I sit at the precipice of this new year, balancing between the old decade and the new. It feel momentous.

In the late part of 2019 I was so busy with life, running here and there, packing a house, clothes, suitcase, business, a life. Always on the go. Always in motion. The new year approached and I shrugged, yeah yeah here’s another one, put on a hat and wave a banner and drink some champagne.

One day a breeze blew threw me carrying a scent of something hanging just out of my view. There was a curtain waiting to be lifted to experience something unknown. I sniffed that breeze and realized that this new year was no ordinary new year, this was a change of decade.

It’s not the first decade I’ve seen change yet this one, oh this one is banging loudly for me to take notice and to take action.

While on this edge between old and new I look back and it feels like the old decade had about 91 days in it. I blinked and they vanished. I have photos of places I went, memories of parties and sunsets, things I made that I can hold and say “yes, 10 years have passed and I was there”.

It was a good decade.

It was a comfortable decade.

Much of what I did was within my comfort zone. I had really hit my stride in many areas of my life and I loped along at a comfortable pace. It was very enjoyable. There were things that I wanted to do and some of them I did (bonjour Paris!). Some of them I looked at and put back on the shelf because they needed nurturing and learning and I was too busy and they could be done later.

Those things are still on the shelf because later is always that, later.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the minutiae of now that later doesn’t happen and all of a sudden you’re sitting on the edge of a decade wondering where the time went.

This new decade is banging hard for me to take some things off that shelf and turn later into now. I am aware of how easy it is to sit in your comfort zone and enjoy the days slipping past. That zone is a very pleasant place to be yet this decade is crying out for something different. There are places to visit, ideas to be brought to life in some form or another, opinions to vocalize and adventures to seek out.

There are 3652 days in this new decade.

There are 3652 opportunities to step out of my comfort zone and make stuff happen.

It’s time to get uncomfortable.

Sailorgirl now had an idea of how to make a seasonal living, craft shows!
In 2004 I dragged my laundry table out of my basement, covered it with a bright blue tablecloth and carefully placed my first pieces of jewelry on display. It was a beautiful sunny day, people loved my jewelry and I loved them and the whole experience. This was the very humble beginning of Sailorgirl Jewelry, (shameless self-promotion here) my company where I make and sell handmade glass jewelry.

My company is a little different in that it is a “lifestyle business”. 8 months a year I make glass beads and jewelry and sell at craft shows and online. The other 4 months I live on my sailboat in Florida/Bahamas. My online business is open year round. I’m a huge believer in creating the life you want and defining your own success.
In a previous life I worked at a software development start up that began as me and my boss in his living room, when I left it was at 80 employees. It was really fun at the beginning, and then it was not. Life is too short to spend time doing things that aren’t fun so I quit that job in 2001 to forge my own path.
With my background in the start up I thought that starting a jewelry business would be easy, after all, I knew about business. I was wrong. What I discovered is that selling work that you have made is far different than selling a product like software. Selling a product is just that, it’s a product. Selling handmade is about selling me, the artist, the creator, I am as much a part of the product as my jewelry is. Selling handmade is about selling a story. Fortunately I have a story, now I just had to communicate it to my people. Communicating what you do is marketing The beginning of Sailorgirl Jewelry was not without challenges. I was learning flamework. I was learning how to design and make jewelry. I was learning how to sail. I was learning how to live on a sailboat. I was learning how to sell my own work. I was learning how to run a microbusiness. There were a lot of sleepless nights and bad words said.
From the beginning I have opted to sell only at shows and online. I briefly flirted with wholesale however I couldn’t reconcile how that would work with my lifestyle. I refuse to do consignment for many reasons. The craft show season dovetails perfectly with my lifestyle. In a typical year I sell at 11 – 15 shows. Most of these are summer shows, outdoors in a tent. I take a bit of a break in the fall and then do a couple of large holiday shows. Then I pack it all up and hit the road.
As I was starting up the world around me was a changing landscape. When I began neither Facebook nor Etsy existed. People were only just beginning to sell online and blogs were few and far between. I coded my first website by learning HTML and using a notepad. People were leery of shopping online. For the first 5 or 6 years I simply hung a “Gone Sailing” sign on my website during the winter.
I have had a website from the beginning, as I already had a website called Sailorgirl where I published my writing about cruising. For the jewelry I added a small section with my craft show list and a few photos. Over the last decade being online has become a necessity for any business to survive. Every single person or business absolutely must have a website, even if it’s only a portfolio and contact information. I tried Etsy, it didn’t work for me, instead I have my own site on Shopify along with a WordPress blog and social media. I admit, I’m not the best at maintaining all of this but at least it’s there.
Technology has made my lifestyle a possibility in ways that I never could have predicted. I have an assistant in Canada who ships my work. I’m able to sit on my boat down south, read my email and forward orders to her. She ships them out, and the money is in my bank account! How awesome is that? I send a monthly newsletter to my list subscribers and do the social media from where ever I am.

While this sounds simple it is anything but. A business like mine requires a LOT of organization. I live by my planner and to do lists. When I finish my last huge craft show on December 1 (11 days, 12 hours a day) all my fellow exhibitors will be heading for their couch for a well deserved rest. I will be heading to the studio the next day to make enough inventory to cover 5 months of online sales. All of this has to be made, tagged and inventoried. There must be new items made and photo’d for next season so that the site remains fresh. Show applications for next season have to be sent in. My shipping process has to be documented so that I can hand it off to my assistant. She has to have enough shipping supplies for the winter, which must be bought. The list can sometimes seem endless.
Many of my non-crafty friends bemoan my lack of free time in the summer here in Canada. I can’t go to their cottage on the weekend because I’m at a show. I can’t go out for dinner during the week because I’m torching as I have a show coming up. I miss a lot of events due to my schedule (as does everyone on the show circuit). However I will be snorkeling for the entire month of March and during the summer I get to spend my days melting glass and making wearable art. How awesome is that?

As a kid I liked ice cream, every kid likes ice cream. But I didn’t love it, I merely liked it. Several years ago my like for ice cream became a raging LOVE. It was all because of some boat work done in 100 degree heat. Others would crave a cold beer at the end of the day, not me, all I wanted was ice cream or popsicles. Delicious popsicles, orange of course, they’re the best. An orange popsicle to me is the definition of summer.

This month I’m giving away one of my Summer Popsicle Mini bead bracelets, because even though the weather has been cool and wet, it’s summer and summer means popsicles! A winner will be drawn at random on September 1.

To enter the giveaway: leave a below and tell me your favourite popsicle colour. Or maybe it’s ice cream you crave.

For more chances to win, tweet this giveaway and email me the link to the tweet.
Post this on Facebook and email me the link to the post!
Blog it and email me the link to the post.

O Canada!
In these interesting times that we live in, I am so grateful that Canada is my home. On July 1, 2017 I shall raise my glass and celebrate the 150th birthday of this large, tolerant, gun-free, tree filled and glorious land I call my adopted home. A land of opportunites, freedom, landscapes and most of all, Canadians. Oh, and snow, too bad about that part.
While celebrating I shall wear a piece from my O Canada collection, a limited collection just for this special day. Happy jewelry for a very happy day.

The collection can be found right here.

Here’s a quick look:

Every day for one week I will post new jewelry using only beads I currently have on my bench. Some days I’ll make one piece, some days I’ll make 10 pieces. They will be random work, all one of a kind. Priced very attractively. Some of these are ideas that I decided not to pursue further, some will be from collections that are now retired. I wonder what I’ll come up with …

All of them are available in my online shop.

Every day for one week I will post new jewelry using only beads I currently have on my bench. Some days I’ll make one piece, some days I’ll make 10 pieces. They will be random work, all one of a kind. Priced very attractively. Some of these are ideas that I decided not to pursue further, some will be from collections that are now retired. I wonder what I’ll come up with …

All of them are available in my online shop.

As I ran into my studio the day after returning home I had one focus, make new work!!! I have a sketchbook full of ideas and 3 shows in the next 3 weeks! Make new work! Make more beads! Find where all my beads are! And I looked around and realized, heck, I have a LOT of beads on my table! Like, an insane amount of beads. Except that I want to make new ones. After 13 years of beadmaking I have a boatload of beads. And jewelry. Except that it isn’t new. So what do I do with it? I strive to constantly have new and exciting things for you to see in my booth every year and making new work keeps me fresh. I produce work in collections each based on a storyline from my life. A lot of the beads on my bench no longer fit my current collections and look out of place in my booth. Hm. What to do, what to do. 

Introducing the Wonder Week. 

Every day for one week I will post new jewelry using only beads I currently have on my bench. Some days I’ll make one piece, some days I’ll make 10 pieces. They will be random work, all one of a kind. Priced very attractively. Some of these are ideas that I decided not to pursue further, some will be from collections that are now retired. I wonder what I’ll come up with … 

The very first Wonder Week begins on Saturday May 27 and continues to Friday June 2. All pieces will be posted here on the blog, on Facebook and listed in the online shop.

Oh boy!!!

I have thousands of photos of this water in an effort to capture how blue it is. Can you see the cobalt line on the horizon? That’s the deep waters heading off to America. It drops off from 4 m deep, to 10 m, then bam, you are in 500 m of water and it is the deepest cobalt imaginable. The blue rainbow entering this harbour is something everyone should experience.

It is this bluest of blues that I think of when I make my Bahama Blue glass.

When I’m wandering around down here on my adventures I spend a lot of time pondering. There is a lot of time to stare into space and contemplate the state of the universe and why chocolate is so delicious and other important matters. This year I’ve been pondering about adventures themselves. What exactly is an adventure? I had planned on being in the bahamas right now, snorkeling and sailing and I’m not. Yet I feel like I’m on a grand adventure. Last week I made my first edible loaf of bread in my tiny little boat oven! The oxford dictionary defines adventure as “an unusual and exciting or daring experience”. Was my bread very unusual and exciting? To me it was. I think that is part of the puzzle I’m pondering, what constitutes an adventure? An adventure is a subjective experience. We each have our own versions of adventures. I’m adding a new goal to 2017, to have an adventure every day. To lead an adventurous life. And I have a idea I’m tinkering around with that I could use your help with. I am putting together a list of adventures, like take a bus to the end of the line to see what’s there, or stroll along a riverbank, or hike to the top of a hill.

Help me with my list. Name an adventure big or small (in 20 words or less). And this leads me into…

To celebrate the spirit of exploration I’m giving away a pair of my Explore the World earrings. To enter to win leave a comment below and name an adventure.

New year, new years resolutions. Not. It seems silly to start a resolution just because of a calendar. If you want to change something, do it. I do however have several rituals that coincide with the new year. I do an annual review both personal and professional. And I set goals for the coming year, both personal and professional. And I pick a word to guide me for the year.

This year my word is Implement. I have a whole bunch of plans that have been on the drawing board for way too long. Time to do them.

Implement.

Do you do a word of the year? What’s your word?

To celebrate the beginning of 2017 I’m going to give away a $50 gift certificate so that you can pick out your own prize. To enter to win leave a comment below and tell me your word if you have one, or say hi if you don’t!