in a funk

Friends, I've been in a funk the past few days. Maybe it's just that I ran out of contact lenses – not that this was a surprise ... I'm always reluctant to go fork out the money for the new eye exam, so I've been wearing my glasses lately which make me feel like I'm in a perpetual fog. But today I went and got a trial pair of lenses – and have brand new contacts coming soon.

So I think the funk has more to do with the wedding line. Don't get me wrong: I am really pleased with it all. I think it's sort of like when you're packing to move ... You know how you start out with all the big stuff and, once that's put away, you're left with all the knick knacks? All the little things that you really want (or do you?), but you're not quite sure how to wrap them all up? That's where I am now with the wedding line. I have a few designs to reprint so they're perfect – that's not a surprise, I guess. And I have to finish up the color sheet. And I have to assemble all the portfolios. I did one the other day, or most of one, and it takes about two hours to put together. I really, really like it. And I have to finish up the wedding line website which is dependent on new photos – more on that soon because it's really exciting and I've been dying to tell you about it. But not quite yet. Soon, I promise.

This isn't meant to be a rant. Things are looking really lovely for the line. And I'm 99% sure I'm switching from Etsy to Big Cartel soon. I want to do it at the same time I launch the new wedding website ... I like how much cleaner the layout is for Big Cartel and I think it'll complement my aesthetic better.

Here is the other thing ... the more I learn about how the 'wedding industry' works, the less I'm sure I'm want to {or even can} go along. Placing a book in a shop, which is what I thought I wanted on a small scale, means that you get a certain amount of cash upfront for the book itself ... but then your line is wholesaling at a 50/50 split. I get that having my book out there is more exposure and, hopefully, more orders that I wouldn't otherwise be receiving ... but I keep coming back to that 50/50 split. That's rough. Because I'm just a one person studio – I do everything by myself and that means I need to limit the number of jobs I take on at any given time. Or else I end up working 60+ hours a week – and that's no good for me or my family. So I've been thinking about alternatives ... maybe trying to reach out to other small businesses in the 'industry' to see if we can promote each other, skipping the middle man, so to speak. Thoughts?