How is it already the end of August? As much as this year has stunk, at least it's flying by. Summer is winding down and I'm finding myself longing for crisp autumn mornings, beautiful changing leaves and pumpkin everything. It's already been over a month since the last time I checked in on our day to day lives. After Eliot's sisters left on their road trip back to Colorado, Eliot and I basically went back to our boring and quiet lifestyle for the most part. There have been a few highlights though!
Most importantly, my Mom had her surgery about 2.5 weeks ago and she's home and slowly recovering. After a long summer of uncertainties and rescheduling things, she's finally done with all of the procedures she was supposed to have. I've been doing a lot of traveling back and forth between our house and my parents' house, but it was all worth it to have her home safe. I'm hoping that this is the end of the procedures and that she can take time to fully heal and recover this fall.
As for our businesses, Eliot and I have gotten a lot busier this past month. Part of it is that I haven't been home much, but it's mostly because we've gotten re-motivated. It's been really hard to get excited about mouse ears when the parks have closed and business has been down. But orders have slowly picked up, and with that so has our desire to make new designs. As you know, last month we were really busy working on our Christmas in July mouse ears. That kind of kick started both Eliot and I to begin working on new mouse ear designs.
Since then, we've gone through all of our mouse ears. We started with the incomplete samples that we're working on. (We've got about 40 of them that are in various stages of completion!) Some of them are completely new designs; while others are new variations of current designs. Eliot and I have also spent some time on the weekends organizing our mouse ear samples. Our current storage solution wasn't working, so we got some new storage containers and we separated them into categories. Now, it'll be much easier to grab the ones we need for our trips and to take social media photos.
I've also taken some time to work on our Happily Ever Hatter Etsy shop. I haven't spent too much time working on it the past few months while the parks have been closed. But now that things are slowly picking back up, I felt like it was time to give Happily Ever Hatter a little love. I've been working on organizing our existing listings in order to make room for new ideas we're working on behind the scenes. I've also been taking photos of our new designs and adding those new items to our listings.
As for Snowblade Creations, that has been pretty steady. Eliot and I have kept busy fulfilling desk accessory orders and working on samples behind the scenes. However, we've been slacking a little bit. We've got two desk sets and a few new accessories that need to be photographed, edited and listed. Truthfully, they should have made their debut last month. As long as Mother Nature cooperates, we're planning to get that done sometime this week so I can finally get them added to our collection!
I'm really excited about a few new products that we're working on behind the scenes for both businesses. I ordered a few more supplies the other day for a new Happily Ever Hatter product that I've been dreaming of making for a while now. Plus, Eliot's been working behind the scenes on a new product that we'll be debuting soon! He's got a bunch of the samples completed and I'm so excited to add this new product to our collection! We're going to launch a bunch of the designs for it all at once!
Eliot and I have also taken time to enjoy our summer. After a few summers of barely getting any summer fun in, we've been sure to take some time for ourselves. We've continued to go swimming in Eric and Heather's pool whenever we've had a chance and the weather has cooperated. Eliot finished the Lego car he'd been working on since the end of July. We've continued to check Hallmark movies off our list- including a few more Christmas movies that we recorded during the Christmas in July week.
The most exciting thing for Eliot and me is that as of August 1st, hockey is back! The San Jose Sharks aren't in the playoffs this year, but that hasn't stopped us. In fact, it's been nice to watch without being completely 100% invested. The first week hockey was back, we literally watched nothing but hockey for a week straight. There were so many games to determine playoff standings and who would make it into the playoffs because the regular season got cut short. It's been a lot of fun and we're still very much interested in the playoffs. We watched most of the 1st round games. Now that we're into the second round and there are only 8 teams left, we're watching pretty much all of the games. It's been fun to cheer on past Sharks players! (Go Stars!!!)
We've actually had a little bit of a social life these past few weeks. One Saturday night, we went over to the pool and Eric and Heather were already in it. We spent about an hour and a half talking with them while floating around in the pool. Eliot works with both of them, so I wasn't worried about them giving anything to us or us spreading germs to them. For that hour and half, things actually felt normal.
On Sunday August 2nd, we had a BBQ Block Party with our neighborhood. Eliot and I live on a small private road with only 4 houses. Our new neighbors wanted to meet us, so we took our own food and had a social distanced gathering. We gathered at the end of the dead end road and talked for a few hours while the kids played. Towards the end, everyone went back to get their dogs and I got to love on the dogs. Two of the dogs loved me and they were pushing each other out of the way to get next to me for back scratches. I kept telling them that I had enough love for both of them. (Eliot and I really need to get a dog... I absolutely love them.)
Finally, Eliot and I have gone out shopping a few times. Going up to Portland to visit Joann Fabrics and Michael's has been a big highlight for me. I love going to the craft stores; it's really therapeutic to me to browse and get inspired. Plus, it's been fun to picnic in our car outside of Chipotle after picking up our to-go order. It's been nice to get out of the house occasionally. Other than that, it's been a lot of the same.
Now that the seasons are starting to change, I suspect we'll start spending more time inside as it cools. Eliot and I still need to get back to finishing Once Upon a Time after taking a break between seasons 6 & 7. We've got a few more Hallmark movies to watch on the DVR. Plus, once it's cooler, I'm planning to finish organizing our master bedroom, my vanity and my clothes. I also want to get the master bathroom finished. I suspect that things will be getting a lot busier with working around the house! In the meantime, we're going to try to enjoy the last of our simple summer days. °o°
