Summer Break From YouTube

Yes. Just like the title says, I kind of took a little Summer vacation from making tutorials and decided to focus on my Etsy shop. Anyone who thinks that running your own business online is as simple as listing items and waiting on sales is sadly mistaken. Back in the day when Etsy was new it was actually much easier to gain sales in a much shorter time, but since Etsy has grown and many things have changed. An individual seller's items can get lost in the pages upon pages of search results. It's tough to find just the right keywords to get to the first 3 pages of search. I literally spend hours on Etsy forums watching topics about SEOs and other topics that can help me improve my shop, as well as hours redoing titles and tags/keywords in my shop.

I will be starting Phlebotomy class on August 25th, so I have been working to get my Etsy shop into shape for upcoming holiday sales in hopes that it will bring in at least a small amount of income while I am in school. It's very slow going on Etsy right now, but I feel driven to make it work. We are not rewarded with artistic talents only to let them stagnate in our creative minds for our entire lives. I love sewing and crafting and have learned so much over the years. The more I work on my sewing skills, the better it gets. When I learn something new, I become obsessed with new projects based on that new technique.

Making tutorials has it's rewards, but the real prize comes when someone buys something I've made. There is nothing like seeing your hobby become your passion. I am still trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life now that I am single, but the one thing I know I will always want to do is sew and craft. If it were to become the thing I do for a living that would be awesome.

An ever changing mind is not a curse; it is a gift. I can ease comfortably from one idea to the other. In the past, I felt guilty for changing my mind so often, but I have learned to accept that my creative nature is just part of who I am. It is one thing about me that Julian always seemed to love and he encouraged me to just roll with it. If I wanted to make soap one week and purses the next week, he would say "do what makes you happy, mi amor". It always made me happy to try new things.

Who says you have to be dedicated to doing one thing for the rest of your life? Certainly not me! Do what you love - even if what you love changes from time to time.