Mid-June Update!

Almost halfway through June so I thought I'd post an update...because I had a particularly great day yesterday! :) 

First, this month marks THREE YEARS that I've been running CandiMaker! I opened CandiMakerDesigns (CMD) Etsy shop in June 2021 selling sublimation digital designs. I enjoyed sublimation, but the upfront costs associated with buying blanks for all the things I wanted to make wasn't really within my budget. I had one digital design that did particularly well (my "He is Risen" Easter design) and I even got a bestseller badge for it, but I was getting burnt out fast. I also opened my CandiMakerTransfers (CMT) Etsy shop in October 2022. I offered some pre-designed sublimation transfers, but I really enjoyed printing custom transfers for customers and it brought in several large orders. 

I decided to change up my business plan. I became more interested in sticker making and I started looking into and testing products in August 2022. Then on National Sticker Day in January 2023, I opened my CandiMakerStickers Etsy Shop! I enjoyed it so much and it was going so well...in June 2023, I closed down CMT and then in November 2023, I closed down CMD. I knew I wasn't going to want to go back to sublimation at all. My family even switched around printers so that my sister got my sublimation printer since she was still doing sublimation, my mom got my original smaller sticker printer, and I got a new large printer for my stickers. 

In October 2023, I became a wholesaler on Faire. I got my first order in November and that was really exciting. It's been pretty slow over there since, though. But admittedly, I haven't spent a lot of time on it. I need to add more of my recent designs. I expanded to add my stickers on eBay in December 2023. I'm still working on adding the rest of my designs on there, too. It's been a slow process adding them, but I do get orders each month on eBay. 

I ended 2023 with 442 sales in my Etsy sticker shop. Sales on Etsy are how many listing variations are purchased in each order (so it doesn't include multiple quantities of the same item). I did have several orders where a customer would order 10-25 of the same sticker...those were exciting orders. :) The day with the highest number of sales in 2023 was November 23rd with 16 sales. The month with the highest number of sales was December with 66. Then from my calendar which covers all my sales channels, the month that the highest number of orders was December with 52 orders. And the most orders in one week was the week of December 10-16 when I had 18 orders. My record for most orders in one day for 2023 was five. 

I added Magnets to CandiMakerStickers in February 2024 and they've been a big hit! I also decided to repurpose my CMT shop into CandiMakerPlanners in April. I decided that I didn't want my sticker sheets to overshadow my die-cut stickers so I wanted to separated them out. It's been pretty show at CMP, but I did get my first sale for some new sticker sheets last week. :) I also plan to add more planner products in the future as well, including planner covers. I think I will eventually reopen CandiMakerDesigns again in the future with different products, but I haven't decided exactly what I want to do yet. Right now, I'm really enjoying the success of CandiMakerStickers. :) My Chronic Illness stickers are definitely my bestselling stickers by far...but I do sell a pretty wide variety of my other stickers as well. I really, really love coming up with new design ideas. :) 

But...2024 has been very successful! As of yesterday, I already have 448 sales in my Etsy sticker shop...6 more than I had in all of 2023! I surpassed my previous record for daily sales of 16...I had 18 sales yesterday! My highest daily orders for all sales channels in 2023 was 5...then for 2024 I had 6 orders for the first time on February 26th, 7 on March 31st, and then yesterday I had 9 orders! :) My goal for 2024 was to hit 1000 sales...we're not even halfway through the year yet and today I'm already at 892 sales! 

I'm very excited about the progress of CandiMaker! :) 

RECIPE: Strawberry Jell-o Cookies

I've been craving something sweet. So last night at like 11pm I went through the cabinets to see what kind of ingredients we had and I found a box of strawberry Jell-o. I didn't feel like actual Jell-o, but I wondered what cookies would taste like made from it. So...I came up with this! When I took them out of the oven I was like...wait, I remember this smell! They smell exactly like Frankenberry cereal...and taste a lot like it, too! 

Strawberry Jell-o Cookies 

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening 
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 6oz package of strawberry Jell-o
1 tsp vanilla 

1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar for rolling

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 
Mix eggs, butter, shortening, brown sugar, Jell-o, and vanilla. 
In a separate bowl, whisk together salt, flour, baking soda, and flour
Gradually add flour mixture 1 cup at a time and mix well.

Remove dough and roll about 1 tbs of dough into a ball then roll it in the sugar and set on the baking sheet. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to sit on the pan to continue cooking for at least 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

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RECIPE: Sloppy Joes & Cheese Peas

This is a recipe from my childhood...this is how my mom has always made it. I just finally got around to actually measuring ingredients this time. :P  Usually I just dump some in and go. They're SUPER easy to make and they taste delicious!

Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:

3 lb ground beef
1.5 cups ketchup
1 tbs dried onion

Directions: 

1. Brown hamburger and drain. 
2. Return hamburger to pan. Combine ketchup and dried onion with hamburger and stir. 
3. Simmer until heated through. 

Cheese Peas

Ingredients:

1 can young sweet peas, drained
1 pouch Velveeta cheese sauce

Directions: 

1. Pour peas into microwave-safe bowl. 
2. Pour Velveeta cheese sauce on top of peas. 
3. Heat peas in microwave for 2 minutes. Stir. 
4. Heat peas in microwave for 1 minute. Stir and serve. 

And that's it! Super easy! 

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RECIPE: Lazy Lasagna

This recipe is a lot like my Baked Rotini. I actually just modified it to be even easier...thus the name. ;) The amounts in this recipe actually fill both of these Pyrex baking dishes. I bake the small one the first night and then I put the big pan in the refrigerator and bake it for leftovers. You could adjust the ingredients to fit in one pan, though. It's also a great option for something like meal trains when you're wanting to provide a meal for someone. All they have to do is heat it up in the oven until the cheese melts. I forgot to take a picture, so I'll have to do that next time. :P 

Lazy Lasagna 

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
24 oz sour cream
2 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated parmesan
12oz mini bow-tie (farfalle) pasta
1 jar Prego Roasted Garlic & Herb
1 jar Prego Fresh Musroom
4 cups shredded Italian blend cheese 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 
2. Prepare pasta according to package.
3. Brown hamburger and drain. Return to pan and mix with both jars of spaghetti sauce.
4. In a mixing bowl combine sour cream, mozzarella, and parmesan.
5. In the baking dish (es), spread a layer of meat sauce along the bottom of the pan. 
6. Spread all the cooked pasta over the meat sauce in the pan. 
7. Spread the sour cream and cheese mixture over the pasta. I spoon into dollops and then spread it out with a spatula. 
8. Pour the rest of the meat sauce over the sour cream and cheese mixture. Carefully spread it out with a spatula so it covers the entire pan. 
9. Sprinkle the Italian blend shredded cheese over the top. 
10. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese on top is melted. 

Stormy May Weather

So far May has been pretty stormy. It hasn't been bad...just some rain, thunder and lightning, and a little bit of wind. We were actually in a "particularly dangerous situation" tornado watch yesterday as they were predicting large hail and tornados in our area. Some schools and businesses in our area even closed early because the PDS is generally a rare situation. But...we didn't even get any rain except for misty sprinkles off and on throughout the day. They kept pushing back the start time...first 4pm, then 6pm...but the line of storms split as they came near us so it all was all to the north and south of us moving northeast. Lots of people were like, "but it could still happen!" I mean, anything COULD happen...but it was highly unlikely since the line of storms had already moved past us. 

Honestly...it happens a lot. There are legends that say it's because of the rivers and/or the Native Americans originally here which have protected the area...but I don't really know much about it. But 9/10 times whenever they predict any kind of really bad weather (snow, tornados, whatever), it doesn't happen anywhere near as bad as what they were predicting. That's not to say it can't happen...but the number of times we've watched a storm die out before it got here or went around us has been VERY frequent. In the last 10+ years that I've lived here with Johnny...I only remember hearing the tornado sirens going off twice, I think. They used to go off all the time when I was a kid...but that's because they would sound if there was a tornado anywhere in the county so people started largely ignoring the sirens because it didn't mean there was an actual threat in their immediate area. I don't remember when they made the decision to make them more area-specific, but I think it was a good idea. 

The weather caused some issues with air travel. Johnny's brother was in town for his high school reunion. He'd stopped by on Sunday to hang out for a little while and pick up a few things for their mom. Then that evening, they went out to eat at a sports bar in town. They had a really good time. But his brother's flight ended up being delayed and then finally canceled. The passengers were put up in a hotel overnight, but then the flight today was canceled and there were issues with making the connecting flight. So it was all a mess.  

In other news, I made it to 750 sales in my Etsy shop exactly 2 weeks after I'd hit 700 sales! :) I'm pleased with the growth of my shop...especially when compared to last year. It's also pretty good considering I don't do a whole lot of promoting of my shop. Every once in awhile I post a TikTok video if I think about it. I do post comments sometimes when there's a post in the Ehlers-Danlos Memes FB group that matches pretty close with one of my stickers. Most of my traffic (almost 90% this year and 75% last year) comes directly from Etsy searches and SEO. 

That's about all I can think of for now. This week seems to be going by SO slow! I'm ready for the weekend! :P