Saturday recap

In an effort to get more memories down, I'm going to try to do a Saturday recap. Instead of feeling like I need to post details and photos for all the little things, I've decided to post the highlights of the week. They may not seem like highlights to you, but they stand out to me and these are some things I'd like to remember. So here's the first recap.

I shipped the final orders from my shop this year.

It felt so good to drop those last orders off at the post office. What started off as a side hobby has become a way to financially assist my family. It's been such a blessing and I'm so thankful for all the support and encouragement I've received. But to be honest, I felt at a cross roads with my business this year. My business has grown (and that's been great and I'm thankful for it) but I love creating, designing, and learning new things. So when I'd have shop sales it would take it out of me. I have been a one gal shop and the time to fill orders would either keep me up way too late or leave me no time to create. So after gentle encouraging from my sister, ahem bossing, cough. I hired a part-time shipping assistant to help me package orders. Let me tell you. It was the smartest thing I've ever done. I have never had so much rest and peace during holiday sales and am excited for 2015.

Totally switching topics. My husband and I started to grow fodder for our chickens.

What is fodder, you ask? Sprouted grains for chicken (or other animals) feed. Eric did all the research (all the praise hand emojis for google and you tube), calculations and scheming, I just followed directions. We gave it to our chickens this week and they went crazy about it.

Did you know a 50 lb. sack of feed can become over 350 lbs. of feed when sprouted?! Talk about a great way to get more bang from your buck and give your chickens a healthier diet.

I could go on and on about that but I'm sure there's about .0007% people interested in that so I'll let you do the research - unless you really want to know more and then I'll share in another post.

I consumed an extra amount of coffee this week thanks to a sneaky 2 year old with a sharpie.

I think we need more culturally diverse dolls in this house.

The girls and I made some holiday favorites to gift including chex mix, puppy chow and ritzies.

I love having the girls help me in the kitchen and prepare gifts for friends - even if I have to repeatedly tell them to not each all the sprinkles or chocolate chips. 

In other news, I "started" the whole30 thing at the beginning of the month.

I have done pretty good with it. I found a cook book that I really like, Well Fed, and has some good whole30 recipes AND it has a great recipe for homemade mayo. Which I made with an egg from our backyard! It was really good. I say I was doing really good, then week 2 hit and then evenings and the cheese and the chex mix. So basically I'm a whole30 drop out but have good intentions to do it in January.


I was also super excited to finally be able to announce the next Be Crafty event I get to do with my gal, Amanda.

I'll be heading to Minneapolis, MN January 31st and can not wait to see her studio. Registration opens December 29th and only 20 seats are up for grabs. And I get to meet her mom! And her dogs. And I get to meet and eat treats from the amazing Melissa Coleman (@thefauxmartha) who I've followed on instagram for ever. Again with the praise hand emojis.

And lastly I did finally cleaned my office and closet.

Thanks to my shop being closed for a few weeks, I have extra time on my hands to tackle some much needed projects. My shelves are back to being organized, inventory is back in it's place and I have even set up my two work spaces. One desk is for all technology related things like computer, tablet, yada yada ya. The other is no technology allowed. Paper, pens, pencils and all hands on. It was a great idea I got after reading, Steal like an Artist, by Austin Kleon. If you're a creative-ish person, you need to read it. I learned so much from it and also a lot from his second book, Show your work. Amazon prime and they'll be here before you know it.

Also, the girls danced to Christmas music all-day-every-day, I finger-knit and made yarn pom poms for days, wrapped presents, raked the yard, did the laundry, cooked the food, read advent stories and ate a donut.

And that's that. My week in review. For the most part.