The past twenty four months has brought with it some amazing ventures. The opportunity to work with some incredibly beautiful brides, the opportunity to do some work for Elmwood Gardens and participate in my first bridal show! 2012 busted in with excitement as well and also with my heart leaning heavily towards wanting to illustrate more and bake less. The amount of time I have to do the artsy stuff is pretty limited, but crave so much more. A constant struggle. Right now it seems God has put 3 main courses on my plate. Working for the most amazing music minister ever, being a wife and being a mom. The baking and drawing seem to be the ‘sides.’
Earlier in the year, it became time to think through some hard thoughts about all of that. Thoughts, dreams, plans, the future. And since the mega bazillion-oid lottery didn’t pan out, opening that bakery with my name on it and an artists studio above it wasn’t in the foreseeable future. (wink) After much thought, prayer and family discussion, it became increasingly evident that the baking is what needed to give. Without being able to devote my full time to it, it just wasn’t cost effective. But still couldn’t decide what to do.
I stumbled on an amazing opportunity at the first of the year – one that my family encouraged me like crazy to be a part of. It was a consulting class with the great and amazingly talented Holli Conger! An opportunity to be advised, directed and ask all the questions I could dream of – to learn about copyrighting, licensing, branding, and so much more. I was again stretched and stretched and stretched. Confirming yet again, it was time to focus more on illustrating. Finding Making the time to draw, is such a struggle for me – especially when there are so many pulls and tugs in other directions AND when I see how big the hill is to climb…sigh. It is easy to become discouraged and overwhelmed. However, it was such a freeing moment when I announced that the baking/Crumbs portion of me would be taking an indefinite break. Ahhhhh. Of course, that’s when I had several calls within one week’s time for cake orders! Isn’t that about right?! But I tried to focus and remember to just say no. Such a hard thing. Such a hard thing. And whether that means permanently or temporarily, only God knows. Thank you though to all of my sweet, loyal Crumbs fans. You have been some great supporters and cheerleaders and I am forever grateful!
As part of my fast and furious eight week consulting class with Holli, I was encouraged to think about using my name as my business title, for illustration work, instead of say, Crumbs & Crayons. It’s funny that I remember James’ aunt mentioning years and years ago that she wished she had used her name for her antique business rather than a catchy title. That always stuck with me. However, it makes me very self conscious to have my name as the title of everything. EEK. But, that is what needed to be done. After finding an available domain name, Charlotte Taylor Creates is where we are now. It is what the saga has brought us to. And we will see where it takes us from here. I hope you’ll tag along in the journey.
