Giveaway Announced and Business Cards Launched!

It's been announced!!! The launch of my Business Card and Calling Card lines could not have been any more perfectly times with my first ever Facebook Giveaway! I'll slowly be adding all my new business card designs to my Etsy shop (I'd do it all at once, but it takes so darn long to load the pictures!!) but if you are interested in winning 50 cards like asap, then run over and like my Facebook page!!!! One lucky winner will be receiving 50 custom calling cards from my new line!

Here's a little glimpse, for those of you that want to tease yourselves:

Hope you all enjoy!!

Believe Notes Free Giveaway on Facebook!!!

And I sure do have something to be happy about today!!! I woke up this morning to see my Facebook Page made it up to 100 fans and then just kept on going!! Woooohooo!!!! This means a giveaway is on it's way :)

So I think that not only do I have something to be happy about, but you all have something to be happy about as well!!

In order to be entered for the giveaway all you have to do is head over and "like" my page. Just remember that you need to like it from your personal page, not your business page, for some reason Facebook doesn't allow businesses to like other businesses. Silly, I know.

I've got a pretty good idea what I'll be giving away, but I think I'll wait till later to announce.

Thanks for all the support and keep the love coming!

**OH and if you haven't checked it out in a while, you'll be noticing a few new gems in the Etsy Shop**

Lovely Framed

This week is insane. Now that I think about it, I feel like I need to come up with a new phrase - I probably start 99% of my posts with a statement about the insanity of my life. Hmmm. I'll look into that.

Anyway, while I very impatiently wait to get my wedding pictures back from my amazing photographers (go stalk their site in my honor - Be Creative Photography) I have been keeping myself occupied with writing up all of my formal vendor reviews from the wedding. Oh, and of course I have been keeping myself busy with bulking up my design inventory....

Check out the Believe Notes Etsy Shop for my newest listing, Lovely Framed Thank You cards. These were so much fun to design, and I love the different color combos!

Here are some more pics:

Feels like summer, no?!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my dad, Rich. There isn't enough time in the day for me to go on and on about how much I love my dad and the extent to which he impacts my daily life. Just last week he was the one that saved the day when we had the carbon monoxide problem, and about two weeks ago he gave me away to my amazing husband. The past few weeks have been not just a trying time, but a bonding time as well. Right now I am thinking back at some of my favorite memories from the wedding: our walk down the aisle; the limo driver showing my dad how to lift my veil; our father daughter dance; and my dad wandering around the front lawn of my house, watching lovingly as the photographer took pictures of me. Here he is, in one of my favorite pictures from the wedding:

Not only do I have the pleasure of having an amazing father, I also have the pleasure of working with him professionally.  It's a pretty amazing feeling when you are walking down the halls at work and people stop you to tell you how much they love your dad. He's a role model to the employees he manages, as well as a role model to the Senior VP's that he trained years ago. I love that my coworkers love my dad, and I am so incredibly proud of him every day. The hardest part of getting married, for me, was returning to work with a different name. When I first started working I hated that it was so obvious that he was my dad. I wanted people to take me seriously because I was an intelligent professional that offered a lot to the company, not just some important guys daughter. However, I noticed that people actually gave me much more attention - as if to say "this girl must know what's going on, I mean, she's Rich's daughter." When meeting people at work for the first time, they instantly listened to what I had to say, because I knew not only their difficulties at work, but what it felt like growing up on the family side of the organization. I've realized that I am successful because I have a lot to offer and a lot of what I have to offer are lessons I have learned from my dad.

So, happy Father's Day to the man that has given me everything and continues to give me everything. Thank you Dad, for being a friend, a father and a coworker. I love you!

The card I made my dad this year!

And a Happy Father's Day to all the other amazing dads out there!!

Today I am Tired

Today I am tired. Not just a little tired, but sleep-in-your-food tired. You know the feeling, looks a little like this...

I might feel like hell right now, but I think I've gotten a lot accomplished this week. I've started a Believe Notes Facebook page, which is really exciting because I adore Facebook (who doesn't?!). I'm planning on doing a little give away when the page reaches 100 "likes" so please head on over and like like like me!

I've also finished up two more of my wedding invitation designs for a new line, which I know I've been dragging my feet on, but now that my own wedding is over, I can focus on launching these new designs.

Over the week I've done some research on taking better pictures of my products, and I've starting re-shooting everything using the tips I learned. Everything looks great and I plan on adding a new item to my Etsy Shop every week! I'm also exploring other options for online stores. Etsy rocks, but I would love to be able to offer higher end wedding invitations through a separate vehicle. Sometimes I feel like Etsy demands the lowest prices possible, and in order to do that I need to keep the designs simple. I'd love to have two shops, one for the high end products and another shop for the more DIY client...I might even explore printable designs.

Anyway, this week I have also begun networking. My business has taken a backseat over the past two years to home buying and wedding planning, but moving forward I want focus on growing my passion for stationery. I'm looking forward to learning as much as possible about the stationery business world over the next years.

So, for now, me and my tired little self are going to go relax - for maybe 5 minutes....and then I'll find something more interesting to do :)

Some Snaps Before I Nap....

It's 11pm - that is SO beyond my bedtime!! I stayed home all day today to focus on my business. After many cups, correction - pots, of coffee, countless new blogs and websites added to my favorites, and about 15 online tutorials later, I have managed to accomplish more today than I have in a few months. Might I add how much more productive I am when I don't have a wedding to plan!!!

So today I made myself a little light box so that I could take better pictures for my Etsy shop. I have a long ways to go, but the pics are definitely an improvement. Here are a few shots of new items getting ready to hit the ground running...

Stay tuned! I should be listing all of the above on Etsy within the next week or so! Oh, and if you haven't yet, pretty please show the love on my new facebook page by giving me a "like" click!!!

xoxo Jackie

Believe Notes, now on Facebook!

Yippie!!! I have finally made a nice little Facebook page for Believe Notes!!

Please go "like" me, right over here: Believe Notes - Facebook Fan Page

Thanks so much!!!!

Jackie

Carbon Monoxide Warning

In the last post I mentioned the emergency that happened to me this past Monday night. Although it has nothing to do with stationery, design or weddings, it was a scary event and I want to take a moment and let everybody know what happened. Hopefully you can all go home and make sure this does not happen to you.

This past Monday night at 1am my carbon monoxide detector went off. It was my first night back in my home after getting married (so it was empty for two weeks) and my husband was working a night shift. As soon as I heard the alarm I got my dog, went out to the porch and called 911. The FDNY was there within 10 minutes and told me that the CO level in my home was so high that I would have been dead within one hour. In New York City people are asked to evacuate if the CO level reaches a level of 15, the CO level in my home tripped the FDNY gas meter at 300. One of the firemen told me that I would have passed out from the CO within another 15-20 minutes and would have been dead within 45 minutes after that.

We live in a condo, which we purchased a year ago. We have had no problems with anything over the past year. The fire dept. suggested we have our boiler replaced, as they deemed our boiler room the CO source. By Wednesday morning (and quite a few $$$ later) we replaced our entire hot water system. Wednesday afternoon my husband called me at work to say our CO alarms went off again. Once again, the FDNY was called, the home was ventilated and all of our gas was shut off. The plumbers came back, along with our condo super, and they did not know what the problem was. I am EXTREMELY upset because our none of the "professionals" that came to help us had a multimeter. A multimeter is a small instrument used to test the air for toxic gas/chemicals. Without the multimeter there was no way of determining where the CO was coming from, and how much was leaking. We had plumbers, utility workers and our condo superintendent looking for the problem, and not a single one of them had the correct equipment. Our super didn't even know what a multimeter was. I find that absolutely disgusting and have made a formal complaint to our management company. If somebody had come with the appropriate meter from the beginning, we would never have spent the $$ to replace the boiler, because in the end, that turned out not to be the problem.....ok, I'm ranting and getting ahead of myself. Anyway....

After four days of nonsense from the "professionals", my dad (who is in charge of several power plants in downstate NY) came to the rescue. I had been calling him daily to tell him what was going on, and after him hearing how ridiculous our contractors (and after they "fixed" the problem for a third time, and then the CO alarms went off AGAIN) my dad took a multimeter from his job, left work immediately and drove two hours straight from his job to my home.  After spending 15 minutes looking at my boiler room he discovered that the previous owners had installed the air conditioning unit backwards, literally. Our AC unit was pulling in air from the exhaust of our boiler aka it was pulling the CO from our boiler and venting it through the rest of the home.

Thank God for my dad, who I love more than words, and who I could never thank enough for everything he has ever done for me.

So, readers, please, please PLEASE make sure you have working CO detectors in your homes, your children's homes, your parents homes, neighbors, friends, loved ones etc....You can pick up either a plug in or hardwired detector at just about any store (Home Depot, Lowes, Target etc). A simple $38 investment saved my life nearly three times this week (and of course the life of my husband and Miss Juliet). Additionally, if your alarm ever does go off, replace it immediately, once CO gets into the detector it may make it less effective moving forward.

Be safe everyone!

Jackie

Back to Reality

Well sort of...

The wedding was absolutely the stuff dreams are made of - I'm talking perfect weather, everything on time, party-mania, and chock full of love. I plan on spending the next few weeks doing vendor reviews, because my people rocked, and I mean ROCKED.

In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite pics from the night (all sent to me by friends and family, as I am impatiently waiting for the professional pics to be leaked!!)

This is one of my favorite pictures. My dad was just standing back watching me the whole morning. So touching.

The dinner tent

My parents

And this is what a PARTY looks like!

I designed & printed all of the menus and the wine bottle labels. My dad makes wine, and he made the wine favors for all.

Much, much more to come soon! In a quick recap, our wedding was amazing, the honeymoon sucked (rained, no poured, the entire time in Jamaica), and I'm regretting not taking time off after the honeymoon before going back to work. I had about 12 hours from when I got off the plane and had to go back to work, definitely not enough time. My home is a disaster (every single surface is covered with either laundry, luggage or wedding cards) and to make matters worse we had an emergency last night that involved a large number of firemen & emergency personnel to go through my home. EMS kept asking how I felt, and I kept saying "embarrassed, my home is a wreck!". They laughed at me, but really, I was mortified....

Anywho - thanks for all your well wishes, I have recieved a few touching emails, which I appreciate greatly! Check back soon for more pictures, reviews and snippets of my design work!

xoxox
the new Mrs.