An Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of ASd's first ever show, Handmade Arlington 2016. In December of 2015, my company announced that they were merging with another company, and subsequently splitting into three. That's right-from two to one to three. So much uncertainty, right?

Around the same time, my friend Julie Jernigan (aka "Jules' Jewels") started pushing me, hard, to apply for my first show, because she thought I was ready and that Handmade Arlington would be the perfect place to start. I was not so sure....in particular, I was worried about making my "fun" be "work". I had been thinking about starting a jewelry business when I retired, and Plan A was sudden less-than-certain. So I thought about it, and thought about it, and thought about it some more. And literally, on the last possible day, on my way to the airport to go to Hacienda Mosaico, and with much trepidation, I dropped my application in the mailbox.

At the end of January, I found out that I had been accepted. My first thought was, "F*ck. I have 8 weeks to get my act together, and I have no booth and no inventory and I've never sold a thing." LOL. I got my business license and opened a business banking account. I went to Homegoods and bought a bunch of stuff that I thought might work for display. I bought this domain name. And then I went to work.

For the next 8 weeks, I worked full time at Plan A, and then came home and worked full time for myself. Occasionally, I slept. I set up the booth in the living room, and slowly filled it.

And it all worked out. (Read about that first show here.) So what did I learn? I learned that I can do my "fun" for "work", but that I can't work two full-time jobs indefinitely. I learned that my peeps are awesome. (Well, I already knew that, but it was reinforced by this experience.) I learned that if you build it, they will come. Or, since I am not Kevin Costner, I learned that if you make interesting work, a good show will bring them to you. I *might* have even learned that there are other colors besides green (although I'm still not sure why).

Later this month, I'll be proudly doing Handmade Arlington for the fourth time. For more details, please check out our Events page. Hope to see you there!