As can be seen from the date of my last post, 14 months ago, working full-time and running a craft business do not necessarily go hand in hand. Trying to find the balance between the two is extremely difficult, especially when my 4 man department was down to two for three months and we went through a major up-grade that monopolized about 4 months of my time. I didn't even do much crafting as I spent most of my free hours doing overtime. I was also disappointed that I had to miss out on a major craft show due to not enough time and energy to get ready for it.
As a treat, I spent the first three weeks of my vacation crafting and with three more weeks of vacation to come, am looking forward to lots more crafting time.
When I am not short-staffed and actually get home on time, I work the balance. Usually two hours crafting in the evening at least three days a week (I get to do housework on the other days). This gets me a fair amount of product done and leaves me the weekends to design and work on the less glamorous side of the business - paperwork. As I have never had such a bad year at work, I am spending a bit more time on paperwork and organizing myself so that I won't have to miss another craft show.
I have expanded a product line - bookmarks. My old stock has been donated or given as gifts to make room for the new. I am excited about it and have enjoyed blending my creativity and experience to create the new bookmarks. One of the few things I could do towards my business when I was really busy at work was design in my head, usually during my commute. If I had time to get to a bead or craft store, I generally bought only what I needed to make a single product and was often happy with the results.
The wire bookmark above is my favourite, and just recently posted it to my website. The bookmarks generally run $12 - $16. Checkout the rest, click here to see the entire selection. They would make great stocking stuffers, secret Santa gifts, or slide it into a birthday or holiday card.
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