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My favorite painting produced so far this year – started in our beloved townhouse and finished during the first few weeks of living in our new old house. I have always wanted to see London, and crowded streetviews like this are what inspire me to paint.

Hi fam! I know, I know. Another post inside of a week, really?

The midway point of 2018 has meant a lot of things. I am an extremely goal oriented person, and yet this year in particular, with the purchase of the new old house – I felt thrown off course. All my regular routines had been out the window, all my goals had to fit in on top of tearing out a basement and juggling home fires. What had happened to my balance? It was time to revisit my New Years Resolutions. Yes – I am a firm believer in them.

2017 was a year of monitoring and moderating life progress everywhere.
12 instagram posts a month? Check.
3 capoeira classes a week? Check.
Yoga? meditation? Check. Check.
Building up the one day home savings? Check and cheque, if you feel me 🙂
Average number of hours spent painting in a week? I would bet 12-15.
Average number of hours in a month spent learning Etsy? Hmm…3 to 4.

Etsy started doing this magical thing for me last September. In fact, it was September 17th, my mom’s birthday. I had two sales come in that day. After a year of off and on attempts to learn my way around, play with SEO and actually one really focused month of sorting out policies, about sections and the ins and outs of a listing, it had sat mostly dormant. But September 17th, two total strangers purchased art prints, and I knew it was the start of something. The next sale came two weeks later, on October 3rd. Amazing what you remember, huh?
It was a slow and steady build from there. I began to frantically add listings, revisit SEO articles, comb through old sketchbooks for paintings that upon second thought, could totally sell on Etsy (and at this point a lot have!). My best month was December, with 16 orders. January was a close second of 15. February was quiet but then March was better and April even better! May 2018? Silence. 23 days without a sale. A few since then and actually a few large orders – the best one so far was on June 9th, when someone bought 5 of my large prints. 5! To have more days like that I would be over the moon! Queue EVEN MORE research about Etsy SEO! Buuut life gets busy. The basement is clean, but the garage is full. We cut down a tree and knock out the power line (yes, we did). And the new (old) home owners list goes on.

You know what else happens this year? I turn 35. Somehow, that girl who drew her first fashion illustration in February of 2012 is now nearly at the halfway mark to 40. And you know what? Life by traditional standards is pretty awesome. But it’s not entirely mine. My kick ass employer? Will own me until retirement if I do nothing else. But what if I step into my own power and ability and really see what spending hours on my fledgling art business could do? What if I slow down the capoeira focus a bit and turn it over to art and business for awhile? Then what?

Well, we will see.
I’ve been listening to podcasts by Cathy Heller and Jenna Kutcher – both linked here, because if you are reading this, these are lighting a fire under my SOUL. They are both telling me that it is time. Time to step into my power, time to take creative control over my future. I’m taking the bull by the horns, and the first step is learning about Pinterest Strategy. I’ve just signed up for Jenna Kutcher’s Pinterest Lab and I am muddling my way through SEO plugins and claiming my site for Rich Pins (full transparency…I need Frank’s help to figure some of this out. I am not a code monkey.) But I’m going to see how it goes.
I’m sharing this here to be open about it. Because everything I read online is HOW people did it, not AS they did it. Maybe you’re reading this, I have no idea. That post from a week ago has already had several views, and I thought I was just publishing out into the black hole of the world wide web.

So…I’ll be here. And here on Pinterest. Oh, and always here on Instagram – it’s my fave. But check out that Etsy store while you’re at it. Today is July 5th, I am buried in html how to’s, and I have 97 sales on Etsy. I’ll keep you posted on how life is going. Because I’m trying internally to push myself to the point of no return – the point where my kick ass, totally secure, retirement portfolio building day job gets blown out of the water by an online empire of my art in all it’s glory. Okay? Okay 🙂

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