Dare to Dream: My Dreams

This week's TpT Seller Challenge was to blog about our dreams and/or goals for our TpT Store.   I was "gung-ho" Monday morning and began to write a post about my dreams.  As I began reflecting on my TpT Store, I realized that I needed more time.  More time to think about what TpT had already given us.  

Truthfully, I didn't realize what a huge blessing TpT has been for my family.  I debated - should I share what I've used my TpT earnings for?  I'm a blogger, AKA Oversharer.  

Well, my little store has had some flatline months and some pretty amazing months. I'm grateful for every follower who purchased an item from my store.  Even now, I am shocked that other teachers value the products that I make.    

TpT has had a huge impact on our family.  There are months when my TpT income has bought groceries for our family. Those months I am the most grateful for TpT.  I am serious.  

Some months I was able to cover my daughter's rising dance costs and others it helped pay for her daycare.

Last year my store started generating a little extra income and I was able to take our family on vacation to Port Aransas and my husband and I spent the New Year & his b-day at our favorite place in the world, Fredericksburg, TX (although the pics above are from a previous vacay)!

This year, I finally got a new dishwasher.  Now, you might think boring...but clean dishes are ahhhh-mazing!  I don't think our dishes have been clean in about 2 years.

In full disclosure, other than a house & cars we do not live in debt, so if we don't pay cash for it, then we don't do it or buy it.  TpT has helped us live like this.   

The rest of this post will focus on my goals for the next two years.  Fall 2015 - Summer 2017.

Next year we are celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary and we are going to Cancun to celebrate.  TpT has made this dream a reality for us.  Neither of us have ever been to a resort, nor been to Cancun so we're pretty psyched!   

Right now, we have carpet and tile in our house.  I HATE CARPET, especially 10 year old carpet that has survived 2 toddlers and 1 puppy!  I want new hardwood floors.  Well, okay not REAL hardwood.  I'd like wood laminate floors.  

My Girl is 6 and talks about going to Disney atleast once a week.  I am not an amusement park type girl and I've heard that the Disney Cruise is absolutely fantastic!  So, I am thinking that is a better option for us.  Not sure how realistic this goal is, but let's dream big!

As far as my store goes, I'd LOVE to be a top 100 seller in Texas.  Right now I think I'm still in the 400's.  Which is an improvement, but I really want to break the top 100!  

TPT has been a very unexpected blessing in our life.

Thank You to anyone who has ever made a purchase from my store. 

Why I don't use Instagram

Teacher bloggers love Instagram.  I'm on Instagram, but I rarely post.  Because my life is pretty boring!

Two things happened in my house today that were IG worthy.  First, all of our laundry was washed, dried, folded or hung up & put away!!!  Snore!  But I'm happy.  The 2nd IG item was Dora, one of our tadpoles grew legs.  Now, that was pretty cool & I was going to post it, but I cannot for the life of me remember all of the hashtags I'm supposed to use.

I'm sure IG is pretty awesome & I love the artsy pics by Taecher Bloggers, but it's just not me.

#makeovermadness

This summer I intended to re-do most of my first TPT Products and perhaps add to a few of them.  So, when I heard about the #tptsellerchallenge, I jumped on board!  

My #1 BEST SELLER is my Inventor/Inventions Brochure.  I haven't changed the cover in 2 years because...well, because it's been selling just fine.  But, I decided it was time to change it.  Over the last year, I've been thinking about adding a lap book component and this was the perfect time to add it.  Of course,  I ran out of ink, so I couldn't add pics to the file, but I will do that next week.

What do you think about the new cover??

In an effort to hold myself accountable for fulfilling the #tptsellerchallenge, I am posting my STATS.  Truthfully STATS are controversial.  Some people put a lot of stock into them.  I prefer to grow my followers organically and I want my followers to be people who need my help or want to hear what I have to say - not just people who agree to follow me for no apparent reason.