Saturday Sponsor- By Erin Lauray

Today I am introducing a few of my sponsors!
This afternoon is Erin from by erin Lauray!
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Hello! I'm Erin and I blog at by erinLauray about parenthood, love, life, and my soon-to-be-opening web design business (coming June 1st!)! I am a stay-at-home mom to a 2 year old little girl and am about to greet a little boy come April. :) My husband and I live in Dallas, TX but in 2 short weeks from now, we will be making the long trip home to Phoenix, AZ -- the place where all our family lives and where we grew up. The Lord has truly blessed us in this venture and we are so excited to go home!

A little about my blog and business :: Last year, I opened an Etsy shop selling different handmade items like zipped pouches, a tote bag or two, felt flower pins, and even a few jewelry items. I was "going with the flow" so to speak by trying to just have an Etsy shop like some of the talented and amazing blog friends I have. I quickly learned that if God was going to use me in this bloggie universe, I would have to let Him lead the direction of my business. Trying to do what someone else was doing was just not cutting it for me. I began praying and felt the push towards something that I've always loved and dreamed of doing as a job -- web design. I love designing blogs (ask Ashley, I changed my layout every other month it seemed!) and always felt that doing that for a living was something someone that had formal schooling could do. Not a self-taught stay-at-home-mommy like me. But the thought and idea of it kept nagging at me. Finally, I talked to my husband and after praying more and more, I signed up for some small one-month classes online. On January 1st (literally minutes after the ball dropped for the New Year), I prayed for the coming year and my business idea. I prayed the Lord would open doors and show me if this was the right path for me and that this year, the Lord would bless my business ventures. I can honestly say, He never left ANY room for doubt that web design was the way He wanted me to go, because here I am, just one month later, with a major blog design project about to launch, a logo design completed, and three others blog designs scheduled to be finished before the end of February!! And my shop isn't even open yet!

If there is one thing I have learned about blogging and owning and operating a small business its that if you try and do what others are doing, you're going to get burnt out and fail. You have to do what is your passion and look at it like a business and not like a hobby you want to make money off of. And if you have faith, praying and letting God lead surely does help :)

Thanks, Ashley, for having me today!!

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You can also find Erin here...

Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/erinlauray

Twitter- https://twitter.com/#!/ErinLauray