Celebrating Becca and Benny!:)

Man. I almost forgot I had a blog. Seriously. Ha! Work has been crazy. Life has been crazy. I'm pretty much pooped out all the time. That being said, life continues to move and I've been up to so many things in the last few months. One of those things was celebrating the marriage of the friend I've known the longest - Becca! We've known each other since we were two. Unreal! <3 I can't believe it's been over a month since she and her hubby got married. Feels like it was just yesterday! I was lucky enough to be part of their special day, and I had such a great time! About a month before the wedding, we had her shower and bachelorette party as well. Such a great opportunity to spend time with old friends and make new friends. Without boring you with words, I'll share some pictures from all the fun festivities. I love my friends. :) (Hopefully I'll be back here more often that once a month, so stay tuned!)

Me and Becca at her bridal shower!

Me, Erin, and baby Witucki!:)

Me and Subs!

Blurry one of me and Bean!

Colby girls. <3

Girls in the wedding party!

Time to party!:)

 On the bus for the bachelorette party!:)

 Tex, our bus driver. What a character!

 We had missions that night. One of them involved getting a man to give up his underwear. That literally happened within five minutes of being at our first bar. Ha!

 One of my missions was to get a guy to let me write my name in lipstick on his chest. It was surprisingly easier than my first mission, which was to get a guy to donate $10 to the cost of our bachelorette party. Too funny!

 Rehearsal dinner!

Getting ready on wedding day! :)

Such a beautiful bride!

Me and Bean!

<3

Colby girls!

 Begin the love fest!;)

 A great time was had by all!:)

Etsy Progress:)

Hi all! Just wanted to pop in and share what's been going on with my Etsy store since I went "live" a little over two weeks ago (August 8). When I first launched it, I did lots of promoting on Facebook and Instagram just to get people aware of what I was up to. Fortunately I have some awesome people in my life who have looked and shared and all that good stuff, so I've been able to get some traffic to the site! At this point, I have 871 views, which is actually really good! Since Etsy is filled with hundreds of thousands of items, it's actually not the easiest to be randomly found through the site itself. They really emphasize the importance of using keywords so that people can find you when they search for certain items. Needless to say, I've done LOTS of research on it and have worked very hard to ensure this isn't all for nothing. Anyway, in just a couple short weeks, I've made three sales. Woohoo!!! A big, HUGE thank you to my sister-in-law Casey for being my very first sale! She bought these lovely little envelopes:

Pink and Navy Envelopes

Shortly after Casey bought those, I received a message on Etsy from a girl in Pennsylvania who really liked one of my banners and was wondering if I could make it in a different color scheme. After running to the store to buy some stuff that fit her needs, I came up with a few options, sent her some photos, and the rest is history. She absolutely loved what I came up with, and so I was able to successfully complete my first custom order! Here are a few pictures, and I've also decided to sell it in my store to others as well!

Find it here!

She even sent me a thank you email and a picture with the banner up in her room. How fun!

Oddly enough, the same day she officially bought her banner, another totally random person simply bought two packages of my blue confetti (1,200 pieces in each pack). Because I was leaving for a long weekend, I spent my Wednesday night last week punching 2,400 circles out of cardstock. Whew, that was a long night and a sore hand! ;) I was able to pack up and ship out the confetti before the weekend though, so hopefully she will be happy to have received it sooner than expected! Below is a picture of what she bought and how I packaged it!

Last but not least, as I mentioned in a previous post, I was planning to take some items to the store called The Regal Find to see if they would be interested in selling some of my stuff. I did that last Wednesday, and she took 17 of my items to start with! I only have one item of everything made up at this point, so she cleared my 'ready to ship' stock. Totally fine by me! :) So that's craziness, folks. I have sold stuff on Etsy, and I've also got some stuff in a store in hopes that it will sell! I may go in there at some point this week to see my stuff out in the store; it's still pretty trippy for me to think about, so I'd love to see it actually happening! Below is what I packaged up the night before.

Here is a picture of all the stuff she took from me at the store. I'm still so excited! I'll find out in the next week or two if I sold anything. In the meantime, I'm just happy my stuff is out there for people to see. I'll let you know if I end up stopping in or selling anything.

Hope to keep the momentum going - may be a little more challenging because the school year will be really crazy for me in the beginning. That being said, I'm going to try reallllllllly hard to not lose site of this because it makes me super happy. Wish me luck, friends! And don't forget to PartyHappier:).

I'm LIVE on Etsy!

So, you've seen me posting a lot recently about making crafts and wanting to sell on Etsy and all that good stuff. Well, I'm doing it. It's official! I have been working hard over the last month or so to take pictures and create listings and do my research on how to hopefully make this work for me. (Well, I've been doing that research a lot longer than a month, but the process has been really amped up over the last month.) Anyway, I have a bunch of products made and am super pumped about the fact that I went 'live' with several things for others to see - and hopefully buy! I know it's not magic, and I'd love for it if a million people found my stuff and started buying immediately. Reality is, that's not going to happen. Not without a little help from my friends;). So, if you're curious about my shop and want to see what I've been up to, please feel free to check it out: www.partyhappier.etsy.com.

Here's a snapshot of some of the stuff on my home screen!

I came up with PartyHappier as my shop name because I felt like it really captured what I want my items to do. Whether it's note card sets, banners, confetti, or whatever else I come up with, I want nothing more than to brighten people's days! Nothing wrong with partying a little happier and enjoying life, right?! :) I hope you enjoy what I have to offer, and please, please feel free to pass along the word to people you think might like these items! Stay tuned, because trust me when I say I have LOTS more on the way! :)

Even if I never sell a darn thing, at least I can rest easy in the fact that I have loved every minute of creating these awesome items. Feels wonderful to tap into my creative side! :) Thanks to all my friends and family for all the support! It means the world to me. PartyHappier, ya'll!

My Heart!

In case anyone forgot, I just wanted to remind you that I really, reallllllllly like this guy! :) We have such a great time together, all the time, and I couldn't be happier to have him in my life. No special occasion or 'reason' for this post, other than to just tell the world I'm a lucky lady! I hope everyone in life finds someone as special as I have. <3

Sneak Peek!

Hi friends! I hope you are all doing well. I am doing pretty darn good, but I will admit that I'm absolutely terrified by the fact that it is August 1 today.  One more month and school begins again. Ahhhhh. Why, WHY must the summer always go so fast?! I hate it. It's funny, I work in a school (by choice), and I oddly think I dread the start of the school year now more than I did when I was a kid in school. Weird! ;)

Fortunately for me, the summer has allowed me to really take some time and focus in on my crafting stuff. I have NO idea what will come of it, but I've been having so much fun making all sorts of goodies. I've even started making all my draft listings in Etsy, and hopefully within the next week or so, I'll be able to go LIVE! Eeeeeeeeee! I don't know if anyone will want my stuff, or if they'll even find it amongst all the other stuff on Etsy, but that's not going to stop me from trying! :) I've been working really hard on getting my listings ready to go - good descriptions, eye-catching pictures, keywords galore - in hopes that it will help people find me! You best believe I'll share the link with you once I have something to show! In the meantime, I just wanted to give you a sneak peek of some of my creations. Enjoy!

Neon Citrus Confetti (Above)
Pastel Confetti (Below)

No real name for the above one, but I love how bright and sassy it is! :)

Pink Chevron Collection:).

Rainbow Stripes & Dots!

That's all you get for now. Stay tuned for much more! :)

Hudson!

Back in the winter, a group of 8 of us who are all interconnected from La Crosse did a "staycation" at a cool cabin up north. It all happened to be couples, and it was an amazing time! We vowed at that time that we wanted to do something again, so fast forward about 6-7 months, and we decided to do another 'staycation' up in Hudson. A bit of a hike for L and me from Madison (about 4 hours), but totally worth it! Our friends Rachel and Eric live up there, and we always have such a blast every time we go! They graciously agreed to host us and take us out on her parent's pontoon, so no way were we passing that up! L and I took off work that Friday and headed up early. We got to explore the city for awhile before they got done with work and before the rest of our crew got to town, so that was fun! Once everyone got there, we headed out to Rachel's parent's house (amazing!) and made a bunch of fish they had caught on a fishing trip awhile back. It was so tasty! We also stayed in tents in the backyard. It's been a LONG time since I've slept in a tent. Let me tell ya, those damn birds are brutal at 5:00am! ;) Anyway, on Saturday, we got moving and got on the boat early. We were on the St. Croix River. Unfortunately for us, the weather was not the most cooperative that day. It was a bit chilly, and it was also very overcast. We parked at a sand bar and eventually got poured on. Good thing for us it was still fun! :) We hung out on the river for awhile, then went back to our cars and drove to Stillwater, MN for dinner. We ate at a place called Smalley's; I got the jerk pork tacos, and they were so good! After dinner, we went back and cruised on the river for a bit again because the sun finally decided to peak out. The next day, we got breakfast and then L and I met a friend of ours in Minneapolis for lunch. We ate at a seafood place called Smack Shack. I got the Lobster Mac 'n Cheese, and talk about heaven! L got a lobster roll (one of his all-time favorite things to eat), so we were both quite satisfied and full for our drive back to Madison:). Overall, a fantastic weekend, and I'm hoping we can do it again!

 They have a cigar shop in Hudson we always go to. He couldn't decide between these two big ones! He ended up getting the really long one for the boat the next day.

 

Enjoying one outside the cigar shop.

 

I even tried a puff or two:).

 L with Rachel's parents dog, Gracie!

Getting ready to head out on the boat for the day!

Soaking it all in:).

The ladies of the trip!

Lighting up the big one!

Me and Kayleigh!:)

The crew.

Me and Carrie!:)

My delicious tacos and mac 'n cheese (odd, I know:) from Smalley's!

 Back on the boat! Get ready for lots of pretty views! (No filter on any of them either!)

 

Love this one!

 Rachel and Eric driving the boat!

  

 

 So bright!

 

 

 What a gorgeous evening!!!!

Menu at Smack Shack!

 

My lobster mac!! YUM:).

A great weekend was had by all!