I was once told by a friend that was proficient in email market that you should never acknowledge when you’ve been away from your blog for a while… merely you should continue as you mean to go on, and pick up blogging/tweeting/social networking as if you’d never been away. But in this case, I think it’s worth a little note.
First a quick general life update: the Turtle household has been moving along at a fairly good clip. We’ve managed to keep ourselves and our new child fed and alive, and got through the holidays with a minimum of drama. But everything non-essential has been shunted to the side.
The state of things now looks like this: I’ve been wrapping up the last of my designs that I’ve had under contract, and contemplating how my business is going to pivot with Little Turtle’s needs growing and changing. I knew, conceptually, that this business was going to change after a child, but the plan was rather vague. We kept the plan vague on purpose. I didn’t know what parts of the business I’d be able to work in and which parts I wouldn’t be able to. Now, with nearly 8 months under our belts, I’ve come to some conclusions.
- I want to keep teaching. I love teaching students, and it is much more manageable to work teaching into post-baby life. I can plan to have a weekend where I teach and Mr. Turtle takes Little Turtle. I can plan to have every Wednesday night off so I can teach at local venues. I can plan for fiber festivals and retreats and traveling to other locations. I have a repertoire of classes, samples and worksheets, and can lean on all the work I’ve done the last couple of years to deliver classes that are great.
- I’ll keep up the repair and finishing. I like the challenge of working on different projects, and the repair and finishing provides a steady income, which helps. I can also work on these projects around Little Turtle.
- I’ll be dialing back designing for magazines. I’m discovering that designing, for me, is really really difficult around Little Turtle. Designing was always one of the things I did better when I had long stretches of times to work – to think out the math of a piece, to draw and sketch out proposals. I need time to dream and think ahead, and that’s really really difficult to do these days. My last two designs that I had due after Rebecca were born were really stressful, and I don’t think it’s the best return on investment right now.
- Instead, I’ll be working on some designs to support my teaching. I’ve found there are techniques I want to teach where I’ve had a hard time finding a design to teach off of that meets my needs. Instead of making things work, I’m going to be working on self-publishing some pieces that will support the classes I want to teach.
… And meanwhile, Mr. Turtle will be making sure I blog more.
