The last two weeks have been pretty productive, thanks in part to the lovely Spring-like weather. With no sudden, unexpected snow days, I managed to finish screen-printing all 1 million of my products (Well, it certainly felt like 1 million!). I have also almost finished ironing them all as well. My right bicep is now impressively larger than the …
So, my resolve to blog at least once a week broke, last week. It just broke apart like a large, warm, flaky, soft, buttery croissant does… mmmmmmmmmm…but I digress, let me tell you more about last week. Last Week Last week it got very cold and snowy, and the kids had just one day of school. Then …
…So, where were we? Oh yes, identifying things that make me happy and, therefore, more productive. I thought about this a lot during the midday preschool pick up/drop off. Here is what I came up with: Start every day by creating something Obvious for an artist, you may say. However, I’m finding that often I get …
…and so the first day of 2015 is here. I promised myself that I would start the year on a good note and put out a blog post on New Years Day, and voila, here I am, keeping that promise – I’ve got a good feeling about this year already. I read somewhere that listicles …
You know, and I know, and those other people over there know, that I have spoken and written at length about the ups and downs of running a tiny one woman business. Well talk about ups and downs – last week certainly had it’s share of both!
To start off with, I ran the smallest, most minuscule, pea sized camp that I have ever agreed to run.
I generally have between six and ten kids in a camp. However, enrollment was really low for my first week of camp this year- only four children were signed up. So I called a meeting (with myself), decided that four was the absolute minimum amount that I could run a camp with, and happily continued with my planning.
On Monday morning, a parent called to cancel – her child was not art-inclined, it seems. Oh dear – suddenly, I was running something that was very un-camplike. It was the Anticamp.
Three kids.
Any teacher, or parent worth their salt knows that three is definitely not the magic number. Two kids is fun, camaraderie, and hours of secret swapping. Four kids is a close-knit unit, an exercise in team building. Three kids is backstabbing, bloodshed and tears. The problem with three, is that no matter what, one child is always left out. I could see hours of conflict resolution unfolding before me….
…then, to my horror, I discovered that my four year old was running a fever, ack! It will suffice to say, I choked back a tear or two.
Luckily, I have a very supportive husband.
I was actually pleasantly surprised. Yes, it was hard work at times keeping the three kids motivated, and cooperative, but we actually got some great work done, and had a lot of fun along the way. We got to do things that we would not have done with a bigger group. We spent longer on projects, and improvised more with our work. Every afternoon we drove to a local playground, and at the end of each day we had a water fight. The kids actually got on pretty well.
Well, I learnt a lot about all the different ways in which insects can kill, maim, and be killed. I learnt more about Pokemon than I wish to know. I learnt that elementary school kids cheat when playing board games with adults, they call it “leveling the playing field” – hmph. I learnt that a good game of Piggy in the Middle is the best bonding exercise for three kids, and finally, I learnt to always expect for the best.
This post is dedicated to all you individuals slavishly hand writing prices on stickers, and loading cars with grid walls and EZ Up tents, or whatever it is you do to keep the dream alive. I’m here for you. The great rush is on to get things ready for the Spring fairs, and things …
You might have noticed that I have not been blogging much lately, (I’m not sure whom I’m referring to when I write ‘you’ – in all probability, my regular followers have dropped like flies by now!). Anyway, my circumstances have changed a bit recently. I now have an almost-three-year old sharing my workspace with me all …
It has been a week for toasting monkeys (see the definition for ‘monkey-toasting’ here). In between all the chores, administrative work, and carting kids around to various appointments, I did actually manage to get a large chunk of printing done (giving myself a virtual pat on the back as I type this). I have started …
