page. I put it into a pretty cover so that her mum could carry it around in her stylish handbag.

I also made this pretty little new born baby book for a little girl down in Plymouth.

I'm not sure how this is helping The Paper Cafe but I am enjoying all of the making!!

Going Solo and Business Card Booklets!

I cannot decide if I am brave or stupid but in five days I will be leaving my 'dream job' working as a centre based Outdoor Education Instructor and going it alone, well not quite. I have a part time job lined up for the first few months to give myself some time to get sorted: 3.5 days work vs 3.5 days to do my thing seems like a much more equal life/work balance. This weekend I am making plans, sorting out insurances and DBS checks, it's not my first time being self employed so I've got a bit of a head start but it's still going to be hard work, exciting times!

There is no real plan yet apart from having a bit more control over my own life, working for a company I actually care about and of course getting The Paper Cafe off the ground. Quite optimistically I've started making these business card booklets, small enough to fit in your wallet and useful, but still with all of the relevant info to spread the word! (I love the graph paper I found tucked in the back of a charity shop).

I've already started devising some Paper Cafe themed workshops for schools that I hope to start promoting after the summer holidays and I've got plans to keep outdoors by insuring myself as an outdoor practitioner and getting involved with the Wildlife trust too! So many plans and so little time, I think I'll be busier in my free time than when I'm in work!