Mama Mia, Mama Money!

Herft Creations....the creation station 

So....aside from my full-time job as mother & wife...I dabble in advertising....I say dabble, because in truth that is all I have time for at the moment.

Rewind a couple of years...the decision to stop working & stay home with C1....the bed was made.....then, C2 arrived & the decision was as good as set in stone. Everytime I get frustrated with the decision I am reminded of how good a decision it was by C1 who hates the very idea of me going back to work. But still one must face the truth...it does not come easy to stay at home with kids & elderly & no grey cell stimulation whatsoever. But one does it....if truth be told....its not just because kids seem to thrive having one parent at home...but for the selfish reason of not missing an instant of your child growing up, under some-one else's watchful eyes. As good as your child care is...you want to be there for the first words, the first steps & the first mis-haps. You don't want to hear second-hand about the life you brought into the world & you want to be the one to teach them right from wrong.

And yet, in the quiet moments, the frustrating moments every mother wishes for that blissful escape to office where you interact with other adults....whether you like them or not is a whole different post...but the fact that you can converse on subjects other than where the lost toy car is or debate about how many cartoons are being watched. Where disagreements are resolved not on whose turn it is now, but on facts & occasionally rationality.

And so what do you do? You try to hang onto some semblance of a world you know & a world that can save you & keep you focused on your real priorities - that's when the decision to start a small home business is made. So you look around for what you can do....in my case...not a lot....never having really excelled in any one thing, but having dabbled in several things. So, I decided to use my contacts & the little I know about graphics programs to start a home-advertising business. All went well for a while....business was good.....not excellent....but good is excellent when you can't devote an 8 hour work day to it.

And then suddenly business plateaus & you can't seem to make it grow because you just don't have the time in-between child-care, homework & household chores to spend the time required to market yourself. And you try to tell yourself...that's OK - I knew this would happen. But then you want to buy loved ones a gift....even something small or eat out one day or even just buy a book & you don't have the spare change to do so.

So what do you do to keep yourself sane &hopefully find ways of making money.....you start a blog...that's what you do & you hope you get enough followers to start pulling in a few pennies & through the blog & its followers to hopefully rake in a few brave souls who will advertise with you, And you commission your sibling's free services & enormous talent to get a website up. Yup...that's what you do....you start BLOGGING!!! :)