HAND STITCHED LEATHER GOODS

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Navigating lockdown with all the things!

I thought I’d write about my reflections of a year since lockdown. A year ago today we were told to stay at home by our Prime Minister in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

As we are incredibly lucky to live in beautiful rural Dartmoor it didn’t seem too much of a hardship to stay at home. Obviously elsewhere in the world and even in our country people were fighting the virus and being stuck inside their homes. Meanwhile we spent time walking our dog, caring for our horses and home schooling. The weather was fabulous, warm days and time outdoors.

Initially I hadn’t considered how the pandemic would affect my business. At the time the majority of my sales were coming from craft shows and fairs. So with these being cancelled I needed to rethink my business. During the first few months I was happy to make the odd few orders that came in . As time went on and it became clear there would be no events to go to – particularly in Devon! I needed to have a plan as to how I would keep going.

What next?

I discovered Rhiannon from Garnet PR on instagram in the early summer and signed up for her Christmas PR stars course. This walked me through the steps of PR. I achieved some really lovely results. Including my favourite which was my collar and lead being featured in Country Life magazine’s Christmas gift guide.

Handmade laced leather dog lead
Handmade rolled collar and laced lead as seen in Country Life magazine Christmas gift guide.

As the year went on and we were sent into a second lockdown it was harder as the clocks had changed and it was dark and wet and not nearly as enjoyable as the summer. Luckily at this time the schools were open and I was able to keep working. People had Christmas to look forward to and in December I had my busiest month in business that year.

 

Then when Christmas had come and gone we were plunged into another lockdown . This time it was a very different experience to the previous two. We had bought a Labrador puppy before Christmas so now we had two dogs to walk, at this time it was wet, dark and muddy. So every day we walked, dried and removed mud from various walls and floor of the house. We also had the horses to look after which included wet rugs and yes more mud! Add home schooling into the mix and all the work I needed to do for my business and you have chaos!

Forward to now and we all survived it, while I miss having the girls at home we are all happy they are back at school. I am grateful for my family and having that time with them but I think all humans function better with a routine and I am happy to have some time to work on my business.

April and the warmer weather are just around the corner so here’s to better times, seeing friends and family and a little closer to normality