Hope Handmade and Other Random Stuff!

I'm excited because I changed Hope Handmade over to a blog last night. Now when you type in www.hopehandmade.com, it will take you straight to the blog I set up! I thought this would be the best way to go for now. It was costing $10/month for my big cartel web store and this way it's free. Also, I felt bad for having a web store and not putting anything on it.......too much pressure! Ha! So, I just thought that this way, I can add things to my blog when I make them and if anyone wants to buy something, I can just send them an invoice. Of course, right now I don't really want to get into making things since we are getting ready to move, but I think this will be an easy way to do it later on. I would love it if you would follow my new Hope Handmade blog! :)

They are putting our kitchen cabinets in right now and I can't wait to go over there later and see how they look! I'll come back tonight with pictures! A crazy thing happened today. I have been trying to sell our house on facebook (LOL) and one of my friends from high school asked me how much we would lower our price if someone paid cash for it! Her cousin is looking for a house. I don't know how serious they are, but it did make me feel encouraged anyways. I am waiting to hear back from Morgan on that. Ha!

I think I slept a total of 3 hours last night, and only because I finally came and slept on the couch. Lily still sleeps with us and she tossed and turned and sniffled all night long. Not to mention, due to my 2 hour nap on the couch yesterday, I was wide awake until 3am. I am so looking forward to moving so Lily can sleep in her own room. She is too scared to sleep all the way upstairs in this house. We are making a pact that this new baby will not sleep with us, but you know how that is. LOL!

Thanks!!

Thank you all so, so much for your sweet words about our exciting news! I always used to think it was so neat to see my blog friends get to blog about their pregnancies and new arrivals, and I honestly never thought I'd get to do that too. I have lots of emotions, just because I think I'm still processing that we are going to have another baby! What a blessing! We honestly thought that we were unable to have children anymore, due to the fact that we have never tried to prevent it and it had been almost 5 years since having Lily. We make plans, and then God does things His way......the best way! I'm not going to lie.....it took us a few days for the shock to wear off, with tons of things running through our minds like:

our new house only has 3 extra bedrooms!
we still haven't sold our house!
I just got rid of all of our baby stuff!

Of course, none of that matters. We'll figure something out with the bedroom situation. Eventually, we have to sell our house, right? I sure hope so! We did have an open house and got some positive feedback and interest, but no offers. Boo! And as far as the baby stuff, well, as long as we have a few clothes and bottles and diapers/wipes, we're good to go!

I'm just going to tell y'all right now not to expect too many belly photos on this blog though, because we've already discussed how Kristin looks like a huge whale by the time I get to my 3rd trimester. Okay? Okay! :D I'm a little upset at myself because I am weighing way more than I should at the beginning of a pregnancy, and so whereas I happily gained 40-50 lbs. with my other girls, I will be trying really hard to keep this one under 20.

Remember how I said I was praying for the Lord to help me with my Starbucks addiction? Well, I didn't think this is the way He would go about it. Haha! For a girl who drinks coffee every day and Diet Cherry Cokes too, it's been an adjustment to quit cold turkey. But, I have been drinking lots of water, some decaf coffee (I'm actually losing my craving already for it.....can we say miracle?!), and I like caffeine free diet pepsi too.

I've been extremely exhausted, but I also worked non-stop last week getting ready for our open house, quit all caffeine, and had parents' watch nights all week, so hopefully my energy level will pick back up soon. I've been feeling a little yucky, tummy-wise, but nothing major. The girls are on spring break this week, so that gives me a little break from all the driving and stuff.

So, of course everyone is wondering if this will be our boy! Honestly, it does not matter to us at all. Another girl would be super easy because that's what we know, but of course a boy would be an all new adventure! I'm going to need some help with thinking of some good names for both!

So now, I'm not sure what to do with my business. That was my plan for what to do when all 3 girls were in school next year, but obviously now I have found something sweet to fill my time with. There's just no way I can commit to running a business and taking custom orders. Anyone who has a handmade business knows that you never really make any money when you factor in the time spent, and with 4 kids, my time is going to be precious. However, I love making things and you can bet this baby will have lots of stuff made by me. I was thinking about doing away with the Big Cartel web store I set up (just because it costs $10/month) and possibly just making things when I can and listing them either here on my blog or maybe setting up a separate blog to list things on. Any thoughts or advice on that?

Thanks again for being excited with me! It's going to be a fun adventure, for sure!!!

A Carrot!

Kaylee has been telling me about her carrots she planted in their garden they planted at school for awhile now. Today, I picked her up from band practice and she had something green in her hand and I was like, "What is that Kaylee? A weed?" LOL!! Then she showed me the carrot part. :D
That's one good lookin' carrot!
She said it was yummy too!

In other news, the beautiful front door I picked out ended up being $2100 when Morgan went to order it. Ha!! Needless to say, that wasn't in the budget, so I gotta find a more reasonable one!
I drove by after school today and they had half the shingles on the roof already! Awesome!

We missed church again yesterday. I did watch Lifechurch.tv's online sermon today. It was about not comparing yourself to others. It was a great one and I'll write what I learned on it later. I've been a little overwhelmed lately, thinking about everything I need to do around here to get ready to move, on top of my normal stuff. I somehow got myself started on reading about 5 different books at once too and I think I'm just going to have to allow myself to set them aside for awhile. And as for my business, it may just have to take a back seat too. I hate that, but family comes first and that's just where my priorities have to be right now. I'll still be working on it, but it may be a few months before I'm able to launch.

Hope Handmade

Probably most everyone has seen me post this on facebook, but I just wanted to share it here too! When I was working on designing my new Hope Handmade website, and thinking about how I wanted a little house on there somewhere to represent the one from my outfit (above), I never dreamed that I could actually have THE house designed for me!

It was so amazing how God worked out that detail, because the opportunity literally just kind of fell into my lap! Lynnette just mentioned that Abigail had a graphic tablet and then the next thing I knew, she was designing my little house for me! And she even made me all different sizes of logos too! It was more than I ever could have dreamed, to have my very own unique logo with so much special meaning!

I would be SO excited, honored, overjoyed, thankful, and just so happy if you would like to put my new button on your blog! My Summer Suzette website will be gone soon, so if you would replace that button with this new one, that would be awesome!!



<center><a href="http://www.hopehandmade.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l538/HopeHandmade/housebutton200.png" /></a></center>

I just am so amazed at Abigail's talent. She designed Summer Suzette Couture for me and now she has made this perfect design for Hope Handmade that is just everything I could've ever hoped for! I can't wait until my store is full of sweet little dolls! I've been working on them and I'm oh so close to finishing my pattern! I hope everyone likes them!

Laughing Until You Cry!

Tonight, Morgan and I were watching a show and it had a funny part and Morgan started laughing so hard, which made me laugh so hard that I was literally crying! :D And then, I was adding "rolaids" to my iphone notes, which I was using to write my shopping list and it did the auto-correct feature and thought I was trying to write "Yolanda"........that had me laughing so hard that it took me about 5 minutes before I could even tell Morgan what it said.

Don't you just love laughing so hard that you cry?!! And the funniest thing is that it was not really funny at all. LOL!! It was one of those "you had to be there and be Kristin" to find it funny. Haha!

Anyhoo.........I felt like I was productive today because I paid my business taxes and canceled my sales tax permit. This week, I need to get my new DBA, sales tax permit, and post office box. I'm excited to sit down and make my new dolly pattern, but a little scared too. What if it doesn't turn out right or it takes me forever to get it right?! That is the perfectionist in me, my own worst enemy!

I started reading Ann Voskamp's new book tonight. It is really good. You can join in too. The bloom book club has picked it for their newest selection. I downloaded it on my nook. I was so excited that it was available on there! I am also reading "Lies Women Believe" that Kelly is doing over at her blog. I need to catch up on reading it, but it's going to be a good one too. And I'm in the middle of Candace Cameron Bure's new book about fitness from a Christian perspective. I also got Dan Woolley's new book, about being trapped in the Haiti earthquake, from Walmart and started reading it. Looks like my reading for 2011 is getting off to a good start!

I Think This is it!

I think I got one that I'm really happy about :) I decided to do red for the background, but kind of have the girl on the outside of it and I cropped her a bit. What do you think? Everyone's suggestions on here and on FB were SO helpful!!! Thank you so much!


I added my new button to Big Cartel and I ended up on the same page as Gussy herself. :D How exciting!!!


I think I'm just going to leave this design for now and get started on designing my dolls! You know, so I'll actually have something to sell in my shop and all. Ha!

It might be a little slow going this week because I am working hard to finish going through all of the girls' toys. We spent hours in their playroom cleaning out on Saturday. I was surprised that they actually let me get rid of some things. LOL! My Dad and Stepmom are coming for a visit this weekend, so I'll be getting ready for that. Hope everyone has a great week!!

P.S. They are almost finished putting the forms up so that our foundation can be poured for our new house. Yay!!!

Logo Designs

I have been having so much fun learning how to use Photoshop Elements!! It really is addicting, but kind of overwhelming too. I was looking through all of these digital scrapbooking kits online and found a couple that I really liked. I bought them just so I could play around, but I don't think I can really use them for my business, since they are not for commercial use.

Here is the first header I made, using a kit. I thought it was cute. :) I have been using hot pink all this time with my old business and I'm kind of tired of it and wanted something bright and colorful for my new business. Then, after I saw this one, I thought the colors worked because when you think of primary colors, you think of kids anyways (since I'm going to be making dollies). I also want something that will capture people's attention when they see my button, etc.
Well, I got to looking around and there are some kits you can use that will allow you to use their graphics on websites, as long as you pay an extra fee. So that may be a good option for me. The whole point of going with big cartel and getting photoshop is so I don't have to pay someone to design my website for me, so I'm just learning as I go. Ha!

I have known about Broken Box designs for awhile and I have always loved her work! The best part is that she allows you to use her designs on websites, business materials, on things you make and sell, etc. I actually bought this "crafty girl" design a long time ago and have put it on here before. I just think she's so cute! I'm not sure if I'll keep her as my "brand", but I really like how the "hope handmade" came out and I think I'll keep it. Not sure about the colors yet though. Comparing it to the other design above, I think they need to be a little darker/vibrant. I found the fonts over at Kevin & Amanda's free fonts blog. They have some really adorable fonts!

I put the little house at the end for a very specific reason. When I was trying to think of a new name, I kept looking at this outfit that my Mom framed for me and trying to think of something that would go along with it. It has a little red house on it with a bright blue roof.


This outfit is so special to me. I was wearing it when my story of hope first began to unfold! This picture was taken when I was 9 months old and that is my Mom holding me. Only she wasn't my Mom yet....she was just keeping me. Little did we know that just four months later, she would be my Mom and my new life that God had always planned from the beginning would begin! So, that little house at the end of "handmade" truly does symbolize so much to me!! It means family, hope, and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

I'm sure my logo will keep evolving as I continue to play with it. It sure has been fun! I really appreciate any feedback you might have too. I want my new look/identity to be fun and be something that would make someone want to visit my shop! Now, I can't forget that I actually have to MAKE something for my shop! Haha! That's going to be a whole other design process! :)

My New Business Name!

I just wanted to say thank you SO much for all of your sweet and encouraging comments on my last post. I am so incredibly blessed to have met so many wonderful friends here on this blog! I love y'all so much!!

Out of the ugliness, exciting things are happening! God is always faithful to bring beauty out of what others intended for harm. Kate left me a comment yesterday and her suggestion for my new business name was "Hope Handmade." It's so funny too, because I kept thinking about "hope" and I thought maybe I should just name my shop "Hope Unfolding", but that just didn't seem quite right. I also had been thinking about using "handmade" in my name too..........but, I never put the two together! Ha!

By the time I got done replying to Kate's comment, I just knew that was the name! I love it!!! It goes along with my blog, so I won't have to start a separate business blog. It has special meaning to me and it also goes along with my very favorite bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I was mostly just SO overjoyed because the night before, I had specifically been praying for the Lord to just help me find the perfect name. And Kate said that it must have been God, because that name just popped into her head. Love it! Best of all, the url was available! Every name I had thought of before was already taken.

So, I now own www.hopehandmade.com and it will take you straight to my Big Cartel shop that I set up! Y'all will laugh when you see my shop.....it's so plain and boring! But, I bought Photoshop Elements and I'm determined to learn how to use it so I can make me a pretty header for my shop! I opted not to set up a website like I had for my other store, because it just seemed like having a big cartel shop would be much easier and would have all the same features, and I will be able to change the design easier, instead of having to hire a web designer every time.

I know I always put the cart before the horse on these kinds of things. I haven't even designed my products yet, but I hope to have an awesome empty shop soon! Haha! I still need to go get my DBA (doing business as) from the county and a new sales tax permit. Yes, this will be a legit business just like Summer Suzette Couture always was. :)

I'm just really excited, mostly because of the way it all worked out! God is amazing!!

I also wanted to wish Veronica, Amanda, and Stephanie the best weekend of their lives! Amanda and Stephanie traveled to CA today to visit Veronica! I sure wish I could have gone! I am just not to the point where I can fly across the country yet, but I'm not giving up hope that we WILL meet one day!! I know the girls are going to have a blast and I can't wait to hear all about it!