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Happy New Year – 2017

Holidays , Personal • Jan 1, 2017

2017

It’s always crazy to think that the holiday season is over. So much work and so much energy for a few weeks of festivities and a few dinners with family and friends. You then get that awkward week between Christmas and New Years. The last week won’t make or break your yearly work goals and your not ready to accept that 2017 is going to bring an all new slate of goals. I have to admit though.. It’s worth it!

But then your also hit with New Years Resolutions. Do I make them? Do I skip them? Do I even know what my resolutions where from this year? Regardless I always take the time to make resolutions. I do my best to set realistic expectations for myself though. I’m not going to change the world but I can change the impact I’m making on myself and others around me.

I’m starting to ramble so let me bring it back, lol. My small side business has grown tremendously from a small idea to .. Well .. THIS!. I couldn’t be happier. My numbers don’t begin to compare to others around me but I’m happy. I took an idea and made money from it! My resolutions are going to center around this site and the customer base I’ve built around it.

Starting a business isn’t easy. To be honest I don’t feel that it was initially my intention to even do. I realized right away that a small business wasn’t just making things that I enjoy but so much more. I can make the items but then I have to actually deliver them to my customers. Boxes, bags and shipping supplies came as a surprise (oddly enough). Having stock of the items that my customers wanted was crucial along with the customer service I provided if there were any bumps along the road.

I believe that customers will come if you have the right product and the proper back end support to handle the business. In 2017 I’m going to work on the back end logistics that customers will never see. I hope to be reflecting a year from now on the success I’m striving for.

I wish everyone a happy and safe new year! Are you starting resolutions?

Seasons Greetings

GGMT , Holidays , Personal • Dec 5, 2016

seasonsgreetingsTis’ the season! Holiday decorations, pine scented candles, christmas lights, decorated trees, hot chocolate and so much more! There are so many great things to love about the holiday season. It’s my favorite time of the year for so many great reasons.

The last few years have been very different since my mom passed. She left me with so many beautiful memories that I have plenty to look back on and be grateful for. My mom was the type of parent that could hardly wait for Christmas to begin opening presents. Lets be real, she also didn’t want me waking her up early so many times we did our presents on Christmas Even instead of waiting until Christmas morning. Each year I make sure that my partner opens one gift on Christmas eve regardless of how small it may be. I’ve never told him this but it’s one of those little things that keeps the memory alive.

Each year we put up two Christmas trees. His and His if you will, lol. I like a tree with multi-colored lights and glittery ornaments. Brian on the other hand prefers white lights and a tree full of ornaments both from his childhood and from his travels. Both trees are stunning and it’s disappointing each year when they have to come down.

There is also a massive Christmas village that Brian puts up each year. Probably 50-ish houses and all of the people to match. It’s a Department 56 village so it has all of trimmings to really make it come alive. A few novelty houses as well such as Play-Doh and Lego. Takes a few hours to put it up and a few more to take it down.

I hope that everyone takes the time to truly enjoy this holiday season. I would love to hear some of your traditions!

Christmas 2014 Is Coming!

Holidays , Personal , Project Life • Nov 22, 2014

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Seems crazy to even say that Christmas is roughly a month away. A MONTH! I am not at all prepared. I’m trying though so hopefully that at least counts for something. One thing that I really wanted us to do this year was make our own christmas cards. I spent a couple months slowly gathering supplies to create the cards and even signed us up for a class at Studio Calico. I wanted us to be ready.

Well, the class was a bust. Nothing against Studio Calico but i just didn’t feel like I had the tools to be making the cards that they were showing us how to make. I have A TON of craft stuff due to my Project Life obsession but I don’t have a lot of the more expensive tools such as a die cutter. I felt like a lot of those tutorials really focused on having a die cutter so that was of course of no use to me.

A lot of cards turned out beautiful. Their are a lot of really neat crafting supplies that come out during the holidays. My favorite line by far for every holiday is Martha Stewart. I just think that all of her crafting material is top notch. It tends to be a bit on the pricey side but their is always a sale and every craft store tends to constantly have some sort of coupon available (except for Pat Catans so I tend to avoid them :/).

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I went to Michaels and Pat Catans yesterday. Pat Catans sent me a 15% off coupon and their holiday merchandise was 40% off for a total of 55% off my holiday purchase. As much as I avoid going to Catan’s due to the sending out coupons-once-per-year policy they always have all of the Martha Stewart products. Above is about half of what I actually bought (but the only Martha products).  I only spent around $17 total and got a ton of stickers. I’m good on just about everything else but I tend to use a ton of stickers so it was worth the small hall in the end.

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I mean.. honestly.. how amazing are the stars above?! I just couldn’t pass that up. During Valentines Day one thing I really enjoyed using where some postage stamp-style stickers she released. I saw them (below) for Christmas and I could not pass them up. We have a couple of more Christmas cards to make and I can think of a million ways to use them. You get A TON in each package so i’ll have enough left over to use them in my Project Life book. The stickers (above) are also a bit raised so you get that three dimensional look to the photos in Project Life. A bit more appeasing to the eye!

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One other thing i’m working on is a December Daily book for this year. I haven’t really put anything together because i’m debating on how I want to make it work. Their are so many options but I struggle because I feel like we don’t always have enough to document on a regular basis. For example – I know that a lot of people due two pages in their Project Life book for each week. I generally tend to leads toward one unless something significant is happening. Aside from work their isn’t too much that goes on every week of the year. I don’t have kids so their just isn’t anything to document.

Speaking of work, the holiday events are all starting! I LOVE IT! So many great things that go on from parties, cookie baking, and of course just the overall end of year celebration (i work in finance, you must celebrate the year-end). I work as an administrative assistant so I get to assist with a lot of the planning. Looking forward to every last bit of it!

We got a good dropping of snow this week! Enough to cover everything but still keep the roads clear. I don’t remember all to much snow coming in November in past years. I saw on the weather forecast that the majority of the snow will melt before Thanksgiving and then being to snow again on Thanksgiving DayGreat… just what we want for Black Friday shopping! Madness, crazy people, and snow covered roads, what a great combination.

Anybody have any exciting plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday? Do you do Black Friday shopping?

It’s Beginning…

Holidays , Personal , Random • Nov 12, 2013

… To look a lot like CHRISTMAS!

And it’s not even Thanksgiving yet! Normally this ‘pre-christmas’ celebrating is not something that I have any interest in partaking in. I like to put my decorations up after thanking, listen to my christmas music after thanksgiving, and I prefer being cheerful after thanksgiving as well. But… something has changed this year! And what else can I say aside form that face that i’m ready for the christmas season now!

It’s been a long year. There is no other way to put it and no way to sugarcoat the situation either (is this a situation?). I think that the thing that I enjoy most about the holidays is the mood. The feeling that everybody is happy, everybody is excited, and everybody is full of some sort of ‘warm-and-fuzzy’ bug! I can’t wait!

I started my holiday season by downloading Kelly Clarkson’s new christmas album, Wrapped In Red. I think that album came out in October technically .. but .. I was good and I at least waited until Halloween was over before I started listening.

On a side note.. this album is FANTASTIC! Probably not her best work ever, and probably not the best christmas album you will ever own, BUT it’s full of a lot of heart! You can tell that it wasn’t something that she just threw together in a rush (i’m thinking of YOU Jessica Simpson and your Happy Christmas album).

I’ve been looking at Christmas Sweaters (you know.. the REALLY ugly ones) and i’m actually looking forward to buying one to wear to all of those holiday parties that I never get invited to! lol. Anyway, I think that this may be the first year that my Christmas tree goes up before eating that delicious Thanksgiving day turkey and i’m not ashamed!

Nashville – Planning

Fanlistings , Holidays , Personal , Travel • Sep 21, 2013

I’m coming to the realization that the worst part of vacation is the planning. I’m a very type A personality so I think that this should be something that I would like to do. I enjoy list making, some planning, etc, but it’s not easy doing it all alone. My OCD keeps me from making key decisions on my own, lol.

It was somewhat of a last minute decision to go to Nashville. Initially the plans were for Hawaii, and then do to cost we changed to Disney. Got quotes for the trip and everything! But.. once again the price just didn’t make sense. It’s so much money and although we can afford it we just didn’t want to pay out that kind of cash. We have a friend getting married in October so the decision was made to just spend a week in the city!

We spent an entire afternoon last week planning the sites that we wanted to see while relaxing with some coffee at Barnes & Noble. There are tons of great sites to see but it’s a challenge trying to plan in an area that you’ve never been in. Each travel book is so completely different that it’s a challenge putting it all together.

Just browsing through it all though it seems like there are a ton of things to do while in the city. I’m probably most excited to shoot over to Memphis and see Graceland. It is a place that i’ve wanted to see probably my entire life. The funny part is that i’m not even really an Elvis fan. I think it’s just the point of going and seeing a piece of the country that houses such a huge part of history. Music history!

On a side note the fanlistings are on their way to back up and running! The forum is open to old members and it’s exciting to begin to get back involved again.