Missed you!

It's really been a crazy holiday season this year and I have spent alot of time away from blogging. It was really nice to give some more attention to my family, friends, and my house these last few weeks.

This next year I am definitely re-thinking the direction of my classes and scrapbooking business. Last year was really difficult: classes did not fill up, I had issues with several stores not paying me or bouncing checks to me, more and more stores closed (so I had to drive further and further away from home to teach), too many people thinking they can make money teaching and flooding the market, more manufacturers closed, and worst of all, I know you all wanted to scrap and take classes but we all just did not have the money to do it.

I love teaching and playing with paper all day so I have been trying to think of ways to do that and still have a real business = making some kind of profit. This last year was not fun and this year I am looking to keep it fun-what good is doing what you love if you can't have fun at it? Of course there are times when it is not ever going to be fun (like tax time right now…) but I can deal with that.

All that is just to let you know you may not see as many classes from me this year in stores, you'll see more online classes, more tutorials and instructive blog posts, and more kits in my etsy shop. I totally plan to ramp in-person classes up in the future when the economy improves.

But for now, this last year just proved to me that life is too short for all the stress and time away from the family. I really want to enjoy the time I have with my kidlets while they are still here at home, I want to scrap with my friends more, I want to do more stuff with my family on the weekends, and I want to actually go to lunch with my friends again (cuz this year I really had no life).

So if you see a class from me, snatch it up! Right now I am just teaching at Collective Journey. I plan to increase my class lineup to my other regular stores (Pink Pineapple, etc) in March, after Girl Scout cookie sales. Katie sold over 1000 boxes in 2007, 700+ in 2008, and only about 500 in 2009. I want to focus my attention on her Girl Scouting and school work this Spring. So if you wanna buy cookies, I'll hook you up! LOL Call me after Jan 24 ;)

I also plan to post pics from CHA EVERYDAY when I get home! I have the flu right now so that means I should be nice and healthy at CHA this year so I can get those pics up. Last year I was sick as a dog.

Right now I am working on a sample for my Project 12×12 class at Collective Journey at the end of the month, on my Tattered Angels blog post (i'll be posting on the 5th of every month), and finishing up my Lucky 13 pages! We're meeting at CHA to exchange the pages we made over the last year for each other–it will be super fun ;)

Also I made over 50 layouts over this little vacation so I am working on scanning them in and posting them. I hope to be back to blogging regularly again this year.

Author: Jennifer Priest

It started with jewelry, beading, sewing, home decor, painting, basket weaving, pottery, and cross-stitch. Marry that to an entrepreneurial spirit & at 9 years old a girl is selling her wares at craft fairs as far as her parents and grandparents would drive her. These days, Jennifer enjoys crafts of all genres from sewing to scrapbooking to jewelry with a little dabbling in the mixed media world. Her style is approachable and she wants everyone who sees her work to feel that they too can embrace creativity and make their home and life beautiful.