Balancing jewellery with full-time work

[agent_44]

Ooh, hope you don't have Swine Flu!

Yes - it's easy to wear the rose tinted glasses - I definitely do it!

[Solunar Silver Studio]

Hi Di, I hope you are feeling less 'piggy' today. Just been reading this thread for the first time...and wanted to send you a big hug! Our lives seem to have run very similar paths...including the much older OH - mine being 18 years older than me...and money problems - we lost our house and everything in the last recession and never really recovered. And I notice your logo is almost the same as mine - but I can't get the piccie to show for some reason (it is in my profile though!)

How is the 'evil brew' going? ... ready for the next Solunar 'Alternative Treatments' suggestion? I read recently that auto immune diseases respond well to an increase of 'good' intestinal bacteria...something to do with 'bad' bacteria encouraging a 'leaky gut' to allow allergens to pass into the bloodstream and create merry hel!!. A healthy 'good' bacteria colony helps to seal up this 'leaky gut' problem. Have you tried kefir...or some of the more bizarre fermented products like natto or kombucha tea. I use kefir a lot but haven't tried the others. (They sound like fun though - especially if you have a 'mud pie' mentality!) I don't think the commercial bacteria drinks offer much benefit being as they are pasteurised...you need the real 'buggy' macoy!! If you don't already do it - it might be worth reading up on it!!

And I'd love to know what you write about!!!.....

Sorry folks...this is all a bit off thread....bacteria and all that!!! I'll just crawl away and hide now shall I??!!
Barbara

[bustagasket]

When we started our own business i still had other little jobs, but had to give them up because my husband needed me at the garage full time. It stayed that way for the last 7 years until a few months ago.

I was getting into my crafting (not jewellery making at the time) and the receptionist suggested to my husband that i should have two days at home to persue it. He begrudgingly agreed, but his idea is that i should have produced a lot in one day and should be actively marketing it and therefore earning a wage on those two days off. It has become a bit of a bone of contention in the house now, almost to the point that last week i said i would not take the two days (i have to do the shoping in one too) to which he said that as long as my work was up to date i could (the shackles immediately rose on the back of my neck) i am always up to date, but having said that i didnt want it thrown at me again that i only work 3 days a week and "play" on the other two, he said he wouldnt do it any more (yeah right, til it bugs him again) So my being at home, comes at a price. I have pressure of producing something which will make him feel i have actually been working all day (after shopping, cleaning the kitchen and setting off the washing and drying)
I have decided i will take the plunge and buy a website in a box from MrSite and put my stuff on there just to say i am trying to sell stuff if nothing else to him.The jewellery is the thing i mainly want to concentrate on, but i am so inexperienced at it so thats not gonna help. I am not a natural seller, i am scared of my own shadow, terrified of conflict, and so doing shows and stalls etc fills me with horror, and yet i so desperattely want to be a success at something.

what a wuss.

[Solunar Silver Studio]

Oh God! I'm going to be shelling out hugs all day I can so relate to you...although my husband wouldn't have got away with saying that!! Having had 4 children then starting to have to help with grandchildren when my youngest was still only 9 I have been a 'stay at home - meet no one who doesn't need their nose wiped - talk to no one with a conversational subject more electrifying than 'Fifi and the flowertots' - mum for the best part of 25 years. Scared of shadows - yes... Scared of people - yes... Scared of being told my work is rubbish - yes... I am all of that too.

I started to look into 'self help' type of books to boost my confidence...and it seems like a lot of rubbish - talking to yourself in a mirror and telling yourself you are confident..good..strong...etc...positive affirmations all day and that sort of thing - but over a period of time it seems to be working. I'm still a wreck but I have learned to 'go for it' a bit more. You have to say - 'what does it matter if I make a fool of myself?' - (Generally it doesn't matter at all and most people won't even notice and will be engrossed in what you are saying and the jewellery you are showing them.) Take the plunge and go out and meet people....but take a friend with you too so you don't analyse everything you have said and done and they can take up the slack if you get 'lost for words'. You may be pleasantly surprised! And second time round it won't be quite so scary!

I think we are all like that really...lets all try to get more confident together!!
Barbara

[Ominicci]

Having also just given up full time work, I can say that I probably got a bit more done when I was working than I do now . But I think that was because I was more focussed when I was working, because I knew I only had 2 hours in the evening to 'do my stuff' before doing tea and OH coming home. Nowadays I am totally out of any routine and spending too much time on the PC

[Petal]

Oh Sue, I do emphathise with you.

Barbara is so right. Life can throw all sorts of horrible things at us sometimes, can't it?.

I used to work full time in an office (hated the work, loved being with my workmates), but now that I work at home full time I have to have a structure to my day, otherwise I would spend all my time doing domestic cr!p and not making any jewellery. I work from 8-12 and 2-5 on jewellery things and the rest on 'home' stuff. It makes me more productive having breaks from doing jewellery, than trying to spend all day on jewellery and putting pressure on myself to finish something. I've got lots of half-finished things in a box which I look at when the mood is right. Do you think having a structure would work for you?

Here's a quote from a book I have called "Shoot The Damn Dog", by Sally Brampton

Letting go is not getting rid of
Letting go is letting be

Have you tried writing how you feel? It can be liberating to write it all down and then burn it (if you want to)! It worked for me.

So, have another hug from me and, remember, you're not alone. There's lots of us here to support you.

Jules x


Oh, and if you haven't already got some, try some Bach Rescue Remedy - that might help too.

[bustagasket]

Lol yes i spend too much time on here too. I was a stay at home mum for over 13 years, as our eldest son, Rikki, was severely mentally and physically handicapped and i spent many a week in hospital with him and doted on him when we were at home. That worked good for the younger two boys too, and i had a nurse that came in twice a day to allow me to take the other boys to school like normal mummies - Rikki had a condition called Trisomy 18 or its common name is Edwards Syndrome for those in the know, and was oxygen dependent and i wont go into all the probs, but i could only be relieved by a nurse.

Sadly we lost our beloved tiny 13 year old (he only weighed 20lbs and was the size of a six month old child) in February 2000, and i was thrown into a totally alien world to me. I had a "valid" reason to be at home in those days so it was never an issue with hubby, but since we have had the garage he has changed and as i said earlier, i need to prove that i can earn from this hobby of mine.

My other boys are now coming up 18 and 15 at the end of this year and dont quite need mum any more apart from a taxi service, so maybe the crafting fills a void for me i dont know, but i would love to be here all the time doing it, instead of in an ofice on my own. I too never get to speak to anyone either at work or home. Sometimes thats nice, but it would be nice to be able to share ideas and stuff with the family sometimes lol

[Coco]

I think we are all like that really...lets all try to get more confident together!!
Barbara

I think we should. I was so scared of everything I could barely leave the house. Doing my first jewellery course a couple of years ago was what got me back into circulating with the world and it's only really these last couple of years that I've considered myself "living". But I'm still quite scared, just got better at hiding it I guess.

[Di Sandland]

Have you tried writing how you feel? It can be liberating to write it all down and then burn it (if you want to)! It worked for me.

Genuinely without wishing to blow my own trumpet, I've had a book published about exactly that! Having journalled all my life, I have found that writing about the crip stuff is what got me through.

I empathise with Sue too - my old man is exactly like that and thinks in terms of £SD (sorry, showing my age). So, if I make something beautiful his first question is 'how much can you get for that.' But enough of all that!

Barbara, I'll answer your questions in a PM rather than bore everybody else rigid.

I love this forum!

[Solunar Silver Studio]

I've been thinking Su (bustagasket)... What sort of garage do you (does he) own? Does it come with a snazzy sales area? Is there anywhere where customers are directed to wait while their car is 'seen to' or finished off? (I make it sound like a breakers' yard there - but I'm sure you know what I mean!) Does he send out promotional literature to past/present customers by post?
...couldn't you involve him and the garage in your 'marketing'? Set up a sparkling display cabinet in the showroom/waiting area ...where women can drool over it and men can decide what to buy their woman as a surprise gift while they are waiting? Or a business card or leaflet for your jewllery popped into every envelope that leaves the place...(all my family are doing that for me now!!) ...or stapled to the final bill!!
If he wants your business to prosper - get him to help...just like you have helped him for 7 years!!

Barbara