Ready for Something Different?

Well, it’s been a couple of months since Facebook banned me. In the interim, I’ve paused a LOT of what I was doing.  I knew that I needed to regroup.

This blog post is going to be stream-of-consciousness and long. Because: A lot is changing. So, I’m putting the key points in bold type, so you can skim it.

So anyway…

Yes, I was indignant when I discovered that people were using my free coloring pages to create their own coloring books… and then selling them. (Yes, I could sue them, but that’s a stupid use of my time. I’d merely be pretending that lawsuits were a good use of my time.)

But, still fuming over that, I’ve thought about what I’m doing creatively, and how I share it.

Here’s what I’ve decided:  I’m going back to what worked for me in the past. Even before * gasp * the Internet was a thing. (The rest of that story is at the foot of this post.)

This means that I’ll be getting back to art. Lots of different kinds of art… fabric art, collage, painting, mixed media, and so on. Actual art you can own.

It also means more freebies, in the mail and digitally, too. (Yes, really. Jerks will be jerks; I’ve decided to let them deal with their own karma… but keep doing what I love to do. Including giving away cool things, free.)

But, okay… One step at a time!

To make time for the big changes, I need to streamline what I’m doing, especially online. A lot of what will wind-down… those projects have nothing to do with art. Or even my dabbling in fiction.

Then, here’s the rest of the plan. It’s big. It’ll take me well into 2025 to get all of this up & running smoothly.

1) First,  I’m going to merge – and possibly rebrand – all of my online art projects. Mostly, that means combining Eibhlin.com with this site. (Yes, my real name is Eibhlin, an Irish name. In English, it’s pronounced the same as “Eileen,” and that’s how I say it. However, you can keep calling me Aisling; most of my art friends do.)

2) I’ll probably do something with my barely-started YouTube channel. (I’ll still add to my theme park-ish YouTube channel, but I’m rethinking that, too.) Socially, I’ll probably keep my Substack… for now, anyway.

3) I will continue to create and publish coloring books, including the Bold & Easy series. (I was the first to use that phrase with coloring books, starting in 2015.)

4) I’m going to expand into other art-related publishing, as well. Etsy and GoImagine will be part of that.

BUT, I’m also going to set up ways to distribute freebies, because – in the past – that was the #1 most successful path for me to share my art with others.

So, for now, I hope you’ll subscribe to my Substack. Then you won’t miss anything cool. Like the freebies. (I promise to stop ranting about Disney, etc. I’ve been Little Miss CrankyPants for long enough. Future posts will be about fun, creative things.)

And that’s the news for now.

And… the backstory

The following is for those who really want to know what I was doing before the Internet happened. It may be FAR more about my personal life than you ever needed to know.

It started in California, where I was married to a tall, funny, handsome farmer. (Yes, really. As a kid, I’d always dreamed of marrying a farmer and having six children. Well, I succeeded at part of that, anyway… lol!)

There, we had two wonderful daughters, about three years apart. This is one of them, reading a book. (She’s still an avid reader.)

Along the way, I learned to make quilts, and started self-publishing art-related books.

I also sent out a free newsletter, called “Creating!”  That led to teaching gigs and book contracts.

Then, my husband and I got the (not great?) idea that our family needed a change of scene. So, we packed our belongings and moved to Maine.

Well, that didn’t work out as planned. The marriage buckled under the stress. One day, he quietly packed his bags and, with no warning (and, to this day, no explanation), he said he was going back to California. Alone.

So there I was, with a newborn and a toddler, in a house weeks away from foreclosure.

I scrambled for income and started freelance illustrating for local print shops and publishers… and did pretty well.

“Creating!” continued (free), along with my illustrating gigs, and I self-published even more books. (Yaayy for income!)

And, in addition – I launched more businesses:

• Quiltz – This business started with me making one-of-a-kind baby quilts, and selling them at a few local shops. Soon, my quilts were selling in about a dozen high-end gift shops along coastal Maine. And then in Boston. So, though I continued selecting the fabrics and designing the quilts, I hired stay-at-home-moms to sew for me.
• “Neat Stuff” was a mail-order catalogue I created, illustrated by hand, and sent to anyone who seemed interested. It was actually a drop-shipping business. (I found cool,  handmade products and made deals with the creators. They filled orders that I provided to them, and we split the profits. Everyone was happy.)
• Past Perfect Clothing – This was a custom-made clothing line featuring vintage-style fashions. Again, I selected the fabrics and hired work-at-home friends to sew the clothing. It was strictly mail-order. (We used modified “Folkwear” patterns, among other designs.)

So, within a few months, my income was stable and growing nicely. My two girls and I moved to my hometown of Belmont, Massachusetts, where I rented a three-bedroom apartment near a lovely park. Life seemed almost perfect!

Next, I added a few more businesses:

• Store displays – I became a “picker,” buying vintage and antique items, and reselling them to local stores. They’d use them in their window displays, and sometimes throughout the store, as accent pieces.
• Vintage quilts – I ran ads in local papers, offering to pay up to $35 for old quilts in any condition. Plenty were available, and I resold them, at a profit, through stores and auction houses.
• Vintage clothing – The same attics that contained vintage quilts often had old clothing items in trunks, as well. I bought and resold them, and – along with my “Past Perfect Clothing” experience – that led to a book contract for Sewing and Collecting Vintage Fashions.
• Closet sachets – Cute, handmade, calico bears, filled with moth-repelling herbs. Easy to make, I sold them (wholesale) to clothing stores and yarn shops.

Everything was going well. My older daughter started school in a nearby private academy. Also, her sister was in daycare half of the week, giving me more time to run my businesses.

That’s when I also started editing books, theses, etc., for MIT professors and grad students. (I loved it. Really, I can be SUCH a geek… lol!)

I know that it sounds like I had a lot going on – and I did – but I’m an organizing fanatic. And, as long as I kept hiring more people, my businesses kept growing, too.

Frankly, it was fun. You know that song, “Whistle While You Work“?  Well, that’s how I am. I’m not sure there was ever a time when I drew a line between “work” and “play.” I truly loved it all!

(For example, at a New Year’s Even party at our church, I met a guy with a speech pattern like mine. Instantly, I realized that his writing style might sound exactly like mine, too. So, I hired him, and that helped expand my MIT editing business.)

But then – cue the “uh-oh” music – thinking I’d take things to a new level, I started following some not-so-great business advice. (Well, this person seemed to know what they were talking about.)

Following his advice, I phased out things that, at the time, seemed not important.

And, running (too many?) businesses, it took me awhile to realize how much was going wrong. One by one, my businesses failed, and (this will sound stupid, which it was) I didn’t understand why.

So, I moved on to other projects. “Practical” things, I guess. The Internet fueled many of them, as did amazing new tech developments.

Since then, some of my business projects have done okay. Others haven’t.

But recently, I’ve started paying attention to another friend’s successes… and advice. This is a friend from my California “Creating!” newsletter days. He and his partner’s business were based on business practices almost identical to mine. The difference was: He kept doing the things that I’d let slip through the cracks.

Yesterday, I started journaling about this, and realized that I need to get back to doing what worked so reliably in the past.

And here’s why I’ve explained that history: My plans include – once again – making some of my creative projects free, including both digital and art-in-the-mail treats. Though some may raise an eyebrow and wonder why I think sending out freebies is so helpful… Well, as I’ve said, it was an important part of what succeeded in the past.

If you’ve read this far, thank you!

If you’d like to be part of the fun, send me an email at artfun@aisling.net, and tell me your mailing address. (It’s just for freebies. No strings attached, and I won’t share your address with anyone else.)

Then, as I’m kicking this business plan into gear, at least by early 2025, I”ll start sending freebies – one-of-a-kind art postcards or zines or something – to friends like you. And I’ll let you know about other crazy-fun things I’m working on. This will be just for fun!

So… let’s play!