Intro to …something
Welcome to my blog. Where I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. No, really. I’m going to be honest, I’ve tried doing this a few times in the past, and it’s never really stuck. So I don’t know what I’m doing with this yet. Since this is primarily my business website, I will definitely be posting product updates and information, as well business growth here. But that’s not all I want this to be. I would also like to post about my personal and professional growth journey. Random advice and things that I learn on my journey and have found helpful.
Those who know me personally, will probably know that I have always wanted to be an author. For as long as I can remember, I was always making up stories, and writing everything down in my journals. I wouldn’t go anywhere without a pen and notebook to write with. I started writing poems in 2012, and have written over 100 poems throughout my life. Before then, I never pictured myself as a poet, I always thought I was going to write a fantasy novel. I still hope to someday publish a book and or fantasy series.
Several years ago, I went through some difficult personal trials that ultimately led to my facing the worst writers block I’ve ever faced. It’s been over three years, and I’ve struggled to not only write poems, but also keep up with basic journaling, art, and other hobbies that I love. During that time, I turned to one of the other hobbies I’ve loved since childhood; crochet. Starting my crafting business has been a long journey, and there have definitely been rough patches, but I’m finally coming to a point where I’ve realized that I need this website in order to continue. After a few years, I created a product that I truly love, the fidgicorn, which has a great purpose and function in my opinion. I decided to turn it into an entire series of fidget toys, including the fidgisaur, and hopefully more animals, including, but not limited to cats, dogs and cows (I love cows).
Business has started to pick up, and I am beyond grateful for that, but I still hope to find my way back to my true lifelong passion. So in building this website, and discovering the “blog” function, I decided, maybe I can do both things at once. Work on finding my way back to writing again, however that may look, and kick off the true beginning of my crafting business.
I have a lot of plans for this site. If you’ve come over from my Facebook group, you have probably seen some of those plans and goals posted in the past, but for anyone who’s new here, I would love to discuss them again. My ultimate goal for The Sister’s Store is a network of women with small businesses posting our wares in one place. Working together to network and advertise together and helping each other grow wherever we can. This is not limited to crafting, in fact, you may also know that I’ve always been relatively anti-niche. So instead, my very broad spectrum of search for this network is homemaking. This would include homemade crafts, such as sewing crochet, knitting, and various other arts. As well as homemade foods, personal growth, etc. It is a very broad niche on purpose. This leaves myself room for growth, and also leaves my friends room to join in my business venture as well. I have several friends in different areas of the USA, who I hope will eventually join my network. For now however, I will be starting with just myself.
The last thing I wanted to do in this first post is give a shoutout to Nicole Chase. Her Poppy the Unicorn pattern was the beginning of the Fidgi-series. I wanted to crochet a unicorn as a gift for a friend, but I have never wanted to make stuffed, functionless items. In the past, I have turned patterns into bags or keychains. I knew from looking at this pattern, that a bag wasn’t an option this time. I have a few stress ball animal toys that I got years ago when I first started call center work, and those were the other half of my inspiration. I immediately started editing the original pattern in order to fit a stress ball inside. That first toy started with three fidgets: the stress ball, twirly hair, and squishy hooves. From there, I have added several fidgets, and will continue to grow the options as much as I can. Nicole’s original patterns as written won’t work for the fidgets, as I have had to edit them to fit my needs, but I still wanted to share her page as a thank you for her sharing free patterns for use. This also stands as a bit of marketing, as I am confident that I can edit any of her standard-sized animal patterns to fit my fidgets. If you’re interested in me making any of those for you, please reach out to me through the custom fidget purchase option, and I would be thrilled to work with any of those patterns, and I am open to attempting other patterns as well.
I have also found patterns from Jess Huff, and while I haven’t attempted to make any of hers yet, by sight, I also believe that I should be able to edit hers to match my needs as well. So between the two, I have a ton of options easily available for fidgets or toys, and would love to make any of them.