Saturday, December 28, 2013

Passions and compliments

I started out two years ago with an idea in mind to be "Crafty."  I have always loved to decorate but didn't do much crafting.  I have a love for signs....who doesn't? I have decorated with them for years.  In April of 2012 I decided I was going to make some signs and the rest is history.  I found a love for painting in doing this, it is relaxing.  I find myself painting until wee hours of the morning, I call it my "Painting mode,"  when I am in my mode the house could be falling down around me and I wouldn't know it (not for sure if this is a good mode when the kids are up!)  I really honestly love my PASSION of making pretty home décor. 

I have a question and I would like for you to comment.  If you start a business and have put a lot of time and effort and you are still a very small business AND someone starts to copy your business model and mimic very similar pieces to yours...do you take this as a compliment?  Tell me your thoughts.  We have ran into this and although frustrating I find it a compliment in a weird way.  What do you think?  Some questions I have pondered, will it hurt my business?  Why would you want to build a business mimicking other businesses?  What are your thoughts?


I do find it hard to not let it bother me, I am only human.  I have thought long and hard about this situation and have come to the conclusion there is nothing I can do about it.  I am very confident in the product we produce and the only thing I can change is my attitude and outlook.   Continue to build on our reputation as a business and continue to dream big. If someone wants to copy me and other businesses around there is only one thing to do....continue to follow my passion, no one can copy my passion for what I do??? Right???

Looking forward to seeing the discussion.....

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Dreams Do Change

So here is my H.S. sweetheart and I! I was 15 and he was 16.
15 years later!
 
We have grown up our whole lives in a small town.  I always thought I would be a big time business woman running the world by now.  Every time I say this, it makes me think of a Kenny Chesney Song, in which one of the lyrics states:  "I was gonna run the bank I was gonna run the map, now all I wanna run is a bubble bath."  It's amazing how I thought my life would turn out and what it actually is.  You see in my dreams I didn't really account for a marriage or children.  Once I had those my dreams changed a bit.  My dreams now involve having a good marriage and continuing to have happy and healthy kids.  I have a dream of becoming a successful business owner but you see my dreams had changed from living in a city and running the world to just being happy with who I am as a person and having a good home life. 
Success is defined differently for everyone.
Our business is going better than we could have ever imagined.  I just started a pinterest account too.  So between blogging, pinterest and facebook hopefully we can reach more people. 
We question the stability of having a sign business.  Is it a fad?  What do you think?  My mind races with ideas of how to take this business to the next level.  We have also had 5 businesses contact us over the last 3 months about wholesale.  I do have two stores that my signs are in, Rocking M Western Emporium and Happy Trails Antiques.  Can I take on more?  I have a difficult time telling people no.  I had to turn down over 20 orders for Christmas and although this down time is nice I keep thinking, I could have maybe done two more customs or I could be creating.  Painting is my hobby, my business and my relaxation.  I love painting signs and my favorite is creating! Although I finished my orders on time and most have been delivered or delivery is schedule for this weekend, I have the need to still paint.  I have created two pieces for family for Christmas so this helped my addiction!
So we will see where this leads.  Looking forward to sharing our adventure with you.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Life Still Happens

Wow, what a day.  Do you ever have a day that you keep running and running and still have 100 things to get accomplished in like 2 hours?  Well this has been my day today.  You see after receiving 77 custom orders through RiOak Western Design for Christmas we kind of got a little bit behind on Christmas shopping for our family!  This was my day to get EVERYTHING for EVERYONE.  I have been to 4 different stores and over 60 miles to do so!  Then came home to start in on the wrapping frenzy, as I am wrapping I get a text from my mother in law that my husband's granny has passed away.  Although we are very sad, we are happy that she is in a much better place now.  She has been suffering with several health issues for the last several years and the last couple of years has not been a great quality of life.  Although this is a sad day, God took her to a much better place today and for that we are thankful.  We are planning our family Christmas still but we are also grieving a great loss today.

So with all the hustle and bustle life still happens. 

Explaining death to a 5 year old is no easy task, or so I thought.  A child's mind is so pure and innocent.  Riley is teaching me more and more each day how to be a better person.  After I picked my bundles up from daycare this evening I explained to Riley that Mamaw's (my mother in law) mom had passed away.  Riley was quiet for a brief moment and then said, "Well she is still alive, in our hearts that is.  Her spirit is with God in heaven now."  Wow!!  This came out of my 5 year's old mouth.  I couldn't believe it and for a brief moment I WAS QUIET.  I told her how proud I was of her and how smart and mature she is becoming. 

 My degree is in Gerontology (the study of aging). I deal with death on a daily basis and no it's not depressing.  I get to put a smile on someone's face during their last final days and this is rewarding to me.  The one thing in life that is inevitable is death (well I guess two things are inevitable, taxes :) I took some psychology classes in dealing with death and it is so interesting to see how everyone deals with death differently.  My husband wants nothing to do with it and this is OKAY, he wants to pay his respects and deal with it in private.  He is a manly man you know! Me on the other hand I have to be all in, tears and all.  Death is final but life still goes on for the loved ones who are left behind.  Some people turn to exercise, others turn to food, many turn to their faith and like my husband he deals with it outside somewhere by himself.  I have always wondered what he does, but that could be a whole other blog!  Whatever he does he copes with it and takes about two days and then he is back to being Clint again.  You see we all are human and deal with stresses in our lives differently.
 
I never expected my second post to be so depressing and especially around the holidays but this is what is on my mind tonight as I sit here with my coffee.    Maybe this will help you put things into perspective.  No matter how clean your house is, how many packages are under the tree, how perfect the dinner is etc.  Life still happens, to me the holidays mean family and if I get to be with my family this will be enough.  I want to laugh and visit with them because in the end family and friends is really all we have.  You can't take that special gadget with you, or the T.V, the cars, the houses.....but the love you have for your family and the love they have for you will always be in your heart.  Thanks Riley for giving mom a lesson tonight.

I am off to wrap a few more presents and CREATE a few for my family too.

Until next time, many smiles from me to you and your family.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

RiOak

I have been wanting to blog for a while.  You see I am a talker, anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to talk.  I hope through this blog to promote RiOak (our home business) and let you get to know a little more about our crazy chaotic life.  I hope to make you smile or give you a chuckle or two and believe me with my little girls there is something to chuckle about daily. 
A little about us, Clint (husband) and I have been together 15 years and I just turned 30 this year. I will let you do the math.  We were high school sweet hearts and I can honestly say he is my whole world.  I love this man with all my heart.  He makes me smile and feel loved.  Okay so enough of this lovey stuff!  We have two beautiful girls, Riley (5) and Oaklee (17months). 
We both work full time and have started this crazy custom wood sign business.  It has been an adventure that has caused many laughs, tears and many, many late nights.  We enjoy doing this as a couple and I can't think of anyone else I would rather be in business with than my best friend, my husband.  We work very hard to create perfect pieces, we are human and trust me mistakes happen but we are very proud of the work we do.  RiOak was named after Riley and Oaklee. 
We are at the beginning stages of this business.  We have many dreams we hope to follow but are taking one step at a time and starting this business debt free.  We spend many late nights drinking coffee and creating customized signs.  Our life is family, we would do anything for them.  We started our home business in hopes our girls can have a good start in life, who knows maybe they will make RiOak a multi million dollar business and take it further than we ever imagined (duck dynasty did)!  I don't know if anyone will really want to read the blog but I thought I would give it a whirl.  I plan to try to post often as I find this therapeutic!  We will see how this goes.  So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the blog.