Tag: #bloglifebalance

Craft Fair Shows and how I prepared for this season

First of all, let me apologize

After being absent for about a month, I wish to apologize to you for not being here for you. I have been both working a full-time job and prepping for the upcoming craft fair shows I will be at this fall.

With that said, I must confess that I have decided to quit my job and can now re-focus on sharing my crochet business life with you. No, I did not leave the job for this purpose. I actually liked the job. However, there were some extenuating circumstances that led me to that decision.

The Craft show Season

So, now I have a few days before my craft show and I have been crocheting up a storm of product to bring with me. Here are a few pictures of what my potential customers can choose from.

Picture of Craft fair show Boo Bees Orange and black with white wings
BOO Bees

My son calls these Halloween themed Bee’s, “BOO Bees”! I thought that was very clever of him. LOL!

Picture of crochet Craft fair show pumpkins in the garden, gold, purple and orange
Pumpkin Patch

In addition to those Items, that I have lots of! I will have the crochet Whales, a new line of Dinosaurs, a few stuffed bears, baby blankets, lovies, and owls. There will be other things as well, but these are the items that I am hoping sell the best.

After all this work, it has recently come to my attention that the weather is not going to be cooperative. We have an 80% chance of thunderstorms! UGH! All of the vendors at this weekend’s show will hang as best we can outside in the elements.

So, how do I prep for craft fair shows?

I belong to an online group called “Crochet-preneur“, in this group, I have learned many tips to get myself prepped for craft shows. Some of the information is free, others have a cost attached. The information garnered from this online group is unfathomable and believe me when I say, I would not be as prepared without it. You can learn so much from other’s experiences!

Another thing that the craft show entrepreneur needs to know is HOW TO SET UP their display tent. So, for that, I also turn to an online group, Vendor display. With the visuals that vendors share of their tent setups, I am able to visualize how I want to set up my tent for a successful day of sales!

Another thing to think about is what items are trending at craft shows. As you know, I mostly do stuffed animals and baby blankets. I’m not exactly sure how that will work this fall, so I added the Home Decor pumpkins in different colors, and one traditional pumpkin! All I can do is give it a try for this first show, then either replicate or change up for the next one. This will be the pattern for the next couple of months.

Now you have a few things to look at to see what it takes to have a successful craft fair event, or at least be prepared for a successful event. If you have any questions, please contact me.

I’m off to have a successful craft fair show now! Don’t forget to log onto my facebook on Saturday between the hours of 9A and 3P to see my “live” bit!

Until next time!

Nana Dawn

How to Balance my work life and my blog life

This week I started a new job outside of the home working 8 AM to 4:30 PM.

My one question is, how on earth do I manage to balance my work life and my blog life?

The first thing I know I need to do is make a list of all the items I need to accomplish here at home away from the work-life. Things like ensuring the laundry get done, dishes, vacuuming, you know the usual household chores. Also, managing my crochet business which includes this blog. When will I find time to write to you? When will I be able to crochet for upcoming craft fairs? All of these things need to be addressed in my list of items to accomplish.

The next thing I will need to do is to be a sticky wicket and just stick to the schedule! Without this schedule, I’ll never get anything done, at work or at home. So, how do I decide what is most important, less important or what is even less important? What about bigger projects?

A List like this one:

  • What are my individual crochet/blog tasks?
  • When are bigger projects due?
  • Blog posts and when to schedule them
  • What days will I be writing?
  • What days will I devote to reading?
  • When will I find time to exercise?
  • How will I find time for errands and other chores?

Once I have narrowed this down, I will be able to better utilize the time I will have available to me after my work life from 7 AM to 5 PM- this includes travel time. Travel time is not free time. Regardless of whether you listen to your book or not, vigilance while driving is more important than that.

What is the method I will use to balance work and blog life? Here is one method that I think will work well.

The Pomodoro Technique

This technique works well for people with ADD, or those interrupted by small distractions…oooh, Look! A Squirrel! Yup, that’s me!

Source

Break larger projects into chunks

Breaking down larger projects into smaller ones is a great help too. Procrastination is a danger to many when faced with a larger project. When we procrastinate, we are just putting off negative feelings, the larger the project, the harder it is to avoid uncertainty and feeling overwhelmed. Like the feeling you may not know how to even get started; breaking that large project into smaller chunks will be a life saver, and time saver, for the procrastinator, like me!

For more information on this method, please visit The Pomodoro Method.

Going Forward

Learning to accomplish all of the important tasks I have is going to take some doing for sure! But, with my patience and understanding, working in little chunks instead of eating the elephant in one bite, I know I will be able to accomplish all of my goals!

Knowing that a good many things are out of my control is another area I will need to accept. I can’t be in control of everything at all times. There are just going to be things that will derail me, even if it is just a momentary derailment. Acceptance will be key.

So, if you do not hear from me for a few days, just know that I am doing all I can to make sure that I maintain a healthy work to blog-life balance.

Until Next Time.

Love Nana Dawn

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