In the beginning, there was an illness, a Cricut machine, and a whole lot of persistence!

If you are reading this- Hello! My name is Sarah and this is my first ever blog post. The thought process behind this was to document my journey and to raise awareness to various things in the world that people can relate to. I am not one for social media, or really talking about myself, but I think the first post should be a little about who I am.
In 2009 I found out that I had Endometriosis stage 2. At this time I was just going about to go into my final placement as a student nurse before I qualified. It came with lots of emotions and treatments and ultimately ended up with me deciding that I was unable to continue to work in my chosen career. 
In 2019 I decided I would try home care- a field that I was familiar with, but didn’t have the pressures that nursing had. Sadly this wasn’t the greatest fit for me either.
I have always had a love of crafting, often crafting for friends and family. Making gifts and requests that I had never made, but still had a go anyway. I always wondered, what was it that people used for the things I had to purchase off Ebay and such for my crafts. Things like vinyl wording, die cuts and stickers. 
One day I was looking on a popular deal site, and came across a Hobbycraft post for a machine called a Cricut Maker 2. I started to excitedly research into what it was and what it did. I realised that this was the machine that I could reasonably afford and would make all of my crafting dreams come true.
The learning curve to use it was massively outweighed by the wonderful creations I could make using this machine, but it was a case of trial and error.
Cricut is a great company in my opinion. They give you access to a huge community of people who upload their ideas and designs if you are not so creative. They have great tutorials and it is quite self explanatory. That being said, sometimes the material you are using might not be quite right for the recommended settings, and in that there can be disheartening times.
My advice to anyone thinking of buying a machine, or struggling to get to grips with it, would be to look at the vast amount of videos available on YouTube. There are some wonderful people who share their knowledge of Cricut and crafting for free. 
My top lady for learning all things Cricut is Jennifer Maker on YouTube. She has amazing tools and a website that will give you free access to lots of information, but also courses you can pay for if you need it. 
Other good crafting channels:
Makers Gonna Learn
Lorri Nunemaker
Merry Craft
My Upcycled Life
Amy Made
Justine Hovey
These are my go to people for inspiration.
For me, the persistence has paid off and over the years I have had it, it has paid for itself and more. It was the best decision I ever made for my crafting.
So there you are!
There is the back story to how I started some serious crafting, after many years of being the creative one in the family.
It has already unlocked so many more opportunities for me, so anyone reading this who is currently fighting with a machine- DO NOT GIVE UP!