I am so pissed off.............

Okay good stuff first then I'll get to my moan of the day!!

I have new labels! OMG they look sooooo fantastic! I should have taken my camera in to work with me today, but I forgot ... my bad - I'll take pics tomorrow! I had created a new design for the labels based on the new logo. I showed L ... who suggested I tweak it slightly by changing one little thing and all of a sudden they look properly "branded" rather than generic and "samey"

It's funny --- whenever I have new packaging, all of a sudden I love doing the "monkey work" .... hehehe I'm sure the novelty will wear off!

Okay so the moan.

I am so utterly pissed off at home right now. I'm working my proverbial backside off daily and I feel that I get very little support for it from hub. He claims to be supportive and will stand there and argue the toss with me about how he is being supportive ... but he isn't! His salary puts a roof over my head and food on the table ... but it doesn't mean that what I do isn't important!

I don't have the luxury of being able to leave early in the morning and finish at 5pm. I have to fit my working hours into the time that the children are at school, then I go back evenings and weekends if I have to. I am working my backside off to try to build the business back up. I've invested hours and hours of my time to build it into something for the future - for my future and for the kids.

Hub has been complaining about HIS LACK OF WEEKENDS!!! It makes me so angry. He expects it to be absolutely fine for me to just not go into work for an entire weekend and either have to fit more into less hours or fall behind with orders ... just so that HE can go and do HIS stuff.

How is that supportive???

The latest one??? AFTER we had already had an argument about how unimportant my work is and how he doesn't get time at weekends ... he told me he wanted to go out on Saturday 26th - some bike or canoe thing - I didn't really pay much attention to the "what" because I couldn't believe it - not only did he blatantly not listen to me earlier in the day about how I need the weekends ... the 26th is the weekend after his daughter's birthday ... the weekend I have got 3 of her friends coming over to all go to the cinema and then pizza and a sleepover! Yeah okay hub, what do I do with Nathan while you are off doing whatever it is you want to do while I am with our daughter and her friends?!?!!

Is that selfish of me? Am *I* being the selfish one? Should I just cause myself MORE stress and MORE worry by having to work harder and faster during the day while the children are at school just so that he can have a weekend to do whatever he wants to do??

On the upside I wore new shoes today - so at least the bad parts of the day had a bit of sparkle to them.

An insignificant Tuesday!

It's always a good place to be in when a day is relatively unventful!

All of the orders are either out or on their way out today and it's a really good position to be in. Although it really did screw me up having the website down for those two weeks, and I potentially lost a phenomenal amount of business ... it has kind of been a round about benefit too because it gave me the opportunity to really get things caught up and completely up to date, and as a result, as orders have been coming in - they've been turned around and sent out within a couple of days. There is nothing in the workshop over 24 hours old now and that's great!

*** Happy Dee ***

A great weekend ....

I've worked a LOT but it's actually been a nice relaxing weekend ... ie I've not been at a show! I've been in the workshop both days and it's almost good in a way that the site went offline for a while because it meant I was able to completely catch up on EVERYTHING without anything new coming in. It's also meant that as the new orders have come in this week since the site has been back online ... well I've been getting them poured and dispatched within 48 hours which is terrific as far as me AND my customers are concerned!!

It's a huge relief ... things seem to be going okay and I almost didn't want to say that out loud incase it jinxes it somehow! (touching very large bit of wood!) I'm back to 8th/9th in Google for my keyword searches at the moment instead of the 4th place I found myself last night, but it is still all good and I'm not that worried. I've done a lot of "tweaking" over the last couple of days on the website and hopefully won't be too long until the search engines pick up my changes!

Soooo currently tomorrow I will be packing up the orders that came in over the weekend (cus baby they are ALL done!) and then if nothing new is in overnight ... I have a "to do" list the size of ... well it's pretty big! LOL

Yeah baby!!!

Well the hard work I have been putting in has paid off! The website is finally back in the top half of google! I could always rely on coming up at least 3rd for my key word search terms, and when the site disappeared off of google completely after the web host nightmare ... well .... let's just say I was panicking!!

Yesterday evening I found I was back on the first page, but when I checked this evening (after more work put in!) and found I was 4th in google ... well happy dance wasn't the word! I've worked my proverbial backside off to get the site back up there and I am soooo relieved it's been worth it!!

I am literally physically exhausted though! I spend every waking minute either number crunching, buried in the website, designing the new catalogue or working in some form or other and the lack of sleep has taken it's toll on me! On the upside, so many people have noticed how positive I have been lately and that's been great.

I still owe most of it to L! Without L around to kick my proverbial backside, well I dread to think where I would be!

Anyway, it's late - I'm knackered and still have the summer 08 catalogue to finish before bed!

OMG I'm a bad person ... I'm SORRY!!!!!

But OMG what a week!!!!

Seriously I've had the most amazing week and I've worked my ass off ... which is the ONLY reason I haven't blogged for 4 days ... oooooops!!! Jeeeez, I actually can't remember the last time I left it that long before blogging!

But look .... this is what I have been doing!!! LOL

I am sooooooooooooooooooo pleased with it! Check it out in all it's pinkness at http://www.deelights.co.uk

It's been a weird week!! L has helped me enormously with some proverbial butt kicking which has really motivated me into getting things done!

I've been drinking a lil bit this evening (yeah Dee had a night off!) so I can't promise how much I'll actually get written ... but I will try!!

L helped me to work out exactly how much I need to make per week to cover the overheads that the business has and that has been a really good figure to work out. Can you believe I actually didn't know that number before?? It's crazy. The best thing is that based on the highest outgoing figure (which doesn't take into account the savings I am working on making at the moment) ... I have covered what we need to make this week - plus I am up on next week.

Considering that until TODAY the website wasn't listed in google for my key search term "scented candles" ... that's been phenomenal!!

You should have seen me earlier when I did a google search and found myself on the first page of google! YEAH baby!! I've spent the last few nights tweaking the website and working on optimising it for the search engines and it is such a relief that it has paid off! I literally ... LITERALLY did a happy dance around my front room to such an extent that my 8 year old son told me off for swearing!!!!!!!

Ooooops!

Wellllllll it was a huge thing!! After the site being offline for 2 weeks, then not being listed in google as the spiders had been out ... and obviously my hard work over the last few days has really paid off!

*still doing the happy candlemaker dance*

Seriously ... the happy candlemaker dance is something to be seen - it really is! Maybe one day I'll get someone to video me doing it! LOL

So anyway ... tonight I've been feeling really positive and it's been GREAT! I'm exhausted - completely and utterly, but I'm happy and loving the fact that it's Friday night and I don't need to get up early!!

I was asked an interesting question by a candlemaking friend in Ireland on MSN tonight. He is a hobbyist and at the point where he is almost ready to start as a business. It was an interesting chat because he's a fellow candlemaker, yet he's not technically competition as he makes carved candles PLUS he's in Ireland!

Anyway ... he asked me what it would really take to make me happy (this is after 3 hours of MSN chatting!) and it really caused me to stop and think.

What do I want/need to make me happy?

I want to be "comfortable". That's all! Yeah it would be great to be rich but lets face it, that is a pipe dream for most of us!! Comfortable to me means knowing that all of the bills are paid and that if I happen to see a pair of shoes tha I "must have" ... that I can buy them and not worry about whether I can afford them! Call me superficial & shallow because I want to live in a nice house and have nice things around me - the pinker & sparklier the better!! Does that make me a bad person? I don't exactly want to live in a Swarovski encrusted world, but a lil more glitter & sparkle never hurt!!

I want my kids to grow up knowing they are loved and for them to feel secure & happy. I want them to grow into confident adults ready to take on the world no matter what challenges are thrown at them. I want to be their mother and their friend at the same time and to never lose touch with who they are as individuals.

Good friends. This is vital. I need my close friends - they are the ones that keep me sane through the dark times!

I want my business to succeed and to finally turn a profit enough for me to draw a serious wage and be able to achieve all of my other dreams without bleeding the business account dry and stabbing my own self in the foot!

I want to come home at the end of a long and hard day & snuggle up in the arms of a man who loves me more than anything, thinks I am a complete and utter goddess and who will succumb to my every whim!

Is that really too much to ask for??

Trust me there's a lot more I would love to add to that wish list .... but that's what it will take before I am truly happy.

The website is back!!!!

FINALLY!!!! I phoned the new host first thing this morning and within minutes, the site was up! It will take a while before the search engines pick it up again, but meanwhile I plan on doing letterbox drops, direct marketing and really pulling out as many of the stops as I possibly can!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out! L helped me make some tweaky changes to it earlier and the logo / branding has come out brilliantly.

I've also already had an order from the site - from a regular customer, so at least that's some pennies today with the first day being back online!!

Gawd I am sooooooooooooo utterly knackered! I really am. I didn't post last night after getting back from the show because a) it was another crappy day and I just about covered costs, and b) I was physically and mentally exhausted!!!

I still have so much work to do before I can think about sleep tonight though!!

www.deelights.co.uk - any comments on the site design welcome!

Lovin' Monday!

Wow, what a fab day I've had! I was up early to go to the gym as hub was working from home, so to start the day off with a boost was a good start!

The website is now back in my name and registered with my new host - I need to come up with the funds for the hosting to get it officially back online ... but it's all going according to plan so far!

I did some number crunching today with L and worked out that I can save around £4,500 a year purely by buying my wax in larger quantities, changing payment processors and questioning some of my maintenance bills. That's crazy. Scary crazy!!!

Also ... finally the website re-design is coming together. I'm really happy with how it's working out and it'll mean that by the time the site is back online, there will be a whole terrific new look for it!!!

Yeah we love weekends like this!

We being "me" anyway! Yesterday was a really good day, then today I got as much as I'd wanted to achieve accomplished at work, then extra bits too! It's always good when that happens!! I've also been doing a lot of brainstorming about the future of the business and where I want to go with it... and dreaming up concepts and designs.

It's good to be all floaty every now and again, but from tomorrow it's back to proper number crunching and serious figure working. I need to get this part finished before I can even think about going any further!

The website re-design isn't going too well. I looked at it today - realised it was completely shite and have started a fresh version! I'm too much of a perfectionist!!

Well, anyway, it's 10.40pm and this perfectionist is heading to bed ... an early night for once!

Grinning like only Dee can grin :-p

Ohhh what a GREAT day! LOL I just love it when I can start a post like that!

I'm still very much bobbing to keep my head above water (and the website is going to be down till the middle of next week) ... BUT it's all looking up and that is (partly!) why I have a grin on my face this evening! I also had a cash sale today, so that added to what I took last night will get paid into the bank on Monday. I've got a booking Thursday night in a pub in Ashington for a ladies night, and then next weekend is a 2 days event near Arundel.

So aaanyway yes it was an utterly delicious afternoon! The sun was shining, I got LOADS done at work ... and even managed a fair few unexpected things too *wicked grin*

This evening I HAVE to get to grips and make a final decision on the layout for the redesigned website, so that once we are finally back online - it's all ready to go!! The utterly worst thing would be to have the site fixed ... but no content to upload because I'm certainly not going to put the old site back up when I'm so close on a new version! LOL

Aaaaanyway the longer I sit here procrastinating about it - the less time I have to do it! LOL

What a week and it's not even Friday yet!!

I cancelled everything for this morning so that I could be in first thing to fax the paperwork to Nominet... R from the other unit said I could borrow his fax and we double checked that it had worked. T also came in for a couple of hours and we sat down and packaged up a batch of wedding favour orders... a monotonous job so it's good to have someone to chat to while you do it!

Anyway, just before leaving work this afternoon I called Nominet to check that they had received the fax okay with all the domain transfer details and they hadn't had the fax! Grrrr!! R was out at the time so I've now got to leave it until tomorrow!

*sigh*

It has absolutely knackered me out as well. This whole week has been totally exhausting - I actually nodded off on the sofa earlier and was late picking Megan up from Brownies! I'm gonna get me a nice early night tonight and SLEEEEEEEEEEEP!!

I can't wait for things to finally settle down so I can chill out and sit here with a grin on my face again!!

Oh FFS it's just one thing after another ....

So this morning my website had been down for five days and I decided it was about time to go nuclear on my hosts. I had got fed up with being fobbed off about how "engineers are working on it." I sat me down with the phone before I went into work and spent around 20 minutes on the phone to tech support. The guy actually seemed fairly helpful (compared to the knobs I'd spoken to before) and he said that I should delete ALL the files from my server and then re-upload them all.

Sounded reasonable ... so I did that. Nothing - nada, zip. Website still offline despite the fact that the brand spankingly newly uploaded files are there on the server! I've had websites for 9 years - I'm not exactly a newbie at this!

So anyway, I call back and (after spending 15 mins on hold for the tech support guy (I use that term VERY losely) to read the notes) I am told that this person will look into it and email me a response. I even checked he had my hotmail email addy so I can check it whether I am at home or work.

Did I get an email? Did I ****!

Soooooooo by this time I've got to work and I'm trying to stay chilled and focused. I call them back AGAIN, am put on hold for notes reading and account checking AGAIN ... and am finally told that they will refresh the server and to check the site in 20 minutes.

30 mins later no website. I give it another half hour - so over an hour after my last call ... and I call back AGAIN. Another forever on hold and I'm told that a supervisor is going to look into it and will call me back. I verify that they have both of my mobile phone numbers!

No call... but what I DID get was an automated email from them thanking me for getting in touch and confirming my account deletion.

By this time I am flapping, checking DNS servers, registrant details and there's nothing ... I still own the domain but my host basically de-tagged me and deleted me (despite the fact that I PAY for this service!) and left me with absolutely no hosting for my website whatsoever .... without my consent!!!

The host in question is madasafish. I didn't choose them - they bought out the company I was originally hosting with. The tech support are useless. I must have phoned eleventy hundred times in the last 5 days and not ONCE have I spoken to someone with an accent I can actually understand. I am not racist - in any way shape or form, I just believe it is bad business to employ people with a very strong foreign accent to work in customer call centres!! I understand the reason for doing it - it creates jobs in countries where work is desperately needed ... and I'm all for people working for a living, but damnit when you need TECHNICAL SUPPORT ... when you are tearing your hear out with a problem that these people are supposed to be able to help you with, then you need to actually understand what they are saying!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

There was a point during the afternoon where I actually broke down in tears and just sat on the floor! It has honestly felt like just one thing after another for so long ... and this was the icing on the cake!!

So anyway ... after pulling myself together combined with a couple of phone calls to Nominet later, and a chat with Easily.co.uk who host all of my other websites ... I am getting the domain transferred to Easily!! It will cost me £10 plus VAT for the transfer fee through Nominet, and then the new domain registration fee from Easily.co.uk (which is fairly minimal) for 2 years hosting.

Soooo tomorrow morning I need to fax this huge ass form I've had to print and fill in back to Nominet ... I've paid Easily online for the domain, so they should be ready to catch the domain as soon as it is released.

Phew! All I then need to do is come up with £100 odd for the hosting cost ... I'll worry about that one tomorrow!!!

I need a harder nose!!

I am sat here watching Hotel Babylon and I SO need to take inspiration from Rebecca the hotel manager! She is a mega hard nosed super bitch who doesn't take crap from anyone. I wouldn't want to be completely like her because she is so VERY driven with very little room in her life for anything else... but as far as running a business goes?

I need a harder nose ... or a backbone - or both!! I need to start playing the game properly instead of pussy footing and half arseing around.

It's been a fairly good work day today. Half term is over now and it's all back to normal with the kids so I can get finally "proper" work done again. I feel totally exhausted and knackered as I've been fairly nonstop during the day, and then the last couple of nights have been late ones working on the website, but I'm pleased to say it's so very nearly ready to go and it looks terrific!

p.s. The actual "live" site (I use that term loosely right now) is STILL offline. I am so totally pissed off about that as I've been on the phone to my hosts several times and I am simply told "engineers are aware and working on it." Btw it wasn't actually me that screwed it up - apparently it's their end - I just happened to be uploading at the time it went tits up!

In the mean time I apparently just have to sit tight and errr wait!

Heading towards the wee small hours & still working ...

Okay so I managed to somehow screw up my website last night! I was trying to create a custom 404 page, tried uploading a .htaccess file to the server and it was probably a combination of too much wine and uploading it to the wrong folder ... but whatever I did ... I've managed to take my whole site out! I phoned my tech support but there is nothing they can do until Monday ... not good!!

It's technically Monday morning now, but as far as my body clock goes it's still Sunday night as I haven't gone to bed yet. Last night I ended up being up until around 2.30am and I reckon tonight is heading the same way too! I've been working on a redraft of my website based on some opinions I was given by trusted people ....

• The whole design needs to suggest "lifestyle" more (which is what I've known for a while.) It needs to be fresher and more modern/up to date.
• The photography has also needed updating for a while to show customer that my candles are absolutely essential to the lifestyle that they want to achieve!!
• The photo of my father needs to be removed (he died in 2003) and although he's still a big part of me ... it's not relevant to the business anymore. I need to move on.

So that's kind of what I've been doing... and I am really pleased with the results. It's almost been a blessing that the website has been offline, because by the time the engineers have sorted it on Monday .... I'll hopefully have a brand new site to load!!

Dee took a day off! Wow and mega double wow!!!!

It's a little after midnight so technically Saturday, but heck it's Friday night until I go to bed! LOL

I took the day off today. It was the last day of half term for the children and I knew that even if I went into the workshop and poured my backside off that nothing would be finished to dispatch today ... and being Friday, even if it WAS dispatched today it would just sit in the courier warehouse all weekend! Much better for me to de-stress today and go in all weekend to catch up and dispatch everything Monday for delivery on Tuesday!

I didn't have a complete day off tho (well it IS me!) I helped Nathan clean his room up, did some housework, repotted my tomato plants and worked on the business website redesign.

The current version of the website just isn't working for me. It needs to be slicker and more up to date, so I've been working on designing a basic template for the index page that I can use for the rest of the website. It's looking good so far!

Went into work this evening and saw a friend for a bit - a nice way to finish off the day!

I LOVE evenings like this!!!

The kids are in bed and I am sprawled out on my bed with my laptop and the TV on ready to watch Sex in the City at 10pm!!

This time of the evening when it's all so quiet everywhere else, it's almost like I am alone in the house and I love it, esp when the hub is out of the house too!! (he's away for a couple nights) I CRAVE moments like this, and cherish them when I get them! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kids to bits, but I do love my "alone time" in the house just me relaxing in my bedroom!

I sent out my email promotion to selected companies earlier targeting my wholesale website ... fingers crossed on that one! The link from the major wholesale source is now live too and the stats show that I am already getting hits from it ... so that's all good!!

One more day ... just tomorrow to go, then the weekend then the kids go back to school and things can get back to normal again!!

Being productive on a Tuesday evening

Soooo ... it turned out not to be such a bad day after all and definitely better than yesterday ... LOL that isn't exactly hard though! I was smiling by the time I actually left the workshop and I actually STILL have a smile on my face now (nearly 10pm).

Kids are in their rooms (they are allowed to stay up later on weekends & school holidays) and hub is attached to his PC in his little room! I love it when I get an evening to myself like this ... it's almost like there is nobody else in the house!

I've had a really productive evening so far and I'm just taking a quick break for a bit of a blog and a whinge before I hit the HTML code again! I've got myself a free trial on an excellent wholesale website to bring in some new business, so I've been working like a woman possessed on my wholesale site ready for when the link to my site goes live from theirs. I'm uploading the changes as I go to force myself to keep working on it or the site will be mis-matched! LOL

So okay ... whinge time ... I still feel like I am sinking faster than I can swim, but damnit I still have a smile on my face! If I do go down then it will be kicking and screaming all the way...

I need to generate some cash flow ... and fast!!! Well, back to the HTML coding in the meantime!!

New site is live!!

Wooohoo!!! In less than a week I managed to come up with the idea, design and build the site and it tis done!

www.deestapleton.co.uk is officially launched!!!

This is the biz card I've designed - it's a low quality image as it's a screen print from my software, but I LOVE it and think it totally sums me up!!


Coooooooooooooooool huh!! Sometimes I am so good I surprise myself! hahahaaaa

Still a genius :-)

Today started off as a bit of a "non day" really ... work this morning was "okay" - got some orders boxed up and sent out, and poured what I could - I just wasn't in a "lets pour candles" mood and I know when I'm in that kind of mood I am best off OUT of the workshop! Those are the days I end up throwing wax over myself or having a silly accident!

Soooo I came home an hour earlier than I should have ... and have been working on the new website. All the changes are still offline, and I'm not uploading anything else now until the site is completely ready! BUT it's all going really well. I've got the photography page done and am working on my website design service page right now.

I NEED some more stuff in my portfolio though ... I have terrific photographs of MY kids ... but I need MORE! Same with the websites too - I've built sites for other people in the past and I have several of my own .... but I need a bigger portfolio!!!

Sooooooooo ......... if anyone reading this (c'mon I know there are a couple of you at LEAST who read this LOL) who would like a free single page website (hosted on my domain or a free site of your choice) to go into my portfolio then email me!! LOL Oh I should add that just incase there are like hundreds / thousands of you reading this then the offer is limited to the first three people! LOL

I really REALLY want to get out with my camera! I am filled with this URGE and DESIRE to just go take pictures of anything and everything right now! I feel so full of inspiration and motivation. It's a good place to be :-)

Ok I've checked in - back to the websites ... that's if the wine don't get me on the floor first!!

I really AM a creative genius!!!

Okay well there is a VERY good reason why I've not blogged for a couple of days ... I've been working on yet ANOTHER project! Yeah, see I think I found some of that time that I lost last week, and when Dee finds herself with nothing to do ... oh well life gets really really awful for anyone in her path!

Hence ... even though I haven't even finished the updates on the candlemaking website, and I'm still playing around with the format of the forums and moderating that, plus working a LOT as orders are really coming in at the moment, plus the whole domestic goddess bit, plus (ah well you get the idea!) ... I found myself thinking "Hmmmm deestapleton.co.uk .... now THAT sounds like a GREAT idea!"

Within a few minutes the domain was registered, and by the time it had the 24 hours to propagate throughout the Internet, I'd designed the main page and got the format for the sub pages done! So uhuhuh I've been a very busy bunny!!

www.deestapleton.co.uk - it's there and it's live but very MUCH under construction so I haven't "officially" launched it yet ... I just wanted to share it with the 2 or 3 of you that may actually read my daily mutterings and rambles!! HAHA!

It's going to be a site to house information about ALL that I do and I'll have all my sites linking to each other anyway, so hopefully if someone gets in touch for a candle order, they'll see I do photography, handmade cards, scrapbooking --- plus all the other things I do ... and they might want to commission me for something else!

Dee is gonna make money this year! I am going to HAVE that shop this year even if I have to work all the hours under the sun to achieve it!!!!

And on the 7th day she did rest!

I was going to go into the workshop for a bit today but instead I spent the day working on the wholesale website. It's soooooooo almost finished! I have literally just one more page to attack with the revamped look and then I can upload it.... trouble is I left the worst one till last! It's the custom option page so it involves writing code for every product and every fragrance grrrr it'll take me some time, but I should get it done tonight if I crack on with it!!

So technically I've been sat on my ass all day ... but I've been beavering away and working!!!!