We Need a Little Christmas

"We need a little Christmas, right this very minute."

Yesterday, I alluded to feeling a bit under the weather emotionally, and I'm honestly not even sure why, but I didn't want to unpack anything since I look forward to November 1st every year.  Now that I've welcomed the holiday season with open arms, I thought that I'd unpack a little bit more of a life update today.

Eliot and I have been so busy.  We have been taking the whole work/life balance thing a lot more seriously, but that's meant we've had a lot of busy weekdays to account for taking some time for ourselves on the weekends.  The past few days, I've been 100% completely, overwhelmingly exhausted.  And I think it finally caught up to me.

I'm so glad that we've been carving out more time for our personal lives, but clearly we still haven't found the secret sauce.  Balance was my word of the year, and it continues to be on my mind while we work on keeping things more even keel.  However, even as tired as I am right now, I'm really glad that Eliot and I have made time for each other.

And we've still been moving ahead full steam with our businesses.  Last week, Eliot and I had a bunch of orders that needed to go out between our two shops.  Three of them were for 3 or more pairs of mouse ears.  Two of those included very detailed custom orders for our two best customers.  We usually stop taking custom orders in September, but since it was these two people with the requests, I was happy to accommodate them.  But it meant a lot of work leading up to finishing them since we did the actual 3D design, printing and assembling phases at warp speed.  We literally pulled these together from start to finish in under a week (for most of it) and I'm so proud of us.  But it was stressful... the most stressed I've been in a while actually.

Halloween night, I found out that one of the orders we worked so hard on, the third large one, was out in San Diego.  It was going to St. Louis.  That took pretty much all of the wind out of my sails.  It's going to a Wish Family.  They leave for their Wish Trip today... and the ears got lost.  Eliot and I did everything we could to get them mailed out in time, and USPS completely screwed the entire thing up.  I feel absolutely awful; I spent all of Halloween night fretting and beating myself up about it.  

I'd basically given up all hope... and then I woke up this morning to two messages in our shop.  The first one, was from the Wish Family saying that the ears were going to be delivered today!  Somehow, they had gotten checked into the local facility after I'd gone to bed.  And they turned around and got them out for delivery today.

It was a miracle... and for a split second, everything was right in the world.

Then, I opened the message from the other customer with a large order.  Hers didn't make it in time before she left.  I had checked on it Monday and it was supposed to be delivered on Tuesday at the latest.  And they lost that one out of nowhere.  It just disappeared from tracking.  I hadn't even checked to see if it was delivered yesterday since I was so confident that it would be ok.  This customer was going to the Wine and Dine races and two of her three ears were specifically made for this weekend's events.

Thankfully she wasn't upset since we knew we were pushing the limits of time, but I was still crushed about it.  She's been a wonderful customer of ours and Eliot and I both love working on designs with her.  I felt awful that things didn't work out this time.  

I'm glad that two of our three our large orders made it where they needed to on time, but two of them also had problems "disappearing" in the USPS system.  Once the packages leave our hands, there's nothing we can do.  I feel so helpless.  I'm going back over all of the previous weeks and wishing that I'd told Eliot to work on the renderings sooner.  Wishing that I'd pestered him more.  Wishing that we'd gotten everything done a few days earlier.  In the end, we got them to the post office with plenty of time for USPS to get them to their final destination, but I still can't help feeling like we could have done more.  Sometimes running a small business really sucks.

But I know that I have to pick myself back up and keep moving forward... 

Overall, things with our businesses have been going pretty well.  Like I said earlier, Eliot and I have struck more of a balance the past two months with having a life and still running our businesses.  It's still not perfect.  We've gotten behind on a few things, but we're also sending out a bunch of orders ahead of time.

The really good news is that we're ahead on our print schedule.  We have got a few Happily Ever Hatter orders that have to go out in the next few days for customers who have Disney trips next week, but we literally have one thing that needs to go out for Snowblade Creations this week because we've worked so hard to get ahead.

The better news is that Eliot and I both keep coming up with more business and product ideas.  Last Tuesday, I rode into town after my sewing class to meet up with Eliot for lunch and to run a few errands.  We spent the entire lunch sitting in a booth in Panera Bread with him animatedly discussing a new business idea he had and how awesome it was.  (Ironically, it's the same exact idea that I had a few months ago, but he's got his own spin to put on it.)  We're still trying to find balance in our lives, and there are a lot of ways we can have other shops that don't require as much hands on attention from us... so we're trying to diversify our businesses and sources of income. 

Since then, I've also thought of a few more new products for Happily Ever Hatter.  I've found more inspiration online.  I've had a few more sleepless nights or mornings where I say up late or wake up early and find myself pouring over Pinterest and Etsy.  I'll get an idea, then I'll research it on both to see if anyone else has thought of something similar.  I've got a few ideas that I don't think anyone else would be crazy enough to even think of... but here I am- adding them to my endless stash of inspiration notes.

As you can see, it's been a mixed bag the past few weeks.  I suppose that it's no wonder I'm so tired.  In the past two months, we've been to California twice, gone to four hockey games, gone to Disneyland, Hollywood and the D23 Expo, and we've also kept busy with our two Etsy businesses and trying to find time to relax.

Right now, I'm trying to switch gears to holiday mode.  I've only got about a week or so to get myself rested up so I can be ready for the holiday rush and whatever that might entail this year.  I'm also trying to find a little bit of that Christmas magic to put myself in the right headspace and prepare myself for the next wave of absolute craziness. 

"We need a little Christmas now..."  °o°

Reflecting on Four Years of Being Self-Employed

It's hard to believe that it has already been four years since I left my job to work from home full time.  This is also the point where I have officially been working from home as long as I was at my job, and longer than I worked at my previous job (3.5 years).

I've done a little bit of self-reflecting and I have a lot of mixed feelings about it... 

Before I say anything else, I need to state that I'm so proud of our accomplishments.  

I'm so proud of how much Snowblade Creations has grown since we pivoted and really started pushing to make desk accessories in 2020.  I'm so proud of how well the businesses are doing now after all of the struggles of the past few years and COVID.

I'm so proud of how Eliot and I handled COVID and our small businesses.  It would have been really easy to throw in the towel when things looked bleak.  When the parks were closed, we were down in our Happily Ever Hatter sales a lot.  I was nervous since this is my full time job.  I didn't know if we should hit pause while I got something to tide us over, or if we should just hold tight.  Eliot and I both agreed that we should hold tight and see how things went.  We didn't panic, we continued to work hard, we added more items to both shops, and we stayed the course... and our businesses bounced back.

In my moments of reflection, I also found some points of disappointment.

I'm disappointed that Eliot and I still haven't launched our home decor line yet.  We have a laser cutter sitting in our basement that we've only used a few times.  Granted, we need to learn how to use it.  We have big plans and ideas for what we want to do with it.  But we need to find the time to learn how to use it to accomplish those ideas.

I'm also disappointed that I haven't launched my clothing line.  This is beginning to be a joke... I've talked about it for years but I've struggled to take the plunge.  I have some new ideas of ways to get myself to jump off of the end of the diving block though.  So hopefully this will be something I can dive into sooner than later.

Finally, I'm also a little bit disappointed that we haven't expanded Happily Ever Hatter's product line more.  I have so many ideas, and I think that's part of the problem.  Eliot and I don't have the capital to do all of them at once, so we've got to focus on one thing and see how that goes.  The hair clips were not as successful as we had hoped they'd be, but I have a lot of other ideas that I think will be great additions to the shop!

The most exciting thing for me is how inspired I am.  Being home full time has allowed me the time and space to explore things I wouldn't be able to at a "normal" job.  If I think of something in the middle of the day, I can stop what I'm doing and brainstorm, research and flesh it out.  These are my favorite days... hours can pass with me on my phone or laptop while the gears in my head are spinning almost out of control.

In fact, I think I have more ideas flowing through me right now than I have in the past four years.  I've got a few new business ideas that I'm kicking around and I'm hoping to dive into a few of those, as well as the clothing line, in the next few months.  

Winter tends to be quiet (sales-wise) after the holiday rush, so I'm hoping to use that to my advantage to get caught up with business stuff, ahead on other stuff, and to get my supplies organized.  Once I'm a little more organized, I'll be able to tackle some of these new business ideas, and make some new products for Happily Ever Hatter.  

Hopefully Spring of 2023 will be full of new products and surprises!

As you can see, there are so many thoughts bouncing around my brain right now.  But the overwhelming sense I'm feeling is that I'm proud that I believed in myself enough to take the risk.  I'm proud that we could do this.  I'm grateful to have a husband, family and friends who support me.  And I'm forever thankful for every one of our followers, supporters, and customers... because without them, none of this would be possible.

Make a wish, and do as dreamers do... and all our wishes, will come true.  °o°

The Next Chapter Begins...

Hello Everyone!  I have very exciting news to share with you!  After much deliberation, Eliot and I have decided that it's time for me to begin a new chapter in our lives.  I am leaving my job and I will be running Happily Ever Hatter (and our new businesses!) full time!  This has not been an easy decision, and it's been one that I've been struggling with for some time now.  We finally made the decision back in June, and I've been dying to make the announcement here on my blog.

Yesterday, I went into work for my last official day seeing our patients.  I still have to go in a few days next week (while the office is closed for vacation) to tie up loose ends, finish training my replacement, and to clean out my stuff... then, I'll be home full time.  

I have absolutely loved working at the chiropractic office these last four years.  The doctors I have worked with are all an inspiration.  Their passion for chiropractic and our patients never ceases to amaze me.  Working with them has been a privilege.  And what can I say about our patients other than that they're incredible.  It's been really hard saying goodbye to everyone.  I've gotten a lot of hugs and tons of well wishes and it's so encouraging to hear how proud they are of me to be going after my dreams.

To be totally honest, the past few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions for me.  I'm so excited about this new chapter in my life, but I'm also terrified at the same time.  Being fully self-employed can be freeing, but it's also a little overwhelming.

This feels right though.  I always knew that I wanted to run my creative businesses full time.  My parents run their own accounting business, and both sets of my grandparents ran their own businesses too.  I've always said that running my own business(es) is in my blood.  I've never pictured myself doing anything else long term.  This has always been my eventual goal.  It just came a lot sooner than I ever imagined.

It's been a year and a half since 3D printed ears became a big business and our shop, Happily Ever Hatter, has kept us so busy.  Eliot and I have barely had time to stop and smell the roses.  We've been trying to take more time for ourselves, and we did more this summer than we did last year.  But, we still spend a good part of our weekends working on ears and we spend most of the evening working on them as well.  I'm hoping that with me home full time, I can get most of it done during the day while he's at work.  We're looking forward to having more of a social life once we're caught up!

The future looks bright.  We've got plans to do some traveling over the next year and we're looking forward to seeing friends and family we haven't seen in a while.  We're hoping to get to a few UNE hockey games and to spend time with Elissa.  Portland has a new ECHL hockey team, the Maine Mariners, so we're planning to go to a few of those games.  In addition, we're actually going to see our San Jose Sharks a few times this season!  I'm also hoping to get a lot of progress done on our house.  We still have so much to do, but finishing it doesn't seem so far off now.  Of course, we're looking forward to visiting Mickey Mouse a few times too!

With more time to focus on it, Happily Ever Hatter will continue to grow.  Eliot and I have so. many. ideas... I literally have lists of lists of them.  I'm excited to have more time to work on samples along with orders.  Plus, Eliot should have more design time now!  I'm really excited to see what we can accomplish in the next few months!

What I'm most excited about is that I'm going to have time to focus on our new businesses. I've been talking about these forever... and now I'm finally going to have time to work on them.  Eliot and I are planning to move forward quickly.  We're hoping to launch two of them in the next few months so they'll be ready for holiday orders!

Finally, I will actually have time to work on my blog!  I've decided to re-name and re-brand it, so I probably won't be diving in head first right away.  I'm hoping to get some behind the scenes stuff done before I get back into the swing of things.  But I'm really excited that it could be closer to it's potential soon!

So, today is the first day of the next chapter of my life.  I'm sure it will be an adventure but I'm ready for it.  And I think the universe is too.  Last night, when I left work, there was a small rainbow over the road as I drove away from my past and forward into the unknown of full-time self-employment.  I think it's a sign that I made the right decision. 

"Have faith in your dreams and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through."  °o°