It’s hard to believe that two seasons have come and gone since my last blog entry. Time. Slow. Down. Please.

As I expected, as soon as it was nice enough to be out digging the dirt, it seems that is all I really wanted to do. Gardening offers me yet another opportunity to cultivate my creative skills. And living in a place with such harsh winters makes me appreciate the miracle of every sweet shoot that pokes out of the ground in my gardens each spring.

Then along came summer, glorious summer. With the kids out of school, I no longer had the dedicated time to devote to furniture or business promotion. Between pools and parks; festivals and vacations, time was just filled in other ways. Evening work and weekend hours produced a few new pieces but my time was suddenly much more divided.

I am fortunate in this regard. My family is not reliant on the success of this business to pay the bills or put food on the table. Of course, I want to be able to demonstrate success, I want to be able to sell my work and feel that my time and creative efforts are valued. But, the amount of time and effort I put into each element of business development is entirely driven my me and my motivation. That means that my other roles and interests often take priority. While business related tasks didn’t stop completely, they did slow down during that time.

I set up a new photography staging area in the shop. I started following a few different furniture painting and staging groups on Facebook and came to the conclusion that staging is key to selling. And, its not as easy as it looks. I started with a vengeance but, it turns out I enjoyed the shopping for staging materials much more than the actual staging, photographing, editing and uploading. Over the summer, I learned how to use the strobes and camera settings, I practiced my staging skills and studied the techniques and marketing tips of other very talented furniture artists. I got most of my inventory staged and photographed.

This inspired me to enter several of my pieces in the General Finishes Design Challenge. I had these lovely photos of my work and so I thought, why not give it a shot? And guess what. I won a two prizes! Runner Up in the decoupage category for my work on this dresser…

And, the real kicker, a prize for my staging!

I also held my first pop-up show. Each year, the park across the street from my home is host to a huge neighborhood music festival that draws hundreds of people from around the city. At the gentle urging of some friends, I decided to hold a pop-up sale to showcase my work during the festival. I pulled my finished pieces out of storage and into my driveway with informational flyers for each piece. It was a huge success. I had more people stop by to look at my work than I ever expected and I ended up selling 6 pieces of furniture in the two weeks after the sale.

So, despite the ongoing shuffling of priorities that pull me in all different directions, I continue to make progress in this fledgling business. And, right now, making progress, even if it is slow, is going to be my measure of success.