end of the quarter

it's hard to believe that a quarter of this year has already come and gone!

another review of my goals for the year. first my business goals:

1. sales have been better than last year overall. march pretty much sucks as far as sales go. it's typically a slow month and this year wasn't much different. my sales as of the end of the quarter are more than twice what they were last year at this time....i'll take that.

2. i have been designing on a MUCH more regular basis. it's amazing how many new products/designs i now have for the stationery show. i've been very inspired lately. not sure where it's coming from, but i've been jotting ideas down since they seem to be coming faster than i can develop them. that's always a good thing. there's nothing worse than sitting down to design and coming up blank.

3. i think i'm doing a much better job at updating my website. it's not like i have a ton of new information to add, but i've been keeping up really well with adding new retail stores to our "find us" section. i would like to update it again with some images of newly developed products, but i'm going to wait until my reps have them first.

4. my retail site is officially up and running as of last friday! yippee! one MAJOR item off my list! i really need to get the word out some more, but that may have to wait until after the stationery show.

5. i've been REALLY on top of writing my press releases! i've already sent out 3 this year. i distribute them via an online service which rates all releases with a numeric score. 5 being the best. my first two got 4's which i was crazy about! my last one (which was about my retail site) scored a 5! special thanks to erica from paper bride for teaching me how to write a good release!

and now my personal goals:

1. i have not lost ANY weight! grrrrr! i did join the gym and i try to go at least twice a week. i know it's not much, but at this point, it's about all i can handle. i enjoy going when i go, but i just don't feel like i have the time to get there more. i have been trying to scale down on my portion sizes too, but that doesn't seem to be helping. i really just need to find the time to go more. if only there were 48 hours in a day!

2. i've been trying really hard to spend more one on one time with the little dude during the day. sometimes it's hard to change gears when i'm in the middle of a project, but i try to take small chunks of time during the day to interact with him on a more personal level. he loves it when i get down and chase him around the room. he giggles and runs like frankenstein with his arms straight out in front of him for balance. he makes me smile.*

3. the whole trying to have a baby without infertility assistance is not going well. i won't go into details, but i'm going to see my ob/gyn next week where i plan to talk to her about our options and see if we can try some lower level assistance before resorting to the expensive invitro fertilization we went through last time.

4. paying off our debt: we are still working on this and started a cash diet for some of our expenses to help keep within our budget. at this rate we will have one student loan and all of our credit card paid off by the end of the year.

5. i'm not doing well at not swearing.

6. i haven't watched any less t.v., however, i'm trying to do other things while i'm watching. currently i'm working on a collage for our newly redone kitchen. i feel a little better about doing this rather than just laying around on the couch.

ok, i think that covers about everything i addressed in my original goals. (that i've had a chance to work on) overall, i think it's pretty good progress.

*my office assistant helps watch him during the day, so it's not like he's being ignored altogether while i'm working.