Pushing Against the Current

Tomorrow my new shop opens. The shop I have been reluctant to open for years with the subtle fear my artwork won’t be enough, but earlier this year I had an idea and I decided that it felt right. Everything fell together gently just like it tends to do when something is meant to happen a certain way. The name. The artwork. It felt good, so good. It still feels good.

I told God that if this is what I was going to do, then I was going to let Him take the reigns, let Him do what he wanted with it. Everything has been flowing.
When I decided I would open up the shop it would be relaxed, just as an extra; something that was just enough to be fun for me, and low stress.

The truth is, I was called to be a wife and mama way before being a creator of pretty things (aside from Miss A that is) and that has been the agreement the whole time. They come first. Before this blog or the new shop, and I’m okay with that.

I’ve been putting all of this on His time. 

I thought about opening Monday. Actually I kind of planned that.
To open the rebrand of the blog and the shop the same day.
Monday just felt good.

God had other plans. Instead, the blog flowed just like it was supposed to.
The Shop, that was a different story – the photos went horrendously. The lighting was off, and I felt defeated and frustrated.I felt a gentle push to wait. Wait until Wednesday.
So I changed the day.
Wednesday felt good, felt like a good fit, kind of like the way a glove fits on a winter day.

Product photos didn’t go well yesterday, so naturally today I went to who is the product photo pro; by went I really mean sent her message after message, after message until they were good enough. It went quickly and it went really well.

I felt very confident until this afternoon when my shop was totally prepped for tomorrow morning and a little doubt crept in. The kind of doubt that maybe there wasn’t enough in my shop, the inventory is much lower than I expected. My original idea was that I would have prints done, 12 wall pieces and I would be golden. I readjusted my expectations, things with the prints weren’t where they needed to be and I had a couple less pieces than twelve, in fact I had 5 because two of the huge ones I decided would be too hard to ship. I felt at peace about it.

This afternoon I had an idea that maybe I should try and wrap up just a few things so I had more listed.
I didn’t feel like I was rushing, I felt like I was just getting ahead in the game. Then after sending a screen shot of the new shop to this friend and I told her I might be able to get a few more things done before the launch, I received a text that said “don’t rush.” I replied “I’m not” and went about my way. Next, the few pieces I was trying to wrap up went badly everything that could go wrong did. I text my friend that I wasn’t sure why she text me what she did before because I didn’t feel like I was rushing but after I shook off that text it all went down hill from there. The text was an autocorrect error. She didn’t plan to send “don’t rush” and I don’t doubt it. I think it was something much bigger. 

It was Sunday all over again. It was me pushing forward (read: rushing) ahead of making sure this was low stress, laid back and easy. I was pushing against the current.

So, lesson learned.
Tomorrow my shop opens with the same amount of inventory that consists of just a few items and that’s completely okay, it’s how it’s meant to be.
Studio1241 is just fun for me, it’s how I need it to be.
It will be filled with new stuff as I am inspired or when I have time.
I believe with my whole heart God called me to be a wife and mama before anything else. 

So,  tomorrow I hope you join me on this new little venture, I’m pretty excited about it and I hope you are too!