Hello World! Part Three: Starting

(This is part three of my blog introduction series.  Catch up with parts one and two)

To say something changed is a little bit of an understatement.  A lot of things changed.  We made a huge cross-country move from the southern Gulf Coast region to Idaho.  My husband got laid off soon after we moved.  We both worked minimum wage jobs for a few months until he was able to land a job in law enforcement.   I found out I was pregnant with our third child and we also bought a house...all within the last eleven months.

Needless to say, all the change and insecurity and frustration and doubt and craziness that happened somehow changed me.  Shaped my heart.  The weeks of stretching our budget taught me creativity and oddly, contentment.  Learning how to make new friends in a new town has given me courage and made me brave.  Taking on a leadership position at my job and learning new things gave me confidence.    

I honestly don't remember the moment I decided to set up shop on Etsy...for real this time.  Blame it on the pregnancy, I guess!  After years of on-and-off planning and over thinking, one day I simply decided it was time and I was going to do it.  This blog post gave me the extra shove I needed to just START, for once. 

As I said before, I had been doubting my skills and lacking courage to put my creativity on display for others to see.  I'm just me....nothing special.  I was right, I AM just me.  But turns out, Just Me is strong.  Just Me is creative.  And for the first time Just Me was fired up enough to take the plunge and go for it.  The fear that shackled my dream was gone and I was all of a sudden ready to create and share and hopefully, make my new shop into something special!

So now we have The Ruffled Pear.  And this little blog to go along with it.  It's not perfect but it's something.  We all have to start somewhere, usually somewhere insignificant and ordinary, from what I can tell.  But that doesn't mean we can't grow and make our business, our lives, something beautiful and inspiring.  We just have to start.

Hello World! Part One: What This Blog Is All About

Hi there!

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Jessica.  I am the owner of a cute little Etsy shop - The Ruffled Pear - and am the mother of almost three kids (the third is due this Fall).  I am married to a pretty awesome guy.  I love Jesus.  Also, dark chocolate, reading and spending way too much time browsing Pinterest and Etsy.

I am a little nervous about starting this whole blog deal.  I mean, I'm me.  I'm not incredibly amazing.  I'm pretty darn normal actually.  But for some reason I can't leave the idea of blogging alone.  Just like that little entrepreneurial itch that kept surfacing over and over until I FINALLY launched The Ruffled Pear.  Four years in the making, y'all.

It comes down to this:

We are all unique.  We all have something special to share with the world, no matter how "normal" or "average" we feel.  Our life experiences are incredibly unique and so worthy of being shared with others.

I believe that about others and I believe that about myself.  So with a deep breath and a lot of borrowed confindence I present to you The Ruffled Pear blog.

What can you expect to find around here?  A combination of things, really.   The Ruffled Pear Blog exists as a place for me to tell my story as a creative mother.  Everything from starting and running a homegrown business, to mothering, to integrating creativity into daily life, will be talked about here.  I promise to share honestly the struggles, the joys, the challenges, the accomplishments because it's all beautiful and all worth it.   If any of these things resonate with you please, follow along!  Share your advice.  We are in this together!

(Part two is coming next!  Get to know more about me and my creative journey!)