I can't believe it's February already! I feel like I say that all the time...but every time I finally get around to posting it seems like it hasn't been as long as it actually has. It's kinda like how I blinked and all of the sudden my youngest kid will be graduating from high school next year. :P
I've been pretty busy lately with business things. It's more behind-the-scenes stuff that I've been focused on the last couple weeks. I don't remember how I stumbled upon a group on Facebook regarding Frivolous Trademarks. I didn't realize just how many applications (and even actual registrations) have been filed to basically just keep other businesses from using very common phrases like "My first Easter" and even "Merry Christmas" as well as titles from songs (and not by the people who had originally written or even performed the songs) and even "DOGS." Seriously?! The newest one I saw was someone in China actually submitting an application for "USPS" for postage stamps (USPS already has a registered trademark for that...which isn't surprising at all). I'm pretty active in the "Stop Frivolous Trademarks" FB group and try to keep up on anything new happening.
I have also been working on revamping my Etsy shop and listings. There's a few things I want to improve on so I've been working on that. But I'm only giving myself until Sunday night to keep focusing on behind-the-scenes work and then I'm getting back to creating designs. I have one Easter design in my shop already, but I want to get a few more up as well.
I've also gotten our taxes done. I'd already had most of it completed, I was just waiting on a few more documents that finally arrived. I'm always glad to get that out of the way. :P I've been doing my own taxes since I was 16 years old. My mom taught me how to do them on paper and would check them for me each year that I was doing them on paper. Eventually I started filing them online with Turbo Tax...and have ever since. I also teach my kids how to do them on paper that first year they have to file (but then show them how to do it on Turbo Tax to actually file their taxes). I think it's an important thing to learn!
At the end of January I also had Ashlyn bring up all the bags of clothes downstairs and I had gone through all my old clothes in my closet and they were all piled in my office. I'm not completely done but I filled all 10 of the 18-gallon plastic tote bins that I got for Christmas. They're a good size for clothes...they hold a lot of clothes but they're not too heavy to carry once they're filled. I still need about 5-6 more bins for more men's clothes, dresses, bras and swimsuits, and then coats and jackets. I have all the clothes sorted by type and/or size so it should be easy to set them up for the garage sale. I thought about putting stickers on them as I was sorting them, but I've had issues before with a sticky residue being on the clothes if stickers are on them for a long time...so I decided to just wait for that part until closer to the end of April. And now without all the clothes in the way, I can go through all the rest of the stuff in the basement and get it more organized. While I was going through all the clothes, I actually found a lot of things that have since migrated to my closet. ;) There were a lot of clothes that the girls had either outgrown or didn't want and since I'd gotten rid of all the clothes I'd outgrown, now I have a closet full of clothes again. ;) I went through and washed all the clothes and then I got them all put away. I hate the putting away part. :P
Well...I better get back to work!