Category: Freelance

Breaking the (work) cycle

Posted on April 27, 2016 by

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I’ve been going through a strange period professionally, lately. Sometimes I can’t even believe how much things have changed in the last almost-six years since I started freelancing. I barely remembering longing to line up work and hustling to fill my time with assignments….

Category: Career, Freelance, It's all about me, Novel

How to work faster from home

Posted on March 9, 2016 by

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How to work faster from home {Heather's Handmade Life}

Today I’ve got a few quick work-at-home tips for your non-procrastinating pleasure! Of course, these tips are also useful if you’re an in-a-real-office type who maybe doesn’t wear yoga pants and have semi-dressed children under your desk* but they’re especially important for those of…

Category: Career, Freelance, WAHM

Work-at-home Q&A: Author Jon Tattrie + novel giveaway

Posted on January 28, 2016 by

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I’m trying out a fun new (hopefully regular) feature today where I put my interviewing skills to use and chat with other work-at-home parents. There aren’t that many of us, so I always pounce on the ones I meet and discuss their work/life balance…

Category: Career, Freelance, Novel, WAHM, Work-at-home Q&A

I’m Heather Laura Clarke. I’m journalist and blogger in beautiful Nova Scotia, I have an 9-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter, I married my high school sweetheart, and this is the story of my handmade life.

I have depression and anxiety, and I fight like hell every day to keep it from taking over my life. Making things isn’t just a hobby — it’s part of what keeps me alive.

Whether I’m decorating a room, busting out my power tools to build furniture, getting muddy in the pottery studio, sewing clothes for my kids, or cross-stitching a swear word, I’m all about using my creativity to craft a life I love.

@HFXHeather on Instagram
The way this girl loves slime, it’s no wonder she loves Magic Mud (or “Oobleck” as the kids today apparently call it). Perfect indoor snow day activity. Mix three cups cornstarch with 1 1/2 cups water (approx.) and a few drops of food colouring to get a gloppy goop that you can pick up like a solid and then it then instantly to a liquid. My mom used to make it for me and my sister and it’s still really fun. Way better than slime because of the way it changes. Just don’t ask me to explain the science behind it lol. #snowday #again #snowdayfun #indooractivities #handmade #oobleck #magicmud #messy #butnottoomessy When you walk into a project area in your dining room that looks like a @craftsmanca photo shoot except you actually staged nothing! 😂 Can’t wait to show you guys how this BIGGGGGG project is turning out! #DIY #woodworking #furniture #DIYfurniture #buildingfurniture #design #custom #customfurniture #craftsman If you scroll through my posts, you’ll see right away that I make things. I sew. I build. I paint. I craft. I design. I decorate. Oh, and I also write and edit newspaper, magazine, and web copy for a living. Always making stuff, I am. What you don’t see — at least not unless you dive deep into my Insta stories and blog posts — is that there’s something different I’m trying to create. A novel. Finding the time, the headspace, the permission to work on this novel is harder than all the sewing and building and painting and crafting and designing and decorating and “writing for a living” in the world. But I’m trying. I try to work on it every single day, even if I only come out ahead by a couple hundred words. It’s still a couple hundred words more than I had the day before. Baby steps. And there are also stolen moments, like this photo I just snapped, when I take five minutes — in between the family dinner and the family game and then the bedtime routine — to read a few pages of novel-writing wisdom (#savethecatwritesanovel) and scribble down notes to myself. It all counts, however small. It’s all getting me closer. It’s all going to be worth it. I know it. #novelwriting #novel #aspiringnovelist #futurenovelist #onedayatatime #writerlife #writing #amwriting A school week’s worth of handmade cotton dresses, ready to wear. Cupcakes 🧁 Rainbows 🌈 Flowers 🌸 Ice creams 🍦 and forests 🌲 #sewing #handmade #dresses #sewingforkids #sewingproject #thisisseven #handmadewithlove #handmadeclothing #handmadeclothes Sundays are for quilting. Especially with fresh fabrics. 🌸 🌼 🌸 🌼 🌸 #quilting #florals #fabric #quiltersofinstagram #fabriclove Last year, I started sewing memory quilts for people who had lost someone close to them. These quilts are a nice way to preserve someone’s favourite items of clothing — T-shirts, dress shirts, ties, nightgowns, sweaters, jeans — in a way that allows their loved ones to still snuggle up with them. Today’s blog post walks you through the whole process, from prepping the clothes to completing the quilt. 💕 N E W B L O G P O S T 💕 #sewing #quilting #memoryquilt #memoryquilts #handmade
@HFXHeather on Twitter
My Top Posts
Easy DIY sofa tables
DIY dog crate cover
Our board game wall
Build your own slide-out pantry
Anne of Green Gables quilt
Super easy quilt top for beginners
How to sew a cozy nap mat
DIY quilt made from old jeans
How to transfer photos to wood (without a million failed attempts)
Sew a reversible circle skirt
PREGNANCY blog posts
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© Heather Laura Clarke and Heather’s Handmade Life, 2009-2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Heather Laura Clarke and Heather’s Handmade Life with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.