If you've made it onto my website and as far as this blog post then I want to say a huge thank you. Thank you for seeing something in me and/or my work that made you want to look closer.
I started making jewellery in May 2016. I remember seeing some beautiful crystal necklaces online, and after mulling it over for a while, something clicked. It suddenly was so obvious to me that I could make my own jewellery.
Juggling my business alongside a full time job was always a challenge for me, and over the next couple of years I devoted as much time as I could to this passion, but growth was stunted as my full time job was draining me of any motivation or creativity, leaving me energetically exhausted.
And then 2020 hit. I had laid the foundations of my business already, everything was in place, it just needed me to wake up and realise what was important to me. Being furloughed from my job was the wake up I needed. Suddenly I was so much happier, and I realised how much my job had been dragging me down, depleting my energy. Stealing my soul.
I started to devote more of my time to growing my business, and this time everything seemed to fall into place. Using Instagram as my main marketing tool led me to a whole community of crystal lovers, which led me to new customers and some amazing new friends. It was at this point that I started to feel like I was a part of something.
And from there we went from strength to strength. I focussed on sourcing crystals for their energies and properties, and on higher quality metals that would mean these crystals could stay in our lives for as long as possible. I started to factor in and value my own time.
I think a lot of people felt like 2020 was the universe giving us all a huge shove in the right direction. For me this was in the form of removing anything from my life that was no longer aligned with who I am. I learned that I need a creative outlet and a way of expressing myself and connecting with people. Whilst on furlough I found a new job in marketing, something I've always wanted to do but never quite knew how to get there, and almost as a way of some kind of cosmic reassurance, I found out that I was about to be made redundant anyway.
To the outside it might not seem like much has changed, still working full time whilst running my business, but inside the change is remarkable. I fully believe that everything happens for a reason, and I think everything fell into place for me personally and for Cara E.J. Designs to become what it is now.
In December I launched caraejdesigns.com and started to make plans for the future of my business. If 2020 was my realignment with myself and a redirection onto my correct path, 2021 is going to be where I really get some mileage behind me. The best is yet to come.
Love,
Cara x