Hi, my name is Rachel
I live in Swansea with my husband, daughter, and completely crazy puppy dog.
I sold my first keepsakes back in 2017, which seems forever ago now. I have been selling through Etsy, this website and my Facebook page ever since. At first, I only made bears, and then I expanded my range.
I love being able to open each bag of clothes and create it into a keepsake my customer will love and cherish. Sometimes the joy of opening a really pretty selection will make me jump for joy, other times the sadness of making a bereavement keepsake is overwhelming. Every time I create a keepsake, I chat with my customer to see which clothes and details they would like me to give the most focus to.
Before I worked as a full time keepsake maker, I worked in a supermarket for 11 years, and during this time had my daughter. I didn’t intend to work in the supermarket for so long, it was the display and window designing aspect of retail that I loved, but after a couple of years in the job our desire to have a child took over and in time that became an endless series of hospital tests for infertility…
I struggled through 6 years of infertility including tests and treatment that didn’t work. I had the letter to say I had got to the top of the IVF waiting list when I was 8 months pregnant (naturally)
So, after the struggle to conceive her my determination to create a better work life balance and spend time with my daughter was huge. Eventually I resigned so I could work on my keepsakes during my daughter’s school days and be home with her the rest of the time.
When I’m not sewing or doing my mum thing I’m chocolate obsessed (the photo above is us eating chocolate covered doughnuts!!); I eat chocolate spread on toast every day for breakfast. I’m not that keen on Nutella, I prefer the brown and white stripey one… And … I used to creep downstairs to eat Dairy Milk in the middle of the night- after getting in the habit when trying to cope with my daughter’s constant night waking!
Thank you for reading, and if you would like me to create you a keepsake, please get in touch here,
Rachel xx
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