Dirty Little Secret #29

I sewed through my finger last Christmas.

Every year that I have operated my own business, I have doubled in size. We're still talking small peanuts here, people, but I do find that my work load increases exponentially. Last December was the first time I felt like maybe I couldn't do it all on my own: sewing shirts, blankies and burps for all those babies I'll never meet, I stood in my own personal sweat shop every night until 1 or 2.





One night, around 11:30, I was supervising my embroidery machine, which is hooked up to my computer. Idly playing Solitaire to wile away the hours, I reached over to re-adjust the shirt in the hoop to make sure that it wouldn't catch under the needle.

And I passed my hand right through the sewing field.

The needle went through the nail, and out the other side. I calmly pulled it out, and called for my husband.

"Oh, goodness," he said, and led me over to the recliner. Have I mentioned that my husband is a physician? He checked me out, and discovered that the microtex sharp needle I was using had passed very cleanly through my nail and flesh, leaving a tiny hole that bled fairly little. He left me in the chair, and went to fetch a band-aid. Like the incident the other day, I had my head in my hands, murmuring.

"I sewed through my finger!"

When he came back, I was slumped forward moaning, "I sewed through my finger!" Have I mentioned that he's a doctor? Thank goodness, as he looked me, shook his head, and pulled the lever to throw me back in the La-Z-Boy, with my feet above my head. I went to bed without finishing the stack of orders bursting out of my inbox.

Tonight I am tired, and being very careful of my fingers. Even though snow has yet to fly and the stores still have Halloween decorations up, I have an email inbox bursting at the seams. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why, until I googled my key search terms and discovered something surprising.

I'm page one on Google for the term "personalized security blankets." And page two for "personalized baby clothing." And page three for "personalized burp cloths."

You're thrilled, I know.

But really, that's a lot of groceries. That's three years of being a one-woman show - HTML, marketing, photography, and production. That's buying a month's worth of groceries AND paying the student loan bill and the car lease. That's the help of one very kind friend, without whom SEO would still be a mystery.

But it's also a lot of security blankets. And baby clothing. And burp cloths. And I am still a one-woman show.

I'll have to be careful of my fingers.