Boy does time fly. It’s been over a year since I started Canary Jane. For those who have been around you know my story, but to recap a little over a year ago I started this blog and my Etsy shop.

I started last year with this blog and my Etsy shop. The first few months I enjoyed my family and then with the fall I really dug in. I started drawing so much and sharing my artwork on social media that I received an offer in the early Fall to publish my first and very own coloring book! This was life changing for me and the first of more to come.

From there I starting posting time-lapse drawings and with inspiration from talking to Rachel Ryle at Alt Summit Conference I also did some stop animation videos. I made these vidoes for fun and show progress on my coloring book. And from there I created and animated for Famous Footwear, Costa Vida, Photo Booth Bus, and Childrens Miracle Hospital among others. I was getting a lot of free-lance illustration work and loving it! You can see my portfolio here.
Later last year I started doing some social media consults for a handful of buisnesses. I didn’t go to school for marketing but had definitly put in loads of hours, probabaly days, working on social media strategy. I did social media consult after consult while maintaing this blog and family life.
The real change for me and my buisness came when my husband quit his job earlier this year to go back to school. The whole story behind this is one I need to blog about, but in short we took a leap of faith and ran with it. At the time I had two small clients that kept me busy and between other free-lance work we started on our current path. I shortly after got a job at Rod Works home decor as their social media manager. And later through my influencer work was hired as a contractor for a new app called FavorCart.
So here I am now. Still drawing, making printables here at Canary Jane, helping other buisnesses with their social media, still doing free-lance work. And writing this I cannot believe all that has happened in a year. Last year I didn’t know how to charge for my work and was not making any money professionally, even as a blogger.
In a year I have published a coloring book, worked with a ton of clients including Provo City and Shabby Apple. I even spoke at a conference for creatives called Snap about Instagram. And today, I am supporting my family, mainly from home, being creative. It is so much work. It is hard. But I am living my dream and I cannot believe what one year of hard hard work will do for you. I don’t share this because I’ve been perfect or to brag. I share this so you know you can do it too!
Do not give up on your dream. Do not give up because it is hard. It doesn’t matter if you are crazy talented, it is hard! Work really hard, maybe until you want to give up, and keep going. Do what you love. And then one day you’ll look back and say, “Dang! I did that.” And you will remember every late night that lead into the early morning hours. You will remember how you wanted to quit and didn’t and you will feel dang good inside knowing you worked for your dream.
Friends, I cannot thank you enough for the support you have given me this first year. So tonight, today I celebrate. I celebrate all that I have said. I celebrate community. And I celebrate dreams and working hard. Thank you for being my community, cheering me on, and being there for me. Thank you.