Slaving Away in the Sweat Shoppe

I have spent the past four days (the last week, actually) slaving away.  I was working on my consignment order, which actually turned into a real order.  Originally, I thought I was making 10 wristlets to ship up to Minnesota, they would be placed in an university bookstore and I would be paid as they were sold.  Last week that all changed when I found out I would be paid up front for 24 wristlets with the possibility of ordering more depending on how they sold.  It was kind of exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. I knew it was important to have them made, shipped and in the store before the semester text book rush begins.  Thankfully, Ryan had a long weekend at just the right time and is very supportive of me.  He entertained the kids, kept up with the house, meals and even took on some extra projects around the house.  He was a trooper and my hero.  Yesterday morning I finished the last of my custom order.  They are boxed up and waiting for a trip to the post office today.

I am so thankful to be done with them and moving onto something else for the time being.  They were a lot of work, but a break is nice.  I'm glad I made a few extras to stock in my Etsy store.

I am now moving on to a bag order.  I'm pretty excited to make more bags.  I enjoy making them, especially since I purchased new fabric to use.  I have material waiting to be made into scarves, pillows and I haven't even started thinking about the wreaths yet.  I have a request to look into laptop case designs, another to make fun pillowcases for a day care and so many more ideas of my own floating around in my head.  It can get overwhelming at times.  Since my big order is done I can step back a bit and get my life balanced again; i.e.- spending more time playing with the kids and only working at nap time or in the evenings.

I truly enjoy having my own area to work in.  It  has already had a bit of revamping done to it:

Still located right next to the exercise equipment.

Ryan moved the shelves from another wall and installed them above my table.

A very important thing since I had no idea what colors I had and kept buying similar colors.

Fabric waiting to be made into something.

A cleaned off table.  It did not look like this last week.

For now I'm going to take the morning off and get back to work this afternoon at nap time.