Hello, my lovelies! It's been too long since you've had an update from me!
So, what has been going on with me? Lots and lots of stuff, actually! At the beginning of the year I had made a couple of goals I would like to accomplish for 2012.
1.) Minimize the "stuff" around me
2.) Develop a fresh new looking shop.
I'll talk about number one first...
It all started when I pulled a book to ship off (for my day job) that was called The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide. Now..one thing you have to know about me is that I LOVE my "stuff". My "stuff" being my books, my trinkets, my odds and ends, my useless tchotchkes, my furniture, games, cds, craft supplies and so on. All the stuff in my life represents who I am as a person. At least that is how I see it. I feel like with just a glance at it you can get a visual representation of my personality and interests. Mi marido is completely the opposite. He would prefer a clean, "uncluttered" look to our home. To me...the minimalistic look feels cold and empty. I have found that the more stuff I have around me the more secure I feel.
The more I read the book the more it started to feel like maybe my stuff wasn't helping my ability to be organized and clear my thoughts. Maybe it was getting in the way or helping create this crafter's block I've been in lately. Slowly but surely I started clearing out the junk in my life. I gave a huge pile of stuff away and started weeding out all the craft supplies I had been squirreling away for projects that would probably never happen. As I was weeding the vision of what I would like to do with my Etsy shop became clearer and clearer. It felt good getting rid of a lot of stuff. And it was super weird seeing actual space and trying my hardest not to fill it with something. I am still not done but there is more on that later.
Now, number two has been one I've kind of been struggling with for a while. I've been on an adventure trying to figure out what my favorite medium is to work with and what I want my store front to look like. In the beginning when i was Memento Mori Shop it was nothing but beaded jewelry. The theme of my shop changed constantly as I was trying to find the perfect store front. Then it evolved into The LitBotanica and I started working with paper more. I always had a list of "Future Projects" for things I may want to add to my shop in the future but as I was looking at the craft clutter I had acquired, I discovered that it was keeping me from really focusing and perfecting the paper flowers I do. I know this sounds weird but I've been looking to drop the THE in the title and even saved my spot on Etsy for it. I made the painful decision of leaving the shop TheLitBotanica behind. I say painful because I would be leaving all my Sales Completed (even if it was less than 300) and awesome feedback that people have left behind. But I feel like dropping the THE and giving my shop a fresh look and clearer idea of my craft will be good for the business end of it and will help keep me pointed in one direction.
SO on top of all the brainstorming I had been doing at the beginning of the year...this was also the year that my fiance and I decided that we were getting married. I've had to put my shop on hold (only keeping it open for destash) so that I could focus on planning a wedding!! ON TOP of all that we had also made the decision to move back to Phoenix, Arizona. Which in turn led to me applying for a position that had just opened up right around the time that we were getting married.
To make a long story short, I am now in Arizona, married, and starting my job at the new location tomorrow! Mi Marido will be going back to San Antonio until January and my brother will be staying in the apartment until our lease ends. Now that the wedding stuff is settled I've started the process of planning for a reopen!! I will be shooting for before Christmas or later in the new year and will be working on social media and getting everyone excited about the opening. I've been brainstorming on the overall look, product creation, photography, and all that other fun stuff on paper/computer and will be working on pieces starting this week. I want to open up strong and make something that I am even more proud of than when I had Memento Mori Shop up.
Anyways, sorry about all-over-the-place post but I am very excited to get my groove back up and running!! Later for now and keep your eyeballs open on this blog for more adventures! :)
-Angelica
