Getting To Done

Yesterday, my head was nodding along as I read Carolyn's posting Just The Basics. The boys were back in school, the house was quiet and empty, the time was here, and I wasn't sewing. Instead, I spent some serious couch time vegging out and taking a nap. Between being nurse, jack of all trades, and the early morning-late night chauffeur routine, summer tired me out. I need a holiday from my holiday and...

... like I said on Tuesday... I need to figure out how to get from wish to done with a few of my goals. Getting to done means taking different actions otherwise, I'll keep getting the same results. I'm trying a new routine. We'll see how it goes. I plan to fine tune as I go along. There's more to it only I don't want to add too many things at once or nothing will work out.

This week, I'm writing my next day blog during the afternoon, doing a final proof in the morning while the boys are showering, posting, and then working on supper while they're getting ready to go. This way, I'm both in the kitchen and available to talk and have supper either made or the bits and pieces ready to go for later. I do need to make sure that all the ingredients are available though. Yesterday, I had to go grocery shopping first. Too funny and good because it means deciding the night before and deciding is the hardest part.




The pieces are cut out for the vintage Vogue 2934 jacket. The lining is washed and ready to cut out. The center back seam is pinned and ready to sew AND... I don't feel like it. This is partly due to needing a break after the labour intensive little girl coat and partly due to a knitting project that needs to be done. It's gone on too long and has gotten emotionally heavy.




Sometime in late spring, I started knitting toques from balls of acrylic yarn that I wanted to use up. The available colors were variegated, gold, green, and black. I want each toque to look different and plan to give them to a local homeless shelter. I've heard that we're going to have a long cold winter so I know they will be appreciated however, it's a mindless knit 2, purl 2 project and I am literally mindless - as in bored out of my mind - LOL. I think there's enough yarn for two more, maybe three, so hopefully the one I'm on now is the second to the last.

An easy knitting project like this leaves lots of time to think. As you know, I've been researching teaching and writing opportunities. Last week...

... Karen wrote: Since you have several classes that you taught in the past, what about compiling them into ebooks or pdfs that we could purchase from you. You have already done the work. All you would have to do is put it in the new format.

The reason I haven't done this yet is because I would require commercial business insurance applicable to running an Internet business. That combined with a business license would cost about $1,300-$1,500 a year, which may or may not be recuperated through sales. Based on typical direct marketing results and this blog's current daily readership, I could count on 2-4 sales. Not enough.

If I did have insurance, I'm not sure for how long I would need to maintain it, whether it would be only during the time I am selling the books or whether it would have to be ongoing and forever. Quite a few years ago - and they didn't win because the charges were unfounded - I was sued over my writing. Luckily, I had not self published that book and the publisher worked to successfully resolve the issue. It was a sewing book. You can see why not having insurance is a risk I'm not willing to take.

AND, as I mentioned before, while there is interest in my topics, I'm not sure there is sufficient interest. Lindsay posted an entry Tuesday called So You Think You Want To Write A Sewing Book in which she interviewed Anastasia Bosakowski-Chater, an editor with Crafter's Choice Book Club. Anastasia said, in terms of potential authors, publishers are looking for bloggers with lots of followers. Successful bloggers deliver a built in market that publishers can advertise and sell directly to. That's exactly what I thought and is not what I have. In the time frame that my blog has built up to 85 followers, other blogs have built up to hundreds and some to thousands of followers. While I'm thrilled with every single reader that comes to my blog, numbers tell stories. It's wise to pay attention.

Later this month, I'm taking another workshop with Ron Collins. It's at a shop that has successfully sponsored many sewing workshops like the Sandra Betzina/Ron Collins one that I went to in April. At that workshop, there were thirty women paying $300.00 each. When I told Kathy that I was willing to pay $600 for fifteen women, she said she couldn't sell that. Kathy has a good understanding of her market and is an amazing business person. I trust her perspective.

The class composition surprised me as well. I had expected thirty adventurous, creatively stimulated, sewers doing more leading edge work. Many were just there for a holiday and not because they wanted to move in new directions or to absorb Sandra's creativity or Ron's amazing technical ability. They were just sewing which is fine but not what I wanted or the class composition that I'm looking for if I teach.

I plan to ask both Ron and Kathy for feedback on my ideas. If neither of them see a solid market for my approach, their advice and experience combined with the stories that numbers tell will help me make my decision. There is a possible third option to explore.

The other thing that I've been thinking about while knitting is the talk on the news lately of the potential for the United States to slip further into recession taking Canada along with it. Considering that the real estate market, which is a solid identifying factor, is soft in both countries, this is a very real possibility. The United States, which would be my biggest market, has high unemployment numbers which translate to less disposable income. There's also the fear factor.

I'm seeing a trend on the blogs that I read. Quite a few bloggers are not buying, are limiting buying, are sewing up their stash, or are decluttering and selling patterns and fabric on Etsy or Ebay, or are creating products they hope to sell. These trends also tell a story. People are bunkering down, spending less, and trying to earn more. If everyone does that...

On Tuesday, I talked about simplification and how simple goals can be more attainable such as spend less, make more, or both. In our situation - meaning my family's - it would be much wiser for me to "make" money by changing the flow of our finances. That's one of the reasons why I decided to make cooking dinner the first task.

Cooking dinner in advance and having it ready and waiting will mean that we eat healthier and we eat at home which will decrease the amount we're spending on eating out and increase our grocery bill but not by nearly as much. By cooking large meals, there will be enough left overs for lunches the next day. Having home cooked lunches and dinners is healthier for us than processed and purchased foods. It's win-win. Simple but not easy.

I'm working my way through decisions like this because they mean me behaving differently - just me. Everyone else that lives here will get to eat cake but I'll have to bake it - VBG. So much to think about. What changes are you making? What trends do you see?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - left overs for lunch