First update for the month of June!

I posted a recipe toward the beginning of the month, but haven't actually posted an update yet. 

I've been super busy lately coming up with new products. I finally got my magnetic bookmarks finished and listed last week. So far I just have custom name magnetic bookmarks but I have a few other designs that I just haven't gotten around to finishing up and listing. I decided to put them in my CandiMakerPlanners shop, but I think I'll also have them as a variation in the custom name sticker and magnet listings as well. I already have the listing photos set up, I just need to get them all added. I plan to have that done by the end of the weekend. 

I'm also going to be listing mini reusable sticker books soon. They'll be in my CandiMakerStickers shop. I've been saving my magnet backing pages which are double-sided release paper. I thought it would be a perfect use for them. I'm getting a new thermal laminator (large 13" inlet and can laminate up to 10mil) because I wasn't real big on how my self-adhesive laminate worked with the cardstock and the old thermal laminator I've been using just isn't going to cut it. I had to return a paper cutter, so once I get that refund, I'm going to get the new laminator. I also have a cinch binding machine that is working out perfectly to put the sticker books together. 

Then I'm also working on creating notepads to list in my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I've been wanting to make them for awhile, but I didn't want to cut the pages individually with my Romeo and the regular paper cutter I'd been using wasn't accurate enough. I tried to get a new metal guillotine paper cutter that I was hoping to replace the plastic one I've had forever (which Johnny actually had however long before I moved in) but the cutting arm was bent on it (it's the one I'm returning). I decided to go a different route, though, and found a guillotine paper cutter on eBay that cuts up to 400 pages at a time. It should be here tomorrow...so hopefully it works well and I'll be able to use that for my notepads. I'm going to finalize the sticker albums first, then work on the notepads. 

Eventually I would also like to get a laser printer to start foiling...but I will likely wait until next year to start thinking about that more. I have researched laser printers and I know which one I'm planning to get (so far, anyway). It's a monochrome laser printer (only prints black) with a small footprint...which is important, since I have limited room in my office. I don't foresee needing a color laser printer since I have my large pigment ink printer that prints beautifully on a variety of materials. I also decided on the Brother brand rather than the HP laser printer I was also looking at. And the thermal laminator I'm planning to get also works very well for foiling...so I'll already have that taken care of. 

This year is still going better than last year. It's following the same trend as far as which months are slower...but each month I have more sales and more revenue than the year before. I feel really good about that...especially in the current state of the economy. I've seen a lot of Etsy sellers talking about how their sales are lower each year. I think it helps that my products are less expensive than a lot of other products people are making. My supplies also aren't as expensive as some larger items that people have to buy in bulk...like shirts, cups, etc. Regardless, I'm very grateful for the fact that my business continues to be successful. In my CandiMakerStickers shop, my orders are up 11.7% compared to this time last year and my revenue is up 12.3% for the same time period. And today I got the largest order since opening my Etsy shop. She ordered 30 sets (2 magnets per set) of my floral mason jar kitchen conversion chart magnets. Even with the 45% off bulk discount, it was still my largest order. So I'm pretty excited about that...and I have them printing and cutting as I type this. :) I had someone else contact me in March about wanting 50+ of the same type of magnets for her daughter's bridal shower in July. She said she'd contact me to place the order on July 1st, so hopefully that is still the case. :)

My CandiMakerPlanners shop has grown even more than my regular sticker and magnet shop. My orders are up 223.5% compared to this point last year and my revenue is up 589.8%. I'm really curious how well July and August will go this year...since my name label sticker sheets really exploded during those months last year. Hopefully the same trend will continue and I'll have even more orders this year. Thank goodness for my Romeo and being able to cut 4 sheets at a time on a 11x17 sheet of paper! 

In addition to the new products I'm wanting to launch, I also need to get back to working on designs. I have a whole long list of regular sticker designs that I need to finish including a couple new groups of designs for custom name stickers. I also have a bunch of sticker sheets that I need to finalize and get listed. There's always so many ideas and never enough time in the day to get everything done. :P 

In other news, Nova went to the vet this morning. She needed an allergy shot and got caught up on all her other tests and vaccines. Her allergies have really been bothering her and she has a couple scabs on her belly. So she should be feeling much better soon. In a month or two I'll take Bozley in to get his vaccines. Nova gets extremely excited getting out of the car, so it's much easier to take them one at a time if one of us takes them by ourselves. 

Not a whole lot going on other than that. So...I'm gonna get back to work! :) 

RECIPE: Chicken Florenetine

Johnny was talking about how Olive Garden used to have a Chicken Florentine dish that he really liked. So I did some poking around and, as usual, I came up with my own recipe. It was a little difficult since I'd never had Olive Garden's Chicken Florentine so I didn't really have anything to compare it to. And Johnny said he couldn't even remember what it tastes like...just that it was good. :P So I was totally winging it...but Johnny said it was delicious. :)

Chicken Florentine

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs chicken tenderloins

3 tbs flour

1 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp Italian seasoning

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs butter

2 tsp fresh minced garlic

1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)

1/4 cup chicken broth

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup grated parmesan & romano cheese

2 cups baby spinach 

16oz fettucine noodles, cooked according to package 

 Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, garlic salt, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and Italian seasoning.  

2. Cut each of the chicken tenderloins into 3-4 equal pieces. 

3. Coat each of the pieces of chicken completely with the flour mixture. 

4. Heat a large skillet on medium-high eat. Add olive oil. Once hot, add chicken. Cook the chicken until brown and internal temperature is 165 degrees. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. 

5. Melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté about 1 minute. 

6. Add wine and scrape the pan to remove any browned bits. Then add chicken broth and cream. Add the grated cheese gradually while stirring. 

7. Reduce the heat to simmer, stirring or whisking often. 

8. Once the sauce has thickened and is smooth, add spinach. Cook about 2 minutes until spinach is wilted into the sauce. 

9. Add chicken back to the pan and stir. Simmer until heated through. 

10. Serve over fettucine noodles. 

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Johnny is finally home!

This post has been open in my browser since Sunday and I just keep adjusting and adding to it without finishing it. LOL. It's now Thursday...and hopefully I'm posting this without changing that day again. :P 

I'm so happy that my husband is back home safe and sound. Mom and I took Johnny to the airport Saturday, May 16th and we picked him up on Sunday, May 24th. It was a day longer than his trip to Seattle over Labor Day last year. We had to play around with the dates to get the best price...the tickets were quite a bit higher this year. But Johnny was still able to fly first class in his favorite seat, so he really liked that. He was able to spend quite a bit of time with his mom plus do a few things with his brother like going to the Seattle Market and exploring different areas by the water. He was pretty sore when he got home from all the miles of walking they did. With the way my back and joints have been lately...there would've been no way I could've done it! There are days when my back seizes up just walking past the neighbor's house to the mailbox! 

I didn't do a whole lot while Johnny was gone other than work and get some stuff done around the house. Last time he was gone, my mom and I cut our king size adjustable bed in half, but I didn't really have a big project this time. A lot of my time was spent going outside with the dogs. :P I don't think they knew what to do with themselves having their routine disrupted. I played Sims4 a bit on the weekends since I hadn't played in awhile. Of course when I say that I "played" I mean that I just worked on building our Sims house. ;) It's AMAZING and if we decide to build a house in the future, it's definitely going to inspire our real house. ;) I also watched Scandal again on Netflix (mostly just for background noise) and made it from Season 1 to Season 6...then finished the series (it has 7 seasons total) yesterday. It's been so long since I'd watched it that I'd forgotten most of what happened in that show.

Neither one of us got much sleep while he was gone. Luckily Johnny was off work on Monday for the holiday so he could unwind and get some much needed rest before starting the workweek again. We lounged around watching some YouTube in the living room together. Johnny has lots of channels he subscribes to...plus we enjoy watching funny animal clips and funny "fails" videos where people fall down. It's our guilty pleasure. lol. Most of our messenger conversations consist of just sending funny video clips back and forth. ;) 

This past year I discovered Celina Spooky and her sleepwalking videos. The first clip of hers that I saw was when she had been sleepwalking in a hotel and woke up naked in the hallway. I think what I love most is the way she reminds me so much of Aubry! Her mannerisms, gestures, and the way she throws her head back when she laughs...Aubry does the same thing! Aubry also likes old, eclectic things and even had a skeleton (which she named Boner) riding in her car for several years. Anyway...I kind of went off on a tangent there. :P  

Work is going well. I passed 4350 sales on Sunday in my CandiMakerStickers shop. I started the year at 3695 sales (my goal last year was 3500). I feel like I've been setting some pretty "easy" goals, so my goal for this year is to hit 6000 in that shop. So...we'll see! While we were watching TV on Monday, I was going back and forth printing and cutting stickers, magnets, and sticker sheets. I had 20 orders that I packaged to put in the mail Monday night. I had two eBay orders, two sticker sheet orders, and the rest were from my regular sticker and magnet shop. My custom name label sticker sheets have already started selling this year. Last year I sold one custom name sticker sheet in January then didn't sell another one until I sold four at the end of June. This year I've sold at least one (and as many as six sheets!) every month from January through April. This month, I've sold 11 of the name label sticker sheets just since May 19th. Last July I sold 209 individual custom name label sticker sheets (then August was a bit less with 157 before it tapered back down to single digits). So I'm really interested to see how many I sell this July. My goal in my CandiMakerPlanners shop this year is to get to 1500 (I am currently at 576 sales). 

Since I was all caught up on orders, I took a break on Tuesday to play the new Paralives that was released on Monday (this is not a compensated review at all). It's a new life simulation game that is being compared to Sims. I decided to get it while they currently have a 10% discounted Early Access price. The good news is that's all you have to pay...ever. They've vowed not to put any new content behind paywalls...it'll all be delivered for free through game updates. 

So far, I really love the ways that it's different from Sims. It has an open world which was removed in the evolution from Sims 3 to Sims 4. It has color wheels so you can recolor pretty much everything. It has sliders for almost everything...height, every body part, many of the build items (like sliding furniture to make it shorter or longer), etc. One thing I really love is that not only is building not limited to a grid, everything is still completely usable. For example, I purchased an existing lot and completely remodeled it...but everything was a very odd shape. I wanted to add a staircase to a rooftop loft (because building a roof is still pretty basic and clunky...so with such odd shapes, I didn't have the patience to keep trying) so I wanted to add a staircase and make a rooftop patio area. The space for the stairs to the rooftop really wasn't big enough for a door to open...but it still let me put it there and the people use it as normal without a problem. So that's definitely an improvement. And it gives you a lot more freedom to clutter desktops, counters and everything because you're not limited to 1-4 "slots" to place things like in the Sims. The graphics are completely different from Sims, but I don't think they're bad. It's just a different aesthetic. And a lot of people are complaining about lack of options...but this is an *Early Release* of a *base* game. Sims 4 base game was pretty lacking as well when it was first released. I don't think Paralives will stop me from playing Sims, but I think it will be another game I enjoy.  

Tuesday ended up being a pretty good day for me to take a break from work...because I've been surviving on very little sleep and feeling really uncomfortable and irritated. TMI...but perimenopause is horrible. I've been dealing with it since late summer 2020. My cycles haven't gone away, but they'd gotten a lot shorter and lighter. Well...I didn't have my period at all in April so I was starting to get excited...until I'm now apparently having two periods in one. I've never had such heavy bleeding from a period. I'm talking...having to set a timer for 50 minutes because 60 minutes is too late to change my S+ tampon (hey, I warned you it was TMI!). It started late Monday night and continued until about 8am yesterday. It's still here today but not heavy anymore. The last time I bled like that was when I had a miscarriage at 12 weeks in April 2007. I only got lightheaded when I was standing too long trying to cut the vegetables for dinner on Tuesday. I was standing too long and got too hot. So I ended up postponing fajitas for dinner and ended up going to bed (only to wake up four hours later wide awake until 7am). Last night I was finally feeling better and finished making fajitas for dinner. Mmmm! 

Alright...gonna eat some leftovers for lunch and then gonna work on orders to put in the mail tonight. :)

I never know what to write for a title...

It takes a lot more effort than necessary to think of titles for my blog posts that aren't the same thing all the time. :P I know it's a trivial thing...but my brain gets hung up on things like that. I mean...my essays in school always took just a little bit longer because I couldn't use the same words in close proximity to each other. I don't know...it's a thing. lol. But...at least I have a lot to update this time instead of just droning on about the same ol' things all the time. :P 

The last week of April and into the first couple days of May, I had a really bad migraine. Several days it was so bad it even woke me up early in the morning. It had been awhile since I've had a migraine last that long and be that intense. Since I have hemiplegic migraines, I'm not supposed to take the triptans that are commonly used as rescue meds for migraines due to an increased risk of stroke. Basically all I can do is take 4 ibuprofen, a Benadryl, a promethazine, and put an ice back on my head or neck. Some days that just doesn't cut it. I've been taking nortriptyline for 13 years now as a migraine preventative for my hemiplegic migraines. While I've only had two hemiplegic migraines since then (one was NYE 2013 and the other was after I had a scratched cornea in 2019 and the ER doctor shined a light for too long in my scratched eyeball), I still get regular migraines pretty frequently. My doctor prescribed me topiramate as a preventative a few years ago, but that didn't make much difference. 

Johnny had a phlebotomy appointment on May 1st and since he needed to make a regular doctor appointment to refill his prescriptions, I went ahead and made appointments for both of us with our family doctor the same day (so he only had to take off work one day instead of two). I was going to get an allergy shot while we were there, but I totally forgot about it. I talked to our doctor (who is amazing) about the migraines and we decided to try Aimovig as a migraine preventative. It's a CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide) monoclonal antibody that is a receptor blocker. Previously, my doctor had given me samples of CGRP receptor antagonists to use as rescue meds. Ubelvy isn't covered on our insurance, and Nurtec is $150/month (my doctor also gave me a few samples of Nurtec in case I need any rescue meds, though.). Meanwhile, Aimovig is only $100 a month and we have a copay card from the company which takes it down to $50 a month. And I don't mind doing injections...needles don't bother me at all. 

It took forever to actually be able to get my prescription for the Aimovig. It requires prior authorization with our insurance...and that took awhile. Then when the prior authorization finally came through, the pharmacy didn't have it in stock. In fact, none of the area locations had it available. But we were finally able to get it Monday night. Johnny picked it up at about 8:30pm and I waited half an hour (it's kept refrigerated and it's recommended to wait until it's room temperature so it doesn't sting as much). It's a SureClick Autoinjector which was really simple. Prep the area with rubbing alcohol, remove the white cap, pinch the skin on my thigh, push the pen all the way down, press the button (it'll click) and hold it down for about 15 seconds until the window is completely yellow (and it clicked again). Then dispense then pen in a sharps container (I used an empty detergent bottle that I already had) and that's it. 

Honestly, I wondered if I did it right at first because I felt absolutely nothing. But after I tossed the pen, there was a dot of blood so obviously it worked. A little while later I could feel where I'd done the injection...but it wasn't what I'd describe as painful. However, the next day I started feeling kinda crappy. I thought it was allergies (especially since I'd forgotten to get my allergy shot) but after four Benadryl and two Sudafed and it didn't really make a difference on my runny nose and sneezing. Then when my throat started hurting and I just felt kinda blah and achy...I realized it was probably the "flu-like" symptoms that can sometimes be side-effects. I felt a lot better by the next day, though. 

I also talked to my doctor about my issues with pelvic adhesive disease and the possibly of surgery for a total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, adhesiolysis, and possible colporrhaphy if necessary. I've had horrible pain that has just gotten worse over the last 16 years. I had to have a rectopexy and colon resection in 2010 that had to be done via open surgery. Then when I tried to get my tubes tied a year later, the surgeon couldn't even find one of my fallopian tubes because there was so much scar tissue from my previous surgery that has attached all of my pelvic organs together. So my doctor referred me to a urogynecologist and I'll have that appointment in a couple months to see what my options are. It shows he specializes in pelvic reconstruction surgery and I found that he was also recommended in the local Ehlers-Danlos FB group...so hopefully it'll all work out well.  

In other news, we took the dogs to the groomer a few weeks ago. They had some major grinch toes goin' on! We had the groomer use a hypoallergenic shampoo for Nova, but she's still been having allergy issues. I'm thinking it might be the doggy perfume. We made their next appointment while we were there, so I'll have to remember to talk to her about it then. We also need to make their appointment for their vaccines and Nova's allergy shot. 

I finally got around to printing my planner. I haven't had a paper planner in years...but I've been missing it. Especially now that I can print my own stickers! I also still have a lot of Happy Planner stickers to use, too. 

Work has been going well. April was a bit slow, but still better than it was in April 2025. I need to finish listing products on my website. I'm also thinking about giving TikTok shop another try, but we'll see. I was able to create the shop this time without any problems (as opposed to last time when it was a nightmare), so I suppose that's at least progress. 

We've also been getting ready for Johnny's trip out to Seattle. His mom had another stroke last month and isn't recovering like she had with the strokes she'd had before. He'll be staying with his brother again. I'm glad he'll get to spend the time with his family, but the doggies and I will definitely miss him! 

RECIPE: Chocolate Melt Vanilla Pudding Cookies

After the lemon pudding cookies turned out so well...I decided to come up with another pudding cookie recipe. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate and I don't really like chocolate chips in my cookies because they either get melty chocolate everywhere or they're harder than the cookie. So...I decided to use a semi-sweet chocolate baking bar and hiding it in the middle of the cookie...melty goodness without getting chocolate all over your hand! They turned out amaaaazing. Aubry's boyfriend said it's finally a cookie that tastes like cookie dough. ;) 

Chocolate Melt Vanilla Pudding Cookies

Ingredients:

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3.4 oz vanilla pudding mix

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups of flour

Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar, broken into pieces (mine ranged in size from 1/2 inch to 1 inch)

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and grease the cookie sheet(s). 

2. Mix together eggs, butter, shortening, vanilla extract, both sugars, and pudding mix. 

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking power, baking soda, and salt. 

4. Carefully add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients 1 cup at a time and mix well. 

5. I used a 1tbs measuring spoon to scoop out my cookie dough and then I wrapped it around a piece of chocolate and rolled it into a ball then flattened it just slightly when I put it on the cookie sheet. 

6. Bake the cookies for approximately 10 minutes. Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. 

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