Paper Doll Madness

I can't blog about this year's Christmas without mentioning the Paper Doll business.  It was our first time ever selling during the Christmas season and it was a pretty big success.  A few women I have met in the blogging world who happen to have a pretty big reader base kindly blogged about the dolls and orders came pouring in.  I could literally sit and watch the orders appear in my inbox there for a couple of days.  It was all very exciting but also extremely overwhelming.  So much to do and to get it all done in time for the dolls to be under the tree Christmas Eve!

Before the Christmas season started, Camille and I sat down and made goals for how many sales we'd like to have for the holidays.  I kind of have to chuckle now when I think of how unprepared we were for what actually happened.  I ordered 100 extra folders thinking that whatever we didn't use for the holidays we could use throughout the year.  We joked that it would be really nice if we actually had to use all of them.  Suffice it to say, we used all 100 and ordered almost triple that to finally fulfill all of the Christmas orders.  I spent four 12 hour days and one half day in front of the computer creating all of the dolls that were ordered and Camille spent (I don't even know, do you Camille?) countless days/hours printing/putting together orders and shipping them all over the place...all in time for Christmas day.

Camille working well into the morning at Mom and Dad Anderson's house a few days before Christmas...finishing up the last of the orders.

 The most AMAZING chicken pot pie I have ever tasted made by Camille on the first 12 hour day (she not only made this but watched the girls all day so I could work).  Micah decorated it with my and Jeff's initials...he's so clever.  

 One night Christine Covey called and told me she was coming in the morning to pick up all three girls and taking them to her house to play all day.  The way she said it really left me no room to refuse and I was SO grateful!  Then she showed up in Callie's mega van with not only her three kidlets but two of Callie's as well!  So she did EIGHT toddler/babies all day long.  How do you say thanks enough for that?!

 Christine you are a CHAMP! Thanks!

I'm happy to say that most of the orders made it to there destinations in time for Christmas and were perfect, etc.  We did have about 8 or so that weren't perfect or that didn't make it in time which frankly stunk.  I really felt this huge burden/responsibility for each and every one to be perfect and for every single person to be a happy/satisfied customer but I've realized that I am human and 8 out of 300+ orders is still pretty good (we did our best to make all of the eight happy and thankfully all of them seemed satisfied in the end).

I do feel like this whole thing has been a big learning experience.  There are many things we will be doing differently next year and a few changes being made to the shop already.  Overall though it has been an awesome experience thanks to so many encouraging words and kind acts.  

I have realized again (and again and again) that first and foremost I really just want to be a mom. I missed the girls so much during those four days and then the stress of getting everything to the right place etc. really hindered me being able to enjoy them while we were together.  I know it was only for a few days and that next season will probably be busy too.  But I really need to figure out how to make it not so overwhelming and time consuming.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the goal Lily&Thistle this year is to make it so I can still be creative and successful but not let it take over my most important job/love...this family (not to mention that we are totally having another baby in like 3 months!)  Jeff has some great ideas on how to make the site more user friendly which will make the customer service part of my job easier/less time consuming.  I love that he is so good at all of the technical stuff and has been so supportive and excited about this whole venture.  I couldn't ask for a better partner.

OK, this is getting long.  If you made it this far, you deserve a gold star!  The end.