It’s been an exciting week of imposing more order on what has been a pretty disorderly existence. For instance I realized that other than Craft Leftovers Monthly, I have not added a new thing to the shop in over 2 months. Yikes! No wonder sales are down, that among many
Read MoreBack in February I posted about how I was saying “maybe” to everything as a way to retrain that unfortunate “yes” reflex. I had some really good points, especially about how when I over commit I’m not doing anyone a favor. If I’m so over booked, I can’t follow through.
Read MoreThis is something I’ve struggled with ever since I started blogging 4 years ago. Photography. It’s not my strong suit. There are a lot of things that I latch on to and naturally pick up. It clicks. I get it. It’s easy. Photography is not one of those things. We
Read MoreI’m sure I’ve mentioned my tendency to say “yes” to everything. “Can you help me do ________?” and “no problem” is my default response. This has lead to endless opportunities, good experiences, and an adventure of a lifetime. It’s also lead to being overburdened, tired, and “Miss Crabby Pants” as
Read MoreUsually I use Wednesdays to post about crafty business in general, but today I’m going to write about my crafty business specifically. I just hit a few amazing goals I set at the beginning of the year. I want to share with you a little bit of the back end
Read MoreNo one is forcing you to take a lunch. No government agency is going to fine you–as a self employed person–if your only employee (you) doesn’t take their lunch break. There are so many days where I forget to eat until I am past the point of no return. Or
Read MoreI’ve had quite a few people comment to me lately, “If only I was as adventurous as you, I could have gotten so much done by now.” Or “How do you do so much? How do you get so many opportunities?” I think the crafty business series is a good
Read MoreI the last Crafty Business post, I went into how a weekly task list can be a really helpful tool for staying on top of those “not quite daily” tasks. Today, we are going to explore the options for those every-once-in-a-while tasks. In many ways this is similar to finding
Read MoreLast week I went on and on about Daily Routines and how it helps to get my day started on the right foot. Each day there are a set of tasks I hop to first thing in the morning (Part 2). Today we are moving to weekly tasks. There are
Read MoreThe Crafty Business series has been dormant for awhile now so I’ve decided to bring it back just in time for hitting that reset button. Since being self employed entangles work and personal life so much, I’m going to address both sides: establishing a daily schedule you can actually stick
Read MoreAnd some freaking awesome goodnews. Can I swear? I’m swearing. I got my hands on a sweet ass crazy awesome, zine maker’s dream come true copy machine! Jason and his two friends went down to the ISU surplus sale last week and found, I kid you not, a Canon ImageRunner
Read MoreThis past month I’ve been contemplating the question of “am I professional writer or a blogger or is there a difference?” It’s an interesting question for me because more and more I’m writing for my living: through Craft Leftovers, Craft Leftovers Monthly, the Ames Progressive, on other websites, and various
Read MoreI just finished adding all the info on the sub-pages and I have two great additions to the site! I split the old “support cl” page which was long and burdensome. It is now divided into two: Support You can contribute in two easy ways. If you have a website/shop/blog
Read MoreOh, a few random updates. I taught a book binding workshop yesterday and it was awesome! It was the biggest workshop I’ve ever taught and it went off without a hitch. I also had the first ames c.art community art discussion group and that also went really well and I’m
Read MoreMany of us are creative go getters. We have our own projects and work, but somehow, we always take on the projects and work of others too. Someone says “I sure could use help with this” or “we need volunteers for that” and even though we already have a full
Read MoreAnnette of CraftStew wrote up a great article on how to earn money from Crafts – ideas for businesses and income flows. She writes: “With today’s problematic economy, folks everywhere are searching for alternative ways to bring in extra income. For crafters, our hobby provides an obvious source of extra cash. Four popular
Read MoreI was planning on getting this posted yesterday, but it took 6 hours of handwork on this great little guy and it’s was around 12:30 when I finished up. I thought it would just be like 2 hours of hand sewing, oh how I underestimate things like that. So here
Read MoreLately, since February really, I’ve been unofficially, officially self employed. It happened so gradually. I just kind of phased out anything that wasn’t “my own project” and now, I’m sitting here and I realize, it’s just my projects on my plate now. It’s so exhilarating. And, honestly, a little scary.
Read MoreView More