www.spiralingforward.com

Today is my first day as a full-time writer, maker, and mother.

I haven’t been on this blog since March. Life has been busy. We decided to “explore the idea” of selling our house, something we’ve been doing every six months since we bought it in July of 2010. As recently as March we were told it would be 3-4 years before the market would come back enough for us to sell without going in the hole.

And then, for reasons no one understands, our neighborhood got hot. Really hot. Our realtor called us and asked if we could have it on the market within three weeks.

We did it in two.

It sold a week later.

The next week, we drove to Minneapolis, looked at 30 houses in two days, found and bought our dream house.

I grew up in Minnesota and have wanted to move back here to be closer to my family for approximately 10 of the 12 years I lived in Tennessee. But it was still hard move when we moved from Franklin, Tennessee to Minneapolis, Minnesota, the last week in August. I transferred from one Whole Foods to another, going from the Franklin, Tennessee store to the brand spanking new store in Downtown Minneapolis.

Two weeks ago we realized that the retail lifestyle was no longer working for our family and I put my two weeks notice in. We gave notice at Austin’s daycare. And now we’re here at home, ready to pursue the careers that make me happy. Writing. Making beautiful jewelry. And being a mother and wife.

When we moved, one of the first things I had to pack up was my office. So, Spiraling Forward has been “on vacation” since the beginning of June. I have set several re-launch dates, the most recent being November 15. Last Friday came and went and I wasn’t ready to re-launch. Then, last night, I heard that John Mayer is accepting applications for artisans to sell at his shows. I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

So, this morning, my first day home full-time with Austin, I got the camera out and settled in for a long day of photography, editing, and writing. My Etsy store needed to be up and going before I could to the application for the show.

By the way, the show is this Saturday, and, due to lack of space, exactly zero of my display items came with me.

No worries. I can get it all together this week if I’m accepted. It’s Monday, I’ll know if I’m accepted Thursday or Friday. Show is Saturday. Totally doable, right?

Wrong. My camera battery is dead. We have searched high and low and we can’t find it anywhere here, which makes us think we either left it at my parents’ house when we went up for their wedding, or it got lost somewhere between here and Tennessee.

So, no pictures today.

No application to sell at the John Mayer show.

No mad dash to get my Etsy site back up.

No freaking out Friday and Saturday to get a display together.

I’m disappointed that I won’t even have a shot to sell at the show. But I also am thankful. Now. I was super frustrated and almost crying this morning. But when Spiraling Forward re-launches, I want it to be beautiful. Ready. Refined. I don’t want it thrown together with half of the tags, titles and descriptions that I’ve known need to be re-written for almost a year now. I want to take what I learned at The Makers Summit last year and put it to use.

So. Hopefully soon. Maybe next Monday I’ll be writing the Maker Monday post I thought I’d be writing today. Maybe it will be a few Mondays from now. I don’t know. I do know that it’s going to take me some time to do it right.

And I’m just getting settled in to my new life.

I hope you’ll come back and check out this journey with me.