Wow....what a month it has been! I don't know about anyone else but it seemed to drag by over here that's for sure and I have never been so eager for one to pass. Between a virus that knocked me out for almost 2 weeks, then morning sickness and severe exhaustion hitting right after it's been tough trying to get much of anything done.
So with that I first want to say I am so so so thankful to everyone who has been understanding and patient during this time. Many of you I have done orders with before so maybe that helped but I will always be thankful. I think I've turned my machines on 3 times in the last month which is way out of character for me. However after spending 12 hours with my daycare kids, taking care of my own family and such....I was just too exhausted to work some more.
It seems as though things are finally getting back to normal. Mainly I'm not feeling so sick anymore. I still have a few moments here and there, especially if I wait to long to eat, but for the most part it's passed. The exhaustion is still tough but it's letting up a bit too. Or at least I can stay awake till at least 9pm where before I was lucky to make it past dinner at 5:30pm.
With that being said I'm looking forward to using this weekend to get things jump started again. I've got orders that need to be done up and I'm going to prioritize based on a few things. First anything Halloween related will be done so it can go out Monday at the latest. I know we are getting closet o the holiday so if your waiting on a tote or outfit you should have it middle/end of next week. The rest I will need to sort through and just get them pushed out. I'll be doing updates on your website accounts so please keep an eye out for those. You should get an email letting you know if an update is done, if you don't see it you can log in to your account and see if it was updated or not. All of them should show updated or have a message sent out no later than Sunday night. If you can give me through then to get that done we should be good to go. There is only I think 8 or 9 of you waiting so it should be no problem to get most if not all of you done this weekend.
Now, for the changes. And I promise it isn't all bad! Having been so sick lately it's given me some time to think about things and also try to figure out solutions. When baby #4 comes I have no way of knowing how long it will be after birth before I start working on projects again. Plus, going up till then there are going to be times I'm super tired or honestly....just don't feel like working on something. I want to make sure though that I'm not getting orders that people are waiting on to be made though and have them get delayed for what ever reason. to avoid that we are going to move in the direction of doing more selling of already made, ready to ship items and fewer customs.
This change will mainly apply to clothing items such as dresses, pants, skirts, etc. T-shirts with applique/embroidered designs can still be custom ordered if you would like a name on them. I'll be putting up some ready made ones with cute designs though for those who are interested and want to get it quick after purchase. Anything that is on the website as of Monday will be items already made and ready to ship and will go out on the next drop at the post office. I think this will work out best for myself and for my customers to make sure they are getting their items as quickly as possible.
Finally for shipping. With my daycare it is near impossible for me to go to the post office more than twice week so we are going to set up specific dates for shipping. Those shipping dates will be Tuesday and Saturday each week. If either day is a holiday it will go out on the next business day available. Any orders placed and paid for by 6pm EST the day prior to a shipping day will be sent out. For example if you order at 2pm on Monday it will be sent on Tuesday. If you order at 8pm on Monday it will go out on the following Saturday.
With shipping we will be also offering a free shipping option. You will now be able to select delivery via 1st class mail for free. First class mail will NOT include delivery confirmation/tracking and may day a few days longer to arrive. Those who chose priority mail for shipping will still receive the delivery confirmation/tracking information.
So I think that's about it for now. We have kind of a crazy day today since the kids have a 1/2 day of school but I will be around tonight. I'm anxious to get back in the game and have some fun. We'll be looking to do lots of networking, games, some auctions again (remember the big shirt auction last year for Christmas??) and more. I want to have fun with this and get the momentum back that I lost from the last month.
