Baby Steps - I've gotta start somewhere!

Now what was I thinking when I thought I'd take the incredible leap from a safe, secure job as a registered nurse to a jewelry designer when silver prices jumped from $20/oz to (now) over $48/oz? I had just established a regular following in my Etsy shop ( http://www.hillcountrysilver.etsy.com ), was enjoying wireworking and custom orders, had some time available for my "hobby," super relationships with my regular customers, and had plenty of time to spend being creative. Now that I'm doing this full-time, I find that I'm spending most of my time meeting order deadlines and reproducing the same items over and over/ With the massive increase in sales necessary to pay the bills, the time I used to have creating OOAK items that kept me going in times of work-related stress is now spent meeting the demands of a small business. Isn't this what I wanted? I now have to delay the creativity for weekends, when it cuts into my family time.

I guess it is the same problem faced by so many creative people. How to earn a decent wage, take my 1 or 2 vacations a year, and still find the time to be ME?

I watched my mother do it. Gotta love Mothers! She took a business originally built with a wooden sign in front of our house on a busy highway that said "Quilts for Sale" to a multi-national corporation and lost a bit of herself in the process as well. LOL, my pre-teen sister and I used to show total strangers quilts in our living room while my mom was still a secretary at the local water district! Times have definitely changed!

After 4+ months of being on my "own" as far as making ends meet, I am ready to get a regular job and not deal with the hours of making, photographing, listing, editing, etc that goes with my own business...but not quite ready to give it all up.

Time will tell and things will change. Better than a stagnant existence, for sure! I'm ready for the journey I think. I love the solitude and quiet of being in my home studio an acre from my house after the kiddos are in bed (except for the constant hammering!). I love being available for my son's theater production set construction. I love it that my kids haven't had a terrible school lunch in over four months and that we eat together nearly every night now. I'm even a better, more organized cook these days! At least there are no guarantees (except for the hammering, it seems!) and it will be an adventure every day!

I'll sign out for now and not make this public until I really have something to say =) I'm loving it but scared to death that it won't work out. But of course it will. It always does and I believe that I am right here, right now, for the best reason possible. Whatever that is...I'm done with waiting for things to be perfect, something to change, something in that hazy future. I am ready for the future NOW!

xoCindy