Renewing Copout

I have been very lacking in time these days, and energy. My husband moves in a week to be 4 hours away at his new job until we sell our house. I've been trying to sort, organize, keep the house clean and do minor home repairs but things take so much more time and energy with two little ones. The last time we moved my oldest was 8 months old and we moved all at once, it was easier. Now their are two of them and both are old enough to tear up a room the second I turn my back.

I was so excited to come up with some fantastic Valentine's ideas to sell on Etsy and instead have made the Etsy renew feature my best friend. This feature allows you to take an item you already have listed in your shop and extend it's expiration date. When you do this it goes to the top of search lists again and gives you more exposure, just like listing brand new items, only I feel like I'm cheating! I had planned on doing it anyway, while listing new items, so I could force all the unsold Christmas items to the bottom of my shop, but this feels so cheap. I'm going to go take a shower now to wash off the filth.

Delicious

My sister-in-law commissioned an Asian style mini album/journal in black, red and neutral for her little guy and here it is. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, so much so that I made a very similar one to post in my store sometime in the next few days. I was also excited because I got to use my Silhouette to make the bamboo frames and the dragon and lotus diecut pockets. Wouldn't this be super cute for someone adopting a baby from China?

NOTE: My shop The Beehive is now Papercut Kitchen! Please visit my shop Papercut Kitchen by clicking here.

Change is in the Air

And I am NOT a girl who is fond of change! As my husband likes to joke "I like my rut, I spent a long time on it, worked hard on it, I made this rut all by myself and I don't want to leave!" None the less God often has different plans for us than we have for ourselves and I am being torn from my rut. My husband has taken a youth director position in a town 4 hours away from where we live now (where I reside in my beautiful rut and planned to be forever). This change comes with many perks, probably the most important being my eviction from the aforementioned rut, as my good friend Stephanie pointed out last night. We will also get a large raise, insurance and retirement (the last two are very new concepts for us!). All this is huge seeing as though we have two little rugrats, both boys, who we fear will eat us out of house and home and have us very familiar with the emergency room staff as they enter their pre-teen years! We do have some prep time for that though since they're 2 and 3 right now. The new church is a large, beautiful church with a wonderful children's program and everyone we met when my husband interviewed was helpful and seemed down to earth. It will be very hard but I have a feeling it will also be very good. Atleast my little business is exclusively online, it goes wherever I go!

Punk Will Never Diecut

Oooh aahh, behold the power of the Silhouette...now I can sell diecut embellishments! And I don't have to spend hours cutting out skull and crossbones, snowflakes and other crazy embellishments by hand, like I was before. I thought my hand would fall off after making my snowflake ornaments by hand! This is one of two sets of diecuts currently in my store.

NOTE: My shop The Beehive is now Papercut Kitchen! Please visit my shop Papercut Kitchen by clicking here.