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Our pottery studio doors open onto the garden, the leaves have started to turn, each day the evenings seem to be drawing in earlier. Our busy season is creeping up on us as we prepare for Christmas and the festive season. Autumn is definitely one of my favourite seasons with Spring close at its heels. With both of these seasons my heart is filled with hope, an opportunity for new starts and growth. Autumns Earthy warm palette of rusty harvested apples, bundles of cut golden wheat, freshly dug mustard yellow squashes and copper Beech leaves makes my heart sing. I love woodland walks especially the smell of the woodland floor as you crunch over the fallen leaves, the fresh crisp air leaving a healthy glow on your cheeks. Once home you light the log burner, and a candle and pour a cup of tea and snuggle up in your favourite chair. As a maker autumn is typically a busy time as I prepare for the Christmas period. Wholesale orders for shops have started dropping in. Organised customers have already started on their Christmas shopping, spreading the cost and allowing time for their made to order pieces. In the studio we are attempting to build some stock of our popular items such as mugs and wax burners. We have been running our business now for 18 months, last Christmas we purely made to order, due to not being in the position to have stock in place ahead of the season. It went well, but was extremely busy and the last couple of weeks before Christmas were so stressful as if you know anything about the ceramic process you will know that it can be a challenging process! Most things take us 2-3 weeks depending of what we have waiting to make, the process of ceramics is a lengthy one without much wiggle room for rushing through orders. Everything we make in our studio is made by forming the clay in our hands and shaping it, nothing is made with the wheel or slip cast, so everything is very much a unique piece, making it all that much more special. You can hear about our shop updates and get access to VIP discounts including a 10% discount in your first order by signing up to our newsletters and following us on Instagram or Facebook This year we hope to reduce the festive stress even if just a bit! We plan to have at least a day off a week, when you are doing a job you love and have the orders there waiting its hard to step away, but this year we are going to. We also plan to adjust our working hours slightly so we go for a dog walk in daylight and work later instead. It's so important for me to be with nature, to slow down, to notice the changes around me, to practice gratitude and being outside helps so much with that. We mostly start and finish the day with meditation and we are determined that when its gets busy we prioritise this as starting and finishing the day well helps with maintaining our strength and longevity in creativity. We love cooking and cook from scratch most days, we enjoy doing this together, but when its gets so busy it can be easy to not eat well and that in turn makes you feel run down. So we are going to go to the local farmers market to collect our vegetables and batch cook our stews, soups and sauces to make evening meals more convenient once we are in from the studio. We are gradually adding pieces to our website shop and have many items in stock or available as made to order. We will be adding new lines in addition to our current lines including our popular Winters Night Starry Mug. As well as on our website shop you can also shop with us online at Etsy and Not On The High Street. In store at The St. Ives Company, St Ives, Cornwall. Pebble & Salt, Fowey, Cornwall. Artyzan, Redruth, Cornwall.

I’m Cara Fitzmaurice of Sparrows Nest Ceramics. I live in West Cornwall and work from my home studio. My work inspired by the natural world around me, it encompasses my passion of the local landscape and seascape; to share this joy with you brings me much happiness. My work is all hand formed, it’s free forming and open, I believe there is nothing more authentic than hand formed ceramics where imperfections connect the product to the makers, creating an organic and unique look.  Many of my pieces are made using primitive techniques such as raku techniques of smoke firing, surface marking with natural materials and saggar. January 2020 saw me leave my career in nursing after 22 years. In this time I have worked in areas from accident and emergency, public health, health visiting, practice nursing and leadership and management and safeguarding children. I now work full time as a ceramist in Cornwall, making bespoke one off’s, small batch and teaching workshops and I truly couldn’t be more content and fulfilled. I wanted to share my journey and my top tips for those of you seeking to live an authentic, freer and creative life. About 5 years ago I became very poorly, I had to slow and focus on my wellbeing. Following a conversation with another ex nurse, l reflected on my time in my first job in A&E, I certainly learnt many lessons there that’s for sure, but surely the most important lesson was how valuable and precious life is; at any given moment it can be taken away from us; no warning; no chance to make amends; to change direction or to do something you have always wanted too. I always reflected on a patients death and wondered if they had a good life, whether they were loved and whether they had regrets and were their happy with the life they had had. Obviously, I will never know, but this triggered me recalling a piece of research by Bronnie Ware a palliative care nurse and author from Australia. The focus was learning from the dying of their regrets in life. Her top 5 findings were: 1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 2. I wish I’d not worked so hard. 3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. In that moment I knew something had to change, I realised my career and continuing education was my identity, that I was trapped in a world I didn’t belong in, I lived for the weekends; annual leave would frequently be spent poorly as I decompressed from the stress and mental and physical exhaustion that came with the job. I wanted a change in career, but doing what? I knew another public service jobs would have similar issues, I was then heading for 40 and after pretty much my whole career also spent studying at university I really didn’t want to train anymore. I wanted a job that didn’t feel like a job, that felt gentle and nourishing to my body, mind and soul, that felt authentic to me, that allowed me flexibility in life. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do…but I knew where I would start. I painted, something I hadn’t done since school. I painted women with long necks holding birds, I like to reflect now that these ladies represented me, the long necks with trying to keep my neck above water, to stand tall and to catch sight of the horizon and of new beginnings. The birds as a sign of freedom, of taking flight and singing my hearts desires. I enrolled on endless workshops and courses in the hope I would find ‘my thing’ until one wet and windy evening on 18th January 2017 I walked into a pottery class, picked up some clay and it was love at first sight. At this time I was still working full time as a nurse and still poorly. I still couldn’t see a way out, my mind was bombarded with endless practical questions such as how I would be able to manage a career change financially as I was in a well paid role. I didn’t have the how’s but I did have the wants, so I wrote a list, which I still keep to this day: April 2017 1) Start a pottery business 2) To make a studio for my crafts 3) Work less hours for an employer 4) To earn money from being creative 5) To continue to be able to financially support myself 6) To be less anxious and stressed 7) To be with nature more January, I spent sorting out my studio, and getting my website up and running. February I designed and created. March brought with it a pandemic (errr I hadn’t planned for that…), I wasn’t sure what I should do, was it wrong to keep creating and being positive in this time? I decided to keep going and bring others joy through my making and my work. My community on social media grew, we found strength in supporting each other through positivity and my business blossomed. As we near the end of 2020, I reflect on those 5 regrets of the dying and on my list to the universe and you know what? I think I’m doing pretty well! My top tips for those wishing to be living a life of freedom and creativity are: 1) Write down want you want, don’t hold back, jot it all down and don’t worry about any detail of the how’s. 2) Trust and believe that this will all happen 3) Meditate get to know you again. I also found revisiting my teenage self a useful exercise. What would they make of your life? What would they be surprised at or sad about? What would they say to you? Teenagers don’t often hold back, so be prepared for some home truths! 4) Core values. A quick google of ‘core values’ will provide you with a list if you can’t reel any off straight away. Think of 3-5 that are really important to you as a person and in life. Think about how you can live in better alignment with them. 5) Practice gratitude, seriously, really do this. The more we are truly thankful for what have the less we need and want. 6) Conscious simple living. Mindful thinking about what we buy and its impact. I use to treat myself with purchases to reward myself for my hard work. So technically I was burning myself out so I could buy myself a bag to reward myself for working hard in a job I didn’t want to do and for a bag I didn’t really want. 7) Connect with other creatives, find your tribe, spend time with people who will lift you up and cheerlead you. 8) Be open for opportunities 9) Recognise areas where you are time poor. For example, I worked long hours so would spend more on shopping as I didn’t have the time to meal plan, this would also then mean we had several extra little trips to the supermarket in the week to get things. We worked out we almost doubled our current shopping bill due to lack of planning. We also shamefully threw lots of food (money) away at the end of the week. Also consider things you buy to throw away, toilet rolls, sanitary products, bin bags are there cheaper versions or eco versions that will ultimately save you money and your impact on the Earth? As you find these areas in your life, you will see opportunities for saving on spending which ultimately means less hours needing to work for an employer and more time being free to live the life you wish. 10) Work out the minimum amount of money you need to pay your bills and food. “Life is wild and glorious and hard and beautiful. We Freedom Seekers must keep choosing freedom with every decision, every detail, every dollar, every day. Because its the experience of it all that adds up to a beautiful life.” – Beth Kempton. My health situation is pretty rare, but I know have a diagnosis which I didn’t for many years after suffering many extreme symptoms. Although on reflection more simple adjustments in career would have helped me create balance and continue in nursing i job I loved and that I invested so much in, if I had known what I do now about my health diagnosis. But, I am here. This is where my journey has taken me. I have somehow in a dark place made light. I have an opportunity to try and heal, and create a life that I wouldn’t have dared to have dreamed. Let’s see where this journey can take me… Follow me on Instagram Shop here and find out more

I love the feeling when someone gives me a gift that is handmade, I know then they saw the item and straight away thought of me, handmade allows me to connect with the maker and the process through the item. I also know that I am not the only one benefitting from this gift; that the maker and their family are too. The joy I feel is the same joy the maker feels when they sell the item. As a maker myself I still get so excited when I make a sale. I still refer to my orders as presents when I wrap them to go on their way! It's just the excitement and the love that has gone into each item and can't wait to share that feeling with someone else. I thought I would share with you some of my current favourite makers and also share some of my Christmas range with you. www.sparrowsnestceramics.com https://www.instagram.com/sparrows_nest_ceramics/ Of Land and Sea Handmade recycled silver jewellery. Inspired by nature, lore and life in the Southwest of England https://www.instagram.com/oflandandseastudio/ www.oflandandsea.com Helen Round Designs Hand printed linen products, Cornwall. https://www.instagram.com/helenrounddesigns/ www.helenround.com Lou Tonkin Artist Print-maker, Cornwall https://www.instagram.com/loutonkin/ www.loutonkin.com Kettle and Birch Hand-bound Journals and Books, London https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KETTLEandBIRCH Old Green Furnishings Handmade Candles poured into repurposed glass bottles, South West England. www.oldgreen.co.uk The Whispering Wild Sculptor, illustrator, writer, Fairytale Maker www.thewhisperingwild.co.uk Hope you appreciate the talent of the makers I have shared, some of the products are just so beautiful. I have loved preparing my Christmas range this year. I hope you enjoy them as much too. Hand formed ceramics, Cornwall. Christmas range includes luxury mug, tea light holder, candle holders, match striker/holder, tree decorations, and other seasonal pieces. https://www.instagram.com/sparrows_nest_ceramics/ www.sparrowsnestceramics.com

Cara Fitzmaurice ‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow’ Audrey Hepburn I often dream of having my own secret garden, a walled garden with a green wooden door with the heaviest rustiest old hinges and latch. The walls lined with rambling roses their scent filling the air, old wise apple and pear trees taking main stage, with plum and greengages close behind. A big old wheelbarrow parked up full of produce from the vegetable patch. Birdsong the and the warm hum of busy bees providing me with a pleasant and inviting soundtrack. I’ve always had a fascination with the garden, I think of times gone by, of summers spent in my papas garden, watching him potter about in the vegetable patch, the petrol lawnmower chugging left to right; right to left (with at least one line straying off at the wrong angle!). My garden I like to refer to as a ‘natural’ garden, don’t get me wrong we have to put in time and effort, but we have planted many native English garden plants, flowers and trees, we don’t tend to get too involved after planting (mainly as we don’t always have the time to do so), but nature does its magic and most things thrive and are now well established. We try to leave it as natural as possible to allow the wildlife to thrive too, we avoid pesticides and welcome the bugs and birdies. I don’t know about you, but I do find I can lose myself in just ‘being’ when I’m in the garden, I drift just watching and listening to its life. I love nothing more than sitting out with a tea and quietly and respectfully being present. I am grateful I have an outdoor space, I recognise this isn’t something everyone has. But equally just being out in a park or even on a walk you can connect in that same way. I am noticing more and more friends are creating outdoor spaces by renting allotments. Lockdown has proven to me along with many others to have been a time when people have not only reconnected to nature but also realised that they are actually indeed part of it. What I am finding is that everyone I speak to about spending time in their gardens or allotments, whether they have been doing the hard groundwork stuff, or much lighter gardening or simply being in a garden or outdoor space says things that indicate it’s great for them in so many ways. Ways such as helping with positive mental health, helping with fitness and lifestyle, connecting with others and generally being good for the soul. So maybe gardening isn’t just about nurturing other living organisms but maybe it’s also about nurturing you