March?!

Well...I ended February with 97 orders...so didn't make it over 100, but hopefully it'll be the only month with less than 100 orders just like it was last year. And I still had almost 20 more orders this February than I did last year and my revenue was also quite a bit higher. It did pick up more in the last few days. I had 20 orders from over the weekend that I made and packaged last night before I went to bed so they'd be in the mail today. 

Since I worked on my website all day Friday and Saturday then worked on orders Sunday, I decided I'm going to take a break from work today. I've also had a horrible migraine for most of the day, so I haven't really felt like doing much anyway. I even laid down to take a nap for about two hours with an ice pack hoping it would help...but it didn't. I just found an old sumatriptan in the cabinet so I'm hoping that will kick in and make the migraine go away. 

Johnny had surgery this morning to remove the stitches from his surgery last week and to remove another spot of skin cancer. Last week we were home by 9:30am, but it was a bit busier today. We'd been talking all morning about getting McDonalds breakfast since we were out and about. We ended up having to order Door Dash to have breakfast delivered...it got there about 10 minutes before we did. ;) So we enjoyed some breakfast sandwiches and burritos while we watched Playdate. Honestly...I like Alan Ritchson (LOVE watching Reacher) and he was funny in this movie...but the movie itself was not great. It was more corny than funny, and those aren't really my type of comedies. My favorite genre is action movies with funny one-liners...like Reacher! lol.  

Out of  the seven skin cancer surgeries Johnny has had now, this is the only one where he had any issues after we got home. He'd been sitting for awhile but then when he stood up, quite a bit of blood started coming from under the pressure bandage which was no longer secured at the bottom. He has to keep the pressure bandage on for 48 hours after surgery, so I'm wondering if that was part of the problem as far as why it had started bleeding. I went ahead and took the bandage the rest of the way off and there was a small spot about a quarter inch long that had a little bit of blood seeping through the incision (so it was already no longer dripping). We were out of butterfly bandages, so I used a regular Band-Aid across the incision to hopefully hold it closed a little better and then put a new pressure bandage on. He went in the bedroom to lay down a couple hours ago and so far it seems to be doing fine and there hasn't been more bleeding. 

I finally got around to making a groomer appointment for Boz and Nova. They reeeeeally need a spaw day. Unfortunately we couldn't get in until April, but I did see that she posted on FB that they're not taking on any new dogs so the wait doesn't get even longer for their existing customers. She's been our only groomer since Bozley's first groom and with his anxiety, we try not to change things up very often unless we have to. I also need to make their vet appointment so they can get their shots. Nova already has a scab on her head so we'll get her an allergy shot, too. We have to remember to have the vet look at a lump on her chest while we're there. Bozley has had one for years and the vet said it seems to just be a lipoma, so we're hoping that's the case with Nova, too. 

Well...the migraine meds kicked in and helped the pain, but now I have the uncomfortable tightness feeling, so I think I'm actually gonna go to bed early. Goodnight! 

Keeping busy!

Well...I'm glad I didn't spend too much more time working on my "website" at GoImagine...because they're shutting down next month. Honestly, I can't say that I'm surprised at all that they're shutting down. It seemed like they spent a lot more effort attracting sellers than buyers. A lot of sellers talked about how they liked that it wasn't Etsy and it focused more on sellers...but Etsy actually has traffic, and GoImagine doesn't. It doesn't really matter how they treat sellers if the sellers don't have any buyers. That's why I was just using it as a "website" instead of a marketplace...because you still have to drive the traffic yourself anyway. Their UI was really clunky and their analytics left a lot to be desired as well. 

So anyway...I decided that I still want to build my own website, so I'm utilizing Shopify's $1/mo intro offer to see how I like things there. I went through all the settings to get my account and everything set up yesterday. Then today I finished up the theme and editing the design. Now it's just a matter of getting all my products added. Luckily there is an Etsy integration where I can import all my Etsy listings, so that helps a lot. I just have to go through and tweak a few things like changing the prices. My prices on Etsy include not only the fees that Etsy charges, but also the cost for First Class letter mail labels on Etsy. I'll only be doing tracked shipping on orders from my website, so the item price won't include shipping anymore. I'll be charging for shipping, but I'll be offering free shipping for orders over $35. I'm hoping to have my website completely finished by the end of this weekend. :) 

It's hard to believe it's almost March! February is always my slowest month...but this February has already been better than February 2025, so that's good. I'm not sure that I'll break 100 orders this February, but hopefully it'll be like last year and it'll be the only month that doesn't break 100. And the slower pace has given me time to work on my website anyway. 

Johnny has been off work because he had another skin cancer surgery earlier this week. He has another one next week and hopefully that'll be the last one for awhile. We watched The Wrecking Crew last night and it was SO good. It's definitely the best movie we've watched in awhile. It's my favorite genre...funny action movies. Then today Aubry and her boyfriend stopped by to drop something off and ended up staying awhile. It was a nice time...lots of laughing, so that's always good. :) 

Well...I think I'm actually getting tired. My allergies have been terrible today so I think I might take some more Benadryl and go to bed. :P

Valentine's Day!

Johnny and I are pretty low-key when it comes to holidays. We like to spend quality time together...eating dinner and watching tv shows or movies with each other. I love our nice, comfortable life together. We don't have any drama, there's no fighting...everyday is just...contentment...and I really appreciate that. 

I did splurge a little bit this year. I've been seeing commercials for edible arrangements for years and always thought that it would be neat thing to do for Johnny. He really likes fruit and flowers aren't very "manly" so a fruit bouquet just seemed like it'd be perfect. I ordered an arrangement that had some pineapple hearts, strawberries, and chocolate covered strawberries with a valentines day balloon. I wanted something that didn't have everything covered in chocolate, because I knew he'd want to share it with the puppies. 

I ordered it around 1am on February 13th for valentines day delivery on Saturday. It arrived shortly before 2pm and came in a case in an insulated bag. The balloon was tied to the handles on the bag...and Bozley immediately hated it. :P He ran to the hallway and started barking at it. Then when I was finally able to get him to sit on the couch next to me, he kept shaking really bad. I ended up putting the balloon in my office, and then Johnny opened the bag. I was surprised to find two vases in there...I'd only ordered one and it didn't say anything about it including two of them. Johnny loved it...and the doggies liked getting half a piece of a pineapple heart. ;) Since Johnny liked it so well, I'm going to get another one for his birthday that has a wider variety of fruits. I would have gotten it this time, but it had birthday balloons with it. :P 

Ashlyn came over Saturday afternoon to do laundry (tons of laundry!) and I did her taxes while she was here. She brought Neko with her and he seemed to enjoy seeing Johnny. It took him awhile, but he was also playing with Nova a little bit. She'd lay on the floor and let him jump on her. It was cute. 

It was late by the time Ashlyn left, so we decided to just have leftover cheesy chicken chili for dinner Saturday night. Then tonight we had Hibachi Boy for our valentines day dinner. :) We also finished watching Fool Me Once on Netflix. We watched an episode during dinner Friday night and then watched a couple more episodes in the bedroom. And then tonight we watched the last three episodes during/after dinner. We thought it was a pretty good show. Then on Thursday Season 3 of Night Agent will be on Netflix, so we'll watch that until our other shows come back from hiatus. 

Work has slowed for February, but I'm still doing better than February 2025. Last year, from February 1st through the 15th I had 37 orders...this year I already have 50 orders. So I'm hoping the momentum keeps up for the rest of the month. :) 

On that note...I have some new sticker sheets that I want to work on a little bit before I go to bed. Goodnight!

Another slow February

I've actually had this blog post up in my browser for several weeks...I'd start it but then I'd get distracted or busy with something else and forget to come back and finish it. :P 

I've been working a lot in my office the last several weekends. We have two metal file cabinets in the office closet and I've been working on scanning everything so we can shred the paper documents. We're wanting to do a lot of decluttering, and I decided to start there since it's been something I've wanted to do for, like, ever. I think once I have the file cabinets emptied, I'm going to move them downstairs and then put all the "scrapbook stuff" in them...which I've also been keeping in the closet in my office. My goal is to get that closet cleaned out (or mostly cleaned out) and expand the space in my office. I haven't decided how I'll rearrange yet since it'll still be quite awhile before I get that closet completely cleaned out...but I'm looking forward to changing things up. I also need to get the shelves that I'm going to be using in the basement so I can get that all squared away. I'm going to be using Aubry's old bedroom as storage. Between our stuff and Johnny's mom's stuff (she moved to a care home in Washington back in 2019) we have a lot to get organized and I want to use vertical space as much as possible. 

I took a break from organizing my office this past weekend to work on some new stuff CandiMaker stuff. I have another personalized name sticker sheet that I'm working on right now. I've worked on bookmarks off and on...but so far, I'm still putting those on hold. I really want my magnetic bookmarks to have the full magnet backing--because that is the type of magnetic bookmark that I prefer using myself--but the best way I've found to do that so far is manually lining up the die-cut magnets with the die-cut bookmarks which is hard to get perfectly straight...not to mention the fact that it takes more time. So...I may revisit the magnetic bookmarks at some point, but right now I have other things I want to get done first. I still haven't even finished my website yet. :P 

I had to restock most of my supplies in January. While I was at it, I also decided to change the laminating sheets that I've been using. I started using Oraguard 210 glossy in August 2023. It worked well for awhile, but the last several packages from Creative Craft Vinyl have had very poor quality control. The last 250 sheet package I ordered had more than 120 sheets with imperfections and debris under the laminate. I was already using Oraguard 215 matte for my door sign stickers and magnets, so I decided to switch to Oraguard 215 glossy instead and I'm really loving the change. They have a much higher quality look and feel to them...and very few sheets had imperfections, thank goodness. 

January 2026 was quite a bit busier than January 2025. Actually, I had more orders in January 2026 than I did each month of 2025 until July. I'm interested to see how this month goes. Last year, February was the only month that I didn't get at least 100 orders...I'm hoping this February will continue the trend and be better than last year. The first week, so far, is a little better...so we'll see how the rest of the month goes.

I'm sure I've talked about this before, but I definitely appreciate how supportive Johnny is. It makes a world of difference as a business owner to have someone who doesn't criticize. He frequently tells me how proud he is of me and that he admires how well I'm able to run my business. The first several years, I wasn't even making a profit after expenses (mostly because I had a lot of larger equipment purchases to get started and trying out different materials and things) but he has never once been critical at all. And now I'm actually making a profit that continues to grow each year...and my income even allows for me to upgrade or replace equipment when needed and still come out ahead for the year. It just feels really good not only to be successful, but to have a husband who is always in my corner. 

I've been working on taxes a lot over the past month. I've already filed my dad and grandma's taxes, doing my mom's taxes tomorrow, and then I'm doing Ashlyn's taxes this weekend. I haven't talked to Aubry yet about her taxes. I've already finished our taxes, I just haven't filed them yet. I've been waiting for the best time to pay our federal taxes. Johnny has missed some work lately because of his health issues flaring up, so I want to wait and make sure he'll have a full paycheck when I file and pay the taxes. I had to wait for Johnny's W-2 to finally be posted, but I've had my portion of the taxes done since, like, the beginning of January. :P I keep a running spreadsheet of all my business income and expenses as I go so all I have to do is plug the numbers in and I'm done. This is the first year that my home office deduction and carry-over didn't cancel out my profit. 

We got quite a bit of snow a few weekends ago (not as much as predicted, of course). It's finally been melting in the last week...so we've been spending a lot of time washing muddy dog paws. :P I need to make a groomer appointment. I've been putting it off...waiting to see what the weather is going to do. Their feet are a lot easier to clean off, though, when they're all nice and trimmed instead of grinch toes. 

Ugh...I'm super tired all of the sudden so I think I'm going to get a few more things done before I head to bed. Goodnight!

January so far...

Well...I can't say I'm a huge fan of the new year so far. :P 

On January 1st, we had a coupon for $25 a restaurant order on Instacart, so we decided to get KFC since we hadn't had it in forever. Well...now we won't have it anymore. :P We ordered 4 biscuits...we got a lot of butter and honey, but no biscuits. And then the mashed potato bowl that I always used to get...the quality felt like a frozen dinner you heat up in the microwave. The mashed potatoes were gross and the chicken was rubbery or something. It just wasn't good at all. I ended up making some macaroni and cheese instead. And...this was after our first $25 coupon that we used on December 30th to get Hibachi Boy...and we didn't get the house fried rice that we ordered or the sauce for the appetizer. They almost always forget the sauce...but this is the first time we didn't get the house fried rice. And when I went to look at the receipt from the store...it didn't even have it on there (or the sauce) but it was clearly on the receipt from Instacart. We got a partial refund for the Hibachi Boy order but no refund at all for the KFC order. So...two out of two restaurant orders from Instacart have been a big thumbs down. 

Oh...and then I accidentally restored an autosave of my "Taxes" worksheet from the beginning of July 2025 and didn't realize it until it was too late. It was a really stupid mistake and those mistakes are the ones that always irritate me the most. All I had to do was look at the date...but I didn't. That spreadsheet is where I record all my orders, receipts, etc. So...I had to rebuild that as much as I could using Etsy's data downloads. The only thing I didn't fill back in is the items ordered. It's in my Etsy data download...but I didn't want to put in 6 months worth of catching up. Luckily 2025 is over so I'm not going to be looking at that spreadsheet everyday now anyway. :P But I did get all my spreadsheets updated for 2026, so at least I accomplished that much. 

I wasn't feeling well on Thursday...which is a crap way to start the new year. I had a flare up of my chronic health issues and was up until 4am dealing with that...then still was tossing and turning and having a hard time falling asleep. I'd been working on orders throughout the evening, but didn't end up getting them finished before I went to bed. Then on January 2nd, I still wasn't feeling up to working on orders. Between feeling crappy and then all the medicine...I was just wiped out and I honestly don't even remember anything about Friday. :P I do know that I ended up taking a nap as soon as Johnny got off work. After I woke up, I made beef tips for dinner...and then I went to bed early (well...earlier than my normal 2:30am). 

Yesterday I was finally able to get all my orders finished. Most of them were already done, they just hadn't been packaged yet. I did have a few pages of stickers and an 11x17 page of sticker sheets that I printed and cut yesterday. Now I'm completely caught up on all the orders I had up to yesterday. I ended up with 31 orders going out in the mail today. 

I also realized while making and packaging orders yesterday that I should've ordered supplies last week. :P I could've sworn I had an unopened box of glossy sticker paper...but if I do, I can't find it. I thought it was on my printer stand...but all I had was a ream of cardstock. So I got some more of that ordered. Luckily I still had enough pages to finish my orders yesterday...and any orders I get today won't be due until after my paper arrives. I also ran out of my 5"x7" aqua green glassine envelopes that I package my products in. I had a few leftover from the oopsie sticker packs, so I ended up using those to finish my orders yesterday. Those envelopes tend to run out faster than I think they will because the stack always looks bigger than it actually is, for some reason. I think this is the second time I've run out unexpectedly. But...twice in three years isn't too bad, I suppose. 

I've been trying to find new recipes to try this year...but I haven't found a whole lot I like, so far. The biggest thing is trying to accommodate both my taste and Johnny's. We like a lot of the same things...but it's pretty standard stuff. A lot of new things I think sound good don't always sound that good to Johnny and vice versa. But...I'm determined to find a few new recipes. A couple nights ago I made roast with potatoes and carrots in the pressure cooker and we finished the leftovers last night. Tonight I'm making chicken fajitas in the electric skillet. Those leftovers will probably last 3 days...then I'm back to figuring out what to make for dinner again. :P I always say that I don't mind cooking dinner, but trying to decide what to have for dinner all the time is exhausting. :P  

Ugh...I'm still feeling kinda blah...so I think I'm actually going to lay down and relax for awhile since I don't have orders to work on. Zzzzzz