Motivation Strikes!

This past few days since I returned from Sacramento have been very productive, hence my lack of writing. As soon as the rain finally stopped I found myself on a mission to fix up our backyard - and boy, did it need fixing! The dogs have pretty much owned the yard since we moved in a year ago and because of that it has been looking very sad. In the spring/summer/fall, one of my favorite things to do with Jake is to just sit on our porch in the backyard and grill and relax and talk about our day... so I decided that while Jake is away I will turn our yard into something we can really enjoy and actually be proud of!

So I put on some old clothes, pulled on my garden gloves, blasted some good country music and got to work! Here's a play by play of some of the things I did:

• Weeded the yard... which is kind of a ridiculous task in yard that has never been weeded in the entire year we've lived here
• Got loads of dirt to fill in all of the holes that Bailey has had fun digging 
• Reseeded and fertilized all of the bare spots in the grass... again, it was really ridiculous how many there were 
• Mowed the whole lawn again because it has been growing out of control with all the rain
• Installed a new fence to keep the dogs in only a certain portion of the yard
• Put out pretty new patio cushions and other outdoor decorations that have been put away for winter
• Installed rod iron plant hangers on the fence posts 
• Cleaned/organized our outdoor storage shed

And there is still a TON to do! I haven't even attempted the front yard flower beds and those are reaaaallly bad. I was going to post some pictures of the back yard but right now it still looks pretty unimpressive until those bare spots grow back in and I add some more plants and flowers.

Anyways, yes I have been very motivated to get stuff done lately and so I've not spent as much time online blogging and facebooking as I usually do. Tomorrow the excitement continues with a day of "deep" cleaning the entire house (haha!), something that desperately needs to be done and something that is SO easy to put off when Jake is away. Okay now that I've completely bored you to death... let's move on to a new topic :)

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Another area that motivation has struck is with my design business. After thoroughly enjoying a month off of work, the wheels are now really starting to turn in my head with a ton of new ideas about my relaunch. At this point, I'm trying to figure out exactly what direction I want to go design-wise. Previously I have focused solely on blog and website design, with almost all of that being custom designs. Right now I'm toying around with some different options in addition to web design such as print design (invitations, cards, etc), logos/branding, and website/blog templates. Because of my schooling I have enough experience and a good enough portfolio to pursue any of those options but I'm still going to need to do some research and see what's the best idea.

I definitely don't want to spread myself too thin... I also don't want to let myself get bored or run down by only focusing on one aspect of design, which is what had begun to happen last time after a full year of only doing blog design 30+ hours a week.

On top of those decisions, there are several other things that need to be done before I bring on any new clients/projects. I need to rebuild my website (which is easily a 40+ hour commitment on it's own), refresh my branding/logo, and then rework all of the tedious aspects of small business such as preparing the contracts, the business plan, the instructional pdfs, the pricing structure, the accounting, refining my contact list, and strategically placing my advertisements.

Oh gosh, this post has turned into a wacky to-do list. 
If you've actually managed to read this entire post - BRAVO! 
I'm sure you're now either totally bored or completely overwhelmed...

So anyways the main goal here is to have my design studio ready to relaunch by the time Jake gets home in roughly 6 weeks. I know it's going to be a lot to tackle (and the thought of it all makes me want to only procrastinate more) so hopefully this motivation keeps up!

I've built this business into a full time job/salary once before... can't be any harder the second time around, right?? Yikes... Thanks for listening to my chattering thoughts :)