When Carly Stalker talks enthusiastically about the hand-drawn designs of the animals she sees in her back garden on a daily basis, there is a huge smile on her face.

The gorgeous drawings, which she are printed on a range of textiles for her and husband Rob's homeware and gifts company Roo-tid, are perfect interpretations of the creatures who inhabit the woodland which backs onto their Verwood home.

It's clear Carly is finally following her dreams, having set up the company in March this year and is hard to believe that, despite a promising start in her career, she was once plagued by doubts and a lack of confidence in her abilities as a designer.

"My background is very much print design," she explains. "I graduated in graphic design from Bournemouth Art Institute, which is now the university. At the point of dissertation, I got nominated to exhibit in London as an end of year show.

"You had two interviews afterwards with people from the industry. I got picked to do work experience with them. I'm from London originally, so I've got family there. I went back to London and did work experience at Tottenham Court. It wasn't a happy story. I ended up convincing myself I couldn't do it. I just didn't believe in myself.

"I did the second one and the same thing happened. I really wasn't confident at all."

Carly was then contacted by her tutor, who wanted her to do some studio work in Winchester, but found she could not muster the confidence to continue the job.

"I loved doing it - I could do it in my room, by myself but as soon as I was put in a work environment I was just paranoid, didn't want anyone to see what I was working on," she says.

"I didn't want to do it at all."

After moving back in with her parents in Hampshire, Carly took a job at Imagine Publishing in Bournemouth, where she worked her way up from checking external ads to designing magazine pages and eventually became a senior designer directing photo shoots.

From there, she moved to craft supplies distributor Do Crafts to bring the company's magazine in-house, creating her own team, heading up the photography department and becoming director of digital art work and overseeing trade and consumer shows both in the UK and in Europe.

"I got to a certain point where I just wasn't happy," she shrugs. "I always wanted to do something for myself and my husband."

Carly was inspired by some old drawings she had done of the couple's cheeky house rabbits, Speckle and Chubbs, which ignited the spark she needed to go ahead with setting up her own business.

"Last April I left work and did a bit of graphic design freelance, then worked on Roo-tid and launched it in March this year," she smiles.

"We back onto woodlands, called Dewlands, so that's what we've called the first collection. When we first got the house, about three years ago the people left us a lovely note saying 'look after the badgers and foxes and blue tits'. We get armies of badgers, foxes, woodpeckers walk down our garden path.

"So we set up our studio out the back. So all the animals I draw I take photos of and draw them. At the moment we have eight different animals designed for the Dewlands Collection."

Carly created matching patterns for each animal, then sourced a manufacturer and printer in the UK to create a range of bags, cushions, aprons, tea towels and oven gloves, as well as prints and greetings cards.

She set up an online shop, has sold at a number of trade and consumer shows - including Kirstie Allsopp's The Handmade Fair in Wiltshire and the New Forest and Hampshire County Show - and is now contacting local retailers to find outlets to stock her products.

A number of garden centres have already expressed an interested in Roo-tid, and Carly is delighted to have been accepted to exhibit at prestigious trade show Top Drawer at Olympia, London, this month.

She is now working hard on creating her second collection of products.

"Our next collection is going to be the first animals I ever drew, Speckle and Chubbs - the Naughty Bunny Collection," she smiles.

"We are going to look into childrenswear, following feedback from bloggers that have featured us, or peopled that have reviewed our products. We also want to increase our paper range - we are going to look at notepads, diaries and calendars and we are also looking into coasters and place mats."

It has been a long journey, but Carly is thrilled to finally have achieved her dream - and to have regained her confidence in the career that she loves.

"I was ready", she says.

"I just loved it so much, but I couldn't bring myself to fit into the industry. I never thought in a million years that I would adapt to it."

She finally feels grounded - an ethos reflected in the name of the company.

"I knew I wanted it to be something raw and rustic," she says of the tough decision of branding. "I started reading the dictionary - I was trying to look for the perfect word.

"I like the aspect that everything in nature is rooted in a way and I really liked the way it was spelled in the dictionary - which is how you pronounce it.

"I quite like the idea of finally feeling grounded, feeling like I was good enough - feeling rooted."

W: roo-tid.com