April is going well!

So far April is going quite well, actually. It's actually going about as well as last month so far. The second week of April was slower than the end of March...but it's actually about the same as the first couple weeks of March...which was my best month so far. So...hopefully April continues along the same path! :) I didn't have any orders yesterday...but this morning I had 3 orders from Etsy and 1 from eBay all before noon. I've already got those orders printed, cut, and packaged. I've been working on some new stickers but I'm not sure I'll have them all done and photographed before the weekend. Since I worked last weekend, I'm planning to take a break from work this weekend. So we'll see how it goes. 

The kitties turned EIGHT this month! It's hard to believe it's been that long already. All three of them are still doing well. Milo still sleeps on the pillow above my head every night. The pillow is wrapped in a soft blanket that he kneads before he falls asleep. Leo is still the biggest kitty by far...and he's upstairs a lot more often now. When we first got Nova, he was too nervous to come up from the basement. The dogs individually do really well...but together they tend to get each other all worked up and the cats don't really like all the excitement. But the more the cats are up here, the more the dogs leave them alone. Angel still isn't coming upstairs unless the dogs are outside or in the bedroom with Johnny. She's tried to come up a few times when the dogs have been asleep in the living room...but she always makes little trilling noises that wake them up and they chase her back downstairs. If she'd come up here more regularly, they'd get used to her and leave her alone like they do with the other two cats...but she's making progress. Up until a few months ago, she wouldn't come upstairs at all. When she does come up now, she runs straight to lay in my lap and drools all over me. I didn't even know cats drool until I looked it up to make sure it wasn't something to be concerned about. :P Apparently they do it when they're really happy. lol. 

The dogs are doing pretty good. We bought the turkey version of the Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach food to see if Bozley would eat it better. He didn't...and it turns out that Nova is also allergic to turkey. :P She's had ground turkey before...they would get a little bit when I make chili. After browning it, I'd save a little bit of it for them before I mixed it with the rest of the chili ingredients. She never had a problem with the little amounts...but eating it daily turned out to be a problem. So we switched them back to salmon and have been giving her Benadryl. She's still kinda scratchy but her spots seem to be doing better. We need to get them back to the groomer AND we still need to get Bozley in to be fixed. :P 

The new AC is working wonderfully. It hasn't gone above 1 degree higher than the temperature that it's set at. The old AC had a hard time keeping up on the hottest days. So...even though it was a pain in the ass having it go out and then coming up with the money and getting it replaced...it turned out to be a good thing. 

Well...I'm gonna get back to working on stickers. :) 

And God said, let there be air conditioning!

We FINALLY have our new AC and furnace! We'd been without AC since March 10th. It took awhile going back and forth with the insurance company and the HVAC guy getting everything sorted out, scheduled, and paid. The insurance paid for all but the $1k deductible for the air conditioner and then we decided to go ahead and upgrade the furnace while they were here since they were going to have to replace the coil anyway. The new system is more energy efficient and I believe it's a larger AC unit that should be more efficient at keeping the house cool. The system we had was, like, 23 years old so it lasted a long time but it did have a hard time keeping up sometimes when it was super hot outside. I'm just glad we were able to get it installed before this weekend because it's supposed to be in the 80s and 90s. And now we don't have to have the windows open all the time...which was killing my allergies for the last several weeks. So...we're really happy to have that all taken care of and over with. 

April has started out kinda slow so far for CandiMaker. It was pretty slow last year, too. That's pretty standard in retail since it's tax time. BUT...in the first 10 days of April 2024, I already have more sales than I did in all of April 2023. :) 

I abandoned my "no work on the weekends" rule this past weekend. I had a big project I was trying to get done... opening my CandiMakerPlanners Etsy shop! Previously, it was my Etsy shop for sublimation transfers which I only used for a few months before I decided I no longer wanted to continue with sublimation. I decided I want my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop to focus on just my die-cut stickers and magnets...and move all my sticker sheets, gift tags, name labels, etc. over to CandiMakerPlanners. I worked over the weekend getting my existing sticker sheets transferred over. Monday I designed 14 new sticker sheets that are more specifically related to planners. I have twelve new 4x6 sheets that have tiny icons (.5" to 1" in size) where there are multiple stickers of the same image on the same sticker sheet. One example is tiny money bag images that say "payday" on them...there are 56 of them on one 4x6 sticker sheet and each sticker is about .6" tall. I have a few for payday/paying bills, several for pet care, and then a lot for cleaning/chores. Then I have two sticker sheets so far that are themed 4x6 sheets that have a bunch of different different images that vary in size. I printed and cut the new sticker sheets on Tuesday and then got all the listings uploaded on Wednesday. It'll take awhile to gain traction since I'm basically starting from scratch in the new shop...but hopefully it will do well. :) Eventually I also plan to start offering planner covers, planner pages, etc. but I don't know when I'll get around to that. 

But for now...I'm going to go enjoy the nice, cold bedroom. :) 

March was very good!

I updated my spreadsheets this morning and CandiMakerStickers is going very well so far this year. :) My previous record for orders in one month was 60 in February 2024...and I had 82 orders for March 2024 (which includes orders from Etsy, eBay, offsite, etc)! On Etsy, I hit 550 sales (individual listings sold) on March 1, 600 sales on March 19th, and as of today I am already at 640 sales. (ETA: I hit 650 sales on April 2!). I'm 4 away from 200 sales so far for the year...and it took me until August 20th to reach 200 sales last year (my first year selling stickers). My Etsy revenue for the first three months of 2024 is already more than half of what it was for all of 2023. 

My eBay sales are increasing too. I first started listing some stickers there in December 2023 and had gotten 2 orders (one order was 9 stickers!). I only had one order in January 2024, but then I had 7 orders in February and 11 orders in March. It's funny to see which stickers sell on eBay and which sell on Etsy. I've had orders on eBay for quite a few designs that I haven't sold any of yet on Etsy. 

I still haven't gotten all my die-cut stickers listed on eBay yet...so I need to finish doing that. I did list quite a few new designs in my Etsy shop, though. On March 29th, I listed 3 animal stickers and 8 new chronic illness stickers. I've already gotten views and favorites on several of them so that's always encouraging to see. 

Our air conditioner still isn't fixed yet. :( We've been without AC since March 10th. BUT...we should be able to get it replaced soon. The insurance guy still has to talk to the HVAC guy to get specs about the replacement so hopefully that can all be hashed out soon so we can have AC again. Luckily the weather hasn't been too bad...but it's been pretty miserable since yesterday. The humidity has been just...UGH. Yesterday it was hot and humid...today it's a little bit cooler but more humid. I ended up having to get a dehumidifier for my office because the paper curls pretty quick after I remove it from the plastic. I got a cheap one since the humidity is hopefully just a temporary problem. 

Well...gonna get back to work! 

Breaking records!

March is continuing to go well for CandiMakerStickers! :) On Monday, March 18th, I hit 600 sales in my Etsy shop. I broke my previous record of 5 orders in one day...I had 6 orders on Tuesday! And then today, I had another 6 orders in my Etsy shop PLUS one order from eBay. I've already had 21 orders this week, so I'm hoping to break my previous record of orders in one week (31 orders in the last week of February/first week of March). My previous record for the number of orders in one month was 60 orders last month in February. As of March 21st, I already have 63 orders this month...and the month isn't even over yet! :) Today I also hit 500 orders in my Etsy shop. I hope the upward trend continues! :) 

When I'm not busy packing orders, I've been working on adding my existing sticker designs to my listings on eBay. So far I've uploaded 71 listings on eBay...so I still have a long way to go. :P But...progress! I've been working on a few new sticker designs off and on as well. I have a document of SO many quotes that I want to make into stickers...it's 29 pages long, so there's a lot of ideas. ;) 

In other news... our AC has to be replaced. :P The electricity had gone out on March 10th. Later, it was pretty hot in the house...and I realized the AC unit outside wasn't actually running. We figured out that it was tripping the breaker every time we'd turn it on. So this week we had an HVAC guy come out and diagnose the problem. As it turns out, the condenser AND the motor went out at the same time because of a power surge. So, we're going through our home owners insurance to get the situation taken care of. Luckily it's in March and not July or August when it's disgustingly hot outside. It's been getting a little warm in the late afternoon into the evening...but it hasn't been too unbearable. Hopefully we can get it all taken care of soon. 

Well I suppose I'll get a little more work done before I go to bed. :) 

Mid-March is going well!

The upward momentum in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop is continuing. :) I'm still getting orders from eBay as well. I had 35 total orders in January and 60 orders in February. From the February 1st to 6th, I had 22 orders. From the beginning of March through today, I've already had 45 orders. I love watching my numbers go up...being able to see actual progress from all my hard work. :) 

I'm glad I've started taking a break on the weekends. I tend to spend all my free time focused on my business and I've noticed that after the weekend...I do feel more productive and energized to get back at it on Monday. I did work today for a couple hours. I generally have at least one of each design and size for stickers, but I mostly just print and cut magnets as I get orders. I had four magnets that I needed to send out Monday so I got that done today and packaged the other two orders I had from Etsy and eBay so Aubry can drop them all off on her way to work in the morning. 

But other than that, I played Sims 4 a lot this weekend. I built an awesome house on there that I really love. It's like...if/when Johnny and I build a house in the future, I'd love to build this house that I designed on my Sims game. LOL. It's all one story except for a basement...because I think in the future, it'll probably be best for me to have as few stairs as possible. I already have a hard time with stairs sometimes due to my hEDS...so I imagine that will just get worse as I get older. I also have the washer and dryer in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom because that's such a huge convenience. And then I have a large room for crafting which would be amazing. And Johnny has talked before about wanting a floorplan that isn't as open...so the living room, kitchen, and dining room are all separate. So...our Sim house is awesome. ;) 

I also got my Grandma's taxes done over the weekend, did some chores around the house, and relaxed with Johnny. Our AC is currently not working...so Johnny worked on that a little bit. We're waiting for a part to be delivered...hopefully that'll solve the problem. If not, I'll probably have to call someone to come out and diagnose the problem. I'm just glad it happened now when the weather is nice rather than in the middle of summer.  

RECIPE: Salisbury Steak

Johnny has been asking for Salisbury steak forever and I just never get around to making it because I'm not a huge fan of it in general :P But I had leftovers to eat tonight, so I decided to surprise Johnny and make it for him. He thought it was very much worth the wait. ;) Aubry was actually awake when I finished making dinner and she had some...she liked it, too. However...I forgot to take a picture! So I'll have to take a picture next time and then I'll add it to this post. :)

Salisbury Steak

Ingredients:

STEAK

1 lb ground beef

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp ketchup

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp ground mustard

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tsp French onion soup

GRAVY:

1 can beef broth 

1 tbs cornstarch 

remaining can of french onion soup 

1 tsp worchestershire sauce 

1 4oz can sliced whole mushrooms

Directions:

1. Combine all the steak ingredients together in a bowl. Shape into 4 oval patties about 1 in thick. 

2. In a skillet on medium-high heat, brown the steak patties for about 1-2 minutes on each side until browned on the outside. Remove from skillet.   

3. Mix 1/4 cup of beef broth with the cornstarch in a small bowl. 
4. Pour remaining can of beef broth into skillet. Pour in cornstarch mixture. Stir over medium heat until slightly thickened.

5. Add French onion soup, Worcestershire sauce, and mushrooms. Stir then add steak patties to the gravy. 

6. Cover and heat for about 7 minutes, then flip steaks and cook for another 7 minutes or until middle of patties register at 160 degrees. Turn off heat and serve over mashed potatoes.

March is off to a good start!

Today, I hit 100 orders in my Etsy shop just for this year. By this time last year, I only had 15 orders. I didn't hit 100 orders last year until June 22nd. My orders are up 567% and my revenue is up 1225% compared to the same time frame last year. Since opening in January 2023, I've had 455 orders. Oh and to update the number of orders I had last week, I had 5 orders on Friday and 5 orders on Saturday...so I had a total of 31 orders that went out last week! My previous record for 1 week was 18 in December. :) I got another 4 orders today (including another order from eBay) and I already got all the orders from this weekend packaged and ready to go to the post office in the morning. 

I worked quite a bit today, but I had a lot of time for myself over the weekend, too. Johnny and I watched Law & Order: Organized Crime last night while we ate dinner. And then after he went to bed, I stayed up awhile playing Sims4. It's my guilty pleasure. ;) My favorite part of the game is definitely building houses. When I was younger, I used to love getting those free real estate magazines that show houses for sale. I used to daydream about which houses I liked best. My grandpa also had a bunch of home & garden design, home improvement projects, etc. books and magazines that I loved looking at when I was a kid. When I had my own spending money, I started buying house plan magazines. I never really outgrew my love for researching what I'd want for my dream home. I actually still have a house plan magazine that I bought...well the magazine says display until July 2006, so I bought it sometime before that. :P I actually found it in one of the boxes that I'd packed up when I moved out of my first apartment in September 2006 (well, the first apartment where I lived alone after I left my ex-husband). It was with my old calendars and planners. There were a lot of good houses in that one! I like getting inspiration from it to build Sim houses. :) I bought another one sometime in 2013 or 2014...when I was helping Johnny with pool work. We stopped at Lowes to get some supplies and I found one that was on sale and grabbed it...but I'm not sure where it is. :( 

On that note...I'm going to go build some more houses before I get back to work tomorrow. :) 

Another successful month!

I updated my spreadsheets Thursday night before I went to bed. February has been my most successful month so far since I opened CandiMakerStickers in January 2023. I had 3 larger orders (10, 13, and 25 stickers in the orders) and that really helped boost my revenue for February 2024 by more than $100 compared to my second most successful month in December 2023. According to my Profit/Loss Statement, December 2023 was actually the month with the highest profit (only $4 more than February 2024) but that's because I had 3x more expenses in February after restocking my glossy vinyl sticker paper, laminating sheets, magnetic sheets, and a few other office supplies. 

For February 2024, I had the largest number of orders in one month (53 on Etsy and 7 on eBay) AND the largest number of orders in one week (21 from February 25-29). And since it's the last week of February which ended on Thursday, that doesn't even count the 5 orders I got yesterday and 3 so far for today! 

It's so exciting to see my little business making progress. :) As of today, my Etsy shop has 558 sales. Sales are the number of listings purchased in each order (but not multiple quantities of the same listing in an order). I was curious to see the progress by date...so I downloaded the CSV from Etsy that shows my orders by listing and used my date app to measure the amount of sales in increments of 50. Here's the timeline: 

- Opened 01/13/2023 -
50 sales: 4/5/23 (82 days)
100 sales: 6/10/23 (66 days)
150 sales: 7/13/23 (33 days)
200 sales: 8/20/23 (38 days)
250 sales: 9/30/23 (41 days)
300 sales: 10/29/23 (29 days)
350 sales: 11/17/23 (19 days)
400 sales: 12/10/23 (23 days)
- Ended 2023 with 442 sales -
450 sales: 1/5/24 (26 days)
500 sales: 2/14/24 (40 days)
550 sales: 3/1/24 (16 days)

So it took me 82 days to get my first 50 sales and only 16 days to get my last 50 sales. :) I'd say that's definitely progress! 

I also added magnets to my CMS Etsy shop in February. I had someone send me a message on 2/1/24 asking if I make any of my stickers as magnets. I'd been thinking for awhile about offering magnets, but I wasn't sure how I was going to list them (if they'd be a separate listing or just a variation of my current listings) so her message pushed me to make that decision. :) I decided to add magnets as a variation instead of making a separate listing. That meant changing about 250 listings to add the variation...but it was worth it. :) I've already sold 10 magnets (not including the first custom order). 

And this week I added a fun new product: door sign stickers and magnets! I made a new listing for custom logo image magnets in 6 different sizes and printed my own logo for my size comparison photos. I decided I was going to put the largest size on our car, but wasn't ready to go outside yet so I just slapped it on our front door until I felt like going out to the car. That's when I got the idea for door signs. :) I've been thinking about buying a "No Soliciting" sign to hang on the door, but then realized I could just make my own and put it on a magnet! I'm also including a sticker variation for anyone who would like one but doesn't have a steel door. I'm really excited about them. :) I decided to put matte laminate on them so that the sun won't glare so much...since they'll be placed outside. I already had some Oraguard 215 matte laminate because I'd bought some hoping I could print on the matte laminate to make window stickers, but it didn't work. So...now I have a different use for it. :) 

I decided at the end of last year that I was going to save weekends for "me" time and try not to work. It's actually kinda difficult for me to do...because I always have a million things running through my mind that I want to do with my business from new products and designs to updating my packaging and refining my listings...stuff like that. But I'm trying to take some time to relax. A lot of times it ends up just being one day instead of both but...baby steps. ;) 

RECIPE: Instant Pot Cheesy Chicken Chili

We have a tendency to just eat a lot of the same recipes that I already have...so I hadn't come up with a new recipe in awhile. Johnny was wanting something different so I came up with this and made it for dinner tonight. It did not disappoint and will definitely make it into the rotation of regular recipes. :) Johnny thought it would even taste good over pasta or white rice...so we may have to try that sometime.  

Cheesy Chicken Chili 

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

4 cans chicken broth

1 pkg ranch dressing mix 

1 can red kidney beans in mild chili sauce (not drained)

1 can pinto beans (drained) 

1 can whole kernel corn (drained) 

1 can petite diced tomatoes (not drained)

8oz cream cheese or 16oz of sour cream

2 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Pour the chicken broth and ranch dressing mix into the pressure cooker and stir. Add chicken (I use a trivet with handles so it's easy to remove and shred). 

2. Add both cans of beans, corn, and diced tomatoes to the pressure cooker in that order. Do not stir. 

3. Cube the cream cheese and set on top of the tomatoes. (If using sour cream, don't add the sour cream until you add the shredded cheese).

4. Close and lock the lid of the pressure cooker. Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. 

5. Once finished cooking, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then quick release the remaining pressure. 

6. Remove chicken from the pot. Add shredded cheese (and sour cream, if using) to the pot and stir. Turn the pressure cooker to sauté and heat the soup for about 8 minutes while stirring frequently to melt the cheese. 

7. Shred chicken and return to pot and stir. 

Serve topped with your choice of garnish such as tortilla chips, fritos, sour cream, green onions, jalapenos, more cheese, cornbread...whatever sounds good! 

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*This recipe was made in the 6qt Viva Instant Pot

Another Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was the 11th Valentines day that Johnny and I have spent together! It's still hard to believe that it's been so long. :) I love where our relationship is at...it's very comfortable and we just truly enjoy the everyday routine of our life. Some people may find it boring...but I love not having any drama or stress. We've both been working from home for the last 4 years and it's been so nice. We spend a little time together in the morning before Johnny starts his work day and then we get to chat during his breaks. Then after he gets off work we sit down and have dinner together and watch an episode of one of our shows or watch a movie, documentary, or stand-up special. Then he usually goes to bed earlier while I stay up and work for a few more hours. And, of course, we enjoy spending time together with the dogs. Now that all our human children are adults...the pups are our little kids now. ;) We love watching them play and talking about how cute they are and taking pictures of them. It's a nice, quiet life...and I couldn't be happier. :) 

For Valentine's Day, I got Johnny a Crazy Shirts t-shirt. He's been wanting some for awhile...I'd gotten him one for Christmas and another for Valentine's Day. I made Cheez-It Chicken Fried Steak, mashed potatoes, and corn for dinner and we watched a stand-up comedy while we ate. So it was a very nice day. :) 

I bought some duck topper to see if it helps Bozley with eating more of his food. Yesterday he barely ate any of his food. He'd just push it around and then give up. It's always difficult to get him to eat all of his food...but some days he's worse than others. He also won't eat it at all unless we put a little bit of water in it and heat it up. He LOVES duck jerky so I'm hoping that the powdered duck jerky will add a flavor that he likes to his food and he'll eat it better. 

I passed 500 sales in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop! :) So far I've had less sales in February than I did in January, but I've had higher profit in February. I had several larger orders which made a difference. I just added magnets to my Etsy shop and I got another eBay order for stickers. I'm slowly working on adding more of my stickers on eBay, but it's been going pretty slow. 

It didn't help that I've been sick for the past week. It's just a chest cold. I haven't felt horribly bad...I've just been very blah. There were only a couple days where I didn't really feel like doing anything at all and I ended up going to bed early. One of the days I was feeling not very productive, I redid my packaging stickers that I put on all the envelopes that I send orders out in. I'd been just using my matte sticker paper and cutting my own stickers, but it was a lot more time-consuming than I wanted to deal with. So I found some good labels that are the sizes I need and already pre-cut on the page. So while I was laying around, I set up my print templates and now I can just print a few pages off at a time and not have to worry about it. If I run out in the middle of an order, it just take a few seconds to print some more now. 

I think that's about it for an update. :) 

Already February

I've had this post sitting in my drafts for almost a month...I just keep adding to it then getting distracted before I actually finished it. :P 

On Friday, January 19th, we took Bozley and Nova to the vet to get updated on all their annual vaccinations and everything. And then the following Monday I had to take Bozley back to the vet because he broke one of his nails on Sunday. :P He broke it pretty good...the vet ended up having to sedate him to remove the broken part of his nail. It's always something! But Bozley is all healed now and doing great. Then on Monday the 29th, Nova and Bozley went to the groomer. It's the first time they'd been in two years! I love how good they look and smell after they go to the groomer. I'm hoping we can get them in a little more regularly now. They never really need actual haircuts...just a good bath, trim, nails, teeth, etc. I took this picture of them right after we got home. Nova's bows look so cute and Boz looks like he's actually smiling instead of his usual serious look. Of course...they were both wanting the duck jerky that I had in my hand so I'm sure that's why they were so happy. ;)

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I'm almost at 500 sales in my Etsy shop! I've been super busy with a lot of behind-the-scenes type stuff. At the beginning of each year I update all my spreadsheets with the dates for the new year. I also recently updated my prices, discount codes, and listing photos. Of course...I edited all my 250+ listings and THEN decided to go back and change all of them again because I've added a new option to all my die-cut sticker listings...MAGNETS! Now customers will be able to choose their size and whether they want it as a sticker or a magnet. Adding magnets meant I needed to change the tags, titles, descriptions, and add three more variations in addition to the three sticker size variations. It took me two full days and staying up way later than usual to finish it all. 

With the new product, I needed to update packaging for the magnets. I also decided it was a good time to fine-tune my cardstock cards that I pack with the orders. I now have full-page and half-page cards for both regular orders and gift orders. I used to have separate cards for separate products, but now all my products will have the same packaging inserts that only vary by size and whether or not it's a gift order. That way everyone can see what other products I have in my shop if they're not already aware. I've also included the discount codes in my shops to encourage larger orders. 

I need to list the rest of my stickers on eBay. I don't know why I keep procrastinating with it. I just keep finding other things that I'd rather do then put off eBay even more. :P I also need to finish our taxes. I already filed and paid my state sales tax and started on our income taxes (my side is done) but I had to wait for some 1099s for Johnny before I could finish. It's not like they're due soon...but I like to get them out of the way early. 

My goal for this year is to reach 1000 sales in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop. :) If I reach the goal a lot earlier than the end of the year, I'll set a new one. I'm optimistic. :) 

Well...I think I'll get back to work so I can get a little more done before Johnny gets off work for the day. :) 

Another post!

We'll see if I can start posting more often this year...even if it's just a short blurb. We'll see how it goes.  

I want to start making more new recipes, too. I've gotten into the habit of just cycling through the recipes I already have instead of making much new stuff lately. Christmas Eve I made Creamy Chicken & Noodles in the pressure cooker. Then Tuesday I made a spiral cut ham (in the oven because it was too big to fit int he pressure cooker). It's basically the same recipe as I made for Thanksgiving 2021 though. Then Tuesday night I made Vegetable Beef Soup in the pressure cooker. As you can see...I really like cooking in the pressure cooker. ;) My recipe always makes a lot, so we had leftovers for Wednesday and Thursday. Then Sunday or Monday I plan to actually make a new recipe! I'm going to make potato soup. But Johnny is in the mood for hamburgers...so I'll make those (in the air fryer) tonight so we don't have "soup" twice in a row. :P But I'm planning on making a creamy soup so at least it will be a totally different kind of soup. 

I made it to 450 sales today in my Etsy shop! I'm also a Star Seller again for January. :) June was the first month I reached enough sales to make Star Seller and I've been a Star Seller every month since. :) I'm looking forward to the year and watching my business grow. 

But for now I need to go make some hamburgers. :P Hope everyone is having a good start to the new year!

Hello January

First real post of 2024! 

I was sick the last few days of 2023 into the new year. It didn't last too long and I'm feeling better now. Whenever I'm sick, my neuropathy flares up really bad...so I wasn't getting much sleep. I tossed and turned a lot which made my back and joints even more sore than usual. So we just had a relaxing New Years at home. 

New Years Eve was Nova's birthday! Unfortunately it gets celebrated with her least favorite thing in the world...fireworks. :P Luckily there weren't a whole lot of fireworks and they were over after about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't too bad until one of the neighbors behind us set off some really, really loud ones. It's illegal to set off fireworks here outside of the dates and times allowed during 4th of July, but that never matters. Since I was sick, we didn't do anything for Nova's birthday last weekend but I think we're planning to take her to Petco this weekend to let her pick out some new toys and treats. She LOVES going to Petco (anywhere, really). We always have to make a stop by the small animals because she likes watching them. I want to get both Boz and Nova into the groomer sometime, too, but we need to take them to the vet to get this year's shots first. So we'll get around to that sometime. The dogs are doing great, though. I mean...Bozley is still the pickiest dog ever and it's a pain trying to get him to eat all his food, but they're such cute, sweet puppies. Nova is far more calm, laid back, and cuddly. She has been such a wonderful addition to our family...I can't imagine not having either one of them. 

On New Years Day, Johnny was in the mood to deep clean the kitchen. He started in the morning/early afternoon cleaning the bar and everything on it and then when I was done with orders, I finished up most of the rest. I didn't get to the microwave or the fridge...and I didn't do the upper cabinets, but it's a pretty good start and looks great. :) 

I got my new laptop! It's nice having a fresh start after 10.5 years of having the same computer. I'm loving it so far! I got a Dell Insprion 15-3520 with an i7 processor, 16gb RAM, and 1tb of storage (though I have two 5gb external drives that I store most of my stuff on)...which is basically an upgraded version of my old laptop which was a Dell Inspiron 15-5520 with an i5 processor that I'd upgraded from 8gb to 16gb RAM. It's SO much faster than my old laptop and has a better keyboard, graphics card, and Bluetooth. One of my requirements for a laptop is that it has a numerical keypad (I do a lot of accounting so I use 10-key all the time) so I had limited options to choose from...but I'm happy with this one. I do wish that it had a DVD drive, but it's much lighter without it. It also doesn't have a USB-C port, but I'd rather have the three USB-A ports instead of two and one USB-C. My phone is really the only thing I have right now that's a USB-C so it's not that big of a deal...I have a C to A cord that works fine. My only real complaint is that the outflow vent is above the keyboard pointed toward the screen...so the top of the keyboard often gets pretty warm. My last laptop had the outflow vent on the outside edge so I didn't notice it as much. But...overall I'm very happy that I have a new laptop and everything actually works. lol. 

I've been busy the last couple days redesigning a new planner for the year. My sister got me a Hoop Mama Creative Boss planner that I used last year, but it was mostly focused on business-only and I want one that incorporates everything and is more tailored to my needs. I'd made one back in 2021 when I was still doing transcription, but it was before I started CandiMaker so I needed something more. Hopefully this new planner will do the trick! 

I'm also excited to start making planner products to sell for CandiMaker. I want to make covers, stickers, and more...and I'm pretty excited about it. Of course, my biggest issue at the moment is trying to decide how to arrange my products...if I want to sell them under CandiMakerStickers or revamp CandiMakerDesigns for planner products (which is the way I'm leaning right now). So we'll see how it goes. First, I need to finish uploading my stickers to eBay. I only uploaded a few designs to start because I wasn't sure if it would even be worth it...but I made a decent-sized sale within just a few weeks. 

I've been watching a lot of Burn Notice and Chance on Hulu in the background while I've been working. The only thing I've really watched Hugh Laurie on was House...and I loved that show. He plays a much different (yet still American) character on Chance but I really like him in it. My favorite character, though, is D. He's a pretty unique character and I just love his demeanor and the way he always says, "awesome," in response to everything. And then Johnny and I have been watching Reacher and Man in the High Castle during dinner. Reacher is probably my favorite currently-airing show right now. I love Alan Ritchson's character...and I love the humor. Season 1 was awesome, but I'm enjoying Season 2 as well. I hope it'll continue airing for many more seasons! We just started Man in the High Castle last month and we're on Season 2 now...it's pretty interesting and I'm curious to see where it leads. And new episodes of Law & Order and NCIS start again in January. We dropped the Live portion of Hulu during the strikes because there weren't new episodes of our shows anyway...but we may get it again now that they'll be back. 

Well...I'm gonna get back to work! Hope everyone has a wonderful 2024! 

And now it's 2024!

 Here's my annual "Year in Review" post! :) 

1. What age did you turn in 2023? 42

2. What was your relationship status in 2023? Johnny and I celebrated our 6th year of marriage and 11th year together!

3. Did you move in 2023? Nope. I've been living here for 10 (and a half) years now!

4. Did you purchase a new vehicle in 2023? Nope. It's lasted 4 years...hopefully it'll last quite a few more!

5. Did you add any new family members in 2023? Nope. 

6. Did you lose any family members in 2023? The dog my grandparents adopted from the Humane Society more than 16 years ago passed away just before Christmas. :( 

7. Did you have any school or work changes in 2023? I started CandiMakerStickers in January! I realized how much I really like making stickers...and actually decided to stop doing sublimation. I really enjoyed it at first...but I just wasn't passionate about it. I spent so much time working on my sticker shop--designing and making stickers, filling sticker orders, working on SEO for my sticker shop--that I neglected to work on new designs or SEO for the digital design and transfer shops. I was still getting orders trickling in that I was filling, but I wasn't really making an effort to get more orders. So in June I shut down CandiMakerTransfers and in October I shut down CandiMakerDesigns. I may still end up utilizing those shops for other products that I plan to start selling in the future, but for now I'm really enjoying stickers. :) 

8. Did you travel anywhere in 2023? Nope. We really need a vacation! :P Then again...I'd want it to be somewhere we can take the dogs. And now that I think about it...it'd be really hard not sleeping in our king size Tempur-Pedic adjustable bed, too. :P 

9. Did you make any big purchases in 2023? I bought a cold roll laminator in March which has been amazing for self-adhesive laminate sheets for my stickers.

10. What was the best gift you received in 2023? Definitely my printer! A few months ago, the Epson ET-16650 was on sale for the same amount I paid for my ET-5800 (which is basically the same printer, the ET-16650 is just bigger and faster). So my mom bought the new ET-16650 which I got, mom is getting my ET-5800, and my sister got the ET-16650 that I was had already converted for sublimation. 

11. Did you learn any new skills in 2023? I started making sticker sheets! I can't really think of anything else since I started practicing making die-cut stickers in December 2022.

12. Did you redecorate in 2023? Just more reorganizing in my office...especially my desk. Oh and I redid the tabletop that I use for my Cricut Maker 3. I took the top of my art desk and covered it with contact paper...much sturdier than the heavy cardboard I was using before (which was actually the backing of a short bookcase that we no longer have). One day I'd still love to build a wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling unit for my office...but we'll see. :P

13. Did you read any good books in 2023? No. I just haven't made time for reading. Most of my time is spent on CandiMaker things. 

14. Did you see any good movies in 2023? I think my favorite movie that we watched was Expend4bles for my birthday. 

15. What TV shows were your favorite in 2023? Definitely Reacher! It's SO funny! We watched the last seasons of Manifest and Blacklist. Still watching the Law & Order franchise and NCIS. A new show we watched in 2023 was Chance on Hulu! I really loved it. And it's not a TV show, but I've been watching the Talkville podcast on YouTube. I've been rewatching Burn Notice. I really miss that show...they should definitely make a comeback. Oh and at the end of the year we started watching The Man in the High Castle. We're on Season 2 right now and it's pretty good.

16. What things did you do in 2023 that you'd never done before? Honestly, I can't really think of anything. I did make some new recipes: Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread and Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies. 

17. What do you wish you'd done more of in 2023? Walked the dogs, honestly. I've been having horrible back pain and just walking short distances is incredibly painful...even more so holding the leash of two dogs that haven't quite caught on to the not pulling thing. I also have so many books that I've wanted to read but never make time for it. 

18. What were you proud of in 2023? CandiMakerStickers! I opened my Etsy shop on January 13, 2023...National Sticker Day! I'd set my goal at that time to have 300 sales by the end of the year...and I met that goal in October! Then my goal was to reach $2000 in revenue on my Etsy dashboard, and I accomplished that on Christmas Day! :) Oh and I also got my first Faire order in November and my first eBay order in December. :) 

19. What was the one defining moment of 2023? Starting my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop. :) 

20. How would you describe 2023 in three words? Productive, Successful, Loving :) 

And now for some 2024 questions... 

1. What did you NOT have in 2023 that you would like to have in 2024? Same thing I say every year! A vacation!

2. What skills do you want to learn or improve in 2024? Always want to improve my arts and crafts skills! <-- same one again

3. What do you want to do more of in 2024? Just keep working on my Etsy shop(s) to make them even more successful. :) 

4. What do you want to buy in 2024? I finally purchased a new laptop today! That's the only "big" purchase I have planned. 

5. What is your number one goal for 2024? Increasing products and profits for CandiMaker...same as last year! :)