June 19, 2014


show & tell
NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN ... RIGHT?
by Emily Jane


Well, I do have a good excuse, I certainly haven’t been sitting around twiddling my thumbs. Things have been crazy busy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, not only with Dorothy Jane Custom Stationery but also with other non-stationery related projects too. I have also done a bit of traveling.

I think the best of part of being self-employed is that I don’t have to count my vacation days, or coordinate with a co-worker our vacation days so that the office isn’t empty, or just plain asking for “permission” to take a day off. So far this year, I have traveled to Washington D.C. for my husband’s 40th birthday, tagged along with my husband to Atlanta for a business trip, attended my cousin’s wedding in Phoenix and of course visited my family in Ohio for extended periods of time. It has been glorious. It is nice to get out of the house, visit new places, check out stationery boutiques in other cities, and to be inspired.




As far as non-stationery related projects, I have had the opportunity to work on a few projects both small and big. Last year, I freelanced at a local private school, which led to an opportunity to work with a few other non-profits in the area. A very good friend of mine is Creative Director at Illume in Minneapolis and has hired me to work on a few beauty packaging projects for her team. My cousin hired me to rebrand his candle company. I hope to get photographs taken of some of these projects to share each project in more detail. I am also going to be updating my very out of date portfolio website ... hopefully within the year.

Dorothy Jane Design has almost most matched in 6 months the workload of all of last year. Not bad if I say so myself. I have doubled the inquiries about potential work. With the increase in workload, several other things have taken a back seat, like the actual business of “doing business.” So I am trying to catch up on those details whenever I get downtime. I have also been thinking about how to restructure my business, how I want to handle sales and custom orders, new product development, etc. Especially because things are going to get a little crazy come Thanksgiving this year.

If that isn’t enough to keep one busy, I have experienced a few life changing moments too. Some small, some big.

For the past 4 years or so, I had been growing my hair out to donate for cancer patients. I wish I had styled my hair a bit better for the before picture, however, I think it makes the after look that much better.


Recently, we sold my Ford Escape because we purchased a new car for me. It was very difficult to say goodbye to my car of 13 years. I loved my Ford and took very good care of her and she took care of me. She was the car that got me back on the road after a very bad car accident, where I totaled my previous car. However, we were paying too much money to fix problems that kept reoccurring, so financially it made sense to sell her. I upgraded to a very nice Toyota RAV4 with all of the bells and whistles.


Which brings me to the biggest of the biggest life change for anyone … we are expecting a baby come this Thanksgiving! We are very excited, overwhelmed and nervous at the same time. I made it through the first trimester. It wasn’t easy, but it could have been worse. I mostly felt blah and exhausted which put non-essential Dorothy Jane Design work on the backburner. Now that I am in my second trimester, I have more energy, and am ready to get our house in order. Finish projects that have been started and furnish a few rooms … like the nursery. This is a new adventure for all of us and we can’t wait to see what God brings us come Thanksgiving.




2 comments:

  1. So happy to hear about all the great progress in all aspects of your life, Emily! <3

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  2. Congratulations! Parenthood is the best roller coaster you'll ever ride!

    ReplyDelete