A 'Rawther' Interesting Idea...

I've been doing a lot of thinking for the past...15 hours, I guess.

Stu and I have three goals I would like to at least attempt to meet before we start having kids (which, hopefully, will be in a few years - like 3-5)...they are:

1. For me to finish school (hopefully in May unless I flunk the MATH CLEP)
2. For us to get a house (if possible)
and
3. For me to find a stay-at-home job. I would love to homeschool my kids and I am going to stay home with my babies so I need to find something I can either do at home or just do on the weekends.

For fear of ruining someone's Christmas present, I can't go into a lot of detail but here's what I've been thinking about:

There are some things I have just discovered that I love to do and can do reasonably well. I am wondering if it's possible to have a little side business selling what I am doing now...

I have filled up a few pages of Word Docs with research (thanks, internetz), ideas, guesstimates, and lists of stuff I would need to start this up.

I'm a little scared because this is unknown territory for me - I never wanted to be a sales person and I am a bit of an introvert. However, there are several things I could do to earn money while I'm at home.

Here are some other ideas I came up with:

1. Graphic Design - I know how to use Adobe Photoshop and the newest editions of Microsoft Powerpoint, Word, and another program who's name is escaping me at the moment. I can create business cards, flyers, powerpoints, brochures, and newsletters from scratch or from a template. I like doing this and could do it as a job. I already do it as part of my job at Academic Services.

2. Freelance Harpist (of course) - I can teach lessons and play at social functions. This is something I could do on the weekend or limited time throughout the week. (According to how I want to schedule it)

3. Scrapbooks - I scrapbook so if people need/want someone ELSE to do their scrapbooks (which invariably happens when you have a busy life), I can do that - give me the tools and I can create many different, unique, and special layouts and hand you the finished product. (I can also create scrapbooks for out-of-home businesses...)

4. Writing - I could freelance or write for someone - I could publish a book on Lulu.com and see if there is any interest or I can write for a magazine/newspaper...this one is a little more far out since it's not my usual field. I can write, but I don't know what opportunities are out there.

5. and this one is the one I can't talk about until I give Ruth her Christmas present. :) Suffice it to say I am thoroughly enjoying what I am doing and it would be something I would be interested in doing for a long time and it would be something I could do from home. (With a few outside instances to garner publicity and orders).

So that's what I've been thinking about. It's 'rawther' interesting. Guess we'll see where this goes.