Thursday, August 23, 2018

The Next Chapter Begins...

Hello Everyone!  I have very exciting news to share with you!  After much deliberation, Eliot and I have decided that it's time for me to begin a new chapter in our lives.  I am leaving my job and I will be running Happily Ever Hatter (and our new businesses!) full time!  This has not been an easy decision, and it's been one that I've been struggling with for some time now.  We finally made the decision back in June, and I've been dying to make the announcement here on my blog.


Yesterday, I went into work for my last official day seeing our patients.  I still have to go in a few days next week (while the office is closed for vacation) to tie up loose ends, finish training my replacement, and to clean out my stuff... then, I'll be home full time.  

I have absolutely loved working at the chiropractic office these last four years.  The doctors I have worked with are all an inspiration.  Their passion for chiropractic and our patients never ceases to amaze me.  Working with them has been a privilege.  And what can I say about our patients other than that they're incredible.  It's been really hard saying goodbye to everyone.  I've gotten a lot of hugs and tons of well wishes and it's so encouraging to hear how proud they are of me to be going after my dreams.


To be totally honest, the past few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions for me.  I'm so excited about this new chapter in my life, but I'm also terrified at the same time.  Being fully self-employed can be freeing, but it's also a little overwhelming.

This feels right though.  I always knew that I wanted to run my creative businesses full time.  My parents run their own accounting business, and both sets of my grandparents ran their own businesses too.  I've always said that running my own business(es) is in my blood.  I've never pictured myself doing anything else long term.  This has always been my eventual goal.  It just came a lot sooner than I ever imagined.

It's been a year and a half since 3D printed ears became a big business and our shop, Happily Ever Hatter, has kept us so busy.  Eliot and I have barely had time to stop and smell the roses.  We've been trying to take more time for ourselves, and we did more this summer than we did last year.  But, we still spend a good part of our weekends working on ears and we spend most of the evening working on them as well.  I'm hoping that with me home full time, I can get most of it done during the day while he's at work.  We're looking forward to having more of a social life once we're caught up!


The future looks bright.  We've got plans to do some traveling over the next year and we're looking forward to seeing friends and family we haven't seen in a while.  We're hoping to get to a few UNE hockey games and to spend time with Elissa.  Portland has a new ECHL hockey team, the Maine Mariners, so we're planning to go to a few of those games.  In addition, we're actually going to see our San Jose Sharks a few times this season!  I'm also hoping to get a lot of progress done on our house.  We still have so much to do, but finishing it doesn't seem so far off now.  Of course, we're looking forward to visiting Mickey Mouse a few times too!

With more time to focus on it, Happily Ever Hatter will continue to grow.  Eliot and I have so. many. ideas... I literally have lists of lists of them.  I'm excited to have more time to work on samples along with orders.  Plus, Eliot should have more design time now!  I'm really excited to see what we can accomplish in the next few months!

What I'm most excited about is that I'm going to have time to focus on our new businesses. I've been talking about these forever... and now I'm finally going to have time to work on them.  Eliot and I are planning to move forward quickly.  We're hoping to launch two of them in the next few months so they'll be ready for holiday orders!


Finally, I will actually have time to work on my blog!  I've decided to re-name and re-brand it, so I probably won't be diving in head first right away.  I'm hoping to get some behind the scenes stuff done before I get back into the swing of things.  But I'm really excited that it could be closer to it's potential soon!

So, today is the first day of the next chapter of my life.  I'm sure it will be an adventure but I'm ready for it.  And I think the universe is too.  Last night, when I left work, there was a small rainbow over the road as I drove away from my past and forward into the unknown of full-time self-employment.  I think it's a sign that I made the right decision. 

"Have faith in your dreams and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through."  °o°

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