Busy Month and Small Business Adventures

July is historically a busy and chaotic month, just like all these Japanese Koi Fish (however do they swim like this on top of each other?) full of travel and fun.  This year is no different, in fact it has been even more chaotic and we still have a big trip coming up soon. 

 I have mentioned in the past that I have been wanting to diversify income and have been working on different side income avenues to do so.  Some of those haven't gone as smoothly as I hoped and others have started to take off.  One of my businesses has recently started to really grow and I have been investing a lot of time each week - sourcing, listing, pricing, etc.  Don't get me wrong, I really love what I am doing but at the same time I haven't been able to keep up on blogs as frequently the last few weeks.

My free time during the evening has been spent in front of computer working on my resale business.  I have spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs and identifying what the right things to sell are.  My business sits on the Amazon platform and is geared towards books, cds, and toys.  I knew Amazon was big but I had no idea just how big and now much traffic it has, amazing.  At the same time, I am also trying to keep up on Ebay sales as I continue to declutter my house.  I admit, my decluttering has been heavily focused on just my clothing right now because everything is now way too big and I need to get warmer weather items out before the season is over and nobody wants them.  I will be buying a whole new wardrobe come fall, I'll have no choice!  Right now I can get away with fewer items but that isn't going to last into colder weather.  Never mind that I will need a new jacket and coat as well. Still you will hear no complaints from me!

My sales in the last 30 days across all my side income pursuits is about $630 profit.  Not too shabby.  I certainly wasn't seeing this even a few months ago.  I'm excited to see where this goes and how long I continue to love it as much as I have been.  That will be telling to me as far as how sustainable it is.  I feel for certain that I can stick it out through the holidays and am hoping 4th quarter sales will inspire me to keep at it if I start to lose motivation by then. 

Memory Lane: Lisa Frank Dreams

 

I was (and likely still classify as) obsessed with Lisa Frank growing up.  I was an avid sticker collector. My mom used to take me to the local Hallmark store, Town Crier to get my fix. There were these racks in the back that contained Lisa Frank and Sandy Lion stickers on spools where you could pull off individual stickers for purchase. My grandmother used to take me to a candy store in a neighboring town that also sold Lisa Frank stickers and would occasionally buy me one.  There they had large collectible stickers that I treasured.  I also loved all the Lisa Frank prints that adorned my school supplies, I believe most were by Stuart Hall and Trapper Keeper at the time.

(This Gumball Machine was her very first design)

 

I loved and still love the bright colorful creations made of unicorns, panda bears, ice cream cones, gumball machines, pizza, rainbows, lollipops, and tigers to name a few.  Lisa Frank definitely fits in with my kawaii obsessions!

Last month, Lisa Frank announced that a series of adult coloring books were being released and I have been super excited.  I have been venturing out to all the local Dollar General stores (where they are only being sold) to see if I could get my hands on one... no luck so far but I'm going to keep trying!

Lisa Frank also has released a line of clothing with RageOn! that I am pretty crazy for. I would love to get my girls some leggings or sweatshirts but the price is a little high so I'm still considering it.

 

I keep up on Lisa Frank news by following the Facebook Page here.  I still see her designs on items every now and again at stores like Walmart, Target, and Michaels.  You can also find quite a bit of her vintage items on Ebay and Etsy.

 

I had this notebook and it was my absolute favorite.

 



Party of Five Binge

My husband and I were out at Menards home improvement store over the weekend and came across a steal (well, a steal in my opinion).  I have a love for several shows that aired when I was in my teens, the 90's and early 2000's.  Beverly Hills 90210, Dawson's Creek, Melrose Place, and Felicity are some favorites.  Also on that list was a show called Party of Five. Party of Five, the entire series on DVD, was on sale for $25!  Woot! 

Party of Five is where actresses Neve Campbell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Lacey Chabert got their real start. Also, big brother, Charlie, is played by Matthew Fox who went on to star in Lost and several other films and shows.   I've always related to Neve Campbell's character, Julia, from the show.  She was brown-haired, brown-eyed, bookish girl who frequently pushes the boundaries of lacking parental supervision day in and out.  She also gets into trouble with boys on occasion and eventually marries young.  I had a lot in common with her character back in the day.  I also went on to be huge Neve Campbell fan and loved all the Scream movies and especially loved The Craft.  I even watched all her B-rate stuff.  I'll even admit to loving the movie Wild Things which starred Matt Damon, Kevin Bacon and Denise Richards.  Oh why don't they make movies like Scream and The Craft anymore???

 

I'm now binge watching my way back through Party of Five... and now I watch it again and again.

For those that are curious, Menards had several full series shows for cheap.  Roseanna, Betwitched, Gilligan's Island, I Dream of Jeannie to name a few.  I'm always surprised by what I find in that store and this weekend was no exception.

Like a kid in a candy.... err tea store

I caved.  I bought more tea.  This time fun, summertime teas because well it's summer...

David's Tea has come out with a bunch of new, summery teas.  I bought The Boardwalk Collection last week.  The Boardwalk Collection is described on the website as reminiscent of, "rollercoasters. beaches. cotton candy..." Oh my! 

My order came today and I can't wait to try out each flavor.

Cotton Candy, Caramel Corn, Grape Freeze, Chocolate Covered Banana, and Coco Colada.
I am definitely most excited about the first three but all of them sound good.  I haven't decided if I will try them warm or cold yet.  I think some would be better cold for sure -- grape freeze!  But warm caramel corn sounds good too!  The collection also came with some old fashioned rock candy.  My girls will surely appreciate those!  Also, I got a few samples as when you order online from David's Tea they always send three free samples... not a bad deal in my opinion.

In case you were wondering, I am not sponsored by David's Tea, it is just really great tea in my opinion and I'm a tea enthusiast. And for the record, I do like other tea brands like Teavana and Tazo, but David's Tea just happens to be my favorite so I talk about it far more than the others.  I also drink a ton of Diet Peak tea that I buy from my local grocery store. 

So if you come looking for me, I'm likely hunkered down somewhere with a book and a cup of tea.

New Show Addiction: Wayward Pines

I had been hearing a lot of good things lately about a show by Fox called Wayward Pines that is currently on it's second season.  I am easily sucked into watching entire seasons (and series!) on Netflix and Hulu so I decided to check it out.

What I noticed immediately upon starting the show how reminiscent it was of one of my favorite films, The Village.  No wonder, the show is directed by M. Night Shyamalan who also did The Village as well as Unbreakable (another favorite), Signs, The Visit, and Sixth Sense.  I happen to like the darker stuff and Wayward Pines is just that, very dark.  It is also a Sci-Fi show which is based on a series of books written by Blake Couch. I had never heard of Couch before this but I might have to start reading his books!

Without giving away any spoilers I will try to summarize the premise of the show.

A Secret Service Agent (played by Matt Dillon) arrives in a town called Wayward Pines after being involved in car crash.  He is very confused and the town and it's people seems a little off.  As he tries to leave the town, he finds that it is impossible to actually leave and that there is more to investigate in Wayward Pines. There are creatures, bad guys, and good guys and it's hard to trust anyone in the show. Several other well-known actors are in the show including Juliette Lewis, Carla Gugino, and Jason Patric. I get a little bit of LOST vibe  but in my opinion it already comes across as far better acting (not that I didn't like LOST but it was frustrating at times)  and excellent cinematography.  I don't know what it is about the cool blue tones that I love in a film but it adds to overall eeriness and makes me love a movie or show more.

Wayward Pines is currently streaming on Hulu and it looks like some episodes are on the Fox site.  You can also buy all of Season 1 on Amazon.

I am about halfway through Season 1 of Wayward Pines and I am already completely wrapped up in the show. I haven't gotten this into a show since Sons of Anarchy which was another happy surprise. I suppose I will add WWP to my revolving list of shows to watch, not that it is that large of a list.  Since it is summer, most shows I am interested in aren't on, i.e. Walking Dead!  Pretty Little Liars did return last week but I am starting to grow tired of the show. The story seems more and more unbelievable and the continuous lack of resolution gets old year after year.

Memory Lane: Charmkins

Lately I have been interested in revisiting things from my childhood, the awesome 80's. It was different back then, kids actually played with toys and not just electronics.  Characters were invented by toy makers not just television.  I had some die hard favorites that to this day I still cherish and often wish I could share with my own girls before they get too big.

Charmkins by Hasbro are at the top of my list.  In fact, I often talk about them to my family because I had a rather large collection that my grandmother helped start and my mother lost/sold/gave away at some point after I left home.  I am still devastated and remind her of this often.  It is a long running joke in my family but truth be told, they were my most cherished childhood toys.

Charmkins were a series of characters that included little people and animals that were the size of a large charm.  They were a rubbery plastic and had loops on the top of their heads so that they could be attached to something you wear like a bracelet or to accessory toys that you could buy.  They also had holes on the bottom so they could be stood up in certain spots in the houses and cases that were sold as well.  I remember that they also smelled but no nearly as strong as Strawberry Shortcake dolls (another love of mine from the past).

My collection was made up of the Whippoorwill House.  It was a pink windmill house that you could attach the Charmkins to and spin them around. It opened up on the back side to a living room of a house where the Charmkins could live and play.  It also came with tiny pink furniture for the Charmkins to use. 

I also had the Jewelry Carrying Case which would store all the Charmkins but also folded out to be a little garden display. I loved organizing from a young age and I definitely kept my Charmkins orderly.  There was a small box on the bottom to store the accessories that came with each character as well.

Some of my favorite characters I owned were Brown-Eyed Susan, Wee Willie Winkle, Blossom, Chrysanthemum, Buttercup, and Popcorn. I remember my collection was so big that I filled the entire carrying case.  Brown-Eyed Susan was my favorite not sure if that had to do with the fact that I was a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl myself or I just loved the Van Morrison song, Brown Eyed Girl.

Several other Charmkins products were made in the 80's including a movie (only available on VHS as far as I know), coloring books, a game, and paper dolls.  Don't get me started on paper dolls because I seriously loved those too. 

You can still find Charmkins on Ebay these days, sometimes even new in packaging.  I love how retro the packaging is with bubbly letters.  I've considered restarting my collection again.  It kind of goes against my minimalist focus lately but I admit... I really do miss them.

Sugar Paper Planner

I am a planner. I thoroughly enjoy the process of all things planning related. 

Documenting lists, creating schedules, goal planning, organizing ideas and schedules. Ticking off each item as I get it done.  Even going back and recording the things that I already did just to have the satisfaction of ticking the item off.

Planning supplies. Paper, notebooks, notepads for lists, stickers, colorful pens (staedtler fine liners are my favorite), cute characters, florals, and geometric prints. I love it all.

I could sit in my office for hours just organizing and planning my day, my week, my life, my grocery list, my list of bills to pay, scheduling activities, my business, cataloging information (paper and electronic).

Me and planning are tight. 

There is something I find incredibly satisfying about the whole process.  I have dabbled with using planners off and on over the years.  For a long time I had a large Day Runner that contained my life (contacts, calendar, bills, important info, etc.).  A few years ago I stopped using a paper planner and moved to Google Calendar.  My husband and I decided it was the best way to keep ourselves reminded of what was going on and inform each other of things we had schedules.  I love Google Calendar for this.  We each have individual calendars that we share and then we have Meal Calendar that we used for awhile to plan our meal menus each week.  Now that I am on Keto, we haven't used it but when we did, we loved it. It definitely kept us eating at home more because we had a plan.  Our Google Calendar usually contains appointments that we have, the school schedule for the year (in-service days, early release days, conferences, etc.), birthdays, and other various reminders.  The Google Calendar continues to work for us but also I realized it wasn't helping me with the things that my old paper planner did like goal setting, planning activities that weren't appointments, ensuring that I make time to do things for myself, etc. 

At the beginning of 2016 I decided to move back to using a paper planner in addition to the Google Calendar.  The Planner that I purchased was fairly inexpensive (from Target) by Sugar Paper.  Sugar Paper makes a line of all things stationary related. My planner has a monthly calendar and then a weekly page that allows me to plan tasks, people/places to call, things to buy, and people/places to email. It also has a monthly page that allows me to goal-set for the month -- Financial Goals, Work Goals, Personal Goals, etc. I really like the setup of the planner and it works well with how I think.  It also includes little slots in the front to stick bills that need to be dealt with. 

I have found that since moving back to a paper planner my ability to accomplish tasks has really improved. I feel like each week, my family and I have achieved many things and widdled down our to-do list.  From a small-business perspective my planner has definitely helped keep me accountable to the goals I set each month.  It has even helped in ensuring that I make time to blog and get my posts up on here each week.

If you are in the market for a planner, there is a great many out there as the world seems to have gotten planner-fever the last couple of years.  There are certainly some very customizable, fancy planners (and pricey) like Erin Condren and Day Runner but there are also planners for those that maybe don't need something so extravagant.  The Happy Planner is a cheaper option that still gives you some of the customization options,