With the Wind in my Sails...

Please note that this will be a full out stream of consciousness post, well when Jack isn't harassing me to take him outside - woop there he goes! I would ignore him but now is his time to you know what...Also I have to run to work in an hour so if there are typos, I ran out of time and taking a shower was more important :)

Before I begin I want you to know that sometimes I struggle with what to share and what not to share on the world wide web but at heart this blog is and has always been a pretty open experience of a girl following her dreams and starting a business, and it would be an utter shame to keep the real meat and potatoes to myself. I guess sometimes I want everyone else to think everything is just easy-breezy in the life of Shorely Chic but as we all know nothing is always easy-breezy and there are periods of uncertainty and ups and downs. I have to admit that over the past few months with all that is going on in my personal life (getting married!) and crazy work life, I think the heart of my blog has suffered. I've taken a lot of myself out of my posting this summer for lack of time, and uncertainty with what I am doing. If you have noticed, I'm sorry and it's changing back over this morning :)

SO now for the meat and potatoes. Let me list out what's been going on in order of occurrence:

• got some big clients for decorating projects
• had to scale back to practically no hours at my corporate job in order to keep up with the decorating biz
• decided to open a studio/showroom in my friend's space 
• found out from the town that retail was not permitted on second floor space
• got an offer from an amazing designer to be her right hand this summer and help her with the MAJOR projects she has going on
• This weekend: decided to close the doors to the studio for a while and get back to the roots of Shorely Chic, the stress-free part I loved, CREATING products and selling them.

As you can see, there has been lots going on for this gal over at Shorely Chic Enterprises and some key decisions made. I arbored over these decisions and went into them with the attitude that nothing is forever, and with the opportunities falling into my lap, why say no?  I'm the type who would always wonder and regret not trying and in this time of my life when I could a afford to take these risks, it was a no brainer. 

The store: I LOVED having my items all in one place and I adored looking at that space. Being able to open the doors and let the world in to my vision was exhilarating. The tricky part was getting people in and having the stipulation from the town that no retail was permitted on the second floor. I tried it for a few months, had a fabulous party, and came out OK. The real trouble was the constant stress on me to make the numbers, balance working on my own decorating projects and working with the designer. Shorely Chic was starting to become a burden and I couldn't let that happen so I decided that now and under the circumstances of the physical location of the shop, was not the right time to have a space. 

I feel like a weight has been lifted, it's really incredible. Do I regret it? Not for a second. It was a ton of work and lots of $$ invested but if I didn't try it, I would kick myself. I learned so much and enjoyed some of the time I was there, minus the stress over the balance sheet and giving away all my spare time. 

I am moving forward and have some amazing ideas in store... you just wait!!!

LOVE YOU ALL & thank you so much for listening. I needed to get this out and get back to myself.