I'm not great at spending on Pickles but last week I splurged on both an iPad/ Apple pencil AND an overdue new Macbook! And here's the newest new: a site shop update!

About a year ago, I changed from Weebly to Shopify as my website host— I I took many hours to learn Shopify and chose Symmetry as a theme to purchase, which I really loved! My website looked quite good and I was happy with it for the past year. But as I'm launching wedding suites (and more), I needed a functional upgrade. 

Last year, we moved into a house where I was able to dedicate a full room to Pickles!

It was nice to have a dedicate studio/office space, but after a year I started itching to rethink the space a bit; the flow of the room was very off... I also wanted to stop using our bedroom for picture taking, so I was strategizing how to convince Jeff to let me expand the office window for more natural light.

Today's the launch of the chicken card! Took some screenshots "during" my designing...

1. I have a job that I find creatively and intellectually challenging, so, though tired, I still come home motivated to explore my own personal projects. I really think an inspiring job stimulates pursuing side projects. I used to think that a chill job that utilizes less of your mental energy would save more for projects outside of work, but It’s a little counterintuitive in that those jobs are, yes, chill, but ultimately mind-numbing. 
   
   
   
2. I was trained and continue to use the Adobe Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, etc) for my career which helps me with Pickles stuff for literally everything, from Instagram posts to catalog creation to product photography. There are great online services that can execute these tasks for small businesses but being able to achieve this in-house (my small “house” of 1;) saves a ton of costs & time that would be spent on the logistics of outsourcing.

I keep wanting to blog as I'm learning more and more about the paper industry, but I just can't find the time. I'm going to make it a goal to do short blog posts that will document what I'm currently learning and not obsess about them being superbly well-written ;)

Today I'm going to blog about my wholesale process: Getting retailers, invoicing, and shipping. 

Getting retailers
After spending months putting together a wholesale catalog, I ordered a couple hundred of them earlier this summer. They are GORGEOUS and I flip through them every so often when I need a mood boost. I am super, super proud of them. 

After I printed the catalogs, I shipped them off in a neat little package, which included....

• a couple business cards
• a sample of two different cards
• a handwritten note about how I found them, what I liked about their store, and why I thought A Jar of Pickles would do well in their brick and mortar
• our catalog (of course!)