Cobblestone Alpacas Survived 2020!

I’m BACK!

What a crazy and while ride 2020 has been for everyone. While 2020 has not been good to some, I think we were very fortunate during the pandemic. Many wonderful things happened last year for us and I want to share them as I dive back into this blogging thing. I also hope we can take this opportunity to hear from you! I want to know what you’d like me to write about.

Just a heads up, some of my links are associated with an affiliate program, which means if you click the link and purchase the item I can get a small commission. Feel free to read all the boring details here.

January 2020 – Full Time Work

I started 2020 off right by making full time at my day job! Yay me! I’ve been working towards full time for awhile with all the added benefits (retirement, TSP, VACATION TIME, sick time, higher salary, etc) so I was super excited for this to happen. Like FINALLY.

The best part about my day job? I only work the mornings, so that means I have all afternoon to weave, make soap, create new products and write for this blog. Though, at the time I was more interested in adjusting to full time than working on this blog.

March 2020 – Pandemic Begins

COVID-19…. The dreaded virus. The pandemic changed a lot of things for a lot of people. A lot of people lost their jobs. I was fortunate to be deemed essential and so nothing changed for me…

I’m not complaining, but dang, I would have LOVED having all that time to build my brand and this blog. It would have been awesome! Instead, because I was essential I was worked like a dog and felt like no one saw me as a human at the beginning of the pandemic. It was awful.

I’m sure by now you are wondering, what the heck do you do for your day job? I’ll tell you. I am your friendly everyday mail carrier. That’s right, I deliver mail.

We went from Christmas/Holiday mail and packages, which is double, sometimes triple what we normally have all year round, to COVID-Christmas. Literally, our mail and package volume didn’t drop like normal, it doubled again and stayed like that for all of 2020 and into 2021.

If you know nothing about the post office, your rural mail carriers are only paid to deliver a certain about of mail and packages a day, their ‘normal’ not holiday amount. City carriers are different. (And NO, taxes do NOT pay any of us. Postage pays my paycheck, just fyi.) So when COVID-Christmas hit many carriers were working for FREE to get all your packages to you.

I was one of those carriers. On a good day before the pandemic, I could be done around 11:30 am (paid until 1:30pm). When COVID-19 started, my days started around 6:30/7am and didn’t end until well after 3pm most days. And that’s with no breaks. We are allowed a 30 minute unpaid lunch, but who wants to eat food in a dusty, super dirty 100 degree mail-truck? Not this girl. (Remember, I’m only paid until 1:30pm, after that I was working for FREE). It was so physically and mentally EXHAUSTING!

And to top it off, no one saw us as human.

I cannot believe how many people had to be TOLD to maintain 6 feet distance from the mail truck and then they were OFFENDED I did so. I know normally I like to talk to my customers and hand them their mail, but during the pandemic, I was afraid for my family (I have a 93 year old grandmother I visit regularly) and myself. Just like everyone else, but no one seemed to care.

At that time I also found out I was pregnant. I was so excited, but so scared. What would happen to my baby if I got sick from all these careless people around me? But I was a new carrier, so I wasn’t allowed days off. And we were so short staffed, some days after I completed my route, I’d be told to finish another route, extending my day to after 5pm.

Then the morning sickness set in. And I felt so bad. I was throwing up on the side of the road most days while delivering mail. I was so afraid my customers would think I had the virus, when I didn’t. Again, super exhausting.

But I made it. I worked hard at maintaining my distance from everyone, always wearing a mask, drinking enough water and eating enough to keep myself and baby healthy.

May 2020 – Married

What a super duper crazy time to get married! But we did.

It was really crazy. At first Bret and I were going to have a smallish backyard/barn wedding in the fall (our favorite season), then we found out we were pregnant and COVID began. We were forced to change our plans.

We decided since no one could come to our wedding anyway due to COVID, we might as well get married sooner rather than later. Who knew when this pandemic would end so we could be married in the traditional way?

So we picked a date in May and made plans. We had to have witnesses so we had our two witnesses, and then Bret’s Mom asked to be a part of it (he is the only one of her two children who will ever get married, pretty sure my brother-in-law will never marry). So we had a party of 5 at our little court house wedding. And even that almost didn’t happen!

My witness, my only sister, was SUPER worried about COVID as she had a small child at home at the time. Her husband even more so. She almost didn’t come, but then talked herself into it since I am her only sister. Especially because we weren’t 100% sure if I’d be able to have a baby shower either due to COVID. (We did get to have a small outdoor baby shower, it was wonderful.)

We had our little court house wedding. We dressed nice (no wedding dress for this girl, no shops were open!), said our “I do’s”, signed to make it legal, and went home to have lunch. Nothing fancy. No professional pictures, just the few my sister took. No cake, no dancing, no gifts, no hair and make up, nothing. Just us.

In a way, it was super nice to have none of the wedding planning stress. I did have A LOT of stress that week though. I had nightmares that my boss demanded I had to work due to being short staffed and the mail has to be delivered. I honestly thought all week I’d have to race home from getting married and race to work while Bret spent our wedding day with his family instead of his bride. It was silly. It didn’t happen. I think Bret had something to do with that…

It was ridiculous how stressed out and upset I was about not being able to celebrate anything because of the pandemic. Pregnancy hormones probably didn’t help, ha. I wanted everyone to be safe, but at the same time I felt so alone and cut off from it all. I literally couldn’t have my dream wedding or any of the parts that come with it, couldn’t have a baby shower to celebrate my first baby, couldn’t enjoy being pregnant due to being scared all the time and working non-stop. It was a hard year. But we made the best of it.

June 2020 – Festivals Canceled

Just when I thought things could be getting better, festivals were canceled. I’d been holding out hope that I’d have a little ‘normal’ at the end of the year as a vendor, but nope. Poof! That was gone too.

In a way it was a blessing in disguise. I was suffering from some bad morning sickness all the time, and working long days ended with me just coming home to eat and sleep. I didn’t have ambition or time to make any product. Most days, I’d curl up in bed with a million pillows with a Hallmark Movie and take all the naps.

Bret would make us dinner. Sometimes I could eat it, other times I hung out in the bathroom until the smell dissipated from the house.

It was nice not to worry about making product or will anyone like my stuff? Plus, the year off gave me time to think about where I wanted Bubbles ‘n Stitches to go.

Bret and I were house hunting on top of all this craziness, so we knew we wanted to eventually change the name of the business to better suit where the business was headed. Bubbles ‘n Stitches started out with soap and sewing. It was now a fiber arts business and eventually I want it to be more like a farm business.

That’s when we started working on a new name, a new logo, just a facelift, if you will, for the business. And Cobblestone Alpacas was discovered and I could not be happier with our decision. I will miss Bubbles ‘n Stitches, but now I feel like our name will encompass our growing and future.

September 2020 – Baby Girl Arrives

Most of my festivals are normally in the fall, good thing COVID put them on hold because…. BABY GIRL arrived! There’s no way I would have been able to participate in fall festivals with our darling baby.

She is absolutely perfect! And a wonderful baby. We love her so so so so so MUCH!

The birth was a different experience too. Normally, everyone comes during visiting hours to meet the newest addition to the family. With COVID, hospitals were only allowing ONE birthing partner. That could be the baby’s fathers, or someone you wanted there, but only one. No one else was allowed to be there.

Thank goodness! All year at our doctor appointments, which I had to do alone, they kept going back and forth between, your husband can be there and no one but you can be there. I was so afraid all summer I was going to have to give birth for the first time alone. So you can imagine my relief when they said Bret could be there.

It was a quiet time for us to just enjoy the baby. Though, Bret was chomping at the bit to leave after she was born. I’m starting to think having visitors would have made the time go by faster. But alas, we were not allowed visitors and we were told they don’t recommend exposing the baby to anyone for the first 3 months.

So… our daughter is the FIRST grandbaby, and great-grandbaby on my husbands side. His family couldn’t wait to meet her. And she is my grandmother’s 9th great-grandchild. It was so hard saying no and keeping everyone away. Again, no celebrating for us. Stupid COVID.

Maybe when this is all over, and it is safe to do so, we will celebrate all our wins by throwing a big family gathering. Won’t be the same, but it will be something.

December 2020 – New House!

All through my pregnancy, I was adamant we did not renew our lease on our townhouse, I wanted to own. I wanted our own backyard, I want to paint without having to ask permission first, I wanted my own home not sharing a wall with a neighbor.

Bret agreed, so we started house hunting right before baby girl was born. Because why not? We already got married and were about to have a baby so why not move too?

I didn’t think not being able to ‘nest’ would be so hard! Instead of setting up a cute baby room, I was packing boxes.

We wanted to get our farm to start really building the business, but then we started to think about child care and decided to focus on a starter home closer to family. In the meantime, we will save money for that dream house and farm.

I LOVE our house. I just wish it wasn’t in a housing track, ha. Or maybe I wish we had more of a private backyard. But the house itself is wonderful! I cannot wait to start decorating it for holidays! I intend to work on my photography skills, so you will be for sure seeing photos if you follow me on social media!

February 2021 – Goodbye Bubbles ‘n Stitches, Hello Cobblestone Alpacas!

Moving forward with the decision to change the business name was emotional. I started this business a few years ago, by myself. Now I have Bret and baby girl.

It’s been bittersweet watching Bubbles ‘n Stitches slowly disappear. I just about have everything online switched over. I’m working on new labels for all my products and really thinking about where Cobblestone Alpacas plans to go in the future.

Thinking about the future helped to focus what I need to do now to make that happen. I’ve also picked up a Clever Fox Planner Pro and OMG I LOVE IT! This planner has helped me organize my thoughts, goals, and appointments. Everything is now all in one place making it easy for me to figure out what to do next.

May 2021 – Blog Blog Blog

May seems to be a wake up call for me. 2021 Festivals are going to happen! It’s time to start making things happen.

Over the last several months, I’ve settled into delivering mail and coming home to love my baby and husband. But I’m starting to realize how much I want to be home with baby girl all the time. It breaks my heart to leave her for the average 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. Bret gets a daddy day, but there’s no just mommy day.

And who knew childcare would cost so much! Forget having a second kid, there’s no way we’d be able to afford our bills and childcare for two kids! Something has to give.

We’ve weighed the pros and cons, and have decided if I can make this blogging for money thing work with the business and make about how much I’m making delivering mail, then and only then, I can quit and be a stay at home mom, focusing on our kids and the business. We even set a deadline.

I have to make this blog thing work by September 2022. Challenge accepted.

I’ve spent the last month working every morning before anyone wakes up, and every evening after the baby goes to bed on this blog. Updating all the information, writing newsletter articles, creating new sales (coming soon! Sign up for the newsletter below to learn about them first!), designing new product labels, creating new soap recipes, writing blog posts like this one but better, researching what makes a good blog, good, and so much more!

Honestly, I could spend another month working on everything to make it perfect, but that’s not the point of blogging!

“Now is the right time, so just do it!”

Which brings us to now. Here I am, a new mom, motivated to become a stay at home business mommy. I can do it!

June 2021 – Here we Go!

Can you believe we are already half way through 2021? I can’t! There’s so much I want to get done this year, but it seems time is just racing by!

I hope that you will support me in my adventure to make this blogging thing work. I’d love to hear what you want to see on this blog? Here’s what I’m thinking, but please, I want to know what you want to read and know!

For Bubbles ‘n Stitches/Cobblestone Alpaca Customers:

• Weaving tutorials
• Soap Making tutorials/information about oils, etc
• Fiber! All the different types
• What you can do with Fiber. Ex, weave, spin, dye, knit, crochet, felt, etc

For fellow Bloggers and Craft Business Owners:

• Designing Labels
• Festival organizing tips/ what to bring
• Festival set ups, what works and what doesn’t
• Creating Product making schedules
• Tips on selling online and at festivals

There are so many more sub-topics I’d like to explore, but for now this is a good start. Of course I want to know what you want to know! How can I convert my many years selling at festivals and making product into something you’d like to know?

Email Address First Name Cobblestone Alpacas Monthly Newsletter Weaving Pattern Alerts Craft Business Information New Products Sales, Discounts, Events Submit