One week of independence later...

Let me just tell you: its strange to be in a hotel and not be on vacation! Even though our place definitely appears more like a condo or small apartment, my brain still knows its in a hotel, albiet an extended stay hotel filled with other relocaters. I feel like the loser vacation girl who stays in her room! But this is not vacation, its real life.

In shop news, I started working on new Party Packs: coordinating cupcake toppers and hor devours picks packaged together. I always appreciate parties with attention to detail, and I'm hoping my buyers do too! I also listed a Gift Certificate for the first time, after reading up on Oregon laws, that is. Who knew giving a Gift Certificate could be so complicated!

In personal news, DH's new job is on the brink of not working out. He's still in the training process, going out with other sales reps on their appointments to learn the ropes. Unfortunately, the company is trying a test market in a totally different area of the state, and DH has been required to travel down there. One negative is that because he's just sitting in, he's only eligible for a teeeeeny commission if a sale gets made - but there haven't been any sales all week. He's driving 5 hours round trip every day. We're not sure if he's even making enough to cover the gas costs. They've been scheduling him for the max number of appointments each day, so he leaves at 7:15am and often doesn't get home until midnight. *sigh*

We've agreed that he'll stick it out for awhile longer; this test market business won't last forever. It won't be as bad when he goes out on his own as he'll get all the comission if a sale gets made. I've encouraged him to talk to his boss about keeping him closer to home during training; I can't believe that a manager would be OK with a new employee spending money to work there! If I were a manager, I'd rather keep an employee than drive him out. Perhaps this wasn't meant to be, which is really disapointing. It's also scary to think that this amazing source of income will go away and we'll be back to living on savings. We'll wait and see.

Anyway, I've had three sales this week and I'm trying to stay positive! I even put out some applications of my own this. I'm a big believer in bringing positive energy into your life and trying to push out the negative energy, so that's what I'm doing. I'd appreciate any extra positive thoughts that my readers may have!

Custom Wedding Favor Tags

Truth: I've always thought about being a wedding planner. Until that day happens, I'll just have to settle for creating new wedding stuff for my shop! I listed these today, they can be customized in your wedding color scheme with the bride and groom's names and their wedding date!

I used really similar ones for our wedding, and they were a big hit. These are meant to be tied to a little favor bag of Hershey Hugs and Hershey Kisses (I know, cuteness overload, right?). Can't wait to start customizing them for somebody!

New item news

Whew! I just spent all weekend in Arizona, cramming a week of seeing friends and family into 48 hours. I'm exhausted. I did hand out a lot of business cards, so that was a positive for the shop. I also used the plane rides to draw up plans for my new line of party supplies, which I am very excited about. I'm trying to think of a better generalization than "party favors" or "party supplies", since I think of noisemakers and themed paper plates when I think of that term, but I nothing has struck me yet. Maybe "paper party goods"? Hmm....I'll have to do more extensive researching with Google's keywords tool.

I will be developing party favor tags, cupcake toppers, and other fun party goodies to go along with my already-offered gift tags and such.

If you haven't stopped by the shop lately, please take a moment to check it out: http://www.pinkycrafts.etsy.com.