A Door of My Own

I have a door in the office where we're staying in Minnesota. A real door. A door without glass, that closes and everything. I had no idea what a big difference that would make.

See, back in Portland I have a nice home office....with two huge divided light French doors. It's a bit like a fish bowl, surrounded by glass and right in the middle of everything, which makes it relatively impossible to work when a certain 3-year-old puts his little nose up to the glass and says "Mommmmmmy, play soccer with me." Or a certain 30-something-year-old says "can you do this little thing real quick." It means I work in fits and starts. Never quite getting an undivided chunk of time. In some ways it is wonderful. I definitely don't miss anything going on in the house. But it is definitely not an ideal situation for actually getting work done.

In Minnesota (where we're staying for a month) I've set up my temporary office on the second floor in an area that is small, bright, and best of all...has a door that closes. In Portland it is a huge struggle to balance home/home life and business/home life. I feel like I'm always working but also never working efficiently. That's part of the trick with having a home office, right? And I know it can be frustrating for Brian, too, since I'm always so anxious to shoo them out of the house so I can get things done.

I'm pretty thrilled that something as small as a door that closes might be representative of the door between work and home. Creating that division more strongly may allow me to not only work more efficiently, but also to leave work at the "office" at the end of the day. Who knows, maybe I'll even get my evenings back again? What a wonderful next goal to work toward.

Full-Time Crafting Six Weeks In

I had a friend ask me this weekend how running my own business full-time is going, and honestly I have to reply that it's somewhat mixed. It's been about six weeks since I left my non-profit job to work on piddix full-time. I of course had dreams of 1) making enough money to support my family, 2) getting to spend more time with friends, 3) working out more and eating healthy, and 4) having a better work-life balance. So what's the reality? I feel like me two-year-old when he says "It's haaaaaaard."

Around the time I left my "day job," piddix's sales dropped dramatically. We questioned whether to still go ahead with piddix full-time and decided to take the leap, betting that the increased hours I'd be able to put into it would make up the difference and we could live on savings while things grew. February and March are typically my slowest months and this was especially true this year. Savings were getting eaten up more quickly than planned and it's definitely on the scary side.

Since then, I've come out with several new lines of collage sheets, different items in the shop, and a couple of marketing campaigns. Things are sloooowly coming around. Whether it will happen before savings run out is still to be determined. To make up for the lower income we've also cut back on a ton of expenses and this will be hard, especially, on my family as things like new shoes or a dentist appointment become luxuries. I feel very supported but also don't want to be selfish in my pursuits of new challenges.

On the other hand, I've actually made it to bed before midnight a couple of times--which was unheard of while I was working two jobs. I feel significantly more rested and have discovered that I'm a better mom and a generally more happy person when I get 8 hours of sleep. I've been seeing friends and neighbors more. And the funny thing is that now that we have less income it actually makes me rely on other people more (in a good way). Since we can't afford to hire any extra help, I'll be trading babysitting, nights-out, dog sitting, extra produce, and hand-me-downs with friends and neighbors.

Other highs and lows come and go. I miss my former co-workers much more than I expected and working from home can sometimes be challenging. At the same time I'm so excited about the new work I'm doing, a new book coming out with piddix images in it, the design classes I'm taking, a potential article in USA Today, my new twitter account, and on and on. It feels great to be able to focus on one kind of work instead of spreading myself too thin.

What's next? That's the big question. At this point my main goal is to stabilize income and expenses so that we're not hemorrhaging savings. If that can be accomplished within the next couple of weeks then I see great potential for future expansion. As always, wish me luck.

So I Quit My "Day" Job

Today is my first official day as a full-time, work-from-home crafter. When I tell people I left my nice, non-profit, part-time job (with benefits) in this economy, most people seem to think I'm a smidge brave and mostly insane. If you've read the etsy Storque article on piddix, you know that I've been trying to balance two 30-hour-a-week jobs plus be home with my son four days per week. It had finally reached the point where something had to give.

Over the past two years piddix has grown from a hobby to a real, grown-up business with Quickbooks and all. Designer AshleyG has said about her amazing etsy shop "our time is directly proportional to our income." During the next 30 days I'll be sharing different tips that I've learned along the way, plus try to answer the question of whether, by putting more time, energy, and resources into my crafting business it can take off and thrive.

Wish me luck.