BeginninginSTL

There is never a single reason to start doing something new and... that is in one sentence the whole truth about my ETSY shop. :)
I started it as a way to see whether or not it will be possible to make an extra income on ETSY when I hit my retirement years.
I started it to compete with the overwhelming domination of Chinese items on the American and the world market (Impossible ideas somehow motivate me in an almost impossibly serious way.)
I started it as an creative escape that we all need to feel happier in our everyday lives.
I started it out of curiosity to learn whether or not I can beat, percentage wise, the stock market return if I start producing something with my own hands.
I started it because the company in which I work gives us 1% yearly salary increase and I have to do something about it....... literary, with my own hands.
I started it because my great grandma at the beginning of 20th century divorced her husband and managed to raise and educate her sons alone, because she was the best cloth-maker in her village. Starting this shop, in addition to everything else, was a way for me to reconnect with my past and the people who despite their enormous influence over me live far away in an small European country called Bulgaria.
I started this shop, because I believe in my ability to pave the path of my life using as an instrument something so simple and so powerful as... my own choice and my own vision.
I started this shop because the only B grade in my K-12 educational carrier was from an art class in middle school. Without any doubt, the teacher was right, but when she was grading my drawing skills she was not aware that colors have a transforming influence over me, almost as strong as music.

After starting our ETSY shop (make no mistake I can't do it all without my husband) I realized that there is a place for small business on the world scene and that the Chinese domination can be challenged by ordinary, hardworking people like me ( sorry I did not mention: I have a full time job, a part time job and...... the ETSY shop) given that there is a political will to make changes in that direction. But apart from my political eye opening thoughts, my Etsy adventure helped me become clearly aware that when we are deprived of an opportunity to produce something with our own hands, we lose a source of joy that otherwise could be an encouraging and productive source of motivation and inspiration in our never ending "run" for a happy life.
Yes, making napkins keeps me focused, motivated, and happier.
I do wish to all of you, my customers, to make it a part of your everyday reality to make a product, of some kind, with your own hands. And if all of you stop buying napkins from me because they make them themselves........, a part of me will be happy that I fulfilled my human mission to be helpful to others, and the other part will be looking for a different niche to realize what I have always known and believed I have: a creative and stubborn mind that is hardly ever tired of seeking new solutions and stepping onto the path of the Unknown.

Best wishes!

Kamelia