A day in the life with a local craft designer

She is married to Nick and lives in Lisburn with her three children Peter, 20, Emma, 17, and Charlie, 8.

Katie worked as a hairdresser when she left school - a career she enjoyed until she developed a condition called Emetophobia - a fear of vomiting which in turn led to her developing agoraphobia.

Katie hated being stuck at home and decided she needed a hobby that she could do that would help take her mind of her condition and so started making guest books for family and friend.

After being permitted to work while ill Katie started taking her designing seriously and set up the business which is going from strength to strength.

My working day starts once my youngest son has been taken to school by my husband. I will go through my emails and see if there’s any queries form customers. Then I will make a start on orders.

I make handmade, personalised guest books and gifts suitable for all occasions. All my items are carefully made to the highest of standards using finest quality materials. I take a huge pride in my work and every item is made to perfection.

“I design and personalise any of my items to suit customers’ needs. It normally takes five working days from an order is placed until it arrives with the customer. My husband is a great help and he mounts all the board, pages and wires and has them ready for me to start my design work. I design toppers which is the design you see on the cover of the books. I use paint and materials to decorate these to meet the tastes of the customer and to suit the occasion which it is being created for.

When a customer places an order at hey will email their preferred wording and tell me their colour options.

“I will match up the theme and colours of the event and then start sketching ideas and getting to work on creating the product. Once the book is ready I will make a customised box for it, label it and send it off.

In the evenings I will check my emails to see if any new orders have been placed and I will make a priority list for the next day. I then upload new images of my work onto the website and update my social networking suites too.

I wasn’t very creative when I was young but now I love it as it has helped me so much with my condition and gives me so much joy.