Custom Recap: Summer Butterfly Engagement Invitations

These invitations are perfect for a summer engagement party! I created them for my cousin - who loves the beach, butterflies, and summer - and I think we nailed all three on just one piece of paper! I'm so thrilled for her and her fiancé - we're so lucky to have them as cousins and friends!

If you love these invitations, they are now for sale in the Etsy shop!

Making Money

What's always amazing to me is how people become "professional" bloggers - where they somehow make enough money to quit their day jobs and blog full time. I have to admit, I am really jealous. Not so much that they were able to quit their jobs (ok, I am jealous about that) but mostly because they found a way to make some money off of something they love doing and that they made it seem effortless.

In my full time field of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, I've read a lot of research that has found entrepreneurship is linked to personality - some people want it and strive for it naturally, and other people just don't. I'm the first to admit that it doesn't come naturally to me. Every personality inventory, motivation assessment and value survey I have ever taken has rated commerce as low priority for me. Meaning that, generally speaking, I don't value money as much as I value say, feeling empowered. It also means that when I decided to open a business, I had an uphill battle because the first priority for me never seemed to be the profit.

Back in 2008, when I first started fumbling around with Believe Notes - my priority was to learn the trade. I did a lot of work for free, for friends and family mostly, and I made a few sales here and there, but I always lost money on the sales I made. I under priced, made mistakes, and miscalculated. If I can be really honest, I still struggle with underpricing. But it never bothered me to lose money, because I felt like I was gaining the experience, and the experience to me was worth more than the money. I understand that my nonchalance about losing money really is a personality thing, but I'm a smart person, and smart business people need to find a way to make money.

After a few years of testing the water, I started to grow - as a designer and as a business owner. I started to become more confident, and began making goals and decisions that would specifically aim to increase my profit - it was, and still is, very hard for me. I created a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, and an Etsy shop. I joined Facebook groups for Etsy sellers, I started participating more in online forums, and I began to read other blogs that had small business tips. With every little bit of effort, I would see a little bit more return. Maybe just one or two more Etsy sales, or more page views on my blog. I was thrilled.

But then I stopped.

I thought "Ok, so I did all the stuff, now I stop and let it ride." Right? Wrong. Things started to slow down, my sales decreased, I had less visitors on my blog, and people actually started to drop my facebook page. Ouch.

So then I started again. But not only did I start again, but I started with an entirely new feeling of empowerment, because I felt like I discovered something really, really good. Ready for my secret? Here it is:

It's simple, but it works. I know some people make things looks easy, as if they put no effort at all and all of their success comes magically. And maybe some people really do have viral/instant success, but in reality, most people don't. Most people have to work for their successes, and not just work, but work really goddamn hard.

Around January of this past year I decided I was going to start working hard. I didn't want my business to be a hobby anymore, I wanted it to make money. I realized that my day job, while good, should really only be responsible for taking care of my "regular" life, but it couldn't keep paying for my business. My business needed to pay for itself. I started thinking about all of my expenses and figured out how much I needed to earn in order to at least cover all of my business costs. I started making clearer goals for myself that I followed through. I really began taking things seriously - I got my Tax Id and registered my business, I'm making a very pointed effort to network more, I am adding some affiliate marketing to my blog and am thinking of selling some spots for recommended vendors, I started thinking about who/what my audience looks like and what they actually want, I'm researching new products before I invest in selling them. I took a hard look at what failure/success means to me, and I allow myself to redefine that definition if I need to.

Since I've been making so much more of an effort, I really have been seeing the results. I've been making not just enough earnings to cover my costs, but I'm at a point where I can save the money and start thinking about future business investments. I've learned the truth behind the saying "you have to spend some to get some" and I've been trying to spend little bits of money (for things such as search ads and advertising) to make some pretty big returns.  I hope some day to revisit this blog post and be able to talk about some major successes, but for now, I'm going to just keep on swimming and putting in the effort.

If anybody has any of their own little business tips, I would love to hear them :)

Revealed: New Kitchen!

We remodeled our tiny kitchen back in January - and I am pretty sure that the greatest thing on the planet is having a new kitchen, and a functional one, too! I shared a lot during the renovations, which my husband and my dad did on their own, but I wanted to share the final results.

Our kitchen is tiny, like really tiny, but we managed to make it incredibly efficient. We added a double-decker cutlery drawer, pull-out waste can cabinet, and an awesome lazy-susan for the corner cabinet. We cut corners by using semi-custom cabinets from Home Depot, a floor model fridge (our best bargain! It had a few little dents, so it was 50% off! We never would have been able to afford it otherwise!), and we went with a 2cm (slightly less thick) quartz countertop. We came in under budget, and the whole renovation was complete in about 10 days! Amazing!

We don't have any windows in our kitchen, so we wanted everything to be light and bright. The whole mission was for the kitchen to feel more spacious than it actually is, and I think we pulled it off. Especially when you compare to the before pictures in this post. We took down a wall, which helped TREMENDOUSLY! My father-in-law was hesitant, and he doesn't like to admit it, but I was right - taking the wall down made the biggest difference. We also got really lucky at a Sears Outlet Center and found a counter-depth fridge that had a little ding on it and was 50% off. The extra few inches of floor space also help to make the space feel bigger.

To see some of the progress along the way, here are some of my posts:

Remodel: A Prelude
Kitchen Update: The Expensive Part is Over
Chaos
Quick Hello
DIY Kitchen Update

New Page: Recommended Vendors

I've already raved about the folks that helped make my own wedding day come to life, but I felt that I needed to get the word out more. So, I've created a page just for recommended vendors. Most of the vendors are New York, Long Island, or East Coast people but some might travel, so they are worth contacting!

I might expand this page to include sponsored vendors, with the caveat that I'd like to meet, or work with, the vendor first. If you're interested in getting together, send me an email - believenotes@yahoo.com. Right now the page has all my own wedding vendors, but I'll be adding a few other folks I have met through Believe Notes and who I think are fabulous.

Week(s) in Review

by You Can't Be Serious

I've finally learned the art of scheduling blog posts - so where I used to lack the ability to post during my work week, I now am able to flood my blog with fun posts!

You might have missed something in the past two weeks, so here's a recap of what's been going down:

A little recap of the National Stationery Show, and the Matchbook Notebook Hunt.
I gave a behind the scenes look at my life over the weekend.
Sneak peek of my new stationery line.
Custom Recaps of a Brooklyn themed wedding invitation, and a pretty pocket fold wedding invitation.
New Baby Shower Invitations for sale at Minted, and a winning Thank You card design on the way.
I shared a scary goal for me, which is to network more, that I am hoping to conquer over time.
You also got the lowdown on the "before" of my office revamping.
Miss Juliet was formally introduced to the world, and got some awesome virtual love.

And then, possibly the most exciting thing to happen for me was the launch of my wedding Save the Date line. You can purchase any of the designs in my Etsy shop.

I'm heading out to Montauk this weekend with my family for some fun in the sun in our annual camping trip. If you've never been camping on the beach, I highly recommend it! Hope everybody else has some fun weekend plans!

WANTED: Organization

For those of you that know me, this post might be surprising - since I am known for being super organized and efficient. I've managed to squeeze tons of storage space into my little 1,000 sqft home - from using taller, better laid out cabinets in our new kitchen, to adding over-the-door storage behind every single closet door in our entire home - I try to maximize every inch we have.

But while my kitchen, living room, dining room and closets are nice and neatly organized, my office is a disaster. It's sad because the space is a nice big room, with a big closet, too - but it just isn't functional right now. For example, my desk area consists of one long desktop, two filing cabinets, a dry erase board (where the ink on it dried and can no longer be erased), a cork board, and two floating shelves (one of which is too high for me to reach).

To make up for the lack of efficient storage by my desk, I have added a bunch of miss matched storage solutions - from a 9 box cube thingy, to a repurposed TV unit (in title picture), and an old desk that never made it to the curb (under the window).

Ugh.

This morning I was showing my husband some samples of my new stationery line, and he took a step back and looked at the room. He has himself a little "Ahah!" moment and said "You need more storage." Yes, yes my love, I need lots more storage. And just like that, a new home project begins - project Jackie's office revamp.

I need my office to be more functional, and while all the pretty stuff is nice, what I need the most is a better system for bookkeeping. As my business grows (plus now I have tax obligations!) I'm finding myself overwhelmed with keeping track of receipts, order invoices, and basically any other paperwork. I'm starting to get seriously anxious about the accounting side of my business, and I'm hoping that making my office a little more functional will help me with the organization. Right now, I have a shoe box with receipts! Eeek!! (Designer friends: how do you manage your accounting stuff? I'm a designer, not a mathemagician!)

So hopefully before school starts up again in August, I'll have a nice functional office space. Somewhere to store all my paper samples, printer, envelopes etc. and be able to manage my business as well.

I sure have high hopes for this new office, don't I?!

I've started a Pinterest board just for some office inspiration. Check it out and follow me along as this new project begins!

Introducing Save the Dates by Believe Notes

I am so excited to announce the first part of my wedding line launch: Save the Dates! These cards are flat printed on thick, luxurious recycled paper and come with a matching patterned backer. They are the perfect way to ask friends and loved ones to hold your wedding date.

Here's a little preview of the 6 designs currently available:

1.2.3.4.5.6.

They each have a matching wedding suite, please email me (believenotes@yahoo.com) if you are interested in purchasing coordinating pieces.