After everyone left that night, I had to finish making and packaging 14 orders that went out in the mail Friday. Sunday night I made and packaged 30 orders and was all caught up. Then Tuesday night I made and packaged another 23 orders that went out in the mail Wednesday. And then last night I made and packaged another 15 orders since I couldn't sleep. So I've been keeping busy with orders lately.
During this year's holiday sale, my orders were up 2% compared to last year and my revenue was up 10%. So that's really nice...especially considering the state of the economy. A lot of Etsy sellers are reporting slow sales, but things are actually picking up in my shop. October was pretty slow, but November ended up being my best month outside of the unusually busy July and August when my custom name label sticker sheets did so well for back to school.
I already met my goal this year of reaching 3500 sales in my CandiMakerStickers shop on December 2nd. :) I have a spreadsheet where I track every 50 sales in my Etsy shops. From October 1 through November 14, it was taking me 10-13 days to hit 50 sales. Then it went down to 8 days on November 22, 6 days on November 28, and then 4 days on December 2nd. Last December was my most successful month for 2024, so we'll see how it goes this year. I'm also just 4 sales away from 500 in my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I think my goal for next year is to hit 6000 in my sticker shop and 1000 in my planner shop. We'll see how it goes. :)
Johnny and I finished the first part of Season 5 of Stranger Things. It felt to me like it started out really, really slow...but finally got interesting by the 4th episode. I wish Dr Owens was in this season...I really liked his character. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything plays out though. I'm also looking forward to the next season of Virgin River. It ended on a cliffhanger, of course, and I am not a patient person...so I don't like waiting to see what happens. :P I believe it's supposed to hit Netflix in the Spring of 2026. And I really wish Reacher would hurry up with Season 4. I know there's a Neagley spinoff...and I'm sure that will probably be released before Reacher. We are watching the last episode of Murder in a Small Town tonight...no idea when the 3rd season will be released. There are three more episodes of Tracker this season. We're also looking forward to High Potential, The Hunting Party, and The Night Agent coming back in 2026. I really wish the seasons were longer. I miss the days where there were 24 episodes in a season. It's especially irritating when it takes a year or more for the next season to air. Like I said...I'm not a patient person. :P
It's felt like a very long week so far. The days seem to be going sooo slow. It doesn't help that I've felt pretty crappy lately. It makes sleeping difficult which makes me really tired during the day....so I'm sure that doesn't help. I was up working on orders until almost 3am and I still couldn't sleep, so I ended up making some more banana bread until 4am. :P The bananas were weird...like the bottom part was too ripe but the top part wasn't ripe enough. I didn't want to wait longer and have the bananas end up getting moldy, so I went ahead and made a double batch...which worked out alright. The bread isn't as sweet as it usually is with bananas, but it's still pretty tasty.
Well...I think I'm going to get started enjoying my weekend! :)