The Crafty Nook

The Crafty Nook Handmade gifts with heart & a hint of glitter
Hair bows | DIY craft kits | Personalised goodies
Single mum. ME/CFS warrior. Creative queen.

Crafting joy, chaos & a little magic—daily! DM to order or just say hey!

There is a box on a delivery van right now and I am absolutely useless until it arrives.Christmas PJs are in transit som...
26/09/2026

There is a box on a delivery van right now and I am absolutely useless until it arrives.

Christmas PJs are in transit somewhere and tomorroe I'll be checking the tracking constantly like that's going to make the van go faster.

Filming the unpack on Tuesday, then straight to printing so you can actually see how they come out before the big reveal. No cropped corners. No artfully blurred teasers. A proper look, once I've seen them with my own eyes.

I've got a full couple of days first, orders to get out, and a hair appointment I have been waiting weeks for and will absolutely not be cancelling for a parcel.

But Tuesday. Tuesday is going to be a good one. 🎄

220 metres of bubble wrap. 65kg of plaster of paris. 973 paint your own sets. 270 mini bags of Haribo. Five days.I would...
22/09/2026

220 metres of bubble wrap. 65kg of plaster of paris. 973 paint your own sets. 270 mini bags of Haribo. Five days.

I would like someone to explain to me how that is a normal week, because I have lost all frame of reference.

Forty-five orders packed. Three rolls of fragile tape. One Blue Peter badge's worth of effort, self-awarded, no ceremony, I was too tired to clap.

My ankle has submitted a formal written complaint. I expect the knees to follow once they've found a union rep.

Tomorrow is not a rest day. Tomorrow is the same chaos but slightly less deranged, which is what passes for a holiday round here.

I have learned a great deal about myself this week. Mostly that I will not stop voluntarily. My body has to physically stage an intervention. The ankle went first. The knees are drafting their grievance. My lower back has gone very quiet, which is somehow more worrying.

My ankle has filed a formal complaint and honestly it has a point.Four days of sitting cross-legged on the floor packing...
21/09/2026

My ankle has filed a formal complaint and honestly it has a point.

Four days of sitting cross-legged on the floor packing orders. Swollen, red, hot to touch, painful. GP took one look at the online consultation, photos and delivered their verdict: rest. Immediately. No arguing.

Eight orders are staring at me from across the room. They'll be packed tomorrow. The ankle is in charge now.

Forced stillness does something weird though. You stop doing and start thinking, which I am normally terrible at allowing.

I fell down a rabbit hole and found a prompt that builds you a mascot based on your personality. Ran it through ChatGPT expecting something sensible. It gave me a unicorn. An actual unicorn. Little Pickle has claimed ownership of all unicorns since she was old enough to point at things and even as a baby most of her clothing was either Disney or unicorns. How apt of ChatGPT even if it can never get my hair colour right 🤣

But now I'm playing around on Canva with a new range of hair bobble buddies and something is genuinely taking shape. Think swimming and menopause 🤣

Turns out the best ideas were waiting just behind the to-do list. Who knew it would take a stroppy ankle to get me to stop long enough to find them.

One person has already bought their Halloween and Christmas Paint Your Own sets and I'm not saying they've got their lif...
20/09/2026

One person has already bought their Halloween and Christmas Paint Your Own sets and I'm not saying they've got their life together, but they've got their life together.

Halloween and Christmas paint your own sets are both live. Both in stock. Both waiting for you to stop pretending it isn't nearly that time of year.

Tuck one in a Christmas Eve box. Drop one in a Boo Box. Shove it in a stocking and feel smug about it in December when your brain has completely given up. Squirrel them away for the school holidays and you need just five minutes without hearing the inevitable "muuuuuuuuum"

With Haribo £1.50. Without £1.20. I can sort the seasonal sweets so you don't have to think about that either.

Halloween: https://thecraftynookdst.etsy.com/listing/1545162812
Christmas: https://thecraftynookdst.etsy.com/listing/1814026147

The Crafty Nook. Enabling forward planning for people who are very normal about the holidays.

It's past 11pm and I'm sat here surrounded by parcels wondering why I'm posting this instead of going to bed. Anyway. He...
19/09/2026

It's past 11pm and I'm sat here surrounded by parcels wondering why I'm posting this instead of going to bed. Anyway. Here we are.

Baby Dash update, because of course.

Me and Little Pickle are legging it back to Norfolk on Friday 2nd October, home Sunday 4th. Quick turnaround before we do it all again three and a half weeks later for Halloween. She is already more organised about this than I have ever been about anything in my life. She has a list. A list. Whereas I just want to snuggle the scrummiest baby alive 🤣

Nothing will be made, packed, or sent between those dates. Last post goes out the Friday before we head off. First post back is Tuesday 5th October.

I'll still be reading messages over the weekend. Probably with something unidentified on my sleeve and a baby in my arms. Toddlers are generous like that. Messages may be incoherent 🤣

41 orders. 4 days. Send help.The packing has begun and I've already had to have a word with myself about my life choices...
18/09/2026

41 orders. 4 days. Send help.

The packing has begun and I've already had to have a word with myself about my life choices. First 12 go out tomorrow, then we go again, and again, because apparently I enjoy this 🤣

Somewhere in this beautiful disaster I've also got to do a paint run and a week's worth of admin. Weekends are just weekdays but with more bubble wrap and a vague sense of doom.

Replies might be slow. I am alive. Moral support appreciated. 📦

The dragons kept arriving in pieces and frankly they were embarrassing themselves.Tails snapping off in the post, every ...
17/09/2026

The dragons kept arriving in pieces and frankly they were embarrassing themselves.

Tails snapping off in the post, every time. Not ideal for a Paint Your Own set. Mortifying, really.

So the old shapes have been retired (with no sympathy from me) and replaced with a chunkier full body dragon and a separate head that can actually handle Royal Mail doing whatever Royal Mail does to parcels.

Same set. Beefier dragons. Far fewer casualties.

If you've already got an order in, you'll get the originals. Everyone from today gets the new ones.

thecraftynookdst.etsy.com

My ankle has filed a formal complaint about my business practices.Days 1 to 4 in the floffice: packing orders on the flo...
16/09/2026

My ankle has filed a formal complaint about my business practices.

Days 1 to 4 in the floffice: packing orders on the floor, cross-legged, surrounded by parcels and plaster of paris shapes, slowly becoming one with the carpet. Very zen. Very bad.

Day 5: bursitis, ice pack, one fat ankle, mandatory rest. The glamorous side nobody puts in the brochure.

Day 6: back in the floffice packing 40 orders to get out the door by Tuesday. I even have a list of who needs packing and when. The list is not leaving my side at the moment 🤣

Printed orders are pushed to next Tuesday. Worth the wait, I promise. My ankle is less convinced, but it's not in charge.

Three weeks ago: tumbleweed. Actual tumbleweed rolling through my Etsy.Now: 38 Paint Your Own kit orders, two dispatch d...
14/09/2026

Three weeks ago: tumbleweed. Actual tumbleweed rolling through my Etsy.

Now: 38 Paint Your Own kit orders, two dispatch dates, one weekend I am trying to hit, and absolutely zero additional hands because it is just me.

I've had to close my order book for kits needed for the 26th and 27th September, which is a sentence I have never said before in my life and I am still a bit baffled by it.

This is what running a one-woman craft operation looks like. One minute you're wondering if anyone knows you exist. The next your notebook is full and you're talking to the packing tape.

Genuinely, thank you. I love making this stuff and you lot just let me keep doing it.

If I've messaged you about your order and you haven't replied, your order goes to the bottom of the pile.That's not me b...
14/09/2026

If I've messaged you about your order and you haven't replied, your order goes to the bottom of the pile.

That's not me being awkward. It's how I manage 80+ orders and make sure people with urgent deadlines get sorted first.

I had a customer reply to my message this morning. Eleven days after I sent it. Needing their order by Friday.

I'm doing everything I can to get it there in time. But it's a stressful scramble that didn't need to happen.

When your order comes in, I message you to ask if you need it by a specific date. Please reply as soon as you can. And if you haven't heard from me, check your Etsy spam folder because it ends up there more than it should.

I'm packing 16 orders today alone. Quick replies make a massive difference to how smoothly everything runs.

Thank you!

Address

St George's Square
Portsmouth

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+447426727051

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