It's a New Year and busy as always :)

I know it's almost the end of January and I'm just now getting to posting something.

It was a busy end of the year for me.  I got my 200 hour certification to teach yoga (join my FB page to learn more about what I'm doing with that), I got a contract job that started this month and we traveled for New Year's to our family farm.  It was a wonderful and hectic end of the year :)

So, now I'm working full-time, trying to figure out what I'm doing with my yoga teaching certification, trying to figure out what I'm doing with M'Lou Designs, trying to find time to craft and oh, yeah needing to put everything together for our accountant so we can file taxes by April (I'm hoping it won't take me that long to do it, but I'm procrastinating ... as usual).

In addition to all of that, I started a program called APY 60 Live which is a yoga workout and lifestyle program developed by Kurt Johnsen, founder of American Power Yoga.  This Live program is hosted here at American Power Yoga in Dallas and runs for 10 weeks.  If you can't make it to the Live program, they also have a DVD set that just launched.  Here's the link if you're interested in learning more:  APY 60.  Keep in mind it is in infomercial format, so ... forewarned.

So just a bit more about APY 60, and no I have no sponsorship ties and plan to blog about my experiences good and bad with this program since weight loss and exercise are top New Year's resolution items.  By lifestyle, I mean both what you eat and your general attitude towards life.  This program's "diet" is not something that you do until you lose the weight and then you eat whatever you want.  This is a program designed to change the way that you eat, by eliminating things from your diet and helping you find healthy substitutes.  I will admit that I'm not going to adhere 100% to the diet program (I'm sorry but I can't give up cheese and bread), but I've already made changes that I think are for the better.  Like I'm drinking enough tea (primarily herbal) and water to float a small boat ~100 ounces a day.  Depending on how I end up at the end of 10 weeks, I may post my before and after photos ... you'll just have to wait and see.

Needless to say all of this requires time and there just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done and spend time with M'Lou and the hubby.  So ... not that you were expecting me to post a ton, we've already proven that's just too hard for me, but if you don't hear from me for a bit all of the above reasons are my excuses ... valid or not ;)

TTFN!

So ... are you ever going to post again???

You ever notice that it's almost not worth going on vacation?

You come back to all the stuff you normally do plus all the stuff that didn't get done while you were away.

 Ok, enough whining :)  I will say that I'm really hoping to have a couple of posts up next week ... with pictures!  And I'm hoping to get some of the new shirts and monsters that I have been working on up on my Etsy site for next week.  

In the meantime, this week I'm working to get caught up on my college coursework that I meant to work on while on vacation, but for some reason visiting with family and reading books with no socially redeemable value was more fun!  (And did I mention my overly developed procrastination gene???)

I'm working on some new shirt designs and some other new stuff for my Etsy store, so keep coming back for updates!  I promise I'm going to keep coming here to post ... even if life gets hectic!   :)

TTFN!

The Beginning

As so many Americans have, I lost my job ... 6 months ago. It's really rough when you start actually counting! I have been applying for jobs and getting minor nibbles at first and fewer as time has gone on.

I've decided that I need something to keep me occupied and my brain working rather than diving into more of my favorite trash novels. And though I love doing the accounting and other basic business admin for my husband's business, it's not enough.

So, I've decided to make my crafting pay for itself. It would be lovely if this was the NEXT BIG THING!!!! but I have no delusions of so much grandeur. I'm starting with hand embroidered clothes for kids and stuffed monsters.

Sounds simple ... but then you get the lawyers involved. Don't get me wrong, I have some very good friends that are lawyers, but let's be honest ... they make it complicated. So, instead of just figuring out how to make these things, I have to figure out how they have to be labeled and whether they need to be tested so that I'm compliant with all federal regulations.

Luckily, the clothing is in the clear other than the labeling. For those labels, I have to be compliant with both the CPSIA and the FTC. For those out there that might also be looking into it, here are some links to help:

FTC labeling requirements

CPSIA labeling requirements FAQs

The sticking point I'm running into right now is whether I have to have my monsters tested by a third party lab. If so then I have to decide if those hoops are worth jumping through.

So, I'm heading into the home stretch on the store. Waiting to get the final logo art back from the graphic designer, figure out how to best label the products I'm making, how to best photograph everything, the layout for this blog and my stand-alone website, plus the complications of getting everything setup on Etsy .... I'm hoping I'm getting closer :)

TTFN!