Another Break & a Break Through

I know what you're thinking. "Didn't you just take a break?" And the answer is, "Yes." And I'll beg you to forgive me for this unusual behavior. So, the last day to order will be Wednesday, October 7th. I will reopen Monday, October 26th.

Favorite photo from my last break.

I PROMISE this will be my last break until my regularly scheduled break from when I stop taking Christmas orders. I will take a break from the Christmas cut off (Nov. 30) until the end of January. This gives me time to make all the Christmas orders before Christmas, and then breathe a little and even create some new designs that I've been wanting to do. Early in November I have a craft show I'll be at for all you locals who want to come out. More details closer to the date.

AND - I will be offering a FLASH SALE on the Monday I re-open. It will only be on two signs, but you can customize them and they will be finished before Christmas. I am so so excited to offer these to you all, so check back. I've never done a flash sale before. Ever. So this is going to be really big. You will love it. I promise!

For those of you who like my personal updates I have a really exciting one for you. As you probably know, I am not just a sign painter, I'm also a homeschool mama. And this year has been TOUGH for us! I have one Kindergarten student and two second graders. I've been challenging my Kindergartner to push herself to read. She WANTS to read, and knows the letter sounds and can sound out words. However, she has had a hard time NOT sounding a word out. She will sound out the name "Pam" every time it appears, even though she just read the same word one page ago.

That little girl on the far left is now a reader!!

Yesterday, it clicked. It was the quintessential light bulb moment. It made sense that every time she sees the letters p-a-m in that order, it will say Pam. And the same with the rest of the words in the little book she was reading over and over. She was SO excited to run to her big sisters and show them that SHE CAN FINALLY READ! And the way they gushed over their little sister and her big accomplishment was beyond precious. Then she waited for Daddy to get home to reveal her BIG SECRET. She wouldn't tell him all through dinner what the secret was. After she finished eating she ran for her little book and read it to Daddy.

Of course, my dear husband who has supported me through all the really rough days we were having lovingly encouraged me to write this down. On the really hard days where I'm sure I'm ruining my kids' (and my) life, I can look back and remember why I'm doing this. I wouldn't trade this moment for all those hard days wrapped together. And such is parenting, isn't it? It's like those old ladies in the grocery store who are always telling you to cherish every moment because they go so quickly. And yes, even if the little old ladies are a little fuzzy on whether their child ever had tantrums, they are crystal clear on one thing.

It is worth it.

Time

One of my most frequently asked questions is: Where do you find the time to paint?

One of these days I fully intend to give you a "day in the life of Mama Hess", but for now this little snippet will have to do.

I love to paint. Truly. I love it. I make the time for what I love doing. I have two portions of the day which are devoted to my little painting business.

One part of the day is my girls nap/quiet time. This time is often interrupted with homework questions, so it's not as devoted as I would like to be. Baby Caroline usually starts her nap time between 1 and 1:30 pm. She usually gets up between 4 and 5 pm. She's an angel. I leave the older girls room between 1:30 and 2 pm. They are supposed to be in their room until 4 pm, but they usually end up coming downstairs to do homework around 3:30. This leaves me approximately 90 minutes to two hours to "work". But let's be honest, half the time I'm checking emails, wasting time on Facebook, and replying to messages about custom orders. If I'm lucky (or more purposeful) I get right to work on creating designs or sitting at my table to paint, spraying the clear finishing coat on painted signs, and adding hooks to the back of completed signs.

Caroline falling asleep in my arms.

The second portion of the day that is reserved for painting is in the evening after the girls are asleep at night. I like to start around 9 or 9:30 pm and depending on my work load will work anywhere from 11 pm to 2 am. And I will admit, there was a time when I got deeply involved in my work and lost all track of time. It was 4 am when I went to bed that night, I mean, morning. I typically leave my phone upstairs on silent during this time so that I'm not distracted by messages, Facebook, Instagram, and all those good things. I do not stay up that late every night. I always try to go to bed at a good time on Sunday nights, and on a rotating schedule of every-other night. I get too tired during the day if I stay up that late every night. I also will end up taking a short nap after I read to the older girls during their quiet time to make up for a really late night.

I almost always reserve Friday nights for a Redbox and wine time with my husband. Often he sits with me on week nights as I work and keeps me company until he needs to go to bed if I'm working late. He also washes all our dishes while I paint. Every night. He is a complete gem, and I wouldn't get as much work done if it weren't for him.

Time is something that is hard to come by. I really believe that you can make time for what is most important to you. It helps that I really love painting. It would certainly be harder if it were something I didn't enjoy. Also, I try to find ways to simplify the ordering process. This is not always possible but I recently spent a significant amount of time working out colors. I was having a bit of trouble getting colors right on signs which required me to go back and work on them again. I do that willingly because that is what people are paying me for. They want something that is going to fit just right in their home, and trust me, I totally understand!

I just finished my color chart yesterday.

I'm pretty excited about it. The only thing that I couldn't accurately represent was the stain colors that I offer. I would have liked to have stain samples on my paint sticks, but the paint stick absorbed the stain in such a way that I did not feel it was an accurate sample of what it looks like on the wood I typically use. That being said, I have done many signs in each of the colors I offer, so it is easy for me to pull up a photo with each of those stain colors.

Etsy offers this beautiful "Zoom" feature, so if you have trouble reading the color chart I would recommend visiting This Link, scrolling to the last photo and hitting zoom in the bottom right hand corner.

I hope that helps answer your time question. I thank you all so much for your orders. It has been so fun for me to create beautiful things to hang in your home. I'm honored.