^ Hi! That is me up there ^
I thought it was about time that I introduced myself to the ones of you that don't already know me. I looked through my blog the other night and realized that not ONCE have I told you about who I am.
So here goes:
My name is Emelie Jensen. I am a 28 year old Swedish gall that has made the UK her home for the past 4 years. I moved to the UK in December 2008. It was a quick and weird decision that sort of came out of nowhere. This came as a shock to many of my friends and to my family I think. You see I decided to leave my biggest dream (at the time) behind. Ever since I was 14 years old I dreamt of becoming a Tattooist and I worked hard from that day onwards to become one. It took me many years but in the end I managed to get an apprenticeship and a few years later I got offered a job at a local Tattoo shop. I was over the moon of course and thought it would be amazing. Only a few months into working as a tattooist I started doubting it being the job for me. I found that my interest for art was swaying and I slowly started feeling depressed. It was hard realising that your dream would be a little bit of a nightmare, but in the end I decided that even though I'd been working for this half my life, it was not worth it.
This gave me a sudden urge to just leave everything behind and go somewhere. I didn't know where though, and it was odd behaviour for someone like me who thought she'd never leave her home town. I think having your biggest dream crushed, just gave me an eye opener.
Anyway, I started looking for jobs abroad. I wasn't very picky and ended up on a farm in England(!). Here I took care of the horses of the farm, fed wild boar and caught sheep all day. I did enjoy the first month or so at this place, until I started noticing weird things going on. The animals were treated very badly and in the end I had a melt down and told the owner how bad they were treating their animals and that I would not put up with it any more. I stayed a week and I cried more or less every day, hiding in the stables with the horses that seemed to need me just as much as I needed them. Not all the animals were treated badly, only the ones owned by the owner of the farm. But I couldn't stay there, and it hurt to leave the animals behind, but there was nothing I could do for them.
I then ended up moving to Wales, and after living there for a few months I decided it was time to go back to school. So I applied to a 3 year long BA 3D Computer Animation Course and got taken on straight away with only my portfolio in hand. I started studying 3 years ago now and I must say that it changed my life completely. I went from being a slightly depressed drifter to an extremely happy, engaged business woman.
Not only do I have a degree now but I also met the love of my life, my husband to be, Ceri. He made me realize what I was worth and that I was good and deserved to be successful. He has listened to every crazy idea I've ever had and always said "Go for it!" and so my confidence has grown and awful lot.
Just before Christmas last year I decided to buy myself my very first sewing machine. I liked to sew allot when I was younger and I now had the confidence to try something new. Art has always been the closest thing to my heart and it always will be, but I wanted to try my hand at something else than paper and so I started TOMO!
It was more like a hobby to begin with and I made some pillows (that I absolutely hate today), and I posted them in my newly opened Etsy shop. Nothing sold. I got disheartened. The pillows were not me, not at all and I thought to myself "Stop trying to be so grown up. Since when do you like to make pillows?". I love toys and cute things more than anything, but it was hard to come up with something to do so I gave it a little break.
Then came Christmas. And I was given an iPod touch, and this little thing was the eye opener and inspiration to what Tomo is today. You see when me and Ceri came home from his parents after Christmas I wanted to get an ipod case for my new ipod and so I started surfing the internet. The amount of stuff I came across, Totoros, monsters, hello kitty, owls, you name it. "WOW!" I thought, "I can do this", and I did. I started out with a Totoro case for myself, and I also uploaded it to Etsy and the interest was waaaay bigger than with my pillows. And so I got into a few weeks of mad sewing and brain storming and came up with tuns of new designs. But there was a problem. What about my degree? I was sitting there sewing and having the time of my life, whilst I was wasting away my degree. I had to get out of my little bubble of joy and get back to reality. And as you might have figured by now, that happy bubble is my safe place and I don't really like to be pulled out of it. But I had to, and so miss unhappy was back. But I did what I had to do. I focused and I finished my degree with a first class.
The only problem that still was there, was the fact that I had convinced myself that I didn't like sewing and making ipod cases, just so that I COULD finish my degree. I didn't do this to myself on perpous, it just sort of happened. And I never thought I'd go back to making them. It took me about a week to get back in to things after my major project was handed in and then I thought I'd make an ipod case all of a sudden. And one led to another and two led to a third and so on. And now I sit here, I see Tomo grow, I see myself grow and that road ahead of me is no longer as dark and uncertain as it once was. I know what I want to do now. It took me 28 years, but I know now, and every single step that led till today was worth taking.
And that is where I am at and how Tomo came to be. Let's see where the road leads from here. I can't wait to see what the future holds....
