Was a rough day. Ever had those? Mine started out good {kids slept until 9:30 am!?!?}, but was slightly bulldozed right around 10 AM and I never recovered. My thoughts:

*Walked around like a zombie most of the day, completely void of energy. What is my deal?!? I can’t stand it when I feel this way.

*Brandon is gone and since he is in Canada, we can’t chat too much thanks to the phone bill. I have to wait for him to contact me through the computer and that stinks. I wonder if I am a zombie because I am depressed that I can’t talk to my husband?!? ha. {kinda serious}

*I have a blog post all typed up about my thoughts on marriage and children, but don’t have the heart to publish it. I keep going through and editing it. ha. I figure, if I am in such a BLAH mood, I better be careful what I say about two of the hardest things I have ever tried to tackle to date. Thoughtful of me, yes?

* I am now officially 8 lbs overweight and I am SO FRUSTRATED about it. I lost a bunch of weight last year but gained most of it back over Christmas and cannot, for the life of me, lose it. It’s like I turned 36 and my body said, “No more dieting!”. Ugh. I feel like such a blimp. In fact the only pictures I took on my phone today were of me doing pre-diet pictures to kick my little booty into gear. Didn’t work. I didn’t log into WW once and I tried to work out but about died half way through it. Lord help me.

*I want to go on vacation. Really, really badly. So I am booking a trip to Disneyland for this Christmas that I have no idea if we can afford or not. But I don’t care. We can cancel 48 hours before and I am going to do my best to save like crazy. We will be celebrating Christmas in Disney this year, if I have to eat top ramen for weeks at time to get there.

*Brandon is speaking at this youth workers event and the kids and I are joining him. {anybody going??} I keep telling myself that this counts as a vacation, and I guess it does, especially since we are paying for AIRFARE for the kids, but it’s not Disney. Although I will say this: we will be with friends and family that we LOVE and the workshop is going to be awesome. So that gets me excited.

*We are remodeling our guest bathroom in two weeks and I still have not picked out any tile, sink or fixtures. I am stressing out majorly over this. We also have to mulch our entire yard, as well as fix a fence, fix the sprinklers, resod the lawn and plant a bunch of roses. All this in a two week break that Brandon has blocked out in his schedule. I am beginning to feel like we will never get it all done and to be honest, I’m panicking. There is nothing worse than having your husband gone all the time and wondering who is going to fix the yard while he’s gone. We have toyed with getting a landscaper, but they are EXPENSIVE. Can’t stomach the idea at the moment. So we persevere. Prayers are requested. ha.

My number one problem at the moment….

*Jake was out of control today. OUT OF CONTROL. I might cry typing this. He was just horrible. So much talking back, throwing fits, crying {lots and lots of crying}. After I told him his trip the playground that we had planned today with his Mumsy was canceled thanks to his behavior, he ran out in the driveway and tried to escape. Really not good. I attribute this to the following: he hasn’t slept well lately, he ate a bunch of junk this week{not on my watch, mind you}, he misses Brandon big time, he is growing older and smarter and knows how to fight back. All these things are tough, but boy, when I am fighting them by myself, they can be killer. To you single moms: HATS OFF TO YOU. Seriously. You deserve a medal. I really feel like the worst mom on the planet today and I can’t imagine how I’m going to recover from this tomorrow. God help me. I know He knew what he was doing when He gave me Jake, but I promise you, that boy is a handful. I hope and pray that I can do my best to steer him in the right direction and with God’s help, make him the man he is supposed to be. Because good LORD…I love that kid. So very much.

Oh boy.

I know God knows what He’s doing. But today I wondered if He did. But I trust. And I still believe, Lord. You see me. And that’s enough.

“Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.” I Thessalonians 5:24

Big hugs friends. xoxo

Whelp, it’s crazy over here. We’re winding down and getting out all our remaining orders from the last two weeks of the preorder sale. A couple things I want to make you all aware of:

1. Shipping Updates: If you ordered an item before or on June 30, your order will ship this Friday, July 27. If you ordered an item between July 1-7, your item will ship the week of August 6-10. A note about that last week of sales…we sold nearly 300 items that week {that’s some serious sales!!} so we are running just a tad behind with those. My seamstresses are working like crazy and I’m so proud of them, I’m not kidding, they are pumping those preorders out! And my girls who work in the studio packaging are doing AMAZING. They are working long hours to make sure you all get your items on time, so please be patient with us as we do our best to get these last orders out correctly. If you have ANY questions at ALL please do not hesitate to email us: info@evystree.com. When you email us, please include your paypal email you used to pay for your order. We are doing our best to reply within 1-2 business days. We are so thankful for all your love and support and want to give you the best customer service we can.

2. Final Preorder: Remember the final round of preorders we had talked about here? Well, I had hoped to have it start tomorrow, but with our staff so burdened down with getting the last of the Save Evy’s Tree out, I felt it best to post pone our final preorder sale until Tuesday, July 31 through Wednesday August 8. We are going to be calling this the Final Summer Preorder, and here’s a few details about this preorder sale:

• It will last for one week only, and then the shop will close until the beginning of September when we will introduce a small handmade Fall line.
• This will be the last time you will be able to purchase some of limited items you loved last year, such as the Olympia Brilla, the Black Jackie, the White Rabbit items, blue polka dot brillas, and the crossovers.
• This will also be the last time you will be able to purchase items at the discounted price that we sold all the items at during the Save Evy’s Tree campaign. The prices are: $54.95 for most adult items, $44.95 for all kids. There are a few exceptions to the adult prices, such as the Crossover and the Jackies. The Fall line prices will be back up to $59.95 +.
• The Diana Wraps I have been promising you will debut during this preorder as well, even though they aren’t a preorder item and will be ready to ship. I have a limited amount, and their price will be $59.95.
• We will have Lacey Zip Ups and Simple hoodies available at the discounted price of $54.95. Also, we will have the tees and scrap boxes available as well.

Feel free to comment with questions! We will see you on Tuesday! Be sure you are subscribing to our email blasts to get the exact time and reminders! Big hugs everyone! xoxo

 PS: The preorder items in this sale will have a 4-5 week turnaround time. Please remember that shipping times are approximate and are not guaranteed. Thank you!

Think I can fit anything more in that title? ha. oh boy.

So we are home from Texas. Got in late last night. Despite the fact that we had an AMAZING room during our stay in Texas, it was SO GOOD to see my bed last night. There is just something great about your own bed, you know?

The other thing I was so excited about seeing this morning was my french press! Boy I love this thing! I tried to get some french pressed coffee in Texas and it was a bit of an embarrassing disaster {right Ginger? ha!}, so it was so nice to have a strong cup this morning.

But the absolute BEST thing about coming home was these two.

OMW, I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to hug them and squeeze them tight. They smell SO GOOD. You know, your babies have that certain smell? Seriously, I adore these kids.

{Sorry if you follow me on instagram and these are repeat pictures. ha. Want a first hand view of my life? Follow me on Instagram {evystree}, since I just use all those pictures for posts, you’ll see it before everyone else. haha}

Despite missing the above things, we had SO MUCH FUN in Texas. Really, it was awesome. Darren and Ginger Gilbert and Pastor and Mrs Gilbert were such incredible hosts. We sincerely did not lack for one thing. They fed us top notch food, put us up in such a nice room, drove us around, made sure we had everything we needed…they were so awesome. We are so blessed to call Darren and Ginger friends…we met them two years ago at The Community Meeting and hit it off right away.They are the kindest people ever, ones we will consider life long friends. We had SUCH a blast with them and their precious two babies.

Darren’s parents were just as sweet. They pastor The Truth Church in Dension, which is where we were and they are so so wonderful. Here is Pastor Gilbert, Brandon, Darren and the church’s youth pastor Jared.

I was also so excited to see my friend Amber. Amber lived in Stockton for five years and we became good friends. She was at church on Sunday and hung out with us. Amber, I love you!! You are a HOOT!!!

Ignore how tired old and wrinkly I look in this picture..haha..

Oh, one more thing about Texas…see this lady?

She is the sweetest thing ever. On Sunday morning she stopped me after service and said she was going to bring us some of her famous pecan cookies. Well, after the evening service she presented us with this bag of the most incredible tasting cookies EVER. They were AMAZING. We told her that we would take them home to the kiddos, but confession here: they never made it. We ate them all in the airplane on the way home. Seriously, they are that good. I predict these will be on market shelves everywhere someday. Really, really amazing!

So on the way there and back I re-read the book Bringing Up Boys by Dr. James Dobson. Have you read it?

If you have a boy, I suggest you run, not walk, to the store and buy this. I’m not kidding. It’s AMAZING. I read it once when Jake was a newborn, but reading it now had so much more impact on me since he is in some of these stages they speak of. I found myself crying at some points during the book, feeling a huge sense of relief that some of the things Jake does is COMPLETELY NORMAL. Seriously, this book is awesome, especially if you are raising a boy in a Christian home. Dr. Dobson covers some very controversial issues regarding raising boys and whether you agree with everything or not, his practical advice on boys will definitely help in some aspect of your mothering experience. Great, great book in my opinion.

In closing I want to address shipping: We are starting to ship today the clearance items. Please remember that it will be 7- 10 business days from order date before most of the clearance items ship. We hope to have them all out by the end of next week. We have over 400 clearance items alone that need to go out, that does not include the remaining preorder items that are waiting to ship, so please be patient with us. Regarding preorder items: it will be a solid 4 weeks from your order date before they ship. If your item is going to be longer than the 4 week turnaround time, we will email you with an approximate shipping date. We are doing our best to make sure everyone gets their items in a timely manner so please, if you have a question, do not hesitate to contact us! {info@evsytree.com}

Oh one more thing…if you ordered a raw item, please be aware that it will not come with any Evy’s Tree packaging or tags, just the item in a cello bag as it comes from AA.

THANK  YOU FRIENDS. I love you all!! Big hugs to you!! xoxo

The Save Evy’s Tree Campaign is officially over!! How did we do?

WE MADE IT!!! OH MY WORD!!! 

I have been waiting to blog about how we did until I got my profit and loss statements back from my bookkeeper. I knew we did good, but I didn’t want to get too excited…you know I needed to make sure that what came in didn’t go right back out again and all that good stuff. BUT WE ACTUALLY MADE IT. 

I am blown away. I sincerely have no words. I’m at a super huge loss for words. Early this morning when I got my statements back, I just sat there staring at them in awe. We sold over 900 items in one month’s time. We have never, EVER sold that much in one month, much alone six months. EVER. This is a huge thing…especially after finishing every month over the last 6 months in the red…I’m super blown away. It’s kinda what I call a modern day miracle. Honesty here: over the last year I have questioned over and over, “Am I supposed to be doing this God?” I mean, I felt 100% that God had placed this in my lap. But when I saw the business not flourishing you wonder, you know? This Save Evy’s Tree campaign was my way of placing this business back in HIS hands and letting him do what He wanted to with it. My way of asking, “Are you sure, Lord?”…because it all boils down to this, I just want to do what HE wants me to do. I love Evy’s Tree…but not enough to make my life miserable. Because we all know, you will be miserable if you are not doing what you are meant to do. But, the last month I have felt HIM walking so closely, right by my side. It’s an amazing feeling. I’ve thought several times, “this must be how Abraham felt”…to be led by the Lord is the most important thing… EVER. The fact that this campaign was successful is a huge sign for me. I cannot tell you the relief to know that I am doing what He wants me to do. 

So where does that leave us? Well, we can move forward with the manufacturing….

Want to hear something really cool? My samples and prep were just completed last week and this coming Monday I need to write the check to get the ball rolling. Everything just fell into place at the exact same time. AMAZING!

And now that we have what we need for manufacturing, Evy’s Tree will carry on as planned. WHOOHO!!! What does that mean? We will still have a very small boutique hand made line {you know those Diana Wraps you all want? Right} and we will continue to develop a manufactured line. Although I am very leery to give dates, as it tentatively stands right now, our manufactured goods are slated to be here the middle to end of November. We will have pictures and samples available much sooner than that, and will start preorders for everything several weeks before they arrive. They will ship {hopefully} just in time for Christmas. We will give you exact dates and more info as we get closer to that point. But let me say this: the hoodies are going to be AMAZING. Simply stunning. The fabric alone is so luxurious. Evy’s Tree will be your go to item at all times. I promise, you will love them. And don’t forget…if you bought something during the Save Evy’s Tree campaign, you have a 50% off coupon for all the manufactured goods coming with your orders!!

In the meantime, we here at Evy’s Tree are going to do our absolute best to keep the shop stocked with items you will love. The Clearance sale will end tonight at 11 PM PST. There are still a very small amount of things left in the shop. You guys have cleaned me out!! ha. On Friday {tomorrow} we will close for a week or two to catch up on orders and for all of us to connect with our families and catch our breath.  When we reopen, we are planning to run things a little differently. We hope to do “weekly releases”; once a week we will send out an email blast with a preview of the items that will be listed {are you on our email list??}. We may not release things every week, but the weeks that we do, we will send out an email to everyone giving you a heads up. The items will be limited and typically just a size run of each style offered. Also: I am teaming up with some other talented people and up and coming designers. Between now and November, I hope to highlight several designers with a unique and limited line that they have created only for Evy’s Tree and sold directly off our website. You know those brooches you all love? She will be our first designer highlighted in the month of August. {interested in being a designer highlighted? Email me! amy@evystree.com}

In closing, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I really can’t say that enough. You guys are unbelievable. To be honest, as I was going through orders last night, I kept thinking that most of them must be from friends…but really, I don’t know most of you!! Where did you come from?? ha. More importantly…I’m SO GLAD YOU ARE HERE!! I hope you love Evy’s Tree!! I am so touched that so many of you felt compelled to help and even more touched that you love our stuff. That’s amazing. I love you guys. Thank you again.

********

Oh, I need your help and thoughts:…you may remember in the beginning I had mentioned that I had 1500 hoodies available. 2/3 of those hoodies were unfinished {raw} hoodies. I had planned in the beginning to list them as raw items at cost {like they are selling HERE} but you guys bought SO MANY preorders that we hit our goal without needing to sell everything and ending up using half of the raw hoodies for those preorders. That still leaves me with nearly 500 hoodies that haven’t really sold in the clearance sale and are still sitting on my shelves {unless someone buys them all today, ha}. My first thought is to keep them, but we really don’t have the space, especially once the manufactured goods get here I will have to find a home for them and there are too many bins for my seamstresses to keep at their homes. The second plan has been to sell them on ebay, but last night as I was going through my emails I archived more than a dozen emails from people asking for a preorder hoodie that they missed. The thought occurred to me: after my seamstresses go through all the current orders and make sure we have enough fabric, we could open preorders back up for a week or so and let some of you who missed out get what you want. So here’s your chance to be democratic here on Evy’s Tree again…would you be interested in another week of preorders? 

*******

Big hugs everyone!! xoxo

Oh, are you in need of something today? I encourage you, ask HIM! He has the answers and is wiling and able to lead and guide you. Don’t believe me? Read back through the Save Evy’s Tree Campaign. He takes care of us and guides us! ALWAYS.

“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Jesus Christ.” Phil 4:19

Holy Cow. Is the end really near? YIKES! These 30 days have come and gone so quickly, I don’t even know what to say! {Except maybe that I am EXHAUSTED and desperately needing a vacation. ha.}

So, at this point in time, we have about 36 hours left in our Save Evy’s Tree campaign, since the shop is closing tomorrow night at 11 PM PST. Here is how many more hoodies we need to sell to reach our goal:

Please remember this is just an average number as scrap boxes and tee shirts are not added in this total. Those items decrease this number and make our final numbers BETTER.

Whelp. I have faith that God knows what He is doing!! That number isn’t impossible…just a huge feat, but nothing is impossible with Him. To those of you who have bought something over the last 30 days THANK YOU!!! I wish I could say more than thank you, but really that’s the best I’ve got at this moment, but know this, my family and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!

So what’s going to happen now? Well, there’s a couple things I want to make really clear first:

1. We are not giving up {or closing permanently} yet!! We still have a full day and a half left to reach our goal. We are getting a lot of emails from customers saying they are sad to see us go. While we are SO THANKFUL for faithful, loyal and loving customers, please remember this: the Save Evy’s Tree campaign was intended to GROW Evy’s Tree and raise money to keep it healthy and whole for future success {Read HERE for more info}. Although we couldn’t keep going as we were, if we reached our goal with this campaign, it gave us the ability to continue making Evy’s Tree the clothing line you love and want to wear every day {like many of you tell me }. So we are praying we can make it by the end of this week. Also, we are getting a lot of people telling us that they are confused as to if we are going out of business. The answer to that one right now is: We don’t know, but hope not!! After we close on Friday, gather up all our numbers and clear all our inventory out next week, we will have a concrete answer to that one. I plan on letting you all know the final answer by Thursday or Friday of next week {July 12 or 13}.

2. Clearance Sale: Starting Saturday evening {July 7} we will sell everything we have left in our studio, both “raw” {American Apparel hoodies that have never been embellished} and finished items {hoodies that are completed and have not sold}. We will also sell some scrap boxes. I can’t give you prices at this time since I haven’t had a second to figure out what I paid for them all, but we will sell them ALL {including the Evy’s Tree embellished hoodies that did not sell this past 30 days} at near cost. What will be included? I can tell you this, we have about 300 finished items that are sitting on our shelves. Many of them are from the limited category of the shop, and there may even be some preorder items that never sold in there as well, as we are gathering EVERYTHING we have from seamstresses, shops that carried our items, etc. I just can’t say for sure what’s there until we go through it all on Saturday after the shop closes. The scrap boxes will be filled with all our jersey knits, which are very hard to find, FYI. Don’t let this clearance sale scare you. If our Save Evy’s Tree campaign does succeed, we will continue to have a handmade line in the future, but we do not need everything we have on our shelves at this time. Also, we need to make room for all our manufactured goods to be stored, so this is not necessarily a going out of business sale.

3. Shipping Times: We have had many people contact us regarding shipping times. First, if your adult item cost $54.95 {or above} and your kids item $44.95, then you have a PREORDER item with at least 4 week turnaround time. Unfortunately, in our hurry to get things listed last month, we neglected to take down 3-5 day shipping notification from the listing and it has caused a lot of confusion. I’m so sorry about that!! There were also a few limited items {items that we had in stock and were ready to ship} that oversold and we had to make more them, so some of them have taken a little longer to ship. On Saturday, Maddie and I will be going through all the orders and will be contacting you if your item will take a little longer than expected to ship. Also, if you ordered a limited item along with a preorder item, then they will all ship together when the preorder item is ready. If you are concerned about your item PLEASE don’t hesitate to contact us {amy@evystree.com}. We are trying to return all emails within one business day, and we want to make sure everyone is getting excellent customer service. A huge, giant thank you to all of you for patience!

4. What’s Next?: That is another question we are being asked A LOT. Remember, manufacturing is our first goal as well as keeping a small boutique handmade line. If we hit our financial goal to get Evy’s Tree healthy, those are still our targets. The shop will close for at least week, maybe two weeks, after the clearance sale. Honesty here: I am so tired, and my family is tired of me being tired. ha. I need to have some time to recharge my batteries and not think about profit and loss statements, or hoodies of any kind, for a little bit. Also, our poor house {and especially back yard} needs so much attention, so I need to take care of the home front here for a bit. ha.

I hope this helps clear some things up. Remember the shop will close tomorrow night at 11PM PST and the clearance sale will start Saturday sometime. Also, preorders will end tomorrow night when the shop closes. If there is something you want in that section, I suggest you order it tomorrow, as I cannot promise you if they will appear again! Want to shop? Click HERE.

Big hugs everyone! xoxo