Been a while

Yes it's been a while since I've posted anything on here but I have most definitely been a busy girl. I had some issues with my internet near the end of April since my bandwidth got lowered by Rogers and then May turned out to be the busiest month I've had in a long time.

One of my many enterprises over the past month was making a wedding gift for my friend. Since I had very little access to the internet my evenings were spent watching Supernatural and knitting to my hearts content. I knit a beautiful afghan for my friend and her new husband as a wedding gift. I'm actually quite proud of how it turned out.

There have also been quite a few changes at work which ended up with additions to my schedule and little time to work at home. Thankfully some of those changes have slowed down and I'm getting to work on a few commissions.

Also in regards to my jewellery I'm making myself a new website. A friend of mine has been running my current website but with her starting a new job and moving to Toronto she hasn't been able to update it in quite some time. By making a new one myself I'll be able to update it whenever I need to. My domain needs to be renewed in June so I'll be able to switch my website over to the new one very soon. If you'd like to see what I've got so far see my new website here!

Cash Stash

Since my friend has gotten me obsessed with knitting she's also gotten me on a website for knitters called Ravelry. I really enjoy it because not only is it a fabulous place to talk to knitters you can also find patterns both free and for sale, yarn for sale as well as having a nice way to organize your projects, share your progress and just about anything else you own relating to knitting!

Anyways I found a group on this site called Cash for Stash. The idea is you come up with a list of activities that you want to accomplish in your life and when you perform one of these activities you reward yourself with a bit of money to buy more yarn for your stash. I thought this was a fabulous idea not just for a yarn stash but for other things as well. So now I think I would like to start a fun stash. Money that I can use for all those fun things in life I don't usually let myself buy like things for my computer, something fabulous from Etsy, a new book, movie or CD, etc. I'd like to put up a counter on the blog to let you know how the fund is growing but haven't been able to figure that out quite yet. For now I'm using one of my countless cute notebooks (did I mention I'm a stationary junkie?) We'll see if I actually keep this up. When I try things like this they really only tend to last a few weeks before I forget about them. *shrug*

As to the activities I've started a small list and many of them have to do with my business, things like rewarding myself for taking photographs of my work, completing designs for a commission and making a sale on Etsy. I think this might be a great way to motivate myself in the future. What would you pay yourself to do?

Alive but Lazy.

Well that kind of describes me in regards to my computer lately. Now that I have a job I've kind of been avoiding my computer lately. Well been avoiding it since Easter anyways in favor of other activities. My best friend has bitten me with the knitting bug lately so when I'm at home I seem to simply been watching episodes of Supernatural or Ghost Whisperer and knitting up a storm. I've started and afghan and I'm a little obsessed.

On the business side of things I must admit that I've gotten very little done. Since the begining of the month I haven't done much on Etsy - I must admit the total lack of sales has made me loose most of my interest not to mention hope in making any money off of Etsy. Also since starting my new job I haven't been taking any opportunities to get into the studio. To be perfectly honest when I am in the studio I'm not all that inspired. For the moment though with getting used to my new job and my schedule for the next month is starting to look pretty darn full. I'm thinking I might take a bit of a break from the biz. I have a few commissions that I'm working on the design phase for but other than that I think I'm going to hold off for a while. Let my mind re-orient itself to my new way of life so I can figure out where things are going to fit. Is this a bad idea? I hope not. :)

A little bit of inspiration...

This morning while catching up on some of the blogs I've been following I came across this list of links to advice for new blogger's on Olivebites' blog. In one of the links I found the quote listed below and I found it quite inspiring.

"I once had opportunity to meet a guy who had travelled the world climbing some of the highest mountains. When I said to him that it must be an exciting thing to do he told me that there are moments of exhilaration and excitement but that the reality is that much of what he does when climbing a mountain is pretty boring. It’s one foot in front of another type activity through foothills, carrying a heavy pack and not feeling like you’re making much progress. Of course once you make it to the top or conquer challenges along the path you have moments of excitement but it all starts with setting out from base camp and with the goal of getting to a point where the climb starts in earnest."

- From Darren Rowse's entry 9 First Step Goals for New Bloggers on Problogger.net

This story really can be applied to any venture you take in your life and I can really see the connection to applying this idea to starting a small business. It takes an enormous amount of energy, focus and money to start a business. When you start out at the bottom you can clearly see your goal, that tiny peak so far above your head. You're excited with dreams of reaching that point. You start out on your journey happy to carry that burden on your back because you know it'll make that point of reaching the top that much sweeter because it just proves how strong you are. However as you continue on step after step the pack gets heavier and your steps slower. It gets harder to see the peak. The most difficult part of any journey is the middle and it's so easy to get discouraged and to want to drop your pack and just sit down where you are with your head in your hands. You have to keep focusing on that final goal though because even if you can't see it it's still waiting for you at the top. You can make it if you keep going.

Right now I'm still in the middle of my journey, fairly close to base camp and it's so easy to get distracted from my goal. There are other little precipices that look like they would offer a good view and many loose rocks that trip up my feet along the way. But I know that the view will be best at the top. So I need to keep climbing.

Which mountain are you climbing? Are there things tripping you up? I hope this little quote has inspired you as much as it has me to keep on climbing because once we get to the top we'll get to see the whole world at our feet, and won't it be a beautiful site?