Dreams Can Work, a small blog about small creative businesses

Well, it's sort of in a fit state to see now, though it needs a whole lot more work (and ouch, I cannot change some of the colours that I want to - oh well, that'll have to wait). I am enjoying this but actually finding it quite demanding. But it's good, it's making me read and think and - quite honestly - this blog is as much about pushing that side of myself as anything else. http://www.dreamscanwork.com (this is a redirect and I've only just set it up, so it may not work for another 24 hours) It's been quite a summer. Sometime I will post about my boring (but for me incredibly stressful) struggle with trying to put right a mistake that my solicitors made about ten years ago - entirely their fault and a bad mistake with huge consequences for me. It's been nightmarish at times and it's not what I needed this year, but oh well, shit happens and all that. Anyway, I am getting it sorted, and it's been great while it's all going on to just focus on indulging some of my own textile desires (no-one does a decent Alice cushion, so now I have - and I have two for myself) and on the issues around getting a creative business off the ground in current times. This is the third time I've got a studio going and interestingly, it's the most successful. Certainly not in monetary terms, but very much so in terms of enjoyment, satisfaction and a feeling that I'm finally doing what I really want to. I work very long hours, but I'm not very stressed. In fact, I am so much more laid back and calm than I used to be that it's almost a joke. I also suspect that Baba Studio is actually more stable than any studio I've run before - I think this time we built the foundations much more slowly and in a considered way. It feels solid. Every so often Alex says to me, "Do you ever think what I might be doing if I hadn't met you?" and I say, "Well, what about me if I hadn't met you?" and he always says, "Well, you would be running your own studio, but I might well not be." We're lucky - our skills and interests are very complementary. But he says that in the end, I am the one that knows how to begin a business (though I strongly suspect that he is the one who knows how to keep it running efficiently) and in a way, yes, it's true. So it's nice to pass on some thoughts and things I've learned - even though I shudder a bit at actually encouraging anyone else to follow my ways of doing things which often verge on being driven by a strange mix of passion, fear and desire, rather than organised and planned in any clean, clear way. Anyhow, the blog is begun. Though I make no claims for it.