Hey New Year! I’m Still Catching Up

It’s been about two months since I have blogged. Christmas came and went as well as the New Year! Here’s a little catch up for you!

Our elf Pixie stopped in after Thanksgiving. She was such a hit this year! Definitely will be back next year!

The girls went with Tony’s parents to cut down a tree! We still didn’t have snow.

Tenley started a new smile! What a cutie! She loves glasses!

Lyla decorated her own christmas tree in her room. It will be a new tradition each year. Both girls will get their own tree in their rooms to decorate however they would like. She was so proud of her tree. I absolutely loved it!!

Since Tenley liked to break the ornaments and pull them off and not put them on. I decided I would still do the little tree but I would decorate it for her a little. Next year, she will decorate her own! She loved having it in her room. Every morning she would point at it and laugh and smile!

My sisters and my brothers girl friend Michelle went to my moms house and did baking! After a few hours we had a tub full for each family! Great tradition! Love spending time with family!

We have a local park that does a light show for free every December. We took the girls again this year and it was a total hit! It’s definitely worth going to see it at least once!

Lyla made her own christmas list to Santa this year! She was in heaven cutting and gluing! It’s her favorite I think! I just love her hand writing! She is getting really good at writing the letters without seeing them!

Baby Santa

The girls spent the night at my parents house and Pixie out elf went to grandmas house too!! Lyla was so surprised!! My mom was so creative with how she had Pixie the next morning! I can’t thank her enough for helping keep the spirit alive for our girls!

Tony got me a christmas gift! Origami owl jewelry. It’s a locket with two girl charms with October and march birthstones and also a march birthstone heart for him. I picked it all out! I absolutely love it!!

Christmas Eve came and we did pjs and hot chocolate after spending the afternoon at Tony’s parents! We got so many great items! It was so nice seeing everyone as well! Christmas Day we went to my parents house after we did our family opening. All the cousins were there and the kids had a ton of fun! It was nice to spend the day with family. We all got great items there as well! We were spoiled!

My nephew Jordan came to stay with us for 5 days! Lyla was in heaven! She didn’t leave his side the instant he got to our house! We stayed in at home with him on New Years! Were definitely boring! Just kidding! It’s nice to stay home sometimes and not go out!

The girls got sick and now they finally feel better! Glad we got the sickness gone and done for the year! Now we don’t need to get sick anymore! **knock on wood**
My house is a disaster but I am thankful we have a home and warm heat because the temperatures have been -20 degrees with a wind chill of -50! Yes that’s negative 50! Insane we haven’t gone any where. Haven’t done much because relax and snuggle!

Ooo in the next week I will be showing you my voxbox I received! Super pumped! Also, I will be working hard on valentines day owls! Exciting stuff happening!

Cleaning and organizing! School! LyTen Love! Busy Busy! Can’t wait to get back to blogging! See you soon!

Busy Busy

Been pretty busy here. We’ve been doing school, organizing and spending family time together. A few weeks ago Tony and I went with his parents to Illinois to do some antiquing. I have to say that I am glad we experienced it. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. There were so many vendors there. I think over 500! That’s a lot of walking and a lot of seeing the same things. I was hoping that were going to be much more of the items that I wanted but that wasn’t the case. The ones that I did want though the price was insane. There is no reason the price needs to be jacked up that high. I know everyone has to make that dollar but yikes!! I would definitely go to more around Wisconsin than go there again to get the prices we do!!
We have been at least going every other weekend antiquing. Then, taking the other day for family and the weekend in between for cleaning. Although, we havent done much cleaning. I did also decide to take custom orders for LyTen Love. I haven’t got too many which is probably a good thing because I have been working on a few special items. A little surprise for a friend and also a little something for our home. I am pretty excited to be getting ready for christmas. Tony agreed I could put up Christmas items the day after Halloween. Well, it’s already the 5th of November and I haven’t yet. Wow!! That is a miracle. I can’t wait to show you all the ideas I have. Also, I have been making a tradition list for the girls. Super excited!! Elf is coming to our house this year!! I have pinned so many awesome ideas. The girls are going to love him!! Is anyone else doing elf? Have any great ideas?

Creating a New Project

I have been so busy prepping for school that I haven’t been on here much! We are starting September 2nd with the other kids here in our town. It also gives me time to be prepared! Excited to take daily pictures and post weekly of what we had worked on that week! So get ready for preschool overload soon! To hold you off of the excitement many of you know I have a little mini (yes I know I said “small” with two different words in the same sentence) business! LyTen Love! Currently, I have been pretty busy with homeschool that I haven’t been creating much or marketing my business to get business. I have a few items to make for people in a few weeks but mostly been away for awhile. I had just recently finished a new and exciting little creation I would love to share with you! By no means is he perfect but he is oh so cute!

Isn’t he just darling?! He’s for a family member who’s having a sweet little boy! So excited hopefully they love it! Well, I do have plans- yes I always have so many plans- to open my etsy shop! I have many owls made already and now I just need to create a few elephants and foxes and I think I will have enough to open! Wouldn’t that be fabulous!? I think so!!

So here’s to the last weekend before pre-k homeschool marathon, watching another child and opening and running an etsy shop! Please say a prayer or two for strength and encouragement! God knows what’s best for me and I really believe he will lead me the right way! His plan always over rules my plans! I trust him! Hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day weekend!! Enjoy!

Mothers Day Craft Show

Starting out I will talk about my mini business I started! This has been a dream of mine for a long time. To create something and have people fall in love with my product. It has taken too long for me to actually step forward and just do it!! I need to start taking chances!! Well, anyways I love owls. I love them for decor, clothes, animals, kids, everything. Owl my house and I am complete. Kind of. So, I started cutting out my own template and took the leap!! I made a felt owl!! Turned out super cute! I will have to find the picture of the one I sent to an Instagram friend who is in love with owls as well! January of this year I had made a page on facebook to promote my owls. I was amazed with how well everyone took to sharing my owls and wanting to request custom orders!! Was going soo great!! I felt so blessed!

On April 28th of this year I attended my first craft show. LytenLove was becoming real! Definitely a newbie in this whole process. I felt so prepared in February when I signed up but as the month passed by I started to get nervous. I searched online and pinterest to find great ideas of how it all worked and to be prepared. I found some great check lists on what to have there with me. It was a great tool for those first starting out.

I signed up on vistaprint and got 500 business cards for just 7.00 I was impressed with the quality and how quickly they got delivered!! It was the first step to feeling “official”. I had signed up for the show with another newbie – Happy Butterfly Designs by Keri. She has a website on facebook check her items out!! She creates these adorable crocheted baby props, hats and decor. Also, she can customize to how you would like and sizes!! It was so great to have her with me that day!! I was completely nervous! I did end up having enough product which I was scared I wouldnt. I only did have about 35 items!! Yikes!! Probably a good start but definitely not enough for the avid craft fair goer! I also made my own banner out of felt of course! Printed my own price tags off this great website called everythingetsy.com! It was such a last minute thought and it was so helpful!! I snagged a cute yellow stool off the buy sell trade groups off of facebook. Total steal for 3.00!

The day of the show I only made 45 dollars. Which the show costed 23 dollars so really I only made nothing. I put that into cost of items to make and also the items used for the show. It was a great way to learn the not tos, the to dos and the that’s an awesome idea!

Here is my booth!
(sorry some are blurry- we didnt bring the nice camera which is an item I will be bringing next time- all pictures were taken with phones)

Happy Butterfly Designs by Keri Booth

My First Craft Show

Last month I had my first craft show! Which was pretty sad in the way of making money but I did learn a ton of great ideas. I only sold 4 owls. Out of the 4 were my two babies which were three dollars a piece. They were a hit with the little kids! Great to know! An awesome friend Angela came and bought a large owl from me, so she was my biggest buy. Sadly, I didn’t get many new likes on my Facebook page and not many new orders. All in all, it was a great learning experience and that’s what counts. My friend Keri went with me and she sells these absolutely adorable crocheted baby props and hats. Way cute! She didn’t do so hot either but we learned. Just keep repeating it and it will sounds better eventually. I will post pictures of my booth set up tomorrow!
Thinking of changing up my blog design up. Have lots of things to post since last month! I have to get to bed though, have lots to do tomorrow! My to do lost is way longer than I would like! Good night!

I Really Need to Organize My Life

Things have been pretty crazy around here it feels like! I started a business in January and I have been so swamped with orders that I haven’t been on here in ages!! So sorry if you do try and check if I am on here! I have a facebook page so far for the business. No website just yet!! I feel like I can’t even do this one regularly! I make felt owls. They are so darn cute! Just saying! I am having a craft show on the 28th of this month and feel so very overwhelmed with it being my first! Whew, I hope I do well!!

Also, new in my life is I have considered homeschooling. I have really looked into many blogs and websites and I honestly think I can do it! I have started printing tons and when I say a ton of things- It means I dont even know where to put it all! Now I know I need a hole puncher and laminator!!

Back to wanting to organize my life.

Do you even see how my posts are just crazy!! One thing to another!!

Tony always reminds me, I am a sahm I dont have to do anything besides take care of our girls. Hes such an understanding man!

I want to start following a schedule, and really put a lot of planning into housework, the business and teaching. But, still have enough time to enjoy my kids and Tony. Yikes, motherhood can be exhausting!!

So first off I need to find a really good planner for meals!! Pinterest has been my absolute savior with recipes!! I have been able to make new foods every week. Some we keep and some we toss. I need a binder to keep in files such as recipes and grocery list.

Next, I need to have a binder for my business. I have started documenting all the items I need to buy. Its been really nice to have for when I go to the store to buy supplies and then I really know what I am spending each time. Whether I am making a profit or not. I also need to make a template for customer orders. I used to use a notebook but Lyla decided she would use it as her coloring book! So scratch that. I need a binder that is off limits to little hands!

Well, now I feel as if I am just blabbering on and on..  So back to pinterest to print off things! Hoping I can be back daily again!! Hope I can document my progress with the business!