When Making Feels Like Home Again

Returning to Creativity When Life Takes You Somewhere Else

Quick Answer

A creative life does not always move in a straight line. Sometimes motherhood, family, work, grief, or simply the demands of life can make creativity quiet for a while. My own creative journey has had several pauses, but each time I eventually found my way back to making. I learned that stepping away does not mean creativity has disappeared. Sometimes it simply means that life needs you somewhere else for a season.

In This Guide

• How motherhood changed the way I worked
• Why Trinketz began at my dining table
• The creative pause that came with raising my son
• How I discovered junk journaling
• What happened when grief made me step away again
• Returning to creativity after a long pause
• Why you can always come back to making

My Creative Life Was Never a Straight Line

When I look back at my creative life now, I can see that it has never followed a straight line.

There have been years when I made constantly and years when I barely made anything at all. There were times when motherhood took up almost every part of my attention, times when family circumstances became overwhelming, and a time when grief made it impossible for me to create.

But the interesting thing is that every time I stepped away, creativity eventually found its way back into my life.

I didn’t always know when I would return.

I simply learned that I could.

Before Trinketz, There Was Law

Before Trinketz became a creative business, my professional life looked very different.

I was a corporate lawyer, and after my first daughter was born, I left my full-time job. I still wanted to remain connected to the profession I had trained for, so I began teaching law and doing some private consultations.

But gradually, I realised that I couldn’t manage everything.

I wanted to be at home with my girls. I didn’t want to leave them in somebody else’s care while I tried to maintain a demanding professional life. I needed something that could fit around motherhood rather than asking me to build my family life around it.

And that was when something very different began to take shape.

Trinketz Began at My Dining Table

I started making things from home.

Trinketz began with handcrafted favour boxes for weddings and baby announcements — little keepsakes made with paper, ribbons, flowers and embellishments.

I could work from my dining table.

I could stop when one of my children needed me and return to it later.

I could be at home with my girls while still having something creative that belonged to me.

That was what made it possible.

Trinketz didn’t begin because I had a perfectly organised studio or unlimited time. It began because I found a way to make beautiful things within the life I was already living.

And I continued doing it as our family grew.

My third daughter came after Trinketz had already begun, and for a while I was raising three girls in just three years while continuing to find whatever pockets of time I could for my creative work.

Then my fourth child was born.

My son changed the rhythm again.

The First Long Pause

When my son was born, I took a long break from crafting.

This time, I wanted to be present for him.

There are seasons of motherhood when you know that something has to give, and for me, creativity became one of those things. I stepped away from it while I brought him up and enjoyed those years with him.

I didn’t see it as giving up creativity forever.

It was simply where my life was at that moment.

And eventually, after that long pause, I started crafting again.

That was when I discovered junk journaling.

The Discovery of Junk Journaling

Discovering junk journaling felt like finding a creative language that made sense to me.

There was paper. Fabric. Vintage materials. Ephemera. Layers. Texture. Pockets. Collage. Imperfection.

It wasn’t about making everything perfectly coordinated or following a rigid set of rules. I could take the things I already loved — beautiful old papers, fabric scraps, lace and found materials — and turn them into handmade books.

I was completely drawn to it.

And gradually, junk journaling became a new chapter of Trinketz.

I started making handmade journals and eventually opened my Etsy shop.

What happened next surprised me.

When Trinketz Came Back to Life

There was a tremendous response to the journals I was making.

People wanted them.

I began receiving orders from women in different places who connected with the books I was creating. I was making handmade journals filled with vintage papers, fabric, lace, stitching, pockets, ephemera and all the little details that had become part of my creative language.

I sold more than seventy handmade journals before my first Etsy shop was suspended.

For a while, it felt as though I had found my creative home again.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

When Life Interrupted Again

Eventually, my Etsy shop was suspended, and once again my creative life was interrupted.

And then something much more difficult happened.

There was a tragic death in my family.

I was deeply grieved, and I simply couldn’t create.

This wasn’t a creative block where I was searching for inspiration or wondering what project to make next. I was grieving. I didn’t have the emotional space for making, and I stepped away again.

Another long pause began.

Almost two years passed.

Sometimes You Just Need to Stop

I think there is something important about admitting this.

Not every creative pause needs to be fixed.

Sometimes you don’t need another productivity system, another challenge, another list of projects or somebody telling you to find your inspiration again.

Sometimes life has asked something else of you.

For me, there was a time when grief needed my attention more than creativity did.

So I stopped.

The supplies could wait.

The ideas could wait.

The journals could wait.

And eventually, I came back.

Creativity Was Still There

When I started making again, I realised something I hadn’t fully understood before.

Creativity hadn’t disappeared.

It had simply been quiet.

The part of me that loved paper, colour, texture, composition and making beautiful things was still there. I hadn’t lost it because I had stopped for a year, or two years, or because motherhood had changed my life.

I had simply lived through different seasons.

And when I was ready, I could begin again.

That realisation changed the way I think about creative pauses.

Beginning Again Doesn’t Mean Going Back

When we talk about returning to creativity, we sometimes imagine that we are supposed to go back to exactly where we left off.

I don’t think it works that way.

Every time I have returned to making, I have brought a different version of myself with me.

The woman who began making favour boxes at her dining table was not the same woman who later discovered junk journaling.

The mother raising four children was not the same person who first trained and worked as a corporate lawyer.

And the artist who is making today is not exactly the artist who made those first journals.

Life changes us.

Our interests change.

Our materials change.

Our ideas change.

Our art changes with us.

And that’s okay.

You Don’t Have to Return Perfectly

If you’ve been away from creativity for a long time, you don’t have to return with a grand project.

You don’t need to prove that you are still creative.

You don’t need to make something worthy of sharing.

You don’t even need to know what you want to make.

You can simply pick something up again.

• A piece of paper.
• A pair of scissors.
• A photograph.
• A piece of fabric.
• An old envelope.
• One small collage.
• One page.

That’s enough.

The purpose of beginning again isn’t to make up for the time you’ve lost.

It’s simply to see what happens when you make something today.

What If You Don’t Feel Inspired?

I don’t always believe inspiration has to arrive before we begin.

Sometimes you discover that you still love making by making something.

That was certainly true for me.

I didn’t need to wait for some enormous creative revelation before picking up my materials again. The act of working with my hands was enough to remind me why I had loved it in the first place.

You can begin very quietly.

And sometimes the feeling comes afterwards.

What If Your Creativity Looks Different Now?

It probably will.

And that isn’t a failure.

You may return to an old craft and discover that you want to approach it differently. You may move from one medium to another. You may want to make for yourself instead of selling. You may want to teach. You may want to experiment with digital work. You may want to make something completely different from what you made before.

Your creative life is allowed to evolve.

You don’t have to recreate your old self to become creative again.

Is It Too Late to Start Again?

No.

I know this because I have done it more than once.

My creative life has stretched across different identities and different seasons — lawyer, mother, teacher, home-based maker, junk journal maker, and now an artist continuing to discover where the work can go.

There isn’t one correct age or stage at which you are supposed to create.

There is only the season you’re in.

And if you are ready to make again, that is enough.

A Creative Pause Is Not the End

Perhaps this is the part I wish more people understood about creativity.

A pause doesn’t erase what came before it.

You don’t lose every skill because you stopped.

You don’t stop being an artist because you spent years being a mother first.

You don’t have to justify the time you spent away.

Life happens.

Children grow.

Families change.

People grieve.

Responsibilities come and go.

And sometimes creativity has to move into the background.

That doesn’t mean it is gone.

It may simply be waiting for the next season when you have room for it again.

Key Takeaways

• A creative life doesn’t have to be continuous to be meaningful.
• Motherhood can change the way and the amount of time we create.
• Trinketz began because making from home allowed me to stay close to my children while continuing to make beautiful things.
• I stepped away from crafting when my son was born and later returned through junk journaling.
• Grief caused another long creative pause, and eventually I found my way back again.
• You don’t have to return to creativity in exactly the same form as before.
• A creative pause is not necessarily the end of your creative life.
• You can come back whenever you are ready.

You Can Always Come Back

When I look at all the different versions of my creative life, I don’t see a straight path.

I see a series of returns.

I returned after leaving my legal career.

I returned after becoming a mother.

I returned after taking time to raise my son.

I returned after discovering junk journaling.

I returned after my Etsy shop was suspended.

And I returned after grief made me put everything down for a long time.

Each time, I was a little different.

And each time, making felt familiar.

Perhaps that’s what I mean when I say that making feels like home again.

Home isn’t necessarily a place you never leave.

Sometimes it is the place you know you can return to.

So if you’ve been away from your creativity for a month, a year, or much longer, you don’t have to know exactly how to begin.

You can simply begin.

• One page.
• One piece of paper.
• One small idea.

Whenever you are ready, there is still room for you at the table.