Business.  Design.  Sewing.  All comes together in the perfect business for me.

It’s Been 5 Years

It’s been 5 years since I pushed the publish button for my Etsy shop.  Hunkeedori began long before that so to me it’s felt much longer than 5 years.  I knew owning a business was what I wanted.  How I was going to get there was the mystery. Business.  Design.  Sewing. It all came together in the perfect business for me. It’s been nice having you along for the ride for the past 5 years though.  Today I thought it would be fun to give you a bit of back story and behind the scenes into what built this little business of mine into what you see today.

Simple Memory Kits

I remember the day my husband came home from work and announced that we were going to invest in ourselves.  He was a computer guy and I was creative.  We could build an online business with our combined skills.  Lots of work later and using up most of the money we got from some stock he received from his previous job, we built an online scrapbook kit company.  This was 2005 so our website was pretty janky and with no business experience between us I’d say we didn’t do too bad.  We worked our tails off!  Keep in mind we had 4 young kids at home, the youngest wasn’t even a year old yet, so for me, caring for our children took up the majority of my time.  I had nap time and after they went to bed to focus on my part.  We ended up moving in 2007 and by 2008, the economy was in the toilet and people weren’t spending their limited income on scrapbook kits.  We decided to throw it in and cut our losses.  We lost quite a bit financially but I think we learned a lot about running a business.

I was pretty sad about it.  Starting that company made me remember how much I love doing things like that.  It lit a fire in me to start something else.  I didn’t know what or when but I knew I’d do something in the future.

Business Was In My Blood

Fast forward to 2014.  With a young family, it didn’t feel fast at all.  I still had the business bug but no money to even think about starting anything of my own.  I’d been doing clothing alterations and custom sewing off and on at home since 1991 and I was very confident in my sewing abilities.  I knew whatever business I started had to have something to do with that.  I alsoknew there were a few road blocks to starting another business.  At this point, there wasn’t any stock money.  My husband was not interested in getting into another business.  And I didn’t know what my “business” was even going to be.

I Found A Way

The one thing I did have some control over was being able to earn some extra money.  My kids were older now so they didn’t take up every second of my day.  I knew I didn’t want to go work outside of my home so I started looking for a job I could do in my home.  It took some time but I found a job sewing pillow covers for a lady who owned an Etsy shop.  I’d go pick up the fabric and the orders and return them a few days later and get more.  The money wasn’t fantastic but by budgeting a little every month into my “Future Business” envelope I eventually saved $500.  I reached this milestone around the same time she decided that she wanted to expand and have her seamstresses work in her warehouse instead of at home (for less pay I may add) so it made it easy for me to say goodbye.  I knew that I wanted to start my own Etsy shop and now I had money saved and was closing in on an idea.  I filled pages with the ideas I came up with but how Hunkeedori finally came to be born is condensed pretty good in the post I wrote last year around my anniversary time.

You can read that here:

Yes, It’s A Full Time Job

Hunkeedori has grown more than I ever imagined.  It’s been a lot of work and has filled in every amount of time I have allowed it to.  If I let it, I could spend every waking minute of the day working on it.  There is always something more I want to do.  I’d love to take you on a trip in my brain to show you everything I’d like to do.  That would be super weird so you’ll just have to watch and see what’s coming next. 

YOU Are My Why

I can honestly say that my favorite part of this journey has been realizing how great the Travelers Notebook and Planning community is.  I have connected with some of the kindest people I have ever met.  As I’ve expanded my message into what fills my TN, (journaling, planning and memory keeping)  I have met even more people.  Thanks to all of you who have been so welcoming and kind.  I have “online” friends and I never thought I would.

So Many Plans

I look forward to the years ahead.  I have so many new designs to bring to life.  So many things I want to teach.  I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned that my college degree is in Elementary Education.  I don’t ever see myself going back into that field but I do still have the desire to teach.  So far, I have one Workshop that is open, Stick to YOUR Plan, It was fun making that and I have plans to offer more workshops and courses online and .  I hope you’ll join me in those as they come to life.

Thank you so much for going on this trip down memory lane with me and indulging me in sharing my dreams about the future.

I love what I do. I love that it involves you.

I look forward to all that is ahead.