The Weight of Money

I’ve been racking my brain to come up with some ways to make money working at home and finally I’m going to act on one of them. This is a zero investment opportunity that couldn’t be more ideal or come at a better time and all I had to do was put the idea out there. I will be flying out of state and spending a week learning traditional native arts & crafts. I will come home with the supplies I need to get started making items and already have a retail place secured to sell the items I make. I know there is indeed a market for these items because it is the high market demand that is making this all possible.

My mother runs her own custom sewing business that caters to traditional and ceremonial sewing for the local tribe in her area. For several years, she has also run an alterations business at the same time, but has finally had to turn customers away because custom sewing pays more and she just doesn’t have the time to do both. We’ve talked many times about how impossible it is for her to keep part-time help and how she can’t reach her shop dreams without additional assistance. For over a year we’ve talked about the idea of me making some items that she can sell, but over-the-phone descriptions of the items aren’t clear enough and there are limited online resources for seeing exactly what she wants me to make. So, I’m just going to go out there and learn what I need to learn.

My mother is so excited and eager to have help that she was willing to buy my plane ticket (which she can then write off as a business expense), willing to set me up with all the supplies I’ll need to get started, and was willing to let me show up without her precious grand baby (the daughter). I will be able to pay her back for the supplies when things sell.

She is going to be showing me some of the traditional beadwork and also set up a private lessons with a local expert bead artist that she’s been wanting to learn from but just hasn’t had the time. I’ll also be learning how to make some the ribbon shirts and other non-jewelry items. She wants to build the retail offering in her store and needs someone able to make high quality items to sell.

Hopefully, by teaching me these things, she’ll get some retail stock and I’ll be able to sell there and online if I choose. Also, I’ll be using the winter to get ready for the summer PowWow and dance season. This is a quiet time of year for ceremonial sales but since I won’t be footing any of the initial start-up costs, it is a win-win situation for me. We decided that a week would be enough time to learn everything I’ll need to know and practice making some of the shirts (I’m sure this is just her way of getting some free labor out of me while I’m there *grin*).

Now, in addition to hopefully providing some supplemental income, I’ll also get to hand down the traditions to the daughter as well. A major plus since so many of these arts are fading away because none of the kids want to continue them. Now, the tribe my mom lives near is not our tribe. There are tribal specific arts and styles that will make this work different than work traditional to our family’s tribe. However, seeing as how so much is fading away, I’m sure the daughter won’t ming learning another groups ways, especially not when it is the group she sees most when visiting in Oklahoma. Plus, many of the skills translate well but the patterns and styles are tribe specific and my mom has learned that each group tends to buy only within their tradition — hence why I have a beautiful shawl with Seminole patchwork in my closet that my mom let me borrow and never wanted back because she knew it wasn’t going to sell.

I’m so excited!

What do you do when you think you might have made a very big financial mistake that will take about a year to impart full impact? This is not a situation you can avoid nor will you know for certain that it will happen (yet). Instead, you have reasonable indications that this is possible and are now facing the choice of wether or not to start stressing about it or not.

Now, I like to plan ahead and know when the world is going to fall apart. I tend to let my mind run away with those little indications and go ahead and plan for the worse. Right now, I’m wondering if this possibility will alter my course of action in terms of jobs or not.

I know, I’m being vague — and the coffee shop is putting away it’s chairs and I should be heading out — but I want input without revealing the actual problem, probably not the best combination.

The partner and I start our combine spending this month and it’ll be… interesting. Since I’ve got no job and since we rented a place before I knew what he actually brings home, we’re in the red this month. So, I’ll toss over some of my savings to cover what I should be bringing home and we’ll both get skinny on spending.

It is a pretty heated issue because, for him, it is so much change at once. Change banks, change direct deposit, change amount in his account, change spending methods (I don’t do cash, he does), and I think there is a lot of teeth gritting going on. But, we’re going to do it and we’re going to do it right. :)

Of course, the money isn’t actually in the account to spend yet — he needs to pull from his personal account and I need to pull from mine, but we’re at least going to get started this month.

Looking at our -$700 for a conservative month of spending, I’ve got to get moving on that job thing. More interviews next week, still nothing from the ones I’ve had. My moral career decision making just got a new kick since I’m seeing just how red we are right now. So much for holding out for the right organization, time to take one and then go from there.