Balancing an amiable leaf

[primsong]

Well, it's been over 3 years now since I started my little Etsy vintage shop, The Amiable Leaf - it had a slow start, but seems to have found an ambling pace that I can manage well enough and I enjoy it.  Lately, though, I've been looking at the backlog of stuff waiting for me to get it written up, measured, photographed, listed, etc. and realizing that this is most of what I do when I have computer time anymore - Etsy or the church newletter or library work or some other 'serious' project.  Not writing, or playing around with icons or reading fanfic or even recording for Librivox.  Somewhere along the way, the balance of hours involved in my side business has gradually taken over much of my 'play time'. 

Not that it's bad, per se, it's always interesting to me and goodness knows the dribs and drabs of money are useful, we're still supporting 1 kid in college and 2 in private high schools, after all - but I think I'm in need of pushing back a bit.

Ah, the age-old balancing act of work and pleasure, it never goes away does it?  Don't want to wait too long and go falling off the tightrope. How's your balancing act going?  Are you keeping the Big W word balanced with sanity-protecting fun stuff?

Comments

[justice_turtle]

I'm not working at all, but that's good; I've been needing a very long rest for... a time I can't even begin to calculate, really.

So I'm sleeping and eating, and going to therapy, and petting fuzzy animals, and knitting and podficcing and generally starting to figure out what I like to do. And then hopefully someday I can go back to work (of some description), and support myself doing things I enjoy. :D

[primsong]

Now that sounds positively healthy - get all the snarls sorted out so you can see what's going on, then into the world with more focus and (hopefully) more fun as well.

[blackmare]

Tricky, for me right now. I'm actually doing remarkably well, but "work" is art and so is "play" to a great degree, and the "work" parts have of necessity grown like kudzu over the "play" ones. Because it's that or I don't get to pay my rent.

I need to update my own Etsy shop. It is, as you say, dribs and drabs of income, but I've done enough from it to make it worth maintaining for me, even if it is often a pain to do so.

[primsong]

The rotten thing about life is people only pay you for things they don't want to do themselves - if it's fun, there's rarely money in it, or at least not at a 'can easily live on this' level. I heartily admire any artistic person who manages to actually live off of their art, it's no mean feat to pull that off. What's your Etsy name? I tried looking for 'blackmare' but that person didn't appear to be you at all.

[blackmare]

I am on Etsy under my RL name. Check your account; I just added you to my favorites so you can find me that way. I don't post my name in my fannish/personal spaces, 'cause my clients and buyers don't need to know I write House fic.

[primsong]

Ha! I love that. Isn't it funny how we need to compartmentalize ourselves simply because of the quirkiness of fandom? I totally 'get' that.