so, i think im bringing back my "month in review" feature. i havent done it in a couple months and ive missed it. i really did like re-visiting all the highlights of the past month, and this also seems like an appropriate time to check in on my monthly wishes.
so heres some cool stuff that happened january, theres the real-life things, like:
alice made her first sculpture:
i gave her some of those biodegradable packing peanuts and showed her how to lick them and stick them together. she made that crazy piece, which she named "snowman" (note: right now everything is a snowman).
alice is back in ballet class:
alices friend quinn had a superhero themed birthday party and asked everyone to dress up as their favorite hero, so naturally we did our first ever family cosplay in a doctor who theme, with james dressed as the eleventh doctor:
alice as the tardis:
and me as amy pond (admittedly, not nearly as good of a costume as james and alice):
james and i went to the namm show.
and we had our first disneyland day of 2014:
and then theres the blog/shop things, like:
i completely changed both how i approach writing content for this blog AND how i market it and the results have been INCREDIBLE. i mean, the month isnt even over yet and all my stats have surpassed every record high, AND my reader engagement (tweets, comments etc.) has gone through the roof (SO many new blog friends! i love it!). it was an AWESOME start to the new year in blog land.
i guest posted on the art of balance, and in my (totally biased) opinion i think its some of my best work yet.
i didnt get as much time to sew as id like (ive been working at joanns a bit more than usual), BUT i did manage to get a couple of new skirts in the shop, with a new (BIG!) batch coming very soon.
i changed the way we photograph my shop listings, and i think it looks much more professional.
and most importantly, ive put a MUCH bigger focus on running poverty luxe like a business, mainly meaning that im sticking to my completely insane business model, and that i raised my prices, so that i now have a wide enough profit margin to BOTH pay myself fairly and finance some major business growth.
now what about januarys monthly wishes? well, in case you dont remember, this months theme was fresh, and my goal for the month was to incorporate that theme into four different areas: our diet (more fresh foods), my attitude (a fresh outlook on life), the shop (fresh product), and the blog (fresh content).
and how did i do?
as far as our diet, great! were totally back on the weekly meal planning wagon, eating way more fruit, veggies and fish, and havent been keeping any junk in the house (plus! i havent had any soda in a whole month!).
as far as the blog, also great! ive already talked a quite a bit about the new content, and it seems to be going over REALLY well.
as far as the shop, i think i did ok, but i could have done better if work wasnt so busy. i didnt get as much new product IN the shop as i had hoped, but i DID start a new batch of skirts AND for the first time in ages ive been researching and prototyping some new products for spring/summer AND fall/winter.
now as far as my attitude, that one i did really bad with. see, this month has been really, really, REALLY hard as far as daily life is concerned. remember this post where i was all excited for james working three days in a row? well it turned out those were the only three days he worked all month. and on top of being stuck at home, bored out of our minds, and totally stressed out about being almost completely out of savings, my health seems to have taken a turn for the worse (im totally having hyperthyroid symptoms, but theres nothing showing up in my blood work to suggest that my thyroid is actually up to no good). obviously tensions have been high and nine times out of ten ive let it get to me. ive been impatient with alice and ive been mean to james and ive withdrawn from my friends and ive done exactly the opposite of what i was supposed to be doing. i feel like a total failure.
well actually, not really. this is actually the reason that ive decided to bring back the "month in review" post. because, even though a lot about this month sucked, and i really sucked this month, a lot of GREAT stuff happened and january wasnt a total loss.
taking a step back and looking at the month as a whole has been really encouraging. january was tough, and it most certainly did NOT go the way that i had hoped, BUT looking at the big picture, all things considered it was actually a pretty great month.
ill just have to continue working on my attitude probably forever (it wasnt really my strong suit anyway).
dont forget to stay tuned for next month theme (im talking about it on monday!)
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