Living The Dream

I can honestly say I am living the dream.  Not many people can say that.  I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful son, and I get to do something that I love to do.  Plus I have friends and family that I love.  I wake up every day and count my blessings.  I love my craft and I get to do it full time.  Not many people get to do that full time.  It has taken me a couple of years to get to the point where I am finally starting to get somewhere but I am slowly getting there.  It has been a lot of hard work.  A lot of patience, doing shows, getting my name out there.  But now that it is getting out there, I am getting repeat customers and getting a fan base.  I am really happy with where things are at.

You can't just set up online one day and think they will come to you.  You have to advertise.  You have to facebook, tweet, and blog.  It takes a lot of time out of your day.  It means you may not always get the house spotless.  You may not always get dinner cooked.  You may put in some 14 and 16 hour days.  People who don't have an online business may not realize this.  They just think you are playing around on the computer.  Or you can do that order later.  Every one of your customers is important.  There are no sick days.  There are very few breaks. 

But you get to do what you love and you don't mind it one bit.  It's your business.  You are working for yourself.  There is no boss to tell you what to do.  You work that much harder for yourself.  And you love every minute of it.

Just some thoughts for today and working for yourself and how exciting it actually is.

A Time To Reflect

As many of you know, Indiana was hard hit last Friday by the storms and tornadoes.  They hit down in the southern part of the state, but it was still very close to home for me on Friday.  As I live in central, IN the tornadoes' wake left a path of destruction about 120 south of me.  I feel very helpless right now as I watch the news coverage, and all of the heroes that came out that day and those that gave up their own lives to save someone else's.

My husband had me glued to the weather on Friday, watching it, which is a little unusual for him.  I am usually glued it anyway and he usually ignores me when I warn him of bad weather.  But this day was different.  He told me to let him know what was going on and called me several times for updates.  I had bronchitis and Sam was at school.  I let him stay after so I could get some extra rest.  Scott went and picked him up early.  He didn't feel comfortable leaving him there with such bad weather out that day.  We had a pretty wicked hail storm, and did go under a tornado warning for a short bit, but here, usually they last about 10 minutes and they are over, nothing really ever comes of them.  We very rarely hear sirens (they only set them off if a tornado or funnel cloud has been spotted) and we go on.  I had my plan in place for when Sam came home.  We have a tornado plan and I have used it once. 

Then I heard about down south.  All of the pictures of destruction and devastation.  Still hearing new stories every night on the news.  Last night I cried like a baby about a mom who lost her legs saving her 2 children.  I think about how lucky I am.  I think about why does this happen?  My heart is broken for the family that lost an entire chunk of it's family.  A family of 5 wiped out.  2 towns wiped off the map.

But just as life is going on for these people in the Henrysville and Marysville areas ours must also.  But my thoughts are never far from these people and in the back of my mind, I wonder where will the next one hit?

The Lorax is Coming!!! The Lorax is Coming!!!!

Well less than a week now until the big movie hits.  I will be there with my son and his best friend.  The Lorax has been his favorite Dr. Suess book since he has been little.  He made me read it to him every day last summer and that's before he knew the movie was coming out.

Now I have that mad dash of last minute shoppers shopping in my shop for their Lorax hair bows.  I have heard of little girls having Lorax Movie Parties.  It seems that the Lorax has taken the kids by storm.  I think it's great.  The story has a great message about the environment and I hope that gets through in this movie which I'm sure it will.  We will find out this weekend.  Then as boys will be boys I will be subjected to a Monster Truck Show shortly afterwards.  LOL

Here are some bows I have left if you are looking for your last minute Lorax hair bows.  The green ones above are also up for sale.

These are all available in my shop while supplies last.  I have always carried Lorax ribbon in my shop because it has held a special place in my heart.  But because of the movie my suppliers are all out until mid March.  That is when I will be back in stock of everything.

It Has Been A Long Time!!!!

I know it has been a long time since I have posted, but I have been in the process of revamping things in the past year including my life.  I am pleased to announce I am up an running again and things will be better than before!!!!!

Things that happened in the past year:

Changed my shop name
Sales dramatically went up
Became President of the PTO
Sam decided to start traveling with his Judo team
My husband and I really worked on our marriage and I am proud to say it is better now than it has ever been
I left some of the teams I was active on on etsy
I have learned some time management skills
Sam started Full Day Kindergarten

Is that enough for ya?  My life has dramatically changed and for the good.  I am always happy and have a smiling face on now.  It was not so a year ago.  Plus I was selling to the wrong market a year ago.  I didn't market myself properly.  Now that I have and I am making the right accessories and doing the right things in my shop my sales are really good.  They always can be better, lol, but they are good.

I am part of a great project I am currently working on and you will hear a lot of coming up in the next few months.   The Alla Prima Art Mall.  It is an online mall.  I will be interviewing and featuring different artists from this mall every week.  I think it is a great project.  And for anyone who wants to check it out go to www.allaprimaartmall.com.  There are some fabulous items in there you might you need.  We will continue adding artists weekly and you will see fresh stuff in there weekly.  Come and check us out.

Well this is my first post in a while and I thank you for being a part of something that will truly be great.  This blog is going to turn into something truly special I can feel it.

Heather

TGIF!!!!!

Thank God It's Friday!!!!  And we finally have some nice weather to boot!!!!  I love the weekends in the summer.  We spend them at the lake in Northern Indiana.  So nice and peaceful up there.  The weather has been so bad this spring I haven't even gotten up there yet so this is my first official trip to the lake this year.  Sam is very excited.

Next week I will be starting another giveaway so stay tuned when I announce that on Monday!!!  This one is going to be fun.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and will see you on Monday!!!

Heather

How Does Tweeting Help You???

I am just now really getting into this tweeting thing.  I have been on twitter for awhile now but now am really getting the hang of it.  Have not had any sales from it, but am being optimistic over it.

I am finding out it is important to follow certain people who will retweet your stuff.  It is important to retweet what people tweet to you.  It is important to follow those who are following you.  It is also important to follow the people they suggest.  Unless they are celebrities.  I really don't care what Julianna Rancic or Mrs. Kutcher are doing today.  I wish they would stop suggesting me to follow them.  I strictly use twitter as a business tool.

I did realize today people are retweeting my stuff.  I am now up to 41 followers(yay) and I am following some people who have thousands of followers and hopefully my stuff is getting out there to thousands of peeps!!!

I keep hoping the hours a day I am putting into my shop are going to pay off.  I have really been at this for a month now and I can tell by my Google Anaylitics  that shop views are going up each week.  As long as people keep coming in, I think this can be successful.

I am going to keep working hard on this through Christmas.  If it doesn't pay off by then, well then I am doing something seriously wrong and I need to pack it in.  Craft Shows are my bread and butter and I will keep doing that but we will see how much longer I keep it going on Etsy.  Right now I am making enough to order more supplies and pay my fees.  I would really like to build up that Paypal account.  I am setting a goal to hopefully be able to buy some Christmas Presents with my own money this year instead of having to rely on hubby for everything.

I think that is the hardest part of going from an independent working woman, to a SAHM.  It's hard not having your own money anymore.  You somehow feel lost in the shuffle of everyday life.  No matter how hard I try to get past it, I still have the feeling of needing to accomplish something.  I think if I find a way to somehow contribute to the household financially, I will feel better about myself.  Do any of you have these same feelings???

Just wondering.

Til we meet again.

Heather

Happy Monday!!!!!!

Ok, so I am one proud mama after this weekend.  Sam won the silver medal at the Indiana State Judo Championships in Portland, IN!!!!  It was his first competition and he won one match!!!  I just watched the video I took and I am still tearing up watching him win his match.  It was a feeling of pride that I have never felt before.  I can't even explain it.  I thought my heart was going to burst with happiness and pride watching him fight.  It was incredible.

As I sit here and watch my son grow, I knew motherhood would be my greatest journey in life, but I never knew exactly how great.  How this little tiny bean in my belly would turn into something so magnificent.  I still look at my husband and say, "We made him".  How incredible the gift of life is.  How incredible it all is.

Having kids was a big question mark for me.  I have endometriosis and PCOS.  Having a period was rare for me.  Then my husband wasn't sure if he wanted kids.  After a long a serious talk, he decided he wanted a family.  Then came the trying to get pregnant part.  I worked at Bed Bath and Beyond at the time and it seemed like everyone was getting pregnant at that time.  A friend gave me a book to read about getting pregnant.  I read it from cover to cover.  Then we tried.  I missed my period, twice.  I took 8 home pregnancy tests.  All negative.  Told my doc and she thought it was endo again and I needed surgery.  On May 31,2005 I was all ready for surgery.  Had the IV in and everything.  Thank god they did a pregnancy test ahead of time.  Turns out I was 10 weeks along.  The best surprise in the world.  I almost passed out when they told me.  I thought Scott was going to have a heart attack.  And yes he was happy, just in shock as I was.  That was it.  We did it on our first try!!!  And I thought it was going to take forever.

And now here we are 6 years later, and I fall more in love with this little boy everyday.  I had absolutely no idea I could love this much, but the love I have for my child still bewilders me. 

I know I have kind of been off topic from business these past few posts but this is me and not every post is going to be about my shop.  There are other sides to me and I am going to show them to you guys. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.  It is truly from my heart and how I feel.

Heather