Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Gonzalez.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Well where to start? My whole life’s experiences is what brought me to where I am now but I do tend to ramble so I will try to keep it as to the point as possible.
I am a wife and mom of 2 kiddos, 10 and 8. I currently volunteer as much as I can for the PTA at my kids school, and I run my own little crafting shop. I mostly make laser cut/engraved items but I also dabble in all kinds of other crafting types such as vinyl work, glass etching, and sublimation. I have ADHD so I tend to hobby hop until I find something that can keep my interest for a while. I will most likely be a hobby hopper for the rest of my life, which is why my husband gave up and let me take over the garage as part of my workspace.
As the oldest of 9 children I learned responsibility at a young age. I also learned that every person is different and just because you disagree or don’t see eye to eye, doesn’t mean they do not deserve respect too. And that has shaped the way that I treat people in general.
I always knew as a kid that I wanted to be a mom and to be the traditional mom that stays home with the kids and takes care of the house, until I left my mom’s house and decided I thought I didn’t want kids anymore.
I moved from New Mexico to New York with my boyfriend at the time, shortly after leaving my mom’s house. Where the universe had something else in mind for me. After a few years being in NY I found myself expecting our first kiddo. At that point my boyfriend told me I needed to quit my job and start looking for a house instead of the apartments we had been living in. That was the start of my stay at home parent life. The last month of my pregnancy was a bit of a whirlwind, we closed on a house, got engaged, had the baby, and then got married a few weeks later. As I got adjusted to being a stay at home mom I realized that I missed working, since I have been working since I was around 14 or 15, but had a hard time finding a job that made sense to our life. So a friend introduced me to the Toys for Tots program, where I volunteered and helped run for the whole Capital Region in Upstate NY, where we served around 100k kids every Christmas season. All with a baby on my hip the whole time. I volunteered there for years and eventually got pregnant with my last kiddo and did one final season with Toys for Tots. A few years later we started moving around because my husband’s job had projects they wanted him on. So within a year we had moved from New York to Alabama and then back to New Mexico. While in New Mexico I was not as active volunteering and my first kiddo started kindergarten. That left me with more time on my hands than I was comfortable with so I started crafting with a vinyl cutter. I opened an Etsy shop and that gave me a little something to keep my busy. My husband then got transferred to Texas, and we got the laser machine. The Etsy store wasn’t doing so hot and my creations were stacking up, so I decided to start doing vendor markets. This seems to be the best fit for me for now because I get to bring my family with me to the markets and I can set my own schedule, making it easy for me to volunteer as well. My daughter absolutely loves doing markets with me and sometimes will ask me to help her with her own crafts to sell at the table. Which of course she gets to keep anything she earns. This school year I was voted to be on the PTA board at my kids school, so I haven’t been as active in the vendor market world but I do love it so I try to sign up for as many as my schedule and mental capacity can tolerate. I do have a very busy lifestyle and when I am not busy running my household, I am volunteering at the school or preparing for the next market. I like to keep busy and it has kind of turned me into, what I have dubbed, a task goblin, I see a task and I go do it and add it to my list of accomplishments for the day.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not! My life has been full of challenges, which has turned me into the kind of person that thrives in chaos. No, I do not particularly like chaos, but I can see past the stress and overwhelmed feelings to find what needs to be done to get through it, whether it is delegating tasks or just jumping in and completing them myself.
Challenges are a hard thing for me to pin point specifically because life is just hard (for everyone). What I see as a simple task could be a huge challenge for someone else. But for me, I had a hard childhood, my mom and dad split up when I was young and I didn’t have much contact with him until I was 21. My mom got remarried almost immediately and had all 8 of my siblings. My parents were not home much so I ended up taking on a lot of responsibilities to help raise my siblings as best as I could. My senior year of high school my mom had one of my brothers, then her dad died and she got pregnant with my youngest brother. Needless to say that was a challenging year. Between postpartum depression and grief my mom did not leave her bed often. I ended up staying home from school on the really bad days to take care of my brothers. I almost didn’t graduate but was blessed with a couple teachers that would not give up on me.
I have also been stuck in the postpartum depression hole after I had my second baby. Getting through that may have been my personal biggest challenge. It is not easy to remember that crazy amounts of hormones can make your brain lie to you, and those lies are so very easy to listen to. It is also puts you in a state of survival mode, which can be hard to realize you’re in, which of course makes it hard to reach out for help. Or even know how to pull yourself out of it.
Smaller challenges I have come across is I tend to take on tasks because they need to be done, but sometimes I forget I am not the only person who can do things and I sometimes overwhelm myself with how much I take on.
And then of course there is life in general. No matter who you are life is going to throw some stuff your way and trying to navigate how to handle those things determines the kind of person you are. I for one strive to be the kind of person that helps when I can and tries to bring as much calm to the chaos of life that I can.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As I mentioned previously I have ADHD and tend to hobby hop. That being said I do a lot of different things. So it’s difficult to narrow down what I do, but I would say I’m probably most proud of my bulk orders. I put a lot of love, time, and energy into everything I make and when I have someone ask for a large amount of something it is very validating and makes me feel like I’m on the right path.
Various crafts that I have been known for are:
Vinyl crafts-
Customized safety vests
T shirts
Customized cocktail glasses
Customized decanters
Laser crafts-
Customized tumblers
Customized water bottles
Flasks
Slate coasters
Wooden ornaments
Slate charcuterie boards
Mini apothecary shelves
Mini wall shelves for small trinkets
Bulk orders I have worked on:
Customized safety vests for construction crew
Awards for a competition
Sublimation canvas bags for teacher appreciation
Christmas ornaments for teacher gifts
Engraved pencils for teacher appreciation gifts
Customized tumblers for construction crew
I think what sets me apart the most is the fact that my designs usually are not something you see everyday. I love all things horror, and spooky but I also love the pretty girly things so I try to combine the two. I have heard some of my creations referred to as dark academia, which seems to be the most fitting category. I also do a lot of custom work and as a true people pleaser I want to make sure I bring my clients ideas to life as close as I can get. I tend to go above and beyond and try to make every client I work with feel special, and I also communicate with them clearly as I go through each step of the order process. I also go out of my way to make them feel safe in the design they choose.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Just do the thing! Of course you need to do your research to figure out how to get it done, but waiting until you are sure and comfortable is only putting it off. You will most likely never feel comfortable and like you know what you’re doing. Just do it anyways.
You will be surprised to know that there are communities out there and people who have more experience who tend to help more often times than not.
Also don’t be afraid to ask for help or advice. It’s hard to see sometimes in this harsh world but there are people out there who are willing to help!
And finally figure out what works for you and don’t get caught up in what works for others. Be open to advice but take what resonates with you and leave anything that doesn’t. There are so many ways to do everything, find what works for you!
Contact Info:
- Website: Allthespacesllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/all_the_spaces/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/5eb74DYRmzSaLjmu/?mibextid=LQQJ4d