I don’t feel guilty for falling off the blogging wagon, though.  I feel the opposite: well lived, and reminded that life still happens just as greatly, or even better, off the internet.  With that fresh perspective, I return to blogging with admittedly less devotion to the internet at large (and almost no interest in blog stats), but a renewed focus on the idea that the internet can connect people who care about each other, and that I am here to be nothing but my genuine self and share my story.

So, in a nutshell here is what has transpired in my three month absence, which with any luck, I hopefully will get around to posting about soon:

• We went on a wonderful vacation to CA in February, and reunited with dear old friends and family
• Family pictures with the wonderful Tegyn Friedman!
• Upon returning, discovered a surprise pregnancy! (we’d been trying for a year, so it was a fun surprise)
• Moved into our new house!
• Made and sold over 300 pillows via brickyard buffalo…(during first trimester woes…yikes)
• Brigham obtaining a long term sub teaching position, and also interviewing for teaching positions next year
• Boston Marathon weekend (and how we entertained my parents when the city shut down)
• Home improvement overhaul in the kitchen! (new pantry, new island, new base moulding, new dining bench)
• Budgeting, and temporarily closing my Etsy shop

Look forward to updates soon!

Jones

Here are a few of my favorites.

It was the first time I indulged myself in buying art supplies in at least 5 years.

I ended up selling $50 worth that day…just barely enough to cover flying there, and not even close to covering the $250 I had spent on art supplies and material and zippers and ink.  I went home truly wondering what I was going to do with the remaining batch of pillow covers and extra fabric, thinking, that at least I could just give them all to my friends.

Flash forward 3 months.

My etsy shop is blowing up with emails on a daily basis asking for custom orders, or wholesale orders, blog features, and to date, I have sold about 200 pillows and the demand just keeps increasing.  The shop is making money and, at this rate, is projected to do rather well in 2013 as an extra source of revenue for my family.  But aside from the obvious financial rewards, it is truly enjoyable whenever I get a message entitled: “I LOOOOVE your pillows!!!” or “OBSESSED!”  or “Your Aesthetic is SO cute” – I mean, seriously?  My stuff?  Come on.  Nobody has ever gone banana’s for something I’ve done or created before…I was not prepared for this in any way!

To say the least, there is a huge part of me that is completely blindsided and overwhelmed by all of these recent developments and any success that I have enjoyed.  Print making is something that I am absolutely passionate about and LOVE doing, and I have always kind of dreamed of owning my own business somehow – but for the two to go hand in hand is kind of surreal.  The pace of everything has caused me to make some mistakes, but I am trying to learn quickly and make the most of this opportunity as it presents itself.  I am now walking that fine line of dealing with rapid growth and time constraints and supply chain management and efficiency and pricing and ultimately making sure that this is all worth my while (which it is, even if I have some fine tuning to do).

SO, I thought I’d share a little insight into how I am handling the challenges and, also, what my core values are as a small business owner, and what I hope to incorporate into the branding of this shop as things unfold.

The Challenges

Printing.  With hand printed items, sometimes it takes multiple tries to get the screen to print cleanly.  This can be time consuming.  Sometimes it takes multiple tries to MAKE the screen image.  This can be very frustrating, but it is also what makes me unique as an artist, and it also makes every finished product a piece of art.  I love the process anyway, so this is the least of any of the challenges.

Fabric.  At first, I started out just shopping at discount fabric stores and getting a few yards here and there.  Then I realized after selling out of something, that I need to reorder fabric to fulfill an order, only to discover that it is no longer available (yikes)- and I am suddenly in a bind.  Finding similar fabric to fulfill orders has mostly worked out, but sometimes not.  I ran into this a lot a few months ago.  Now I have earned enough money to reinvest in purchasing 10-15 yards of fabric at a time.  This has significantly reduced my stress.

Sewing.  Ugh, sewing…so time consuming and so not enjoyable!  At least this is a fairly simple product to sew (4 straight edges) and it looks great when I am done with it!  I do have a high quality of craftsmanship which my seamstress mother ingrained in me, so even though I don’t really enjoy this part, it does feel good to make high quality pillows.

Branding.  This is potentially another fun one, but right now, while managing everything else, taking high quality photographs and making sure that I present a cohesive brand is kind of in its infancy at the moment.  Fortunately, working with the girls at Brickyard Buffalo has taken care of the marketing end of things, but branding (including packaging) is something I want to make sure to pay close attention to as time goes by.

Pricing.  There is a delicate balance toward what is worth your time and what is not.  I started my price point at $15/pillow so that all my friends could afford one, and that I could recoup my cost of making them.  Remember, it was a hobby then.  I also ran a few deals on Brickyard Buffalo at a significant discount so that I could put my name out.  When things started selling out so quickly, it became apparent that prices needed to go up…but how much?  I am comfortable with the $20-$30 range at the moment, so we’ll see how that goes!

Time Management.  I have a day job, a really great one too (I love my job)!  But the problem is that now I have TWO full time jobs, and my husband does not have a crafty, handy bone in his body – so I’m totally on my own.  I’ve tossed around the idea of hiring my friends to help with the production, but I admittedly still need to work out the pricing so that it all makes sense.  We shall see…

Core Values

Quality.  I refuse to send anything out that I am not personally proud of.  I’ll remake the item and spend extra time before sending out something that is not great.

Customer Service.  I worked at enterprise rent-a-car for an entire year, and while I was there (slaving away) I did absorb and internalize many of their core values and what has made them #1 in the industry.  At Enterprise, you cannot get promoted unless your customer services scores are in the 95% (as in, your customers are 100% completely satisfied with their experience).  Thanks to that job, I will without exception always go above and beyond to make sure that every customer I have is completely satisfied, no matter how much they paid for something I made.  I recommend this core value to everyone.  Do whatever it takes to people feel happy about their experience with you, and they will come back again and again.

Authenticity.  If you haven’t noticed, I’m a huge authenticity proponent.  Everything I design has personal significance and comes from the heart.

Affordability.  I think it is ridiculous to pay a million dollars for a painting.  I also think it is ridiculous to pay $120 for a pillow at anthropoligie.  My price point is always going to be set at what I personally would pay for something I like – which, is not much.  I think you all appreciate that too!

Branding

I love the idea of simple, classy, clean and comfy packaging  - and creating a brand that feels like “woah, i love you, where have you been all my life?”

The other night, Brigham told me something really sweet.  He said “Babe, it’s like there are these pillows that people really want, but they don’t know they exist until you create them, and then when they find them, they are happy because they finally find what they didn’t know they were looking for.”

Here are some brands that I really enjoy:

That’s my 2 cents for the day.

-Jones

(click for image source)

Like everyone else and their dog this week, I was bombarded with an influx of #vine profiles in my favorite instagram feeders.  So, after grumbling a little bit to myself, and feeling akin to a single cow in a giant herd making a mass exodus for the hills…I, like others, succumbed to peer influences and created an account.

And then I clicked ‘follow’ on all my favorite bloggers (all 2 of them) and then I clicked on who they follow, and clicked ‘follow’ again on most of them…hoping for some fun and interesting inspiration in my daily feed.

What I’ve been finding instead, though, is a creepy mix of children’s bedtime/dinnertime/bathtime rituals (is anything private anymore?)… shaky filming, really poor editing skills, and a lingering feeling that I am sitting in the family room of a stranger watching boring-to-me home videos…wondering why I am even there in the first place.  Am I alone on this point?  I’m not saying the app doesn’t have potential, once people figure out how to use it properly, or I mean, at least artistically.  But that’s the thing, isn’t it?

What is proper use?

I heard on NPR yesterday afternoon, that it historically takes people at least a generation to figure out how to safely operate new technology.  I don’t profess to be an expert on any type of technology nor the Internet, nor social media, nor blogging, but I’ll take NPR’s word for it and assume that in the millennial age of the Internet, we’re not quite there yet — particularly when it comes to our general lack of self regulation and propensity to over-share, and place implicit trust in the small percentage of people profiting billions off of those two qualities.

That said, as a blogger (and I reluctantly label myself that), I think it’s time to put my 2 cents in on what I’ve observed over the past year or so, from personal experience and from an observer.  I feel specifically inclined to comment on the small niche of internet that I frequent daily: mom blogs, design blogs and pinterest.

And I’m just going to say it.  Ladies, things are getting out of hand!

Without further ado, I bring you my list of the 8 things that bother me about the blogging community at large.

[please note, these are not criticisms of particular blogs, just blog trends in general]

1. Blog Conferences & Carbon Copies

2. Perpetual Photo Shoots

3. Over Accessorizing

4. Over Designing

5. Over Advertising

6. Over Sharing

7. Over Branding

8. No Interesting Content

And because I love to elaborate and write, even though most of this list is self explanatory, here is an exhaustive summary on why each of these things are problematic for me.

Blog Conferences & Carbon Copies.  Every time I have seen a major blog conference happen (or get promoted online, and see blips of it on instagram), I subsequently see (a) shameless advertising for #bing (hmmm) (b) excessive worry about what people are going to wear to impress other people (c) following the money here – the web developer or search engine hosts an event for exposure and notoriety, top bloggers get paid to speak and get a free trip, and then the wannabes foot the bill – and (d) after the conference ends, bloggers/instagrammers start to morph into one another to stay “on trend.”

I think if your blog is worthwhile, people will find it and enjoy it, and no blog conference will turn you magically from a fledgling blogger into a starlet.  Sure, there are great opportunities to party and network – but, I mean, network?  You’re a blogger – isn’t that what the internet is for?  Unless you’re speaking and getting paid, or want to pay to make new friends, blog conferences are kind of overhyped.

Perpetual Photo Shoots.  I’m just going to leave this one unexplained.

Over Accessorizing.  I’m all for a good arm party or classy fashion post, but when you start looking like a 4 year old little girl who has hacked into her mom’s closet and dressed herself with everything she can reach, you may be trying a bit too hard.  Fashion bloggers, it’s beyond okay to skip a few trends from time to time, or, in some cases, often.  Keep it classy and you’ll minimize regrets 10 years from now (when p.s., those pictures will be just one google search away).

Over Designing.  I’m the first one to appreciate good design.  I love designing!  But so many miss the mark on this one, over-designing or worse, badly-designing every single photo shoot, post, linky, advertisement, title, etc. to the point that it is actually no longer enjoyable and overwhelming to look at. The key to EDIT people.  Focal points apply to blogs too!  Also, when everything is special, is anything special?  Something to think about.  Juxtaposition does wonders for good design.  On a related side note, please cool it on the patterns and colors overload!

Over Advertising.  I can’t even tell you how many times I have excitedly clicked on a pinterest link over to a blog tutorial, and almost immediately clicked away because I was immediately inundated with banner adds, pop up adds, sidebar adds, adds designed to hover over exactly what you are trying to read.  I mean, you may as well throw trash all over your blog and call it a day, because that’s exactly what I do 2 seconds before I close the browser and move on, and never come back.

Over Sharing.  Again, the practice of disciplined editing would add remarkable value.  Above all, think of the children.

Over Branding.  I know that the internet would have us believe otherwise, but people are not, in fact, brands.  People are people.  Brands are brands.  People have pets, and children, and relationships.  Companies have brands.  If you feel inclined to brand yourself and everything in your life or on your blog with ‘your mark’ or worse, another company’s mark, please start a company and brand that instead.

No Interesting Content.  Okay, this one is totally subjective to readership, admittedly.  But am I wrong here that some serious, full time bloggers have almost nothing interesting to say, even though they have a beautifully designed page and decent pictures?

Okay, the rant is officially over.  I suppose this is me resisting to the pull of blogging trends, and per my usual protocol, marching to the beat of my own drum with unlikely, unwarranted conviction.

This blog gets over 20,000 hits per month.  Originally, it seemed logical to aspire to monetize and make money from advertisements, but it quickly became apparent to me that advertising and sponsorship is not the way to go, even though I invested my own money into buying a domain and server host, and I have spent countless hours building and designing it.  It’s not the way to go because turning this blog into a business might dilute the purpose of creating the blog in the first place – and I don’t want to run that risk.  At least, not for a very long time.

So, for now, dear readers and friends, you can certainly count on us here at everythingforthelove NOT joining in on the hyper-amazing-festivities happening elsewhere.  Hopefully, to your refreshing relief!

-Jones

(click image for source)

In the past 30 days Brigham and I have…

…jumped into purchasing a home (99% there – 2 weeks to go), and therefore experienced every conceivable emotion from joy to relief to frustration and tried patience, to hope and back to joy. {When you get there, basically, it is the emotional equivalent of falling desperately in love, hastily proposing to someone with a huge rock -aka your life savings-…and waiting one month for them to field your competition and get back to you}

…sold out of 140+ pillows IN 4 HOURS thanks to the marketing geniuses at Brickyard Buffalo (making this little etsy shop a viable prospective full time job, and super fun to think about and plan and design for)

…graduated ‘cum laude’ (Brigham) from the Boston Conservatory with TWO distinguished Master’s degrees in Music Performance and Music Education

…been selected for a prestigious award (Brigham) as THE  standout “Most Promising Music Educator” from the Boston Conservatory by overwhelming vote from the faculty.  The award will be presented at the Massachusetts Music Education Department in March, by the keynote speaker.

Off the bat, there are a few things that we discussed with the inspector about potential upgrades.  We don’t have beach front property, but we do have ocean views, and he excitedly explained to us that a wrap around porch on the second level would not only add square footage, but it would really maximize enjoyment of views (also property value).  So, we’ll be saving our pennies for that upgrade!  We also want to install french doors to the deck, and new skylights in both upstairs bedrooms.  We also want to bump out the fake ceiling in the upstairs bedrooms and expose the true A-frame architecture, and at least visually open up the space.  It would also be wise to switch out the old oil-heat unit with a gas operating component, which would eliminate about 12 square feet of unnecessary tanks and filters in the basement, and give us a chance to knock out the also unnecessary chimney on one of the second floor bedrooms.  After that, we can work on finishing the basement!

And because pictures explain so much better than words, here are some examples of what I specifically want to see transform.

Dining Space (current)

For this space, I am envisioning a window seat bench, flanked by bookshelves or cabinets on either side (for broom/vacuum and additional storage).  Also, I really like this kitchen table and chairs.  This also would help disguise the awkward downward slant of the ceiling.

(with a kitchen table like this)

(and chairs like this) 

The Kitchen (current)

The pros of this kitchen: high quality cabinets, great layout maximizing space, beautiful large window, new appliances.

The cons of the kitchen: not a ton of storage, one side of the cabinets have crown molding, one side doesn’t, laminate countertops, not a lot of counterspace.

Overall, I am really excited about the kitchen not needing replacement cabinets, but those countertops need to go.  Since there is just a little bit of space above the cabinets, I really like the idea of building them up to the ceiling and adding crown molding.  I also love the idea of painting them white, and adding a nice stone countertop (there is so little counter space that it would not be very expensive), and adding a nice tile backsplash (I’m thinking a subtle aqua subway tile).  We also plan to build a kitchen island (repurposing the random spare cabinet currently residing in the mudroom/hallway-to-nowhere).

(I also think adding a barn board ceiling would add a  ton of ‘beachy’ character to the space)

(here is the tutorial so far that I have found the most useful)

Main Floor Living Space (current)

Pros of the living space: hardwood floors, nice size, skylight, large windows, built in A/C

Cons of the living space: the baseboard molding is sloppy, some of the molding is white, some is wood toned, all different shapes/styles; semi awkward layout.

My first item of decorating business would be to rip out all the inconsistent door framing and baseboard molding.  I am also going to paint every door in this house white.  Then, I am going to add board and batten EVERYWHERE!!!

(and here is what I plan to do with the stairs – ish)

Upstairs Bedrooms (current)

We have big plans for these bedrooms.  For starters, where you see windows, picture doors instead – leading out to a wonderful deck with stunning views!  Also, those awkward closets need to be updated with built-ins, or at least something more functional than accordion doors and cubby space.  I also want to lay a new floor on top of the original parquet flooring (I don’t love them, but keeping them intact is valuable so adding a new floor on top is the way to go.)  Also, bumping out the ceiling to the A-frame structure, adding skylights, and then barn board to finish off the ceiling.  New baseboard molding, possibly board and batten, and those paint colors are getting a facelift as well.

That’s it for now!

-Jones

In December, we were blessed with an incredible amount of work for my husband and a very generous year end bonus from my work.  And, to be honest, buying a house was the last thing on our minds in the Christmas season.  If it had been on our minds, we likely would have not bought a new computer, a new camera, and new smart phones!!!  Holy smokes…if I could have just known!  Anyway, despite all of that fun stuff, we had fortunately put away a small fortune over the past two years for our “house fund.”  And, luckily, it turned out to be just exactly enough to get our foot in the door.

But I’m already getting ahead of myself.  Back to Christmas.  One of the hardest things was for me to, for the first time ever, pay more in tithing than we did in rent in the month of December.  I could not believe what that meant!  And I also could not believe just how hard it was to let that money pass from my bank account into the Lord’s hands.  Tithing has never been a hard concept for me, because I have always believed that the Lord can do more with that 10% in helping others than I ever could just spending it on myself.  However, I distinctly recall having a hard time remembering my testimony of that last month.  Faithfully, dutifully, I decided to let the check go from my cold, stingy fingers and into the bowels of the church, into the safe custody of the Lord.

And that is when the magic began.

Something occurred to me for the first time a few days later.  One of my hobbies is to browse through real estate listings on zillow, just to see where interest rates and housing prices stand.  However, it had literally been months since I last searched, and up until this point, Brigham and I were exclusively searching for multi-family properties (so that we could do the rental income property thing).

As I was considering, seriously considering what life would be like for two inexperienced renters who know nothing of real estate, and have zero home ownership skills, to suddenly become landlords while still managing our hectic lives – it suddenly became the most ridiculous thing to consider.  To be perfectly honest, it seemed like that would become bad stress for our marriage.  So, I switched my search to see what was out there in our price range for single family properties.  And then, I started to notice that there were lots of properties near the beach at really affordable prices!  And I love me some beach!  The first house we went to see had a beautiful listing, but when we drove by, it slanted about 15 degrees.  Down the street there were more homes just blocks from the ocean, but the nicer they got, the more the price tag went up, or the more affordable they were, the more work we’d have to put into it.

And then, as if the heavens opened, I discovered “the one.”

Immediately, I emailed the listing agent and asked her to show us the property.  She (Beth) emailed us back promptly and let us know that there was already an offer on the property.  I was really bummed to hear that, but I went to a lender to get pre-qualified anyway, just in case something opened up.  Well, something did open up!  After New Years, the original buyer actually walked away and would not respond.  Beth called me up and Brigham and I rushed over for a showing.  We were in the house for about 15 minutes, checked NOTHING (didn’t even turn on the water), but it didn’t matter, it was LOVE at FIRST SIGHT and we were ready to put in an offer about 15 minutes later.

Later that week, we checked into interest rates and learned all about the lending and financing end of things.  We got multiple quotes from multiple lenders (which I highly recommend – one quote was $21k higher after 30 years) and I got advice from multiple attorneys (I happen to be lucky enough to work in a building with many attorneys).  About a week after that, we got word that the bank and the seller (the house is a short sale) approved our offer!

This morning, we had our home inspection and we were thrilled to find out that the previous owner took immaculate care of the property, which is highly uncommon for a short sale.  We also learned from our real estate agent, that she turned down an ALL CASH offer on the house because “she had a good feeling about us, and wanted to work with us” – I mean, holy smokes!  This just has fate written all over it.  Also, the seller purchased the property for almost $100K more than we offered about 5 years ago, and put about $50k (according to the inspector) into sweat equity and upgrades.  Lastly, interest rates being at the 3.5% region all time low made this deal what I affectionally call “A NO BRAINER.”

The home is beautiful.  It is just the right mix of charming, convenient, and beachy, while still having tons of potential so that we can customize it and make it our own.  (Hence, my ridiculous spamming of whoever follows me on pinterest with tons of house pins)  And Oh, the VEIWS!!!

This house is a tithing miracle.  That is all there is to it!

So, without further ado, here are the “BEFORE” pictures of the home.  About 3% of me doesn’t want to post this blog post, because it is not 100% final, and I don’t want to jinx anything.  We still have to sign and finalize the closing – however, if everything goes according to plan, by this time next month (I’m optimistic) we will officially be home owners!  And I’m just going to focus on the glass being half full!

Front Deck/Front Door

Front Yard

Backyard fence, patio, garden boxes (how cute are these!!)

Kitchen Door/Back Door

Dining Area

Kitchen

Kitchen (other side)

Kitchen/Bathroom Door

Living Room

Living Room view into Mudroom