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Pie of Life & Money

4/24/2016

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“Though the pie to be shared by the next generation will be far larger than today’s, how it will be divided will remain fiercely contentious,” Buffett said in his annual letter to shareholders. “Just as is now the case, there will be struggles for the increased output of goods and services between those people in their productive years and retirees, between the healthy and the infirm, between the inheritors and the Horatio Algers, between investors and workers and, in particular, between those with talents that are valued highly by the marketplace and the equally decent hard-working Americans who lack the skills the market prizes."
I wish more people would pay attention to the first line: the pie of tomorrow will be far larger than the pie of today.
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A Little Privacy Please

4/19/2016

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This week I targeted small house projects. You know the kind...that idea that's been sitting on the back burner for months (years). It really only needs like 30 minutes to finish but you just can't seem to get around to it.

Yep. THOSE projects.

I'm probably a little strange in that I have a list of 14 separate painting projects for the interior of my house. FOURTEEN! None of them are decorative either. It's all trim and doors and walls. Blah.

I digress. Back to what I actually managed to do.

The Not-China Cabinet

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This cabinet, which should be filled with pretty china and crystal and beautiful trinkets, is the vertical equivalent of a junk drawer. Seriously. Crafting supplies that I need higher because the baby is going to. Crawl. Any. Day. Now. They go here.

I ordered a 12" x 83" strip of rice paper made by ArtScape. It was the perfect width for the cabinets. It adds just the right amount of "No, you're not looking at a mess" vibe.
The picture shows it only half finished as both sides got the rice paper. But I had to split the work between a nap/preschooler playtime effort and an awake baby content on the floor with toys while the preschooler was actually at preschool effort. It took 28 minutes to physically do. But I had to spread those minutes over 3 hours. Kids!

The Front Door

Our front door isn't lacking in the privacy department. It has rather smallish windows at the top that I can't even see out (I'm short but that's not the point). It lets in the brilliant glare from our front light which the flat-screen TV then beams directly into my eyes. At night. When I'm trying to sleep. Ouch.
Sleep is a precious thing to me. I haven't gotten enough of it since the baby arrived. So this issue with the door and it's little window, um, ahem, rankled.

One night between returning from preschool pick-up and dinner's mandatory start, I slapped some of that rice paper in place. I timed the real work: 25 minutes!

The kids liked helping with this one...

Add in the kid factor including 2 poopy diaper changes (I stopped the timer for them) and those 25 minutes looked a lot more like 65 minutes. Kids again!
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There you have it. Two boring, basic little projects at Villa Ruth to add a degree of privacy and a little less glare. Plus you get to see the reality of kids--they slow everything way down. Oddly, seeing these tasks timed and recorded with the kid delays makes me feel better about what I do get done in a day.
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How I'm Growing a Business or, um, Not

4/12/2016

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In October of 2015 I started an online knitting pattern business called Ruth Designs on Craftsy. By Thanksgiving there were 4 separate hat patterns available. Everything was priced at $0.99. 

You can read about how I started Ruth Designs for free in this post.


This little business didn't go bananas but it was earning. For those 3 months in 2015 I earned $19.86. All profit. My infant Santa hat sold the best.

If you're disappointed in the dollar amount, sorry. I'm not going to become a millionaire from knitting patterns.
​But January was disheartening. I'd talked to my knitting friends and my inlaws. Let's just say who you ask advice of is as important as the advice you receive.

Asking non-entrepreneurs about pricing is the wrong move. So is being the lowest priced. When it comes to knitting patterns Free and $0.99 means crappy and poorly put together.

I raised my prices to the $3 mark in early January plus added my patterns to Ravelry. January ended up being my best month with $16.41 in sales after Paypal fees.

Get ready to slowdown...

February had a single sale and I'm at no sales for March. Not a single sale came from Ravelry. (Considering how convoluted Ravelry is to use, it's not winning any affection from me right now.)

Winter is over in the United States too. It may be several months before I have another pattern sale.

It's not all bad...

Still, this little business paid for my domain and requires nothing to maintain. It's pretty much a passive income, abet a seasonal one. So I'm keeping it open and will add more patterns as I can. I am not going to be knitting like crazy. 

Truth is I never intended Ruth Designs to be a full-time effort. Its a side hustle for some cash and a creative outlet. I'm cool with it being what it is. I'm not going to be spending more $$$ until it starts earning again. 

Moving on...

I'm the primary caregiver for a 4-yr old and an 8-mo old. That's my full-time plus job right now. 

I'm looking forward to when my youngest hits a year and my oldest enters pre-K4 in the fall. Until then, Ruth Designs will mosie along. I'll be working on some house project, enjoying the outdoors, and writing more in the coming months. 

What do you think about my business that I'm intentionally not growing? Every penny it earns is still all profit. Is that something you could see yourself doing? Would you just look at it and go, "Yeah, ok, whatever," like I have? Or would you try driving it more?
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