I have been planning to start a blog for quite some time now. So here I am! With all these thoughts and ideas floating around in my head thinking of how to get them all out articulately. I used to blog about fashion-for fun because I really enjoyed finding a good deal. And I still love shopping although these days more and more it is online that blog was Urban Ruffle which I started in 2008-I guess we love the word Urban. Anyway my blog's now are going to be geared toward my life on our little urban farm, motherhood and about inspiring entrepreneur's. In fact let's start there! Starting your own business is HARD. In our journey where I have felt like people cheer you along on your way, however once success is met your cheerleaders drop off. People seem to be better at comforting others, or relating to them when they are "going through" things, but encouragement in our society is really lacking. Entrepreneur's need inspiration, support and encouragement as a lot of the time we feel we are in a marathon that has no finish line. That isn't to say that you don't have successes and goal's met, and feelings of accomplishment along the way. We DO! But owning your own business isn't a "job" you don't just go to work-work is there 24/7 in your home, at your home, on your social networking, in your physical space. I want to inspire you to do hard things! To bend the rules! To make your own rules! To look for the Yes when everything says NO. Because you know what it IS possible. A word that I have repeated to myself a lot is Perseverance - Which means: To continue a course of action EVEN in the face of difficulty with little or NO prospect of success. Be encouraged and stay the course Friends. Be creative when things aren't looking like they are going the way you want or hope. Reach out to other small business owners for their strategies. How did we becomes MYURBANFARMES well for starters this isn't our first business. We owned Farm to barn Hay Co., Beer Seeds NW and A Sweet Beginning Birth and Doula Services ALL before we started www.myurbanfarmers.com Each of these things we identified a need and that combined with our passions and skills led us to start those businesses. Currently we are not hauling hay, as time doesn't allow with our current business. But we had some fun and interesting summers getting to know the Hay business and horse owners. Our beer seeds company sells hop seeds of many varietals around the world. We still currently operate this after a year and a half break. We plan to eventually turn this business over to the kids. It is simple it involves counting seeds, packaging and labeling and sending it off in the mail! That business alone provided us with our boat for the 4 years we had it. HOP SEEDS PAID our boat payment!! A sweet beginning is my true passion, attending births and taking care of infants. Coaching and talking with moms to be and new moms alike. I haven't been as active as I would like the past couple years but this will be life long work and I plan to always be a part of the birth community. So what led us to Chicken Coops? I had always wanted chickens and Alan had always said no. He worked in Seattle for many years and saw people's coops and chickens and they were smelly. He didn't want an eyesore coop and smelly chickens in our yard. So I didn't mention it anymore and then one day he saw someone who had a cute little set up (a cute clean coop with easy to clean features) and 4 chickens who laid eggs everyday. He got excited and thought this would be fun and it would be good for the kids. Seeing where your food comes from is excellent for kids! So off we went to Bridges Pets in Snohomish to pick out our chickens. We were so excited that in a few months we would have fresh eggs and the kids loved their cute chicks! Anyhow fast forward about 3 weeks we were like we need a coop now to put these in. We ordered one and were disappointed with the quality. So we began shopping around. Alan came up with some plans to build his own, one that was "cute", functional and easy to clean. And that was our beginning. I will leave you with this real life moment that happened yesterday. I was out labeling boxes in the hot sun for a couple hours, the kids were calling me to come in and change Carter's diaper (Carter is 2). Why on earth did it feel like a break to change a poopy toddler? Who actually called me bad mom while I changed him because he would have much preferred to sit in the poop. That is the life of a "work from home mom" changing poop feels like a break sometimes. Until next time! Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations! ~ Keep on friends! Nicole