This January, as everyone is wont to do, I looked at my life and made some squishy resolutions — squishy because I knew I was not likely to keep them! More like, goals to head towards.

When we moved to Colorado, I left my full time web designer job, with the goals of making a good solid go of this jewelry stuff full time. Be successful enough to contribute to our family’s finances, and be here in our home so our kids aren’t in daycare.

A year and a half later, it seems like those goals really are happening! I don’t seem to need to go looking for web design work, so that’s a plus! Starry eyed visions of me at home getting all the laundry done with dinner on the table at 5:30 every night have kind of gone by the wayside.. but overall, this home business of mine is working out nicely for our family.

So when I started reflecting on my life at New Years, I thought about my business & daily routine and what I like about it, what I don’t.

I really love working for myself, out of my own home studio.
I love that I have enough business to make a good contribution to our finances, and still be able to grow my business.
I love that our kids aren’t in daycare, and I can keep (if needed) working while they’re doing their homework.

However, I don’t like that the majority of my time is spent on stocking up my supplies inventory and filling supplies orders. It’s definitely the majority of my business. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it (I actually quite like it!), but it crowds out the “making jewelry” aspect of my life considerably. I find myself not making jewelry unless someone orders it and I need to make it. This keeps me from coming up with new designs, playing around with new techniques, playing with techniques I’ve learned but not honed — I’m kind of resting on my laurels, just coasting along with my current body of work instead of exploring new avenues, making new breakthroughs, and getting excited about new things!

Also – when I look through my website, some of what I see isn’t actually jewelry in the direction I would like to head in.

I have the time to make new jewelry, if I just managed my time better, or if I MADE the time.

So my squishy new years resolution — rather, a goal to work toward, was to make new jewelry. My idea was that perhaps instead of filling orders or cutting jump rings, I would set aside one day a week entirely dedicated to making new jewelry.

January went by, and I didn’t manage to do one day a week, but I did manage to make some new jewelry:

These were commissioned by a friend of mine for his daughter’s birthday. After posting pictures of them as I was making them, another friend saw them and instantly wanted a pair for herself as well.

February was busy also, but I sketched out my idea and did manage to work on this lovely labradorite pendant at least one day a week:

Here is the back:

I am so thrilled with this piece – it came out exactly how I wanted, and it’s the type of jewelry I want my website to be FILLED with! (Although I’m not entirely happy with the commercial chain that I’ve used for it, I may change that out.)

While I’m excited about finally making the time to make more jewelry, I need to step it up — one new piece A MONTH isn’t going to cut it, in my book.

So time to get cracking. We’ll see how March goes!