New me!

I started my blog just after I moved to New Zealand over 10 years ago. I’ve really enjoyed cataloging my makes and joining the great international sewing and crafting community. I've made some wonderful sewing friends as part of Fabric Hoarders (you wonderful people!) and really enjoy seeing their bloggy makes.  They've also taught me a tonne (especially Wendy of Sew Biased who introduced me to the world of FBAs!). Further fueling my sewing journey, I also joined the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network and managed to meet even more sewing superstars as well as get the low down on fabric sales in the Wellington Region (which has led to both fantastic fabric purchases and serious FOMO).

But I wasn’t ever happy with the blog name. I work in a very public facing role in a heavily male dominated area so am keen to keep my personal and public life separate. (I'm already odd enough - in comparative terms anyway!)  I don't want to put my real name on here.  I don't want it to be searchable when I'm in my normal role, a consulting expert, serving on a government committee, or stepping into or applying for new roles.  It just feels a little 'off' to link my hobbies to my work.  Although I could completely understand someone else in the same situation choosing the other way.  What ever feels right for you!

But I wanted a blog name that was a little less 'girlie' - the blog was called Crafty Mermaid after a nickname a friend gave me but as a blog, it never really felt like me.

I'm not sure that sewmancer does either but I adore the -mancer suffix.  I came across it as geomancy (and necromancy if I'm also being honest!).  Geomancy according to Wikipedia (the fount of all verified and unverified knowledge) is:

"a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand."

The suffix can also be use to describe "a manipulator of a certain element".  So the sewmancer blog is born.  - I am hoping to distance myself from the other less favourable mancer :) -

When I started crafty mermaid, I had just started to sew but now its my primary hobby and most sanity saving pastime. I *was* about to say primary crafting hobby but a lot of the others have significantly reduced with fewer 'me' hours after little person was born about a year and a half ago.  I also crochet and card make.  But while still crochet quite a bit, I'm just not as prolific and card making has fallen off a lot.  Jewelry/beading, cross stitch, baking, or fimo haven't really gotten much of a look in for years.

I'm going to leave the old blog up and running as I'd hate to lose my catalog of makes and just start posting here.  I've a bit of a backlog to get through so posting is likely to be intense then sporadic as per usual!

So hello and welcome to the new pad...  Feel free to stay a while and to say hi!

[photos from random previous makes on crafty mermaid]