Painting Inspiration

National Paint Week: Tutorial Painting British Flag on Fence Boards

I made this British Flag inspired art for my nephew, Kirby. He is 18 and collects flags from around the world, so I thought this would go...

Monday, November 25, 2013

On product reviews, my 3 jobs and finding direction

I've been struggling with direction lately. Besides being a wife and mother of 4, I have 3 jobs. I manage a property that is made up of 4 vacation homes called Emerson Courtyard. I am sure you have seen a few posts about it here since I started working there. I started out by building the website for the business and slowly started doing more and more for it. I only get paid when a home rents. So the more I put in to it, the more I get paid. It is a lot of work and I do everything from marketing to check in to cleaning. It is a beautiful, peaceful place that I escape to as often as I can to walk in the gardens and enjoy the beauty and silence of it.

I also design websites, my business is called Opportunity Designs. I have been doing this since 2009. It is my life-long goal to be self supporting doing it. So far, I have 9 websites that I have designed and manage for clients. I love this job and I find it very challenging. I am constantly taking classes to keep up with all of the trends, programs and new languages. (HTML, XHTML, CSS, HTML5... I speak a foreign language, it's called CODE. LOL!) I have not branched in to blog design yet but that is the direction I would like to take it.

I also have this blog. It is my love, my life and what I think I am truly meant to do with my talents. I love to write. I love to paint, decorate, craft and DIY. I do not really have a product, like some blogs do. I just write about lifestyle and 99% of the time I do it for free. But sometimes, an ad agency contacts me with an offer I can't refuse. Sometimes, I do sponsored posts. Some paid, some for the product supplied. I love to do product reviews, especially if the product is in line with what I generally write about, like paint and decor. From time to time I do cosmetics and recently did a paid post for Luvs diapers. I got paid for it and free diapers for my Grand son, how could I say no? Ironically, that post has lead to more ad agencies contacting me than any other post. Odd how that works. To be able to say I have written articles for Sherwin-Williams, LancĂ´me, Luvs, Uncommon Goods, L'Oreal Paris and many others is good for my resume. I will share a post about how and where to seek out sponsors such as these soon.




I am struggling with the direction of my dreams at the moment. I cannot keep doing 3 jobs. I want my business and blog to thrive, I need to let Emerson go.

My husband says I need to follow my heart. Which is amazingly supportive. He calls me a "High Tech Housewife". I think I need to focus more here and at Opportunity Designs, they are my passion. Emerson is lovely and amazing but not were my heart is.

What would you do?






1 comment:

  1. I can really relate to this post. I'm in a job that I don't love, but feel I don't have a lot of options as a single mom. I would love more time to follow my heart which is spending more time with my kids, diy, design and blogging. I say, if you are able, follow your heart and be grateful that you have a husband who supports that. Happy Thanksgiving!

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