Sparkle Party!

I had such a wonderful time celebrating with my closest (and most fabulous!) girlfriends as my little Etsy shop turned 365 days old!  Our summer has been so mild here in Illinois so I jumped at the chance to host an outdoor cocktail party!  Here are some photos of what I came up with.  The only requirement of a Glambanners party is glitter of course, and booze!

 

 

Glambanners is ONE!

Happy 1st anniversary to Glambanners, my glittery little labor of love.  I was over 5 months pregnant when I decided to open up my Etsy shop last July.  Truth be told, I had reserved the name "Glambanners" about a year before that, but was too lazy/confused/overwhelmed on how to file a business with the lovely state of Illinois.  I attended a seminar by the fabulous Rockford Etsy Team on how to start up your shop and was quickly encouraged to just open it up - the paperwork can come second!  I opened up shop as soon as I got home and life has been different ever since!  I opened the shop because my husband told me I needed a hobby, so I thought a hobby that I can make a little money off of - that sounds like a great plan to me!  I would sell a couple of banners a week and set aside my profits for Christmas present money and if anything was left over, dump it in the vacation fund.  So here we are, over 365 days and 1,050 Etsy sales later, not only do we have our Christmas fund and our vacation fund, but the glitter covering my entire house is now taking charge of the girls' college funds, not to mention lots of extras - new fun updates for the house (kitchen pictures coming soon!), cute clothes in our closets and an absolutely fabulous concert line up! 

Needless to say, I am shocked, slightly overwhelmed at times, but so happy.  I never in my wildest dreams thought this little shop would be so successful!  While I am still working on a work/stay at home mom life balance, every day I am adapting a little more to the volume and demands of Etsy, all while trying to raise our 2 little munchkins the best that I can.  Glambanners is pretty steadily growing every month, but I feel so blessed that I have found a way to utilize my passion for party planning, weddings and glitter in a way that allows me to be at home all day, every day, with my girls.  Planning weddings and parties was truly my first love and so I am fortunate to have found that I actually can have my {wedding} cake, and eat it too!  My hopes for year 2 is to continue growing the business, but keeping my girls and my husband my #1 priority.  My shop is evolving every week with new slogans and products and I am just having so much fun!   The custom orders are my favorite part - they always turn out so cute and I love many of them so much that I add them to my shop!

So in honor of playing with glitter for 365 days, I wanted to share some of my favorites!