Here I am!

Hello! This is just a quick note to let you know that I'm still alive and have not in fact drowned in embroidery hoops and chalkboard paint. Thank you all so much for your well wishes on my last sicky post. It was pretty rough but we're all doing much better here healthwise. It has been a rather long and stressful week though, but we got our orders done and delivered in the nick of time, and I must admit I felt rather proud of all our hard work when I saw it all sitting there in the store today. This is the biggest batch of products we've made in one go so far, and it was definitely tough at times. One of the hardest parts I find about making for a living, or working for yourself in general, is that so much of it is figuring things out along the way. Mistakes are made, systems are figured out, shortcuts are tempting. We literally make almost everything by hand just the two of us, including cutting out the circles of wood for the hoop chalkboards, so when paint gets smudged or things don't fit right, there is only us to fix that. We've decided that we really need a) an extra room and b) to put some good, written down, organisational systems in place ( I really love the idea of being organised, and I love the planning to get organised....its just the being organised that has never been my strong suit) in order to keep this enjoyable and as low stress as possible for us. If anyone has any handy dandy organising tips, they'd be much appreciated!

In other news, our house is absolutely insanely messy. Out.of.control. It makes me tired just looking at it, but tidying must happen sooner rather than later. We're flying out to Edmonton this Friday to visit one of my favourite ladies and I so very, very excited! I think a mini-break will do us both good, and the idea of shopping, eating out and going to see Julie and Julia excites me to no end. This does mean we need to get our house spick and span so as to not terrify our cat minder while we're gone. Sadly there are no plants for her to water save for that pretty miniature rose bush as our balcony garden is no more. It turns out that while its large size is great for accommodating lots of plants, the fact that its a giant slab of concrete meant it turned into a big hot plate during our heatwave awhile back. That combined with a kitten who thinks the whole world is a litter box and some corn and zucchini loving squirrels has not boded well for our little garden. I'm determined to bring it back though after seeing broccoli and cauliflower seedlings on sale at the store this week...

Alright lovelies, I really should start trying to put this house in some kind of order. I promise to be back soon a little less tired, a little more cheery and with a to-do list that says September and not July.

xo