Creative Burnout

Well, Etsy burnout is probably a more appropriate title. 

I opened my shop last August with some hats I'd knitted.  They just sat there.  I began incorporating pieces of jewelry, and they just sat there.  I started adding some vintage goodies that I'd thrifted and I finally sold something in September.  I began adding some of the odds and ends I'd been thrifting and making over for this here blog, and I began selling a couple of things each week.  

Then it was October, and Christmas was coming.  So, I started spending more time working on new items for the shop, so that I could be prepared for the Christmas rush.  The more I made, the more I sold.  So I focused more time and energy on my shop.  I was prepared for a slowdown in January, but it didn't happen.  I was selling even more items weekly.  Then in mid-january, I was featured in an Etsy newsletter and my shop blew up.  I wasn't prepared and my inventory was pretty much depleted.  I didn't want that to happen again so I gave my shop more time and more energy.  

I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened next.  Yep... burnout.  It's so much fun to transform tired, abandoned objects into something people want to buy, but after awhile, it really started to seem like a job and it became something I no longer enjoyed doing.  I thought maybe it was because once I felt like it was something I HAD to do, it became something I wanted to avoid.  Nobody likes to do something they feel like they have to do, right?  I just couldn't accept that, the feeling that I was bucking my success because it had become a chore.  I thought about it and thought about it and I finally figured out what it was.

I'd become so focused on helping others make their nests pretty, that I'd stopped making MY nest pretty.  Not only had I begun selling pretties that I wanted for myself, I'd begun neglecting my home.  I abandoned the master bedroom makeover that I started in November.  I didn't do a whole lot of cleaning.  I didn't cook anymore.  Dinner became something from either a box in the freezer or a box from the pantry.  This was not why I chose to leave my job and stay at home.  No way.

So, I've decided to back off on Etsy, just a little bit.  Don't get me wrong, I'm VERY thankful that my shop has been successful.  I'm not planning to give up on it either.  I'm still shooting to add a few items each week, but I'm not going to kill myself with trying to maintain a certain number of active listings.  

For now, I'm working on tidying and prettying my house.  I've moved my supplies off of the dining room table and we have been eating dinner, prepared by me, not Betty Crocker, at the table every night for the past two weeks.  It has been awesome!  The house has been neater and because of that, I feel less stressed and I'm pretty sure Charles and Han do too.

This week, I'm finishing my master bedroom makeover.  I'd planned to finish and post it today, but I've come up with a few more finishing touches I'd like to add.  I'm going to shoot for a Thursday post.  In the meantime, I'll probably post a couple of small makeovers that I've done for the shop.

Since I'm taking a mini Etsy break, I'm also going to shelve Treasury Tuesday for awhile.  I love making treasuries, but they take a long time to make.  That's time I could be using for something a little more productive.

If you're still reading, thanks for taking the time to be my diary.

I'll leave you with a few snip-its from my new bedroom.