Timetobeme's Blog

After having a heart attack and quadruple bypass last September, I am trying to figure out what I want to do going forward.

I have a YouTube channel that I need to create videos for . I sell on Ebay and District, and we are packing to move in a few months which means going through years of stuff and purging as I pack. We will be having a couple of yard sales before we move and I just feel overwelmed right now.

I also just got started with a keto diet a month ago and I am doing good a, and it is clear to me, this is for life. I cannot tolerate any kind of sugar, even the natural sugar in unsweetened yogurt. I changed over to Chobani zero sugar, where with thier cultures and bacteria they get rid of all the milk sugars, my fasting blood sugar has been below 100 every single day since the morning after I changed over to that yogurt, removing the only sugar I was getting.

I am packing up my studio, lots of beads, cloth, craft supplies and just a lifetime of amazing stuff. I had hoped to purge a lot, but it will only be about 10 to 20 percent , not the 50 I had hoped to do. Too much invested in it,m financially and emotionally to just get rid of stuff I really love and do hope to use one day. I may have to go through it all again in six months to a year when I get to set up my studio in the new house. We have some improvements we want to make on the house and that means we have to use the room that will be my studio as our bedroom as we combine two other rooms into a new bigger bedroom . I am happy about that because it gives me time to live without most of my stuff as only my seed beads sequins, and felt will be taken to the house, the rest will be stored in a secure place until I have space for them again. I can hang up the shelf they are all on in my studio and put them in the bedroom as we have extra space in that room.

This is an old picture, all the beads and sequins are now in plastic shoe boxes by color, but this is the shelves I can have my husband put up in the bedroom where they will be once I move my things into that room as a studio. I will use seed beads for Native American jewelry and with the sequins and the felt on those shelves to make ornaments.

All the other craft stuff can be moved later. I need a break from all the beads and other things, this is what I have almost completely packed, at least all the small bead boxes but there is a lot of stuff in plastic shoe boxes and other plastic bins that have to be packed yet. We have a storage unit we can keep them in until I have a place for it all.

All the stuff on top is packed, and much was purged, the bottom three shelves were actually much different, more beads, no fabric or boxes of pipe cleaners, but all the three shelves of plastic bead boxes are packed. But that corner shelf is yet to be packed and so much more.

So, between trying to list some items on Ebay, work on projects for my channel, and just life, and every day housework, I feel like my wheels are spinning and I am not getting anywhere.

I am excited about not having a studio for a while so I can concentrate what I want to do going forward. I think making jewelry to resell is over. With all the cheap international companies that sell stuff so low priced, I cannot complete and unlike years ago when I sold a good amount of the jewelry I made, not much sells anymore. I have a dear friend who has sold online, in booths and at craft shows for over twenty years and did well at it, she is feeling the same way. She hardly sells any of her beautiful handmade jewelry anymore. The market has collasped for many of the jewelry makers of non fine jewelry.

So, something I have done since 2009, make and sell handmade jewelry on Etsy, is pretty much over. Nothing sells. I am very proud of the pieces I make, I put a lot of thought, work and good quality materials in them, but why would you buy a pair of earrings for 12 to 15 bucks when you can get them for pennies on the dollar on the cheap web sites. Many times they are exact styles of the big names without the name brand tag. When I was buying bulk jewelry, I cannot stress how many absolutely gorgeous, nice quality pieces I got that were unsigned and worthless even though they were stylish, appeared good quality and well made. Used jewelry is getting harder and harder to sell. People can get new for a few bucks now.

So, my jewelry days , handmade and costume resell are about up. I still sell some costume stuff on Ebay as even at five or six bucks each , if I sell 100 of them, that is five to six hundred bucks over the year. My handmade stuff is just sitting there and I have removed it all from Etsy and I am trying a newer platform, and no recent sales at all. Once we move, I will take it all down off line and take a break and just keep the items I want for myself and one of our grandkids will sell the rest when tfher mom has a booth at a craft fair this year and we will split the proceeds.

Time to move on and I have to figure out exactly what I want to do. I am very conflicted and for now just in limbo.

I think once we move, and most of my crafting and bead stuff is packed away, it will give me space to do other things while I figure it out.

I would love to get back to writing, something I have always loved to do, poetry, short stories and a couple of novels I started and never got much past the third chapter, lol.

I used to draw as well and would love to start exploring that again. So, we will see.

I feel like I got a huge second chance and do not want to waste it. I want to do the things we have talked of doing. Getting an RV and seeing this country. I would love to be a published author, even if no one ever read it, lol. With Amazon you just have to write and edit it, and you can self publish for free. It is time I do that. I used to be a pretty good artist, I would like to rebuild my skills that are very rusty from disuse.

So, this will be a wonderful journey of discovery. Having my studio unavailable except for those few things I bring will be a good break for me and give me time to think and work on other things.

I would like to read more again. I used to be a voracious reader, and now I hardly read at all except on trips when we are at a hotel or at our sons house out of state visiting when they are all playing video games, I sit with them, but read as I am not a video game person, especially the games they all play, lol !! But at home I hardly ever read, and I want to get back to that as well.

So, this will be a fun, a bit stressful , but interesting year as we trade houses with our oldest daughter and her family who rent from us. This house is much better for them, and that one is much better for us. We offered to switch before but they were not ready at that time. We are all so excited and just have to get a lot done on this house before we switch this summer.

I am excited about a new house, new start and figuring out what I am going to do. I will be sure to share the journey here on this blog.