I had no idea....

When I listed my first masks for sell on Etsy, I was just filling some time with one of the few ways I thought I might be able to help in this pandemic sitch.  I had no idea the whirl wind of excitement, anxiety, and heartfelt feelings I would go through in a very short amount of time.
It has been such a huge learning curve and all consuming experience that I literally slept only 4 hours a night for 6 days in a row!  Each night would be some type of delima and then it would magically work out.

One night, I was looking at the stats in my Etsy dashboard and it told me that I wasn't bringing in any people to look at my shop, so I decided to take a little leap and share the shop on Facebook.  Holy Guacamole, Batman!  You can't imagine my little heart tugs when I saw that a friend from high school, a beautiful soul we met on vacation a decade ago, an aunt I have never met in person, and many more all placed orders.  Some let me know on Facebook, some were a little sneaky.  Several shared my page and I just thought it was the nicest thing EVER!

Other fun things have happened, too.  I try and write a little note to someone that orders each day.  The other day, a woman ordered a mask that has flames on it.  I wrote to her that every time I see that version of the face mask, I think to myself, "This girl is on fire!", not that lots of men were ordering it, too.  She wrote back that it was for her son, she LOVES Montana and hopes to visit Bozeman this summer...And had 3 restaurant suggestions for me.  Two I have never been to and all 3 within 7 blocks of our house.  

Also.....I have reviews!!!  They are 5 stars!! ....They said really nice things about the quality of my work and the speediness of my shipping :D  And I swear!!!  I don't know any of the reviewers (yet!)  

All of this makes me excited to go sew another 40 masks - 20 for the Etsy shop and 20 for the Masks for Heros - Montana Medical Workers.  If you want to see the masks - take a look!  New ones coming soon!!  My Etsy Shop

I hope all of you have a wonderful day, week, month, year.  Someone comment a blessing they have found in this self isolation, stay at home time!  I want to hear!!!

So....as I mentioned before....I'm making face masks for the Masks for Heros Organization.  In the process of that, I started making masks for my Etsy page -  MelissaIoneBoutique  And in the process of that - Everyone everywhere ran out of elastic.  I have orders for it at 4 different places.  One sent me an email after I paid for it saying that they didn't have it, wouldn't have it for 2 - 3 weeks, and wouldn't be answering their phones or email.  So fat chance getting your money back. 

I tried using a little bit of cording that I had.  It was too big for my ears and too small for my head, so I held it in place with my bun!
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The Covid-19 will be over with and I will have 500 YARDS of elastic!  My boys better start having babies so I can make a million of those tutu things!  

In the meantime, I get so excited to see a UPS man, USPS man, or FedEx dude that I may forget about personal distance.  The only time in my life I won't have my very own bubble space.  Oh, Lord, I'm losing it!!

How exactly is it that other people just have to home school?  I have to send contractors away and figure out how to install a bathroom and a kitchen.  (Try this isolation business with no kitchen - I dare you, lol!)  The bathroom and kitchen are turning out beautiful and the best part is that my husband has to work from home, so he has found plenty to help with it aka he's doing it lol!  
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Stay tuned, because we will have a kitchen soon!!! - Forgive me for only posting once a week during the quarantine.  Not going to lie - my husband takes a lot of time :)  What are you guys doing to stay occupied?  I want to know if I'm doing all I should (even though I'm very behind on laundry all of a sudden (Like I said....I'm blaming the husband lol).  

​Take care you guys!  I'm thinking about you!!

I don't know about you, but every time I let the news paint a picture on how bad this Covid 19 can get, I become a little stressed.  Thinking about how to keep calm and occupied reminded me of a project that I did last fall.  I am going to order more, but thought I would share what I did before with you.

I ordered two (because I got a discount on the second one plus free shipping).  This is where I ordered from:  Your Own Photo Paint by Number Kit

Everything you need comes in the kit when you order including paint, canvas, paint brushes, and even a paper version to refer to if you accidentally paint over a number.  It took about a month to get.  Painting about an hour a day, took about 20 days to complete.  If you do one, I want to see!!