i've been tagged!

i've been tagged by heels! so i need to share 20 things about myself that you might not know about and that i haven't blogged about before. here we go....

1. i have ALWAYS known that i wanted to be an artist. i never knew it would mean owning my own business, but i’m sure glad it ended up that way!

2. if i would have known i was going to own my own business i would have taken some business courses in college. something….anything. i feel like i know nothing about business and am just flying by the seat of my pants sometimes.

3. i never could understand how someone can grow up and not know what they want to be in life. for me, it was always so obvious. it’s hard to imagine it not being that way. (my husband happens to be one of the aforementioned people).

4. this weekend is the first time i’m away from the little dude for any length of time. it’s his first overnight trip. he’s spending the ENTIRE weekend with grandma & grandpa so that we can spend time at the new house getting my office ready for the big move next weekend. i’m a little surprised how well i’m doing. however, i have called 3 times to check on him today. he’s doing better than expected!

5. i secretly fear that i’m going to be one of those parents who can’t let go of their children. it’s amazing the immediate and intense love you have for them.

6. i worry that everyone else knows more than i do when it comes to owning a paper business and that they’re secretly laughing at me.

7. until i moved to minneapolis in 2000, i had no idea that things like pottery barn, louis vuitton, or neiman marcus existed. (not that it matters because i cannot afford any of them!)

8. i worry that because i am back in the world of “small-town-living”, i will lose sight of major trends and things like those mentioned in #7.

9. i am addicted to reading blogs, but i’m really bad at leaving comments. i’m sure 95% of people don’t know i read their blogs daily.

10. i was a major tomboy as a kid. we grew up in the country and our only neighbors had a boy a little older than me. it was me, my younger brother and the older neighbor boy….and they weren’t playing with barbie. i now think of myself as pretty girly.

11. speaking of barbie, i only had one and it rarely got attention. i was always jealous of all my friends who had gobs of barbies and all of their accessories.

12. i always wanted a real cabbage patch kid. never got one. i had a lame knock-off. i did however, collect garbage pail kid cards. i had a ton. still have them somewhere. (i can’t believe i just admitted that. hey….i was a kid who lived in the middle of nowhere!)

13. the little dude was an ivf baby. we spent several years and thousands and thousands of dollars to bring him into our family. he is worth every penny. (this is one of the reasons i still can’t afford anything in #7!)

14. my hubby and i only dated for about 4 months before moving in together. i was also away at college for 3 out of the 4 months finishing up my last semester. so in reality we were only together for about a month. looking back, it sounds kind of crazy.

15. i knew i was going to marry my hubby after our first date. i came home and told my mom that she better like him because he was going to be the man i married. (i think i actually knew before our date, but admitting that makes me sound a little crazy.)

16. i love pumpkin pie, pasta, chocolate chai tea, my grandma’s apple pie, rhubarb crisp, ice cream, panchetta, and asparagus. i’m not much of a meat eater. (but far from a vegetarian)

17. i can’t stand white walls. every wall in my home is or will be painted. i have a small obsession with color.

18. both my hubby and i come from italian families. (the del ponte’s and the maggi’s)

19. i often buy things because of the way they look and not because i need them or because they’re better. one of the downfalls of being an artsy type.

20. i have a major obsession with coats and purses. (although i never spend a lot on either. i’d rather have 10 cute inexpensive purses than 1 super expensive one)

and a freebie....

21. i have an issue with being a perfectionist and overachiever. if i’m not running around with too much to do, i’m not happy.

i tag claire from madame fancy pants, leslie from rubber sol, and ericka from aquamarine press

october sales

i'm happy to announce that october sales have already surpassed septemeber sales! and we still have 10 days to go!

i have started to see the slowdown of holiday orders which is kind of a relief since we're moving shortly. spring holiday sales have started to pour in, but luckily we have awhile to get those out.

i really need to get started on the december releases. i'm so far behind now because of the whole moving process. i'm not quite sure when i'm going to fit them in. hopefully my reps will understand if they're a little behind schedule. plus december is never a huge sales month anyway.

gotta run! later.

ya gots'ta have some goals....

they always say that you need to have goals in life. at the beginning of this year, i set a sales goal for my business. being that i've been so busy, i hadn't checked my numbers lately. come to find out, i met my goal for the year already!

my goal was not a dollar amount, but instead, an order amount. my goal was to reach a certain number of orders for the year knowing that if they averaged out to equal my minimum order amount, i would be happy. after looking at quickbooks the other night i found that i actually hit that number on september 30th! not only that, but my average dollars per order were almost double my minimum! this all makes me very happy.

i did also have a secondary goal in mind. one that i felt was very lofty. it was one of those "big dream" goals. after looking at my books, i may actually have a chance at hitting that goal too! if i hit this secondary, lofty goal, i think there are going to be some major treats going on!

it has been one whirlwind of a year. so much has changed. 2004 was my first year doing this full-time. before that i was a moonlighter. i expected this year to be the real start of my business, and boy has it been. adding a new baby to the mix added a whole new level of excitement. i can only hope that things continue on the path on which they've been going.

we're in!

we went and finalized our offer tonight. the latest news....they want us to close the 28th of october. yes, that's right, october! as in, just a couple weeks from now! we haven't even packed one box yet! so needless to say, we're going to be VERY busy here over the next couple weeks. i'm really not looking forward to the moving part of moving. i just wish you could flip a switch and have all your stuff in the new house. wouldn't that be grand?

new possibilities

the house is looking to be a go! my parents went through the house with me and the hubby last night. we got the thumbs up from my dad, which isn't the easiest thing in the world to get. i spoke with my realtor (who is also the owner of the house) today. we're making plans to meet and talk about an offer. i'm hoping we'll have everything finalized by the end of the week. then i guess we need to get packing, packing, packing! i am so completely excited about having a space to work and room to cook! yeah!!

of business and home

i've been horrible about keeping up with my blog lately. september will do that to me. it has just been so busy around here. (not that i'm complaining...it's a great thing!) september was my biggest month in history. YEAH!! and october is looking to be the same. after all my hard work, it's great to see that so many people are enjoying my products. it's a great time, but also challenging, as all periods of growth seem to be. it's a balancing act....needing to hire more people, while being able to find the money to pay them. so even though more money is coming in, it seems that just as much is going out. i think next year will be easier because i will have a better idea of what's coming. (i got quickbooks this year so all my tracking is going to be much easier to do.) i can just go back to this year's information and be able to predict what should be happening the same time next year.

on a personal note: i think we may have found our house! once i explain it, you may have the urge to call me crazy....as the house has been in front of our face the entire time. you see, our realtor is one of my good friend's husband. they too, are selling their house. (which i have always admired) they have subtly, and not so subtly, hinted at us buying their house. we always just kind of blew it off because of the "weirdness" involved in buying a friend's home. any changes you make are kind of personal and could potentially be insulting to the previous owners (especially since they're friends). the hubby was more opposed to buying their house than i was. i would occasionally bring it up and suggest that we should take a walk through it. he always refused. so, for the past month or so, we've been looking elsewhere. then the other night i mentioned it again. there was no argument involved. he just said "ok". like it was a new option we hadn't discussed before. so, very long story short. we went through it and he was pleasantly surprised. he really liked it. tonight we're taking my parents through it to check it out and make sure we're not missing anything. (like the windows last time!) if everything looks good, i would assume we're going to make an offer in the next couple days! i'm very excited at the possibility! it has a very roomy kitchen which is a change from what we have now. and it has a big, dry basement which i could use to spread my business out! the idea of having a bigger office just gets me so excited. we are so cramped where we are right now.

so, call me crazy. (but happy!)

you're kidding....right?

over the weekend i visited a local department store to find a pair of pants for our family portraits next weekend. while there, i overheard two women (one older and one younger) talking at a rack next to me. the older said to the younger: "hey, there are jean shirts over there....do you like jean shirts?"

WHAT? are you kidding? i'm no fashion diva, but come on! jean shirts! i didn't even know they were allowed to make those anymore!

oh the joys of small town living!