Oh! My! Goodness!
Seriously, oh my freaking goodness!
My giant face above says it all.... I won second prize in the Oh My Handmade Goodness fabulous giveaway! I
knew about this contest starting on the first day it was announced
- lots of mentoring, branding, and marketing prizes - definitely
things I would love to have for manusmade. I'd be a lucky girl to
have any of the prizes that were being bundled into huge
giveaways! I pondered for weeks on my entry, and even got
down to writing down a few points - what are the things I'm proud
of? what are things I have done to move my business forward? where
does my creativity shine?
My list looked like a list. It bored me to tears,
literally.
I let it sit for a week. I almost didn't apply, thinking my
entry was crap. Then I re-read the blog post where Jessika explained the contest.
I read it over and over, and something jumped out at me - I could
be creative, I could write it by hand!!!!!
I LOVE writing by hand!
For my day job, I write by hand all the time - as I listen to
people telling their stories, I record both the stories and my
thoughts by hand. Even my day planner is by hand - I carry around a
giant calendar and squish everything into each day's box by hand.
The very first note I left for my supervisor at my first big girl
job was written by hand.
It's how I think, and create. It's my freaking business name,
for goodness sake! ['manus' is latin for 'hand']
So I thought about writing my entry by hand. And then I worried
about mailing it to Jessika and it getting to her in time for the
end of the contest, you know with Christmas and all. And then I
remembered the scanner in my office, and laughed at myself for
being so impossibly slow when it comes to technology. So I did my
entry by hand, even pulled out some pencil crayons, and drew silly
drawings. And then I scanned it [thrilled that I remembered how to
do it....] and uploaded it to the Cloud and wished it luck and sent
it on its way.
By hand, I could be personal and write from the heart. And
Jessika and the sponsors of the contest saw that and were drawn to
it.
I can't learn the lesson of being authentic and
completely myself enough times. My inner goofball
helped me out and I love her for it.
I can't wait to grow even more in 2012.
BTW, if you want to read my entry, it's here.