”Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney

So this might be the hardest blog post I’ve written to date. I’ve been writing and rewriting it in my head for weeks, no, months. Always changing it, tweaking it so it sounds right. I figured in the end the best way was just to be blunt and say it in as few words as possible…

Starting June 15th, the Art School Dropout shop will be temporarily put on the back burner. At least in my head. I will not be creating new products and I will not be taking any new custom orders. The shop will be paired down to just Home Decor and Party Supplies (minus custom listings). All orders placed will be shipped out by my husband, not me, on Saturdays. From now until June 15th, all Accessories, Jewelry / Juxtapose Necklaces and Craft Supplies will be 40% off to help clear them out. Everything else will be 25% off just because. (discount will be applied in the cart, no coupon code needed) Shipping may be slow at first while we switch over, so please have some patience with us!

Now I will explain a bit about WHY I’m doing this…

For the past 6 months or so, my mind has been going a mile a minute with ideas and things I would like to create. It usually goes fast, but lately its just out of control. At times it was getting to be a bit overwhelming and was causing me to forget important things, mess up on orders and such. I have been writing all the ideas down in hopes that I will one day have the time to try them all out. Well, when I realized Art School Dropout was turning 11, something just clicked in my head. I love creating for the shop and I love seeing my goods out in the world, however I have been doing the same thing for 11 years. I love learning new processes and I feel like I could be improving my skills. I have more unfinished personal projects than I do finished. I am my own boss, I have the power to cut back on business related stuff and work on personal stuff for once…

So that’s what i’m going to do. This may be a temporary situation, it may be permanent. I’m not sure yet. It’s scary to walk away from something that you’ve put so much of your life into. Actually it was almost my entire 20′s. Most of my adult life. The fear is what’s making me hold on just a little, and with the help from my husband (who’s been offering for years and I just never took him up on it) I think I can start chiseling away at my “Things To Try” list.

In a nutshell, I want to see what I’m capable of when I’m not tied down to a brand.

In the coming months I will be prepping for BlytheCon. I am scheduled to learn how to quilt using a longarm machine (and be certified to rent one). I will finally finish all of those quilts I’ve been working on for years. I am signed up to properly learn Illustrator. After that I would like to learn more about customizing wordpress properly. I would like to finally write patterns for all of those quilts I made. I want to paint CT’s room. I’d like to finally decorate our bedroom and bathroom. I want to build some furniture… and so so so much more.

I plan on sharing all of it here on the blog. So I won’t be disappearing into the mist, but possibly instead I’ll be around MORE!

I feel like I forgot so much that I wanted to say, but I also feel like this is good! I know it will be good for me, and that really is all that matters, making myself and my family happy.

I tried to design it all myself, but I am not that great when it comes to illustrator, and truthfully I needed a second set of eyes and talent to help me out of my teeny tiny design box. I put a feeler out there online back in September, seeing if anyone knew who I should contact or what I would need to do it myself. I’m so glad I did that. My friend Sara Harvey messaged me and offered to help out. Our tastes and styles are similar in ways and she is super talented and easy to talk to, so of course I took her up on it!

I told Sara the look and feel I wanted, and she sent me back a bunch of examples to sort through and say what I did and did not like from each. After a bunch of back and forth emails, and many weeks of horribly busy schedules and then the holidays, a new logo was born!

I absolutely love the new logo!! Sara did a great job!!

It’s not super short and wide like my previous one, which got in the way a lot when it came to banners and ads. It’s nice and compact. It incorporates my arrow design around the edge and has a unique shape, but not too unique. I can still make my own die cut tags, labels and signs. It’s also one solid color! This means I can have stamps made for packaging and even make my own! No more relying on print companies, and having to purchase 1000′s of tags at a time. This cuts back on overhead, which means I can afford more advertising and invest in some new tools.

So yeah, it’s a win win situation all around!

I’ve been spending the last two weeks prepping everything to be switched over to the new look. New tags, new packaging, new business cards and more. It has been exhausting, but so much fun at the same time!

With help, I’m also reopening my own personal shop. The one I had for 8 years before I closed it and switched over to Etsy last year. I missed having complete control over design, and somewhere that was my own. I love having rotating huge banners on my front page, I don’t like having a landing page that sends you all over the place. I’d prefer everything in one place. I like saying “yeah, you can see everything I make on artschooldropout.net” not “yeah, just visit artschooldropout.net and the click this link to go to etsy where you can see what I make”. I didn’t start on Etsy and never felt at home there. Also, again, it was overhead. The money I will save on fees will go right into a savings account to buy some new equipment and supplies. The Etsy shop will be kept open purely for downloadable PDF’s and custom designs. Everything else will be switched over.

I’ve fought with myself over this part of the change for the past few months, I was afraid of leaving a site that has a rating system and switching to one that doesn’t. I was afraid customers would feel uncomfortable. Though I would still be using Paypal, which has a buyers guarantee and gives customers the option of filing complaints, receive refunds and more. In the end I feel like this was best for my business. It’s more ME, it’s more Art School Dropout. Also, it doesn’t hurt to try. I can’t learn from my mistakes if I don’t ever make any, right? I need to stop fearing the unknown.

I will be revealing the new shop in the next few days, I just have to wait until a friend can come help with the switch over. So keep an eye out, because it will also be when I update the new Juxtapose Necklaces! Seems fitting, bring back the product that started it all while switching back to the original way of doing things!

If you’ve read this far, thank you! I know I rambled on for a bit there, but I needed to get it all out. Before now it was mostly inner dialogue or small conversations with friends and family. I’m excited about Art School Dropout’s new look, it has been a long time coming!

We didn’t really do anything this weekend. I had loads of work to do in preparation for Crafty Bastards while also dealing with a cold and some bad news about a family member.

I was up way too early today and will probably be going to bed late tonight. I have a list a mile long and not enough hours to finish. My husband always says whatever I finish for a show is enough. I’ll try and keep that in mind while I work this week away!