2016 Review

2016 Reflections

10 Highlights

My baby shower
The birth of Evangeline Jane
Getting a drill for Christmas after (strongly) hinting about it for months
Winning big at the local Harvest Fair
Buying a new house
Renovating our crapshack and our "Painting Party"
Gilmore Girls Revival Weekend with my sisters
The birth of my first nephew, Elias
Vanessa getting engaged
Baby accessories. Shoes, booties, headbands, baby bikini's. I love all of it.
10 Disappointments
Not being able to breastfeed
After birth recovery time and Postpartum Depression
Granny dying 4 days before Eve was born and not getting to tell her that we had planned to name her first great grandchild after her.
Discovering the most awesome paint trim painting tool ever - when we were nearly done all our painting and renovations.
Not being well enough to fully enjoy our houseboat vacation this summer.
Fuller House
When the house cleaner I hired didn't show up and Arron and I had to clean our new house until late in the evening and I was so pregnant and sad.
Evie's being sick through her first Christmas.
A salt-dough electricity conductor experiment I worked hard on that didn't work.
"Me Before You" the movie. Didn't live up to the book in the least.

3 Game Changers
Having a baby
Buying a new house
Having a doula. Best money we ever spent.

3 Things I Focused onBaby
House renovations
Being creative & doing a lot of crafting projects

 3 Things I forgot

To make my famous "Bacon Roses" for Mitch for Christmas
My pillow at the hospital
To show up on a week I was scheduled to speak at Chapel. I was all prepared and ready to go, I just forgot to actually go. 

Big Seller

I started my challenge last week and have made it from $2 to $61 with another $50 of sales sitting on my craft table waiting to be picked up and $90 in orders waiting for me. I'm feeling pretty excited and hopeful that I will make enough money to buy the supplies I need for my craft show. It's a fun little hobby - selling things and then using the cash to buy supplies to make bigger and better things. My biggest seller over the last two weeks has been "Baby Birth Stats Art". People seem to really like them and I've sold quite a few. Here's some I've been working on.

If you are interested in one, send me an e-mail. $12 mailed to your home (frameless) or $12 with a frame (pick-up). 

New Challenge

I started a new challenge today. I decided the other night that next fall I would like to do a craft show or two. I make tons of really cool baby items for myself/Eve and whenever I send pictures of them to my sister Bethany or my friend Jacci they tell me I should make more and sell them. So I thought about it, and after some research on supply costs, displays, effort/time etc, I decided that I would like to build a stockpile of really cool baby things and then sell them at a craft show next year. I'm very excited about this.

I brought it up to Arron tonight and he said, "I feel like this is going to be you spending a lot of money and time on craft supplies to only make $5." I asked him if I could spend $100 on craft supplies and go from there. He laughingly suggested that I get $2.  We laughed and talked about it and decided that I could spend $100 on supplies and go for it.

Then it got me thinking. The craft shows are a year away. I wonder.... could I start with making a $2 item, sell it, and use the profit to get more supplies, then sell those items, get more profit, and more supplies. Basically a crafty version of the game 'Bigger and Better.'

So that's what I'm doing. I made two pairs of baby legwarmers tonight (total cost $2) and just put them up for sale on a few of our local buy and sell sites. I also had a pile of 'crinkle taggies' that I made on the weekend out of some old fabric scraps and ribbons. These are basically all profit since it was just random stuff I had laying around in my craft room.

If you are interested in helping out my crafty endeavor, send me an e-mail: nikkijdelay@gmail.com  Shipping is free for my faithful blog readers.

Baby Leg warmers. They make changing diapers a breeze. $5 each or both for $8.

Crinkle Taggies. Sick of your husband telling you that you are a bad mom for letting your baby play with pieces of plastic? Even though she loves the sound of it? Buy one of these home-made crinkle taggies. Your choice of Purple/Grey Paisley, Red/Blue Buttons or Blue Chevron/Vines. $5