It’s been months since my last post. I’ve mostly been using Twitter and totally let go of this blog. Since son is starting Kindergarten in the fall, I thought I’d slowly ease myself back into keeping up with the blog. We’ll see, as I’ve never been consistent anyway. 

It’s pretty much business as usual here. The major thing is I had a website re-design. That was the #1 thing on my list of goals for 2009! Thank you so much to Lindsay of Purr Design for working with me on the project. She was truly a pleasure to work with. I would never have been able to do it without her.

So here’s the site re-done if you’re curious: Dear Monday

mmkay… so I took longer than 1 or 2 days to post some goals. It’s still January. Last year I didn’t post my goals till near February. Speaking of last year, this years goals will be similar to last, at least on the personal side. Anyhoo… here it is:

BUSINESS:
1. Re-do my website: I haven’t updated my website because I find the task daunting. I need a proper shopping cart where I can basically upload. Hopefully I can handle that much!
2. Find 1 or 2 more GOOD reps, emphasis on good. It’s possible to have reps that sell nothing the entire year. Sigh.
3. Concentrate on selling on website again. It would greatly help once goal #1 happens.
4. Make to-do lists everyday – this helps me so much, I don’t know why I only do it when I’m overwhelmed.
5. Etsy – maybe. I have an account, just have never done anything with it. 

PERSONAL:
1. Sleep earlier – my son is sleeping thru the night. FINALLY. He only wakes up once every night. That means I’m actually getting some sleep but I need to be less of a night owl.
2. Exercise – started yoga once a week but need to add some kind of cardio.
3. Dress up more – this is part of my ongoing makeover/getting back to life thing
4. Declutter & organize the house – little by little, this will happen.
5. Make some Vietnamese food – you’d think I’d learn from my mom. I don’t do well with “a pinch of this, a glob of that”. I need written recipes!
6. Do some art. Maybe this should go under “business” goals. I’ve been wanting to do block prints FOREVER. But I haven’t found the time and I’m afraid.

There’s tons of other sub-goals but why overwhelm myself with a long list. 

Overall, I want to figure out how to work smarter, not harder.

Have I really been away so long? I thought my last post was in August, but apparently it was way back in May! I started twittering so I just neglected the blog. (As it turns out, I don’t Twitter that much either. LOL) I am embarrassed to say I forgot where to log in and it took me 2 minutes before I figured it out. hehe

Anyway, I want to post some resolutions for the new year in the next day or so. When I write it down, it encourages me to stick to it a bit.

I haven’t written much (not that I do much anyway) because I’ve been twittering. It’s much quicker and shorter than blogging and can be as random as I want. Find out more: Twitter

Everything is back to usual around here. I was designing lots of new stuff so now I have a small break before I design again. The new stuff won’t be on the website for a while but it’s a little bit of a new direction… less labor intensive than my ribbon edged cards but still handcrafted. I hope it will do well. I have to design alot more of the “new stuff” but I wanted to get some of it out there. Speaking of my website… my poor poor website has been so neglected. Sigh.

I don’t know if I will post much here for a while since I have twitter now. We’ll see. I know I need to streamline.

… it’s one of those things where: the more uncluttering I do, the more clutter I find. It’s a vicious circle, but I need to do it. One small section at a time. My husband looks at my to do list which says “organize bottom shelf of right side of closet” and he laughs. At that rate, I’ll be done with the closet in a year he thinks. Well…. the closet’s not big and I clean small sections elsewhere too. Plus, I tend to organize more of that area than what I list. I just need a place to start and I pick a new section everyday.

Clutter is what I aim to conquer this year. I think subliminally, it’s holding me back.

Things are going better in the exercise department. I’ve already surpassed my goal of 2 times, as that’s how many times I exercised last year. Flat abs, here I come.

I swear I’ve done one of these before… here it is: tagged 2006. Below is 7 random things… the old one is 6 random things. Slight difference. heehee

Okay, Lilie from A Planet 4 Creation here is my NEW list of 7 random/weird things:

1. I like the smell of gasoline and rubber cement, but I know better not to sniff them.

2. When I watch a movie that’s just baaaaaad… I watch it till the end hoping it’ll get good. 99% of the time, it doesn’t get any better. I must think I invested x amount of time into it, it’s got to get better. I should learn to cut my losses. LOL

3. I’m not a big meat eater, so carbs are my friend.

4. I’m pretty adamant about recycling which drives my husband nuts.

5. I admit parenthood is a very grinding job. When someone tells you it’s not easy. Believe them. hehe

6. I just bought a $10 stapler and still getting over how nice it staples compared to the one I “inherited” from one of my old employment places.

7. I like to eat powdered milk, dry.

I almost forgot today was the lunar new year. We’ve been pretty sick around here that sometimes we forget what day it is. The last time I wrote I thought I was getting over a cold, only it got worse and worse. Yesterday and felt normal and started to be able to breath and get my taste buds back. Today I feel pretty good. I’m done with sick for the rest of the year!! 

Now that my head is clearer, I need to figure out life, find myself, create new designs, where I want to go with business, etc. January felt like a bust so I’ll make today as the beginning of my year. Happy new year!

It still doesn’t feel like 2008 yet even though February is only days away. I think I’m at the last leg of this nasty cold we all have. At least this one was short with a couple days of high fever. The last time we were sick it went from end of October to end of Thanksgiving. I think Little J got sick again in December. It was 3 months of sick and I’m so over it.

I’ve done what felt to be like tons and tons of sample decks. Just when I thought I was done, “can we get 2 more?” At least it gave me a taste of what it’s like if I had tons of orders. It also made me think of designing cards that are a little less labor intensive.

So what’s up for 2008? After being sick so long/often, I decided this year is going to be about me. I’ve kind of put life on hold and neglected myself past few years. Now that Little J is 3.5, maybe it’s time the parents get their life back.

PERSONAL:
• sleep – hopefully I can get more than 2-3 hours at a time. Little J is starting to sleep thru the night. Yep, I get woken up 1-3 times, every single night.
• exercise – i did it twice last year
• give myself a makeover – It’s been almost a year since my last haircut… I should get a real haircut, not the kind that I have to fix afterwards. Use gift cards that I received 3 years ago to update wardrobe. Go to an H&M… I saw this store in Europe over 7 years ago and always wished they were in the US. They have stores near me now for a while, I’ll visit one this year.
• declutter the house… maybe even decorate the walls (right now it feels like one big playground). We aren’t brave enough to buy real furniture yet.
• organize – an ongoing battle

BUSINESS
• continue with new products/designs (MUST start using equipment I bought last year)
• i have a few more reps now than I did last year at this time (zero, haha) so I hope the business should at least triple.

Most importantly, stay sane and happy. Sounds simple enough but can be a challenge at times.