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. :)