So Much To Do. So Little time. And I Love It!

I work as a graphic designer and I also run my own business in Toronto, anna made stuff, making bath and body products, jewelry and painted furniture. Living in an expensive city can be a financial challenge for an artist, but if you have a passion to create, it's impossible to ignore it and simply settle down to a more lucrative 9 to 5 job. So right now, I'm perfecting a crazy balancing act between my job and my own creative business, until I'm able to concentrate solely on my passion, anna made stuff. This journey, however, began long ago.

When I was about 10 years old and a budding jewelry designer, FIMO was my material of choice. It has a texture like Play Doh or Plasticine and comes in a kaleidoscope of amazing colours. I would roll it to make beautiful marbled patterns, geometric shapes and beads of all sizes. Once it's baked hard, it's easy to make pins, bracelets and necklaces. Even at that age, I wanted pieces that were unique and expressed my vision.

At university, I began beading and scoured the country for beads of glass, faience and wood. Someone gave me a book on soap making, and soon after I added bath and body products to my repertoire. Friends snapped up my designs, and so I took some pieces down to the local market, rented a stall and my creations just flew off the shelves. And that's when I knew that my creativity could be more than a hobby. It would influence all my life-choices from then forward. I knew that I wanted to not only create beautiful things, but to sell them and make a good living. I wanted to become a designer/entrepreneur.

Cut to today. Three years on. I've qualified as a graphic designer so that I can weather the highs and lows of entrepreneurial life, and make the mortgage payments on a recently purchased home. Business is growing via my web site and studio. And I really enjoy my work as a graphic designer, though finding time to do it all can be a challenge.

Challenges have been useful business lessons. Stretching the day to fit in work and business means that I have to be super-organized. I've learned that keeping plenty of inventory on hand is a must, as I just don't have time to run out and stock up on raw materials on an as-needed basis. So striking a balance between well-stocked and over-stocked is vital, and so is ongoing inventory management - useful skills for any entrepreneur to learn.

Developing super-organized storage that also looks good in a studio space has been a lesson in how to make fabulous displays in a store. Glass jars displaying a rainbow of coloured beads, simple white shelving, jars of product organized by size and fragrance, an easel with art-in-progress and a work-bench with tons of extra storage - all practical storage solutions which reflect the aesthetic of anna made stuff.

Each stage toward my goal has been a challenge. Take the plan for the studio. This should have been reasonably straight forward. We would renovate the basement, add a window, put in a wood floor, new drywall, a bit of paint, and the end result would be a beautiful studio, with tons of light, and the scent of lavender wafting in from a charming yard. Altogether idyllic. Of course, the reality was a bit more complicated. Small problems, such as having to replace a main bearing wall, come to mind. Shades of reality TV.

My reality is a hectic life, full of surprises and challenges, but being true to yourself and your passion is the only way to happiness. We only have one shot at life, so I'll keep on growing my business, balancing the competing demands of work, business and renovating an old house, and working towards the day when I am ready to make the next big step-- opening my first anna made stuff store.

Comments

[gardens]

Hi Anna
Your life sounds crazy busy but I love your positive attitude!