It`s August, where are you

[Former_Member]

Hi Everyone,

Since we haven`t written this post since June I imagine many of us are settled somewhere and enjoying the summer.

My hubby and I are still in Stouffville, Ontario. This is a small town outside of Toronto, Ontario. It`s a very quaint country / farming town and we`re currently staying at a campground for the season.

We plan to head out to travel through the states again as of November. We wanted to leave sooner but as Canadians we can only be out of Canada for less than 6 months of the year otherwise we loose our health benefits :(.

Well, when you have a minute send a note to let us know where you are. I`m looking forward to (hopefully) meet some of you this winter.

Laura

[PlayingWithFiber]

Hi Laura - we are in Fairbanks, Alaska finishing up our summer here. :-) We'll be heading back to the 'lower 48' come September 1.

We've been talking about taking a trip across Canada from BC all the way to the east coast, but it would take some serious planning - gas costs were challenging on our trip north this year!! I will NEVER complain again about the price in the US again, that's for sure.

[BurroMountainStudio]

Playing - we did our Alaska trip about 4 years ago when the price of gas was high so I understand your pain.

We are back home in Silver City, NM. It's good to be back at our unmoveable home. I found while on the road the last 5 months that it was pretty much impossible to make jewelry but crocheting was an easy thing. So when we travel I will have to rethink my crafting.

[PlayingWithFiber]

We've been on the road for about a year and a half now and I'm finding it increasingly challenging to accomplish much in the way of designing. I need my own 'space' - even if it's small. Someplace that I don't have to pack up and put away every time someone besides the 3 people in our family come inside the motorhome!

My hubby and daughter usually sit at the dining table and they each have a kind of 'cubby' at the end of the bench seat where they sit for their 'stuff'. I usually sit on the couch with a small fold-up table for my laptop and my crochet stuff ends up piled on the end of the couch. So whenever our other daughter or grandkids come over I move everything to the bed in the back so they can sit down.

I've come to realize that I have a couple of options here - I can just give up the notion that I'll be able to do as much designing as I want while living this lifestyle. I just can't work very well this way. Which is a bummer because I really would like to grow my business to be able to generate a bit more income each month off my patterns. That really was the main reason I started this business 3 years ago - so I could have an online business (selling patterns) while we traveled.

Another option is for us to get a bigger rig - something we'd really like to do but we REALLY don't want to go into debt for it. We are looking at maybe doing a caretaking gig for a year or so to save some serious money and then buy something when we're done with that. That option would also give me a year in a house with (hopefully) a space for *me* and I could dedicate myself during that year to designing pretty much full-time to accomplish what I want as far as expanding.

I keep telling myself that this is how it is right now - if I want it bad enough I'll make it work. But it's just not happening. Designing patterns takes time, 'mental energy' and space to be able to spread out a bit and experiment.

Twice in the past year I've gone away on a self-imposed 'retreat' - rented a condo for a week and took all my yarn and spent the time crocheting & designing. It was awesome both times and I'm hoping to do it again this fall. But obviously that's not something I can do often enough to really push forward.

I dunno...frustrated...

[BurroMountainStudio]

This was exactly my frustration while on the road. That's why I'm glad to be back in my own space and that I don't have to go anywhere! We full timed for almost 4 years. I enjoyed it but I'm really ready to just be a home body for awhile. I tried doing my jewelry making but to do that I had to constantly lift up the bed to get all my supplies.....which I then spread over our little 21 foot trailer. That meant there was no room to move around. Then I had to put it all away as soon as I was done. I did this 2 or 3 times and then no more during our travel in the last 5 months. I found out that crochet was easier for me. But, I wasn't designing patterns. That is something I want to get into more of also. I totally sympathize with you!