Today was an extremely busy day, and I was thinking of skipping the days post, but I felt like I was abandoning my blog and I've only really been here for a week! I also want to thank everyone, I've reached 300 views yesterday! So anyways, I decided to stay loyal and write today; so here it is. My husband and I moved to Istanbul for work, but luckily, at least on my part we have a lot of free time. My husband is a workaholic and he hates this new work flow, but I don't mind. We've been working together for the past 6 years and actually met at work! We started our own mall business, you know those annoying kiosks at the mall, well those. We didn't sell hand creams, but we had a lot of kiosks, everything from jewelry, animal hats, scarves, pillow pets, air swimmers, helicopter, and more things that I can't even remember! We eventually started opening Christmas Ornament stores, and so we were always very busy. I was doing visual designs and storefront displays for our stores and other peoples stores. We moved to Turkey for a better opportunity, and my husbands brother took over things back in the U.S.
Back when I was 18, I was working as the marketing rep for a gourmet market, and I started doing all the design work, everything from the logo's, menu's, weekly flyers, billboards and even the storefront displays. I taught myself how to use Photoshop and Illustrator and actually really really loved my job! After opening our own business, I didn't really get an opportunity besides making the occasional logo or flyers for the kiosks and stores. I'm actually a very visual person and when I was younger, probably around 12-13, I would play a computer game where I would design my own magazines, so I guess I always had a love for design. Over the years with school and working, I never really had time for myself and my passions, and I really am a person that has a passion for a lot of things and there's so many things that interest me and I always want to do it all. When that happens things start getting confusing and in the end I end up doing nothing really.
Two years ago I decided I wanted to paint and took a trip to Michael's, bought myself everything I needed and I started painting. I was always great at drawing, but until then I never actually got into painting. In our old apartment we had a loft area with an extra room, which I made my office and that's where I put all my paint supplies.(I'm going to do a house tour soon, so you'll see all of them.) I imagined it as my studio, just to get into the mood! Ha,ha. Anyways, I would go upstairs to my "studio" and paint, and I really enjoyed it, until one day I saw a huge stink bug! I am such a girl when it comes to bugs; I hate them. They freak me out! You can't squish a stink bug either because it's going to smell, or so that's what my extensive research said. I probably spent 30 minutes searching the internet trying to figure out what kind of bug I was dealing with. After seeing the bug I ran downstairs and waited for my husband to come home. When he got home we went upstairs so he could get it out of the house, and we realized it was already dead. I had those electronic pest repellers all around the house (I like to be prepared), so I'm guessing that was the reason it was dead. But after that day I never really got into the mood again. I would sit on the floor and just paint, and I just couldn't do that again, at least not comfortably. Pathetic right? I am a paranoiac seriously! So I never got to fulfill my passion for painting. I also couldn't enjoy my "studio" the same way again, I went upstairs less frequently. I then decided I wanted to be a interior designer(i'm a marketing major) and was determined that I should apply to FIT. Back when I was in high school, interior design was what I wanted as a major, but my father thought it was a bad idea. He said it's a man's job, and I don't know why, but I listened to him. Anyways, I thought that it's not too late for anything and decided to apply. I missed the first deadline, but I was drafting away. Spending hours getting my portfolio together. So now I have a portfolio but we moved to Istanbul and I never completed my application. To make a long story short, I have so many passions and I try to fulfill them all. Is it a bad thing? I'm not sure. It probably has its advantages and disadvantages, but oh well! I doubt I'll ever change.
Ever since we moved to Istanbul, I've been wanting to do something on the side. I love Etsy so much and I think it's such a great platform and I love shopping there, so I thought why not open up my own shop. I was thinking of selling jewelry because I have experience with it, both selling and making. I think I got into the jewelry making hobby around the age of 14.
There was a huge Bouji expo here in Istanbul and I tried visiting, but by the time I got there it was over, so that never happened. As I was researching different options that I can buy supplies from and trying to figure out how the postal service here works because everything is harder here. USPS in America is great! When I was selling on Amazon, it was soo easy but I realized it wasn't going to be that easy here and then I found something else I can do! Invitations and Stationery and maybe even prints! The great part is that Etsy let's you sell them digitally, so I don't have to deal with the post office! For the past few days I've been working on making invitations and I set up my shop, Hearts & Couture and I already have 8 invitations. I'm going to share 3 of my designs with you. I still have about 50-60 more to go, so wish me luck! In case you look at my shop, I'm still working on it, learning the best ways to upload the invitations and what not. I realized I missed working on graphic design and hopefully this is what I'll be doing for a while, at least until I find something else that I enjoy more.
There was a huge Bouji expo here in Istanbul and I tried visiting, but by the time I got there it was over, so that never happened. As I was researching different options that I can buy supplies from and trying to figure out how the postal service here works because everything is harder here. USPS in America is great! When I was selling on Amazon, it was soo easy but I realized it wasn't going to be that easy here and then I found something else I can do! Invitations and Stationery and maybe even prints! The great part is that Etsy let's you sell them digitally, so I don't have to deal with the post office! For the past few days I've been working on making invitations and I set up my shop, Hearts & Couture and I already have 8 invitations. I'm going to share 3 of my designs with you. I still have about 50-60 more to go, so wish me luck! In case you look at my shop, I'm still working on it, learning the best ways to upload the invitations and what not. I realized I missed working on graphic design and hopefully this is what I'll be doing for a while, at least until I find something else that I enjoy more.
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