The WhuddleWorld Memoirs - Part I

Some Context 

 To understand some of the earliest beginnings of WhuddleWorld, you'll need to know a little more about me and my background.  I really don't like sharing some of this stuff, but if this web site accomplishes what I am hoping for - a sense of closure/completion for/about WhuddleWorld - then I'll need to tell some of my story as well.  Hopefully you won't judge me too harshly.

 When WhuddleWorld was just a Twinkle in my Eye

I had just finished my first semester of college through the University of Wisconsin and was trying to decide whether it would be worth the debt we'd have to go into to press on and take the next semester's worth of credits I'd need for a degree in Journalism.  And to put things into context, though my husband had a decent job, we would have been just inches above the poverty line in terms of income at the time.  Also worth noting, I was in my early 30's and had spent years before that as a "Jill of many trades".  The job I had just prior to deciding to go back to school was working for a local ISP, which is also a big part of what informed the next decisions I would make that ultimately led to WhuddleWorld.

I had a couple of weeks to decide what I wanted to do going forward.  The biggest issue for us was, of course, money.  If I went for a second semester of college my student loan debt would likely double.  If I tried to turn my crafting hobby into something that could supplement what we needed to my husband's income I'd have to cross my fingers that there would be a steady and sustainable market for the stuff I was making.  AND if I did the thing I really wanted to do - start my own web site - well, we'd need a lot of money we simply didn't have.

As I struggled with making that decision, I realized I was at a complete stall - I just couldn't make up my mind.  So I decided to leave it up to the gods of random.  I took a piece of notebook paper and tore it into 3 pieces and wrote crafting on one, college on another and web project on the final one.  I then took all three (3) pieces and put them in a knit winter cap and made my husband pick - lol!  He plucked out a piece and handed it to me. On it was written "Web Project".

The Hand Picked Note

That was the real first twinkle in my eye regarding WhuddleWorld.  There's a lot more background info that went into these decisions, but I'm trying to avoid making this lengthier than it needs to be, while still preserving some of the nuances to the whole story.