I’ve Moved!

Hi, long time no see!  And yes, that’s completely my fault.  I’ve been hesitating to write on here for the last little while as I’ve been really struggling with what I want this space to be.  As my business has grown I’ve felt less compelled to channel my creativity through new recipes or even DIYs.  I want to post about how my 80 Smith Creative is doing without feeling like I’m “selling” to you.

I’ve said before that I wanted to transform my blog into an extension of my biz, rather than something completely different.  But I didn’t really want to write a purely business blog either.  So, therefore I felt stuck, and being stuck literally caused me to just pause.

I’m here today to let you know that I’ve found my solution, by building a completely new website.  I want my shop and blog to all be in one place, rather than just linked.  I still have my Etsy shop, but now I also have an online shop too.  And as for the blog, all the posts on WordPress are already transferred over to here.  I’m excited for this fresh start, of having a place to write & connect freely.  I hope you’ll join me over there!

Checking In

  
 Hi everyone! I’ve been a little MIA the last two weeks, lots of travel and getting caught up on orders for the shop! The hubs and I arrived in Miami last night and are heading out on the Ship Rocked cruise today! I’ll be posting more about it later this week.

Also, for a shop update: free shipping on all orders this week! And keep an eye out for new items, including special pieces for Valentine’s Day!

Choosing A Word for 2016

  
For this New Year I’m taking my first break ever form writing out a list of resolutions.  In year’s past I’ve done really well with seeing them through during the year, but as I did a bucket list for my birthday this year, I’ve decided to try embracing a word for 2016 instead.

For 2016 I have chosen BUILD as my word.  I want to BUILD Eighty Smith Creative, BUILD relationships with customers and other creative entrepreneurs, BUILD this blog into a strong support for my biz and brand.  The first word that came to mind was actually GROW, but something about it just didn’t feel quite right.  I think BUILD is more intentional, laying a foundation and creating the business that will be sustainable and fulfilling for me.  I felt that GROW was too organic, rather than intentional.  I don’t need to grow my business so large that it’s out of my control – I don’t need more of anything really, but BUILDing up and out will help my business become more profitable so that I can further make a difference by supporting myself and giving back to my community.

And that’s just the business side of it – my word for my personal life is SIMPLIFY.  For the past several months I’ve been on a huge push to clean out all the unnecessary things from my life.  So far it’s mostly been a lot of physical junk, but I have plans to SIMPLIFY and create space in my life for the things that really matter – relationships, travel, health, my family.  I plan to share a lot more about this in other blog posts as I have started by trying the capsule wardrobe and several organization projects that I’d love to share with you all.

Do you set resolutions or intentions for a new year?  Let me know over on Twitter and Instagram @Alexis80Smith!  Use tag #MMnewyear

Happy New Year

The #1 thing on my 28 by 29 Bucket List was to do something special for New Year’s.  In the most recent 2 years we had pretty low-key celebrations, so this year I knew I wanted to really celebrate it.

We made plans to attend a local historic inn with friends.  The tickets included food, unlimited drinks and a live band.  It was great to sip champagne all night and catch up with good friends.  My friend shared with me to put something gold in your glass when you toast at midnight to ensure abundance and wealth in the new year.  Hey, I’ll get behind that superstition!  Josh and I had an especially good time on the dance floor.  I love great cover bands, and the place was packed with people dancing.

New Year’s Day has a tradition in Philadelphia called the Mummer’s Day Parade.  I’ll admit that I don’t fully understand what it really is all about, but the just is that it’s several competing “marching” bands that dress in crazy costumes and face paint.  The traditional parade is in the morning, but in the evening all the groups come back out and do an “adult” parade playing covers of hit music and everyone dances.  Our friends explained it as Philly’s version of Mardi Gras.  And to guarantee good luck for the new year, you have to get kissed by a mummer.  So, this year is looking lucky AND abundant 🙂

Thanks for letting me share my New Year’s with you all!  I’ll be back later this week to share some new designs going into the Eighty Smith Creative shop!

Holiday Custom Orders

I hope everyone is having a restful week after all the craziness of the holidays!  I’m happy to be back to work this week after taking a little time off last week.

As a little year-end wrap up I thought I’d share some of my favorite custom orders from Eighty Smith Creative’s holiday season. This year was filled with so many fun custom orders, many of which led to brand new designs!  I love how the  creativity of my customers helps push my designs in new directions.

The direct link for each listing is below the picture.  Which ones are your favorites?

Horseshoe and Initial Necklace

Curved Name Bar Necklace

Mother’s Bar Necklace

Mountain Necklace

Lariat Necklace

Pet Name Bar

Squirrel and Initial Necklace

Pet ID Tags

Winter Break

Just as most of the holidays are hitting everyone around me, I’m finally taking a bit of a breather from the “madness.”  The past month or so have been gradually building into a full on frenzy, that finally came to a stop over the weekend.  Saturday was the last day I had holiday orders to finish/ship and also was the day the Smith family did our gift exchange.  I am officially on winter break!

There was a whole lotta cookie baking, hammering metal, driving to the post office, and wrapping gifts.  Yesterday I took the day off, basically melted into the couch over a good 15 hours of vegging out.  And right before bed last night my brain started spinning with ideas on how to spend the week getting organized.  As the craziness built up over the last few weeks I progressively have become more distraught by the clutter and disorganization around me.  Sure everything looks ok, but it just felt messy.

Before even getting out of bed today I was researching closet systems (Home Depot, Ikea & Container Store) to try to get a handle on our bedroom walk-in closet.  Then we switched gears and are now tackling the garage first (as expressed on my 28 by 29 Bucket List!).  After having read Marie Kondo’s The Magic Art of Tiding Up last summer I have gradually been tossing a huge majority of that stuff and junk that seems to accumulate so easily.  And the garage is the biggest dumping ground of all.

Wish us luck that we can finally get a good handle on it!  I’ll be sure to take some before & afters to share with you soon (always love a bit of accountability!)

Happy Holidays and deep breaths to all of you who are still in the middle of holiday frenzy.  Enjoy it as best as you can, for the calm and quiet of January is just around the corner.

Featured on Mode.com

Something really exciting happened this week, Eighty Smith Creative was featured on a few gift guides this holiday season! This is our very first “featured on” and I couldn’t be more excited!

The Best Stocking Stuffers for Her Under $25  www.mode.com

 

What to Get the Girl Who Has Everything www.mode.com

 

The Best Stocking Stuffers for Him Under $25   www.mode.com

Sorry I’ve been MIA recently, the holiday rush hit Eighty Smith Creative full force these past few weeks!  I was completely surprised by just how many orders came in, and I have literally been working non-stop to get everything made and out the door in time for Christmas.  Thank you to everyone who has supported the shop!

If you still have a few last minute gifts to mark off your lists, visit Eighty Smith Creative!  There are still some ready-made items that can be shipped before Christmas hits!

First Craft Show

  
Over the weekend I attended my very first craft fair event.  I call it an event, as it was only 7 vendors as part of an open house during a nearby town’s holiday parade.  This was the perfect, no pressure first test in the craft fair world.  I have been planning to attend a fair for quite awhile, but this fall ended up being busy and I also felt I needed to build up my business and product line first.

  
I had so much fun over the past week completing half-finished jewelry items (a lot of necklaces needed clasps and chains attached) and brainstorming the table set up.  Even though I have been busy with custom orders through my shop, I was so excited about this event.

   
The night before I stayed up waaaaay too late, trying to do too many things  (my husband must’ve called and told me to go to bed about 10 times over 4 hours).  My neck and shoulders were definitely aching (still are!) from all the extra hours at the work bench.

 
Even though the event was relatively small, I enjoyed meeting fellow crafters and creatives and all the people who stopped through.  And I was pleasantly surprised with the number of sales,with the pet tags being the big hit (the event was at a vet hospital after all).

  

I had so much fun I registered for another one this weekend.  I figure I pulled all this jewelry together & made a cute display, I might as well keep going with it!

  

I have all of these items available in my shop (and even more there too!) promo for 10% off through next Monday! 

Also, another podcast episode of Busy Becoming is up on iTunes today!

A Day In The Life

These “day in the life” posts are kind of my favorite blog posts to read.  I just love having a peek into someone else’s day, so I thought I’d share mine today.

I wanted to write one of these while my husband is traveling – things change quite a bit when Josh is home.  Maybe I’ll do another one of these when he’s home for an extended period in January, as it couldn’t look more different than this “typical” day!

8:00am :  Wake up, snuggle the puppy, and scroll half-heartedly through Instagram.  I usually also look at Time Hop, as I love seeing what I did on “this day” over the past 9 years.  After about ten minutes of waking up, I get going on the morning routine of feeding the pets and making coffee.  Everyone (the cat and dog) are so lovey in the morning, so I snuggle up to them while drinking coffee and getting my wits about me.

9:00am : I take my coffee into my studio and sit down in front of the computer to check on the various orders I am working on.  Once enough caffeine is in my veins, I usually pick up the hammer and get to work.  On the days when I’m a little extra sluggish I sketch new ideas in my notebook before starting on projects.

11:00am : The pup starts giving me puppy-dog eyes for a bathroom break, and this is when I finally notice that I’m hungry.  I eat yogurt or cereal, and make a cup of tea.  This is also when I’m likely to actually get ready for the day – as in dressed, teeth brushed and makeup put on.  I know it seems late, but one of my favorite things about working from home is that I can start on work right away in the morning!  Around this time I’ll do some housekeeping -throw laundry in, clean, and go through mail.  After that’s done, I take the pup on a stroll to play frisbee at the park.

12:30pm : When we’re back home I make a light lunch, more tea, and back to the studio.  The light is the best in the afternoon to take pictures, so if I have products to photograph this is when I’ll do it.  Otherwise I’m streaming Netflix while making jewelry for orders.

3:00pm : Once again my puppy alarm clock reminds me to take a stretch break.  Last call on daylight and avoiding traffic, so I head to the post office to drop off packages and run any errands I need to do.

4:00pm : By this time in the day I focus on computer work, as my shoulders and neck have had enough of wielding a 2lb brass mallet.  I try to do more “big picture” things, such as branding or planning for future holidays where new designs will be implemented.

6:00pm : Libby’s incessant twitching and jumping-up every time I shift at my desk finally annoys me enough to feed her.  This is when I try to “officially” stop working for the day.  I’ll go to a spinning class, cook dinner, or plop on the couch with a glass of wine.

8:00pm : After I’ve eaten, worked out, or relaxed, my brain starts filling up with ideas again.  I sit in front of the TV and casually work on a few things.  Lately this has been brainstorming for an upcoming craft fair with my computer and sketchbook (and puppy) in close proximity.

10:00pm : I put the computer away to play glow-in-the-dark frisbee with the pup, and start getting ready for bed.  At night the cat is a big love-bug, so while the puppy sleeps we play laser and make piles of cat hair on the floor (from all the petting, not from torturing).  Once in bed, I try to read rather than scroll on the phone, at least that’s the goal.  And depending on what time zone the hubby is in I’ll stay up and chat with him for awhile, and then lights out!

And be sure to check out Eighty Smith Creative for Christmas gifts, I have been updating it every few days with some new & very giftable items 🙂

Staying Sane

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend (an especially long one for those in the States)!  It’s back to reality today, and for me an especially busy Monday with all the new orders that came in over the weekend.

I’ve been feeling like I’m stuck in a whirlwind this past week, coming home from a long trip, getting ready for a holiday (lots of cooking!), and also entering a really busy time with my business.  It’s a lot to balance, and actually kind of freaked me out last week with how stressed and unbalanced I was feeling at first.

I had to remind myself to focus on the basics, making sure to take care of myself and to slow down.

I started drinking tea in the afternoon over coffee, for a small energy boost instead of the jittery craze of too many cups of coffee.  I’ve been eating fruit for snacks, keeping washed grapes and little oranges right at eye-level in the fridge.  Adding salads to accompany my leftovers of stuffing and mashed potatoes.  I know my brain feels less crazy when my body isn’t stressed by junk being put into it.

Nothing does more to help me feel sane than a clean house.  All those little piles of junk and dust bunnies that accumulate add up to so much mental-clutter.  Last night I was feeling restless waiting for my TV show to come on (90 Day Fiancé), and so I just got up off the couch and did a power clean of the upstairs.  Scrubbed the bathroom, vacuumed the floor, folded some laundry.  It only took me about 30 minutes with help from Adele’s crooning and I was done, just barely missing the beginning credits of my show.  And when I came upstairs later to go to bed, the calmness of a clean bedroom was a welcome sight.

Through all of this my biggest struggle has been being able to turn-off and fall asleep at night.  No matter how tired I am, it seems as soon as I switch off the bedside lamp my mind goes wild.  I have creativity flowing out of every cell.  But at 2am, it’s not really conducive for keeping the calm when you’re already feeling like there’s too much to do.  With this I was reminded to make sure I’m exercising enough, getting myself out of the house to walk the pup 2 or 3 times a day and taking in a couple spin classes.  Mindfulness is also so helpful with “controlling the monkey mind” as we would call it in yoga when your brain goes crazy.  When I start to feel crazy and overwhelmed, my mantra has been “you can do anything, but not everything.”

With the holiday season upon us, I hope this helps anyone else who’s been feeling a little overwhelmed 🙂

Just a reminder (exactly what you need, I know) that today’s the last day to save 20% on everything over at Eighty Smith Creative!  And last week my good friend Nadia and I talked on our podcast about gratitude as a mindfulness practice if you want to check that out too!