Review of Making Motion by Tara Gentile

If you have been following along with this blog in the last few months, you have probably read (far too many times!) that for a variety of reasons I have felt stuck and unsure how to proceed in my life, business, etc. I seem to take 1 step forward and then I would fall 2 steps back.

I am happy to announce that I no longer feel stuck. I’m moving forward with some great new ideas, new products and fresh new pendants! I have a couple hundred –NEW- pendants in progress right now!


How did I get in motion again, you ask?


Well, for one, I have been taking Tara Gentile’s (of scoutie girl) Art of Action course. It is such a great space for learning and support.  It has helped to get in me in action. Bonus:  I’ve made connections that I’ll have the rest of my life.

Tara also wrote the eBook Making Motion. I read it and worked on the worksheets all in one sitting. It made everything click for me.  Then I got up and started those couple hundred pendants. Sunday morning, 6:30 a.m. before anything had a chance to stop me.

I had a clearly defined action to take after reading Making Motion.  I knew what I needed to do to get in motion.  I took that action.

See, I have this huge problem of infinite time of “gathering information.” I research and research and, if I am being honest with myself, it’s really just procrastination from making decisions. I’m always afraid I’ll make the wrong one. Somehow, somewhere deep down inside I feel like if I don’t actually make a decision - if I don't make the "motion" or act - I can’t make the wrong choice. Like making the wrong decision would be the end of the world or something.

If you are feeling unable to move forward in any aspect of your life, I highly recommend Tara’s eBook Making Motion.  It’s only $8 and it is worth much more!

Now, go get yourself a copy of Making Motion (just click on the photo above) and get yourself in motion!

Full disclosure: I am an affiliate. However, I wouldn’t be an affiliate unless I felt 100% behind the product! It’s really good stuff.

Get Unstuck!

I have recently gotten myself "unstuck".

It all started late last November when I moved and lost my nice, large studio.  First, I just wasn't sure HOW to work in my new space.  Then I started to wonder what the next step in my business should be.  Not sure if I should add more of a variety products or narrow down my focus, but I knew a change is what I wanted, I felt even more stuck.  

I couldn't decide what to do next, so I just stayed stuck.  For a couple of months I remained action-less for the most part.

Then one day I knew I had to make a decision and take action, whatever that action was.  I made a list and started completing tasks and checking things off of it.  

I'm still coming out of the "stuckness" slowly, but surely.  I am moving ahead and acting and eventually I will be be actually realizing my dreams instead of just dreaming them.

Tara Gentile of scoutiegirl wants to help you take action (and get unstuck!)

Click here to view more details

How to Change The World With Your Money {Your Money is Your Vote...Who do ya Choose?}

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BUiLDiNG CHARACTER, one of my favorite local businesses

Today on scoutie girl, Tara brings up a very interesting subject, very near and dear to my heart.  Change the world with your money.  

I've talked about how important I think it is to support local small businesses and farms before.  I think it's not just important, but essential.  I also know that it's not always easy and I'm far from perfect.  But I do try to give thought to my purchases.  Actually, it's such a part of me now that it doesn't even occur to me to go to big stores like Wal-Mart (yes we've all read about my hatred of that corporation enough times) for anything.  People ask me where do I get things if I don't shop there.  I get confused because I can't figure out why anyone would even want to go into those stores.  

What struck me more today when reading the scoutie girl post, was how someone put it so perfectly by explaining that we are voting with our money.  I think it is such a more succinct way to put it.  I don't have a ton of extra money to spend.  When I spend it, I want it to count.  I want to vote for the small guys who earn a decent living as opposed to voting for sweat shops overseas.  I want to vote for my community earning money.  I want to vote for fresh food from people who are trying to earn a decent living, not people who are trying to take advantage of the people who are trying hard to earn a decent living.  I want to vote for handmade.

Even if I can only make a small impact, if many of us work together, we can make a bigger impact.  And, in fact, by supporting local, handmade, small businesses, our "small impact" has an even bigger impact to that person.  

How I Came to Support Local and Handmade Small Businesses

Eastern Market forced inside due to the rain

Today a post on the scoutie girl blog really inspired me (as it often does!)  Regina Morrison had a guest post, "ya don't get it til you're in it" that really resonated with me.  It so clearly says how I feel, too.

Regina described her experience in a cubicle surrounded by bitterness (which eerily reminded me of a job that will remain nameless) and how she decided to funnel her energy into something that she enjoyed more.  You can read her whole post on scoutie girl.

Big Box Stores vs. Local

Some of you would be shocked to know that I actually used to shop at that one big box store that I now loathe quite often, though it has been many years since I have shopped there now.  I have known for quite some time that it is better to get my food from local sources as much as possible.  One of my most favorite foods is corn on the cob, and I can't imagine getting it anywhere but by the side of the road in a wagon next to a cornfield.  I anxiously await for its arrival each year.  Living in a place like Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with Eastern and Central Markets, you really don't have to try that hard to find a great variety of local food.

What really did it for me....

However, even after I stopped shopping at that horrible store, and even knowing that local farm food is really the best, I didn't turn to handmade and local for my other needs right away.  (Or at least for most of my other needs, anyway.)  I think it did take me starting my own small business to realize how important it is to support local business and handmade.

 

Like Regina said on scoutie girl today, "ya don't get it til you're in it."  (Actually, I think some people do get it who aren't in it.)  Once I was really relying on my business as my main source of income it really cemented the importance supporting local and art really is.  Yes, I was following my dream, but it's hard work.  I have to do 5 times the amount of work to make make the same amount of money as I did working for someone else.  

Sometimes more.  

Sometimes for no pay at all.  

So, if I am shopping for something anyway, why wouldn't I help out the little guy who is working as hard as I am?

Once I started my business I started to pay more attention to the world around me.  I found Building Character, whose purpose was so aligned with my thoughts on reusing and recycling, I had to be a part of it!  Now it's a whole collection of different handmade, antique and clothing from a bunch of local people in addition to the architectural salvage.

Make your spending count!

I think that a lot of us have had to do more with less, myself included.  I even left my full-time day job in the middle of a recession and now find myself working part-time again.  How I spend that hard-earned money is even more important to me now.  Yes, I could run to a big box store and get 2 or maybe 3 things instead of 1 handmade or local item.  But do I even really want those 2 or 3 things?  For me, the answer is a definite NO.  I want that one special item.  I also want to know that I am making a difference to the person I am buying the item from.

Make a change

I can understand and have heard every reason that people still go for the quick, cheap stuff.  Maybe if everyone just slowly started to gradually change their spending habits, it would make a difference.  Just starting to think about a small business for certain things one at a time would make a difference.

My Childhood Inspiration: Outta the Way

This week we scout wednesday on scoutie girl is "what's your childhood inspiration?"

The thing is, I think a culmination of different things and activities from my childhood really shape who I am and what I do and I can't say it's one book or one experience.

I have talked about my mom and her crafty influence on me.  She was always making something and sold her crafts at craft shows.  I've also talked about my dad's handiness and recycling and my grandmother's love of flowers and how that's all shaped how I feel about the planet and why I make upcycled jewelry.

But today, in honor of summer vacations, I would like to talk about Outta the Way.

For those of you who don't know, my boyfriend and I write a travel zine called Outta the Way.  Actually, he writes it, I take the photos and put it together.  We both love traveling to strange "out of the way" places.  When we started going on our trips, I didn't really think about where I might get this urge from.  Recently when taking a little road trip with my parents over a weekend we were visiting them, it all came back to me.  While growing up, we would go on car rides all the time.  My dad would point out interesting things along the way.  I loved this as a kid.  I still love this today.  

Each summer my parents would take us on vacation.  While most of my friends either didn't go on vacation every summer, or they would go on the same beach trip every year, my parents thought that it was important to take my brother and I different locations and expose us to as much as the world as they could afford to show us.  I loved vacation, but I don't think I realized how cool my parents were for taking us on them.  Now, while our funds are very limited for this sort of thing, we try to make sure we show my step-daughter as many different places as we can, even if it's just a road trip on the weekend.  That's really why Jim and I started Outta the Way.  To show people there is so much to do without spending too much money.

If my parents hadn't taken me on different car rides and interesting vacations, I'm not sure that I would think to do them now.  I wouldn't have taken the tens of thousands of photos I have taken of the gorgeous, abandoned, historical or just plain weird places we have been to.  

Our Disposable Culture

Today I was reading Scoutie Girl, and this post about disposable culture & our fear of commitment struck me.

I encourage you to read the article on Scoutie Girl.

My business is all about reusing what others no longer want.  My life is about that, too, in as many ways as possible.  I talked about my dad's influence on my recycling ideals previously.  It has been ingrained in my to NOT make disposable choices.  Sometimes in our culture it is difficult to find things that aren't packaged for convenience or made to be disposable.  Sometimes we have to be uncomfortable or inconvenienced in order to live a less disposable life.

Some things that people buy without a second thought, I do truly think about before purchasing.  I try to use everything I buy to it's fullest extent.  More importantly, I try to buy as much as I can locally from farmers, artisans or local businesses before I resort to other stores.  There are some stores I have been boycotting for years.  Yes, it's less convenient, but it's important.

When I buy something, I do commit to it.  When I was younger and first started working and making money, I would buy whatever I thought was cute or I thought I wanted, and then I would have this large collection of things I didn't want or need.  (In my own defense, I didn't throw the stuff out - I either donated it or sold it at a yard sale.)  Now, though, every purchase I make is thought about.  If it's not something I will truly use, need or love, I don't buy it.  But, the things I do buy, I cherish and use to their full extent.

Even my jewelry supplies are purchased with more thought and commitment.  I used to buy anything I thought was pretty and then I would bring them home and figure out what to do with them.  Not that I thought they were disposable in a literal "throw away" sense, but I guess I didn't really think about them sitting around for years if I didn't use them.  Now I usually know why I am buying a certain supply.  Of course, there are times I just go for it, but only if I truly think I'll use the supply.  

Now most of my jewelry components come from people who ask me if I want something that they are getting rid of or from auctions or sales where people are clearing out their own disposable items.  I try to make them less disposable for the next person who gets them.

Here are a couple of awesome Lancaster, PA resources for finding things to reuse:

Lancaster Creative Reuse

This is a nonprofit organization that is coming soon!!  yay!!  to Lancaster, PA.  They will connect business and individual scraps/leftovers/etc. to anyone who can use them at a low price.  I'm so glad to see an organization really trying to lessen the disposable nature of our culture.

Habitat for Humanity Restore

This is a store that is not only helping out families who need it, but also are encouraging reuse while doing so!  B.B. Bellezza secret - I get supplies and displays here.  You can get all kinds of home improvement items from toilets to windows to doors to tile to hardware....

Trains

This post was inspired by a post on scoutie girl:  planes, trains, automobiles & bikes.  Tara's post reminded me of my childhood and "flying" everywhere on my bike.  I haven't rode a bike in years, but I certainly feel like I have been missing out.

Trains

I have been fascinated by trains lately.  We took a trip out to Western Pennsylvania in the fall, and saw the marvel of the Horseshoe Curve.  (Apparently, we missed the best part because the park was closed when we were there, so we didn't get to go up actually in the curve.) Two trains actually pass by either other around the curve.  The front of the train and rear of the train are right across from each other at one point.

(I also found the graffiti on the trains intriguing.)

We also visited a railroad tunnel that basically went under an entire town!

We waited and waited for a train, were about to give up, and then.....we heard the whistle!  It took a while before we saw the lights in the tunnel for the train.  It was so exciting to see the train after so much anticipation!

While I am not an avid railroad buff by any means, I do enjoy trains.  I think the reason is because trains are such a large part of our history and such an amazing technology at the time of their invention.  To think of how they transformed transportation and the places people, and commodities, could go.  We definitely take this for granted now.

There is also something so alluring and romantic about the whoosh of this large machinery rushing by you, trying to figure where it's going and where it's coming from.  Traveling by train is also magical because you can feel the tracks under you, and hear the clicking (not to mention that you don't have to worry about driving!)

This is the Howard Tunnel in York County on Rails to Trails.  It used to be used for trains, but now it's for walking!

Spring

IMG_6619, originally uploaded by B.B. Bellezza.

As you probably have noticed, it's flower week here at the B.B. Bellezza blog! So when I saw this scoutie girl post about spring, I thought it fit in perfectly!

The photo above I actually took last spring at the Silver Mines in Pequea, PA, when the flowers first started popping out. I haven't actually seen flowers appearing here yet, although some of my daffodils are starting to have little sprouts.

Spring holds a special place in my heart. It's a signal that we have survived another winter! I don't mean that so much literally, as I mean mentally. The snow has melted (or at least melting....), the sun is out and the thermometer is heading up. We can shed off our big winter coats and be free!

(Share how you see spring on the scoutie girl blog!)