A Year in Review & Promises to Come

Happy New Year!  It's so hard to believe that another year has come and gone.   To be honest though, I am so happy for 2019 to be here.   I love to begin the new year with a light planning session where I can look back to the previous year..it's good and not so good parts, and then make plans for the next year.  

First a few of the good things of 2018!  We began the year with the birth of a new granddaughter, Miss Lila Rose.   It was also the year of a lot of travel and teaching!  I loved it all.   We were honored to win the International Quilt Market Merchandising Award in Portland (a dream come true) and then came the cover photo on Quilt Retailer!  

Oh, and who can forget those darling nine puppies all born while we were in Georgia teaching.  You know we couldn't let them all go, so our home was blessed with one big fluffy forever puppy, Little Bear.    I received contracts for my first book and fabric line.  Such a total dream come true.  It was also the beginning of Belle Prairie.

While we were in Dallas teaching  we received word that our entire town was evacuated for fire.  We had left our son home alone, and he had to evacuate alone.  It was one of my nightmares in real time.  As a mom you always worry when you are away, but this helplessness was beyond anything I could have imagined.  The fires and evacuation lasted over two weeks and we watched as those fires came within a few hundred feet from our homes.  We prayed hard and hoped for the best, and were so grateful to return home with no homes lost.  

A week after returning, we were then evacuated for another two weeks because of Hurricane Rosa and the fear of mudslides.  Our yard and home were trenched and sandbagged...windows boarded up and everything left once again....and the mountain held and we came home.  This was an entire month of 2018 spent praying, because there wasn't much else we could do.  Tweetle Dee had to sit, no orders could be processed during our busiest season.  Oh my, I seriously can hardly believe how crazy that experience was.  

Fall ended and winter set in with two huge back to back conferences, teaching everything I love...and fighting off bronchitis.   Did I mention the three weeks of pneumonia in February?  This meant I had to be extra careful to get sleep and not stress.  We were blessed to come home a week before Thanksgiving with 178 orders to paint and frustrated customers who for the most part, patiently waited for us to ship their orders.   We made the decision to shut down the Tweetle Dee Shop during our busiest season to catch up.  It meant lost revenue, but it was the only way we could fill our orders from the months time we were away.

I think it goes without saying, that 2018 was a year of extreme growth for me.  I pride myself with being able to do most anything and handle it with grace....but this past year taught me a lot about myself.  I learned, that as much as I love to say yes, I needed to learn how to say no.   I needed to admit to myself most of all that I couldn't handle it all myself.
In a very blessed way, it allowed me to re-evaluate what was most important to me personally and for Tweetle Dee.  That forced month away from my home and Tweetle Dee gave me the break I needed (but didn't want) to figure out the path I wanted to take for me and my business that I love.
I read Rachel Hollis's book "Girl, Wash Your Face" while I was also watching our mountain burn...and man did it give me the kick in the rear I needed.  I learned how important it is to make promises to yourself and keep them no matter what.  Basically, if you can't keep a promise to yourself...who can you keep them for?  I grabbed a paper (the back of a bank deposit slip I had in the car) and wrote down five things I knew I needed to do for myself.  You know, the things you always put off.
They were to;
1.  No more Diet Coke. 2.  Prayer and scripture reading first in the morning. 3.  Move everyday. 4.  Temple once a month. 5.  Journal daily.  
You know what?  I kept them and boy has it made a huge difference for me as I ended 2018 to already be doing the things I have known I needed to do for myself and always found an excuse to push off.   With everything else in chaos and our of my hands, I had the chance to put some things in order that needed to be in order.  
And for Tweetle Dee?  It helped me figure out the direction for 2019.  I am so excited for this coming year.  There are so many new firsts coming this year!!!  My first book and first fabric line are being worked on now and will be out this year.  Truly, a dream come true.  I'm learning a ton and loving it.  There is a new website in the works which will help me to manage orders in a much better way for our customers happiness and my happiness!  AND...new products that I am sooo excited to add to our shop.  There is much more...but I'll save those "promises" for later.  I have them written down just like I wrote down those personal five on the bank slip and have them clearly visible daily.  
I'm not sure why 2018 was such a tough year.  I guess I needed it and for that I am thankful!  Happy New Year and let's get this party started 2019!!!

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A Year in Review & Promises to Come