I’ve tried to keep this blog all happy and businessie, but maybe transparency is a good thing. Here goes:

It’s been tough year for me personally and for Caroline Creates. Don’t get me wrong, my life is amazingly wonderful. However, often times I feel unfulfilled. I had a very slow wedding season last year and this spring has been slow as well. I’ve been questioning if I’m supposed to keep doing this and if I’m going to make it. SO FRUSTRATING.

I’ve always had trouble knowing what I’m meant to do with my life. Many may know that I was a ballet dancer. I mean the kind of not eating, 4 dance classes a day, majoring in ballet and planning on auditioning to dance professionally kind of ballet dancer. It was my life and I always felt like that was what I was meant to do. I had a severe injury and had to stop dancing. Fast forward and here I am designing stationery? Weird. But it makes sense! It’s creative and expressive and has all the highs and lows of performing.It’s given me that sense of fulfillment that I so desperately missed.

Once again, I am facing the possibility of having to quit doing what I love. I won’t go into the gory details. What you need to know and what I’ve been struggling with is that you can’t give up. Struggle is all part of it. You wouldn’t appreciate what you had if you didn’t have to work to get it. I gave up on dance so easy. I could have seen other doctors, taken a year off to have surgery and gone back. I could have fought instead of laying there waiting to die.

I’m fighting now.

I’m not going to give up on this. I’m going to create create create until I’m blue in the face. I’m going to make this happen. I’m going to learn from my mistakes and move on.

I CAN DO THIS!

What are you struggling with and how do you pick yourself up?

Before:

It’s a great invitation and has been getting some buzz, but it looks rather dark don’t you think?

After:

This invite is a best seller and it looks like it here! I used a lighter background and it made such a huge difference.

So what are my top things to remember when taking product photography?
1.) Use natural lighting. It never fails, when I don’t open the window, they look awful.

2.) Learn how to use all the features on your camera. I have a great setting which helps me take better close up shots.

3.) Use a lighter backdrop to make your product pop!

4.) Learn how to use photoshop correctly. I actually have Photoshop Elements and I love it. It’s not too complicated and it gets the job done.

5.) When in doubt, check out what other people are doing. I’ve been looking at tons of successful shops and comparing. It’s made the biggest difference in how I approach my listings.

There you have it! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

The most important words you can convey on a card in my opinion. I will admit that I am not the best at sending thank you notes. I get busy and it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. Guilty as charged. It took me over a month to get out my daughter’s thank you’s after her birthday party and I still haven’t sent the ones from mine. So what is the proper etiquette for sending thank you cards? Let’s take a look!

1. Send Thank Yous for any gift you have received, even if you said “Thank You” in person. It’s also really nice to thank your vendors.

2. Don’t use a fill in the blank thank you note and don’t print a generic thank you and send to everyone. Remember, they took time out of their lives to go get you a gift, so take the time to write a personalized note.

3. There is not a year grace period to write a note. Emily Post says:

Contrary to popular myth, the happy couple does not have a year’s grace period.  All thank you notes should be written within three months of the receipt of the gift. Ideally, a response should be written on the day you receive a wedding gift. If that’s not possible, set a daily goal. It’s a lot easier to write three or four notes a day than to have to write a hundred notes in a month after the wedding!

Hope that helps everyone in the Thank You department. Guess I better go get busy on those!

Have some more questions? Say Hello and I’ll help you out!

Click Here to get started on your Custom Designed Wedding Invitation!

Stay tuned for more information in my Wedding Stationery 101 series!

I mentioned on the Facebook page, that big changes were coming to Caroline Creates. I’ve been talking about this since January and now they are finally happening. Caroline Creates has been a wedding invitation and stationery company based on mostly custom design. I LOVE custom stationery. However, my life is so different from when I started Caroline Creates. I have a 1 year old now and want more! The time and energy required for custom design is not part of my day-to-day anymore. I’ve been spending evenings and weekends working so hard to stay on top of the custom jobs that I’ve had over the past 3 months. I’m tired and not loving it anymore. As my husband said, “Its become a job, not your passion.” I think when he said that, it really clicked and he was right. I was starting to resent having to sit down and work instead of getting that joy I had previously discovered.

I have big dreams for Caroline Creates and sometimes you get distracted from those things and sometimes you have to go down one path to discover which path you should be on. Since I’ve decided to make these changes, my stress level has gone down dramatically. I think I’m on the right track.

I also realized, the business didn’t reflect me anymore. There are things I’ve been really wanting to implement, but just haven’t and now is the time! So here are the changes that are going to be happening at Caroline Creates:

1. I will taking a limited number of custom jobs a year. This means you need to book with plenty of advance to make sure I have space. If you are considering my custom design services, now is the time to jump on it!

2. My shop is getting an overhaul. Over the next few weeks, the shop structure and pictures will be changing. Expect outages!

3. Not all of the shop items will be customizable anymore. Be sure to read the listings before purchasing for more information on changing colors and fonts.

4. Caroline Creates is going GREEN! This is probably the change I’m most proud of. I will talk more about this in a later blog post. Our base paper and envelopes will be green. The paper is 100% recycled paper and the envelopes will contain only 30% post consumer waste. Super important to me. SUPER.

5. Caroline Creates is expanding! The products I offer in the shop will be growing in number. I am also in the process of creating a line of Save the Dates and Baby announcements! Eeek! I’m so excited about this. I’m working with an amazing photographer and I can’t wait to share the final products.

Thank you all for your support and sticking with Caroline Creates throughout this important time of growth and changes. The things you love about Caroline Creates will always be there with added bonuses! Be sure to follow my Facebook page to stay up to date and we will soon be restarting our email newsletters so look for that sign up coming soon!

In case you weren’t sure, the theme was Owls and lollipops! We had a DIY photo booth which everyone really enjoyed. Overall, I think it was a great success! So much fun!

Because I’m feeling bad, I thought it would be fun to offer something nice and make everyone else feel better! Use this code “Noted15” and get 15% off anything in my sending notes section of my shop until May 1!

There are lot of fun things there like custom stationery and letterhead! Check it out!