Starting With 2020!
And bearing in mind that I will be 48 this October.
48! I mean that is like majorly scary. 2022 I will be able to apply for a free carriage clock from Sun Life by applying for their 50-80 insurance plans. And I don't even have a mantelpiece to put it on!
So joking aside, I think 2019 was a rough year for a huge amount of people and our family was no exception. A couple of weeks before Christmas I had to stop work and try to repair my mental and physical health and I had to do some tough talking to myself over the last three weeks.
I was running a jewellery business called Basalt Scents, I was working on a cross stitch business called Happy Stitch Kits, I was working on Byzantine Crafts and I was doing social media for Byzantine and Basalt and I was running myself ragged. I also home educate Byzantine Boy, and every one in my family has special needs either physically or mentally of one form all another.
Basically, long story short - burn out.
We have had an extremely trying year personally as a family as well, I won't bore you with the details, but trust me, we are all immensely glad it is all over.
So, I had some time off over Christmas and New Year and I made the hard choices.
Hard, but also extremely liberating.
I am stopping the jewellery business altogether. I have been making jewellery to sell online for about 16 years and I am just not that good at it. I rarely wear it myself and I have no passion or enthusiasm for it. So that is now over and done with.
Happy Stitch Kits is still something I would like to do eventually, but for now that is on the back burner.
All of my time and attention for the foreseeable future is going to be focused on all the various elements of Byzantine Crafts... yay!
So how does that affect you guys that are reading this?
Oh now that I have my mind focused just on Byzantine Crafts, the ideas are flowing like fine wine, only without the hangover.
2020 is going to see the launch of our website store, opening on the 30th of April with our first and signature collection which is going to be called The Garden Days collection. I got so many blanks for Christmas and my lovely assistant Gemma is priming them as we speak, look...
 |
So much stickiness in this craft :D
|
So many more than this to prime, design, colour and bead, as well as loads of pieces that have already been primed.
I had to put my foot down about the work set up in my house too. I have been doing all this work, without even having a proper desk or any designated space to work at. You can't run a successful business like that and this has shone through in all aspects of my work. So I re-organised the living room, so that it is half living room and half studio. I have a new desk and the Christmas tree is coming down today so the desk can go where it is.... Yippee!
So as from this afternoon I am going to have a proper business set up, all my mosaicing supplies will be in the same place and I will know where everything is. At the moment there are supplies in the lounge, the bedroom, the boys bedrooms, just about everywhere. I lose so much of my working day just trying to find things and this is all going to change today.
I have even changed my sleep pattern this week. I have been taking some training from the great Stacey Storino and she says that you need to decide whether you want to be doing a hobby or running a business. If you want to run a business you have to run it like a business and put the work in. So now I am getting up at 5.30 am, starting work at 6 and finishing at 2 Monday to Friday and finishing at 10 Saturday and Sunday. This means that I have time to educate my son in the afternoons and play some Skyblock in the evenings with him. Or you know, attend appointments and all the other things a busy mum has to fit into a day. Not just Skyblock, honestly!
Work at the moment involves, sorting out the hosting for a website, planning social media interactions and learning how to better interact with the people who either love my work or who want to learn about this craft.
 |
| A world of learning in a book |
Talking about that, I am going to be releasing a series of books about Micro Mosaicing, which I will sell as e-books on Amazon and also on the new website. I will be setting up a group on Facebook for people that want to learn and I am going to see if my local Hobbycraft will let me do demonstrations regularly to teach people, both face to face and by recording the demonstrations.
On the website as well as selling my finished work, I will also be selling some of the blanks and tools that you need to do this business, so that people who do want to learn can easily access all they need from one place.
I am going to be setting up a couple of membership clubs, ones simply for people who like my work and buy it and another for people who want to learn how to do it themselves. Both of these groups will have all kinds of benefits and goodies and wonderful things that go with them.
I intend to be releasing 2 large collections a year, with a few limited edition seasonal items along the way. Members of the clubs will get early access to these as well so as soon as I announce that the membership clubs are open it will definitely be a great idea to sign up for them.
The second collection this year will be the Wonderland Collection and will come out at the end of October (actual date to be announced nearer the time).
 |
| What would you find in your Wonderland |
As you can see, just for this year alone I have so many plans and I am both excited and very relieved to be finally focus all my energy and passion into this wonderful craft that I love so much.
So do you have any exciting plans for the year or the decade? Comment below and tell me what you are thinking of getting up to.
Meanwhile many Bright Blessings, whatever you plan to do.
Nici xxx
