Step Away From the Cake

 I said yesterday that I was not going to make things all weekend, then immediately sat down and designed and cut a bunch of Hawaiian quilt keychains. Seriously???? I did get some of my class stuff done and that was good, but I quickly became overwhelmed. There are a lot of moving parts to this whole thing and I need to take a step back and regroup. So my Etsy shop is up and running, yeah. I think I need to just roll with that for a little bit until I get other things in play. I need, need, need to get my Shopify store open and producing. So I think I need to sit down today and determine my priorities. I have a lot to do, but which one will I get the most bang for most quickly needs to be determined.  So, I think my #1 priority is to attract customers to my mailing list and to my shop. So I'm going to work on that first. See, that immediately leads to other things that should be done first, like getting my Shopify store ready. I want to be able to send them to both so they hav...

 In last week's post I talked about doing some things on weeknights and some things on weekends and keeping track of it all in an undated planner I have and yada-yada-yada.  Yeah, none of that really worked out for me. The undated planner is a smallish weekly one and I just want to track things done or that need doing: social media posts, postings for websites, etc. Brief things so I know when things were done. I need to get through my courses and be ready for the new year. I have done some stuff, but there is so much more I need to do. I will be spending my break getting all this set up and ready to run. We go away on New Year's eve and don't return until January 2nd that I have to have everything done and ready to go by then. Whew, lots of pressure and lots to do. I can do if I focus and stick to it.  Today I'm going to work some more on my Etsy store and I think I might dip a little into my Shopify store too. I want them to be consistent so when someone goes to eithe...

 I was watching the Welcome Home club reveal tonight and I realized something that I knew but had forgotten. I love to make things. I love, love, love to make things. She had a fox showstopper and it is absolutely gorgeous. I want to make one. I want to make things. I want to design also and then make them. So I'm going to need to come up with a balance in order to get things done that I want to do. I also feel the need to get back out to shows. BUT I need to work on my Etsy shop and I need to get my Shopify store up and running. I need to make social media a priority and make sure I'm getting things out there. So what's the best way to tackle this? Working on my shops and social media I can work on during the evenings when I'm watching TV. Social media stuff is perfect for TV watching. For the stores I need to have a schedule of new things to add regularly. So do I devote days to different things? Do I devote hours to different things? What to do, what to do?  Started ...

 I have now been sick for 10 days. I am blowing my nose and coughing like a fool. I just went to Dr. Google and it might be a sinus infection. Hmmmm, should I go to the doctor? Should I wait another day or two? Well, I still need to work so I'm going to have to wait a little bit. It does say that colds can last 7-10 days and I am on day 10, so I will wait another day or two and see what happens. I just need to remember to take a box of Kleenex to work today.  Anyway, it was back to work yesterday after a 5 day weekend. The good news is we only have 3 weeks until Christmas break. Woo Hoo!!!!!  I honestly think I am ready for retirement but until this student loan forgiveness thing gets worked out, that won't happen.  I do have big plans for the break. I want to get things really going in my business. I know I've said that before, but I have spent most of the year learning and I have some more learning to do before January.  But on January 1 I want to have a whole...

 I was sick on October 26th. Stuffy nose, cough, just feeling kind of blah. Guess what? One month later and I'm sick again. It started on Sunday when I was feeling so good when I woke up. I ran to the store and got some Zicam because I was determined not to be sick again. I was wrong. Monday I was really tired. Tuesday I lost my voice. By the end of the day I literally had no voice at all. Yesterday, thank god we were off school, I still had a raspy voice but I felt great. This morning I woke with a slightly more stuffy nose and a cough. UGH!!! I still feel pretty good, just this ridiculous cough. This sucks big time. Not letting it get me down. I need to get some things done today and I'm doing them.  As for my business. I came up with a great, at least to me, idea of using Hawaiian quilt designs in things. I love Hawaiian quilt designs. I just had an idea as I'm sitting here, making earrings out of them with a small outer offset. Paint the offset whiteish and paint the de...

 Seriously. I have so many courses and so many things I want to do before January that I am not sure exactly where to start. I really need to put the things I need to do in order of priorities. Either that, or I need to schedule when I will do certain things and just do it. Become indistractable. Tangent time.  I listen to Mark Manson of The Subtle Art of not giving a f*uck fame. I like his ideas and the way he approaches things and I feel like his way of doing things is much more aligned with my way of doing things. Just f*cking do it or don't. Of course lately I've been doing a lot of flip-floping on what to do so maybe that's not me lately. Anyway, I digress... I was listening to him the last two days - his shows are long - and he had this guy on who wrote a book called how to become indistractable and get sh*t done. He had some really good ideas on the show which he goes into in far greater detail in the book. So I ordered the book. It will be here soon. I plan on readi...

 I seem to do a lot better typing things out here when trying to figure them out. Probably because I've been doing it for over 20 years, but who knows.  Okay, here's the deal. I want to have hit the ground running in January with my business. I've screwed around for long enough, 2 years, and need to get my act together. But there is still so many things I need to learn. I just went though my list and here is a list of things I really still need to learn:  Shopify Social Media Photography Illustrator File designing/selling Selling on Etsy Pinterest Procreate Okay, that's basically the overview. I have signed up for a number of courses to help with all of these but I haven't finished them. So I need a plan to get these all done and get my Etsy shop in order and get Shopify back up and running and get my social media skills and photography skills on point. Not a lot to ask to accomplish in a month. So I need a plan. A solid, no BS plan to get this all done by the end o...