Thursday, October 18, 2012

Creating while parenting





When I was pregnant with my little girl, I had grand dreams of being a stay at home mom, creating jewellery during my little one's nap times and selling up a storm on Etsy. I saw myself being uber-productive every day, and able to surmount the monumental task of marketing my business through various online venues, so that customers were lining up at my virtual storefront. This would create enough revenue for me to stay home from most of my part-time jobs, be with my sweet baby girl, and have a fulfilling creative career doing one of the things I love best.

Well. That was easy.

Needless to say, one year later I haven't *quite* accomplished what I set out to do. Nap times were far shorter than they were supposed to be, parenting was far more challenging that I expected it to be, and there were so many other things I had to fit in to my short days! Cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, feeding the babe, trying to get back into shape, going to appointments...all of these things took time away from my precious goals and left me flipping through other jewellery artists' Etsy pages longingly, in the few minutes of downtime I had every couple of days.

So what's a new Mompreneur to do?

Well, thankfully, as my daughter gets older, she is able to play on her own for good stretches of time. I am now able to use those precious moments to create a pair of earrings, or post to this blog, or create a new listing on Etsy. It's not as much as I'd like, but it's a start.

I'd love to hear from other Mompreneurs out there who have ideas about how to make home life and business life jive together! Got any tips?

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Moving on up...

Despite several years of publishing posts on this blog, I still readily admit to not knowing at all what I am doing. I am trying to change that by posting more often and getting to know the Blogger interface to make this blog my own, but wow, lots to do in my non-existent spare time! Today I added an RSS feed to this blog (for the hordes who are following my every post...), and have some new posts planned that don't entirely revolve around my jewellery. Let's call it an experiment!


Trunk Shows

I'm gearing up for my first Trunk Show since before my daughter was born, and boy am I ever enjoying the productivity! I love putting a deadline on my creativity sometimes, because often I will end up creating some jewellery pieces that hadn't been on my radar. It's like I stop thinking and designing in my head, and just let my fingers create what they will. A refreshing change!

My first Trunk Show will be held at our home in North York, but I am looking for other opportunities to showcase my jewellery in the Toronto area. If you are interested (or know someone who might be), you can contact me through my Facebook page: facebook.com/intuitivejewellery