Sunday, October 18, 2009

An amazing first 10 days ...

Wow! What an amazing first official 10 days I've had since the official launch of my new business, Log Your Memory. I can't tell you how excited I've been, except that I've found it nearly impossible to sleep for the last week ... and now it's catching up a bit. I'm a bit groggy today. It wouldn't have hurt my feelings a bit if Danica had wanted to sleep in today. But she  was raring to go first thing this morning, so here we are.

Anyway, it seems like I spend a lot of time looking at numbers related to my Web site, a little bit for information but largely for fun. It's just amazing to see everything coming together ... and exciting to watch these numbers grow. I'll probably create a scrapbook page about it (you know me....) but for now, I just want to get some of the numbers documented.


In our first 10 days, we've ...
  • Logged over 60 new member registrations... (I enjoy thinking of this as a 600% increase!)
  • Had guests from 12 different countries (US, Canada, Australia, UK, Israel, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Europe, New Zealand, Singapore, Germany, and 1 unknown)
  • Welcomed visitors from at least 36 of the 50 states in America.
  • Sold almost five times as many books already as the last little datebook I published.
  • Officially enrolled six members in our Book Club ... and others are waiting for their books to arrive so they can join, too...
  • Announced my first two Creative Team members ... and received applications already from more than a dozen very attractive candidates interested in filling out the remaining slots.
  • Had over 100 scrapbook layouts posted in our gallery.
  • Hosted as many as 20 visitors at once in our forum.
  • Received my first offer to review my book - and it was from an amazing lady well-known in the online scrapbooking world!
  • Posted almost 150 messages and replies in the forum.
  • Had more than 30 Facebook friends join our official Friends of Log Your Memory fan site!
  • Showcased a dozen amazing "real life" scrapbook pages in our first Story Board and another fantastic page in our first "Layout of the Week."
  • Had several people at least start an entry in our Kickoff Contest. It's a three-step process, so we have a few folks that need to finish up a step or two.
  • Lined up several great sponsors for our Grand Opening SPOOK-tacular to be held at the end of the month.
  • Almost finished planning our first online workshop, which I'll announce on Thursday.
  • Had our CT call mentioned in one of the popular online industry newsletters.
  • Introduced two scrapbooking challenges, both of which offer a prize.
  • Arranged for free product giveaways on three different blogs in the next month.
  • Enjoyed seeing my teeny, tiny little ad on the blog of one of my all-time favorite scrapbookers ... with plans for it to appear on that of another in the next month.
  • Had about a million new ideas for things to do in the coming months, thanks to all of this creative energy swirling around the blogosphere!
On top of all that, I found out this week that a two-page layout I submitted a while back was chosen to be featured next week in Scrapbook News and Review! :)

Whew! I get tired just thinking about it all ... and energized at the same time! It's all just so much FUN! I have to keep reminding myself it's only been just over a week, because it feels like so much longer.

And I suppose I'm going to have to move away from my computer pretty soon to make sure there's food in the fridge and clean clothes to wear ... I've had a hard time tearing myself away the last several days! It's worked out okay, though, because I've been home with just Danica for the past several days. Jacques, Kody and Skylar will be home this afternoon after a hunting trip to North Dakota, and Karstin just got home last night after his trip to Butte for the Divisional x-country meet. So "real life" is about to interject itself anyway, whether I'm ready for it or not!

Speaking of Karstin, he did pretty well at the meet yesterday - his time was 21:21, so I don't want to wake him up to ask...). He competed at the JV level, but he gets to go to State next weekend in Missoula as an alternate for the Varsity team. He's excited, because chances are good he'll get to go and have all the fun - and not have to kill himself running! But he does have to practice this week, including a 6 a.m. run on Monday, so it's not ALL fun and games. He's had a great first year and was telling me last night just how much he's enjoyed the season. I'm so glad ... it's fun to watch him when he's excited about something.  He's also started getting busy with a couple other extracurriculars at school - now he's gearing up to do a humorous duo with his buddy Jacob for the Speech and Drama team, plus he's practicing every week with the Science Olympiad team. So cool to watch...



I just found out this week, too, that I'll be representing Skylar's Head Start class on the Policy Council, which means I have a four-hour training to go to later in the month and then a meeting every month. Add that to my monthly visit to her classroom to volunteer and it gets pretty busy. She's LOVING Head Start, though... it about drives her nuts to have to stay home Friday through Sunday when there's no class!


 
Would you believe Danica is 15 1/2 months old already? I'm finding it hard to believe... she's a total crackup right now - and is trying to talk all the time. Most of the time, I don't have the foggiest idea what she is saying, but sometimes I can make out a word or two. She can also point to her nose - and mine - and I catch her dancing to the kiddie videos on TV all the time. She just LOVES the music in Veggie Tales. Of course, she's also playing with the VCR buttons all the time ... I took this picture after I found her yesterday parked in front of the TV. She had started a Blue's Clues video all by herself AND hauled her Bumbo seat in from the other room.  She was just sitting there watching, like it was no big deal. Ha-ha. She's also sprouting teeth left and right, which I think is why she's been a bit fussy at night. But overall, she's been her adorable, sweet self most of the time.

And Kody, I'm sure, will be FULL of hunting stories when he gets home. I guess he shot his first flying pheasant this week ... and scores of other flying objects, which I don't recall the details about ... so I'll have to update more on him later. Between talking to him and to Skylar on the phone, I'm not quite sure what either of them really said, except that they're having a blast! So that's good...

More later... now I'm off to find out what's Dani's been up to while I've been jabbering away... ;) If you haven't checked out my Web site yet, please do!! And spread the word... the more, the merrier! :)

Thursday, October 8, 2009

The time has come!!!!!!!

Lots of excitement, loads of creative energy and a little fear all wrapped up together. That's how I've been feeling the last several days leading up to the launch of my new Web site ...

It's been all I could do not to share it with everyone before it was completely ready.

First, a little background... This little venture has taken about two months ... and FIVE YEARS ... to become a reality. For a long time now, I've had a real desire to work from home. And the more I scrapbook, the more I want to ... scrapbook. Obviously a job gets in the way of that. So how about a "job" that allows me to spend tons of time scrapbooking ... and hanging out with scrapbookers ... and researching lots of great scrapping ideas ... and reading about scrapbooking ...  and creating great stuff for scrapbookers ... and be at home with my kids?!?!?

That's been what I've been on a mission to find ... and after many, many trials & errors (my husband refers to me as a "serial entrepreneur"... LOL), I have finally found my niche. And once the whole concept came together, it's amazing how quickly everything fell into place ... for me, that's a real sign I'm on the right path. I've been working steadily on getting this ready to share since late August and everything really started to come together in the last 2 or 3 weeks or so. As the final details have come together, I've been just dying to share... but making myself wait until the the was right.

Well, the time is finally right and I'm very exciting to introduce ...  Log Your Memory!!



Log Your Memory is my new offshoot of Spring Creek Design, that little freelance graphic design biz I've been dabbling with for the past two years. Log Your Memory is dedicated to helping busy scrapbookers make sure they get their memories documented ... NOW, not when they "get around to" getting them scrapbooked. Because face it, very few of us really have the time to scrapbook everything we'd like to remember. So I've created a book and a supporting online community to help myself and everyone like me who is ready to drop the guilt and start doing something very, very constructive (and FUN at the same time) to make sure those memories are recorded.

 

You should have seen my "happy dance" when my book proofs came back from the printer!!

This book - the Scrapbooker's All-In-One Memory Logbook - is really a 2010 calendar, planner, journal, idea book and sketchbook all wrapped up in one. It's meant to take the place of all those different calendars you might be using to record your daily "stuff," plus the notes, the half-filled notebooks, the sketchpads, and the rest of that stuff that you're just keeping in the back of your mind for later.

I don't know about you, but I don't trust myself to remember all that ... my memory just isn't what I'd like it to be. My kids & my family do so many things that I want to remember. And I get a ton of ideas all the time that lead to scrapbook pages I'd like to do. But even when I'm scrapping like crazy, there's still a million things I don't get scrapped ... but hope to someday. This book is how I'm going to tackle that problem from now on... and the Web site is how I'm going to help others like me through the process - and let them help ME, as well.

I could go on and on about this, but I'm not going to right here... I would much rather have you check it out for yourself and see what you think. I really hope you'll take a minute to stop by and visit... run on over to my site and let me know what you think!!!

Whew... much better. So good to finally have this out there!!!! :)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Can you feel the excitement???

So anyone who knows me pretty well will probably tell you that I'm generally pretty even-keeled. I don't get terribly excited about a lot of things ... or at least not that you would probably notice. In fact, my husband is forever telling me to smile more because apparently I often look a bit, eh, cranky.

But those who have known me forever also know that when I do get excited about something, I can hardly conceal it and tend to become a bit obsessed with whatever it is. I guess the word for it is "passionate."

Well, that's where I've been for the past month or so. So much so, I can hardly sleep and it takes everything in me to drag myself from the computer to tend to the rest of my life.

Why, you ask??? If you're one of my Facebook friends, you've probably already guessed because I haven't been able to keep myself from dropping hints left and right. (I promise not to bug you guys everyday with business stuff after my launch ... if you want to stay in the loop, though, be sure to join my Fan site!!)

For those who still have no idea what I am talking about, I am getting ready to launch a new online business that I am TOTALLY excited about. In conjunction, I have also just finished putting together a new book for scrapbookers. It is already available for sale through the bookstore on my new Web site. Better yet, I expect it to be available through Amazon.com by early December! Exciting, eh?!?!? Let's just say I did a little happy dance when my proof came in the mail last week!

I am going to hold off for a couple more days to share any more details. Thursday is my official launch date, at which time you can anticipate hearing much, much more about my new venture. Keep an eye on this blog or connect with me on Facebook to be the first to hear all the details!!

Can't wait to share more!!!! :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!! :)

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Happy Birthday, Mom!!
Create your own slideshow - Powered by Smilebox
Make a Smilebox slideshow
Blog Widget by LinkWithin