Happy anniversary to us!

Johnny and I celebrated our 9th year of marriage and 14 years back together this week! I truly love our relationship. Johnny and I fell in love more than 21 years ago...but it wasn't the right time back then. I knew from the moment of our first kiss in June 2005 that he was "the one" for me, though. Our life together is even better than I could have imagined back when we met. :) It hasn't been perfect by any means...but it has all been worth it to get to where we are today. 

You know...they talk about the "seven year itch" in relationships where people start losing interest or become dissatisfied in the relationship by the time the seventh year rolls around. However, I think the opposite is true for us. The first six years of our relationship were definitely the hardest. Dealing with exes, moving in together, blending families and finances, adult children and their pets and/or families moving in and out, and various other things...we had a rocky start (and that rocky start lasted awhile). We got married on our 5th anniversary and during that first year of married life, there were times I wondered if we'd even make it to our first wedding anniversary. It was an especially chaotic time in our lives and I don't think either of us handled the stress well The biggest thing at the time was the fact that Johnny's daughter, her husband, their four kids, four dogs, and a cat moved into our living room a couple months after our wedding. We already had Johnny's mom living with us, my two kids, three dogs, and three cats. What turned out to be "for a couple weeks" turned into six months. 

But by August 2018, everyone else had moved out and we finally had a sense of normalcy for pretty much the first time in our relationship. We were able to rearrange and redecorate the house the way we wanted (which has been an ongoing process). Johnny retired from pool work (while still working for USPS) and I started doing transcription work from home to bring in some extra money. We were able to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2019 so that we could make payments over a five year period which eased the financial burdens that we'd been struggling with years before. We were also in the position to be able to buy our first car together after dealing with our previous vehicles getting old and crapping out. We were still dealing with teenagers, but I think we were in a better place to be able to handle all that comes with raising teenage girls. 

Then when Covid hit in March 2020...things really settled in to a comfortable routine for us. Johnny also started working from home and we were basically spending all day together everyday. It's funny...we talk more about how our day is going now that we're both at home together than we did when he was gone at work for the majority of the day. And I started CandiMaker in 2021 and Johnny has been wonderfully supportive. He always asks me what things I've sold and says "good job" every time he hears the cha-ching notification from my phone letting me know I got another sale. 

And then in 2025, Johnny and I finally became empty-nesters for the first time ever. It's just us, two golden retrievers, and three tabby cats enjoying a nice life together. My favorite thing is sitting at the coffee table in the living room to eat dinner and watch a show together...which is exactly what we did to celebrate our anniversary. We ordered Hibachi Boy for dinner and finished an episode of The Bombing of Pan Am 103. :) 

Happy anniversary to us! 

Busy August so far!

I've been super busy with work lately! At least this year I kind of expected it. Last year I had a huge influx of orders for the back-to-school season. Between the custom stickers in my CandiMakerStickers shop and the custom name label sticker sheets in my CandiMakerPlanners shop (in addition to my regular orders), July and August were my best months of 2025 for both numbers of orders and revenue.

This year, I had nine less orders in July 2026 compared to July 2025, but my revenue was almost $300 higher in July 2026. And for the first seven days of August, I've had nine more orders and $214 more in revenue this year than I did during the same time period last year. 

One thing that made a difference this year is that in July I added tear-off notepads to the products I offer...and I got two large orders for them earlier this week. As I'm writing this...I'm in my office printing 56 notepads that will go out on Monday. One order was for 41 of my notebook paper design notepads personalized with teacher names and then another order for 15 of my notepads personalized with names in "signature" fonts that they ordered with magnets on the back. I'm very thankful for the large orders! :) A lot of my sales are single-product orders, so I like to encourage larger orders with buy-more-save-more discount codes.  

I'll be finished with all the notepads tomorrow...then I'll spend Sunday printing and cutting the rest of my regular sticker, magnet, and sticker sheet orders. And then I package all the orders before I go to bed so they're picked up by USPS on Monday. 

I think adding new products periodically has helped my growth each year. The first year, I was mostly focused on creating new sticker designs. But after I decided to offer the option of magnets for each of my sticker designs during my second year, I saw a large increase in orders and revenue. Since then, I've tried to add new products each year. I have several new product ideas floating around in my head right now...but I haven't worked on new designs of existing products for several months, so I'll probably use any free time I have to focus on that through the end of the year. February and April are usually pretty slow months for me, so I'll probably hold off on any new products until then. 

One thing I've noticed while I've been spending a lot more time in my office (at one time, anyway) is that this chair is UNCOMFORTABLE. My elbow hurts, my knees and hips hurt, my back hurts...everything hurts. :P So I finally decided to go ahead and get a new office chair. Having hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, I really need something that's versatile. I looked at a lot of different kinds of chairs, but I settled on this one from Walmart. I really hope it helps. 

I also decided to try some compression products...the JellieBody and Korform shorts. So many people in the hEDS community have talked about them helping with pain, stability, and dysautonomia...so since I've had such a successful summer with work, I decided to finally order them. My back, hips, and knees have really been bothering me lately (in addition to my neck, but they probably won't help with that). Johnny and I did get some new pillows, though. He saw an article that talked about these pillows so I decided why not...couldn't be any worse than the old pillows that we've been using for, like, a decade. There were mixed reviews, but I was hopeful...and so far we've not been disappointed! I've been having a lot less neck pain. I had to remove some of the stuffing, but it's a lot more supportive for my neck and head. So I'm pretty happy about that. 

And since I've been having such a good July and start to August...I splurged and got something that's pretty much just cosmetic for my desk. :P My desk is 18 years old and the desktop is definitely showing it's age. My binding machine also caused a pretty big scratch before I realized it had a sharp spot on the bottom. So...I was looking for a desk mat that would cover the desktop...but the sizing was pretty limiting. I actually ended up finding this mouse pad that works pretty perfectly. It doesn't go across the whole desktop, but it definitely covers the part that shows the most wear. 

I did take a bit of a break from work last weekend to celebrate my husband's birthday! It's the 29th anniversary of Johnny's 29th birthday. ;) We had dinner at Village Inn with Aubry (and Danny), Ashlyn, mom, and my grandparents. Then we came home to put our leftovers in the fridge and let the dogs out to pee before going over to my grandparents' house to play Flip 7 with my mom and grandparents. It was the first time Johnny and I had played...and we had a lot of fun. :)

Well...I finally finished the first order of notepads, so I think I'm going to head to bed so I can get started again early tomorrow on the second notepad order. I hope everyone has a good weekend! :) 

**post contains Amazon affiliate links

A Productive Weekend!

I got a LOT of stuff done this weekend! And...Johnny and I got some new desks! :)

Friday morning I decided to start working on my office right after I woke up. I needed to empty everything off of the hutch bookcase so I could move Johnny's old desk (the one that my Romeo was on) to that spot and then put the hutch bookcase on top of the desk where it belongs. That bookcase holds all my cookbooks, art books, some writing books, and then I have all of our wedding decorations on top (which I'm very glad still fit up there when we moved the hutch onto the desk).  

Friday afternoon my mom and grandma stopped by so I could fix Grandma's phone. She had inadvertently turned off the full-screen notification of when she's getting a call...so the phone was ringing with just a black screen and she couldn't tell who was calling. We had some Taco Tico for lunch and chatted for a bit. The dogs definitely liked having company. :) 

After mom and grandma left, Johnny's new desk arrived (an hour later than FedEx originally estimated). I got the top and the bottom of the desk put together and then I took a break so we could have some Casey's pizza for dinner. After we ate, Johnny helped me move both pieces of his desk into the bedroom and I attached them together. Then all I had to do was put the LED light strip up (which was not designed well because it lays flat so it can't go around the corner and still be flat against the board). But other than that, it really looks great. It'll definitely be better than the old, slanted art desk of his mom's that he was using before. 

I went to bed around 12:45am. Unfortunately...I woke up to Milo puking on the bed at my feet about two hours later. :P  I didn't want to wake Johnny, so I decided to just go ahead and get up. I didn't do a whole lot during the night...just kinda played around on my phone and the computer. But after Johnny woke up, I started washing the bedding and then got to work in my office. Apparently only two hours of sleep leads to productivity! :P 

Last month I started scanning some of the documents in the file cabinets that we have in the closet in my office...and I decided that I wanted to get those shredded before I put my new desk in the office. My desk ended up getting here around 9:30am (5 hours earlier than FedEx originally estimated) but I wanted to finish scanning first so I could get the box of paper out of the office. It seemed to take FOREVER...but I got the entire box done (which filled almost five 13gal trash bags). Then I vacuumed and moved some things around...and finally put my new desk together. It went pretty quick and it fits perfectly. I really like how my office is coming together. It's a pretty small room, but I'm trying to make the most of the space that I have. Later I'll update my office collection post with all my new stuff. :) 

I made creamy chicken enchiladas for dinner on Sunday night. They're SO yummy...but it makes my back hurt from standing so long. Usually I get my orders that I got over the weekend done on Sunday, but I needed a break after putting the desks together and reorganizing my office. I didn't have any orders due until the 17th, so I took a break on Sunday and then got back at it on Monday. I had a LOT of magnets to print and cut. I'm so glad that I started selling magnets as well as stickers, because it has really helped my business grow. The new layout of my office also helped a lot with my workflow. 

Ooh and I figured out how to create a playlist on Amazon Prime to play music while I'm packing orders. I had been playing shows on Netflix or Hulu on my tablet while working in the office, but I feel like I'm more productive and efficient when listing to music instead. I don't really want to pay for Amazon Music Unlimited every month, but I wanted to play music on the Echo dot that we got forever ago. So I figured out that I could add songs to "My Likes" playlist and then just have Alexa play that list to shuffle all the songs I actually like. I liked having my shows playing in the background, but playing music is more motivating and productive. ;) 

I also made some adjustments to the settings for my cardstock cards. Since my ET-16650 prints so fast, I'd completely forgotten how much slower other printers are...including my new WF-4833. But instead of printing high quality, I went ahead and bumped it down to standard, turned on bidirectional printing, and increased the contrast, saturation, and density. So now it looks pretty much the same, but it prints a lot faster. I like it when things are efficient. 

Oh and I finished the new season of Virgin River on Friday. The last few seasons feel pretty slow a lot of the time, but it wasn't too bad. And every season ends on a cliffhanger...which I never like. It's just a tool to make sure people come back and watch the next season to see what happens...which feels manipulative. But I still come back to see what happens. :P Well...most of the time. There are some shows that I completely lost interest in and don't even care to see what else happens. 

Well...I'm going to get back to work. 

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

Christmas Eve!

It's hard to believe it's Christmas Eve already! It hasn't really seemed the same ever since my Grandma Ina died in 2020. For 38 years of my life, Grandma and Grandpa had all the family over to celebrate Christmas. It was the one time each year we'd definitely see our cousins. It was a loud, full house and we've made so many memories that continued through my kids' childhood, too (although some years they couldn't go because they were with their dad). Spending so many years doing the same thing and then suddenly not doing anymore...it's just very sad. The family really doesn't get together as a group except for special events like weddings. It's sad how things change, but it's inevitable, I suppose. 

Part of the same Christmas routine since I was a baby was going to my mom's dad and stepmom's house for Christmas with that side of the family. While the group has gotten smaller as people have moved away and started their own families, my immediate family is still there every year. My grandpa is 90 years old now, but hopefully we'll still have many years left to keep the tradition going. 

Other than that we haven't been doing much. Johnny went to his daughter's house last night. My Cricut Maker 4 didn't arrive until yesterday afternoon, so I was busy setting that up and making orders that were due to ship today. And my Romeo started cutting off center on Friday and I was frustrated so I decided to just wait on finishing the orders. It was working so well...then all the sudden it was off. I figured out how to do the calibration...but even after calibrating, like, a dozen times...it was still off. But then I found how to manually adjust the camera and after a few test cuts and adjustments, I was able to get it cutting perfectly again. Thank goodness! My CandiMakerPlanners shop is doing better this December (and year) than last year. So far my CandiMakerStickers shop is almost on par with last December (I've only gotten 1 less order so far compared to last year), but I've had a 37% increase in orders and a 52% increase in revenue for this year compared to this point last year. Most of the increase in revenue is because I sell a lot more magnets now, which are a higher price point than stickers. 

Johnny asked me today if I got gifts for the dogs. Uh...I wasn't planning on it. lol. They already have a ton of toys and it's not like they know it's Christmas. But...I went ahead and got each of the puppies three new stuffed animals. I started out trying to get them through Petco, but every single thing I'd added to the cart for same day delivery ended up saying sold out a short time later. Johnny said he'd go to Petco after work if I couldn't order any...but they close at 7pm which is when Johnny gets off work. So I looked at Chuck & Don's website and was able to find a lot of toys available for same day delivery. I found three separate brands that had two of the same-ish size different animals (well, one is a snowman)...and I like things to be equal. ;)

I'll wrap them before Johnny gets off work and then we'll have them open the presents tonight after dinner. Last year, Bozley was more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents (he liked them after we threw the wrapping paper away, though). Nova LOVES toys and always has particular toys that she's most attached to. And when she gets excited--like waiting for her breakfast, waiting for us to sit down to eat dinner, or when Johnny is getting ready to go to bed--she'll lay on the floor and squeak one of her toys over and over again. She'll also look for specific toys that she wants at any given time. Bozley tends to just want whatever toy (or sock, shoe, or a stray towel he found somewhere) is closest to put in his mouth when he gets excited. He doesn't care at all about squeakers or anything. His favorite "toys" are rocks or sticks that he finds in the yard that he can toss around and roll around on. He does like tennis balls...though he isn't as great about the second part of fetch. He'll bring it back...he just won't let you have it. :P And interestingly enough, Nova doesn't care that much about tennis balls except for tearing them apart. And 9/10 times if you throw the ball to her, she'll run after it...but then just walk away once she gets to it. They're such funny puppies. And yes...I know that they're 5 years old and not literally puppies...but they'll always be our puppies. ;) 

We've been watching Invasion in the evenings while we eat dinner. Johnny watched an episode while he was visiting his brother in Seattle, so we started it from the beginning. We're only on S01E07. But tonight, Johnny and I are planning to watch Tom Segura's new Netflix special. He's one of our favorite comedians. The second volume of Stranger Things drops tomorrow, but we might not start it until this weekend. About this time last year I had just watched Season 6 of Virgin River and was talking about how we didn't have to wait until next December for Season 7. Well...we don't have to wait until December...we have to wait even longer. :P That's one thing I hate about the change to streaming...it seems that so many shows take forever to release the next season. We used to get 20-24 episodes a season and there was only a break over the summer and a shorter hiatus around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now you get only 7-10 episodes and it's typically at least a year before you get to watch the next season. You can binge watch an entire season in a weekend (or a day if you're not doing anything else). It's just really annoying. 

Well...I suppose I shall go wrap presents. I hope everyone has a merry Christmas! 

Getting closer to Christmas!

Things have been busy lately. 

Friday we ended up having to take Nova to the vet. I let the dogs outside early that afternoon and right after they came in, she was pacing around and whining to go back outside. She trotted out and immediately went potty again. I watched and she was basically just walking back and forth across the yard squatting to go potty. So I was pretty sure she had a UTI. Since it was Friday, I texted the vet to make an "urgent" appointment since there weren't any appointments available. They weren't able to get a urine sample, but we were able to get her some antibiotics and vetprofen. Nova seems to be back to normal now. By Friday night she wasn't going outside as frequently and not squatting as often while she was out. 

We had Christmas at my sister's house Saturday. We celebrate with my mom, her mom, my dad, my sister and her kids, and then my kids and their boyfriends. The rule for boyfriends is that they have to be dating for a year before they come to family functions...and this is actually the second Christmas they've come to now. Ashlyn's boyfriend had worked all night and then didn't get any sleep during the earlier part of the day, so he actually fell asleep in the living room chair toward the end of the evening...and he was snoring pretty loud. lol. One of my nieces ended up drawing pictures on his hand. :P But it was a nice evening with lots of laughter. We had a lot of finger foods and desserts. I took the ginger molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and chicken salad sandwiches cut diagonally into 4 pieces like my Grandma Ina used to make every year for Christmas Eve. Oooh...and my sister made beer bread and I pigged out on that with the spinach and herb dip. Yummy! I hadn't had it in YEARS and forgot just how yummy it is. 

Then Sunday night, Johnny's daughter and her two kids stopped by for awhile. She also brought their golden retriever over. Boz and Nova had a blast playing with him. I think he's about 6 months old or so. It was fun watching them chase each other around. 

Saturday morning while I was in a hurry getting everything ready to go to my sister's, I knocked over the stand my Cricut is on when I was trying to get in the closet. At first I thought it was fine, but when I went to make orders on Sunday, I noticed that the power jack was bent sideways because it was plugged in when it fell and the cord was caught under the desk. I was able to plug it in and kinda pull the cord back the way it was supposed to go and tape it to hold it in place...and it's working for now. I have the Siser Romeo, but I still use the Cricut as well...especially when I have a lot of work and I can use both machines at the same time. The Cricut can also handle thicker materials and has several different kinds of blades that I use (debossing, engraving, foiling, scoring, perf, knife blade, etc)...and I generally cut all my magnets on it. 

So I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to replace the Cricut or just keep using it until the tape holding the cord stopped working. I looked on the Cricut website and saw that the Cricut Maker 4 was on sale for $50 off...which is cheaper than I paid for my Cricut Maker 3. On top of that, I had a code for an additional $10 and got an additional 10% off (after the first $50 discount) by paying $9 for the first month of a Cricut subscription. I ended up saving more than $100 for a newer model. Since my deposit for the last week was more than the cost of the machine, I decided to go ahead and get the Cricut Maker 4. Had it not been on sale and had the additional discounts, I probably wouldn't have gotten it right now. But...now I'll have three machines that I can use at the same time (at least for as long as my tape trick will work) and I should be able to keep both Cricut machines on the same stand. Plus we can deduct it on the taxes this year...which is good timing since I had such an unexpectedly busy July and August. 

Cricut cutting machines kind of have a bad reputation among sticker makers. Lots of people complain about problems they have with their Cricut...especially cuts that are off. But I've been lucky to never have significant problems with my Maker 3. There has been a time or two after an update when I've had to recalibrate the get my cuts straight...but that's about it. I've noticed the majority of problems seem to be for those using the Cricut Explore machines...so I don't know if that makes a difference. I'm hoping I won't have any issues with the Maker 4. There isn't a whole lot of change between the Maker 3 and the Maker 4 aside from speed...so we'll see how it goes. 

The last week of November and the first two weeks of December have been really busy with orders. November started out slow, but the month ended up being the best I'd had outside of the unusually busy July and August from my custom name sticker sheets in my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I had 162 orders in November...and I already have 128 for December. It has started slowing down this week since we're getting closer to Christmas, but orders are still coming in. I had 175 orders for the month of December 2024, so we'll see where it ends up this year. I've already passed 3600 sales in my CandiMakerStickers shop and I'm at 499 in my sticker sheet shop (hopefully I can get at least one more sale there before the end of the year!).  

I also need to clean out the office. When we got the new furniture in the living room, I kind of stuffed everything that was stored in the old living room furniture in the office to deal with after Thanksgiving...but still haven't gotten around to it. Thus the trouble getting into the office closet and the Cricut getting knocked over. :P So that's probably what I'll do this weekend. 

But for right now, I need to get back to work. :) 

Hello December!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. My mom, grandma, sister, and Aubry ate with us. Aubry was the first to arrive and she helped me get some things ready...like putting the new tablecloth on the table, tying the new seat cushions to the chairs, and putting together the meat and cheese tray. Then my mom, grandma, and sister all showed up about the same time. My sister brought cake pops, a pumpkin pie cheesecake, and deviled eggs. My mom brought a ham and mashed potatoes. Then I made everything else. I made one turkey breast in the pressure cooker that day, and then I made another one for our leftovers. I also bought some more bananas to make banana bread again this week. The banana bread and pumpkin bread were definitely a big hit. I didn't get the ginger molasses cookies made, but I'm going to make those to take to Christmas at my sister's along with chocolate chip cookies and chicken salad sandwiches. 

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, but it's still pretty tasty. 

Well...I think I'm going to get started enjoying my weekend! :) 

November Update

I can't believe it's November already! I'm glad though. The sooner the next 3 years go by the better, as far as I'm concerned. :P 

We spent several hours at my mom's house on Saturday. She needed a new garbage disposal and faucet for her kitchen sink...so Johnny replaced those for her. He's always been such a wonderful help for our family. :) And then after Johnny was done with that, he chatted with my dad while I set up my old printer for mom and connected her additional monitor to her laptop. So it was a nice, productive evening. Although...Nova wasn't very happy that her dinner was 2 hours late. ;) 

Oh! And thank goodness for Walmart delivery being available in the small town...because the faucet didn't come with the hoses to connect to the water lines and we were able to have them delivered within an hour. But the funniest thing is that when I went to make a Walmart order on Monday, I'd forgotten to change the address back to ours so our groceries were delivered to my mom's house. :P Oops! 

I spent most of Sunday working. I had 15 orders to print, cut, and package that went out in the mail today. I also finished the last new sticker sheet listing in my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I added seven new Christmas gift label sticker sheets. I was hoping to get them done earlier, but at least they're done now. I also set up my Black Friday sales...they'll run from November 24 at 12am until December 3 at 12am. I always have a buy-more-save-more sale for Black Friday. So...if anyone is looking to make a big purchase, that will be a perfect time. :) 

Let's see...what else has been happening? 

We went to Village Inn for my birthday last month. It's our new favorite place for family dinners with my grandparents because it's generally quiet. There's also a really funny waitress there...but my birthday was the first time in the last couple years that she wasn't there. She's always teasing and joking around which makes us laugh...and it's always nice to laugh! Then after dinner we went over to my grandparents' house to play Hand & Foot...and I won! I've won some rounds before, but I think it's the first time I've actually won the game. 

We took the dogs to the groomer last month, too. They look and smell soooo good after the groomer! I did notice this time, Nova got quite a few hot spots and Boz has been itching, too. Since it's also affecting Boz, I'm thinking the groomer probably gave them treats with chicken in them (MANY treats do) rather than it being environmental or the shampoo or something. Nova has seasonal/environmental allergies, but they're both allergic to chicken. So I think next time, I'll take some of our treats for at the groomer just in case. I really love our groomer and she takes the most adorable pictures of the puppies. 

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We are hosting Thanksgiving for my side of the family again this year. I think we've just done it twice before...in 2014 and in 2021. I make Thanksgiving dinner every year...but most of the time in recent years, it's just for me and Johnny or sometimes it's us and the kids if they don't have other plans. I love Thanksgiving dinner, but hosting isn't always my favorite because it feels more stressful and hectic...especially making sure everything is done on time. But this is my sister's first Thanksgiving without her girls (she recently filed for divorce), so I thought it'd be nice for us to host. And it'll just be my mom, sister, and possibly my grandma...and the understanding is that dinner is done when it's done. ;) That way it'll hopefully feel less chaotic. And then a few weeks later, we'll have Christmas at my sister's house. We always have our celebration with my sister, our parents, and my mom's mom before Christmas (or sometimes after, depending on scheduling). It spaces things out so it isn't such a big deal trying to cram everything with multiple sides of multiple families in just a couple days. With marriage and divorce...there are more things to schedule around so it just makes things a little easier. It's been that way since I was little. Then we would celebrate Christmas Eve with my dad's mom and stepdad (when Grandma was still alive) and then we would celebrate Christmas Day at my mom's dad's house. 

In completely unrelated news...I have some angry nerve issues. I'd been having problems for a few months with the nerves in my left shoulder making my shoulder ache and tingling/numbness in my fingers. Since it's not exactly painful, it hasn't seemed as big of a deal. Sometimes my shoulder hurts, but it's more of an ache. Now I have a burning pain in my right elbow and wrist...with numbness and tingling in my fingers on my right hand...and it's keeping me awake at night. I spent a lot of time trying to move around and put my arm in different positions trying to find relief. None of my medicine has really been doing much to relieve the pain. And that's just the newest issue. I've been having a lot of problems with neck pain and that causing headaches and migraines. I've tried different sleeping positions, different pillows...it just always hurts. My back hurts if I stand for very long (like...5 minutes). It feels like my back muscles are doing all the work when I'm standing and they don't like it. And to compound my issues...I've also been experiencing exercise-induced migraines (I think it's related to my blood pressure) and getting overheated which triggers my neuropathy and trigeminal neuralgia. It's all just a mess...and exhausting. When you deal with chronic pain for decades...it's just draining. You start thinking about how many years it's been and how many you still have left...and it starts to feel like forever. It's physically and mentally exhausting. 

But...I should probably get back to work. :) 

It was a loooong week.

Johnny spent the last week with his family near Seattle, Washington. His mom is in a nice senior care home not too far from his brother. He hadn't seen his mom since she moved out there in late 2019. so he wanted to spend some time with her. Since he was going to be out there for a whole week, I stayed home with the dogs and to work. I didn't want to lose the momentum I've had by putting my shops on vacation mode for an entire week. So this time only Johnny went out there. 

Since I wasn't going, we paid $100 more for him to fly first class...and he enjoyed that. He flew on a smaller ERJ-135. In first class, one side has two seats and the other side has just one seat. Johnny had a seat in the first row on the side with just one seat and he really liked that. He spent most of the flight taking video out the window. He also got a complimentary lunch on his way out there and breakfast on his way back...plus snacks and drinks. He said it was a little bumpy during take-off and landing, but other than that it wasn't bad at all. 

He did a lot of fun things with his brother. They went hiking, to an estate sale, salmon hatchery, and other fun stuff like that. He also sent me a lot of pictures and videos of the wildlife that show up in his brother's backyard. There are lots of birds, ducks, a couple types of squirrels, a weasel, and a larger grey animal that Johnny just saw a flash of in the dark and didn't know what it was. We talked about how Nova would LOVE it...probably a little too much. She's always obsessed with critters in the yard. 

I spent the week working and watching a lot of documentaries. I'd planned to get a lot of projects done around the house...but I've been having bad neuropathy for the past couple weeks and haven't been sleeping much. There have been nights when I haven't gotten to sleep until 4-5am. So I haven't been as productive with projects around the house as I was hoping to be. I think my lack of sleep really started to hit me after Johnny got home...because both Saturday night and last night I ended up going to bed before midnight. Saturday night I woke up a couple times but was able to go back to sleep until I finally got up at 9:30am. Last night I went to bed a little bit earlier and was wide awake at 4am. :P I may try to get a couple more hours of sleep before Johnny has to start work...we'll see how it goes. I never know if it'll make me feel better through the day if I just settle for the 6 hours of sleep or if it'll make me MORE tired if I go back to bed for just 2 more hours. So we'll see. :P 

I did get one project done while Johnny was gone that I was excited about! Mom came over on Monday and helped me cut our memory foam mattress in half. :) It was kinda nerve-wracking to get started with the first cut...but it really wasn't that difficult. We measured and drew the cut line and then mom just used a regular serrated bread knife to cut it while I tried to apply even pressure on both sides of the line to help it cut easier. There were three layers to our mattress, so we decided to cut each layer separately and I held the top layers out a little bit so she could see better. And then it was pretty simple to get it put in the replacement covers that I'd purchased. Then it was just a matter of making the bed and reprogramming the remotes...which was also pretty easy. I'm absolutely loving that both sides of the bed are able to adjust independently now. Johnny sleeps better when he raises the head of the bed, but he doesn't like raising the feet...where my back feels better having the feet raised. So now we can both adjust it however we want. :) So despite getting less sleep lately...I've been waking up in less pain, so I'm pretty happy about that. 

So...if anyone out there wants to replace their king-size memory foam mattress with two TwinXL mattresses (or resize their current mattress to a smaller size), it's very possible (and not that hard) to cut the current mattress down! Our mattress no longer had a warranty (since my grandma bought it for herself back in 2014) but was still in wonderful shape, so we figured we might as well try it and save having to spend at least $3k on new mattresses. I'm definitely not disappointed! 

It was really weird having Johnny gone for a whole week. It was the first time we've spent a night apart since 2015 when the girls were still going to school in our hometown. I'm glad that Johnny was able to spend some time with his family and had a good time...but the doggies and I were definitely ready for him to be home! Nova was SO excited to see Johnny when he walked in the door. Boz was actually nervous and stayed glued to my side, but after a few minutes he realized who it was. Bozley is just weird like that. :P 

Work is still going well. I wrapped up August with my second highest orders per month, revenue per month, and profit for the month since I started CandiMaker (last month is the only month that had higher numbers, largely because of my name label sticker sheets). And on September 2nd, I hit 3000 sales in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop. My goal for this year is to hit 3500...so if things continue the way they have, I should be able to hit that goal. :) I just need to average about 5 sales per day...which is doable. I hit 450 sales in my CandiMakerPlanners Etsy shop mid-August, but sticker sheet sales have slowed to a crawl now that kids are back to school. A lot of it is the fact that I only have 8 listings in that shop and don't work on it as much as my regular sticker shop. I have been trying to work on it more...but I just have so many things on my to-do list. 

I think my next point of focus is going to be to get my website up and running. I'd really like to have it done by the end of the month. There are a few quirks about GoImagine's infrastructure that bug me, though. My biggest complaint is that I was trying to bulk delete the listings that they'd pulled from my Etsy data upload (because it's going to be quicker to just start from scratch rather than edit 300+ listings). But after awhile, it started deleting the listings that were NOT checked in addition to the ones that were checked...including the template listing that I'd just created. So...I gave up working on it that day out of frustration. My plan next week is to make as much progress as possible with it, though. 

On that note...I'm gonna try to get some work done while I try to decide if I want to get a little more sleep or not. ;) 

Slowing Down

It never fails...if I go to bed before midnight, I end up being awake at 3am and can't get back to sleep. So here I am! :P It's storming right now...mostly just thunder and some lightning. I love listening to the thunder. Nova Lee doesn't like the thunder, though. She prefers to hide in the hallway during storms. 

Work has slowed down a lot now that kids are back to school. My regular sticker and magnet orders are still regularly coming in, but the custom name label sticker sheets that dominated in July and the beginning of August are now just an order here and there. 

After orders started to slow down, I decided to start working on some new designs. I added a new set of cleaning sticker sheets for planners to my CandiMakerPlanners shop as well as about 20 new regular sticker designs. There are three animal-related designs and the rest are humor/sarcasm designs (actually, the animal ones are humorous as well, but they're under animals). I got them all printed, cut, photographed and listed...and have already had a couple orders for them. 

And now I'm working on getting my website set up. For right now, I'm just using GoImagine to create my website because it's only $15/month. Etsy has a $15/month plan with a website, but I wanted to diversify the platforms I use. At some point, I may migrate over to a true e-commerce website like Shopify, but right now I'd rather save the money. I have my own domain (www.candimaker.shop) so I'll be able to switch platforms easily in the future without having to redirect customers. 

I've also been busy getting everything ready for Johnny's trip to Washington to see his mom and brother. We splurged a bit and he's flying first class! It was only about $100 more...plus we could use the cash back rewards from our credit card to take off another $130. I also got him an 8 piece luggage set on Amazon when it was on sale for just $85. It has two large checked bags, a carry-on bag, and a smaller personal bag plus 4 packing cubes. It seems pretty sturdy so hopefully it'll hold up well! One of his checked bags will probably be mostly stuff for his mom. She is living in a care home and we've had all her stuff here in our basement. So he's going to take some of her things out there to her. Johnny is impressed with how organized I am with getting everything ready for him. He's a procrastinator so if it weren't for me...he'd probably be doing all his packing the night before he left while I've been prepping for a week already. ;) Hopefully he'll have a great trip! 

I'm going to tackle at least one project while Johnny is gone. The sync cord for our adjustable base was damaged (darn ol' cats) so we haven't been adjusting the bed for about a month now. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a replacement cable anywhere since it's pretty old. We've been wanting to get a split king (two twinXL mattresses) but we also don't want to spend the $3k+ right now. BUT...I realized that we can actually cut our memory foam mattress in half. Our mattress is still comfy, so I figured we might as well try this first. Tempur-Pedic doesn't have replacement covers for 11" mattresses, but I ended up finding a company where you can order some generic ones. I already have the new mattress pad and sheet sets...and the replacement covers should be here Friday. Mom's going to help me cut the mattresses and get them in the covers. Hopefully it will go smoothly! 

All right...I think I'm finally getting tired again, so I'm going to see if I can fall asleep. :) 

Last day of June!

It's hard to believe it's the last day of June already! 

Johnny and I are officially empty nesters! Aubry moved in with her boyfriend over the weekend. She's had it planned for several months to move out during the week long plant shutdown at work. She got everything except her dresser moved...she has to wait until she can make some room for it and then use my grandma's truck to get it over there. Aubry moved most of her stuff on Friday and then came back on Sunday to get the rest of her stuff and then clean up her room and bathroom. 

So now it's just us, the three cats, and our two golden retrievers. I'm looking forward to reorganizing the basement and cleaning out everything that we're going to either get rid of or put in the garage sale. We are still storing all of Johnny's mom's stuff (she's in a home in Washington)...and I want to reorganize it all in one spot. It started out in Aubry's room until she moved back in. Then I had all been in the closet of the cat room (which used to be Ashlyn's room), but when the room flooded from the broken pipe, I moved out everything that wasn't up on the closet shelf into the family room. I'm thinking about moving it all back into Aubry's closet where it was originally...but I haven't decided yet. It'll probably still be a little while before I work on all that, because I have a lot of work-related projects that I want to get done first. 

Oh, and we had to replace the front door handle. We'd talked about replacing it before so that it would match the rest of the hardware that we have going on in the living room, we just hadn't gotten around to actually doing it. Well...the existing door knob broke last weekend so now it matches. ;) The only thing we really have left to switch out in the living room (aside from eventually getting new furniture) is the ceiling fan. Aside from not being the same colors as everything else in here, it also doesn't move much air at all. Even on the highest speed...it's pretty slow. 

Johnny had a productive weekend. The pile of branches that were in the backyard had been sitting there since storms we had in the last couple years. So when we had all the branches hauled off, there was a big bare spot. So over the weekend, Johnny put down some grass seed and topsoil. He also installed the light kit for the ceiling fan in the garage. Luckily it was easy to add on without having to take the entire ceiling fan down. It came with some lightbulbs...but Johnny hates yellowy lightbulbs so I ordered some more of the white LED bulbs that I've been getting from Amazon. They're a lot brighter and don't have the yellow hue. 

I'm still working on the Holiday Every Day sticker sheets. I finished August today...so just a few more months left! It's taking longer than I thought it would, but I like how they're turning out. I was hoping to have them listed by July 1st, but hopefully I can get them done by the end of this week. I also ordered some new matte sticker paper that is 11x17, so I can fit more sticker sheets on each page. With a regular sheet of paper, I can only fit one 5x7 sticker sheet on the page (and an additional 4x6 sticker sheet if I want), but I can fit four 5x7 sticker sheets on the 11x17 page. 

I also ordered some foldable brackets for $10 that I want to put on the wall under the window in my office. Since rearranging my office, I haven't had a good place to take product photos. My office is pretty small, so I wanted something that wouldn't take up more space. This way...I can just lift the shelf up when I'm taking pictures and then fold it back down against the wall when I'm not using it. So I'm excited about that...hopefully it works out well. 

My customized name label sticker sheets have started selling again. They're most popular when kids are getting ready to start school again. I've already made 4 of those sticker sheets this month...which is actually the same number that I'd sold last June as well. It picks up a lot more in July and August and then I just get a sporadic order for them here and there. 

June was my best month so far in 2025. I tied May with number of orders (134) and I surpassed my previous month of highest profit (March) for 2025. I'm glad for the progress. :) 

I'm going to get back to work on these sticker sheets before I go to bed. Hope everyone has a good week! 

Happy Easter!

Man...it's already been almost a month since my last post. The months seem to be going by pretty quickly. Given everything going on in the world, I can't say that I'm disappointed about that. 

Now that the kids are older, we don't really do much for Easter. We just have dinner at my grandparents' house. My nieces are the youngest from the immediate family, so we don't do any egg hunts or anything anymore. It's just nice to be able to spend some quality time with the family. :) 

I've been feeling pretty blah lately. I've still been dealing with a lot of pain in my back and shoulder. It's making sleep difficult. I've also been dealing with a lot more stomach pain. I've had pelvic adhesive disease as a result of abdominal surgery that I had to have in 2010. When I went to have my tubes tied about a year later, they couldn't even find one of my fallopian tubes because there was so much scar tissue. While subsequent surgeries aren't recommended...I think I'm going to talk to my family doctor about having a total hysterectomy and doing what they can about the existing scar tissue. So we'll see how that goes. I'm not excited about the idea of more abdominal surgery...but 15 years is a long time to deal with issues that seem to just keep getting worse. And it's not like I'm using my uterus anymore or anything. :P

With how crappy I've been feeling, I'm glad that work has been slow. It was slower last April, too. It's just that time of year. But the number of orders I've had so far this month is still 20% higher than this point last year, and my revenue so far this month is 86% higher. If it continues to be slow this week, I think I'm going to work on uploading designs to my Faire site. I haven't kept up with uploading my designs over there...so I want to work on that. I really need to work on my eBay listings as well. 

We took the dogs to the vet last week to get their annual vaccines. They were such good puppies. Nova was excited to see all the people but Boz was nervous, of course. He basically didn't leave my side the whole time. But we got all their shots and everything went smoothly. We also got Nova an allergy shot. In addition to being allergic to chicken...she seems to have seasonal allergies as well. Each spring she starts getting itchy and ends up with hot spots. So far she seems to be doing better than she has the last few years...so hopefully the shot continues to help her. Next we have to schedule Bozley's neuter surgery. Every time we've tried to schedule it in the past...something around the house ends up breaking that we have to pay to fix/replace. :P So...hopefully we can get it scheduled soon. Bozzy still weighs the same...about 65lbs. Chunky Nova needs to lose some weight though. ;) She was up quite a bit from when she got her shots last year. 

Well...I'm going to package orders to go out tomorrow and then might go to bed early (well...earlier than normal). 

It's been a busy day!

Today we celebrated my grandpa's 90th birthday! We had his party at the library here in town. They have a really big community room that we've used for several big group gatherings. I think it's pretty affordable for the size, too. 

My mom and sister did most of the planning and decor. I printed the invitations and mailing labels, printed 600 pieces of confetti (images printed on cardstock and die-cut in 2" and 1" sizes with my Cricut), and the water bottle labels that I printed on glossy sticker paper and laminated. I've learned that I do NOT like putting labels on water bottles. LOL! The difficult part is trying to get them on straight...it was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. :P Luckily my mom came over on Thursday and helped me get all the labels on there. Then yesterday my mom and sister set up a lot of the decorations. There were a lot of backdrops, balloons, and centerpiece decorations. There was also a table set up for the guestbook, multiple tables that had display boards with photos behind photos that were laid out on the table, and several tables set up for the food. We had meat and sides from Hog Wild as well as sandwiches, wraps, and fruit trays from McAlisters. 

It was a WSU themed party. My grandpa graduated from there and they attend a lot of their sporting events. We requested that everyone where yellow and black for pictures...and there were a lot of people in WSU gear! We'd gone to a local sports store on Monday and got Johnny a hoodie and a ball cap. Most of my WSU apparel (I also graduated from WSU) is pretty old and ratty looking...but mom had a hoodie that she got in a size smaller than she likes wearing, so I wore that. It was super soft and comfy so...now it's mine. ;) 

We were able to get some new family pictures...much like we did when we had grandma and grandpa's anniversary party in 2021. We were able to get a large group family photo as well. 

We also had a surprise guest! My sister--who *hates* people in full-body costumes that cover their head--was able to get the WSU mascot, Wu, to make an appearance. :) It was really neat and the guy did a great job. Naturally...his energy was like that from a sporting event...but in a much quieter room with about 40 people. My sister was battling anxiety...but I was battling autism. lol. As a neurodivergent person...I'm very uncomfortable with awkward silence. I already don't like when people don't keep up their side of the conversation...and Wu doesn't talk, he pantomimes. Yeah...I don't know what to do with that. lol. But he did a great job. My sister's friend who is a photographer was there to take photos...and she had Wu walk around the room and kinda photo bomb people. It was cute. And Wu also signed the guestbook which I thought was really cool. He walked around looking at the pictures and admiring the decorations (like...pointing them out and clapping or giving a thumbs up, etc). So it was just really neat to have him there. 

We stayed to clean up after the party. I was wiped out from printing and cutting all the confetti last night and then waking up early and helping load stuff...so I actually ended up taking a nap after I got home. :P I think tomorrow I'm going to take the day off and just relax. I do have some orders that I need to work on, but it shouldn't take too long to get done before I go to bed tomorrow so they can go out in the mail Monday. :) 

Why is the weekend so short? :(

It feels like the weekdays go by so dang slow...then the weekend goes by way too fast! Luckily this weekend is a three day weekend...so at least we get one extra day. It's supposed to snow tomorrow. They're calling for, like, 4-8 inches so we'll see how much we actually get. Thankfully Johnny and I both work from home, so we don't really have to get out in it. :P 

I'm finally feeling better as far as my sore throat, but I still feel out of sorts and super tired all the time. But I think I'm having problems sleeping more because of pain from my chronic health issues and perimenopause crap rather than from being sick. I can only sleep for 2-3 hours at a time but then I wake up and have a hard time getting back to sleep. When I am finally able to get back to sleep...I'm still up again 2-3 hours later. I've never been a person who really takes naps...but apparently that has changed in 2025. :P Hopefully my sleep schedule will get back to normal soon. 

The night before last I didn't sleep at all! Darn ol' Milo puked on my side of the bed...so I had to wait for Johnny to get up and then wash all the bedding. It takes FOREVER to wash all the sheets and blankets from our king size bed. I slept for about 3 hours and then had to grab some stuff from mom. Then I laid back down...but about an hour later I woke up to Johnny telling me that my dad was calling because grandma's thermostat wasn't working. So we got around to drove over to grandma's. We weren't planning on taking the dogs...but Nova darted out the door and wouldn't come back in the house so we took them with us. :P They like going to grandma's though and they're always good puppies at her house. Grandma's thermostat was all messed up...none of the buttons worked so we couldn't turn the heat down from 90 degrees, turn it from heat to AC, turn the fan on or off...nothing. Tried taking out the batteries...and that didn't change anything. The only thing that worked on it was the reset button...but then the heat was just off completely because we couldn't do anything after we reset it. So mom stopped by Walmart to grab a new thermostat and Johnny replaced it for Grandma. She just has a cheapie one for now, but I think eventually we'll get her a thermostat like we have that can be controlled by both the control panel and with an app on your phone. Then mom could see what's going on with Grandma's thermostat from her phone to maybe troubleshoot anything going on without having to drive all the way to her house. But for now...at least her house isn't 90 degrees anymore! Of course, even at the 75 degrees she likes to keep it at, that's still too hot for me! :P 

And despite only getting 4 interrupted hours of sleep...I didn't get to bed last night until way later than normal. But...since I didn't really get anything else done yesterday except washing the bedding, I put all my orders into my spreadsheet and got everything ready to print, cut, and package today so all my orders can go out in the morning. I have 16 orders so far since Friday between both of my Etsy shops plus my eBay. The first part of February was pretty slow, but it's been picking up a bit now. And I'm still doing better this month so far compared to last year. By this point in the month last year, I only had 22 orders...this year I have 45. So hopefully I'll pass the 60 orders I had for the month of February 2024. :) 

I've also been busy this month working on stuff for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party. I made the invitations earlier in the month and now I'm making labels for the water bottles and some large "confetti" to decorate the tables like I did for the girls' graduation party. 

Our refrigerator seems to be working fine again. We discovered on Monday that when the repair guys were here on Friday, they didn't hook the water line back up after they left. So our ice maker was completely out of ice on Monday. I gotta say...I'm not super impressed with Rick's Appliance Service after having to wait 3 weeks for it to actually be fixed...plus not hooking the water line back up. But hopefully we won't have any more issues with the fridge so it won't be a big deal. *crosses fingers*

Oh and I figured out that it's actually my TMJ in my jaw that is causing the issues with my ears. Sometimes it's pain, but most of the time it's more the feeling of pressure in my ears...like when you're on a plane and you feel like your ears need to pop. It seems like I just keep collecting chronic health issues. :P And pretty much all of them are caused by or a comorbidity of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Apparently hEDS is the "gift" that keeps on giving. :P 

Johnny and I finished Season 2 of Night Agent pretty quick. Now he's watching The Killing with me. We're excited for Season 3 of Reacher to be released on Thursday! I even have it written on the dry-erase calendar that we have in the kitchen. ;) 

Well...I better get back to work! I hope everyone is having a good February so far! 

Uuuuuughhhhhh

So far I'm really not a fan of 2025. :P And I'm not even actually talking about the political shitshow going on right now. 

About three weeks ago, Johnny got me sick with what I assume was the flu (I know it wasn't Covid because we tested negative multiple times). One of the other things going around lately is walking pneumonia...but I've had that before and it didn't really feel like that. We felt pretty crappy for the first few days. My biggest complaint in the beginning was stuffy/runny nose and Johnny's was more the productive cough. I only had a productive cough for a few days. But we've both been just so tired and blah...and now we have more of a dry cough. Honestly, I prefer a productive cough. This dry cough has been making my throat hurt really bad...and it's keeping me awake at night. Every few minutes it's like my throat feels dry and creates the urge to cough. It used to happen to me a lot as a kid...but I don't remember having a cough like this for basically my entire adult life. :P I hadn't drank coffee in years...but I've been drinking it everyday for the last week or so just because it's been soothing for my throat. 

I've had jaw/ear pain as well...I'm not really sure what's up with that. I don't know if I have an earache from being sick or if the pain is just from my jaw. I sneezed at one point and I literally thought I'd broken my jaw...it was such a horribly sharp pain that shot through my jaw. I've always had TMJ...which isn't uncommon with hEDS. I've never had this kind of pain in my jaw though. So I don't know what's going on with it...and not super excited to go to the doctor to find out. :P A lot of times, it seems like the treatment is more painful than just dealing with the pain from whatever the problem is. 

I've had several issues pop up over the last few years (especially pelvic organ prolapse...common with hEDS) and a lot of them require surgery to actually fix. And since I have adhesive disease, abdominal surgery is pretty much out of the question for me unless it's absolutely necessary. I had abdominal surgery in 2010 for a rectopexy repair and a pretty sizeable colon resection. It was an absolutely NOT fun experience. Then in 2011, I went in to have my tubes tied and the surgeon couldn't even find one of my fallopian tubes because my entire abdomen was full of scar tissue connecting all my organs together. Any future abdominal surgeries--including to remove the scar tissue--would result in more scar tissue. 

So yeah...whenever new issues pop up, I'm not super excited to get into what it's going to take to treat it. Even when it's medication...medications come with side effects and I'm already on several medications everyday. Oh the joys of chronic illness. :P 

And if health issues weren't enough...our freezer isn't working! Yeah...on the refrigerator we just bought in October. I was hoping after all the things we had to fix/replace in 2024 that 2025 would be a bit smoother. But it isn't really off to a good start. :P Luckily it's still within warranty, so we had someone come out on Friday. Apparently they're going to basically replace everything inside...but have to wait for parts to come in. He didn't know how long it would take. The refrigerator section is still working fine so far...which is good. But I'm still not buying a whole lot of groceries at the moment just in case it starts having cooling issues, too. My biggest complaint at the moment is the freaking beeping. :P There's a "HI" error that appears at least every hour or so that comes with beeping...and we have to go hit a button to make it stop every time. There's apparently no way to turn that off or at least silence the beeping. It's bad enough during the day...but it really sucks at night. Whenever the electricity flickers off...it also has an alert that will keep beeping every few seconds until you go hit a button. It's really, really aggravating for a person like me who hates noise. :P 

Other than that things are doing alright, though. Milo is starting to be more interested in the Litter Robot. He's still not actually using it...but he has been getting close to it and investigating it. I'm still leaving it turned off for the most part and then turning it on at least once a day to run a clean cycle. Today I turned it on and he was up here in the living room, heard the Litter Robot start to cycle...and then ran downstairs to go check it out. He didn't get close to it...but he did watch from inside the doorway. Leo will go the the bathroom in the Litter Robot occasionally but still uses the old litterbox too. It's about half and half for him. Angel still loves it and uses it exclusively, as far as I know. The only times I've seen her in the old litterbox is to bury the boys' poop when they don't cover it with litter after they're done. It's like she's cleaning up after the boys. LOL. ;) 

Work is still going well. Since I've felt so crappy...I haven't worked on many new designs lately. I still have some more custom letter name ones that I want to get listed. They're the ones where there are individual graphics for each letter. I've had quite a few orders for the ones I have listed so far. I've also been busy with some party stuff for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party next month. Mom has been coming over and we've been working on invitation stuff. So that's always fun. 

Ooh and I have a new exercise bike being delivered today! I'm excited for that. I like that it folds up so we can keep it out of the way when we're not using it. And it's supposed to be quiet, too, so that's good. 

Johnny and I are watching Season 2 of Night Agent. I forgot that's another show we started watching last year that we liked. We're almost halfway through now. We usually watch one episode a night during dinner...sometimes two. And then I also started watching Killing Eve. I really just have it playing in the background while I'm working so I only catch bits and pieces, but it's interesting. 

Well...I've got some work to do. Hope everyone is having a good 2025 so far!

2024 Year in Review

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

1. What age did you turn in 2024? 43

2. What was your relationship status in 2024? Johnny and I celebrated our 7th year of marriage and 12 years together! And we've been in love with each other for 19 years now! 

3. Did you move in 2024? Nope. I've been living here for almost 11 years now and Johnny has lived here for 18 years!

4. Did you purchase a new vehicle in 2024? Nope. It's lasted 5 years so far...hopefully it'll last quite a few more! Johnny is wanting to trade it in for something else, though. 

5. Did you add any new family members in 2024? Nope. Although Aubry and Ashlyn's boyfriends were introduced to the rest of the family this year. I made a rule a long time ago that boyfriends don't come to family functions/holidays unless they've been around for a year...because I don't want a lot of random guys coming and going. 

6. Did you lose any family members in 2024? Unfortunately. :( My Uncle Billy died in August. He was a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy for over 20 years and served in Desert Storm. He had been in California since I was young, but we remained very close over the years. Then he moved back to Kansas a few years after he retired. I was really glad that my kids were able to meet him. My stepdaughter lost her husband and 11-year-old stepson in September due to a wrong-way driver on the highway. :( And my good friend, Micki, passed away in December. She was one of the sweetest, most generous people I've ever known. Everyone just loved to be around her because she could elevate the mood of the room with her humor. 

7. Did you have any school or work changes in 2024? In February, I added magnets to my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop and they've done really well. At first, my listing photos still showed the image of a hand holding a sticker...but in September I changed all my listing photos including the main listing photo which was now just the sticker design by itself. I also included the words "Sticker or Magnet" and that 3 sizes are available and I think that's made a huge difference...I started getting a lot more magnet orders as soon as I made that change. Magnets are also a higher price point, so that's increased my income quite a bit since last year. I also offer custom text stickers and magnets which have been doing well. And in November I started adding some more custom name stickers/magnets that have gained some traction. I changed my CandiMakerTransfers Etsy shop into CandiMakerPlanners to sell sticker sheets this year, too. Originally I was selling them in my sticker shop, but it just felt more cluttered. Progress is slow with CMP though because I spend a lot more time working on CMS.

8. Did you travel anywhere in 2024? Nope. Maybe one of these days! 

9. Did you make any big purchases in 2024? Too many, actually! I'd already planned to get my new laptop in January...which is basically an updated version of my old laptop and works SO much better. And my sticker shop has done so well this year that my shop had already "paid off" that expense by the end of March. But then in April we had to replace our entire AC/furnace system (which was luckily paid for mostly by insurance since it was a failure as a result of a power surge). But then in August a storm blew down two sides of our fence. So we had to get that replaced. THEN we had to replace the refrigerator in October because our Samsung side-by-side refrigerator that we'd purchased in 2014 stopped cooling again. But we really like the new Frigidaire French door refrigerator. It feels like there's a lot more room. Apparently this was the year of replacing broken stuff. :P Hopefully that isn't repeated in 2025! Oh! And we got a Litter Robot 4 during Black Friday/Cyber Monday! It was my birthday present from Johnny. :) 

10. What was the best gift you received in 2024? Well aside from the Litter Robot...we got a new Carote White Granite set of pots and pans. I really love them so far...they're very non-stick so they're easy to clean. And it's nice having a complete set instead of a really old set (my previous set of pots and pans were from 2005) and some miscellaneous pieces thrown in. :P Johnny also got me some Sims4 games for Christmas. :) 

11. Did you learn any new skills in 2024? The only thing I can really think of is just making die-cut magnets...which isn't really a whole lot different from making my die-cut stickers. But I did figure out how to make both magnets and stickers on the same sheet of paper with my Cricut. :)

12. Did you redecorate in 2024? Not that I can really think of. I added more organization to my desk, but not really any "decor" stuff. 

13. Did you read any good books in 2024? Nope. Most of my time is spent on CandiMaker things and I just never make time for reading unless I'm waiting somewhere. I always have at least one book in my purse all the time in case I have a long wait for an appointment or when I had jury duty. I keep "collecting" books...so maybe one of these days I'll get around to actually reading them! I do read really fast...so most of the time when I do sit down to purposely read a book, I usually finish it in a day or two. Maybe I'll try to start setting aside some time for reading this year. :) 

14. Did you see any good movies in 2024? We watched Damsel, The Painter, The Beekeeper, Carry On...those were the only ones I can remember that Johnny and I watched together. Oh and he also watched a couple Kiefer Sutherland movies with me: Forsaken and Behind the Red Door. We usually watch more TV shows than movies. 

15. What TV shows were your favorite in 2024? Reacher is probably my top favorite. I can't wait for Season 3 on February 20th! I was also excited for Season 6 of Virgin River that came out on December 19th. I really like a lot of TV shows...and it's kind of "our thing" to watch episodes while we we're eating dinner. Shows that Johnny and I started watching together this year: Tracker, Tulsa King, Rabbit Hole, Once Upon a Time, Secrets & Lies, Black Doves, and The Terminal List (we haven't finished that one yet). Shows I watched on my own: The Killing and High Potential. Shows we still watch together: NCIS, SVU, and Organized Crime. We've watched a lot of stand-up comedian specials, too. Oh and I've watched a lot of documentaries (true crime and cults are my favorite subjects). 

16. What things did you do in 2024 that you'd never done before? Dealt with the dogs getting sprayed by a skunk...twice! That was NOT fun! We've had skunks around here a lot, but in the 11 years that I've lived here with dogs, we've never actually had any get sprayed...until this summer. I also discovered that the strong skunk smell triggers my trigeminal neuralgia which makes it even worse. :( 

17. What do you wish you'd done more of in 2024? Probably slept, honestly. LOL. I tend to work late a lot of nights because the dogs are usually more calm when it's quiet outside. So that's when I tend to be more productive. I try to go to bed no later than 2:30am, but sometimes I get in a groove and get to sleep later than that. :P But since Johnny doesn't have to start work until 10:30am, I'm able to sleep in. So that helps. 

18. What were you proud of in 2024? For me personally, I'm proud of how things are going with CandiMaker. My original goal for the year was to hit 1000 sales in my sticker shop...which I reached in July. Then I hit 1800 sales in December! My revenue for 2024 is up over 300% from my revenue in 2023. So I'm really proud of my progress. Since the second half of 2024, I'm making about the same amount of money I was back when I was working a part-time job outside of the home. And then my kids... Ashlyn finished school at WSU Tech in composite fabrication and Aubry got a crew lead position at work. She's been working for the defense section of a large aircraft company since getting her sheet metal assembly certificate from WSU Tech in 2022. 

19. What was the one defining moment of 2024? I would say probably the end of our bankruptcy! We'd filed Chapter 13 back in 2019 after we'd fallen behind when Johnny was having some medical issues. It was a pretty big chunk of money that was taken out of each of Johnny's paychecks. So it's definitely a relief to have that out of the way. Oh! And his student loans were also forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program back in April...so that was a weight off his shoulders as well. 

20. How would you describe 2024 in three words? Loving, productive, and expensive. :P

And now for some 2025 questions... 

1. What did you NOT have in 2024 that you would like to have in 2025? Hm...probably full-time income from CandiMaker! :) But if not in 2025, hopefully I'll at least get there before Johnny retires. 

2. What skills do you want to learn or improve in 2025? It's not really a "skill" but I want to improve my magnetic bookmarks to start selling them again. I'd sold them early on, but I want to find better cardstock/laminate combination that holds up to heavy use without peeling. So I plan to work on that.

3. What do you want to do more of in 2025? Aside from work stuff, I do want to get the stationary bike from my mom's house and exercise more. Perimenopause has been BLAH and between that and all my back and joint pain from hEDS, I want to start with the lowest impact option. I'd swim, but we don't have a pool and I don't want to go anywhere to swim. :P So I'm going to start with the bike. I think mom and I are going to start walking the dogs together once a week or something, too. 

4. What do you want to buy in 2025? Split king mattresses! We have a king size adjustable bed, but Johnny and I have very different sleep positions. But...we need to bring in a lot of dirt for the low spots in the yard first and get some other things done around the house...so we'll see. 

5. What is your number one goal for 2025? I've written pretty vague goals the last several years...so my specific goal for 2025 is to reach 3500 sales in my CandiMakerStickers shop. :) 
And maybe this year I'll make a goal of reading 12 books this year (at least one a month)...but we'll see how that goes. ;) 

Almost Christmas?!

This year has gone by so fast! 

On the 14th, we went to my sister's house to celebrate Christmas. She got Johnny a new Yeti coffee cup and I got a cool set of mixing bowls. My dad also got Johnny (all the boys, actually) a hair trimmer... which was good because I was actually planning to buy Johnny a new one. LOL. Oh, and mom also got me sone Hallmark miniature ornaments for my little wooden tree. :) The girls were spoiled too. 

Ashlyn has been sick this weekend...so hopefully she'll be feeling better by Wednesday. I think she's calling the doctor today to see if she can get an appointment before the holiday. So we'll see how that goes. And Aubry is off work until the 2nd. Johnny only has Christmas Day and New Years Day off. :( 

Work has slowed down for me now that we're getting closer to the holiday. For about three weeks I was super busy and getting about 50 orders a week. Last week it dropped down to 30 orders. I've gotten 141 orders so far for December with more than a week still left to go...which already beats my previous record of 137 in July 2024. 

I'm enjoying a little more downtime right now. I got several Sims4 packs from Johnny for Christmas, so I've enjoyed playing around with that. I love building houses on there. :) 

The Litter Robot is going...slowly. Angel LOVES it. She uses it all the time. She also likes to go in and watch it turn to dump it out. If she stands on the step, it stops turning. Leo has also used it several times. However, despite being the very first one to use it (before I actually turned it on), Milo is scared of it. He's scared to the point that he is nervous even going into the cat room. So I've been trying to work with him and I still have their old litterbox down there. It doesn't get used as often as it did, though. 

Oh! And I watched Season 6 of Virgin River! I watched one episode before I went to bed early Thursday morning and then watched the other 9 episodes throughout the day. It was pretty good...but has a big cliffhanger at the end. It moved a little slow at times...and the most interesting and pivotal moments from the entire season all happened in the last 7 minutes. :P It's been picked up for Season 7...and I really hope we don't have to wait all the way until December to watch it. 

And the rest of our shows are on hiatus...so we'll have to find some other stuff to watch. Nate Bargatze has a special has another Netflix special on Tuesday, so we're excited to watch that. No idea what else we'll be watching. 

Well...I should probably head to bed. I hope everyone has a merry Christmas! 

Over already?!

I thought I'd posted again in October...but apparently not. And now October is already over! It's hard to believe it's already November...soon the year will be over. Right now I'm just ready for this dang election to be over. I used to love politics. I loved learning about all the candidates and debating the issues. I was in middle school arguing with adults on AOL message boards about politics. I wanted to BE a politician until I realized it was mostly BS lobbying instead of just working to make the world a better place. Well...that and in high school I realized during a very unfortunate student council election that I have a fear of public speaking. :P lol. But now? Just get rid of this shitshow. I'm over it. I still have very strong opinions about the issues...but I'm just so exhausted by all the lies and conspiracy theories. I'm a person who shows up with receipts. I'll show you exactly where I got the numbers from and cite my sources for information...I believe in transparency and FACTUAL information. But people out there are clinging to confirmation bias like it's a security blanket. And I just really, really don't like the direction some people are wanting to take this country and their inability to see the writing on the wall. But...I digress. 

So anyway... still loving the new fridge! It definitely feels like we have a lot more room than the old fridge. I like having two doors that open when we have casserole dishes going in and out of the fridge or large pizza boxes. And it's so nice having a working ice maker again...as well as a working fridge in general! LOL. But all three of us (me, Aubry, and Johnny) have randomly said "I really like this new fridge" a few times. We did spend a little more than we were originally planning to when we were considering just replacing our old fridge with another side-by-side fridge. The French door was a bit more expensive...but I like it a lot better. And the weekend after getting the new fridge, Johnny and I were able to get the old fridge out of the kitchen ourselves. We took off the doors and that made a big difference in weight...so it was a lot easier to manage. We ended up putting it in the garage for now. I'm not sure what we'll ultimately end up doing with it, but I'm just glad that it's out of the kitchen. :P 

We celebrated my birthday last weekend. We went to Village Inn for dinner with my mom, my grandparents, Aubry and her boyfriend (Ashlyn and her boyfriend already had plans). We were talking about getting ready to leave when the waitress ended up bringing Johnny another iced tea. Grandma said something about getting a to-go cup, but Johnny said he'd just drink it really fast. While Johnny was drinking it, Grandpa made the comment that the tea looked weak, and Johnny started to laugh but he had a mouthful of tea so he had to stop himself and hold the tea in his mouth so he didn't spit it out at Grandpa who was sitting across from him. Johnny made a comment about almost spitting out his tea at Grandpa and then Grandpa said he was just making an observation and started laughing *so hard* that he was crying. He took off his glasses and covered his face with his hands...I don't think I'd ever seen him laugh so hard in my life. And of course we all started laughing, because it's one of those things where it's just contagious. We all laughed so hard for probably a good five straight minutes. It was so funny. Definitely makes for a good birthday memory. :)

Then after dinner, we went over to my grandparents' house to play Hand and Foot. Aubry had a Halloween party to go to so it was just my grandparents, mom, then me and Johnny. We had an odd number of people so we couldn't play teams like we usually do. So we played individually with 5 people, which we'd never done before. It ended up taking longer to play, but it was pretty fun. There were actually two rounds where I had a book of deuces (which are wild cards)...the first was a clean book and the second was a dirty book (dirty has jokers). It wasn't intentional either time...I just kept drawing them and didn't have enough regular cards to match them with. But the bad thing is that BOTH of those hands...someone else went out before I was able to get into my foot. :P So while I got a lot of points for the book of deuces, all the cards I had left in my hand subtracted a lot of points, too. :P I ended up finishing exactly in the middle. My grandpa was first, Johnny beat me by FIVE POINTS, then mom, and then Grandma came in last. It was a fun night though. It was actually 10:30pm by the time Johnny and I got in the car to home. The dogs were definitely excited when we got home! Bozley has quite a bit of separation anxiety so he really whines and cries and freaks out when we get home. Nova gets excited too...but I also think she was wanting us to hurry up and give her dinner. ;) 

Work has been going well! Last night before I went to bed, I updated my spreadsheets for the month of October. Each month I make sure I have all my receipts entered and update my Profit/Loss worksheet for the month. October 2024 has been my highest monthly profit since opening CandiMaker by more than $300. It wasn't my month of highest orders (I had 137 in July and only 105 in October) but my profit in October was more than $385 higher than July. Part of that is customers making orders with larger quantities. In July, I had several orders with 4, 5, and one order with 6 stickers...but in October I had one order each with a quantity of 15, 20, 25, and 50. Each of those orders except the one with 15 stickers only count as one "sale" in my shop since they ordered that quantity of the same item, but they definitely increased the profit of those orders. The order of 25 was actually for 4" magnets! I think I mentioned this before, but I'm getting a lot more magnet sales now that I've changed my listing photos to say "sticker or magnet" on the main listing photo...and they have a higher price point than my stickers. Oh! And I also got my first bestseller in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop! I noticed today that my spreadsheet design had the bestseller badge on it. :) That's always nice to see. 

I'm also excited about more product ideas that I am working on. I have a couple ideas for both my sticker shop as well as my planner shop. And on that note...I'm gonna get back to work! :)