I started personalizing my {Joy to the World} journal over the holiday break.

I noticed a definite trend in the journal that I kept last December.  The first pages were beautiful embellished; then the last two weeks of journaling became simpler.  They were just journaling.  I was too busy celebrating. So this year, I thought I’d balance everything out by having the pages all ready to go.

They aren’t in the exact order that I think I’ll use them.  But they’re all ready.

Now you don’t have to do this.  The journal is ready to go as is.  I just want to add a little scrapbooking flair for fun.  I also wanted to be absolutely sure I wouldn’t forget some of my favorite details like a place for keeping my gift list:

I love looking at old lists to see what gifts we have pick out for family and friends over the years.

Here’s a video that takes you through some of the extra embellishments I’ve added (plus sometimes it’s nice to hear what someone sounds like on the other side of the computer screen!):

Christmas Daily Journal – Personalizing from Gadanke on Vimeo.

I hope it gives you some good ideas.  If you have any questions about what I did, let me know in the comments.

I still have a few Christmas journals in the shop, and they’re ready to ship today.

(Anyone else getting excited for December?!)

I keep a little fabric basket of all my ornaments close at hand.

Very few of the ornaments I’ve been making this month are actually finished.  (My goal is 30 handmade ornaments for many sentimental reasons.)  It’s easier to do everything in stages – sew a bunch of ornaments as the ideas come, then turn the ornaments right side out (I sew them inside out), and later stuff them with scraps of quilt batting while chatting with guests or listening to podcasts.

I think that these three are my favorites.  I drew the snowflake and word “joy” on pieces of fabric with a pencil.  Then I used a tight zigzag stitch on my sewing machine to draw out the designs.

The hand sewing awaits.  After the ornaments are stuffed, there’s a little gap to sew shut.  I’m slowly teaching myself to enjoy the simplicity and comfort of hand sewing.  For as much as I try to simplify, there is still this rush rush in me about sewing.  A machine is so much faster (and so much better!) than my hand sewing.

If anything, this ornament project is teaching me grace.

See all those gaps with batting that is peeking out when I turn the basket around?  The current count stands at about 20 almost-finished-ornaments.  10 ornaments + much hand sewing to go.

What’s your favorite handmade ornament for hanging on the tree?

One of the initial influences in my story keeping is National Public Radio’s very own Story Corps.  The nonprofit has named today The National Day of Listening. I hope you can take time to pause and celebrate the stories of the people you love this weekend. Ask questions. Listen to stories. Celebrate lives!

I remember so well that July day just before my grandma’s 90th birthday. We signed up for an interview where I’d be asking questions about her life in the Story Corps traveling recording studio. My life changed forever.

To help jump start your story keeping…

Black Friday – Nov. 26
15% off your entire order
checkout code:  CELEBRATE

Cyber Monday – Nov. 29
complimentary $10 gift certificate + gift tags with all orders over $50
or complimentary $15 gift certificate + gift tags with all orders over $70
(before shipping)

And guess what!  The {She: Me, My Life, My Days} journal 1.0 now comes in three fun new colors:

Giveaways!  Two prizes are up for grabs at the Gadanke Facebook page.  All you have to do is click “like” to join, then leave a comment to enter the drawing.

Black Friday – Nov. 26
$20 gift certificate
Saturday – Nov. 27
journal of the winner’s choice

Give a journal to a loved one. Keep one for yourself.  - more than anything, please celebrate those stories.

To all my American readers: Happy, happy Thanksgiving!

To all you brave American expats: Promise that you’ll go do something fun today.  It doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving-ish.  Go to a movie, go out for dinner.  Just trust me – don’t brush off the celebration you grew up with.  Your heart still remembers, and that is worth celebrating.

And to everyone else: What can I say besides, “Yippee!”?  This Thanksgiving, I don’t have to go to school and take a big ol’ German exam like last year.  Ugh.  I just hope that none of you do, either!

See you all Friday for another holiday that’s close to my heart (and a little Black Friday fun).  Oh boy!

P.S.  I couldn’t resist the juxtaposition of a Christmas product with a Thanksgiving message, as the two holidays get so blurred.

Enjoy yourselves!

I was never a banana bread person.

Then I guess I must have caught on to the fact that Germans don’t eat banana bread.  Banana bread is very American.

So naturally, I clung to it.  I started buying extra bananas just hoping they’d get brown before we could eat them.  If Martin has caught on, he has not said anything.  He likes banana bread.  He even bought me two of the above baking dish from Amazon for our anniversary.

I absolutely love their bright and bold color.  You probably didn’t know people could get so addicted to intense, bright dishes, did you?  White-smite, I say!  Let’s have some fun at our house.  (Here are our dishes in Germany in case you’ve missed them.  Warning: lovely bright alert!)

I lean toward following this recipe.  I couldn’t even wait to take a picture before we started slicing it up.  Sheesh!

It took me a while to pick these baking dishes.  A lot of stores seem to be carrying red ceramic dishes, but I picked these for both their shape and price.  (And with the gift card we received!)

Now they give me plenty of opportunities to make and give banana bread.  I’ve learned a few things about banana bread over the years:

1. Fun dishes make it more fun to make and eat.
2. The perfect hostess gift for American expats is banana bread.
3. A scoop of peanut butter in banana bread batter is beyond fabulous.
4. I can’t say point #3 very fast.  Can you?

Today, I’m sharing a second post in the series, Small Business Tips.  You can catch the first post on fear.  I’ll do my best to make these posts both relevant to small business and life so that non-business folks can reflect and enjoy, too.  It comes from my journey with my online shop, Gadanke.  Who’s ready?

I’ve recruited my lovely volunteers again.  As soon as I can get them focused, we’ll be ready.  (And any of you big sisters know, younger brothers and sisters NEVER listen.)  ”Hey guys!  Focus for a second!”

Sheesh.

Here’s Anna’s question:

Hi Katie.  I am curious and would like some ‘tips’ if you could help me. I am also a creative person. I would be interested in working for myself, doing something creative.  Anyhow, what I would like to know is how you went about your shop. I am aware of etsy , but I wonder if it’s really worth it for us in europe. I mean I looked into shipping cards to the USA and that would cost 6€! Is it quite expensive to start up an online shop? What is required?

Let me start from the beginning.  My first shop was on Etsy.  It was the perfect place to launch my ideas.  I made my books in the US, shipped them from the US, and ran a US company.

When I was ready to expand, we were living in Europe.  I researched and researched prices.  Should I go for it in Europe?  Could I somehow do it from the US?  I spoke with other Americans creating their own businesses in Europe (or US businesses while living in Europe).  Martin was researching in German and talking to German professionals.  I even spoke with the Etsy team that had just opened a branch in Berlin.  I wanted to know as much as I possibly could because here’s the thing:

• I know the American system; I don’t know the European one

I felt like I would be walking like this through the rest of my business.  Everything felt so upside down.

You know what?  It didn’t feel upside down because I was thinking of business in a country foreign to me.  It felt upside down because starting new things is never easy.  It doesn’t matter where you live or who you are.  You’re entering a new territory with fear and doubt.  You have to research like crazy, and when you want to quit, well you still have a list of like 10 more things to figure out!

I’m still constantly researching all the time.  Who has the best recycled paper?  Where can I shop locally for my materials?  On and on.

In the end, Martin and I were starting to sense that something was seriously wrong with our dear friend back in the United States.  Our visit home has turned into something much longer.  I focused my research to the US only.

Okay… this picture is actually of me reading fairy tales in German.  But you get the idea!  I was always the serious kid in the family.

If you’re not like a little frog hopping between several places like me, you’re at an advantage, even if it is a system that you’re not familiar with.  Here’s what I suggest:

1. Start researching materials. There’s got to be a cheaper solution than buying something like your envelopes one at a time at McPaper in Germany, for example. And there is – trust me!
2. Learn about local shipping. The price jumps and drops depending on the size of your package in any country.  How can your idea fit those guidelines to be most affordable to where you think your primary audience resides?
3. Bring out your local flavor. People will be more understanding and accepting of higher shipping and prices if you can offer them something unique that they can’t find in their own country or that feels “Walmart-ish”.
4. Include your personal character. For example, I’m not using 100% recycled papers because they’re more available or because it saves me money.  Of course they are neither.  I’m using recycled papers in my journals because the decision to be more eco-conscious matters soooo very much to me.

I have no idea what kind of personal character these two would shoot for.  Do you?

Tell yourself to stop saying, “I know what I would do if I were back home.”  Or “back home, these would be…”  I say it like this:  ”I’m here.  This is home. How am I going to make this work?”  Then I keep researching until my idea can come together or I turn to another idea that can.

I walk myself through it in the pages of my {She} journal from the shop.  Writing is when I discover so much about the direction I want to take deep in my heart.  (I think I wrote about 5 pages this weekend, inspiring this post.)  It’s the perfect remedy when my brother and sister are otherwise occupied and not able to chat and chat (or focus on something serious!).

What limits you?