Konnichiwa from a Military Wife in Japan!

[Decal_Girl]

Hi everyone!

I'm a newbie :) ::waves::
I'm a 18 year old Marine Corps Wife & mother of 2 boys. We currently reside in Okinawa, Japan, but my husband and I are originally from Florida. We move back to the US in about 6 months. We have been married for almost 8 years, and our kids are everything to us.

I started a small business in August of 2012 making wall decals for homes. In Okinawa, our on-base homes mostly have concrete walls (to protect us from the harsh storms). It makes hanging pictures or any home décor especially difficult. I started making decals for my own walls, and once my friends and other members of our military community started discovering my hobby, they all wanted some, too. I was more than happy to help! Within a couple of months, I had a real business on my hands! I now have one of the most thriving home businesses on the island! I love what I do, and want to continue my business when we leave for the United States. I expanded and opened up an Etsy shop recently and I'm working on getting sales and customers within the US. It's been a labor of love, and I've worked especially hard on it.

I'm very happy to be a part of this group and learn from all of you!

Cheers!
Mandy

[cbscreative]

Welcome Mandy and congrats on your success with a business you apparently didn't expect to be doing. I have friends who met and married in Japan. The husband was stationed there in the navy and the wife was there as a missionary. That was in the 80's though and they've been living here in Michigan since about 2000 when he retired from the Navy. Like you, she's an artist too.

There must be a typo in your post though. If you're 18 and married for 8 years then you got married really young. :)

BTW, you might like my friend's blog (http://pamelaalderman.com). She just finished out Top 50 at ArtPrize (http://www.artprize.org) which is quite an accomplishment because there were over 1500 artists competing. As you can imagine, it's a lot of fun living near the world's biggest art competition.

[vangogh]

Konnichiwa Mandy. Okinawa must be interesting and I take it's not the first place you've lived that wasn't in the US. Are you looking forward to coming back? Sounds like a good business. I instantly thought of Fatheads with all the sports figured. I assume those are decals. Great way to start a business too. See a problem and solve the problem.

Glad to have you her from half way around the globe. Thanks for joining the community.

[cbscreative]

One thing I didn't mention with my friend's ArtPrize exhibit: the scene for the Wing and a Prayer title painting in pastel is set in Japan. Her daughter is a Navy wife and the SIL is stationed in Japan. Connections to Japan are still active and it shows in her work.

[KristineS]

Welcome to the forum Mandy. I had an uncle who was in the Navy and his family lived in Japan for several years. They loved it and still have ties there.

[Alisha]

Mandy welcome to the forum and looking forward to getting more about your business in the future. Nice to hear about you that your hobby became your small-scale business. An interesting point I got what you mentioned on your above introduction that you only 18 years old, have been married almost 8 years and mother of 2 boys fantastic! If you are really 18 years old, then you have much time to running with your business and will be expanded worldwide. Good luck for your business and hope you will achieve great success both from your family and business.

[Linval]

Congrats on your success. That's very creative thinking.

[Gabe]

Hey Mandy, welcome to the forum. I actually just left the Marine Corps, my last day was Friday. How are you guys liking Oki? My wife and I are at Miramar (San Diego, CA) and she's still active, deployed right now.