Updates Galore – What to Expect from fallenpeach

Hi everyone! I know I’ve been super quiet here lately, but I’m in the middle of a million projects and I’m hoping to be back blogging by the end of July at the earliest. I am incredibly excited about everything we’ve been working on and I can’t wait to show off. 😀

Here is what you can expect from fallenpeach in the coming weeks:

1. My domain transfer finally went through. Which means that I’ll be transferring this blog from wordpress.com to wordpress.org and to fallenpeach.com officially, something that intimidates me a little. I’m hoping nothing goes horribly awry, but please be patient!

2. I have about 21 brand new bookmark designs that I photographed today and will be listing in the shop over the coming weeks! There are some great road trip kitch images as well as some beautiful hot air balloon images!

3. I also have three sets of 4 coasters photographed and almost ready to list! Yay for new products!

4. We are slowly building up our graphic design company, Side Route Studio, and I’m hoping to start working on the website soon. Stay tuned for updates on that. For a sneak peek at what to expect you can check out the temporary webspace here – Side Route Studio.

 

And on that note, back to work I go!

 

 

Changes on the Wind

Good morning and Happy Monday! I know I’ve been a little absent from the blog lately, but I wanted to let you know that there are changes happening behind the scenes.

I’m going to be moving this blog to a .com and I spent this past weekend doing the first few things necessary for that move. I also spent a bunch of time working on new bookmark designs 🙂 So a lot is happening, just not entirely visible right now. I’m also working on a new blog schedule, one that suits me better than my last one, and hopefully that will start up in May. Here’s hoping the move to a .com and a wordpress.org blog goes smoothly, wish me luck!

 

Falling Behind and Catching Up

Happy Monday! If you follow me on twitter at all, you know that the past two weeks I’ve been pretty sick and now I’m getting over what I’m fairly certain was the flu. I spent a lot of time sleeping and more time reading and not a lot of time doing anything else. Because of all of my sleeping and reading, I’ve fallen a little behind on some things. But now that I just have that annoying lingering cough, I’m back with my bullet journal and ready to plan out April and get back on track.

The past few months I’ve been stalling off one particular item on my to do list: Organize and Prioritize businesses. I think tackling this item might be the perfect way for me to get back into everything and help limit the stress of catching up.

How do you “catch up” when you’ve been away for a little while  due to sickness or vacation?

The Meetup: April 2014 Goals

Can you believe that it’s APRIL? March totally flew by for me. Felt even shorter than February, believe it or not.

I have to say, though, I was much more productive in March than February. I think it’s the excitement for Spring that gets me motivated and moving. April should, hopefully, be even more productive and hopefully warmer as well. I can’t wait to open windows and dig in to Spring Cleaning (something that did not get crossed off my March to do list). Let’s take a look back on my March –

MARCH GOALS

• Get that mission statement done!
• Put together tax things and make appointment
• start work on graphic design business website
• logo work for new business venture
• Spring Cleaning!!!
• try out one new product idea
• continue listing new items at rate of one a week. – mostly accomplished
• brainstorm new bookmark designs
• Organize and prioritize business ideas

Wow! I’m really happy with how much and what I ended up accomplishing in March. Our brand new missions statement is tops on our About page , taxes are done, we have a logo for yet another business venture and I’ve been posting photos on instagram as I work on a new product idea – coasters! I’ve also been blogging consistently, thanks to my bullet journal and editorial calendar.

In Etsy shop news – there are several new Sammy & Friends cards in the shop, and this month I’ll be launching new keychains there as well.

April Goals

• Spring Cleaning
• List new keychains, one a week
• brainstorm new bookmark designs
• organize and prioritize business ideas
• work on graphic design website
• learn a new skill – sewing
• work on pricing and details for coasters
• catch up on Project Life

The list makes me feel like I’m all over the place, but part of my April will be working on how to prioritize my business adventures and making sure that I don’t get overwhelmed. I’m thinking about working on a different project each week, perhaps. Or making my weekly schedules a little more detailed. We will see what ends up working best.

How was your March? Are you excited for April?

Join in our Meetup monthly, sharing your goals on your blog and linking to them in the comments below!

Destination Wednesday: Top 3 Favorite Travel Souvenirs

a small selection of my squished pennies

When I travel, there are certain things I look for to “collect” as a souvenir. Usually these things are small and cheap since we don’t have much space and are on a tight budget. Here are my top 5 favorite travel souvenirs.

1. The first thing is usually the hardest to find – penny squishing machines. I love collecting squashed pennies from all the places we travel. I’ve been picking them up ever since I was a little kid and am actually thinking about buying a special jar to put them all in. Right now most of them are in the books you can buy, but I would love a more general way to display them since I don’t go through the books very often. The new tokens that are turning up in National Parks are becoming a part of this collection as well.

2. Postcards. Traditional, easy to find and usually sold 5 for a dollar, Postcards are a great way to remember your trip. They are great for scrapbooking, making a collage or even tucking into photo albums.

3. Christmas Ornaments. On our very first road trip, when we got all the way to California, we celebrated by buying our first Christmas ornament. We didn’t have an apartment, or a tree, but we knew that someday we would have both and would want to remember our first time to the West Coast. Ever since then we’ve been collecting ornaments everywhere we go. We try to find unique ornaments that really represent the  destination and every Christmas we decorate our tree and remember our adventures.

What do you collect when you travel?

New in Our Shop: Imagine Memorial Photo Travel Keychain

Happy Monday! We are proud to announce that we will be adding more keychains into our shop at a rate of one a week. The first new keychain is our Imagine memorial keychain. I took this photo in New York City at the John Lennon Memorial in Central Park. Take all kinds of adventures with you on your own trips with our photo travel keychains!

This image is also available as a bookmark, if you are looking for a new way to keep your place as well!

Reading Thursday: The TO BE READ Pile

I don’t know about you,  but I have a massive pile of books that I intend to read someday. Most of them I picked up at used bookstores or tag sales along the way, a small portion I bought at a bookstore and just never read and at least two were gifts. The problem, for me at least, is that I love to re-read books. Also, I read a lot of series books. So if a new one is coming out I feel like I should re-read at least the latest one in the series. And right now there are at least three different authors coming out with new books in series’ that I read. For the curious those authors are Robin Hobb, Diana Gabaldon and now Anne Rice. I feel like there is a fourth, but I can’t think of who it is right now.

What all this means is that my “to be read” pile has been neglected a lot this month. And may continue to be neglected for the next couple months. But it’s there and keeps growing. Maybe I’ll try to alternate between a new and old books for April.

How big is your  “to be read” pile? Tag me (@fallen_peach)  in a photo of yours on instagram, I’d love to see what you have on deck!

Three Months In: Using an Editorial Calendar

Last week I talked about how the Bullet Journal has changed my life. Using an editorial calendar has done the same, but the magic really started when I began using them TOGETHER.  My first editorial calendar was written in pencil on my wall calendar. It was a little hard to see, but it was there. For the most part, I followed through on it and I love how it makes me feel more organized and together with my blogging. Month two I used the same technique and separately began using the Bullet Journal.

Towards the end of February, I realized that I could combine the two and make everything work together for me. So now I write out my monthly calendar, turn the page of my bullet journal and write out another monthly calendar- just for my blog.

An editorial calendar is a schedule. It’s a way to keep track of what you want to write about and when you want to write it. I love how it gives me time to brainstorm blog post ideas so that I’m not scrambling in the morning to come up with a topic. I could probably be more organized and theme my months,  but I don’t think I’m quite there yet!  Amy T Schubert of Lemon and Raspberry talks more specifically about “how to”  here – I highly recommend reading through if you don’t already use one!

Editorial Calendars really are magic. Mine is the reason that I’ve been so much more present on this blog, which is something I’ve struggled with at times, but love keeping up with. Three months in and all is going beautifully. Keeping up with both the bullet journal and my editorial calendar process has been a lot smoother than I thought it would be, which makes me happy. 🙂

Sneak Peek: New Product Coming Soon!

Though they are still very much in progress, I am incredibly excited to announce that I am working on making coasters for our shop! Photo transferring is a super fun process and I am loving the physicality of making these products. Above is the very first one I made – obviously I had to start with Route 66! Still needs to be sealed and corked, but I think it came out amazing! What do you think? Are you excited to see more coasters from us? Do you like the one I started with?

Photo Friday: Flowers and Pearls