Righting the Money-Out, Money-In Imbalance

Look at these pretties:


Each one of those orange rectangles is an Etsy sale! Yesterday was a record-setting day for me and I'm through-the-roof happy about it! I'm busy today photographing more jewelry, editing photos, listing my item of the day, packaging and shipping orders, making custom orders, creating new items for later in the month, printing business cards, printing jewelry cards, and doing some prep work. Whew!

Another thing I'm through-the-roof happy about is that I took a chance and it paid off! I've committed to spending less, and part of that commitment is a challenge I gave myself to not buy any scrapbooking or art supplies during September. Of course a few things have popped up on my radar that I've just been dying to have, so I decided to get creative. First, I wanted some Fancy Pants acrylic die cuts, so I put out a call on Twitter and Facebook asking if someone would buy them for me in exchange for credit at my shop. Nadia graciously helped me out and I'm so thankful! :)

Then I fell in love with the kits over at The Girl's Loft. Margie and her girls put together such great stuff! After I won a Glue Glider on their blog, Margie and I shared a few back-and-forth e-mails and I just decided to ask her if she'd be interested in trading her August and September kits for credit on my Etsy site. And she said yes!! I could hardly believe it. I got the kits in the mail yesterday!

I love the August kit, so fun and fresh and jam-packed with goodness:


The September Back to School kit is so fun, too!


And how much do I love that the vintage book pages I received in my kit include this? "Some Amusements with Decimals," this just cracks me up!


I have another trade pending but don't want to jinx it by showing it before it happens. :) Lastly, before I get back to business, here's my newest necklace that I uploaded to Etsy today:

Just like in Aesop's fable of The Tortoise and the Hare, slow and steady wins the race. I tend to want things to be done now so I can cross them off my list, but so many things in life don't work like that. Like losing weight. Like battling clutter. Like making big changes. So here is a reminder to just keep at it--slow and steady wins the race.

See you tomorrow for Favorite {Photo} Friday!