Mommaprenuer: Yuliya, Forever You

Tell us about yourself: Hi! My name is Yuliya ( most people just call me Julia), I am a mom to a 27 month old baby girl and a wife to an army husband who is deployed to Korea at this moment. I grew up in Ukraine and at age 21 moved to Canada where I have lived for almost 8 years and then moved to Florida, where I live and work as a part time Register Nurse. I worked for almost 10 years in hospital settings and now I work with children who have multiple health care needs and medical conditions. I enjoy what I do and every day I can see the result of that- a very happy little people who rely on my knowledge and dedication to them.

Besides my job, I enjoy many other things, like ballet and figure skating. I was enrolled in dance classes and music school since I was 6 years old. Later, while living in Canada, I did figure skating for almost 6 years. Now, of course, I just enjoy watching it on TV or live. I enjoy life and have great appreciation to what I learned through my experience. I love God and believe that all things are possible through him. I believe in green leaving and do what I can to change my life style and try to make people aware of our surroundings. I think it is our responsibility to provide our children and future children with place where they can breathe clean air, drink clean water and have a healthy environment to grow and learn at the very young age (if possible) to love their home – Planet Earth. I recommend watching this video to all my friends and all people. My thinking about life and green living was dramatically changed after I stayed late to watch the whole thing (it is a bit lengthy: 1.5 hr). After thinking all night how can I make people aware of the issues that was brought up in this film and how I can contribute to solve some of the problems we put our Planet in, I decided to sell kid’s clothes that promote awareness of global warming and donate some of my proceeds from sales to an organization that helps to research and develop new technologies to fight global warming. Please visit them and support their effort: http://www.saveourplanet.us/. We can change the way we are and the way we treat our home- our planet, one person at a time.

How did you start creating your artwork? When I was 6, I watched my mom sew. I used to sit and watch her work and then create doll clothes with my thread and a needle. Already then, I discovered the pleasure from making something with your hands. I’ve sewed little bit here and there, but got really in to sewing when my daughter was born. I was forced to get new sewing machine ( an old one became useless) just after a few projects that I completed for her and totally fell in love with what I’ve made. I was so overwhelmed with pride when I was seeing her actually wear my things that I could not stop creating things and it became an everyday routine for me to get to my sewing machine as soon as she would go to bed at night or for a nap. This is my life now.

How did you make the decision to pursue your art career and work from home? After creating a lot of things for my daughter who had waaay too many clothes after just a few months, I started to give clothes away to all my friends and co-workers. Some people from the neighborhood started to ask me where I`ve bought outfits that my daughter wore. Many where interested and asked me to make some things for them. Eventually I opened my Etsy shop, since everyone started to ask me if I have my shop somewhere. So… now I do.

How do you balance work and family? When my daughter was born I realized that coming back to work just after a few months will make me very unhappy. The idea of me leaving her with a stranger did not let me rest at night and since I have no family in US there was no other options, really. I decided to stay home with her until it was not financially possible and I was forced to return to work part time when she turned 8 months old. Well, it was better than leaving her at age 3 months. The part time job works great for me because I can work 2 days a week and spend the rest of the time sewing and being with her. Financially – difficult, emotionally – rewarding! Money is not everything..

If you could go back in time to the beginning stages of your venture, what advice would you give yourself?
1-Learn from other’s mistakes not yours if possible
2- Take time to relax more and don’t take NO for an answer
3- Use judgment (positive or negative) from other as a tool to rise not to get down.

Tell us about your average day: I get awaken in the morning by my daughter calling me at 7:30 am and it is usually a happy start unless I went to bed at 4 and rather sleep until noon then get up.  I spend time with her in the kitchen preparing some breakfast and hearing her banging on the pots (pretending she is cooking too). I use my lap top to check my mail, while she watches cartoons. Then we go out and come home when it is time to have a nap. I use these precious 2 hours to implement my ideas that I held in my head all morning or sometimes night if I did not get to finish what I started during the evening. Then- time`s up and I am back spending time with her. Then comes cleaning, laundry, dinner.   And finally bed time for her (not for me). This is my “ME” time I use for relaxation and creating something new.  I usually can’t wait until it’s ME time..

What do you love most about owning and operating your own creative business? I think making my own choices and decisions and being so called ‘your own Boss” is a very great feeling. But my main pleasure in running my business is to see people enjoy all things I made. If I can make someone`s life happier it is the best feeling in the world, even if it is one dress, pants, hair clip (whatever it is) at a time.

Besides your work and family, what else do you enjoy doing? I like staying active and for me it is almost impossible to stay home all day, unless it is raining. I do love rainy days though! I call them “guilt free” days when I can stay home and sew -guilt free, and not to nag myself that I did not get out much that day but spent most of my day in my sewing room. I enjoy a great joke. 10 minutes of healthy enjoyable laugh adds 5 years to your lifespan! So.. laugh more, people!

Why do you think consumers should shop handmade? I think we all should try shop handmade and if possible everything! There is not a one thing in the world, I think, that could not be made by hand. Besides how else it’s used to be.. waaaaayyyy before?  Things that are made by hand have special meaning. They usually mean to people much more, then store bought things when given as a gift, for example. I do believe that handmade means better quality, because of attention to details and materials used in the process. Handmade can me made especially for YOU, which makes it one of the kind, unique item not just some kind of product from production line that is made in china, as are most item in a store.

I believe that there are many creative people out there, who use their talent to repurpose a lot of things that reduces waste and therefore help save our Planet.  It helps our country to reduce unemployment rates, especially during these critical times. A lot of people feed their family, using their own hands.. They rely on their talent and exactly that – their hands to bring income into their household. And I think it is important to support them, plus you get great feeling for doing something good.