My Weekend...

I had a great weekend and I hope you all* did, too!  Saturday threatened thunderstorms that never happened, but a very lazy day was spent at home nonetheless.  I over booked myself on Sunday, but the highlight was definitely the NYC Design Meetup hosted by the lovely bklyncontessa!  I 'met' bklyncontessa on Twitter and it was so nice to meet her in person! She organized the event to welcome Erin Loechner of Design For Mankind to New York.  She is also quite lovely!  In fact, it's hard to come up with another word to describe everyone I met because bklyncontessa managed to gather a group of lovely lovely people!

I realized that it's easy as a small business owner, that works from home, to become isolated in your own world/work space.  There is nothing like being around a bunch of creatives to get you motivated!   I'm glad the event was on a Sunday because now I feel ready and energized to accomplish a lot this week! Won't you join me in having a great week?

Print is by Sweet William on Etsy


*Having lived in Virginia for many years it was difficult to not use 'ya'll'.  Quite proud of myself for showing some restraint...until this addendum anyway...

The business side of the business [Line Sheets]...

For the past week I've been working toward checking off a major item of my to do list.  This item is the line sheet for my AI Collection.  It's a collection that I feel I can produce multiples of consistently and quickly enough to approach boutiques about placing it on their shelves.  I am excited about the prospect of it all and I really want to do it right.

What's not exciting is the business side of running your own creative business!  Creating this line sheet has been both frustrating and draining.  Tons of research online to figure out what a line sheet is in the first place, customizing it to my pieces so it's not twenty pages and maneuvering around the fact that I am not as computer savvy as I thought I was.

At this point the look of the line sheet has been locked in and I just need to photograph the new Large AI Earrings that I am adding to the collection (in new fun summer colors!) and I'll be done! It's been a tough week, but I know that once I push through this and everything else on my to do list that good things will come.

[The picture is of the first 2 of the 5 pages]

In the Etsy Shop...

The Blue Ocean Necklace is back in the shop!  I know, I know...it's been a little while.  I also know I should keep it in stock considering that it is my best seller.  What's my problem you ask?  Well...

I'll get an idea.  I'll mull it over for a while.  I'll figure out the best way to build the piece.  I'll make it and then I think DONE!  NEXT!  I get such an amazing feeling of accomplishment that all I want to do is come up with another idea so I can feel it again.  It just seems like making something that I've already made would stop me from growing creatively.

I'm slowly starting to realize that this is ridiculous.  Whether I make one or fifty of the same piece, it's my creation so I should be able to get that 'high' off of every one that I make. I need to learn to turn the joy I feel from someone enjoying my work into motivating fuel towards understanding that it's okay to go 'back'. 

Alright, I have to go now.  I have more Blue Ocean Necklaces to make.

See...I'm learning!