Stuck.

This journey began a year ago for me. But if I really look at the larger picture it's been in the works a lot longer than that. It's just that too many times I got stuck. Once you're stuck, it's hard to convince yourself you can get moving again. It's easier to stay where you are especially when you don't know how to get where you're going. Two years ago when I left a 14 year career in technical project management, I knew the goal of creating my own small successful business would be challenging, and it is. I can also be tremendously rewarding.

I love creating the monograms on oilcloth totes and zip pouches to be given as gifts or for someone treating themselves. Playing with different fonts until I have the letters dancing in a perfectly entwined embrace just the way I want them. I enjoy personalizing the adorable seersucker duffel bags by Oh Mint for kids gifts! The seersucker comes in so many colors and it's like wanting to a devour a rainbow snow cone when you look at them all folded cozy in their bins waiting for someone to choose just that one. They are wonderful as a personalized baby gift especially paired with matching seersucker bloomers or boxers and a onesie. They also make great gifts for older children as a sleepover bag especially paired with the Oh Mint Laundry bag which can hold their pillow and blankets.

I love that my children, 9 and 6 think mom's "business" looks fun. Work can be fun. That's new for me. I love that instead of a "job" like I used to have sitting behind a laptop where no one understood what all my click clacking at keyboard for hours on end ever meant, everyone gets to see what we've "made". We're proud and then nervous that we've created a personalized gift you'll love. My children love to help wrap the totes and duffles, lunch bags and backpacks and put the amonogramshop sticker on the gifts before I pack them. It's a family affair really with my husband behind the machine cutting my monogrammed creations at night after he has had long hours and days himself making his own business go.

Both of us where on the path of traditional careers. Neither of us enjoyed it. Both of us had to get stuck in order to realize it was not the place for us. Each of us was stuck so well that it was either do the hard work of climbing out or wither in place. So the climb has begun for me. I will continue to get stuck in small holes, but I'm always reminded that I've already done the hardest part and that the key is just to keep moving forward. Learn one new thing, take one small step toward my goal. At the moment I'm learning how to let the great world wide web find li'l ole me. It's daunting. I feel stuck again. When I feel that way, I try to learn. So I'm learning about SEO and that in turn lead me to blogging, which I think I might enjoy so here we go...