New Years Resolutions

I know it isn't New Years Eve yet, which is when I planned on posting this, but the next 4 days are going to be crazy at work and I have a lot of things to do around the house and with the shop, that I wanted to post this today so it didn't get neglected. New Years resolutions have always seemed like a hoax to me, an excuse to try and do better things without the real oomph it takes to actually do them. I grew up in a house where making new years resolutions was looked down upon because if you really want to do something, you do it no matter the time of year. Hence, nothing ever changed or got done. I'm an adult now and I have recently decided that I want to celebrate Christmas and I want to make New Years resolutions. That's that.

Like I said, I have to work on New Years Eve and on New Years. This leads me to my first New Years resolution. I resolve that within a year, I will no longer be working a job where I have to be away from my home on holidays. I never planned on continuing to work in the service industry as a drink slinger. I don't hate making bloody mary's or milkshakes. I don't hate my job, not in the slightest, I actually really like it. I love my bosses, and the people I work with. I like helping people, but this is not what I am going to do for the rest of my life, or even the rest of the year. It's a priority for me. I don't want to miss memories just to bring home a few bucks.

When it comes to work, what leads to next is money. I know that money isn't the most important thing in the world, but I am not naive. I have been taking care of myself since for a long time and I have been paying my own bills for as long as I can remember. Now that I don't have school to pay for, I haven't been saving money at all. I think it is important to start saving. So, 2011, let's fill up those piggy banks with loose change and start saving money for some important life-things in the future.

I want to read more. I want to read more, and I want to write more. I used to read too much, to escape some really gnarly shit going on in my life, and as soon as I started being happy, I forgot that books make me happy too. (Isn't this little tiny book adorable. I love gingerly turning the pages and looking at the miniature words.)

I am going to try to eat healthier this year. I love junk food. I am a serious addict to chips and soda and mac&cheese and bacon. I'm not going to get rid of those favorites, but I am going to try to incorporate healthier stuff into the mix. Doug's on board too, so that inspires me too.My "office" is nothing of the sort right now. It is a room filled with boxes and crates of stuff and it is driving me crazy. I want to turn it into a functional office where I can do all of the work for our shop and also keep all of my projects in the same place. I am also going to try to be more organized this year and hopefully forever. It's a struggle. I'm NOT an organized person. But, I'm going to try harder. I'm embarrassed to show you this photo, but here it is. Maybe this will inspire me to change it!I'm going to finish this Blanket for Doug that I have been neglecting for the last 6 months. It is a king size blanket. I am making a goal to finish it this year! I will keep up with it's progress.

Some of my resolutions are simple. I want to walk the dogs more. I want to eat out less. Some of my resolutions won't happen in a year so I have a 5 year plan and I have every intention to follow through with it.

-We want a shipping container home. It has been Doug's dream for a long time, and I have adopted it as my own. It's honestly all I want and totally feasible.

-I want my own pie shop. I have had a lot of jobs, and the one I enjoy the most is pastry chef. I love baking, I love rolling our pie crusts and I love mixing ingredients to make something really delicious that makes people happy. I want to do this forever. I love vintage and I love my shop, but I don't think I will ever be able to pay my bills selling online, and I don't think I would want a brick and mortar vintage shop. I want to make pie. Quiche. Tarts. Forever.

-I want to really be better at saving money, and I am working really hard on making that a reality.

-I want for Dougie to have more photo shows. His last one was so incredible and I had so much fun helping to make it a reality. That is not in a five year plans, that is in a 6 month plan.

Anyways, I have some work to do with the shop and then I have to go to work. Another busy night I hope. Happy New Years if I don't get on here before then. Can't wait to read about everyone else's resolutions.

xo,

Beca

Start the New Year Off Right! - Shipping For Your Small Business

Having a small online shop is an exciting part of our life, but I have learned a lot in this past year as to what works best for us. There are a lot of different factors compared to a brick and mortar shop and one of those factors is shipping. When you run a business in a physical shop, people come to you, get instant satisfaction, and leave with a bag or box in hand. That is wonderful for a shop owner to see a customers face when they find that certain something they are looking for. When a customer finds something online, they may have that initial feeling of excitement and fall in love, but you never see that. They purchase what they are looking for and then they wait. That's where you come in. Shipping.

The way the item is shipped is ultra important to online customers. Was it shipped well. Did it get to them in a speedy manner. Did they overpay for shipping. Where did the extra few dollars go to if they did. Is the item in good condition. Is the shipping interesting and unique, or pretty? (More important on etsy, not so much on ebay.) Was there a note? An invoice? Was the packaging environmentally friendly? The list goes on.

I wanted to share what works for me and what I still want to do with my business in the New Year. I also shared some really great links to other blogs and articles and sites that are not only good reads but great resources for your small business. I have definitely used my

Maybe it was my upbringing, or maybe it's just because we are running this business on a budget, but I can't really bring myself to spend money on cardboard. Every once in a while, I will buy a new box if I am in a pinch with time, or if it has been raining, or if I can't make a box in my collection work. But that is more rare. I have been collecting flattened recycled boxes since we started our business. If the images or wording on the outside bothers you, you can usually flip the boxes inside out so they are plain. Here is a tutorial on how to do that. The best place to find recycled boxes are hardware stores, grocery stores (sometimes) cafes and restaurants. Since I have been working in these environments for a while, it was easy for me to know the scheduled days for order deliveries and to get to the boxes early before they get damaged by the weather or cut up by workers. Please note, you cannot wrap boxes anymore through USPS, with kraft paper, or any other paper. The boxes need to be visible and unwrapped. Why use twice the amount of paper anyways!

(Source)

It's good to have a space in your office or craft room for shipping and packaging supplies. Stock up, it will help you to save money in the future. I keep tape, boxes, newspapers, and recycled packing peanuts, grocery bags and bubble wrap. I buy in bulk. Sometimes items are too fragile to just use newspapers and recycled bags, so you have to use bubble wrap and peanuts. If you read on into our goals for the new years you will see what I plan on doing to reduce the use of plastic bubble wrap and peanuts.

If you are interested in reusing bubble wrap and peanuts that would otherwise be thrown away, sent off to fill the landfills and never decompose, craigslist is a great place to find free supplies. I scour the free section for giveaway packing supplies on a daily basis. If you don't mind calling around or emailing strangers, then this is a great way to reduce waste and use recycled materials. People will usually have lots of boxes too that they are very happy to have you cart away for them.

If you sell prints of smaller items that could usually fit into a bubble envelope, try making your own. I'll post up a fun tutorial on Friday on how to make your own kraft colored envelopes using coca cola boxes, recycled bubble wrap, and some glue. I am using this shipping method for my giveaway. Visit the USPS website for their rules and regulations for using recycled boxes in shipping.

Packing your item well and using recycled materials is just the beginning. I am very lucky that the post office is just a few blocks from our house. There is rarely a need for me to drive, unless I have a lot of orders or lots of big boxes and I am on a time crunch. Or unless I am being lazy, which if you see our goals for the new year, hopefully this will change. If you do need to drive to the post office, don't ship every day. Make sure your policies are clear and state you are shipping 3 times a week for environmental responsibility and most customers will understand and be happy to wait an extra day or two for their items. If you're lucky like me, you can walk there everyday, or ride your bike, and do something good for your health too. (I don't ship everyday because I also work and have a home to maintain, so I ship every other day.)

There are a lot of other great things you can do for your business to save you money, save your customers money and be nice to the environment. I listed some links below that have additional tips for shipping. I also wanted to share some goals we have for our business in the new year when it comes to shipping.

Our GREEN/$$$ saving Goals for the New Year:

In addition to printing out shipping labels through paypal (saves money and time, which in turn saves more money!) and only walking to the post office instead of driving, here are some materials on our wishlist for packaging our items and shipping in an earth friendly way.

How could you NOT love what caremail is doing. It is almost the same price as regular bubble wrap, yet no plastic!

(using recycled magazines and newspapers for packaging creates new uses for what many believe to be garbage)

To recycle old apple crates to make a new shelving unit for my small office space. The more organized and responsible you are with your business, the better off you will be. I like to always know what I have for shipping and what I need. If in plain view, it lessens the chance of you buying product you think you're out of but come to find out you already have it!

(source)

And Finally, I am in the process of designing stickers (eco-friendly, made from 100% recycled paper) to put on each one of our boxes that state Tumbleweeds uses 100% recycled materials to ship items. This is a huge goal for us and will hopefully be accomplished in this new year!

I hope this was helpful for those of you who are looking to start shipping more earth friendly, or those new to shipping in general. If you have any feedback or comments, i would love to hear them, as we are ever expanding our ideas on how to be more cost effective and earth friendly. OH, and I didn't forget about some great links!

Some Resources:

Packaging and Shipping Supplies Blog

Post-Christmas Tips for Recycling

Recycled Tissue Paper

Eco Friendly Business Cards from MOO

Small Biz

xo,

Bec

True Grit - Movie Review

Doug and I have been looking forward to seeing this Coen Brothers version of True Grit since we first saw the preview months and months ago. We love pretty much every movie these dudes have made, and this was no exception. If you don't know anything about it, the movie is based off the 1968 book by Charles Portis. The book is about a 14 year old girl named Mattie Ross who's father was killed by a drifter and she is out to avenger her fathers death by bringing the man back to hang for his deeds. She hires Rooster Cogburn, a US marshall, to hunt down the man and she intends on going along.

Another film, of the same name, was made in 1969 with John Wayne but is so incredibly different than the book that it is hard to compare. The 1969 version was more about Rooster rather than Mattie, since John Wayne was so popular at the time.
The Coen brothers were true to the book, and made the story all about Mattie. It is narrated by her adult self, and begins with her fathers death. Mattie is spunky and smart, maybe too smart. She is the epitome of tough young women and I really think this would be a great film for girls entering their teenage years to see. (It is only rated PG-13) The film is full of exciting twists, and lots of black comedy the Coen brothers are known for.
Not just that, but the style of the film is very 1960s western. It has good pacing, interesting dialog and the production design is impeccable. You know we're going to see it again while it's still in the theaters. Have you seen Ture Grit yet? What did you think? I'd love to know what other people thought of it!

xo,

Beca

PS, don't forget about our giveaway of friendship bows. You can click HERE to learn more or visit the tab at the top of the page.

Rustic Leather and Turquoise Rings

Our newest project.

Available in the shop.

Sorry, I've been a bit behind on updates. I have a review of True Grit and a New Years post, and a how-to guide for responsible shipping for your small business. Probably not all today, but before Wednesday, since I picked up a few extra shifts this week at work. Yay! Hope everyone had an excellent holiday.

xo,

Bec

The Day After

Last night was hell on earth.

A sneak peek at my new years resolution.

By this time next year, I will have a job where I don't have to work on Christmas.

Anyways, more on that later.

Here is today in photos.

Off to work, again.

xo,

Beca

Happy Christmas!

It's Christmas now, 7 minutes into it. Ollie is sitting on my foot with his Christmas bone securely in mouth and we're in our cozy clean living room next to the pretty Christmas tree. I was so busy today, I didn't take one single photo. Not a one. So you will have to take my word for it (I'll try to make it funny,) but seriously, everything in my life today was spectacular. Everything. I woke up early (early for me has now become 9am) and started baking. We planned lunch with Paula and Greg, and I decided to make miniature quiches (6 different kinds, Broccoli, red pepper and cheddar -- Pear, Brie, Sausage and honey -- Three Cheese -- Spinach and Feta -- Turkey Bacon -- Cheddar Pepper) and fruit salad with mimosas and Chocolate Chip cookies. They came out really good. I was so excited that I actually got them all out of the oven and fully cooked before they got here. I have to say that I was planning on making another side (baked crackers with fruit and cheese,) but I totally melted crackers to the bottom of a pan and just ditched it. I was distracted watching Pushing Daisies, and only half a cup of coffee into my day, so, such is life.

I had the house cleaned and smelling like cheesy goodness by noon, Dougie cleaned the front yard and the dogs were all fed and happy with toys. I threw on a dress and brushed my hair, and our friends showed up. By the way, if you haven't noticed, I LOVE Christmas. I haven't always, but recently, it has become a lot more important to me. Not really the gift giving, or receiving, I don't care about that, but the season, the feeling, and the memories you can create.

Greg and Paula showed up toting lots of presents (which never hurts) and a bag full of bones for the dogs. Lucky little pups, since they get Christmas bones from me every year too! (And birthday bones, and Valentines day bones, and everyday toys) so they were in dog heaven all day today. We ate miniature slices of quiche (surprisingly, the pear quiche was the most popular!) and let the sun come in through the door. After a week of rain, the sun was perfect today.

My dear friends got us the most wonderful gifts, which they did not have to do. I am totally in love with the silver cuff bracelet with 3D roses and vines on it. They also got me a case, yes a CASE of Mexican coca cola, and they got us a year membership to the San Diego zoo and Wildlife park!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! So very excited. That makes me ridiculously happy. Get ready for lots and lots of zoo posts!! We got them some neat stuff and then they left to run errands and get ready for the evening.

We spent the next few hours relaxing, watching TV and playing with the dogs. Kittie came home from exploring the world with another wound on his head. More on that later. We got ready and met Greg and Paula to head over to her families annual Christmas party. Again, no photos. But imagine surf and turf. Oh yes, king crab and steak. I have never eaten so much food in my life. It was incredible and her family is so generous and fun. We played gift exchange and Doug ended up with a sweet new work light and I got myself a little gift card to Target, my favorite place in the universe. Oh, and some white chocolate peppermint bark! Yum! When we could no longer move and everyone was pretty liquored up, we came home and jumped into bed. Lord, I felt like I gained 100 pounds in the course of 8 hours.

We slept in and eventually got up to stockings full of candy (uhm..santa?) and TRUE GRIT!!! What an incredible movie! Ugh, I can't even start to gush over this movie, so I will wait until tomorrow and dedicate a post to this incredible movie. Now, here we are, I have to be at work in 45 minutes. I had nightmares about working today, let's hope it goes smoothly and I get lots of tips and smiles. I'm more interested in smiles honestly, because if I cry on Christmas because of my job, (if you know me at all, this is no surprise) I'll quit. Let's be positive and hope that everyone is cheery and nice.

I'm going to take the next 20 minutes to spend time with my love and then off to the Jewish deli to make White Russians.

Happy Christmas!! Hope it was wonderful. Don't forget about our giveaway!

xo,
beca

Giveaway - The Friendship Bow

To celebrate the new year, I am holding my first giveaway. This may be a little different than other giveaways because in this one, everybody who enters, wins! That simple. As long as supplies last, this giveaway will be open. You want the details. Here they are.

All you need to do is email me at tumbleweeds.shop[at]gmail[dot]com with your name and your mailing address. Viola! That simple. You will receive a friendship bow like the ones featured below with a special message! They might be in these colors, or in surprise colors. It all depends what I have in my vintage felt collection at the time and when you enter the giveaway.

If you really want to, you can blog about this giveaway, share it with your friend, comment on here to say hi or let me know you entered, follow the blog, visit our shop, or whatever. But there is no catch. You don't have to do anything, except email your mailing address and check your mail. You can mail me something back, you can send me a postcard or whatever. I just want to share the joy.

The bow will be sent naked, meaning you can do whatever you want with it, attach it to a safety pin or a chain and wear it, stick a bobby pin through it and put it in your hair. Of change it up everyday. If you email me a photo of you wearing your bow, I will include it on the Friendship Bow Page at the top of my blog with a link to your blog or shop. It's all about the love and sharing.

Let's get this giveaway underway and do the new year right.

xo,

Bec

PS, if you want to snag one of these photos and share the link on your blog, please do so, the more the merrier.

Gigantic - Movie Review

We watched Gigantic the last night on Netflix Instant Play. I LOVE Zooey Deschanel. She can do no wrong in my eyes, and she was rad in this movie. It was weird to see the kid (Paul Dano) from Little Miss Sunshine as a grown-up, but he did a good job too. Anyways, The plot of this movie is strange. Brian is a mattress salesman who has wanted to adopt a Chinese baby since he was 8 years old, and is going through the process to make this a reality. Then he meets Happy, played by the lovely Zooey Deschanel. She is quite strange herself. Her Dad is John Goodman, an eccentric rich man with chronic back pain. They are two meek twenty somethings trying to figure their lives out. The film is all about the relationships people have with their family, their friends and strangers. There is also Zach Galifinakis as a violent homeless man stalking Brian. Like I said, weird. (I also love Zach Galifinakis, espcially in funny or die skits.)

Every character in this movie is lovable and it wasn't as much as a comedy as I expected since it made me cry a lot after it was over. Maybe the relationships of the characters and their parents really hit home for me, but it was definitely worth the watch. I liked the strangeness of it, and usually I will shy away from movies that are strange just for the sake of it. The characters in "Gigantic" were very human and the awkwardness is easy to relate to.

I don't really know what other movie to compare it to, I'm not good at that, but I liked it and it's worth a watch if you're looking for something to watch on a rainy afternoon. It kind of had a Todd Solondz feel to it, but lighter. Have you seen this? What did you think?

xo,

Beca

Spinach Quiche & Much Needed Shop Update (& MORE RAIN)

It is STILL raining. Flooding, actually. This is what our garage looks like. Doug ventured out today to help Chris fix his truck and took this photo. It's so cold out and wet and uncomfortable.I haven't left the house today, but that's a good thing, because I have been meaning to update the shop with this lovely collection of vintage photographs. (Me not leaving the house also means that the dogs haven't really gone outside much and they are so restless.) So, here are some of the fruits of my productivity. There are 13 "lots" of vintage photographs from the 1920-1950s. Here are a few photos of what is available.

I am really excited to add these to the shop. If you are anything like me, you love vintage photos. I have a ridiculous collection and it is about time to share them with all my friends. There are some I will never let go, and some I have let go that I regret. I used to collect photos of other people's pets and during a purge I accidentally sold them along with another lot of photos to a girl in Tucson. When we started packing to move, I looked everywhere for them and realized they were gone. I've started over collecting vintage pet photos and hopefully will get back the rad collection I had before. Anyways, these collections are really cool, lots of neat shots of families, kids, nature and more. (I like the Christmas ones.)

For lunch today, I made a spinach quiche. It came it really good, although the crust was a little hard to work with so the fluting is a bit uneven. I think it was the humidity.

I could have eaten this whole thing myself, it was so delicious. I am starting to really love quiche. I want to make pies all the time now, including quiche. I go through phases. I also dyed my hair, and finally, after years and years, my hair looks exactly the way I want it to, except that it is still too short, but color-wise, it's perfect! Hooray! I'm too lazy to take a good photo. Here's one from my computer. YES, I am wearing the oldest yellow American Apparel sweatshirt EVER! It's so old, it has faded to the weirdest yellow color, but it's warm and I am NOT leaving the house today!!

Hope everyone has a lovely, stress-free Tuesday and if you're in Southern California, stay dry! It's Niagra Falls out there!! (Which in case you were wondering, is in my top five places to visit in the world...)

xo,

Bec

Ginger Snaps

To be perfectly honest with you, my eyes have been having some problems the past few days, and it's getting hard for me to see things in focus, so if any of these photos are a little out of focus, I'm sorry. I REALLY REALLY need to get a stronger prescription for my glasses.

Does this mean I am getting older? Or is this natural. I have been wearing glasses for a really long time, and every few years I have to get a stronger prescription, but it seems like I just did. Oh, well, anyways, I made some ginger snaps tonight. They're pretty yummy, but I wish we had molasses so they could be more like gingerbread. The icing is very very gingery though and I like the way ginger burns a little.

It's been so cold here and raining nonstop for the past few days. Oh well. That's all for today. Cartoons and cheesecrisp time!

xo,

Beca

What I Wore!

Let's see if I can keep up with this!

Shirt: Doug's old Foundation t-shirt

Pants: Leggings from Target

Socks: TUBE SOCKS!!

We stayed in bed until after noon and then went to OB with Juan and Aly for BBQ pulled pork, eggs and jack cheese at Tower Two. It is horrible and rainy today. SO cold!! I'm staying in the rest of the day!

xo,

Bec

W is for Written

Tonight I decided to make a promise to myself, and it took some deciding, and not just jumping in, because I have been shape shifting these past few years, and making promises now takes deciding and compromising and a lot of thoughtful quietness in my ever churning mind. I decided to promise to do a few things. The first being, write more. See, here's the thing, I have been journaling, and writing short stories and poetry and letters, screenplays (in school, mostly, some before, some after) and just plain writing my entire life. Recently, I have stepped away from that. I don't know if I was burnt out after I graduated, or if I just didn't have anything to write about. Either way, I disconnected, said a silent goodbye, or more like see you later, and maybe I took more photos, rode my bike, fell in love, painted, crocheted, sewed, baked (lots of that) and made a lot of mistakes, instead. I also learned a lot and now, more recently, I have been drawn back to the pen. Journaling, writing letters, and of course, this blog.

I have a lot to say, and I'm not scared anymore. I'm not scared of a grade. Grade me, please, give me an F and I'll say thanks and keep penning. I have no interest in censoring my thoughts, I am not trying to impress anyone. I have an incredible partner who listens and reads me, I have incredible friends who aren't concerned with what I scribble down to myself. I have met some really awesome people through blogging and starting our shop online. I am not concerned with what anyone thinks anymore. Is this growing up, or what? I don't know. I can't answer that, but I do know, I missed writing. Sometimes I go back, to the little journals I have kept over the past 5 years and I like to find the bits and pieces. I found a little, barley legible note I wrote to myself after I met the love of my life. It was the smallest of fortunes, the truest of words and I cherish it. I wish that I would have not deleted my old old old live journals from years and years ago (what, 12 years ago now...) because it would have been fun to go back and read them. Once in a moment of clarity, I trashed a bunch of journals full of fake truths. I don't regret it.

So here I find myself, at 8 in the morning. It's pouring rain and the dogs are restless. I'm thinking about promises.

I promise to make a 5 year plan. I'm too smart and over qualified to be making White Russians and strawberry milkshakes for very much longer.

I promise to save more money and pay our bills on time and not let the stresses of being this broke overwhelm me.

I promise to write more. I promise.

A little something that makes me happy to end with.

(I don't remember where this came from, sorry)

xo,

Bec

Birch Aquarium

Yesterday, I surprised Dougie with a trip to the aquarium for his birthday and it was so much fun. We explored the seahorse exhibit and the tide pools and toured through all the beautiful exhibits.

I have tonight off too, so we're celebrating with Greg and Paula and some surprise friends tonight, since they all had to work yesterday...I'm starving, so time for breakfast!

xo,

Beca