I was listening to a presentation I had created for a client's business. I was a fan of a particular musical artist. I wanted to give back to the fans, and bam!, a brilliant idea came to me: make jewelry with the sound waves I see on my screen. Ok, so that's the short version...

I then had to figure out how to make jewelry. Yep, that's right, I had never made a piece of jewelry in my life (save for the gum wrapper bracelets and necklaces I made in my youth).

I knowwwww, right? Cray!

Ok, so I found metal clay and screamed aloud (I do that often; poor electronic equipment in my office and poor dog [get ready for his name: iPawd]) "I can do that! I can! I can!"

*tap tap tap*

::: pops popcorn :::

wait for it.........

I had to buy a ............... KILN.

Wait, what? A KILN?

If you guessed I'd never used a kiln before, you'd guess right.

I knowwwww, right? Cray!

Okay, so I bought the darn kiln, bought some metal clay, bought some basic tools, designed some pieces of jewelry in Photoshop, had rubber stamps made to make the pieces, and built a web site with HTML and PayPal.

Oh, you should've seen me learn how to use all these things. Just imagine a Dork Woman (I run into everything and say & do the dorkiest things!) trying to make a strip out of clay and attaching to the back of a rectangle clay piece. Or trying to cut a darned rectangle without a guide. Believe me, there was nothing that was a pretty sight. Nothing.

I opened three months later.

I knowwwww, right? Cray!

I made several sales immediately and got tons (really!) of love over my jewelry. I was so excited.

And scared.

I had no idea what I was doing.

But I persevered and just kept doing.

And pretended I actually knew what I was doing.

I got my first custom design commission, was a nervous wreck, and wanted to close my shop because I just knew everyone would discover that I was no artist[e] at all - just a seriously cray delusional woman. But...

I just acted like I knew what I was doing.

I knowwwww, right? Cray!

Fast forward and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds (ok, so probably thousands) of hours later, I learned how to use my kiln and work with almost every type and brand of metal clay out there.
I bought countless tools, organized my office differently, became comfortable calling my office my studio, calling one of my desks my bench, and most important, calling myself an artist[e].
I perfected a new method of creating with metal clay and wrote, edited, and produced a three hour instructional video guide to teach the method (and created The Coolest video trailer to promote it), moved from Twitter to Facebook, and tested & documented a new company's version of metal clay...
Oh, and read (hmmm, consumed eagerly would be more like it) everything I could from fellow artists, both struggling and revered.
I learned to sell on Amazon, eBay, and struggled with creating a brand new WordPress website for almost an entire year.
I just DID. Because I'm just like that.

In between all that, I mothered young men from all over my city because they discovered I could help them with mental health issues, dealt with continuing family crises, made new friends, loved new friends and my family ferociously, read a lot, listened to lots of music, visited WalMart way too often, built stuff (DIYer at work), fell off a ladder re-painting my ceiling, and...

Laughed and Cried. A Lot.

In the end, I discovered...

I'm more than a businesswoman. More than an artist[e]. More than a mama, wife, daughter...

I am WOMAN, WEAR me roar!

(and I can do anything I set my mind to do!)

I knowwwww, right? Cray!