Getting closer to Christmas!

Things have been busy lately. 

Friday we ended up having to take Nova to the vet. I let the dogs outside early that afternoon and right after they came in, she was pacing around and whining to go back outside. She trotted out and immediately went potty again. I watched and she was basically just walking back and forth across the yard squatting to go potty. So I was pretty sure she had a UTI. Since it was Friday, I texted the vet to make an "urgent" appointment since there weren't any appointments available. They weren't able to get a urine sample, but we were able to get her some antibiotics and vetprofen. Nova seems to be back to normal now. By Friday night she wasn't going outside as frequently and not squatting as often while she was out. 

We had Christmas at my sister's house Saturday. We celebrate with my mom, her mom, my dad, my sister and her kids, and then my kids and their boyfriends. The rule for boyfriends is that they have to be dating for a year before they come to family functions...and this is actually the second Christmas they've come to now. Ashlyn's boyfriend had worked all night and then didn't get any sleep during the earlier part of the day, so he actually fell asleep in the living room chair toward the end of the evening...and he was snoring pretty loud. lol. One of my nieces ended up drawing pictures on his hand. :P But it was a nice evening with lots of laughter. We had a lot of finger foods and desserts. I took the ginger molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and chicken salad sandwiches cut diagonally into 4 pieces like my Grandma Ina used to make every year for Christmas Eve. Oooh...and my sister made beer bread and I pigged out on that with the spinach and herb dip. Yummy! I hadn't had it in YEARS and forgot just how yummy it is. 

Then Sunday night, Johnny's daughter and her two kids stopped by for awhile. She also brought their golden retriever over. Boz and Nova had a blast playing with him. I think he's about 6 months old or so. It was fun watching them chase each other around. 

Saturday morning while I was in a hurry getting everything ready to go to my sister's, I knocked over the stand my Cricut is on when I was trying to get in the closet. At first I thought it was fine, but when I went to make orders on Sunday, I noticed that the power jack was bent sideways because it was plugged in when it fell and the cord was caught under the desk. I was able to plug it in and kinda pull the cord back the way it was supposed to go and tape it to hold it in place...and it's working for now. I have the Siser Romeo, but I still use the Cricut as well...especially when I have a lot of work and I can use both machines at the same time. The Cricut can also handle thicker materials and has several different kinds of blades that I use (debossing, engraving, foiling, scoring, perf, knife blade, etc)...and I generally cut all my magnets on it. 

So I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to replace the Cricut or just keep using it until the tape holding the cord stopped working. I looked on the Cricut website and saw that the Cricut Maker 4 was on sale for $50 off...which is cheaper than I paid for my Cricut Maker 3. On top of that, I had a code for an additional $10 and got an additional 10% off (after the first $50 discount) by paying $9 for the first month of a Cricut subscription. I ended up saving more than $100 for a newer model. Since my deposit for the last week was more than the cost of the machine, I decided to go ahead and get the Cricut Maker 4. Had it not been on sale and had the additional discounts, I probably wouldn't have gotten it right now. But...now I'll have three machines that I can use at the same time (at least for as long as my tape trick will work) and I should be able to keep both Cricut machines on the same stand. Plus we can deduct it on the taxes this year...which is good timing since I had such an unexpectedly busy July and August. 

Cricut cutting machines kind of have a bad reputation among sticker makers. Lots of people complain about problems they have with their Cricut...especially cuts that are off. But I've been lucky to never have significant problems with my Maker 3. There has been a time or two after an update when I've had to recalibrate the get my cuts straight...but that's about it. I've noticed the majority of problems seem to be for those using the Cricut Explore machines...so I don't know if that makes a difference. I'm hoping I won't have any issues with the Maker 4. There isn't a whole lot of change between the Maker 3 and the Maker 4 aside from speed...so we'll see how it goes. 

The last week of November and the first two weeks of December have been really busy with orders. November started out slow, but the month ended up being the best I'd had outside of the unusually busy July and August from my custom name sticker sheets in my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I had 162 orders in November...and I already have 128 for December. It has started slowing down this week since we're getting closer to Christmas, but orders are still coming in. I had 172 orders for the month of December 2024, so we'll see where it ends up this year. I've already passed 3600 sales in my CandiMakerStickers shop and I'm at 499 in my sticker sheet shop (hopefully I can get at least one more sale there before the end of the year!).  

I also need to clean out the office. When we got the new furniture in the living room, I kind of stuffed everything that was stored in the old living room furniture in the office to deal with after Thanksgiving...but still haven't gotten around to it. Thus the trouble getting into the office closet and the Cricut getting knocked over. :P So that's probably what I'll do this weekend. 

But for right now, I need to get back to work. :)