My head is spinning.
The reaction to Etzcetera has been amazing. When you put yourself out there and launch something YOU really love and are totally passionate about, it doesn't always mean that other people will embrace it and love it too.
So while I THOUGHT crafty people might enjoy a crafty magazine with tutorials, stories about creative people and other tidbits, I didn't really know for sure.
But it seems you do! Which is a relief.
And it's time for a few thank yous..
Firstly a thank you to Ken who has been incredibly supportive of my decision to do this. In fact it was Ken who listened to my continual dithering about whether to do this or not and finally said to me, "Just do it!" It was Ken who covered all my @Home business expenses and things that my income usually covers, while I took time out from the @Home site to work on the magazine. And it's Ken who has proudly told everyone he meets about what I'm doing!
And thank you to my mum who has been with me every step of the way. She has read and re-read over and over, every last word written in that magazine as she worked hard as my proof reader and she has now come on board to help me look after sales, advertising and the accounts. She has always been so supportive of anything and everything I have ever done my entire life and never, ever doubted for a second that I couldn't do this!
THANK YOU to my three kids. This last fortnight before the launch has been crazy and I am sure they were totally sick of seeing me glued to the computer screen when they arrived home from school each afternoon! Thank you to Capri for helping me in the photo shoots for some of our projects and for taking my profile photos too! She did a great job! And thank you to Jamison who came on board and made and styled and prepared the recipe for the individual delicious trifles for the food section of the magazine. He was excited to be involved and I was thrilled to be able to include him! And thanks to Brandt who took the time to actually look at the magazine even though he hasn't one crafty bone in his body and to his credit, his eyes didn't glaze over and he was genuinely interested!
THANK YOU to my business coach Julie. Who said something to me that made me make that final decision to do this. She said, "This is something you really want to do and you're going to do it sooner or later so it may as well be sooner!" And I realised she was right. She kept me on track, helped me hugely with the website and helped me set goals at our meetings so I could keep going forward with the project.
Thank you to my wonderful friend Lisa who checked on me all the time, right from the start, to make sure I was eating properly, drinking my water and exercising! She made sure I was taking time out and not getting too stressed. She picked up the slack with emailing for permission for various projects nd products we used and wrote a few of the articles.
Thank you to my wonderful support network - my sister, other family members, my friends, the @Home Support Team girls, the wonderfully talented contributors, those I interviewed and who shared their stories, projects and talents with us, and our beautiful Issue One advertisers who cheered and supported this venture all the way along and believed in me that this could be a reality.
And it is a reality, thanks to our readers. And that's YOU. Thank you for the support and enthusiasm and excitement. It's been wonderful.
Here comes Issue 2.
