Category: my shop

… as in there’s one in the air, and it’s also all I wanna do rn. I have a lot of stuff to do today, but first for a little Monday morning treat: you can stream the new CHVRCHES on NPR, and bless their hearts, it’s not geolocked like the Beach House First Listen was (of course, I got around that in the end, but it was still annoying).

I feel that a lot of squirrels must live here.

My beloved Kodiak boots have finally disintegrated so I’ve been wearing this pair instead. I’ve had them for a while but never wore them because the soles leave scuff marks everywhere. Maybe if I get them resoled I’ll like them more?

Taylor has been working days for the past week and it’s been weird but nice. He’s been getting up at like… 5am, working for a couple of hours at home, going into the office for 8 and getting home by 2 or 3 most days. I think tomorrow or Wednesday he goes back to working nights, but he had his review last week and the HR department expressed some concerns about how many hours he has been working (ie TOO MANY). It’s been decided that unless there is a super serious systems administrating emergency he has to leave the office by 9 each day. He actually used to leave that early (or even earlier) most days- there was a year when he came home by 8:30 three days a week so he could walk Sym to school. It’s kind of amazing to think he will be coming home every day in the morning and theoretically getting more than 3 hours sleep a day.

I’m still working on getting used to using this camera of Taylor’s. My camera is tiny and has a wrist strap, so it’s strange not being able to fit it in my pocket, or hold it easily in one hand (especially with my sprained finger, ow). I do think it takes better pictures though? Probably it would be even better if I could be bothered to ACTUALLY learn how to use it properly, but ughhhhhhhhhh. I wish there was some way to combine Taylor’s technical knowledge with my artistic eye and steady hand, but other than my actually reading the instruction manual (LOL NO) I don’t think there’s a way it’s ever gonna happen.

FINALLY I should prob stop releasing new things on the weekend bc it seems like no one is on the internet but O WELL I’m just a very impatient person (I actually have my October calendar page finished and it’s making me bonkers waiting until the end of the week to post it) but I listed a new set of hand painted wooden blocks on Saturday. I actually made these ones for myself as a ~desk accessory~ or w/e and have them in a little wooden bowl by my computer. They are in a forest/woodland theme and the set of twenty-one blocks includes seven blocks painted in shades of green with leaves on one side, seven blocks painted in shades of brown with two metallic sides (one copper and one bronze), three blocks painted red with white spots, and four blocks painted as animals: a dark brown bear, a medium brown deer, a red-brown squirrel and an orange fox.

Get a set for yourself here.

Last week I received the sad news that Gwen’s lil friend, who has been coming to my house for daycare since he was about 10 months old, is moving to a group daycare. He’ll still come for the first three weeks of August, and after that I’m hoping that we’ll get to see him for playdates because he really is Gwen’s best friend. I’d hate for her to lose him, since she’s so shy and doesn’t make friends easily.

Now, before I had Gwen a daycare kid leaving would be nbd, or only a msd (medium-sized deal?) because when I was licensed I had 3-6 other kids, but since his family were my only clients… yikes. Ever since I found out I’ve been working hard to find more work. I had already taken the first step towards getting my childcare license again in early July, but it’ll be weeks IF NOT MONTHS before I see any results from that. In the meantime I signed up on care.com to try to find some new clients. I’ve had a couple messages already but so far nothing has panned out. I’m still hopeful though!

With my day job turning into day unemployment I’ve been working extra hard on my side hustles. Right now everything is the Unicorn Parade Shop is still 25% off with the code SUMMER25 (sorry but I will be posting about this A LOT), and on the weekend I set up a Society6 shop as well. Right now I have a couple new prints available, as well as Symphony’s Fawn and Mecha Fawn which you might remember from back in the olden times. I think these were some of the first things I sold in my etsy, before I ever even made my first banner! Anyway from now through August 9th you can get free shipping worldwide*, as well as $5 off laptop sleeves. WHAT A DEAL** TBH. Get yourself a SORRY MOM print today!

*Free Shipping offer excludes framed art prints and stretched canvases.
**Please note that when I’ve ordered from Society6 with free shipping myself I’ve had to pay duty when receiving my item.

The blackberries are INTENSE this year.

The other week I FINALLY took the first step towards getting my childcare license again, and even though it’s prob gonna take forever to get it (I have to go through the whole process again, beginning with an orientation session that isn’t for another month) I can’t stop daydreaming about what I’m gonna do when I have money again. Pay off my credit card! Redecorate my side of the office! Start saving for Gwen’s education! Finish painting my apartment! I’ve even been pinning things I want to buy for the house- like I’m up to ELEVEN pins now, it’s out of control.

In the meantime I’m going to try and find another little kid to look after (I’m allowed two without a license) AND in spite of my recent post about how pointless my online existence is I feel somehow galvanized to try harder to make it successful? Funny how that works.

I have been working on some sample banners for a kind of exciting new collaboration, spent several hours organizing the listings in my shop AND added some new items (ok, ONE new item, but I have more in the works!), and am working with one of my fave illustrators on a complete redesign of my branding. I even changed my twitter & instagram usernames to be more ~on brand, although I couldn’t get the name “unicornparade” on instagram because it’s already registered by a totally unused account. I’m going to keep stalking it though, instagram periodically removes inactive accounts so if it becomes available I’m gonna scoop it up.

Hmmm I like how I titled this post “daydreamin” but it’s actually mostly about working? Just shows my dedication to the hustle igss.