Sunshine!

Is it possible spring has sprung?! I'm going to ignore that the forecast says snow later this week, ditch sewing for the day, and walk to the park, basking in the semi-warm sunshine, possibly with some hot tea in hand! Normally a coffee lover, I'm trying to cut back and indulge in new habits and trends.

Ah, I just love having the liberty to pause, stretch my legs from beneath my sewing table, and enjoy life on a whim. I find so much creativity and energy in these little breaks from sewing! It reaffirms my choice to throw caution to the wind and explore the sometimes-scary world of being a small business owner. I work my one day a week at the fabric store for now, investing the money back into my own business, and six lovely days a week I delve into something I am passionate about, something I can see actually bringing joy to people all over the world! It is such a wonderful experience and I have so many people to be grateful to for giving me the foundation to build my business on!!

I most certainly owe a lot to my loving fiancè, Trace, without whom I wouldn't even be in the Midwest, which means I never would have touched a sewing machine, which obviously means I never would have started sewing monsters! The sewing machine was borrowed from Trace's mom, for a one-time project that started ripples of requests that grew into waves! The machine was loaned semi-indefinitely to me when we moved from her basement into our own home, and it has served me well on it's thrifted desk with a broken drawer. My studio quickly out-grew the tiny middle bedroom and was moved into the larger 2nd master bedroom, where fabrics are stacked and crammed haphazardly into the walk-in closet and a mix-matched row of desks and tables line the walls, providing work sewing-cutting-ironing spaces. And the clever crafting protegè, Jessica, happened into Lu & Ed just recently after the studio upgrade, but has already given me a plethora of new ideas, new products, and new services. She had proven indispensable in such a short amount of time and inspired to me explore new business ventures.

Dropping my full-time job to sew monsters seemed crazy at first, but I did it and my life is completely different than it was 2 years ago. I am free of so many restraints I never even knew I had! If you have passion and drive, but don't know where to start, look around you. There are people there just waiting to help you! There are so many resources just waiting to be tapped into, people with advice to share, tips to teach, tricks to show you if you just ask. Put your inhibitions aside and let your passion and inspiration drive you! It is such a wonderful life experience to share fun and beautiful things with other people that you created. Do something you love for fun, not for the money, and you will find happiness in it no matter what!

I'm going to walk in the sunshine today! What are you going to do? :)