Kelly Compton
Mum-of-three
Kelly Compton has left her high-flying City banking career and turned her love
for crafting into a career. Lizzy Dening pops round to chat about raising boys
and making bunting…
While I
really like kids, the prospect of motherhood and all that comes with it –
sleepless nights, cutting back on your career, not to mention giving up wine
for nine months – seems a bit daunting. That’s why when I meet mum-of-three
Kelly Compton, it’s a relief to see she’s been bending
the rules.
While she
used to be a high-flying banker in the City, she quickly realised that kids and
commuting don’t really mix. But, ever enthusiastic, the youthful blonde set up
her own business instead…at lightning speed!
When I join
Kelly – and her youngest son Henry, 3 – for an enormous slab of homemade cake
and a cuppa, it’s barely been six months since she launched her business,
Saffron Crafts, during which time she’s set up her own website, established a
client base, attended numerous craft fairs and already has a pile of fabric put
aside for home is spotless, her two older sons are due home from school at any
moment, and she’s raising an adorable – if enormous – German Shepherd puppy
called Buster, who eyes my cake with interest. Phew!
Kelly, 41,
explains how she turned crafting into a new career: “I was quite artistic when
I was at school, but then I drifted in and out and hadn’t really done anything
since I had kids. One day, I wanted some bunting for Henry’s bedroom, but
couldn’t find anything that was quite right, and I wanted it personalised, so I
made some myself and I was quite surprised by how good it was.”
She pauses
to pour Henry some Smarties, as he babbles happily beside her. “I launched in
September and I never imagined in my wildest dreams it would grow so fast; it
took of really quickly. But it does take every spare minute.” Her range has
expanded to encompass peg bags and adorable frilly aprons, as well as the customised
bunting.
She laughs:
“I do everything at 100 miles an hour, and was actually disappointed to have
launched in September, 12 days later than I thought I would!”
Her house
runs like a carefully choreographed dance as the older boys George, 11, and
Oliver, 9, and a friend arrive hom and rush upstairs to get ready for a
sleeppver and a school disco respectively. Kelly uses this time to chat to me,
give Henry some medicine (his flushed cheeks attest to a cold), put the dog out
and root through her sons’ school bags for crumpled school letters. We even
have a spare 10 minutes to run up some bunting, as she shows me how to wield a
sewing machine. It’s no wonder she loves to retreat to the basement, which is
her own private workspace – although her husband Derek has conceded to move his
PlayStation downstairs too, so that the couple can spend their evenings side by
side.
While her family have been supportive, she admits Derek practises
‘quality control’, and will tell her if she’s wasting her time on a particular
project: “He’s trying to educate me in business, telling me to buy in bulk. He
wants me to take over the world! It’s been a big adjustment for him, but he’s
actually impressed by it.
“The boys,”
she says, “are happy as long as they have everything they need, although the
other day one of them did look at a piece of my work and say, ‘You made that?
You couldn’t have done, it’s too good’.”
And with
that she’s off upstairs to make sure the boys are packed and ready for their
evenings, planning the dinner out loud, offering me another cup of tea with a
big smile… and suddenly motherhood seems pretty fabulous to me.
