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. :)