Breathe

Sunday night the mayhem started. Loads of emails, inquires on wholesale pricelist, custom orders and regular orders. Last week was very laid back, I worked on designing 7 new items and the new color PDF catalog. This week has been non-stop 16 hour days. My brain felt like it was going to pop. So yesterday I escaped outside and ran to the store looking everywhere for a day planner. No one had a planner for today, they were for August 2010-August 2011. I need one today. I came home and checked on Etsy for a planner. I found one. Its a DIY planner and calendar. So bought it and started printing out pages.

Today, I went to Target again and bought a half size soft covered notebook for my new planner. I also got the clear plastic pocket dividers. Now I can breathe, everything is all written down.

Exciting News: I had a Little Miss Heirlooms contact me about one of my products. She wants to review it and put in her online magazine. Its a magazine all about kids products.

I've also booked 3 giveaways, two of which came to me and said they wanted to host a giveaway on their blog. The other one is my sponser blog. I'll post links on Twitter and Facebook closer to the dates.

A Day Out

I went to Greenville today (first time in 1 1/2 years) to eat lunch with my sister, Erica. We met at Mimi's Cafe. I had a delicious giant Ceasar salad. Erica got their new Cobb salad and the kids ate pancakes and fruit. After lunch, she went on home and went to the mall to say Hi to some old friends. Then after the mall I went to my cousin's house and talked with Mollie (cousin-in law) for a little awhile. We had a nice visit. I was able to see my grandparents house I haven't seen in about 4 years. I felt overwhelming memories as I drove up to the drive away. So many memories there.

I got home around 4:30 pm. I checked my emails and I was swamped with over 17 emails, tons of order and questions. I started to work and was up until midnight filling orders.

Schedule

So far the new schedule is working out good. I'm up around 8 am every morning and wake the kids. Then I have them back in bed before 11 pm. Yeah. Maybe we can keep this up. Its been a whole week now.

New Product

I have one new product in the store. More Bunting Flags. The Z is for Zebra flags flew off the shelf last week. I sold about 15 packages. So i made some more these are from the

BABY ABC flashcards set.

I should have a new set of 1-31 Mini One Word flashcards numbers (bright colors) this week and maybe a new patterned paper set "Clowning Around" (circus theme).

Schedule

This week schedule we are on from 5 am - 5 pm. The last few days I've been getting up at 5 am. The kids have been getting up too, then taking a early morning nap. I've been trying to stay awake to get some things done while the kids are out.

Like this morning:
Washing the dishes
De-furring Rich's suit
Picking out Sunday clothes

Outside

This afternoon around 3 pm, I took the kids outside to enjoy the weather. I bought Emily a new Kailan lego set to go with her previous set from her birthday. I put them all in a basket and she wanted to take them outside to play too. I took Mia and a blanket, some crayons, pen and notebook. Rich got the tent tarp out and laid it on the grass and we all got on that. Mia played with toys and Emily with legos. Rich brought me out a pillow later, and I tried to take a nap. Mia found a crayon and never ate it, she just looked at it and watched Emily with her crayon. I put the notebook in Mia's lap and she tried to color. I think we'll have another crayon artist in the future :)

Mountains

The Kenner Road kit exposure was huge for me. I had 48 orders in a 3 day time frame. 100 new hearts on etsy and many awesome comments about my store on Kenner road giveaway blog.

The rush started on Tuesday evening, the order kept coming and coming. Not little orders either $20, $30, $40. Cha ching over and over has my email kept chiming. Tuesday I just sat and watched my email and couldn't keep relisting on etsy fast enough. I really didn't even know where to start.

I first emailed everyone and said that orders were backed up and that I would email when their order was ready to mailed. Wednesday is international shipping day. So I knocked out a few international orders first. Then I started at the bottom of the pile. I would print that order, cut, package and ship. Order by Order. Finally on Saturday I shipped the last package.

Phheww. Very long hours this week. 16-18 hour shifts. A short nap here and there just to stay awake. And lots of soda and snack crackers to keep me full.

Little Cook

Emily was wound up one morning. I told her if she was really good, she could help me make brownies. I had gotten some Pillsbury brownie mix from Target and had been craving them for sometime. Emily got on her stool and wanted to help with every step. She held the measuring cup as I filled it with oil. Then we added water and eggs. The she tried to stir them. When I was scrapping the bowl into the pan, she said "Mama, that's my job." So handed her a spatula and she scrapped. Then into the oven they went for 20 minutes. Those have been the best brownies. Definitely will be going back to get some more Pillsbury brownies soon.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations!! Here are two winners:

$25 Gift Certificate

Goes

To

Cashleysun (esty user)

WINNER#2

$10 Gift Certifcate

Goes

to

Vmolina (etsy user)

Funny

This morning, Emily has been saying the funniest stuff.

"You don't know how to cut, you're too little"

I cut her up a stack of flashcards, after going through all of them she said, "I'm going to sell them."

Some of the flashcards had words and pictures. Here's her response to each of the flashcards.

(Dog) "Dog sits in the chair"
(Cow) "Cow says moo and the sheep ba ba"
(Spoon) "Spoon is for eating noodles"
(fork) "I eat noodles with a fork"
(Spoon) "Spoon gives me noodles and you feed me"
(fish) "Fish digs holes"
(dog) "Dog climbs up the chair just like Tabi and Elijah doos"
(cup) "Cup finishes noodles in your plate and scoops them up and digs holes"
(cat) "Look at the Cats, They dance"
(#1) "A number it digs holes"

Treasury

I just recieved an etsy convo that one of my flashcards sets was added to her tax day treasury.

An etsy treasury anyone can make, but it only last for 3 days. Everyone who is featured on a treasury keeps their fingers crossed and hopes they will end up on the front page.

Today I recieved my 600th sale on etsy.

Busy Week

I expect this week to be busy on etsy.

I'm doing a $25 Gift Certificate giveaway on April 15 at 6:00 Pm EST.

So Don't forget to enter.

Cincinnati Coupons is doing a review and 10% coupon on my store.

Its is being posted on their online site today.

Kenner Road is new wholesaler. They purchase a ton of flashcards for the new April kit being released on April 15 at 12 am. I can't wait to see what the design team did with the flashcards.

Evalicious is a new wholesaler.

She purchased a whole lot of stuff for her new art journals

being released on Saturday April 17.

Her new stuff has been post-poned until May 1

So I'm planning on some extra business this week with 3 new exposure sites.

** To stay update on new products, sales and freebies.

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New Product

Boy One Word Flashcards

Little Girls One Word Flashcards

Nursery Rhymes Calendar Cards

Plain Jane Number Tags

Mother Goose Flashcards

Monday's Child Flashcards
These are becoming very popular. I love the 2 books these came out of

The books are rare and very hard to find. It took several months to locate

them. I found both at 2 different Out of Print Rare Online Book stores.

Cupcake Tops Calendar Cards

Z is for Zebra Bunting
This is very large 15 feet. To take the picture I stretched it along the entire

fireplace, across the sun porch door, to the wall and then left w-z hanging.

I didn't realize how many new products I've been making, until my friend, Evelyn picked up new product for her store. The basket of product was full. All I could think of "wow that was alot of work."

Custom

Custom orders galore. This is what keeps me in business. This week I've had like no etsy sells, but I've had tons of requests for custom items. Beginner Flashcards, Door Hangers, Cupcake Wrappers, paper candy cones, Silhouettes, Cupcake Flags, Milk Carton Favor boxes, matching party garlands, Sweet sign tags, Wedding Bracket for Photo ops, placecards, name tags, Flashcards that spell out names etc . . . I'm slowly catching up on all the custom orders.

Entertainment

Lately, Mia is Emily's new entertainment. Emily want to sit next to Mia in the basket. Emily loves to get in the crib with Mia and read her books, play trains together or just lay there and try to mimic Mia talking Baby talk.

Exhausted

Today, I felt like I'd flown across the world and had terrible jet lag. But alas I was just at home with kids who are changing the schedule again. We are now staying up in the morning until 10 am and sleep until 9 pm. Then staying up all night. Yesterday, the kids both went to sleep by 10 am. I laid down around 11 am and then at 12 pm A friend stopped by for 3 hours. So no sleep for me. I finally crashed around 3:30 pm. Then the kids were up ready to play, and I was not. Finally laid down for a nap between 1 am -2:30 am. Then I got up and started printing.

This afternoon, the drum ran out on the printer, so Rich changed it. OOPS the printer really needs cleaned the drum got contaminated. It took about 4 hours to get it working again. So I got a little behind in orders. Its been slow all last week, and then tonight it hit. Order after order. Finally feeling the end of the pile.

Recipe

Emily funny explanations on how things work:


" Rest-a-pee is how to make a pie to eat."

Mobile

Mia is almost mobile. She gets around while sitting up by rolling onto her back, then to her stomach and just reaches for things. She rolls over and then back around until she has been in a complete circle. She still falls over when sitting, so I grabbed a laundry basket one day and put her in it full with toys. Its now the new hit. Emily loves it too. She pulls up another basket next to Mia's and plays with her barbies and Train sets her basket.

Happy Easter!

Spring Nights

Emily woke up this afternoon. (we stayed up all night) and told me that she needed to put her shoes on, becaue Dadoo was taking her to the store to buy catfood for Patches. She made is all up. Rich was outside working on the truck. So anyways, I got her pants and shoes on, got mia dressed and my shoes on and we went outside to watch him work on the truck. Later that evening I dressed Emily and Mia in bathing suits and we put them in the kiddie pool. The water was way to cold. So after 5 minutes, we moved them both with their bathing suits still on to the bath tub to play. We'll have to wait until it gets a little warmer to do an evening in the swimming pool.