Always working on something...

At any given point, there are no less than a dozen things I want to do...especially when it comes to work stuff. I want to make new designs, I want to make new products, I want to finish uploading all my existing products to my other sites...the list goes on and on. And that's just work-related stuff. There are also projects I want to do around the house, on top of all the household chores I already have to make time for AND filling CandiMaker orders. Not to mention all the things I'd like to do if I actually had free time to do them...like reading, writing, and even silly stuff like playing my Sims game. It feels like the days go by so slow...but there's still not enough time to do all the things. :P 

I have been trying to actually take some days off from work-related stuff, though. Sometimes it's taking the weekend off...sometimes it's just a random day during the week. I do have a hard time actually taking the break...because I think of the big ol' long list of productive things I want to get done. I'm typically pretty good about time management and efficiency...but with some projects, I still have issues with procrastinating. It's especially hard when I'm not feeling well...and I've had a headache for the last week.

Right now I'm working on my website. It's something that I've really wanted to get done, but kept putting it off because it's a lot of tedious work that I had to start from scratch to list around 300 products. But, now I've found a "groove" so it's going a little more smoothly. It's still taking a lot longer than I'd like--especially when GoImagine has glitches--but progress is progress. I was hoping to have it done by the end of the month, but I don't think that's going to happen. :P I did finally finish one section today, though, so I'll celebrate the little accomplishments. ;) 

Next week I have an eye doctor appointment. I liked the eye doctor that I'd been seeing for the last decade or so, but he retired. So I decided to try a new office altogether. Someone else in the area with Ehlers-Danlos recommended him, so we'll see how it goes. I know I need a new prescription for my glasses...and will likely have to pay extra for high index lenses because I'm blind. :P I'm also not a huge fan of picking out frames because I have a very small head so it really limits my options. But we'll see how it goes. 

Also, there's a new Sims 4 expansion pack being released next week. I'm getting that and another expansion pack for my birthday...so I definitely plan on taking next weekend off to play around with that. :) I think the "Adventure Awaits" pack looks really fun, and then the only other expansion pack I don't have is "Enchanted by Nature" so I'm going to go ahead and get that one, too. It has some really cool build items included...and building is my favorite part of the game. :) 

But for now...back to work on my website! 

It was a loooong week.

Johnny spent the last week with his family near Seattle, Washington. His mom is in a nice senior care home not too far from his brother. He hadn't seen his mom since she moved out there in late 2019. so he wanted to spend some time with her. Since he was going to be out there for a whole week, I stayed home with the dogs and to work. I didn't want to lose the momentum I've had by putting my shops on vacation mode for an entire week. So this time only Johnny went out there. 

Since I wasn't going, we paid $100 more for him to fly first class...and he enjoyed that. He flew on a smaller ERJ-135. In first class, one side has two seats and the other side has just one seat. Johnny had a seat in the first row on the side with just one seat and he really liked that. He spent most of the flight taking video out the window. He also got a complimentary lunch on his way out there and breakfast on his way back...plus snacks and drinks. He said it was a little bumpy during take-off and landing, but other than that it wasn't bad at all. 

He did a lot of fun things with his brother. They went hiking, to an estate sale, salmon hatchery, and other fun stuff like that. He also sent me a lot of pictures and videos of the wildlife that show up in his brother's backyard. There are lots of birds, ducks, a couple types of squirrels, a weasel, and a larger grey animal that Johnny just saw a flash of in the dark and didn't know what it was. We talked about how Nova would LOVE it...probably a little too much. She's always obsessed with critters in the yard. 

I spent the week working and watching a lot of documentaries. I'd planned to get a lot of projects done around the house...but I've been having bad neuropathy for the past couple weeks and haven't been sleeping much. There have been nights when I haven't gotten to sleep until 4-5am. So I haven't been as productive with projects around the house as I was hoping to be. I think my lack of sleep really started to hit me after Johnny got home...because both Saturday night and last night I ended up going to bed before midnight. Saturday night I woke up a couple times but was able to go back to sleep until I finally got up at 9:30am. Last night I went to bed a little bit earlier and was wide awake at 4am. :P I may try to get a couple more hours of sleep before Johnny has to start work...we'll see how it goes. I never know if it'll make me feel better through the day if I just settle for the 6 hours of sleep or if it'll make me MORE tired if I go back to bed for just 2 more hours. So we'll see. :P 

I did get one project done while Johnny was gone that I was excited about! Mom came over on Monday and helped me cut our memory foam mattress in half. :) It was kinda nerve-wracking to get started with the first cut...but it really wasn't that difficult. We measured and drew the cut line and then mom just used a regular serrated bread knife to cut it while I tried to apply even pressure on both sides of the line to help it cut easier. There were three layers to our mattress, so we decided to cut each layer separately and I held the top layers out a little bit so she could see better. And then it was pretty simple to get it put in the replacement covers that I'd purchased. Then it was just a matter of making the bed and reprogramming the remotes...which was also pretty easy. I'm absolutely loving that both sides of the bed are able to adjust independently now. Johnny sleeps better when he raises the head of the bed, but he doesn't like raising the feet...where my back feels better having the feet raised. So now we can both adjust it however we want. :) So despite getting less sleep lately...I've been waking up in less pain, so I'm pretty happy about that. 

So...if anyone out there wants to replace their king-size memory foam mattress with two TwinXL mattresses (or resize their current mattress to a smaller size), it's very possible (and not that hard) to cut the current mattress down! Our mattress no longer had a warranty (since my grandma bought it for herself back in 2014) but was still in wonderful shape, so we figured we might as well try it and save having to spend at least $3k on new mattresses. I'm definitely not disappointed! 

It was really weird having Johnny gone for a whole week. It was the first time we've spent a night apart since 2015 when the girls were still going to school in our hometown. I'm glad that Johnny was able to spend some time with his family and had a good time...but the doggies and I were definitely ready for him to be home! Nova was SO excited to see Johnny when he walked in the door. Boz was actually nervous and stayed glued to my side, but after a few minutes he realized who it was. Bozley is just weird like that. :P 

Work is still going well. I wrapped up August with my second highest orders per month, revenue per month, and profit for the month since I started CandiMaker (last month is the only month that had higher numbers, largely because of my name label sticker sheets). And on September 2nd, I hit 3000 sales in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop. My goal for this year is to hit 3500...so if things continue the way they have, I should be able to hit that goal. :) I just need to average about 5 sales per day...which is doable. I hit 450 sales in my CandiMakerPlanners Etsy shop mid-August, but sticker sheet sales have slowed to a crawl now that kids are back to school. A lot of it is the fact that I only have 8 listings in that shop and don't work on it as much as my regular sticker shop. I have been trying to work on it more...but I just have so many things on my to-do list. 

I think my next point of focus is going to be to get my website up and running. I'd really like to have it done by the end of the month. There are a few quirks about GoImagine's infrastructure that bug me, though. My biggest complaint is that I was trying to bulk delete the listings that they'd pulled from my Etsy data upload (because it's going to be quicker to just start from scratch rather than edit 300+ listings). But after awhile, it started deleting the listings that were NOT checked in addition to the ones that were checked...including the template listing that I'd just created. So...I gave up working on it that day out of frustration. My plan next week is to make as much progress as possible with it, though. 

On that note...I'm gonna try to get some work done while I try to decide if I want to get a little more sleep or not. ;) 

Slowing Down

It never fails...if I go to bed before midnight, I end up being awake at 3am and can't get back to sleep. So here I am! :P It's storming right now...mostly just thunder and some lightning. I love listening to the thunder. Nova Lee doesn't like the thunder, though. She prefers to hide in the hallway during storms. 

Work has slowed down a lot now that kids are back to school. My regular sticker and magnet orders are still regularly coming in, but the custom name label sticker sheets that dominated in July and the beginning of August are now just an order here and there. 

After orders started to slow down, I decided to start working on some new designs. I added a new set of cleaning sticker sheets for planners to my CandiMakerPlanners shop as well as about 20 new regular sticker designs. There are three animal-related designs and the rest are humor/sarcasm designs (actually, the animal ones are humorous as well, but they're under animals). I got them all printed, cut, photographed and listed...and have already had a couple orders for them. 

And now I'm working on getting my website set up. For right now, I'm just using GoImagine to create my website because it's only $15/month. Etsy has a $15/month plan with a website, but I wanted to diversify the platforms I use. At some point, I may migrate over to a true e-commerce website like Shopify, but right now I'd rather save the money. I have my own domain (www.candimaker.shop) so I'll be able to switch platforms easily in the future without having to redirect customers. 

I've also been busy getting everything ready for Johnny's trip to Washington to see his mom and brother. We splurged a bit and he's flying first class! It was only about $100 more...plus we could use the cash back rewards from our credit card to take off another $130. I also got him an 8 piece luggage set on Amazon when it was on sale for just $85. It has two large checked bags, a carry-on bag, and a smaller personal bag plus 4 packing cubes. It seems pretty sturdy so hopefully it'll hold up well! One of his checked bags will probably be mostly stuff for his mom. She is living in a care home and we've had all her stuff here in our basement. So he's going to take some of her things out there to her. Johnny is impressed with how organized I am with getting everything ready for him. He's a procrastinator so if it weren't for me...he'd probably be doing all his packing the night before he left while I've been prepping for a week already. ;) Hopefully he'll have a great trip! 

I'm going to tackle at least one project while Johnny is gone. The sync cord for our adjustable base was damaged (darn ol' cats) so we haven't been adjusting the bed for about a month now. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a replacement cable anywhere since it's pretty old. We've been wanting to get a split king (two twinXL mattresses) but we also don't want to spend the $3k+ right now. BUT...I realized that we can actually cut our memory foam mattress in half. Our mattress is still comfy, so I figured we might as well try this first. Tempur-Pedic doesn't have replacement covers for 11" mattresses, but I ended up finding a company where you can order some generic ones. I already have the new mattress pad and sheet sets...and the replacement covers should be here Friday. Mom's going to help me cut the mattresses and get them in the covers. Hopefully it will go smoothly! 

All right...I think I'm finally getting tired again, so I'm going to see if I can fall asleep. :) 

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. :)