Hi there! Remember me? It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog for anything besides my sewing class information.
The truth is, I’ve been struggling. Struggling to figure out where I want to go with all of this. Struggling to figure out what my niche is in the blogging world.
I created this blog 2 years ago, after my mom died. After caring for her during the 5 1/2 year duration of her battle with semantic dementia, I was in a difficult place. A week after she died, my youngest son started 1st grade, which meant he was in school all day. In the matter of one week, I literally went from caring for other people (kids and mom) 24/7 to all of the sudden having a huge gap of open time on my hands. Lots of time to think and grieve, all alone.
I felt a huge void. I felt as if I’d lost a part of my identity. If I wasn’t a caregiver, who was I? What was I supposed to do now? What should I do with my life? I didn’t know. I felt lost.
During the time I’d cared for my mom, I wrote another blog about our family’s journey. I discovered that I kind of had a knack for writing and it had been a good outlet for me during that time. I enjoyed blogging, and truth be told there were many avenues I could have continued with that blog, but I felt too sad to write about it anymore. I was already running a foundation that I’d started in her honor, and I didn’t want to face dementia every turn I took. I needed something to keep my mind busy and encourage more positive thinking.
That’s when I started this blog, Jonesmade Lemonade. I wasn’t exactly sure where I wanted to go with it; I only knew that I wanted to write about happier things. I figured that life was hard and the only way to get through was to make lemonade out of the lemons we are dealt. And so I started writing about the bright spots of life, and sharing a few stories here and there about other people who were able to make lemonade out of their lemons.
Still, I felt like my “niche”, or purpose, to my blog was undefined. It seemed to be a little all over the place, with crafts and diy tutorials and stories and family adventures and recipes and products I loved. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to focus on. I didn’t know if I should be blogging or if I should quit it all and go back to work, and then if I did go back to work, what would I do? Should I work harder to advertise my small, home sewing business? I didn’t feel like going back to teaching preschool, and I had no desire to go into the fashion industry (both professions are what I have degrees in), so I felt even more confused.
And then…
…last fall an opportunity presented itself to return to something I had done in the past and loved. My sister-in-law, who works for a homeschool program, suggested that I become a “vendor” for their home-charter school, offering sewing classes as my vendor services. I had done classes here and there in the past and I felt like this could be an answer to my many prayers, so I signed up to be a vendor…and enrolled only one student that semester. I felt discouraged and confused because I had really thought this was my answer, yet I only had one student. I moved forward anyway to the spring semester, offering classes again. This time I had 17 students signing up for classes!
Throughout the past several months, I found that I have really enjoyed teaching again. I love sharing my talent and passion with other people. I love seeing my students learn and grow and become excited about sewing. I love it when they bring projects that they’ve been working on at home to show me in class. I love planning out which projects I’m going to teach for my workshops and sewing camps. I love making patterns and tutorials and sharing what I’ve made.
It finally hit me: this is my niche! This is what I’m good at, and this is what makes me happy. This is what I should blog about! So, while I may still blog occasionally about our family adventures, my focus for this blog will be sewing and related craft and party ideas; it’s about creating! I have plans to share patterns and tutorials and lots of fun stuff, so stay tuned!
Over the next few weeks, my blog will be under a bit of construction. To start with, I have changed my web address from jonesmadelemonade to sassycassysews (Sassy Cassy has always been my sewing business name). I’m working on a new logo and I have some pages/posts that I have to add. If you’ve already subscribed to my blog, you are on the automatic email list, so please be patient with me if you get a few extra emails for the pages/posts that I need to add to get everything up and running smoothly (don’t worry, it won’t be crazy…maybe just a few more than usual). Don’t unsubscribe! 😉
I would really love it if you would continue to follow me on this journey! If you feel so inclined, scroll down and hit the subscribe button to receive post updates. You can also follow me on: Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Thanks for reading!
