Finally taking a weekend off!

I'm taking a much needed weekend off...at least that's the plan so far. Last weekend, I had so many orders coming in and didn't want to fall behind...so I ended up working all weekend. 

I ended the week last Saturday with 148 orders...a new record. I also set a new record on Saturday for daily revenue...beating my previous record on July 30th by more than $60. I dropped off 81 orders at the post office on Monday. I was up until 3am getting them all packaged before I went to bed. I had 49 orders for sticker sheets, 1 sticker order from eBay, and then 31 regular sticker and magnet orders. I made nearly the same amount last week as I did the entire month of December 2024. My gross revenue for the last week was only $300 shy of my gross *monthly* income at my last payroll job in 2007! 

The custom name label sticker sheets will likely slow down once the back-to-school rush is over, so I've been working on more sticker sheet designs. Yesterday I listed a set of Christmas sticker sheets that include 14 different designs for return address labels, gift tags, and envelope seals. I'm almost done printing and cutting all the orders I've received so far, so I may create some more designs today before taking the weekend off. 

We also have dinner for Johnny's birthday this weekend with my mom and grandparents. We postponed it to this weekend because we had nice weather last weekend and Johnny wanted to fix the lawn mower (needed a new battery and cables) and get some stuff done around the yard. I got Johnny some new clothes for his birthday. He was wanting some new stuff to wear for when he goes to Seattle for a week to see his family. 

Our anniversary is coming up, too! We will have been together for 13 years and married for 8! We usually just do dinner and dessert for our anniversary. We'll probably just rent a movie or something. We like low-key nights at home. :) 

Record Setting July!

It was a very successful July for CandiMaker! 

I ended up breaking every single one of my records in July...and some multiple times in the month.

Monthly Orders: My previous record for the number of orders in one month was 175 in December 2024. I beat that record in July with 292 orders. 
Daily Orders: My record in 2024 was 13 orders in one day in December 2024. I had 17 orders on 7/20/25, 19 orders on 7/27/25, 20 orders on 7/28/25, and then set my current record of 28 orders in one day on 7/30/25. 
Weekly Orders: My record in 2024 was 57 orders in one week from 12/1/24-12/7/24. I first broke that record during the week of 7/20/25-7/26/25 with 89 orders. This week isn't even over yet but I already have 120 orders this week. 

And with breaking all those records...I broke my records for daily, weekly, and monthly revenue (gross pay) as well. My monthly revenue was $1100 higher for July than my previous record set in December 2024. 

I also hit 2800 sales in my CandiMakerStickers shop and 300 sales in my CandiMakerPlanners shop in the month of July. I doubled my sales in my CMP shop in just 10 days. 

The huge increase has been driven by my custom name label sticker sheets that are popular with kids going back to school. They're not laminated and are great for labeling school supplies. In my regular sticker shop, my custom name laminated stickers are really popular right now with back to school as well. They're water-resistant so they're great for putting on water bottles. 

I'd planned to design some more Christmas labels, but I've been too busy with all the orders to focus on that much. Back to school sales are only through the beginning of September, so I'll probably work on them next month. 

Right now I need to get back to work. :) 

Breaking more records!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks with work. I wasn't planning to work this past weekend...but it ended up being pretty much all I did! But I'm definitely not complaining...because I think having lots of orders is a pretty great "problem" to have. ;) 

I finished last week (Sunday to Saturday) by basically surpassing all my records. On Thursday, I passed my previous record of 13 orders in one day with 17 orders is one day...and then I broke the record again yesterday with 19 orders! I broke my previous record of 57 orders in one week back in December 2024...with 89 orders last week! And I've already passed my previous record of 175 orders in one month in December 2024 by reaching over 200 orders so far...and July isn't even over yet! I also broke my previous records for weekly and monthly revenue. 

Nearly all of the increases are from the custom name label sticker sheets in my CandiMakerPlanners Etsy shop. I finally hit 150 sales in that shop on July 20th...and then I hit 200 sales on July 25th. And now I'm already at 242 just three days later. I've had orders so far this year in my CMP shop, which is 400% higher than it was at this point last year. The listing for the custom name label sticker sheets have the bestseller badge,and it also has the "popular now" badge showing in search results. I'm really excited that they've been doing so well. I actually took 51 orders to the post office this afternoon! That's a new record for me, too. I spent all day yesterday printing and cutting all my orders and then was up until almost 4am packaging them all. I got all caught up and had zero pending orders...and now I already have another 9 new orders today. 

Today I'm taking a break from making orders and I'm designing some new address label sticker sheets and matching envelope stickers. I've been putting it off forever, but I want to get them listed before people really start searching for Christmas stuff. I already had a few listed from before, but I'm going to be revamping them and making some new ones. We'll see how it goes. 

Well...I'm going to get back to work for now. Hopefully everyone has a good week! 

ETA: I mentioned that I hit 150 sales on July 20th, 200 sales on July 25th...and tonight I hit 250 sales! That's 100 sales in 8 days! I also broke my record for daily orders again with 20 orders today! :)

BUSY!

So the last post I made on June 30th...I was talking about how I was hoping to be done with the "holiday every day" sticker sheet set by July 1st but it was taking a little longer. Yeah well...I just finished designing them today. :P Tomorrow I plan to print, cut, and photograph them so I can get them listed. I really enjoy them, though. I like the idea...hopefully others will like them too. :)  

My custom name label sticker sheets are selling in full swing again. The total number of these sticker sheets that I'd sold between June and September of last year was 48. So far I've already sold 41 of these sticker sheets since June. And I just noticed today that it has a bestseller badge on it. That's always nice to see. :) 

I've been pretty busy with orders lately. Yesterday I dropped off 31 orders at the post office...12 orders for CandiMakerPlanners and then another 19 orders for CandiMakerStickers. My previous record for most orders to go out in one day was 26 on December 4, 2024. Speaking of records, I tied my record for number of orders in one day on Sunday...13 orders in one day (from all my shops). And then yesterday I had another 12 orders and 11 orders today. I also surpassed my previous number of orders in one week for 2025 last week (Sunday to Saturday) with 46 orders. My overall record is 57 orders during the first week of December 2024. Hopefully this momentum continues and I'll have an even better December this year. In my CMS shop, I'm up 54% for orders compared to this time last year and my revenue is also up 98%. A lot of my large revenue increase is related to selling a lot more magnets...which are a higher priced item in my shop. And then so far this year in my CMP shop, my orders are up 163% and my revenue is up 144%. I really like seeing all the progress.  

I'm really glad I have the Romeo now because it makes sticker sheets SO much easier. I was also able to find some matte 11x17 pages so I can cut 4 sheets at a time, which helps a lot! Making sticker sheets with my Cricut Maker 3 was so frustrating because I couldn't get consistent cuts. Even with the same settings and materials, sometimes it would be okay, but then it would frequently cut too deep into the sheet. It was frustrating and I wasted so much material just trying to print one sticker sheet. It was irritating enough that I almost thought about not selling sticker sheets at all. Now...I have consistent cuts and can just breeze through making 4 sticker sheets at a time. It has me excited about making sticker sheets again.  

One of my biggest problems is having so many ideas and not enough time to get to them all as fast as I want to. :P I'm going to take a little break from new work projects for a little bit now, though. The holiday every day sticker sheets too a long time to finish and I wasn't taking breaks during the weekend...so I want to relax for just a little bit before I jump into designing more products again. 

In other news, Bozley is doing so much better after getting fixed. He's actually eating all his food everyday! That's something that has been so difficult ever since he was a puppy. We kept having to try different foods, fresh foods, dehydrated foods...even if he liked something, he'd only like it for a few days and then it was back to him just pushing the food around with his nose. I mean...he'd even turn his nose up at people food we tried to give him as treats...like cheese, fruits, and vegetables. 

Once we brought Nova home, Bozley started actually eating the regular dog food (we use Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach because it doesn't have chicken, which they're allergic to) as long as I would add water to it and heat it up a few seconds in the microwave. But even then...we'd have to sit there and coax him to eat it and it'd take forever. He'd still spend most of the time pushing it around with his nose and a lot of times he wouldn't even finish it at all. Now it doesn't take quite as long for him to eat and he's actually been eating all of it everyday! I can also tell he's finally gaining weight and looking so healthy. :)  

I started watching a new show while I was working this past weekend...I finished the available episodes tonight (there are only 3 seasons with 8 episodes each season, so it didn't take too long). It's called Dark Winds on AMC. I'd found it because it has one of the actresses from Burden of Truth in it (Johnny and I just finished watching that show together last week). And the main lead is actually the guy who played Cloud Dancing's son in Dr Quinn Medicine Woman (I loved that show when I was a kid). I liked the first two seasons of Dark Winds a lot better than the third, but it was still pretty good. I'm generally not a super huge fan of time-period shows (this one is set in the 70s), but every once in awhile I find one I like.

Well...I better get back to work. I want to get all my orders ready before I go to bed so I can print and cut them tomorrow. 

RECIPE: Chicken Fajitas

Tonight I decided to make chicken fajitas in the pressure cooker instead of the way I normally do with the electric skillet. It takes a LOT less time in the pressure cooker...which is the biggest thing I love about using the pressure cooker. :) Also...I use a lot of chicken when I make fajitas because we love leftovers for a couple days. You could use less chicken and everything is still the same as far as cook time, etc. It may take longer to get to pressure, but that's really the only difference. 

Pressure Cooker Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients:

2 gallon-size Ziploc bags 

6 chicken breast halves
6 packets of McCormick fajita mix

1/4 cup of chicken broth (you can substitute with water)

2-3 bell peppers

1 yellow onion

1 lg package flour tortillas, soft taco size 

favorite toppings: shredded extra-sharp cheddar, shredded lettuce, salsa or diced tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole, etc. 

Directions: 

1. Add chicken broth (or water) to the bottom of the pressure cooker. I don't use a trivet for this recipe. 

2. Cut chicken into strips that are about 1/4" thick. Add them to one of the Ziploc bags with 4 fajita mix packets. I alternate adding chicken and fajita mix so it's layered. Once you've added all the chicken and 4 fajita mix packets, shake the bag to make sure all the chicken is nice and coated. 

3. Cut vegetables into strips that are approximately 1/2" wide. Add to the second Ziploc bag with 2 packets of fajita mix and shake the bag to coat everything. 
4. Add the chicken on the bottom of the pressure cooker and then cover with the vegetables. Do not stir. 

5. Close the pressure cooker and set to high pressure for 4 minutes.  

6. Allow to naturally release the pressure for about 6 minutes before quick releasing the rest of the pressure. Once I open the pressure cooker, I stir everything together. 
7. If there is a lot of liquid still in the bottom of the pressure cooker, set the pressure cooker to brown/saute and cook it for at least 5 minutes, tossing with tongs frequently so it doesn't burn. 

8. Serve in flour tortillas with your favorite toppings. 

**I used my 8qt pressure cooker for this recipe

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