Through the madness...

I truly apologize that it has been almost a month since my last post. I guess I need to pay better attention to my time management! Over the last month I have had two major craft shows, WONDERFUL! First, on the 12th we had the Altrusa Bazaar here in Chillicothe, then on the 18-20th we had a relatively good show as well. 

Along with great shows though, come LOTS of hard work! Over 540 dangles have been made for our new football bracelets that include the Steelers, Browns, Bengals, Jets, Giants, and Cowboys! They were so fun to make, and hopefully my customers like them as much as I do, so that I can continue making them and include more and more teams over the next year or so. 

So what does this have to do with working from home with a toddler? LOTS! 

Since I wasn't able to get my supplies for these bracelets until just days before a show, I was working nonstop for about two weeks. (half done in time for the first show, then the rest for the second) This meant plenty of juggling, and trying to keep little hands from putting little beads up little noses! 

It's times like this that I am thankful for Pac-n-plays. Give your little one their favorite toys and some music so that you don't feel like you have to fully entertain your little one while you are trying to get just-a-little-more done for the day. Also, if you are in the crunch, go ahead and let your home go for a day or two. Now I'm not saying to every dish get dirty, or not vacuum for a month. I'm just saying that the world will not end if your house isn't perfect for a week or two (or more!). 

TIme management...

How do you balance the creative aspect of your business and the business aspect of your business? This is something that I struggle with a lot. I find myself tuned into the newsletters and Tweets of "small business builder"s and sometimes almost forget that I need to create jewelry to sell in order to make these sites and postings useful.

Right now I'm working on scheduleing specific time for these activities so that they don't interfere with everything else I have going on. For example, I'm vowing to make my son's nap time my school time. I am a full time student and have to make sure that I can get all of my online and hardcopy work done. That's roughly an hour and a half to two hours a day that I don't have to think about business, or family dinners or anything else. That is time for me to be productive in another area.

Baby's bed time is now fully devoted to jewelry. I have also broken up different aspects of the bussiness to be handled on different nights. So, Monday night is picture and inventory night, Tuesday is labels and hangtags night etc. Accounting is only done on one day of the week. By breaking everything up and designating it to a specific day and time (even if it's as general as baby's bedtime) it helps to relieve the pressures of thinking about it over and over until you finally have a chance to do it....sometime.

I've applied this same principle in my personal life, Friday is laundry day for example. To help compartmentalize different aspects of the house. I still wiggle room for everything (I have a baby after all, and those can be quite unpredictable!) and don't have everything scheduled down the minute. So if I don't get to do a certain thing when I had originally planned, it's ok! I can do it a little later.

Baby's awake...I'll see you guys later!

Some history...

I've been making jewelry since early 2009. My mom got me into it when I came home on R&R from Afghanistan. My husband and I were deployed together, but he was working evenings/ nights while I was working days, and I was BORED!  I'd always been pretty crafty, switching from painting and drawing in school to scrapbooking in college, and finally landing on jewelry now. It wasn't until getting out of the Army in March of this year that I got really serious about my jewelry. I had a stockpile of beads and jewelry that I had never really done anything with, and I wanted to put myself out there. My skills had progressed and my work was looking really good, so I got an ArtFire store. I was also moving back home after getting out of the Army, and mom had a friend who was looking to open a small store, so I had my jewelry there as well.

But I also had my son. A very curious and rambunctious toddler. Working in the store was becoming hard to juggle. Between naps and feedings, I was hardly getting to be there at all. So I left some of my work there, but had to step back from taking a more active role. So, to keep my jewelry "out-there" I got a .com in addition to my ArtFire site. This allows me to more easily manage my growing business and my growing toddler. My items will be coming out of the small store next week and will be coming onto the websites, so keep an eye out for some interesting artwork.

So that catches you all up on where I come from and what I'm doing now, and opens us up to talk more about (mis)adventures in business, parenting, and juggling the two.