A night out yayyy !

Much needed night off coming up ! I am so excited and to see the joy in the kiddo's eyes as they know they are getting to go out as a family tonight is just priceless ! I try to take a night off and stay home watch movies etc but im a entire work aholic and I have to force myself to leave the house so that Im unable to work ! how crazy is that ! So my passion has turned into an obsession but its working for me ! Back to the details of tonight , off to go watch the smurfs , its the first time Justin or Caleb have been to the movie theater and Jayden's 2nd trip. We will be going to all you can eat pizza first , then the arcade and then the movies. Needless to say I know they will be wiped out when we get home and then it will be adult relaxation time ! Perfect plan ! Perfect evening here's to hoping it turns out as i anticipate :)

Finally I feel tickled with something I have created !

It is as they say , you are your own worse critique ! After thousands of puzzles and other wood creations I have created , I am finally satisfied and tickled with my newest and latest design ! I truly do love this and Im just beaming to finally have some sense of accomplishment ! Thanks for reading :)

Myths of owning your own business

Lately I have been dealing with so many friends and family who have an opinion of what it is to own your own business, and their opinion and my reality however are two entirely different things. So to clarify , I would like to spell it out for anyone who's thinking of owning their own business, and to those who know people who own their own business. My hopes that it will help to shed some light and give these people a better understanding, leaving those who are self employed maybe a little slack !

First Myth - You have no boss , you are your own boss , therefore what you says goes.

Fact - You do have a boss, you have multiple bosses. Every customer/client you have is your boss. You are there to provide services or products to these people in a timely fashion and high quality. You have emails to answer, phones to answer , and you have an obligation to them.

2nd Myth, You set your own hours, work when you want to .

Fact. This is partially true. However, your hours are far more extensive then just 9 - 5 monday through friday most of the time. Myself personally , I work 7 days a week sometimes 19 hours a day. I have deadlines to meet and I can not take a day off to just go randomly shop, kick back relax, hang out with friends or any of those other 10 million things family and friends thinks I should justify a day off for.

3rd Myth , you have to be knocking out some serious cash because everything you make goes in your pocket.

fact. dont i wish ! I have material cost, extra electric , water etc that I use to make these things. I have tools to buy , replace, fix . I lose my tush on shipping at times especially when forced to overnight a package because I took a day off to help someone or per someones request when I knew I had a deadline to make

Speaking of deadlines , I have ones to make so this is all for now :)

Soaking up some down time

I have come to the conclusion , that its best to take some time off and get refreshed rather then push and trudge through. I complete twice the amount of work in less time then when i try to pull an all nighter or work for weeks at a time with no time off. So in light of that, instead of it being a normal monday work night, tonight I am sitting with the kiddo's , eating take out , watching movies with good snacks and laughter ! The kids are thrilled to have me just sit and enjoy the time with them, especially with it being a Monday. I particularly hate Mondays anyway so this is great ! I will probably drag some paint along with me and occasionally paint though I'm sure. I have become so accustomed to working all the time that I cant sit still for more then 10 minutes without doing something ! I will however wait until they are in bed for the evening . Can't wait ! Looking forward to curling up on the sofa with everyone , eating some yummy take out and chilling !

Its so easy to forget the little things and miss out on lifes moments, be sure to take the time to enjoy them while you can !

Remembering what makes it all go round

Being a home based business, it is so easy to get lost in the shuffle of things , and missing out on so many lifes moments , or losing track of the little things. I had a good wake up call yesterday , family day. My two daughters and grandbaby's were over visiting . I got sucked into my work again and spent a large portion of it in work mode. Not realizing the time. Luckily i did get re focused , grabbed the camera caught a few good shots and spent the rest of the evening on a blanket on the floor playing with the two. Had i not realized the time I would of lost this moment. I need to get back on schedule ! I love my work but wow sometimes its just so hard to take a break from so that you are able to focus on other parts of life !

Here is grandchild number one. Hailey Alexis, 8 months old ( on the 1st )

And here is Robert Lee , 7 months old ( on the 1st also , they were born exactly a m onth apart , Hailey on Dec 1 and Robert on Jan 1 )

The beauty of custom designs

I love what I do , and I especially love when I am able to create a custom design that will make a memorable heirloom for years to come for someone. This is a design for a little boy Connor, who's daddy is an Arkansas State Trooper. Thinking about when the day comes that Connor is a daddy, and can allow his child to play with his puzzle that was created for him when he was three , designed to reflect his daddy ,who is now a grandfather is just priceless . This is what makes what I do more then a job, I feel as though I will continue to live on through happy memories of others in a sense . Although I realize that sounds crazy lol

Email forwarding is true Bliss !!!

So after what seems forever of trying to figure out how to configure my emails to forward to my cell phone I have success ! I have forwarded both my outlook express and hotmail to go to my cell, which in turn leaves me extra time to actually do the thing called work verses checking to see if i have any new work to do ! all my transactions from etsy go to my phone , as well as all my paypal receipts and conversations . So far so good its great ! very easy to do as well . Being cheap , i have no internet on my phone and no email service , so what i did is set up my cell as an address in my contacts and then forward from there. I can't reply to them as it would go back to my own email boxes, but i sure as heck can read them and know whether i need to get on the computer or not !