Category: Uncategorized

It’s Friday and that means I’m featuring another fantastic business in Franklin County! This time it’s one of Hampton’s Specialty Shops: Cornerstone Cottage and owner Judy Wrolson!  Cornerstone Cottage is a great little shop on main street of downtown Hampton full of all sorts of treasures.

When I interviewed Judy about how she got started, she said that she has always been a crafter and sold her crafts around town at craft shows and through events with Franklin County Cottage Industries.  They focused on building their businesses through education, promotion, and building their brands.  They had also been working on taking over the gift shop at Dudley’s Corner at the intersection of I-35 and Highway 3.  Within several years, three of the members had established their own brick and mortar industries.  She excitedly opened her store on September 11th, 2001.  She won’t ever forget that day for more than one reason!

Continue “Friday in Franklin County: Cornerstone Cottage”

Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God”

Woofta, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen Random Monday Thoughts (the last one you can find HERE), but I actually missed doing them, so they are back for now!  I think it’s good sometimes to sit back and reflect on

Matthew 7:24 – “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

Have a small business? Have a Facebook page, but not sure what you should be posting? Out of ideas of things to post? Not sure what to try or put out there?  It’s happened to all of us and I’m here to help you!  Here are 5 posts that I highly recommend you use for your page!  I’ll try to make this as simple as possible!

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It’s graduation time here in North Iowa and I can’t help but think about R graduating in a short 3 years…or about how I felt 16 (gasp!) years ago when I graduated.  I also can’t help but remember when I was the graduate.  There are so many mixed emotions.  There is part of me that feels like those days were just a year or two ago and the other part of me feels like a lifetime ago.  I suppose that’s because it was a lifetime ago.  Wait…how did I get this old??

But, I digress…

Dear Graduate, 

I have several things to say, so bear with me if you would.  The next week or two is going to evoke a lot of emotions…sadness, happiness, pure excitement, and fear.  You’re not only going to feel these emotions in the next week or so, but the next several months as you prepare for the next step in your life.  So, here are a couple things to keep in mind as you move forward.  

Continue “Dear Graduate: A Letter”

Psalm 95:5-6 “The sea that he made belongs to him, along with the dry land that his hands formed. Come! Let us worship and bow down; let us kneel in the presence of the Lord, who made us.”

You’ve opened your business like you always dreamed! You have your employees hired and you have regular business hours, but you are so busy that you don’t know which way is up!  You’ve heard from the experts that you need to have a social media presence, but how do you add one more thing to you never-ending list?  You have a Facebook page, but only have time about once a week to post to it.  You have a special event coming up and feel like you need one more way of boosting your marketing (to add to the newspaper and radio ads).  You feel that you and your business have a special story to share and you want to tell it, but have no idea how to go about doing it.  Do any of these questions or statements describe you?  If so, it’s time to hire someone to help with social media!

Help, just like in all aspects of life, comes in different forms and on different levels within social media.  So, what can hiring someone to help with social media look like for you?  Well, that’s the great thing about social media…it’s completely customizable for each person and each business, but here are a few ideas!

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Wow! Where did the time go? See how that happens? Life is crazy busy and I forget things and things forget me, but I digress….

Last week you were able to follow me through the first half of a week to see what my life really looks like and how busy we stay! That was Sunday through Wednesday and you can check that out HERE! So, what happened the rest of the week? Here you go!

Thursday – if you recall from last week, my alarm goes off at 5:01AM every morning.  Today I’m off to POUND class again and home to shower and prep for work.  Once I’m ready, I pack my lunch and breakfast as well as pack M’s lunch to take to school.  Off I go!  Work until about 12:30 when (and this is incredibly rare) my hubby picked me up for a quick lunch date.  The Iowa Grill (food truck) from Mason City is in town today and it’s a gorgeous day, so we are happy to oblige for a quick lunch.  Back to work until 4PM (that’s an hour earlier than normal) and I fly home to pick up my mom, T & M to head to another track meet about 45 minutes away. We arrive on our normal scheduled time only to find out we’re a half hour (or so) early for R’s events, so now we kill time…good thing it’s a gorgeous day!  We watch his first two events and then quickly head downtown to find some supper (we’re all very tired of concession stand and fast food by this point).  Back to the track meet for his last event (he runs the 4×400, which is literally the last event).  Thankfully, it isn’t too late and we’re home by about 8:30PM.  The dog is limping…why is the dog limping..texting my dog walker (yes, I’ve actually hired a neighbor girl to walk Nike and spend a little time with her all these nights we’ve been at track meets).  We discover she’s scraped off part of her pad on her paw…nothing life threatening so we can fall into bed!

Continue “A Week in the Life of Me, Part 2”