A day in the life of a single Mom, Fashion Designer, Blogger, Homeschooler, DIY'er

I would love to write about how exciting and fulfilling my creative life is....how I get to focus on fashion and my pleasure in designing & making beautiful clothing & accessories and the satisfaction that comes when a buyer loves my products and buys more.....
But......with a capital B.....
I am also a struggling single Mom, middle age adding to the feat. My significant partner walked out on me unannounced, with no warning, about 4 months ago. Leaving me with a 2-income set of mortgages & bills and now with only 1 income to survive on, my  future is anything but certain, to say the least, it will definitely be different from what is would have been.
So, now, what was serious pleasure and "take my time" endeavors in my creative studio, has had to become serious hard work, get out there and network, put up that website, produce product and SELL!  Every day.
Although I would have eventually gotten to the point of having a website and blogging and such, I am now limited with time and resources and facing many challenges.
I have secured my domain, ManoBello.com. and have made attempts at creating my website and have read about the ease and simplicities of the task and have been left feeling daunted and a bit stupid. I think I'm going to need some help.
I have started my Blog and been surprised at all of the "success" stories out there and what a wonderful opportunity it is to network, make friends, show your products, share common experiences and even find monetary gain. I had no idea.
I'm on my second full day of trying to interpret the website design....so far, all I can do is link my website to my  web shop on etsy. Although I think etsy is a cool place to showcase my wares.....it has limits and thousands of other artists trying to sell their wares as well.  It's easy to get lost in the crowds.

Our annual Home school evaluation is done each year with a certified teacher. We've seen her every year for several. We arrived at her door tonight to find no one home and waited around for awhile...she has 4 kids...she's probably running late. No, I got the wrong day & time.....of course. It's scheduled for tomorrow night, even though I read my calendar 3 times throughout the day. It didn't sink in until after we got home. We'll go again tomorrow night. That didn't help my feeling adequate much.

I received an email from a customer who made a purchase earlier in the week. She loves the purse, but, it's the wrong color...she's returning it. Not good for my ailing budget. Not good for my feeling adequate as sole support for my family.

Leather cuff with bows at  www.manobello.com

SO, if I can be interesting enough to eventually find some followers of my blog, maybe they will get to see the real life of a designer from the bottom to hopefully up! I'm not giving up.