Welcome to my new blog, GraceBought! I’m so glad you’re here and I thank you for deciding to drop by. I’m completely new to blogging, so we’ll be on this journey together. There are so many things I have to learn! I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you and to get to know you. My goal is to form a community of readers and to make a few new friends. Perhaps by sharing what inspires me, you’ll find inspiration too. Here I hope to share a number of things with you, and in return, I’m excited to see what you share with me!
What is GraceBought exactly?
The GraceBought blog got it’s name from my Etsy shop, GraceBought. I love to craft. I love handmade things. I’m a very creative person and I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands. Sometimes I can’t help but feel that our society has lost many wonderful traditions and skills that were once passed from generation to generation. People don’t learn to quilt anymore, pass down songs and stories orally, or take the time to watch over Grandma’s shoulder when she makes her famous sugar cookies. And even if we did want to learn a skill, what do we do now? Look it up on the internet! Insert exasperated face!
I’ve sewn coasters on plastic grid for many, many years. I first learned when I was just a small girl and I saw my mom working on a coaster. Some of my earliest creations were pretty crazy, but I’ve been doing it so long now that I’ve gotten a knack for it and I truly enjoy it! My mother taught me to crochet a few years ago. She tried to teach me once when I was a young girl—after she taught me to sew on the plastic grid—but I didn’t have the attention span to stick with it long enough to get the hang of it. As I grew older, a yearning to learn grew in me and she happily obliged. Since then, I’ve gone on to study things my great grandmother and her sister made and passed down through our family. Great Grandma Sally is no longer with us, but she was a master of many crafts! By studying her hanging hand towels and various other crafts, I’ve taught myself many new tricks. I’m excited to carry on the crafting tradition, but I think the best way to learn is directly from another person. GraceBought was born out of the many crafts I made just to keep my hands busy during college.
In school, I had to attend these lectures seven times a semester. They had nothing to do with my major or any of my classes, but the college required we attend at least seven convocations a semester. They lasted an hour for the first few years and then the school extended them to last for an hour and a half to two hours. Gag me! Guys, I was dying inside for most of them. They were sooo boring. Occasionally, there was an interesting topic or an engaging speaker, but for the majority of the time, the students dreaded this obligation! There were lots of rules like “no cell phones, laptops, etc.” and, of course, “no talking or sleeping.” We were allowed to take notes on a notebook and we were allowed to crochet. No, that wasn’t a listed rule, but none of the ushers objected when students pulled out yarn and scissors.
After a few semesters of watching the occasional student working on a crochet project, I finally decided to start bringing my plastic grid and sewing needle. Thus, I made time to continue a childhood hobby. It gave me a space to express my bottled up creativity and it kept my hands busy. Sewing doesn’t take much concentration or light, so it was easily done and I could pretend to pay attention to the speaker or truly pay attention if I so chose. Eventually, I asked my mom to teach me to crochet and then I bounced back and forth between sewing coasters and crocheting granny squares. It certainly made the convocation much more bearable. My only problem? The coasters and tissue boxes and other goodies started piling up. I didn’t know what to do with them except to store them with my yarn box and old coasters from when I was a kid.
Then, as my friends started watching me (I may have brought a blanket into a class or two my last two years…but only when the teachers didn’t mind!) and praising my work, I started taking requests and making coasters and blankets for other people. I was going to make them either way; I might as well have a place to put them. Giving them away was easy! A few people said I ought to sell some of my things, but I never thought anyone would buy them. But, after they insisted that people would, I finally decided to give Etsy a try.
The night I set up my shop, I was so excited! I put in all my information, read all the rules, studied the site (I’d only used it as a customer in the past), and filled out all their fields. Then came time to name my shop. This was the moment! I’d contemplated this idea for years and I knew just what I was going to name it! College Coasters. Yup. Cause I’m so original. To my horror, College Coasters was already taken!! What was I going to do?! Well, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed, I found a new name.
After much deliberation, I finally decided on GraceBought. Oddly enough, it wasn’t taken. And now, I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I honestly don’t think College Coasters ever would have grown into the dream that GraceBought has. So, I thank you for being here. Thank you for reading. I hope that through GraceBought’s blog, you and I connect in a very special way. Stay tuned for the next post to learn the meaning behind the name! Until next time!
Love always,
Coralie