I can't remember exactly where the idea for trustwordie came from but reading Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon got me thinking about a sideline passion project. In our house, we have a ribbon that hangs all our greeting cards depending on the occasion - birthdays, Christmas, other family celebrations and they're always left up way too long after the event.
I think part of it was comparing the physical cards I received for my birthday to the amount of semi-automated greetings I received online and we all know which ones are more precious. I'm the sort of person that prefers ten or so handwritten greeting cards or letters to 100 texts.
Receiving a card in the post, and getting to it on the floor (before the dog), is so lovely. It shows the sender cared enough to pick a card, write a message, buy a stamp, dig out a postal address and find a letterbox - all for you, isn't that something?
I started it in the summer of 2017 but then a few bereavements knocked me back and dulled my creativity and motivation for these little darlings. Add to that my eldest son leaving to go to uni and finishing up a degree myself, my poor pet project didn't get a look in. I slowly came out of my shell and picked them back up and here we are today. I'll write a blog post some time about the many design iterations, the climax of which was admitting my own designs were awful and hiring a professional to pretty up my words and I'm so pleased with the end result, thanks Moo.
It's only the beginning
I'm opening with just six cards but have big plans to extend the collection and also the product range. As they say, it's not about where you're from but where you're going. I hope you join me on the journey.