Happy New Year!

...and thank you all so much for a great 2015!  To my pretty clever customers old and new, to my new friends / vendor partners-in-crime, to all of the owners / administrators / superstars of special, wonderful, crafty events...and most of all, to my special, wonderful, crazy family and friends (most of whom are also customers!).. a huge, heartfelt virtual hug of appreciation, gratitude and humbled amazement for all of your help and support!

i used to carry this compass on my keyring...about 18 months ago and two days after leaving a company where i'd spent the previous 17 years - i dropped my keyring and smashed the compass.

hashtag sign from the universe much!!

although my job was eliminated and leaving wasn't my choice...i felt that the creative side of my brain was urging me to finally go for it, to do something that i'd been dreaming of since 2008...to jump full on into an exploration of entrepreneurship and all of the scary, vulnerable bits that come with being my own boss, and putting my own designs and crafts and art out there.  waaaay out there, with no where to hide - no big Huge McNormous corporation to blame for my problems or issues or mistakes.

and i have spent the past 18 months absorbed in this new world - learning how to 'mass-produce' one of a kind items, figuring out how to reduce costs and source materials and locate vintage items, meeting and reaching out to a new tribe of colleagues and vendor friends, discovering new venues for my products, building a customer base....whew.

no wonder i have been full-assing it on the couch for a week during the holiday breather!

but break time is over - lots of new ideas for cool products in 2016 are fighting for space in my head, along with a revised business plan, craft show calendar (those applications don't complete themselves!) nips and tucks to the website (including a regular schedule of posts!....and of course - all of this is competing with  the normal sarcastic voices in there!

on to 2016! please stay tuned for more blog posts with recaps on 2015, especially hints and advice and my take on how-to's for craft shows...