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The Meetup :: November 2010

Cyn — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:16:40 +0000

Welcome to November – yikes!

I have been up to my whatever in holiday designs and I finally launched those puppies in the store. I was able to get to four out of my six Work goals (note the hearts) this month, so I’m pretty happy with the month.

I really need to wrap up those grocery notepads. It’s the perfect time to launch my take on a grocery list with most of the CSAs wrapping up this week. I don’t think my home product is going to be completed this year. It’s not something I want to rush, because I’m out of my comfort zone in the making of it. 2011, here I come.

I only hit one out of the three Personal goals, but I did run 50 miles this past month (blogged here.)

With the clocks changing this coming weekend, I’m hoping to do better with my 5am wake-up. I hit it a few times in the past few weeks and I’m much more productive when I make it happen.

In November, Craftland and holiday orders will be my number one and two priorities.

All my inventory for Craftland needs to be shipped by Tuesday, November 9, so I am deep in printing, cutting and packaging. Packaging my paper goods for the first time for retail sale is rewarding and a bit time-consuming. It’s a great first step to my wholesale goal.

I’m finishing up my father-in-law’s wedding needs with a program for the ceremony. It will be a fun project, but I need to make time for the assemblage. In this busy season, my caffeine intake is going to skyrocket!

Oh, yoga, how I miss you! Why can’t I get my act together with this goal? Maybe I’m so used to it taking 90 minutes that it seems too daunting.

So, my :: Yoga, damn it! :: goal will be to do ten minutes a day, hopefully at the same time every day. I think I can manage that. Hope you have a stretchy, busy, fulfilling November with some moments of quiet.

If you’d like to join The Meetup, check out Liz’s blog, Athena Dreams.

The Meetup :: October 2010

Cyn — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:44:51 +0000

Hello Meetup-ers! Hope your September has treated you well. With the slow start of school and adjusting to a new schedule, this past month has been challenging time-wise.

I have been drawing more and more, which is great. Now I need to see the drawings through to a completed piece and list in my stores. I have quite a few designs that live on my PC that I need to set free! (And yes, I’m a PC, don’t judge.)

I did create Office Hours (you can read the post here) and it’s been great to define these for myself and my family. Still working out a few kinks, like fitting in exercise in my non-office hours, but it feels like a big accomplishment.

Another big one… blogging every day, Monday to Friday, on both the card and dog blogs. Whew! I didn’t really mind the schedule until this last week of the month. I think I was energized by all the newness of the posts at the beginning of the month. For October, I will go back to five days a week between the two blogs and analyze September numbers to see if blogging daily on both is worth it.
:::
With a nod to Paper Mango’s, Melanie, I will be handwriting my goals this month.

October is going to be a month of making and listing, over and over again. My father-in-law is getting married in December and asked me to do the wedding suite for him. That’s the first priority, but I also need to finish the grocery notepads I’ve been working on for awhile and finish the prototype of my home product. Then the holiday prep, which includes Craftland (oh boy!) and I must stop neglecting the Dog Paper. I have some cute dog drawings that I’m pairing with patterns for a new line of paper goods, but it’s another design stuck inside my laptop.

I’m excited about my personal goals and I think they can all be met. I failed miserably with my yoga goal last month, but I am ready to commit to it this month. I’m also running again and have took up the challenge to run 50 miles in October from one of my favorite people on the interwebs, Cathy Zielske. And with the change in season, I can start getting up at 5am again.

Okay, that’s my long-winded goal post for the month. Looking forward to reading yours!
If you’d like to join The Meetup, check out Liz’s blog, Athena Dreams.

The Meetup :: September 2010

Cyn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:04:48 +0000

I’ve decided that August is a weird month. Even though it harbors my birthday, August has that desperate feel to it. Stuck between “Hurry up, let’s get this month over with” and “May summer never end,” I feel like I’ve been rushing around, pushing this month away, while embracing it at the same time. The fact that summer is almost over, school supplies must be purchased and you start to see Halloween candy & decorations all contribute to the cuckoo factor.

I did okay with my summer goals. I wish I had drawn more and finished those flippin’ classes, but I shall conquer them soon. I did some work on my big wholesale goal and plan for more progress this month. Getting my studio together was a long shot for August and so was organizing my home (I live with three males – you do the math on how big a job that will be.) But I’ve made some headway and plans are in motion. I feel good about where it’s going and that’s an accomplishment in itself.

September is packed! There are carry-over goals from the summer, but some hefty, lofty, shifty goals that I hope I can manage.

My holiday designs should have been done by now and when I go wholesale, I’ll be on a more stringent and earlier schedule. But since these designs will just be for my own retail site, I can be a slacker and finish them this month.

Both my boys are in grammar school this year. My 5-year-old is half-day PM Kindergarten, so I need to create a new schedule for myself. My husband’s schedule also changes at this time of year, so I’m going to have Office Hours. My door will be shut and I will not be disturbed. I will also be taking one day off a week (Sunday is the day) with no contact to my business, unless I have a pending order. These office hours will give my family some much needed expectations of when I will be unavailable for my other full-time job.

I applied for a holiday show, but it’s juried, and I’m not sure if I’ll get in. If I do, I’ll need to set aside some time to create inventory for it. It’s a pretty big show… I’ll keep y’all posted. I’m working on my first non-stationery home product and I’m hoping to have a prototype completed this month. Home goods is a direction I want my business to go (it’s on my biz plan) and I think this product is a good start. I’m sorry I have to be secretive (it drives me bonkers when other people do it), but that jinx factor feels pretty powerful.

I’m going to blog Monday through Friday for all of September. That’s ten posts per week! Yup, crazy talk. Read more about my plans here for this blog and here for the dog blog. And if I want people to read my posts, I need to get better at reading theirs, so I’m going to figure out how to read other blogs in a more timely fashion.

Good luck with your goals this month. I’ll be stopping by to check them out. If you don’t participate in The Meetup and would like to join, visit Liz’s blog, Athena Dreams here.

The Meetup :: August 2010

Cyn — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 03:25:44 +0000

I’ve been staring at this post for awhile and not writing anything. Just back from vacation this weekend, I had a full day of completing orders, assisting my parents and wrangling my boys. I think my brain is a little flat, so forgive me for keeping it simple and brief. Here’s my list, with a couple of additions, to round out the summer. I hope I can conquer them all!

The Meetup :: July 2010

Cyn — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:51:17 +0000

What a month it has been! If you only stop by here once a month, I will fill you in. My 79-year-old dad had a heart attack and then a triple bypass. He is home now and healing well, but I am still his main errand-runner, laundry washer and general worker bee.

I’ve been care-taking many things this month, but not so much my business. So, I’ve decided to make my usual list a Summer List and check in with y’all at the beginning of August.

I managed to cross off a couple things and continue to keep up with my two blogs. That’s a win for me! I try to post once everyday: Tuesday and Thursday on the dog blog and Monday, Wednesday, Friday here. I would love to be able to post everyday on both blogs, but that will have to wait until I can hire an assistant :)

Wholesale is always on my mind, in a good way. I’m able to plan and think about it often, without having to sit in front of my computer. It’s a meandering, yet productive thought process, that was born out of necessity. I think I’ll keep it up, even as life calms down.

And I did manage to complete one new hand-drawn card: a moving announcement with a dog theme (of course!) the card will be in my store and on Etsy very soon.

Hope your month was less dramatic and that your summer is peaceful and sweet.

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If you want to join The Meetup, get the details at Athena Dreams, Liz Kalloch’s blog and our lovely host.

The Meetup :: June 2010

Cyn — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:22:56 +0000

Month number six of 2010… how incredibly fast it arrived. I’m going to be as brief as the month of May, so let’s jump in!

I feel pretty good about my list. A couple of those cross-offs will be completed today, but sometimes that’s what a list is for… to give you a kick to finish by deadline.

I’ve finished:
The Specialty Shops.
If you’d like to cruise around and see what I’ve added so far, you can click here. I still have some products to add and would like to offer sample packs of each design for pre-buyers. I’d love to know what you think!

Streamlining Images and Newsletter.
These are the two cross-offs that will be done by tonight!

Canning Giveaway and Dog Box/Cat Box Promotion.
The canning giveaway was great and I’m going to give away more canning paper goods in June on my FB Fan Page. I’m continuing the Dog/Cat Box promotion possibly through the summer.

My Wholesale goal will be my main focus for the rest of the year. It will remain on the list until I can wrangle it. It’s huge. A much larger goal than I anticipated with many steps to achieve where I need to be. And rushing it is not an option.

June will be my month to draw. I need to draw what’s in my head and refine some sketches/doodles that I’ve already created for my wholesale line. And drawing will allow me to finish the classes that I have been meaning to complete for months.

You know I’ve struggled with what to do with my Etsy shop. I have decided (for this month, at least) to fill it out with all my paper goods to support my regular site/store. I don’t think I will be doing the full-on promotion, where I would have to hang out in the forums, but I’m hoping that the addition of all my products will make it a useful tool. Plus, I’m a big believer in handmade items and I craft everything I make with my own hands. Etsy and RDP should be a match handmade in heaven :)

I’m on my way to having my very own studio in my home. It feels indulgent, but my accountant set these wheels in motion, and my deadline is this year. I have to go through the mountain of toys that live in the many bins on one side of room. They will move down to the basement, which will be the main play area for the boys. Photos and videos will document the process, so stay tuned…

I’m looking forward to the last goal of the where you live feature. I’ll be asking people from around the world to share the communities they live in on the card blog. I’m putting together the email invitation in a structure that will be easy for the invitees to just plug-in the information they want to share. I’m excited about the feature because I love and miss traveling. Also, it’s one of my core beliefs that we are all similar no matter where we live.

I hope the month of May brought you fulfillment and I hope June is filled with productivity and sunshine and strawberries. See you soon!

P.S. — Check out fellow Meetup member, Angie of Jumping Jack Designs and her dog, Beans, on Scout’s Dog Blog today.
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If you want to join The Meetup, get the details at Athena Dreams, Liz Kalloch’s blog and our lovely host.

The Meetup – May 2010

Cyn — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:04:07 +0000

Hello All! I was a bit of a dork last month in my list-making. At first glance, my April and May lists will look almost identical. While I did work on most of the April Goals that are listed, I accomplished a few BIG things that I forgot to write down.

I put together a Mother’s Day Sale in my store that required some coding and a special section for boxed sets of custom stationery. It was time consuming and I’m not sure if it was worth all the effort. I’m going to try something similar for the month of May, as you’ll read below.

The other, much more satisfying accomplishment, was launching a line of canning tags and labels. They have been on my mental “to-do” list for awhile and I wanted to get them into my store and on Etsy to coincide with a giveaway of the book, Canning & Preserving with Ashley English. (The giveaway started today – you can check it out here.)

I’m pretty close to crossing off most of the other goals, except streamlining product shots and wholesale. Wholesale has to be done last, so that everything else is buttoned-up and makes a great impression on potential buyers. It’s the goal I’m most anxious to cross-off, but the timing has to be right. Like that genius-whistler Axl Rose sang, “All we need is just a little patience…”

I’m going to try and finish getting all the specialty shops filled with the products I have. The shops are sections of my store that sell coordinated paper goods for special events, such as birthday parties and bar mitzvahs. I would love if some of you would check out the shops when they are on-line, just from a shopping perspective. Let me know if you are interested in taking a look and when they’re completely up and running, I’ll let you know.

One other plan I have for the month is to have a Dog Box promotion. It will be a section of the store selling stationery sets with a dog theme. There will be 10 cards and envelopes to a box and a free set of 10 of the new Stamps to the Rescue, that help feed shelter pets and raises awareness for pet adoptions. I haven’t decided if I’m going to offer a Cat Box too, but I’m leaning towards yes, even with the name as it stands.

Excited to read your goals, past and future! Hoping y’all feel satisfied with your progress. If you want to join The Meetup, get the details at Athena Dreams, Liz Kalloch’s blog and our lovely host.

The Meetup – April 2010

Cyn — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:25:40 +0000

March was weird.

I’m usually methodical when it comes to my monthly goals and feel satisfied at month’s end. But this past month, I was all over the place and very scattered, leaving me to feel unsatisfied. Not that I didn’t accomplish some of my goals, but the BIG ones that I thought were so close to completion fell short.

My marketing plan is at a standstill. I need to finish the website portion of the plan and have run into a couple technical snags that have to rely on other (mighty slow) individuals. This is the big reason why I like to do most of the website coding myself, but some things are just beyond my brain.

I’m working on the classes, but they have been deprioritized. Luckily, they are all available to me whenever I have time to commit to them.

Oh, Renegade, you have disappointed me. I applied and was rejected. Many of my friends have told me that paper people don’t do well at craft fairs and they are not worth the time, effort and money. So nice of them and I’m choosing to believe them. But I can do without the rejection.

I’ll go into my Wholesale plan below in April goals, but I did reopen my Etsy shop. Sold something the first day and it’s been quiet ever since. I have a goal on my business plan to start designing Etsy Shop graphic packages, but I’m still feeling conflicted about whether I want to fit into the Etsy community. Not that I don’t admire the concept, love most of the sellers, buy and window shop there… I just don’t know if the seller aesthetic is for me.

Cleaning the office has become organizing the office and I try to spend a little time each day on it. I’m organizing/designing my studio space, so it’s a process that will take some time. And I have adopted the in bed by 10, up by 5 routine, for most of my M-F days. It works well for me work-wise and health-wise, so I’m sticking to it.

One shining goal has been the new series on the Dog Blog. Scout features dogs that volunteer to answer our questions and share photos of themselves. You can check out the series here. It’s been so much fun that we’ll keep doing it for a long while.

Here comes April! This post is already too long, so I’ll spare you details.

I honed my Wholesale plan with research and a secret weapon (you know who you are and thank you again!) I think it will be attainable by month’s end.

The Specialty Shops tie into the marketing plan, but that’s one of my technical hold-ups. Hope it’s fixed soon, so I can move on!

I really need to read blogs daily, but I’m having a hard time making that happen. When I rise early, I’m blogging for myself (it’s the only time that it’s guaranteed to be quiet and interruption-free.) I used to read blogs in bed, but with the laptop not allowed in the bedroom, it’s not possible. Any suggestions on making time for this?

If you made it to the end of this goal-rambling post, thank you. I hope all you Meetup gals had a less-weird March and that we can look forward to a productive April.

Any month you’d like to join the group, visit Liz at Athena Dreams here for all the info.

The Meetup – March Goals

Cyn — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:52:32 +0000

It is “in like a lion” here in the Northeast today, windy and cold and gray. The sun is supposed to show its face on Friday and the ground beneath my feet is intact, so it’s all good!

I forgot that in February, we had a full week of vacation away from home (and away from wi-fi) and that I would have to work on my taxes! From the looks of the list, not so good. Looks are deceiving though…

I’m pretty satisfied with what I accomplished this month and most of my goals are in the works. They were pretty lofty for a short month anyway :) I did finish MN Week on my blog and enjoyed sharing all those people with the world (at least, my small bit of the world.) Blogging every day with research and photos and editing is a full-time job. It made me appreciate a really good content blog even more!

March is looking b-u-s-y! It can be difficult getting everything I want to accomplish done in the three days I have by myself (with the exception of the dog, but she’s our most well-behaved child anyway.) Trying a new daily plan of getting to bed early and up early. I used to love getting up in the wee hours and getting a jump on the day. I find when I work late, I am less productive (and crankier the next day.)

That is one hearty list! I’m ready for it. How about yours? I’ll see you soon.

Any month you’d like to join the group, visit Liz at Athena Dreams here for all the info.

The Meetup – March 2010

Cyn — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:28:07 +0000