back to blogging

Happy New Year!  Wow, the months that have passed since my last post have just flown by.  I'm finding that having a four month old gives me ample opportunity to sit and write while hanging out or feeding him, so I should be checking in here more often now.  He's asleep in my lap as we speak.  I know if I move him he'll wake up cranky, so I'll stay peacefully trapped for now.

I have to say that the hardest part of being a new mom so far is not always being able to do what I want when I want.  I'm learning to be patient about tackling all the fun projects and ideas spinning around in my head, but it is hard.  I make a lot of lists.  I'm really looking forward to when he is old enough and we can make stuff together!  I guess there is a chance he might not be a creative type, but I have a hard time believing that is genetically possible.

I have been able to get little things done here and there. I'm finding my newly limited time has brought surprising focus and care to the things I do manage to accomplish.   Before, it seemed like my time was unlimited, and despite being fairly organized and proactive I would become a little lost from time to time.   Now I get to put a lot more thought into each new project before I start and I've been a lot happier with the results!

This unusually cold and windy winter has definitely carried on longer than I'd like.  I long for warmer days when we can go for daily walks around the neighborhood or sit out on the back porch.  For now, I'm focusing my free moments trapped indoors on new ideas and new directions for Modern Radar.  Wholesale business has really slowed over the past six months, and a few of my biggest customers have closed shop.  In a way, this gives me more motivation to work harder on the retail side of things.  Despite really wanting to, I have often avoided making limited edition or fancier items because I wouldn't be able to make them available for wholesale customers at a reasonable price.  In order to actually make money via wholesale I have needed to keep things simple, affordable, and reproduceable.  This can definitely start getting stale very quickly.   Next month marks the beginning of my fourth year of self-employment, and I feel Modern Radar needs a bit of a makeover.  While I'm not planning on getting rid of my pouches or totes, my greeting card sales have been waning to the point that I may not replace them once they sell out.  In place of those I want to lean away from papergoods and have plans for lots of experimental items...the first bits of which I'll be sharing over the next week or so.

if only I could make money selling drool :)

I am really optimistic for this new year and the changing winds.  Maybe being a new mom keeps me upbeat and motivated.  It may still be the middle of winter, but it is definitely spring in my mind.