The End Is Near
Published December 14, 2021
Happy Holidays friends! It's almost the end of 2021, can you believe it? I hope everyone is able to share the love with friends and family in whatever form suits you. It continues to be a crazy pandemic world out there with variants causing havoc with travel. Hopefully you are all well and safe.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies, especially during these unusual times. I looked back at the last post I shared and it’s been three months already. It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. In the last three months I’ve explored Washington state a small amount, mostly visiting familiar places. I had a heck of a time finding a short term apartment, which really made me think about the housing crisis here, more on that later. And I’ve continued to learn about surface pattern design and take steps toward building that business. In the meantime, I’ve begun a freelance assignment in my old field. Having some income coming sure takes a load off my mind.
Let’s talk housing in the Seattle area. There have been articles and studies ad nauseum so you might be aware how extreme it is in this market. If you’re not familiar, Seattle is experiencing many of the same factors that drove up housing costs in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area. Rapid growth of tech companies means more workers, more workers means more demand for housing, locals are getting priced out of certain areas, foreign investors are snapping up inventory and flipping at higher costs. Apartments are tiny and expensive. Houses are selling for huge margins over asking, often with cash buyers which is making it impossible for people trying to get into their first house. In my own experience, even getting an apartment is difficult if you have no job, are retired or have some alternate form of income. First off, I was looking for short term rentals with a dog. Second, I was using savings as proof of income. I couldn’t find anything for weeks, either they would only do leases that were 6 months or longer, or they wouldn’t accept savings as proof of income, or they didn’t accept large dogs. Even Airbnb type rentals are astronomical. I rented a vacation rental for one month at 3x the cost of what I was hoping to get. Eventually I found a tiny, and I mean tiny (250 square feet), studio apartment that would do a three month lease for me and Ozzie. It’s higher than I wanted to pay but at least we have a place to call home until Ruby Jeep arrives (ETA 12/27). Which led me to contemplate what it must be like for someone who can’t meet those requirements. How do they ever have hope of getting into housing? Are they stuck in a permanent cycle of trying to find housing, maybe unable to get work without a permanent address, and round and round. Sure there’s lots of reasons why someone ends up homeless, some they can control and some are out of their control. My hope, to anyone reading this, is for you to take a minute and put yourself in their place. And be honest with yourself, you may think you’d just pull yourself up and be fine, but sometimes the world works against you no matter how hard you try. So be compassionate this holiday season (and beyond). It’s not always as easy as you may think.
Now let’s quickly talk business, as in my design business. In addition to the print-on-demand shops I have built, I've expanded to freelance work. I am busy creating new pattern designs and building out my web presence to showcase my portfolio. I am taking classes from others in the industry to learn how to position myself and begin to actively promote my design services. I’m really nervous, but really excited. Do a girl a favor and give us a follow on social media. Better yet, if you know anyone who works in the fabrics world, share my info. They could be an art director at a quilting company or somewhere like Joann Fabrics for example. I would be forever grateful.
View my portfolio at www.flosaquaedesigns.com
Find me on Instagram
My designs are available on fabric at Spoonflower.com.
Finally, I want to end this post on the beauty that is Washington state and share some images from Ozzie and my adventures the last few months. Enjoy :)
Ozzie and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.