If I’ve learned one essential truth about life, it’s that it’s unpredictable.

I thought I was mostly done with faux finishing. Maybe I’d take a little job here or there if it appealed. But then, BAM. Suddenly a humongous job plopped in my lap, and not only that, it was an ASAP sort of situation. I immediately shifted into high gear, measuring rooms with a toddler strapped to my back, sneaking off to the office to type up proposals while he plays with his action figures, dashing out to interview subcontractors, running to the insurance office to reinstate my policy, on the phone every two minutes placing orders and blah blah.

If you’ve been reading my blog you know how I feel about all this. E Custom Cardsis my future and my passion, but a big painting job can really help me right now. The timing is actually kind of perfect because I was just about to make some bigger marketing moves for ECC but right now it’s not so busy that I can’t do both, as long as I have help (and I did find someone).

Even so, it’s already a little overwhelming. Having a toddler and keeping the house running while Mike works 7 days a week provide me with plenty to do on their own, but I also have to keep making cards, keep blogging, keep making a little noise on Twitter and the blog world, stay on top of my email, and now order materials on time, make samples, develop new finishes I’ve never even tried before, train and supervise a new hire, and put some time on the job site doing some of the actual work too. So, yeah… whoa.

However, I keep thinking of this one part in Tina Fey’s book Bossypants (so good! Mike got it for me for Mother’s Day) where she talks about what improv comedy taught her about life. One of the rules of improv is that you always say “Yes, and…” – meaning that you agree to what the last person was saying, and then add something of your own to it. This has always been my approach to running a business, whether faux finishing or drawing: if you ask me can I do it, I say yes, and then I figure out how to make it happen. To me, the answer is (almost never) no… I might not know how I’m going to pull it off when I say I will do it, but I know that I will figure it out. This is the philosophy that frequently makes me feel like I am riding across a flaming tightrope on a unicycle while juggling a set of kitchen knives, but it’s also my strength.

Will I make it through this with a shred of sanity left? Yes, and… stay tuned.