My working an optional small business from home with toddlers is an

ungraceful juggle.

I’ve gotten a handful of messages that say “omg how do you do it ALL?” or “superwoman!!” and I’m afraid I’m not being fair to this process.

My kids think JJ from Cocomelon is a real kid. We are no strangers to Blippi. Disney+ basically just stays ON at our house. I always loved movies (hello, animation major) so it never occurred to me how much our TV stays on.. but it’s a thing. We do a fair amount of takeout. The house is always I REPEAT ALWAYS messy with toys and an insane amount of dog hair. If the sink is empty of dirty dishes you know my husband is home.. because 8/10 times he has done the dishes. To be fair, the only thing I really stay on top of religiously is laundry.. I don’t know, I like it .. but it doesn’t get put away for a week. That’s the home life.

home v. studio

The studio life is this:

Haven’t stepped into the studio in two days = OMG I’VE LET EVERY ONE OF MY CLIENTS DOWN (guilt). Staying up late sketching after bedtime. Realizing my flagged email column hasn’t been touched in TWO weeks 👀. Creative blocks.. crushing. That is probably the worst part of it .. it’s like sliding backwards down a hill in the snow and PRAYING you get traction at some point.. and when you do you sprint like hell and try and ride it as far and as long as you can.

It’s all messy. It’s not a graceful juggle for me - it’s sprinting around in one column (house side) and feeling like oh that’s not quite done, but definitely in a better place.. then running over to the other column (studio side) and trying to catch that one up. That sounds dramatic, it’s not always that way.. but busy times - YES.

If you’re a new follower you may not know that we moved last year (2020). We spent two years building a house and moved in two days after Christmas. That sounded fine until it’s wrapping Christmas presents, packing, Christmas activities (..because, toddlers) breaking down Christmas/Santa for the movers 48 hours later.. it was a lot.. and the studio last year did not exist. Not a single project.. so I made lists. Lists of everything I had FOMO for..

enter 2021.

Too much excitement. Too many ideas, not enough time. The reality of actually executing these ideas is quite a different story. I was telling a fellow creative the other day that I couldn’t bring myself to pick up a single ornament (at that time) because I had that pre-project fear that my ideas were dumb and I’d ruin all the blanks which was wasting precious Christmas prep time.. all this to say, it’s messy, imperfect and chaotic but it all gets done.