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?

Um… yikes!!! In just 28 days I’ll be standing in my booth at the One of a Kind welcoming you to my world. And in just 12 days I’ll be in my booth at Circle Craft in Vancouver. 12 DAYS!!!! Right now that world is piled all over a couple of tables and the floor. There’s boxes of packaging arriving that I have no room for. There are boxes of boxes, shiny bright teal boxes that soon will contain lovely jewelry. And there are lists upon lists upon lists of stuff still to do.

So let’s have a quick recap on what happened over the past 2 weeks. Here’s what I was  supposed to do and what I actually did.

Booth display
For Vancouver. I found last years checklist, good thing I am excellent at keeping notes. I’m going with the same display so it’s fairly easy. I am constrained by the fact that I have to build the booth out there and bring everything else, like curtains, packaging and product on the plane with me. Shipping is prohibitively expensive and I am so fortunate that my product is small. I have a list of pieces that I get cut at Home Depot. I am bringing my trusty cordless screwdriver. Add in a can of lime pop paint, some blue curtains and Bam! Booth. It’s a good thing I’m handy with power tools. I do want new photos, these will also be used in Toronto. On the list for this week is to decide on which photos for the booth.

Display for Toronto. I’m going with hard walls like I had last year. I really liked the look of these. The debate is whether to rent them again (yikes it’s expensive!) or build them. Building them is a bit of a pain because I have to rent a van to move them as they won’t fit in my car. And after the show I have to store them somewhere. And next year I think I want a different size booth. So I’m going with renting them. Again, I have last years notes so nothing too hard with the actual structure.

I have worked out a display for my long necklaces, that’s the good part. Here’s the bad part. My usual source for acrylic displays tells me they no longer do what I want done. Crap. So I’m trying to source out having these displays made. Within the next week before I leave for Vancouver.

New booth sign. Not done. Designed yes, sourced out and ordered, no.

New silver charm. Working on it. My original idea turned out to be less than functional. Great in my mind, not so much in the prototype. I still have high hopes this will be ready by the show. It’s going to be awesome just you wait.

New booth photos. Well this gets interesting. The photos I use are a mix of jewelry and inspirational, where the jewelry comes from. Those are easy in that I know the photos I want to use. Except that I have a ridiculous amount of photos and they aren’t really well organized. I’m searching for a specific boat at sunset photos. I have over 5,000 photos. Talk about a needle in a haystack. Argh.
The jewelry photos have become a bit more of a problem. The photos are of the work on display. This means that I actually wrote down what I’m exhibiting and guess what, I have too much work. The variety of work is bigger than my booth space. Now I know that I don’t have to put all my work out but it’s really hard not to because I love it all. So I’m trying to curate a really good selection that shows the best of the best. Vancouver is even harder because my booth is smaller. Cramming in too much just leads to overwhelm. Once I have laid out exactly what I’m showing then I can take some photos. So on my list for this week is that task, layout all the work, take some photos and have them printed in large format.

Social media. OK, I’ve been not bad with this. I’m managing to do a daily photo which I really like doing. Ideally I would have a bank of photos so that I can schedule them instead of doing this daily. Put that on the to do list.

Production. Torch torch and more torching. Then bead cleaning and assembling. Lots done. What I’m working on now is mass producing best selling items. Like my XL Ocean pendant. I know it sells well, the question is how many do I need to make? This year I’m introducing this size on a new heavy silver chain and also making it in 5 new colours, (why make my life simple?).

One small glitch is with my competition piece for the One of a Kind show. The theme is silver and gold and I know exactly what I want to make. Except that it is technically near impossible. Still working on that. The real glitch is that I am out of gold leaf. Leaf comes in small sheets in tiny books. I have a book of gold leaf that has been sitting here for years. Unfortunately I didn’t check to see how much was in it, only 1 sheet out of 25 left. So… I can’t find a supplier in Toronto that has any. I have ordered some but it is in the mail. This may not arrive in time for me to make this before Vancouver. Good thing I have a week in between the shows.

It’s been a busy 2 weeks. Next week will be the stupid busy week. Here’s what I need to get done:

Vancouver show packed by Nov 6. All jewelry cleaned tagged and bagged and in my carry on. Yes, I bring my entire inventory in my carry on luggage on the plane. All the display items packed in my suitcase.
Long display busts designed in a CAD program and sent to somewhere unknown to be produced.
Booth sign ordered.
New photos shot and printed.
Production. Make more more more more and then some more.

26 days Toronto people. 12 days Vancouver people.

IT’S UP! IT’S UP! IT’S UP!

Of course you already know that because you’re here reading this.

Well, what do you think of my new virtual home? Send comments please!

I’ve been meaning to get around to this for ages and ages and ages. It takes a long time to revamp 12 years of stories and photos and other stuff. I still have oodles of photos to add, stories to write and details to be fine tune. All in good time.

When I first began Sailorgirl the site was sailing only as at the time I had never made a glass bead or even a single piece of jewelry. In 2001 I quit my job to sail away to Cuba for 4 months and had ideas that maybe I could make a living somehow from this website. It was one of those “jumping into the unknown” moments in my life, I had no idea where it would lead but I trusted that it would be somewhere fun. For someone who had never thought of herself as a creative person, this is not where I imagined I would end up. And now I can’t imagine doing anything else!

I LOVE what I do!!!

Who knew you could make a life and a living from sailing and making glass beads? Ha!

Until now I’ve kept the sailing side and the jewelry side of this website quite separate. If those 2 sides can mix into my crazy life then they can mix on my website too. If you’re looking for a recipe for key lime pie, or a pair of earrings in a delicious lime colour, you can get both here. And learn how to trim a spinnaker at the same time. How’s that for fun?

Step 1. Grow a pine tree.
Here is an interesting factoid I learnt, the colder the climate the shorter the pine needles on a tree.

Step 2. Collect a large bag of pine needles. If you harvest them from the tree they will need to dry out for 6 – 8 weeks. Or just pick up the fallen needles, much easier.

Step 3. Weave your basket.
Too many steps to list here. And it’s not fast. This is my first basket, it’s not quite finished, I ran out of needles.

FUN!!!

This is a story about what happens when you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Or sometimes you’re so busy running your hamster wheel that you don’t have a spare moment to see either forest or trees. That is what it had started to feel like here at Sailorgirl. Just way too much to do.

And so I decided that it was time for an actual break. Hence there was no blogging, no facebooking, no manic making of lists. Just some nice time to sleep and read and contemplating the universe.

It was a very spontaneous decision. One day I just woke up and thought, no, not today thank you.

It was very pleasant. And after a while I started to miss this. It’s a good thing to think about what you want to do and why. Every business book, course and advice column tells you that you have to have a blog to succeed. However I don’t want to do this just because I think I should. That is just silly. I’m here because I like doing this. I just had to remind myself of that.

And I did. And I’m here.

yes, it’s been mighty quiet here in the past couple of weeks. there was the mad rush of trying to see everything in Paris that we had missed until I realized that just wasn’t possible. It is SUCH a dense city, there is just too much. So I ended up sitting with a glass of wine and watching the world go by. There will be return trips.

upon my return I promptly came down with a horrible case of what I think was the bubonic plague. Ick. that was why things have been quiet, I was too sick to even post a photo, or look over the 1500 photos I have from Paris. Or worse, make beads or jewelry!!! ARGH!!!! I really really really wanted that time to make some fabulous new beads based on my trip but alas, it didn’t happen.

about the only thing i’ve been able to do in the past week and half was to build my small booth. The small booth is my Vancouver booth. This is the first time I’m exhibiting at the Circle Craft Market in Vancouver! Yippeeee!!!! Since it’s a new show, since it’s a new market, since it is way across the country, I’ve signed up for a smaller booth to test out everything. So I built a mock up of my booth and then tried to stuff all my work in it. Oops. This is proving to be … interesting. Having a fully set up booth in the middle of the studio is a bit crowded but it is nice to see everything out. Now I just have to stuff it all into a suitcase and take it on the plane. Fortunately the jewelry packs up nice and small. And heavy. I have it in a small wheely suitcase as carry on luggage. The only problem is that it weighs 80 pounds. Keep your fingers crossed that they don’t weigh the carry on luggage on Monday.

Wish me luck!

I took the day off!!! Completely!!! No work at all!!! This was momentous as I’m currently in a panic to get all my Christmas work done before I go on vacation to Paris. Yes you heard it correctly, it’s the beginning of September and I’m almost ready for Christmas!!! But yesterday, on Labour Day I decided than I seriously needed a break. So to celebrate Labour day I was labour free. 

There was morning coffee beside the roses. And then I just sat there reading, listening to the birds chirping, not seeing any birds thanks to my feral cat population but at least I could hear them. And I smelt the roses. Especially the Apricot Nectar, this rose is a stunner, SO fragrant. 

Life can’t be all work, you do have to stop and smell the roses. Literally. They are spectacular. 

In 2009 Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, became the 7th private citizen to become a space tourist. Isn’t that a great term, space tourist? His photos have been published as a book and are also touring to art galleries around the world. If you have a chance to see them, go! The earth looks like a giant quilt full of repeating patterns and textures. You can expect to see some Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan beads this season. 

 The exhibit is called “Gaia”. In Toronto you can find it at the Thomas Landry gallery in the Distillery district until Sept 2. Well worth it.