I’m feeling good about my most recent shop addition, the haiku nighties, and finishing up a few more baby items before embarking on something new. I have to keep remembering that this is a side project and (so far at least) the business model is not remotely viable as anything more than (eventually, hopefully) a small trickle of supplementary income — even if I get to the point where I sell as much as I can physically produce in the time I have available.

My real goal is to justify time and space for my creativity. Making things helps me think and keeps me inspired. When I feel like a boring person who does nothing but work and do laundry and change diapers and read picture books about ducks, this project gives me an excuse to open up one of the many drawers in my office that are stuffed to bursting with scraps of beautiful fabric, scribbled ideas, journals, and other signs of life that remind me that there’s more to me than my daily responsibilities and that it’s been there all along. When I do this, I’m more likely to write, more likely to take care of my body, and more likely to do all kinds of other great things that I want to prioritize in my life.

So, I’m trying to keep it simple. That means keeping the marketing side of things as minimal as my years of working in marketing allow, not stressing about turning a profit, and focusing on the creative process. Make what I can make, sell what I can sell, and keep exploring. That’s my creative manifesto – for now, at least.