The Signs

As I mentioned in my first post, I have been inspired or at least guided down a path. In my never ending quest to find a self-sustaining business concept, I've toyed with selling hand made goods. I'm pretty handy in the arts and crafts field, or domestic as some might say, but was I good enough to build a business from doing this? And making what exactly? Soaps and bathbombs? Diaper bags and slings? I just wasn't quite sure. All I knew was that I get super excited about craft projects! Almost any project. It is very few times in life where you can start from scratch. Each new project lends its self to so much possibility and promise. Picking out the materials and creating the patterns are a spiritual process in and of themselves even before you begin your projects journey to completion (Just ask Hazel about her trip to the fabric store last week ;0)). So, naturally I wanted to make my love/hobby into a career. I began to research the idea in depth learning about the cottage craft industry and trying to determine the longevity of a homebased business. It was doable, but not for me at that time. I put the idea on hold for a while.

It was a few months ago that several signs began to appear in my life. What is that called? Synchronicity, I think. A kind of Celestine Prophesy thing where things just seem to lead you down a certain path...

The girls approached me about doing some crafts to sell as a fundraiser. As expected, I was super excited! This initial idea was where the name developed. It was taken from a crazy holiday decoration shopping spree that Acorn and Spanish Peanut experienced. They apparently lost control at Hobby Lobby and bought all the cheesy and corney holiday decoration kits. You know, the ones where you glue weird things on to ornaments and make glittery reindeers from cardboard. Anyway, they gave away their wonderful creations signing the gift cards- The Squirrely Girls. I guess it stuck. So, we had a name. Sign? Yes. Definitely.

I threw a logo together. As we all know good marketing is the key to any successful business. They all loved it. Sign? Sure.

More signs began to appear. Nutter held the Inaugural MLK Craft Day at her house. It was great. We snacked, chatted, and crafted. Nutter and I walked down the street to a little craft shop for a breath of fresh air. As we browsed for patterns and scouted out the store in undercover defective style, what should be at the check out counter? A cd entitled Squirrely Girl. Yeah, that's right. At the counter of a craft shop! We about fell over and raced back to inform the other squirrels of our discovery! Sign? Oh, yeah!

That evening I searched etsy.com, no Squirrely Girls. Another sign? You bet!

We have a tailless squirrel in our parking lot at work. A Sign? No, but funny.

Spanish Peanut had another group of girls when she was younger who all had nut names too. A Sign? No, but interesting.

I had been reading Friday Night Knitting Club when all this was occurring. Towards the end of the book Georgia tells her friend Cat that loving what you do makes it more difficult to quit. A Sign? As big as a billboard.

Finally, a friend of mine had an advisor who once told her, “Finding your career of choice is simple. Take what you love… make it a hobby. Take something you can make money at… and make it a career.” She recently posted this quote in her blog. To me this is the final sign, and a challenge well worth meeting!

We will wait to see what else fate dishes out.