Moxiemandie Giveaway

I am so excited to share this post with you! I met Mandie via the Blog-Etsy-Twitter-Instagram world and am a huge fan of hers. From our shared hatred of spiders to our mutual agreement that we should meet in person soon, it’s safe to say I’m glad we’ve become friends. I wanted to do a mini interview with Mandie so you could get to know her and her shop (love!) so without further ado, thanks Mandie for humoring me with my interview questions.

I’m Mandie, a girl that likes to be creative & gets bored waaaay too easily. I am married to a boy named Gabe that is starting nursing classes at our local community college & will hopefully graduate in the late summer of 2013. Sooner would be awesome, but quite unlikely, so we’ll just be thrilled with that. That boy is creative too, usually in the kitchen or on his guitar. I do my best work behind my nice sewing machine, but definitely love to try new things. Let me remind you, though, that I DO get bored quite easily. So far, sewing is the only hobby that has kept my attention for long & I am coming up on the big three-oh in 2012, just so you get an idea of how distractable I am. (I blog at http://moxiemandie.com & tweet/instagram WAY too often under the handle of moxiemandie)

1. When did you open your shop?

- I opened shop mid-October of 2010 & have been working the days away ever since.

2. What inspired you to own a handcrafted business?

- There are a few things that keep me going at moxiemandie. First is my husband. When I discovered & subsequently began shopping on etsy, he encouraged me again & again to do something like that since he knew I’d love it. I think he knew it before I did. I was so intimidated (still am most days!), but I did it, finally, & it has been a really good thing for me to grow through. The second reason has to do with what I mentioned earlier about Gabe beginning nursing classes. He’ll begin the nursing program full time in May, & while I am thrilled & so proud of him, I’m a bit worried, too. We’re still unsure of how much he’ll be able to work while in the program, if at all, and I am terrified of living on just my income, so I thought that perhaps this could be a way to help out with a bill or 2 each month. The third & final reason I’ll share for what inspires me to continue is that I really, really love it. Sure, there are days that are hard-they are usually the days that I have to make big (for me) decisions, whether it’s a conflict with an order or investing more than a few dollars into materials or equipment. Most days are really inspiring, though- to see that others actually believe in me enough to pay their hard-earned dollars for my products. I am so grateful to have found this thing that feels like I was born to do, & to have the support of others behind me.

3. How do you stay creative?

- As far as how I stay creative- I can honestly say that etsy is a revolving door. I love glancing through all of the shops to see the trends in fabrics. there are a few lifestyle & design blogs that I sort of devour for fabric/pattern trends, too. I’m a big fan of mixing and not matching. It’s nothing new to the scene, but I like to think it makes my products unique.

4.  Name one thing you’ve learned from your business that’s helped you in non-business related areas of life. 

- There are so many lessons learned through this journey of shop ownership, but I have to say that one that stands out to me is that I’m learning how to prioritize the things in my life. You really can only do so many things at one time, and saying yes to everyone does no one any good. Sometimes I have to not do something that I’d really love to do, but knowing that there’s a good reason(usually stretching myself too thin) helps.

Thank you again, Mandie, for sharing your shop with us.

Mandie has graciously offered a handmade zippy pouch of the winner’s choosing. All you need do to qualify is visit her shop and leave a comment on this post saying which item(s) from Moxiemandie caught your eye. I’ll use random.org to choose the winner and then hook you up with Mandie after it’s announced. Only one comment per person please and the giveaway will be open until January 18th.