The Paint by Number Parents

So, we're starting a business. Which is exciting, but so intimidating! At the moment, the whole thing is just a bunch of paint, paper, and a pile of lists (the paint is Ross...the lists are mine), but I think just maybe by next year we might have something excellent!


Ross has been an artist most of his life, I think. For sure since I met him 13 years ago. He was the cutest thing...all tough and grown up and clean-cut, with his Marine Corps fatigues and his buzzed hair, but with this romantic side that drew me to him. He talked about painting and drawing and played Mazzy Star and called me exactly when he said he would. Being the starry-eyed 18 year old hippie I was, I bought into that romance almost instantly. I loved the idea of him before I knew the reality of him, and then I loved the reality even more. He was thoughtful, kind, protective...and I loved that he was an artist. I always wanted to be one...and every once in a while I made something pretty (I'm excellent at collaging!), but I've never been an artist like Ross is. It's in his soul...just the way he looks at the world (and at me - swoon!) is through artist's eyes.

But a few years ago, he kind of stopped creating...and was sad about it. I was too...I love his art. We were struggling with money, and he got one boring job at Borders, and then another at a hardware store, and then just after he was offered a management position at Borders (requiring him to quit the hardware store so he could be full time at the bookstore), Borders went out of business...which of course happened just a few months after I got pregnant with our first child. Faced with the choice between ridiculously expensive childcare or the loss of his income, we chose for Ross to stay home and be a full-time dad and part-time student. Our son, who was born in November 2011, is thriving! He's funny, polite and smart - he tells nonsense jokes and laughs at them, yells out "gonna gichoo" and then chases us around the house, and loves saying "nankyoo" and "y'elcome" after we read books to him.

Our finances, though, are not thriving...and neither is Ross's art. So...we're starting a business! Etsy and home decorations, here we come! Ross is painting watercolors of vegetables as we speak...and I'm making lists. Business plan, marketing, finances, etc. And we're both crossing our fingers. I think we can make something awesome happen, and I'm going to document it all. The painting process, the creation of our store, our (hopeful) entry into local farmer's markets and festivals, and the finger-crossing-hope-so-hard-it-happens realization of a dream we didn't realize we had. The creation of a business we can run from home, and the establishment of my wonderful husband's art career!