After months and months of preparation, I opened my Etsy shop last month. About two weeks ago I had my first sale! I was so excited. I had been working primarily by myself with only my family to give me feedback for almost 6 months. My family has been really helpful and supportive, but I still wasn’t sure if what I was creating was going to appeal to a larger community. Knowing somebody else liked my designs enough to pay for them was exhilarating. It helps give me the confidence to keep pursuing this dream career of mine of designing and creating art for a living.

Here is an image of the holiday ornament that was purchased through my Etsy shop.

I love the bold colors behind the festive gold holly and ivy. It has been hard for me to find graphic patterns in holiday decorations, so I created my own. Staying away from the typical green and red or blue and silver Christmas imagery was important for me, too. I made up a custom stitch guide for the piece and I’m sending it all off in about an hour. Hopefully my client will love stitching it as much as I loved painting and designing the piece.

I just had to share my first official sale with the online community. I attended a blogging conference this weekend called Bloggy Boot Camp: Women Get Social. The conference really inspired me to put myself out there and write about my experiences online. There were many wonderful, inspiring women in attendance and I hope to be able to connect with them and others through social media. Thank you for reading my blog and helping to support me in my career. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. And when you get a chance, check out my Etsy shop so you can see more of what I do.

A special thank you goes out to Queerie Bradshaw and Mona Darling for your help and support. They are experienced bloggers who have inspired me to share my story and my art. FYI, their sites are not PG.

Happy Monday!