Well, here we are in a new year.  Hello, 2017. As I’m standing here on January 2, looking out over the days ahead, I find myself a little hesitant.  I’m usually ready to plow ahead, but this year is already filled with big things and a lot of unknowns.  This hesitation, thankfully, is balanced with excitement and hopefulness.  The stage is set for 2017 to be the biggest year for Mustard Seed Interiors, yet. Here is what is slated for 2017 so far… JANUARY This month is usually a slow one for me, so I spend time on house-keeping projects as well as planning.  While I’ll be doing some of that, January is already pretty booked up with design work and two product launches for the MMSMP line.  I am also traveling to Memphis, TN on January 27-28 to teach Milk Paint workshops at Me & Mrs. Jones and attend the

Remember the stool slipcover I made a few weeks ago out of antique blue & white ticking? Well, this little slipcover that I made in an afternoon has now become a big deal in the history of my business.  It is the first home decor product I designed and made that is being reproduced to sell. I just felt a little jump in my heart. I’ve been wanting this for a long time, because I learned a few years ago that I can’t make/find/create/paint enough stuff to sell.  One-of-a-kind finds and furniture have a limit.  I know I could sell dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of a certain thing, but I only have one.  And that’s always been a bit of what adds to the excitement of when I list online or sell at a market, but it’s also a bummer for people who want to buy something and it’s snapped up

I wrote a post answering a reader’s question about how I balance business and the rest of my life.  The short answer is I struggle through it.  Sometimes successfully and sometimes not.  You can read the long answer HERE. I received an e-mail from a fellow creative-business owner and blogger, Cassie from Lovely Weeds, about balancing different aspects of our kind of business.  Here is her e-mail… I can’t tell you how helpful your business posts are. A creative business is such murky territory! I know you just posted about balancing work and family, but it got me wondering about how you balance the online side of your work with the physical part. That’s my biggest struggle right now. I have a tiny blog that I love writing, and a retail business where I sell my own handmade and repurposed furniture and goods from a consignment shop and at two local fairs

The last two installments of this series sort of overlapped.  In part 5, I shared about starting this blog.  In part 4, we left off where the consignment store I sold out of was closing its doors. That’s where we’ll pick up the story. This was the time in my business when it was really scary.  I had become comfortable with what my business had become in two years and I just imagined more of the same…selling out of a local shop, nurturing my growing blog, listing items in an Etsy shop here and there.  It was simple and safe. Then things got uncomfortable. The doors of the shop were closing.  Along with that, the door to my biggest source of income was closing, too.  I remember that sense of panic bubbling up.  We weren’t living off my income by any stretch.  It was still very humble, but it helped with