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?