Lifestyle Change 2019

I've spent the last five years focusing on obtaining a degree and building a career in healthcare. I succeeded in both. I am a supervisor with a small office in a busy clinic. I am proud of myself for achieving this position and doing what I set out to do. I have a window in my office that looks into the IT closet, lots of flashing lights in a dark room. It isn't a scenic view at all. Whole days can go by and I don't know if it's raining or sunny (usually it's raining, but it would still be nice to see it). Supervising people is not fun at all. At. All. While I think my leadership style is amazing and I would have loved to work for a boss like me, not everyone feels the same. This can get very discouraging and hard not to take personally after a while.

My creative pursuits, like knitting and writing, were put on the back burner, used solely for stress relief. I have bags of unfinished (of course) long knitted tube scarves since I love knitting in the round while watching TV to unwind after work. (Maybe they aren't scarves. Maybe I should stuff them and make pillows. That works, too.) The point is that I find myself unhappy and unsatisfied with this lifestyle that focuses on office work with creative work on the side.

I definitely like the paycheck and small independence in by my supervisory role. I never expect to live off my creativity (at least not until I sell my first novel or screenplay). The question I keep asking myself is: how long do I want to live this way? It's a grind, no doubt. I'm the typical working mom who drives the kids to school, slugs down coffee while checking emails, sits through mind-numbingly boring meetings, races to the grocery store at lunch or after work, then spends most of my time out of the clinic thinking about the clinic. Do I want to keep living this way? College looms on the horizon with all its tuition and fees. The kids are teens now with lives of their own.  I can easily work late or go in early on a Saturday. But do I want to?

My resounding answer the past few months is No! I don't want to live this way. I want to live a creative lifestyle where I focus on writing or knitting or making things. I want to be busy creating what I see in my mind, writing stories and novels, thinking big thoughts beyond an email inbox. I don't want to keep living the lifestyle I'm in right now.

So here I am at the beginning of 2019 purposed to do just that: change my lifestyle. I am focusing on reopening stinkRknits on Feb 1 with new inventory of beautiful things I love to make, not just knits. I set a writing goal to finish 1 short story a month. I've almost accomplished this for January. I spent the afternoon today (after spending 3 hours in the clinic) with a new planner formulating goals and timelines. I need small victories, small changes, so I keep moving forward inch by inch. I feel excited and happy about what this year holds. A lot of hard work, yes, but I have a vision for my life that will be totally worth it.

What about you? Are you living a lifestyle you enjoy? Or do you need to make a change?

What's Happening at stinkRknits

The past month has been one of reflection and retooling at stinkRknits.

I lowered all my mug cozy prices. Madness, you say? No! I did a very thorough search of mug cozies on Etsy. I looked at prices compared to design, embellishment, and quality. My prices were some of the highest, but my products are definitely unique. I work hard to maintain a standard of quality that would attract any buyer. However, if the price is too high, the customer will not buy! So, after my research and soul searching (am I crazy? does the customer value my item as much as I do? what am I truly trying to accomplish here on Etsy?) I lowered the prices by a few dollars. Wouldn't you know it, one sold the very next day! I had another sale a week later! Definitely made the right choice. I feel good about it.

Running a business is such constant revamping and reworking. The market is always changing and so are the trends. You really have to be diligent and up to date when competing for business. I like to search similar products on Etsy once a week now. I want my shop to be competitive.

There can't be an emotional attachment to your products, either! I remember a cute basket weave bag I had in my shop. I was sad the day it sold! I had created this bag from my own ideas and designs. I had brought my creation to life! And then I had to ship it off! My hope is that the buyer enjoys and loves the products of my knitting as much as I do. It's a romantic notion of my shop that I really can't afford to have. I love the design and creative process of each listing. But, once it's listed, that's where my cold, hard business sense must take over.

So, here we are on the cusp of the holiday season. I set a goal to have 100 products listed in my shop by the beginning of November. Only 23 to go! I am making these cute mini bunting banners that I designed. They are so cute!

I'm going to make one for myself to hang at my desk during homeschooling. I'm thinking about a coffee theme. Did you catch that? We are homeschooling again. The year is off to a good start, which you can read about here.

The balancing act has begun. I'm keeping it all moving so far: Etsy, homeschooling, wife, coach. Not in that order, but you get the idea. There's is always a lot going on!

The Story of a Custom Order

I consider myself somewhat of an artist. My husband smiles at me indulgently when I talk about "the fiber arts" and being a "fiber artist." Let's just say I'm creative with yarn. I may get inspired by a visit to a museum, you can read about that here, or a fashion magazine. Sometimes something catches my eye and I get that Aha! feeling. Lately, my inspiration comes from buttons, little packs of themed buttons. I purchased many, many of these little packs in a variety of themes. My pan is to make mug and cup cozies with these cute buttons on them. 

One of the first button packs I grabbed was a football theme. There are several footballs, some stars, a helmet, and some that say "Football!" or "#1 Player." Being a football fan myself (Go, Bucs!) I knew these would be perfect on a green and white knitted background, basically a football field background. 

Knitting with different colors on the same project is a skill and takes practice. The different threads have to be combined just right or it will look bumpy and funky. I knew my football field had to be smooth, so I simply cut each strand of white at the end of the row. Easy enough, but really a pain to weave in all those ends! Ask any knitter about weaving in ends and they will tell you, ugh! It's the most tedious part of the project. There were a lot of ends to weave in! But, it was worth the effort because the cozy looked exactly how I pictured it.

I listed it in my Etsy shop and moved on to another project. Well, what do you know, but the wife of a football fan, a Green Bay Packers fan to be exact, saw that mug cozy and requested a custom order. She would like one knit with green and gold, the colors of the team! What a great idea! Now why didn't I think of that when I listed it? Of course I can make one in those colors! No problem! 

I knew I had that gold yarn SOMEWHERE. I knew it had to be...nope, not on my shelves. Maybe it was...nope, not in my stash in the house. Hmm. Maybe it's in the storage room, but I hope to God it's not because that room is filled with stuff! But it was in there. It HAD to be in there. I had already given up and gone to the craft store to get some new gold yarn. But it isn't time for gold yarn on the shelves. No, it's still summer colors. Dang it! I crept into the storage room, halfheartedly moved some bags, and hallelujah! There it was! The gold yarn was sitting at the top of a bag! Success!

I got busy knitting the cozy and am very pleased with how it turned out. The buyer purchased it and off it went into the mail. I love packaging my knits to be shipped. There's a feeling of completion and satisfaction wrapped up in it. I also updated my listing to include custom orders. 

"Just click the Custom Order button and tell me the team and colors you want!"