ENCORE CAREERS?Soda Jerk to Ms Ficklesticks? Stuffed pigs anyone? The boat is sailing AWAY

I am pretty sure that my life has been a series of encore careers. If any of these jobs could actually be called CAREERS. Some of these jobs I wasn't even very good at.

• Soda Jerk Goodnight's Drug Store
• Cashier at Kresge's
• Collection Agent for Sears
• ID checker at Military chow hall in Spain
• Crafter
• Owner of Granny's Fan
• Waitress at Juanita's
• Telemarketer for Leisure Arts
• Ad salesperson for alt weekly Spectrum
• Sales Mgr for Little Rock Free Press
• Ad Exec for Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
• Real Estate Agent
• Insurance Agent
• owner of Stickball

My first job was working a soda fountain in a drug store. Yeah, I was a soda-jerk. After that I went to work in a discount retailer and forerunner to K-Mart- Kresge's. I operated one of those old fashioned cash registers where you had to type in all the prices, including memorizing all the weekend specials. Yikes. Lucky thing I was young then. Then on to ollections for Sears. Good times.

Stay-at-home mom actually was my longest running job. Although in those 12 years,  and with four kids to referee, I started a little company called Granny's Fan. I designed soft sculpture items made from rescued quilts, embroidery work and doilies, and sold the one-of-a-kind angels and farm animals, cats and pillows to the likes of Macy's, Bloomingdale's and FAO Schwartz. If you had a couple of good ideas back in the 80's you could make some headway going to market and taking orders, hiring showrooms and road reps to sell your wares. Only the stores ever contacted me directly, not the general public. It was always sort of like a big secret where the stores got their stuff.

Then China opened up. The Internet came of age.

I started Stickball. I invented lots of cool stuff. Cactus with a Frank Lloyd Wright inspiration, giant stuffed fruits, groovy stick people, Retro wire-armed dolls, jewelry, weavings and the rest of the Ficklesticks empire. I wrote a book and got it published and I've written a few magazine articles. I have secured booth space at juried craft festivals and quilt festivals. I am on wholesalecrafts.com. I have my own website. I've tried selling on etsy. I teach workshops and talk to guilds. With all this effort, I am pretty sure I only have about one foot in the boat, and maybe it is about to sail off without me.

I am sort of at a loss. If someone wants a stuffed pig, all they have to do is google it, visit etsy or ebay, find a cheap one from China, or download a free pattern somewhere. They don't even have to visit a real store. This is all find and dancy, but I want them to FIND ME! HELP I JUST FELL OFF THE BOAT I THINK! Throw me an oar

Comments

[Andrea]

I found you, Diane! (Although I'm not sure how...sorry)

I bought your book, (which arrived just last week) and I have made a gazillion ficklesticks!

I'm addicted to them.

Seriously.Can't.Stop.Turning.Tubes

I'm wearing the CUTEST vine bracelet with funky posies right now...

Blogging. Flickr. Twitter. All good avenues to have "people" find you. It is a little time consuming, though. And if you're like me (and you seem to be!!) you would rather be creating than computing. I struggle with that. A lot.

Let's talk about it.

Andrea <------- a loyal fan of Stickball