An Adventurous Life Archives - Page 28 of 37

An Adventurous Life

Confession: I love Christmas

Oh, it's not fashionable.

It's so much easier to HATE Christmas.

The commericalization.
The consumerism.
The obligations.
The unreachable expectations.

Yes, I can't stand those things.

But?

It's my choice to partake in the consumerism.
It's my choice to fulfill obligations that I don't want to.
It's my choice to spend time with people I want to spend time with, to do the things I'd rather do, to set boundaries.

And when I choose right…

When I choose based on sanity and wholeness and boundaries and sovereignty…
When I respect other people by being honest and kind…
I love the Christmas season.

Oh, I don't care a thing about the actual day.
What matters is the season. The festivity. The fun.

Christmas, when I choose it, is full of

light
joy
tradition
rarely-seen friends
relaxed travel
crafting time
cookies
family
snuggles
movies
hot chocolate

But, here's the catch:

I have to choose.

To choose the spirit of generosity over consumerism.
To choose the peace instead of the obligations.
To choose the ease instead of the struggle.

And it's not easy to choose.

Sometimes it's not all the much fun (especially when others challenge my right to make my own decisions).

But it's still mine to choose.
And it's yours.

Want more survival tips? Check out the (free) Definitive Guide.

Short week

I woke up this morning feeling flustered. I leave for Seattle in less than two weeks and the list of things I want to do before I leave seems to be growing instead of shrinking.

And Thanksgiving is Thursday.
An entire day spent lounging around with family, without my wheel or computer nearby. I love it, but it's cramping my to do list.

And I still need to tell everyone that I'm going to be in Seattle + Portland.
And plan meet-ups.
And send yarn.

And and and.

And then I took a deep breath, took a sip of tea and remembered: I don't have to do it all.

I can get help with some of it (find out how you can help here).
I can skip some of it (my email is back to “answer only on Monday + Friday” status).
I can build my days the way I want (who says I need to stop spinning to make dinner?).
I can sink into the enjoyment of Thanksgiving, knowing that it will rejuvenate me.

So today, in keeping with what I sent in the SparklePointer, I'm taking the stress out.
I'm organizing my to-do-before Seattle list, baking bread, planning to be offline for the rest of the week, spinning yarn, teaching a class.
I'm doing what I can, when I can, knowing it will all somehow get done (it always does).

How are you taking it easy this week?

Got Questions?

Just a quick note to let you know I'll be answering your questions, celebrating your successes and just generally hanging out for about an hour on Twitter at Noon ET today.

Ask your questions and get to know other crafters + business-minded by putting #craftybiz in your tweet and following along here. If you're new to Twitter this is a great way to meet people and get the hang of it.

See you there!

Stretch.

If you're here from Scoutie Girl, Welcome! We've been talking about planning all month: planning for money, planning for sanity, remembering that we're just fine, even if we haven't planned.

Worried about your holiday crafting? Today I share some thoughts on planning it in a mindful way, over at Scoutie Girl.

I struggled to write all day.

I feel antsy, distracted, constantly checking my email, twitter, etc ad nauseum. Now it's 2:24 and I'm writing long after I'm usually done and then *bing* I remembered.

Just yesterday, in our #withlimits twitter chat (good advice there, even if you didn't take the class), we talked about scheduling in breaks. Taking the time to remember to drink water, stretch, walk around.

As soon as I remembered, I stood up.
I'm in a crowded coffeeshop, so I walked over to a slightly-less public place and strettttched. I'm sure I'm now the weird pink-haired girl who stretches wonkily, but hey, my head cleared.

Then I went up to the coutner and ordered a water.
I was self-consious (even though I already bought my coffee), but I noticed the feeling. Realized it wasn't so horrible to keep me from actually getting the free water.

I remembered that Heidi calls that anxious, antsy part the puppy. As with any puppy, you need to talk it on a walk. Feed and water it. Play with it.

And here I am.
Writing. With something to write about!
My point (and I do have one!) is that maybe what's missing is a break.

Start small (streeeetch! yawwwwn!) and add on.

Grab a water.
Make some tea.
Take a nap.

I promise, it'll help.

It’s ok

It's safe to say that I am more excited about the Holiday Sanity program (and all you creative smart people who are joining me) than I am about actually doing the planning. Which is why I invited you to keep me (and each other)accountable. This afternoon is where it all starts, but before we get going, I just needed a little reminder:

With all this talk of holiday planning, it may overwhelm you.
I know it does me.
I finally filled out my own mini-guide (yeah, I shared it with you just to convince MYSELF to do it!) and then all I wanted to do was nap.

And so today, it seems important to know: you don't have to do everything.
You don't have to be perfectly planned.
Or have life balance.
Or know what's going on.
It's ok, just as you are.

Whether you have a family, or an illness, or just stress.
Staying on top of it all, seeming perfect, having your stuff together.
That's not the goal.

The goal (or at least, my goal) is to notice.
To interact with the stuff that comes up, instead of ignoring it and hoping it all works out.
To get help when I need it.
To rely on my community.

This is just a friendly reminder that wherever you are, with your business, with your holiday planning, with your life is exactly where you're supposed to be.
And I'm so glad that you're there. And here.

(If you do have life-stuff that makes you worry you can't run a biz, check out tomorrow's class with Kirsty Hall, about working Within Limits)

Last Classes of 2010

I was going to make this announcement in December, and then I realized,

Oh, if I don't say it now, it'd be too late!

I'm not teaching many public classes in 2011.
For the last 4 months, I've taught at least 2 hours of brand-new material, in the form of teleclasses, every month.
And it has been awesome.
But as I strive to bring you more helpfullness in your quest of crafting a business, I need to focus more on answering your questions and less on selling you classes.

I will be teaching a lot more private classes, which will be free to people in my private programs (which aren't open yet, but you can sign up here and be one of the first to find out about them when they open).

Which means Holiday Sanity + Within Limits will be the last publicly-available classes for quite a long time.
That's why I'm bringing it up now, because if I waited until December I'd have to be all

“I'm teaching very few public classes, and oh, by the way, you missed the chance to take my last classes”.

So, for now, I'm just going to say that: Holiday Sanity + Within Limits are the last public classes I'm teaching for at least another 2 months.

If you're not interested in those classes, don't worry!

You can get weekly tips for working on your CraftyBiz (for free!) with the SparklePointer + I'll always be here, sharing everything I learn in my own crafty business, every week.

November is National Do Lots of Stuff Month

Happy November!
November is the month of turkey, gratitude and crazy big group projects. Something about all that impending time with extended family seems to draw us to gathering online to accomplish ridiculous goals.

Today I'm embarking on two (um, three?) big projects:

NaNoWriMo
NaKniSweMo
Holiday Sanity

I'm hoping I can convince some of you to join me in the craziness, let me know if you're also doing any of these in the comments!

NaNoWriMo

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is a yearly endeavor to write 50,000 words (or, a small novel) in the month of November. Thousands of writers, the world over, participate and it is a beautiful thing. You can read more about it here.
I'm not writing a novel, but I am challenging myself to write 50,000 words this month (these right here count!), in the hopes of giving you what you've been asking for: more CraftyBiz written material to go with the classes.

Gettting it done

I'm using 750words.com to keep track of my daily words. My goal is to write 2,000/day every day that I can, since I'll be traveling a lot in November and I'm sure there will be several days when I can't write at all.
I'm still a little sketchy about WHAT exactly I'll be writing about, so if there's something in particular about crafting a business you'd like to read about, let me know.

NaKniSweMo

As if 50,000 words weren't enough, I'm also attempting to knit 50,000 stitches. Or, a whole sweater. This is a knitter's version or NaNoWriMo, NAtional KNIt a SWEaterMOnth, in it's 4th year and is organized by the inimitable KnitGrrl, Shannon Oakey.

Gettting it done

I'm knitting the Featherweight Cardigan by Helen Fettig. I spent, oh, an embarrassing amount of time thinking about what yarn I would make this in, before settling on the designer's own kit. It comes with the fabulously squooshy Malabrigo laceweight, which I got it in Pearl.
No special stitch-counting or knit-progress-tracking with this, I just plan to work on it All. The. Time. All the time I'm not working or writing or crocheting cute amigurumi.

(Not a knitter? Check out Art Every Day, a sort of NaNoWriMo for artists.)

Holiday Sanity

Unlike the other two projects, this has no big goal line.
It's simply an accountability and planning group project that I put together to help myself get through the holidays. It's my hope that it'll help you do the same.

Tools

I'm creating all sorts of (optional) worksheets to help me (and you) figure out what, exactly, has to be done (and by when) in order to have a great holiday season, both in my business and in my life!
To figure out what to include, I put together all the tools and tricks I know help me get stuff done and I talked to other crafty people about what's worked for them.
What we came up with is simple and not too time-consuming (the goal is to focus on our work, not on the planning.)

Each week will have a theme to help focus our work and we'll follow up in a (private!) chat room where we'll check in and ask questions.
I'm looking forward to it because I know just the *idea* of checking in with someone pushes me to do better work. I've seen my gentle email accountability do wonders in other crafty businesses on projects as big as starting their first shop to making art on a regular basis.
You can join us right here.

Are you doing any crazy big projects this month?

Tell me about it in the comments.

Planning for non-planners

Confession: I'm not a planner.

There, I said it.

I love to implement ideas as soon as I have them.
I like to focus on the part of my business that I'm most excited about, at that moment.

I run two businesses, teach classes monthly, email tips for craftybiz weekly and write daily.
And yet. I'm not a planner.
I write, teach, email as inspiration strikes.

This is my dirty secret.

Because this is not what I recommend.
Operating ONLY in this way ensures that I forget all about things like holidays, or anniversaries, or opportunities to do something really cool.

Luckily, it's possible to both ride the wave of inspiration and to plan a bit.
It's all about the Cycle of Creativity.

When I'm on a high, when I'm feeling the momentum of creativity pushing towards more creativity and action, I ride it. I do it.

But when that fades and I'm feeling fallow, I can take the time (and energy) to stop and look around.

Where am I now?

Where do I hope to be? What deadlines (real and imagined) are looming?

I was doing a bit of this planning today (because, yes, the combination of a yarn flurry last week and the flu has landed me squarely in the restive part of the cycle) and I thought I'd share some of the process.

Most of this is done in my journal and all of it comes organicially. I try to let myself write and write, without editing and without worry about What It All Means.

An assortment of non-planning questions

What's coming up? Dates, classes, holidays, themes, money needs? What does the next week look like, as it is, right now?
The next month?
What would I like to have the next week look like? What about the next month?
(this includes: personal and business, emotional and financial)
Is there something that's been on the back burner that's ready to move forward?

Now. What does it all Mean?

What fits together? What doesn't fit? What can be moved around? What can be put aside?

In other words: what are the connections? The patterns?

And then, if I'm still in the mood

What small steps will take me from Here to There?
Don't be afraid to list Every. Single. Step.

(for example, one of my plans is to take over 100 skeins of handspun to Seattle. How many skeins a week is that? How many a day?)

And the amazing thing?

This planning, it is usually the impetus that moves me from fallow to creative, from empty to full of ideas.

This morning I was achey and tired and mope and now, 1101 words (thanks to 750words) into answering these questions, I am full to bursting with plans and inspirations and plots.

In fact, I came up with a don't-be-overwhelmed-by-the-holidays plan for myself that I think I'll invite you to play with in the next week or so!
To make sure you get the invitation, sign up for here.

Are you a Planner? How do you do it?

Experimentation: Do I have to keep doing what I’ve been doing?

I've sold my yarn, online, for over 4 years.

When I started, Etsy was the easiest way to get started. I didn't have to know any html, all I had to do was take pictures, write a description and there it was. Available.

And as the years passed, this method worked great.

As I focused more on making it my full-time income, I made myself a little schedule. I'd make yarn all week, photograph it on Saturday mornings, edit them by Sunday and list a yarn a day for the rest of the week.

I kept this schedule for…years. Up until this summer.

I didn't have enough yarn to keep listing. I was getting big wholesale orders and sending it off to yarn shops. I was preparing for craft shows and wanted to bring enough ( I was afraid of it selling online before I got to the show!)

Suddenly, no matter how much yarn I made, I felt bad that I wasn't offering more online.

And when I packaged packages, I was rushed. Throw in a card, slap a label and get it out the door, so I can go back to yarn-making, writing and teaching. To keep from getting behind on sending out orders, I made a schedule for this too. Packing Day was once a week (Wednesdays) and I'd print all labels, package all orders and go to the Post Office. Soon I was corralling my husband into doing most of the shipping.

And I was in the throes of this slapdash packaging one day, when I realized: I dread this day. I dread all the admin here.

So I sat down with my journal and asked,

Why?

What about it don't I like?
I don't like that I feel guilty. Guilty that I should be making these packages prettier. Guilty that I'm not giving it my best. Guilty that I should be better.

What could make me feel better at this?

If I did it less often. If I could do a whole month's worth at once.
If I didn't feel so behind.
If I didn't worry that I should have saved this yarn for a shop or a show or something.

What would that look like?

If my yarn-selling could be anything, as unprobably as it may seem, what would it look like?

And there it was, all at once, the solution:
I would offer yarn only once a month.
For one week.
At the end of that week, I'd pack it all up and send it out.
The unsold yarn would also get packed up, either to a shop or for the next show.
And then I'd get back to spinning, three weeks of full-on spinning with no photography, no labeling, no shop-maintaining.

But that's scary

I was immediately beset with monsters.
This is the most ridiculous idea ever!
You're always saying you should make it easy to give you money! This makes it hard!
People won't buy it!
Customers will be disappointed!
Everyone will think you're a slacker!

So I talked to the monsters.

And I talked to my supporters.
My friends. My family. My mindmelders (like, a mastermind group that channels Spock).

And we (my monsters and I) decided it would be ok to try it as an experiment.

Only an experiment.

My online shop closed 3 weeks ago as the first part of the experiment.
The second part of the experiment starts today, the one-week-only Yarn Party.

We'll see.

I have no idea (yet) if this was a fantastic or a ridiculous idea.
Either way, I promise to report back.

Until then…

Let's talk about other ways we could experiment.
What things do you dislike doing? Is there a way to stop doing it?
Share your thoughts in the comments.

Coffeeshop Clarity

I'm sitting in the coffeeshop.
(Really, right now, this isn't a metaphor)

The barista, the who actually gets what I do, comes up and starts talking to me about work. His wife is a knitter.

I see the guy next to us keeps looking up, interested.

When the barista walks away, John introduces himself. His wife wants to start selling her self-designed handbags…where should she start?

We talk for nearly an hour, I point him towards some resources. I walk him through the steps.
We both turn back to our laptops feeling excited, exhilarated, happy to have made a connection.

And I started writing this, not sure where it was leading.

But I know that this experience, this moment of helping someone, of bringing hope and independence and direction is My Truth.

It is what I love.
It is what I love to do.
It is clarity, purpose, truth.

And I wanted to remember it.
For when I feel uncertain.
And I get wobbly.
And I wonder why in the world did I take this on?

I want to remember this moment. And all those little moments I have with my clients and in my classes and just anyone who asks for help.

I bet we all have these moments, these perfect distillations of why I do this clarity. A moment where everything feels on and right and clear.

Remembering these moments and sharing them can be a powerful motivation to keep going.

So I'd like to know: what was your most recent moment?

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