I hinted last month that I was working on a project and here it is...on October 13, 2015, I officially opened my planner sticker Etsy store,
The Dainty Planner!
It's no secret around these parts that I love my
Erin Condren Life Planner. Decorating and planning became such a fun hobby. I starting planning over the summer and I can't even explain how much planning has helped me in my every day life. I, like many of you, juggle a lot: mother, wife, attorney, cleaning, different schedules, blogging...the list is endless. One of the biggest things that gave me anxiety was feeling like my schedule was not my own and my to-do list at work never ended. I was at a breaking point where I felt like I just couldn't do it anymore, something had to give. While on vacation over the summer, I fell down a rabbit hole of watching "Plan With Me" videos on youtube and I discovered life planners. I immediately placed an order for a planner and scoured Etsy for stickers. A couple months into planning and I realized that planning completely helped my anxiety in ways I couldn't imagine. Actually breaking down what I had to do and making it fun by decorating eased my nerves for the week to come. I also realized that I was going to need lots of the same stickers so I watched tutorials and decided to order a printer to make my own stickers. One of the first stickers I made was Real Housewives stickers because duh. I enjoyed it so much but I was limited with my photoshop skills and so I asked my husband if he would help me. Knowing how much planning has helped me, he happily obliged. I ended up really loving the stickers we were making so I said to him, "why don't we open a store?" He was happy to help me in any way I needed and I really couldn't have done this without him. And so
The Dainty Planner was born!
Before we opened, I spent a couple of weeks sketching everything I wanted in the store and giving my husband time to be able to make the stickers on the computer. We also did a lot, A LOT, of trial and error testing out different cuts, ink, and paper. When we found the perfect mix, I opened an Etsy store account on October 13, 2015 and only listed a few things since it was all we had. We completely make everything in the store and did not purchase any clip art so it took a lot of time to build up inventory. Basically, we would come home from a long day at work, play with Lucas until bed time, then from about 7 p.m. until sometimes 2 a.m., we would be making our own clip art, taking photos, and listing them in the store. But, it was a lot of fun!
I thought that I may have like one sticker sheet sold in the first month; however, one month into sticker making and, at the time of this writing this post, we have had 442 sales, 153 star reviews, and 246 admirers!!!!! That is crazy! Needles to say, we have been extra busy but it has been incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. The planner community is such a welcoming, embracing, and positive place and I'm happy that The Dainty Planner is helping people get organized! Although, I've started this new venture, I very much will still be blogging because that's one of the reasons I got into planning - to help me with a blog schedule. So it has been a hobby with a purpose and, I'm pretty much smitten.
If you are a planner girl or are curious about planning, I have a planner related IG,
@thedaintyplanner, where I've been posting store info, my weekly layouts, and other planner goodies!
