Effectively Organized: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Home Tour of Studio Area

This is the last installment in the series of Tidying up and I end with the reason I started the whole process - my art studio. I've had my art studio organized in many ways in the many places I've lived in the last five years. But none of it really worked for me until I understood Marie's basic principle of "store like things together." Now, even though things are piled together and I have to look a little bit, I don't have to look hard to really find what I want. Jewelry findings and beads are stored together. Wire and chain. Polymer clay. Jump rings. Silver wire. Seed beading. Inks. Sewing and fabric. 

So, even when I'm in the middle of creating a giant art mess, when I put it all back, I can find it because I know where it needs to go. Such a crucial element of organizing. 

One other thing I did when putting together my studio was creating a space I was inspired to be in. That meant painting all of my furniture to coordinate, reupholstering furniture, finding pieces that filled a need (like the green dresser that serves as my shipping station). And now the result... updated since the last photo (different table).

Effectively Organized: Developing a Cadence

One of the things that is a major shift for me going from a hobby business to a real business is getting into regular habits of doing things that I might not like doing and maintaining the habit. As a hobby, you can flow with your moods. As a business, consistency is the lifeblood of making your business sustainable and profitable. I'm not profitable yet, but consistency leads to sales which leads to profitability.

Blogging

For me, blogging and newsletter are two parts of my ongoing marketing plan. I've been trying to create an editorial schedule, but this is a bit of an experiment to see what works best for me. I ha e broken my posts down into categories:

• Hobby to Business Report: musings on what I need to do to move my hobby business into a real business that will eventually be how I make my living. I explore legal aspects, bookkeeping, mental shifts, posts like this one of moving from random posts to more organized, edited, and planned
• Studio Time: behind the scenes of work, new work, the process of exploring new styles and mediums. I really like having a log of my history as an artist and my blog has been the main place for documenting my artistic journey.
• Organized artist: this is an interesting area of exploration for me. I recently KonMari-ed my entire home and art studio. This is enabled me to start doing more in less time. I also created a project management system that utilizes sticky notes. It's based on what I've learned as a project manager (Scrum Master) in my day job. I also made functional art that support this. 
• Throwback: looking back on my history as an artist or other adventures.
• Design Exploration: sharing the process of creating surface pattern designs
• Creative Finds: sharing any book, blog, Instagram feed that I loved or find inspiring
• Funny Friday: usually stories about being a klutz
• Resident Adventure: photographic explorations that inspire me and my art

I have been debating whether to have a specific theme for each day of the week or just blog organically. Right now, I'm blogging organically as having the specific theme for each day wasn't really working for me since my cadence is still at 2-3 times per week.

Newsletter

I really, really want to maintain a once per week newsletter cadence. I'm starting to get great feedback and engagement from my small list. However, there is a lot of work to updating the shops for the new color. I'm struggling with staying mentally engaged and interesting for a weekly newsletter. Bi-weekly makes more sense right now where I'm at. Lately the cadence has been 2 weeks on, 1 week off. I don't know if that's confusing though.

The other challenge right now is that I've had lots of visitors in the last two months, I'm trying to improve my personal nutrition and exercise habits (and layer those activities in).

I don't have an answer for this one at the moment. I'm sure I'll more thoughts later.

Effectively Organized: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Home Tour of Bedroom, Laundry, and Kitchen

Continuing the home tour of my very organized home, I have to say having my home organized this way makes it so much more efficient and easy to find stuff. 

Although Marie advocates getting rid of stuff and promotes a more minimalist mindset and I did get rid of a lot of stuff, she also advocates keeping only things you love. In my case, I brought in things I loved - like art and useful pieces of furniture. I wanted my home to feel cozy warm and inviting... and my guests that I've had since I put my home together this way have all said it is very inviting and relaxing... just want I want for my guests to feel. I didn't get any more than I needed, to make my home feel this way and almost everything is second hand. Very little is brand new. 

Laundry Room / Utility Room

I have a little snap of my laundry room. In those cabinets are where I store most of the things I need in my house that are utilitarian: paints, paint supplies, light bulbs, towels, kitchen towels, cleaning rags, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, and tools. I have always had trouble finding what I needed of these types of items when I needed it. By storing this all in one place, I now can find things I usually can't. It's uh-may-zing.

Entry Way

A useful table and place for keys, functional wall art to hold sticky notes for my chores and home things I need, plus art from Australia and Hong Kong, and a wall hook for coats, scarves and dog leashes. I'm actually getting very consistent about leaving my keys in the same spot, hanging up my coat and putting Trixie's leash away in the same place.

Kitchen

One major thing I did for my kitchen was get rid of all the junky pots and pans that I didn't like or care for and then I invested in good pots and pans that I love love love to cook with and also happen to make my kitchen a happy, inspiring place to good healthy good food. My only mild complaint with the layout of my kitchen is the very, very limited counter space. It's very equivalent to the counter space I had in my Hong Kong kitchen...it's slightly more, but not much. I love a big giant island. But, other than that, I love this kitchen for having a gas stove. That is something I learned to love living in Hong Kong - gas stoves. My pantry and cabinets are very organized and I have dishes and pots and pans and cutlery that make spending time in this kitchen really pleasant.

Power Room

Some art and misc. flea market / online finds that make it a little more interesting and less bland.

Master Bedroom

This is how my master bedroom was last year. Very simple, minimalist, and neat. But it didn't seem "right." And then I realized the scale was off. This is a very large bedroom. The furniture I had was designed more for a regular size bedroom. I had been wanting to find a white farm house bed, but couldn't find what I liked.

Then I found a bedroom set at a re-sale shop that had a look that was close to what I originally had in mind. I set it up even though I still had my queen size mattress. :-) I know it looked silly, but I loved having the headboard and side tables. I tend to stack my night stands high with books and ideas and projects. These 3 drawer stands were perfect for me.

I finally got my king mattress and set it up.

The huge benefit of all of this organization is that it's now much easier for me to find things, put things away consistently, keep it neat, tidy, and clean. For the first time in my life, I've been able to be consistent with this even though my home is relatively large for me and keep up with it fairly well. I credit the KonMari method for helping me refine my own methods of organization.

Effectively Organized: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Home Tour

So, I've finally Kon-Mari-ed my entire house. I organized, painted, upholstered, hung art and now my home is a pleasant, cozy space. It's also organized enough that I can find things easily on a regular basis. Yep. I believe in Marie Kondo's method of organizing. Most of the art I have in the house is art from other artists. If I know the artist, I'll link them. I'll start this post with guest spaces. 

Guest Space #1

I painted the dresser, tables, and head board in Annie Sloan chalk paint. The pillows are from my Zazzle shop. The driftwood whale was from a local art show in St. Augustine. The painting on the wall is one of my own textured canvas color washed in blues. I'd like to learn how to reupholster the chair in some of my fabrics at some point.  

Guest Space #2

The quilts in this guest room are by Rose Ann Points of Delightful Little Things. The bed frames, tables, and lamp are Craig's List finds. The wall hangings are random things I've found here and there. I've decorated this room specifically for my nieces to stay over with me. If I have two sets of couples, one of them gets the "Dick Van Dyke" show guest room. :-) It works nicely for families though.

The chest below is my mom's child hood chest. It got passed around the family and I finally repainted it. The chairs are some beautiful finds from Eco Relics up in Jacksonville. And the beautiful butterfly is by Mandy Saile. I have several of her original art works. Her bright, happy birds and butterflies make my home so happy.

Guest Bathroom

The poppies painting are by my friends Brenda Liz.The cute little birds are by my friend in Michigan. The sea turtles are made in Haiti of upcycled steel drums and can be purchased in one of the local art stores called Amistad.

The wall hooks for the towels are another driftwood creation. The hummingbird is another Mandy Saile creation.

More hour tour in a future post.

Effectively Organized: Shifting Mindsets - Production Mindset

I was just reflecting on the process of turning my hobby business into a real business, that it is as much about shifting mindsets as it is about implementing systems. Christine Kane addresses some major mindset shifts that need to happen in order to become an effective business owner. Here is her short list - but the whole post is worth the read. 

http://christinekane.com/the-psychology-of-going-from-employee-to-business-owner/

1. When you were an employee, you had a boss.

1. When you were an employee, you had deadlines.

1. When you were an employee, you had to, you know, not wear pajamas to work.

1. When you were an employee, you didn't have to market.

1. When you were an employee, people cared about the letters after your name.

1. When you were an employee, you just walked in and did your thing. Big picture, schmig picture.

1. When you were an employee, you didn't have to invest in you. The company invested in you.

Silver and Copper Twig Earrings (multiple pairs of a design)

What about you? Have you found a need to shift your mindset as you develop your creative business?

Frankly, I'm not even that far along in my shift from hobby to business. I’m still back in areas like moving from just creating randomly as because I want to and shifting into production mode (i.e. setting up systems to make enough pieces to sell, and being efficient about making larger quantities).

For me, my hobby has been a de-stressor and a way to relax. And this is something that is worth looking at carefully. Often we start a hobby and start creating so much we have to sell it to offload the amount of stuff we have made because we're running out of friends to give things to and to support the stash we've bought into. [Cough, cough - that's been my hobby business so far.] If you want to stay in a small, a hobby business, it is perfectly acceptable. BUT. If you want to turn your hobby into a real business you have to start thinking differently. About pricing. About marketing. About production. About income. About strategy. About production and production efficiencies. About contracts. About taxes. About setting up legally and correctly to run within the parameters of the law. Those are a lot of mindsets to shift and rewire in your brain!

For this post, I'm going to dive into...

Production Mindset

Production Mindset could also be described as "how to make enough product to support myself." In 2012, I started exploring seriously moving my hobby into a real business. I took some advice and started working backwards: I figured out how much income I needed to live and started working backwards to figure out how many pieces of jewelry I would have to make and how much I would have to charge in order to support my life. Even simplifying as much as possible, it was a little... um, shocking... to see how much I would have to make and sell.  The making part had it's own mental hurdles, but the selling part was even more of a mental block. I realized in a saturated jewelry market, I could only sell so much. I needed to look at expanding my options of what I could sell. (Exploring multiple income streams is a subject for another post.) But, I still like making jewelry and do want this to continue to be an income stream for me.

Fast forward to 2016, tiny little movements forward in the business (like setting things up in the background to run as a real business), but little to no studio time in between. Now, I'm starting up studio time again and I’m finding some odd words creeping up in my vocabulary as I shift into business mode and re-wiring my brain to be a responsible business owner. Things like “dread,” “tied down to my workspace,” “trapped.”

I mentioned these things in my last Master Class coaching call with Lisa Call, and she said I needed to journal about it. Which I have done, but I thought it was worth sharing in a public forum. Perhaps you are a hobby artist who is trying to making a go of your business.

Exploring my mindset and reframing my fears

Regarding being "trapped" at my studio desk - I realized I have total freedom over my work space and can redesign my space to be enjoyable. I may not be able to sit on my couch and make whatever I want whenever I want, but I can still design the space to be efficient and motivating as well as beautiful and inspiring. That's actually something quite wonderful about working for yourself - you have control over your environment that you don't always have in a regular job.

Exploring another aspect of those depressing words, I realized the feelings behind those were fear. Fear of not being good enough, fear of being a disappointment to my customers, fear of not being able to keep up with the schedule and amount of art I needed to make. And the good news is that as I break those fears apart, I realize I can do something about all of that. Starting small lets me make mistakes, and work out the kinks in my business and systems, before I grow. It lets me organize and create systems to make sure I can handle each of those things that may crop up. 

Regarding not being good enough, I can experiment wildly and develop my style and find a style that resonates both with me and with others. Regarding disappointing customers, I can work slower and smaller to make sure I can make my customers happy. I can experiment with custom work to get a feel for working closely with customers. I can develop customer service systems that help maintain a relationship even after a disappointment. 

Regarding the fear of keeping up, well, this is a valid fear, but this is part of the reason I want to keep my business small and grow carefully. I want to figure out what works, what is sustainable for me personally. I want to keep my business simple, sustainable, and manageable as a one-person operation. 

What about you? Are you transforming your hobby into a business? What mindset shifts have you encountered?

Effectively Organized: Lessons from my first show

My mom hosted a small mixed media show for our friends last week. Here were some of my basic lessons from my first ever show.

Lessons:

• This was my first real show ever. It was good practice to pack, set up, figure out what worked, what didn't, break down and go home. That was a lot of work! I celebrated by taking naps for the next 2-3 days after work. LOL

• One really great opportunity was having the opportunity to practice speaking and explaining all the pieces without being apologetic or minimizing my work.

• I need to have a greater range in price points. I like to work in higher end materials. For small shows where I can expect people to look for small, inexpensive items I can still work in the higher end materials but make simpler pieces of jewelry.

• My completely handmade items went over better than the designs I had printed by a third party. I'm not quite sure of the reason other than, that's just the way it went for this show.

• Being able to explain my jewelry and that I only work with Sterling or Argentium silver was important. I need to display the materials in tags on the specific pieces or as a grouping of pieces. Also, I loved being able to say I made the glass beads - they are so pretty, even when they are simple spacer beads. I really look forward to getting back to lamp working. 

• Wear my hair up! I'm too hot with packing up and setting up to do anything else. I'm in Florida! But even if I was in a cold weather state, I just get hot.

• I need to figure out a better post-show routine. I loaded my cabinet back up, but there is still stuff all over the table from making jewelry and it's a week later. 

Effectively Organized: Shifting Mindsets and Studio Hours

I've started a Master Class with the intention of transforming my Hobby to a Business. One of the big mental shifts is "studio hours" where I schedule the time I make art. This has been a long mental shift. The first time I heard of setting studio hours was last year, but I had been thinking of the shift as I tried to set up and organize my art business.

Making Jewelry as a Hobby

When I started the jewelry-making hobby, I just dove in happily and made jewelry for hours upon hours. I especially developed a love for making lamp work beads. At the time I was learning to make lamp work beads, it proved to be a welcome respite from a stressful day job. Focusing on the torch would help me turn my mind off at the end of the day.

Hobby Business

Then I started making too much jewelry to wear myself, so I started selling it. Not a lot. Sometimes it surprised me that people would buy my jewelry, but I did sell. This stamp fits me perfectly.

Then I started moving around a lot. Had to stop lamp working. I moved over to polymer clay and had to start over with learning a new medium. Eventually I started getting the hang of polymer clay. Then I moved again. I've been trying to get my art business going again and get distracted by moving or my health issues. But still with an eye to starting the business.

It was during this transitional phase that I started sitting down and figuring out how much jewelry I would have to sell to make a living. It was a lot.

Hobby Business to Real Business

Now, I'm buckling down to shifting my mindset from an accidental hobby business to a deliberate art business. I knew I would have to shift from the mentality of just making whenever I wanted and when creativity struck (which was often, fortunately). I started thinking about the challenge of setting up a pattern of production that would be both profitable and enjoyable. It started making me nervous to lose the joy of just creating for creating's sake. I've explored a number of different pathways to potentially create multiple streams of income so I'm not completely dependent on jewelry, which is a very saturated market.

Now, the big challenge is setting up studio hours... habits of making art, even when I'm not in the mood, learning to manage creative droughts, figuring out how to capture the creativity when it hits, setting up my business to handle illness, distractions, moving, etc.

My workspace with work in progress...

Here are some beads from a studio session on Saturday and Sunday. I'm getting stuff I like and can use!

So, do you have a hobby business or do you treat your art business as a real business? How are you handling studio hours?