Tying Up Ends – change is the only constant

Winter has many effects on my business.

One major effect has been to slow it down in some ways, because the snows and occasional extreme cold spells we’ve had have kept me from getting into the shop. Another effect is how tired it makes me! I just want to curl up on the couch or in bed with a warm cuppa something, and read – not make stuff. Or I want to make things, but not ones for sale.

The weather has affected shipping – I’ve had packages take much longer than usual to arrive to customers, and I’ve had delays in delivery.

And Winter weather froze the pipes in the building, which made it so that I couldn’t dye or wash wool for over a week. Yay! Woo! 😀

So what have I done about this?

Well… not enough, for sure. [because I believe in painful honesty, I’m sharing that insight with you. I will totally take some of the blame for my failings!]

When things are dragging, I try to switch up what I’m working on – stimulate my creativity and energy by focusing on something different than what I’ve been focusing on recently. Yesterday, I went back to some knitting that I’d put aside for a while, because I was feeling totally uninspired by my spinning AND I was wrapped up in a lot of family stuff that was keeping me from my usual schedule. That was a good choice, because I was still working with fiber, but in a different way than I had been for a bit. Today, I switched between researching some details for an upcoming class and carding batts. That kept me from getting bored with either task.

There’s not much I can do to fight the weather, but I can try and do things at home when I can’t get to the Studio, and I can do online work when I’m too tired from shoveling to spin. And I can use the times that I’m feeling really tired from the low light levels to catch up on sleep so that I get refreshed and ready for the upcoming craft and fiber show season, which always saps away all my energy!

So what I’m saying here is: flexibility is key when you have no control over the bigger circumstances. 

Also… don’t forget to enjoy the pleasant aspects of what’s messing with your schedule. I forgot to play in the snow, for example. I should have taken a little time to make a little snowman!

How has this Winter forced you to change your business or creative plans?