shoprsd.com Blog

What a wonderful Christmas season we have happening! I know it is over for the most part, but my family is doing Christma this weekend, so it doesn’t feel over just yet!

I want to thank everyone for buying and giving during the Christmas season, we are already seeing follow up orders from friends and family from those who gifted and received, thank you!  How exciting to keep growing and growing!

I meet with my fabulous ‘Golden Girls’ or sales reps on the 7th to gear up for a new year and get motivated for all the new things we want to see happening.  I started planning out all the paper work and I love seeing numbers. To me, numbers are black and white, the only things that change them are own actions, I love that part.  We will also be talking over some new products I would like to introduce…think jewelry wraps, i-pod covers, and a new style.  (Now don’t get your hopes up too soon, these things take lots of time because we are so busy thankfully with our current lines, but in the future…)  ! 

I am doing paperwork and new designs on this break. I even took some time to make my daughter’s, Iversyn’s first Christmas dress, and as if that wasn’t enough, I made a coat for her too. After all she does have a  mommy that LOVES to create, why not spoil her!  It was adorable and so much fun.  Everytime I get to the month of January I start dreaming bigger and bigger. I want to have a children’s line someday and I want to design fabric.  I get so motivated looking at Gus’ storybooks and the illustrations or making Ivy clothes, I just can’t help it.  So to start that process a little, I bought 120 colored pencils to start sketching and dreaming.  You have to start somewhere, and I am the first to say, when you would like to do something, do something everyday to get closer to it. For example, buying the pencils, or making a phone call, or an email or blogging about your dreams, they have to start with small steps, you don’t just arrive!  Stay tune, I get adreline just thinking about it, literally!

Gus, our son, says to me after 3 days of not sewing, “Mommy- you haven’t turned your machine on in a long time!”  So yes I took a break in there and it felt good to regroup and re-energize.  But I can’t wait to start up again.

So in the New Year, we are stocking up on Pollies, Scrunchy Scarfs, bags and the new style- think cross bag, long handle with more room than the Ashley style.  I found a fabric that is GORGEOUS, that I will experiment with for it. It is red tapestry with a ‘moracan’ feel to it. 

Happy New Year, have a great weekend and start on your goals, one step at a time!

I think of this phrase so often during the holiday season, so I wanted to share a few of my favorite things:  Strange or not, I love these things/experieces/places/people….

1. Cherry Coke. Enough said, I didn’t ever like pop until I got a pregnant, then it was Cherry Coke baby and it never changed!

2. The dryer light inside the dryer, it’s so inviting and the warm clothes, a litte strange I realize but I love that little light of hope.

3. Gus’ laugh when he is really tickled about something, it is so contagious, you just have to laugh with him.

4.  My husband walking down our sidewalk on the farm in his boots and cowboy hat, if only he was riding his horse, and tying up after a long day..oh yah…..

5.  My mom’s morning phone calls every morning, it’s our version of morning coffee at the cafe, I LOVE catching up and laughing together.

6. The smell of welding dust, burnt hair, and old spice. My dad does a lot of welding, and old spice, the burnt hair is from the brandings out west in the  spring, oh goodness I miss those years.

7.  The feel of cold plastic against my snowpants, makes me feel like I am 8 again and sledding with the Peterson’s and my two older brothers.  Usually it was more about surviving the sledding then enjoying it—, think— ropes, launching and head wounds!

8.  My box full of flowers to craft with, I tell my husband often it is my happy place. I could just sit and create and create in the box.

9.  Bubble baths and my favorite magazines, Oprah, Country Living or clothes catalogs.

10. Numbers- I love to see numbers on business, they don’t scare me they inspire me.  I like to break them down and really figure out what I need to sell in what amount of time to make it all work.

11.  Fabric stores. I used to spend hours with my mom in Rapid City just strolling down the aisles dreaming up wha t I would do with all that fabric, and I am living that little dream!

12.  Ivy’s little hands on my neck, she likes to play shy and she snuggles me, I prayed for a snuggler, and God delivered!

13.  Board Games- oh yah, give me 6 people, popcorn, drinks and a good ol’ board game, and I am in my happy place.  Win or not, I just love laughing.

14.  My niece Olive’s loves. She is so loving.  She tell’s me ”hug, hug hug, and then squeezes away.  She asked me this last time if my nursing served up Ivy some “strawberry milk?” Oh boy….

15.  The sight of Sarah in my passenger seat of the van, it means adventures and laughs, she is so beautiful!

16.  Surprises. oh please surprise me, I even anticipate them which leads to many disappoints, but I can keep dreaming!

17. Hugging my Best Friend Lia and crunching her sunglasses, we are about 12 inches apart and the hugs are the best!

18.  Accessories, jewelry, scraves, and hat, of my goodness hats!

19.  Late night oreos and milk with my husband in the dark kitchen, catch up time and some pillow talk over our kitchen table. 

20.  The movie ELF, seriously, the best movie ever, I never watch a movie twice (why waste the time) but that one I could see again and again.

There is a few of them, what are yours?  Merry Christmas one and all!

  Merry Christmas! 

You may remember that each year we write about what we learned in our marriage and parenting.  Well this year we learned so much, we couldn’t fit it all in, so we will just highlight our many “learning” experiences!

Whew! What a year we have had.  I just finished all the Christmas orders at 4:29pm yesterday, so I had one minute to spare!  Pressure was on! I often use the phrase “Here…we…gooooo!” in my blog entries and in my emails to describe our lifestyle and way of viewing things.  We are on a roller coaster ride and right before we get to the top, we scream, “Here we go!” and most of our lifestyle is like that. 

Our biggest news to share is that we had a baby girl, Iversyn Pauline, on Feb 28^th.  One of each has been so much fun.  Iversyn is very -very smiley.  We describe her as “Mostly sunny with a chance of thunderstorms” because she is very happy or very upset, no in-between.  Nick says she is a lot like her mother, but there is no doubting she is Nick’s little girl!  She loves to be held and is by definition a “Mommy’s girl.” I go everywhere with her on my hip. We joke around that I could win some kind of contest of how much you can do with one arm!

Gus is the big 4 now and one busy athlete still.  For his birthday party this year he had a hockey party with family. He still loves sports of all sorts and plays them as much as possible; we have to ball-proof the house a little for him in the winter.  We have to remind him a lot that is he too good now to play baseball in the house, which he persists he can just “tap” it, but that is still not okay!   He will start preschool in January.  Gus loves clothes and changing about 4 times a day, my mom says it is payback for my ridiculous ways as a kid.   

Nick is continuing to work with his dad on the farm.  We also bought another 10 head of cows.  He is  helping a local plumber when needed too.  My oldest brother, Philip has started his own business in Sioux Falls working construction and Nick is excited to start working with him.  He sure has picked up all kinds of good skills! Nick managed to squeeze in some coyote, deer and some pheasant hunting.  Nick had his own camp this summer at Lake Poinsett called “Wild at Heart” for high-schoolers.  It is based on the way God forms male and female hearts.  It was great to get him back home after a long week.

I have had a great year with Rebekah Scott Designs.  We have increased business significantly and we can contribute that to all the art shows, facebook and my new sales reps.  I have 5 very fine women now selling my things so I can keep sewing my things!  We went from doing an average of 20 bags per week to 40!  I have 4 part-time employees and 2 babies at home that help out sort -of, or at least keep things comical!  My mom has taken over my accessories line and boy we keep her busy, she just keeps shaking her head with all this success and saying, “I should have known!”We have a blog, website, shopping cart, and a fan page on facebook. Visit www.shoprsd.com to see all the products.  This year we introduced baby shoes. The girl shoes are called “Ivy Toes”, and the boy ones are “Gus Stompers.”  Those little shoes may just pay for their colleges! I love what I do, and it wouldn’t be possible without all the help from my folks, and Nick’s and of course family neighbors!

What a fantastic year God has given us.  May He bless your new year with adventures and His peace.  If you find some “stillness and peace” send it our way! Ha!

My goodness has business exploded!  We are so busy and it is so fun, I titled this blog entry “here we go” because that’s what I feel like right before a big rush of orders or shows or whatever the next big phase is, it’s like right before you go over the big turn or hill on a rollercoaster, you say to yourself…Here …..we…..gooooooo!  That’s why I write that a lot…just really describes how this business works. It’s scary, it’s fun, it’s busy and it’s always got turns and spins, and rushes of energy. 

I am so overwhelmed with gratitude and emotion for this business right now. It has just been so fun to see it become what I have been dreaming for so long.  For 3 weeks in a row, we had over 1000 NEW visitors to the website, not returners (although we love you too   NEW ones, WOW!  I am so humbled and excited about what God is doing for this business. I do what I love everyday and stay at home and see my desires played out, does it get any better?  I can’t wait to find out!

I had a show this week in rural Madison for Madison SD teachers and it was a huge success. Eighteen, yah count ‘em….18 bags are now running around Madison, that town is such a hot spot for me!  I have about 4 hot spots that I know of  since being in business that I know will always sell a lot of my product, Madison SD, Rochester MN, Parkston SD, and Windom MN.  They are always GREAT shows and so fun to go to because I see my regular customers and they just keep adding to their collections.  Thank you Hot Spots!  I should mention here— if you want your town to become a hot spot, book a trunk show!  Visit my website at www.shoprsd.com and look at our hostess tools to see just how easy it is and help get you prepared, you could be the next Hot Spot!

So what’s next?  Christmas! Can you believe it? Less than 70 days away!  I LOVE the christmas spirit, I started listening to music already, I set my own traditions of deciding I could listen as early as I wanted to for it!  Order your gifts now so I have them in time for your guest list. Around the Holidays, I have a 4 week turnaround, so figure that in now! I also offer 10% off for any order over 2 with accessories.  Now’s the time! Visit the website to check up on where we will be next on the road to come see us and buy on the spot. The next big one is the Autumn Festival in Shakopee MN, at Canterbury Downs, Nov. 11th-14th, it’s so much fun to go to, gets you in the spirit of everything. 

That’s it for now, and as I love to say……”Here…..we….goooooo! “

Hello all! What a month I have ahead. I feel like we have been wiped out of bags and need to fill fill fill! What a good problem to have though.  So I am filling them up and having fun with the new fabrics. (all posted on facebook and my website, shopsrd.com)

I LOVE fall, the smell, the colors, the atmospher, everything. My husband just built a fire pit and I have feeling we will get plenty of use out of it this fall vs. summer.  I am always asking Gus if I can smell his head and the air in it, he thinks I am pretty funny and now asks me, “mommy want to smell again?”  I have to get in big whiffs while I sew!  Iversyn decided to do too many things at once this week.  I love how they are growing right along and everything is happening one thing at a time, and then WHAM- reality check they are getting bigger and this mom needs to get over it.  She is crawling, eating cereal and now has a tooth breaking through. ONE thing at a time please!!  It’s fun to see her get bigger, but I just love babies and so I want them to need me forever.

I have been getting the bags ready for stores and my sales reps.  I have four very talented ladies helping me sell, so I can sew!  I couldn’t make all the trunk shows people were asking for, so I started thinking I need some help. I prayed about it and God introduced 4 very encouraging, and might I add, beautiful women to help me out.  They motivate me and keep my business top notch to the customers. What fun to see this growth I have been dreaming about.  My vision all along was to stay home and raise babies while doing what I love- here I STILL am!  I will blog later about their names, personalities and what fun they are.

That’s all for now, enjoy this weather, take deep breaths in your kids hair and update your fall look with a purse !!