Last week I had acknowledged that I was putting off chasing my dreams while I do all the things that must be done in order for me to move back to my home state. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always imagined moving back one day and being closer to family, especially my son and granddaughters who happened to also land there, would be wonderful and is desirable – it is not my only dream/goal.

When I sat back down and wrote last week’s post, I was thinking more in terms of working hard to learn about blogging and all the ins and outs (I do not already know all of that !!!) and make this blog “real”. I laid out a plan of baby steps of learning and implementing and working toward and eventual goal of developing an audience/community of people who share my interests and to use that community to help spread the word as I started an online business. I’m a creative type person and have dabbled in so many different “crafts” that my focus changes and ebbs and flows, but there is always that something that would keep me active and hopefully help me cover the costs of my crafting adventures with a bit of extra income.

I think I mentioned in last week’s post (maybe I should re-read the last one before writing the next one!), I was teaching digitizing designs for embroidery at a local quilt shop as a volunteer and saw myself perhaps selling digital embroidery designs for download and teaching classes in sewing, quilting and embroidery after I retired. Then the local quilt shop suddenly closed just before I retired and I packed up my large sewing/embroidery machine and stored it at my parents home to keep it safe during all the renovations and kept only my smaller sewing machine and serger for all those sewing tasks that crop up. I packed up all my quilt fabrics and such, as well. I did continue sewing … I have granddaughters and there’s little leggings, twirly skirts and dresses, and – most importantly – Halloween costumes to be made.

My efforts to get the house renovated to sell slowed and stopped … digging into all the “baggage” from the past is hard sometimes … enough on that …

Just before COVID put the brakes on nearly everyone’s plans, I got back into painting – watercolor this time. And then it was Mother’s Day and I knew my Mom would not appreciate a card from Walmart that had been handled and coughed and sneezed over by who knows how many people, so I made a card. And that sort of snowballed and now I have lots more paper crafting supplies than ever before. And all during this I kept trying to get back to managing my life using various planners and journals with mixed results. In November I signed up for a virtual monthly class on planners and memory keeping in planners. I figured it would keep me coming back to my planner and so far it is working well – maybe too well.

About 35 years ago, I started using a loose-leaf Franklin Covey planner. The pages must have been half-letter (4.25″ x 8.5″) because I added all sorts of other pages and printed stuff to it. My co-workers called it my brain – and they were not far from right. It held a monthly calendar with all my work and personal commitments, daily pages with all the details of each day, and sections of information. There were multiple sections dedicated to work topics, a section at one time for wedding planning, and later for pregnancy and house hunting. I carried it with me everywhere and it kept me moving forward. Somewhere along the way, I got a Palm Pilot … then a Blackberry … and then, of course a smartphone … and my paper planner got left behind. But not having my smartphone permanently adhered to my hand, I can easily ignore any reminders from it these days. I tried buying paper planners again, tried bullet journaling … and I just could not find the format that fit my needs and didn’t really want to have to create the structure needed in a blank dot journal. I love things about them all and dislike other things – so I’m using a “Franken-Planner” put together with bits of disc bound planners and lots of pages and stickers that I am designing, printing and cutting for myself. So I was thinking “why not sell these things I’m making for myself to others that might need them?”

The thought was keeping me awake. I already knew the name of my “business”. I reserved the URL several years ago and have kept paying the fee – www.sweetgingerdesigns.com. My sweet granddaughters are red heads. I even put on a “retirement card” that I passed out to close work friends when I left that had my personal e-mail, phone number and listed my title as “CEO, Designer, Engineer & Janitor at Sweet Ginger Designs”. Yikes – gmail address was already taken … chose SweetGingerDesignsInfo … still not able to sleep … checked Etsy … not available, how about SweetGingerDesignsUS … OK, better grab that. And so a couple of hours later – I had to finish packaging a product to list – I had become an new entrepreneur on Etsy.

I had purchased some decorative planner sticker sets off of Etsy and found I was having to print and cut all the pages to get the few stickers that I would actually use. My “productivity” is not work based and while I do manage my money, I don’t need to put stickers in to know to pay a bill or remind myself I’m getting income. So I was thinking “planner basics” and “decorative elements” with coordinating colors in the basics to work with the decorative stuff. I want to set things up so that people can print things they will use and not waste time, ink, and sticker paper on what they do not need.

So I need to get back to work. I have bundled and listed my first 6 sets of stickers to create planner boxes and listed them to Etsy. I’m working on a set of planner labels for Months, Days, Dates, Years, and Weeks to list and then I hope to work on some of the more creative and fun decorative items. And I need to begin scheduling some time to get this blog headed in the right direction. Once I figure it out I can share some freebies of what my Etsy shop is selling.

Wish me luck!

Linda