January of Maud Duchesne

January was definitely hard on my mood. Trying to deal with my work and my personal project was not the easiest. Before the holiday season, I was kind of hoping that my lack of motivation at work would go away with my soon to come three weeks off. During those weeks, I took it easy, as I wanted to go back in my office happy and refreshed. I did a lot of cooking and knitting, and I enjoyed having time to get our business on track. My partner and I were both excited about the ideas we had. We even planned what we wanted our business of knitting products to look and feel like.

Needless to say that, when I got back to work on January 9, I was not motivated at all. In fact, I was depressed ;

I knew that all the time I spent at work, I could not use it to improve my business plan or build my products so I could finally sell them on Etsy

But more importantly, I knew that my lack of motivation at work was undoubtedly due to my inability to bring my goal closer to reality. As interesting as my job may be, it does not fulfill me entirely. I think it’s because I don’t feel like completely having a grip on business results. I love working 10 mins from my home, in the forest. I love practicing my languages with interesting people and giving them the opportunity to experience our Canadian nature. But, nothing tangible for me at the end.

The result of this realization ?

I worked my ass off

There has not been a day that I did not work on my project. I strongly needed it. I needed to feel it was on, I needed to see results, concrete effects of my constant efforts in making this project something I would be proud of.

Working 14 hours a day has its downside: I am now cranky, and my partner makes fun of me a lot about this. He never saw me like this before ! He still can make me laugh, though, which is really helpful is stressful situation. To evacuate all the stress, we decided we needed to get some actions so he dragged me into snowboarding. It was relieving to take an hour a day just to think about how my body was moving and to focus on staying up on board and not falling. Although I did fall a lot, I somehow managed to learn the basics in a week or two.

Between all this, I could not see my friends nor my family. As no one in my family is really aware of the seriousness of my initiative, it leads to frustrating situations. I am tired of having to explain myself, constantly repeating what I’ve been saying for months now. But, well, I think they are starting to understand better as they see my posts and articles on their Facebook feed. (Thanks Facebook for that !)

Oh, and I thank the Universe for letting me having those seven awesome cats. Could anything be better than knitting under a comfy blanket with music and cats purring all around me ? Zootherapy is a thing here. We created a nest, where light, plants and cats thrive. And so do we.

Greatness this month:

• Our new logo is purrfect.

• Our website is finaly online !

• I designed two new products and have at least three other ideas that I will soon explore.

• We are ready for my partner’s photography exhibition in two weeks.

• Our disabled cat shows good signs of improvement in her stability.

• I can slide on a snowboard without killing anyone.

• I managed to pay back a lot of debts.

• I found a local organic beef meat producer and got awesomely tasty and healthy meat, plus I now can have repurposed fur for my items to create (No waste! I like that so much!)

• I found great sources of information about blogging in a business context and local crafting suppliers

Flops this month:

• I got myself into a live webinar about social medias, which I found out to be a horrible combination of easy to get basics repeated in different phrasings and meaningless catch up phrases. I lost an hour waiting for something interesting.

• My coccyx suffers a lot from its three previous fractures when I fall while snowboarding.

• We are far from buying our house.

About the author:

Maud Duchesne has always been a jack of all trades, from building her cottage with her family to knitting, fishing or writing. Professionally, she is an editor and translator. She studied language science in college and discovered a taste for writing (publicly) with music blogging few years ago. But for many years now, she had been pushing back this exciting idea of working for herself as a professional translator and editor, as well as selling her crafts on Etsy. But she’s ready to take us on her journey now and make it happen! Follow her on La Craftsy Cat Lady