Long Story Short

     Well its been well over a year since I last showed my face on here and I'm not sure where the time went. Last year was full of changes some good and some not so great.  But I won't bore you with the specifics, let's just say hello again and see what's new.

     The biggest change of all is our new business venture, metal signs and decor. We take sheets of steel and turn them into signs, ornaments, home decor and even brackets using a plasma table.  Deciding on that purchase was life changing and one of the many reasons life was in the fast lane these last 18 months.  I had no idea what we were getting into or what the response would be, but so far we've had positive feedback.

Plasma table hard at work, cutting some steel.

     We've done some shows, selling our metal art and now we've got an online shop on etsy to check it out click here, along with selling locally at The Coop de Ville and Forged n Found.  The requests for our custom metal wall hangings has been extraordinary to the point of having to put our listing for them on hold until we can catch up.  Our metal working sure has made an impact on our life and we are currently trying to expand on the fabrication part of it with making new projects. And in case anyone is wondering what my part is in this side hustle of ours is, theses are just a few things I do; design work, grinding pieces clean, posting on Instagram, cutting metal, organizing our work, sending out orders, and just about anything else that is needed to keep us going strong.  I'm not just a pretty face, I'm a hard working hustling boss lady and want to learn more skills like welding.

Cleaning up one of our metal pieces.

Our latest project, a branding iron.

     Our homestead journey continues along with our new metal life too.  We are still so new to this life of being business owners that the hardest part is juggling, a business, homestead projects, feeding the children and keeping up with laundry.  There are many weeks where we live out of clean clothes baskets because we just can't find the time for the final step of putting it away, but guess what we survive and it's all ok.  Running a business is no joke the toughest job around because if you're not working no money is coming in and you have to find the time to get everything done, we've discovered a new level of being tired.

Homesteading going strong with our garden.

     So yes we're still hear and going strong.  We have lots of balls in the air and at times we stumble but for the most part we've managed to keep them all going.  This winter we've got some big plans for the homestead, for example fencing in the lower part of it and getting our second well up and running for irrigation.  Plus we may have some new home decor signs up our sleeve.

Family photo of the most hard working family.

     One other big change is our presence on Instagram. We joined this amazing community quite a while ago but in the last year or so we've met some other incredible makers and inspiring people near and far.  It's funny that it took an app on my phone to meet people who lived so close to me.  The other incredible thing is the kindness we have found from so many individuals and how close we've become with them.  Our supporters and cheerleaders keep us going on the hard days and help us by spreading the word on what we do.  I promise to keep in better touch and make this blogging community a priority. I want to inspire the rest of the makers out there just starting out, the homesteaders who are wondering what they got themselves into and also help the moms and dads out there with some helpful tips on making parenthood just a bit easier.  It feels great to be back but now I have to get some metal design time in, until next time friends.

Angelina
Homestead Mama