Guest Post: Bringing Two Worlds Together
Since I’m overseas at the moment, the lovely Kashoan Ward offered to share her thoughts on bringing her two worlds of being a stay at home mum and running a handmade business together. Please make her welcome. Thanks so much Kash!
Growing up, I didn’t know what a stay at home Mom was. My Mother worked hard every day. We would come home from school and take care of each other. I can remember every day there would be a list of jobs on the kitchen table. Each day we picked 2 jobs and had to initial them when the job was done. Of course we absolutely hated it.
Fast forward to today. I am an official stay at home Mom. I am also a handmade artist. My business has grown in the last 6 months. So now I find myself incorporating both roles into one setting.
Here are a few things that work really well for me:
1. Give up some of the house work to your kids. I can’t stress this enough. I have assigned my kids with daily responsibilities around the house. This helps me so much. Not to mention, it teaches them life skills. Even if your child is only 3 years old, there is something that they can do to help.
2. Take some time out for you. Even if it is 5 minutes a day, you deserve a little bit of me time. I enjoy knitting or reading a good magazine.
3. Have a plan for the day. I set a goal to work on certain things around the house every day. Today I am doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen floor. A little every day helps out. You can’t do it all, it will take away from your business.
4.Use your crock pot. I love it when I can get dinner started 1st thing in the morning while the kids are getting ready for school. This makes my entire day! I hate cooking. There are some awesome crock pot recipes out there. I try to use mine 2 times a week.
5. Promote yourself. Use any opportunity you can to promote what you do. I make jewelry. I wear it all the time. I share pictures on Facebook and twitter. My neighbors, friends, teachers, etc.. they all know what I do. I LOVE my job. The more you talk about it and share, the more people tell others too. Its a win win situation.
Image from Kash’s online store. I chose Detroit because that’s where I am now!
A Great Video from a Handmade Biz
This is a great stop motion clip that Katie Blair Designs created for their notebooks. I liked it so much I wanted to share it with you…
Happy Friday. Have a lovely weekend!
Inspiration: How Do You Eat an Elephant…
This post has been a very long time coming, but I can finally show you!
For my birthday last year, I was given a digital print by the talented lady behind essayer. I promised her that I wouldn’t show anyone until it had been properly framed. Well, mine still isn’t framed (especially cut frames are really expensive, I’ve learned) but, it was shown in an exhibition that was on at 1000£bend last week and I was able to capture a shot of it in a lovely frame.
And here it is….
I fell in love with this print the very first time I saw it. It’s called ‘One Bite at a Time’, and it has all of the scary things that hold us back making up the elephant with a bite out of the back.
The sentiment really spoke to me as someone who is doing something a bit different to others and doesn’t always know if I’m making the right decisions.
It looked fantastic in the frame on the gallery wall. It was fun to watch other gallery go-ers reaction to something that I’ve loved for ages.
I feel lucky that it was mine first!
Do you have a special gift that you’ve received that you just loved from the moment you saw it?
