Yesterday J completed (in record time I might add) all of his beginning of the year training and re-certifications. SOOO, what that means is, he can FINALLY start his new schedule!
You guys have no idea how happy this make us. Finally, after years of dealing with crappy schedules, he finally has hours that can be considered "normal". No, he still doesn't have weekends off, but the hours are good. This means that when I get up with him in the morning I can stay up for the rest of the day and not continue sleeping in two shifts. This means that I can have dinner cooked when he walks in the door so we can sit down, eat dinner together (something that hasn't always been possible due to bad schedules) and still have the evening for ourselves. This means having a pretty normal life now. :-) Well...as normal as normal gets for us anyway. LOL
But, the BIGGEST and the BEST news of all is that J is graduating soon!!!!!!!! His very last class is on Saturday, January 29th and he will be finished with his degree! That's just 6 days away! When he first started back to school this seemed like a never ending road. Between school and work I knew that things would be tough and couldn't imagine it coming to an end quickly. And while it was a tough road a lot of times, it also seems to have flown by. So many times J has started back to college only to be derailed each time by something or another. Every time he was more disappointed so when he started school this time I told him that no matter what, he would make it through. I would be sure of that. Even though I couldn't do the work for him, I would offer him the one thing he'd been lacking prior. Support. And I gave that to him. I've done as much on my own as I could to allow him time for his homework and studying and I always put his school work first. I know I may sound like I'm bragging here, I'm not. It's been tough on both of us and this is a big moment that we've both worked hard to get to. But it goes without saying that J did the majority of the heavy lifting through this. Not only did he deal with work, his home life and school, but he managed all of it AND a 4.0 GPA to boot! You guys have NO idea how proud I am of him and this accomplishment! So next weekend (our weekend, not the actual weekend) I plan on taking him out to celebrate! He deserves that and so much more for all of his hard work!
I love you, J! And I am so proud of you I could burst! Thank you for everything that you do for us, you are a wonderful man and I couldn't have asked for a better person to share my life with. :-)
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Keeping busy with crafts
Sorry it's been so long since I've written, but life has been busier than normal! I really thought that things would slow down once Christmas was over as far as crafting goes, but in truth there is no rest for the weary. Wedding season is fast approaching which means that bride-to-be's are already busy shopping for all of their wedding necessities. I've been working on tiaras again (making only my best sellers for now) and will have those listed soon.
In the meanwhile though I've realized that NOW is the time to really work on building up and promoting my Etsy.com and ArtFire.com shops. I've been selling my crafts on Etsy, through craft fairs and other venues for some time now and while I've always sold enough to replenish supplies and keep my work going, I've never sold enough to justify putting further time and expense into it. Until now. Christmas was a GREAT selling season for me! Every single day I was shipping out orders. I'd work throughout the day creating new products and spend part of my nights setting up shipments. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it because it gave me both the financial boost as well as the confidence boost I needed to go a few steps further in selling.
Today I set up a Facebook page to promote my items via my Etsy and ArtFire pages. I added a badge to my blog here so that you can link directly to the page and soon I hope to start doing advertising. Advertising is a big step though, so first I'll continue to work, work, work and build up my shop even more before taking that route. ;-)
Here are the links directly to my Etsy and ArtFire pages. The link to FB can be found just to the right of my blog posts. ;-)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/DesignsByElle
http://www.artfire.com/users/DesignsByElle
Enjoy and Happy Shopping!
In the meanwhile though I've realized that NOW is the time to really work on building up and promoting my Etsy.com and ArtFire.com shops. I've been selling my crafts on Etsy, through craft fairs and other venues for some time now and while I've always sold enough to replenish supplies and keep my work going, I've never sold enough to justify putting further time and expense into it. Until now. Christmas was a GREAT selling season for me! Every single day I was shipping out orders. I'd work throughout the day creating new products and spend part of my nights setting up shipments. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it because it gave me both the financial boost as well as the confidence boost I needed to go a few steps further in selling.
Today I set up a Facebook page to promote my items via my Etsy and ArtFire pages. I added a badge to my blog here so that you can link directly to the page and soon I hope to start doing advertising. Advertising is a big step though, so first I'll continue to work, work, work and build up my shop even more before taking that route. ;-)
Here are the links directly to my Etsy and ArtFire pages. The link to FB can be found just to the right of my blog posts. ;-)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/DesignsByElle
http://www.artfire.com/users/DesignsByElle
Enjoy and Happy Shopping!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Reality is setting in...
Well we stuck with our plan to start right after Christmas with packing up the non-essentials, etc. around the house. We have less than a month until J graduates and not a clue yet as to when we'll be leaving, if we'll be leaving or where (for sure) we'll be leaving to. Naturally our goal is to get moved back home to where our family and friends are, but only God knows at this point if that's our destination. (I'm praying like crazy that it is! LOL)
So along with packing up Christmas decorations, our lesser used kitchen items, books, memorabilia and such things that we can live without for a while, we've started doing leg work in the "finding work" and "finding a place to live" realm. I knew that when I started packing up stuff in the house that reality would set in that we really ARE going to be moving and that the opportunity to get home...or at least closer to home...was getting close. I had no idea though how much it would smack me in the face though once job and housing searches were under way! LOL I'm serious, it was like those stupid Tums commercials where the food starts smacking people in the face. I felt like the internet and my computer were doing the same! Don't get me wrong, the excitement of being home and being around our family and friends is THRILLING and I can't wait for that! But the logistics of this scares the bejesus out of me. LOL
But instead of sitting here with a roller coaster ride of a stomach and a headache developing out of my thoughts of finances, I'm going to use these feelings as motivation to get THAT much more packed up. THAT much more organized. THAT much more settled here, in order to make getting there THAT much easier.
So I ask that if you are a praying person to please say prayers that all goes well and that God has it in his plans to get us back home. And if you're not a praying person, well then good thoughts being sent out into the universe would also be appreciated. ;-)
So along with packing up Christmas decorations, our lesser used kitchen items, books, memorabilia and such things that we can live without for a while, we've started doing leg work in the "finding work" and "finding a place to live" realm. I knew that when I started packing up stuff in the house that reality would set in that we really ARE going to be moving and that the opportunity to get home...or at least closer to home...was getting close. I had no idea though how much it would smack me in the face though once job and housing searches were under way! LOL I'm serious, it was like those stupid Tums commercials where the food starts smacking people in the face. I felt like the internet and my computer were doing the same! Don't get me wrong, the excitement of being home and being around our family and friends is THRILLING and I can't wait for that! But the logistics of this scares the bejesus out of me. LOL
But instead of sitting here with a roller coaster ride of a stomach and a headache developing out of my thoughts of finances, I'm going to use these feelings as motivation to get THAT much more packed up. THAT much more organized. THAT much more settled here, in order to make getting there THAT much easier.
So I ask that if you are a praying person to please say prayers that all goes well and that God has it in his plans to get us back home. And if you're not a praying person, well then good thoughts being sent out into the universe would also be appreciated. ;-)
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