Did you realize that discouragement can be a valuable tool for your business? It forces you to do three things, look inward, look outward, and make decisions. Today I am discouraged. It has been a long week of work and family. Somethings have been great and other things not so great. I have prototyped manyseveral about 12Â new items and very, very few have worked out. I have had a great time with my family. This is awesome. So, why am I discouraged.
I am tired and not just tired but weary. We are still recovering from that bad cold. I have put in 2 – 8 hour days at the sewing machine. My house is messy, because I have put in 2 – 8 hour days sewing (funny how it works like that). I have stretched my thinking and planning by being creative and trying new things. I have failed, gotten up and failed again!
Tired
Messy House
Failed creatively
Here is the looking outward part!
I haven’t left the house in several days. I keep comparing myself and my business to other people and their businesses. Blogging has been really, incredibly hard the past week or so.
I am tired and I haven’t left the house in several days. Â This is simple to fix as I need to make a supply run and run some errands.Comparison is a horrible thing, not fair to myself, not fair to others. It completely sells everyone short. So the only comparison I should do is to see how far I have really come. So, I need to track the business and see if it is growing, stagnant, or failing. The writing part will come easier when I get out and about. Feeding the creative juices is critical and rest is a part of that. I will take Friday off and have fun with a close friend. I really feel much better except for the tired part. I think I can beat that with an early bedtime and some much needed rest. The failing part on making the prototypes is simply to go back and make things that I know how to make!
P.S. You will notice that not much was said about the messy house. I will take care of that in small bits and pieces of time, which makes it easier to swallow.
It has been a long week. Everyone in house has been sick… I mean everyone. It is some kind of toxic cough thing that spread like a wild fire. I was one of the last to get it and it is just dragging on and on. I haven’t done much with any crafty stuff this week but lay around and try to get better. I did put this fringe on…
It is so incredibly soft and fluffy! It was exciting to feel like I accomplished something.
I took some pictures of yarn, but that is about it. I have thought a lot. I have thought about getting up and doing something but then I decide that it is ok to rest some more. I think I am headed back to the couch and crawl back under an afghan and do some more crochet blanket planning and other thinking and possibly take a nap.
I wrote this about a month ago. Believe it or not everything that I was worried about has been handled. All of the things that I thought were worthy of worry are now solved, resolved or handled. Shall I share the outcome of each of these worries.
I am starting to push the panic button. In the next month we have a ton of things happening.
The college girl comes home with all of her belongings  She is home and everything is great!
Sr. recognition Sunday at church for our graduating senior Done and over!
High school graduation for our youngest son Graduated!
Our 26th wedding anniversary Celebrated and wonderful!
Memorial Day, a day which we now try to put flowers and remember those who have passed away and those who have served in the military. Done
I need to get a child ready for camp
send her to camp
I have two kids needing to find summer jobs They both found jobs on their own without my interference!
feeding all of the people that will be here this summer I have two extra cooks and meals are getting accomplished daily!
find out about my foot in the boot and what needs to be done. The boot is gone. I am mobile and taking up the rhythms of life again!
I guess I am discouraged by the busyness of life. I need to take time to remember that these busy times are sweet family time. We will once again all gather around the table and share stories, insights and food. It seems that my family places importance on food as it gathers us all together.
Yes, we do place importance on food as it is hard to get all of us together at any other time.
I hope you and your family find some sweet family time this summer!
WIPS or works in progress have been stacking up at the sewing table. The good news about that is that cleaning has brought a bunch of partially finished projects to light. Here are a few that I have been working on lately.
There are several many crochet projects in a partially finished state. I tend to work more on inspiration when it comes to the yarny projects. So, yes there are many half done.Â
Like this one. I am going to take it to the DMV Â while I wait for the driver’s license testing to be over. I hope things go well. I also hope that we don’t wait long for his turn to take the test.
I’ve tried and tried not to get pulled into the bunting craze but last week I just couldn’t help myself. Here are two sets of lovely red, white and blue bunting!
This set is little pennants in red, white and blue. Perfect for all those patriotic holidays and Christmas too!
Here are the beautiful red, white and blue stars garland. I think they would look equally good in a little boy’s bedroom as they would on a Christmas tree or your dining room for the Fourth of July! You can find both of these in the studio.
There are a select few out there in the world today: lovely people that own more than one ChocolateDogStudio crochet blankets. When you own more than one you get the benefits of being a member of the Blanket Club! Members of the Blanket Club have purchased these lovely blankets from the shop over the years.
Blanket Club membership grants you a discount good every day of the year!
I have been spending my time productively the past few weeks. Saturday our son came over and took some really good photographs for me. He does such a great job and I really appreciate it. I can’t wait to get these into the ChocolateDogStudio shop but I will take my time and list a few a day. It really stretches my mind to come up with flowery, enthusiastic, descriptive phrases. I am really only good for listing one or two things at a time.
I really enjoyed crocheting this pattern, it is fun. I love how these scarves turned out. They are stretchy and lacy at the same time. A lovely accessory for those that tend to get too warm with a traditional infinity scarf. Even though, I have stopped the Use your stash challenge, I found that these scarves are great stash busters!
Here are some little cottages that I made several years ago. These are just for fun as I have so much to do today. These cottages are hand sized Christmas ornaments. I haven’t put the hanging ribbon on them yet. There are some things that I would change but overall I like them. I would call these prototypes.
I am thinking about adding some like them to the shop, but I’m not sure. What do you think?
