Official Launch: The Story Behind Book and Kettle Cottage Crafts

There’s been a long journey behind the ability to write “Official Launch”.

A road of twists and turns before the polished website and daydream entering reality.

 Book and Kettle Cottage Crafts began as most things do: with an idea, a little ambition, a little breakdown, and a name.

It started in Toowoomba, Queensland in 2021, the year that Ethan and I met.

Life moved quickly after that afternoon, in the steady, certain way it sometimes does. I was working full-time, trying to keep up with mortgage repayments after rate rises, and Ethan had walked into my work looking for directions. I won’t be corny enough to say it was love at first sight, but it was certainly something. We moved in together and within two years we welcomed our first son, Arthur.

After having Arthur and the inevitable return to worklife loomed I realised I wanted to create something for myself. After shooting ideas back and forth I had the idea of a smash room. Instant excitement. It started with a name: Smashalot. An Arthurian-themed smash and splash enterprise.

It was fun and ambitious. It was something we were building for ourselves. We had incredible feedback in favour of the endeavour and were actively searching for a suitable location after working on all we possibly could without one.

Then we pivoted — dramatically.

An offhanded idea from my father set us into a 180 degree turn. In one night we cancelled another viewing for a possible commercial location and instead asked the real estate agent to value our house for sale.

Instead of opening Smashalot, we sold up and moved to an acreage. Rural land shared with my uncle and dad (Grandad to our boys) who had just purchased the property and had a flat space that made it possible for a house. We traded the city business for gum trees. Streetlights for starry skies. Traffic noise for kookaburras and crickets. Rising bills for something more sustainable.

There was freedom in that decision. We had space to breathe, bushland to explore, and calm to embrace. A possible forever place for our family. But there was also change that came with moving away from city conveniences and familiar routines.

We scooped up the dogs, cats, house plants, and chickens. We packed our life into a 12m shipping container and placed a 3.3m x 15m prefabricated home on the property, with a full-sized bathroom and kitchen. We compromised smaller bedrooms with the expectation of extending in due time, that wouldn’t be started for almost two years later.

We began building a slower life. Then we welcomed our second son, Cyrus.

But somewhere in the chaos of newborns and toddlers, small spaces, inconveniences of an incomplete home, and hopeful small homestead ambitions, I felt something slipping.

While I adore my boys and while motherhood was something I had always wanted, I found myself feeling like I did nothing tangible. Despite the endless number of things that constituted a normal day. No project was finished. No measurable output. Even though raising children is its own achievement, a hard one, I needed something to pull me from simply being “Mum”. Some intentional self-care after nights with low-sleep but high-energy babies.

There was an idea I’d had while still at work, after we’d made the decision to move. An idea that became something I now felt I had to get a start on. Something I could make with my hands but still be useful. Something that was mine, but still for my family.

I’d always dabbled in creative things - cross stitch, book nook kits, reading, writing, painting, growing plants - but these had taken a far back seat to parenting priorities. Not to mention most being in boxes somewhere in the shipping container.

The idea I’d had was a market stall of handmade items. It started with the idea of hand embroidering covers for handmade books. Then the idea that the covers were hand dyed linen with colours from nature. Then the paper also became handmade recycled paper. While these ideas haven’t quite come to fruition just yet (see my second blog post “Offical Launch: What's Coming Next) the name I devised has stuck since the beginning.

Book and Kettle Cottage Crafts

Stemming from Ethan and my love of books and tea, I hope it brings others a warm fuzzy when they see my cute little logo as much as it does me.

Now, bookbinding and apron making weren’t lifelong dreams. The love of the crafts grew slowly.

Side note: I’ve long since wanted to be a novel writer and dream of travelling. A world I created when I was 16 still lives rent-free in my head, hopefully one day to make it to paper. And life brought a series of unplanned turns that changed my ability to pursue the travel I had hoped for. Still aim for.

But I started with aprons as it was something I could leave unfinished when I needed to put it down. I couldn’t afford new linen fabrics to practice with but I could afford a few secondhand shirts and pants that I wouldn’t feel as bad about messing up. The act of relearning my small sewing machine and teaching myself what I needed to know gave me an escape while the boys napped. It was tangible progress in the form of practical pieces. For the flour-dusted benches I aimed to have as I also attempted a more active kitchen. Though I am proud to have homemade pasta fairly down pat.

Not only did I feel better for feeling like I accomplished something during the day (aside from raising my boys) but I had the reset I needed to reenter motherhood for the rest of the day with a more balanced mind.

Almost a year later, closer to the original ideas, Ethan - who had since completed several degrees and his Masters in Information Sciences - and I participated in a small private bookbinding course after days of daydreaming over tutorials and bookbinding masters.

This small home workshop deepened our resolve to create for ourselves and I began this small business start up more seriously.

Book and Kettle Cottage Crafts became an accumulation of some of my favourite things: books, slow living, cottage and country aesthetics, handmade details that feel both useful and beautiful. It stands as proof that I can build something with my own hands. That I can contribute to our family’s little lifestyle in a way that feels aligned and sustainable. That I can create objects designed not just to sit pretty on a shelf, but to be used in homes that are lived in.

Book and Kettle Cottage Crafts is built on the belief that everyday objects can be both practical and beautiful — stitched slowly, made with intention, and designed without negative impacts on our environments.

Now Ethan and I share a common goal: to both work from home, to grow our own businesses, and to raise our boys in a life that values closeness over hustle, craftsmanship over convenience, and purpose over noise.

So this official launch isn’t the beginning.

It’s a marker along a travelled road. Through cancelled plans, sold houses, bush blocks, stitched linen, small homes, and rediscovering who I am beyond the role of mother.

The kettle is on. The books are bound. The aprons are ready for work.

And there is so much more to come.

Thank you for being here.

Read Official Launch: What's Coming Next to find out where this road is going..