HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS PICKLES PRESS! (AND FAB FREEBIE!)

hooray! i think cupcakes are in order. (umm, when are they not in order?!) life and work have been so busy as of late that i haven't really had time to just slow the pace a bit. summer is zipping by at warp speed, and among other juicy bits swirling in my mind, it occurred to me that miss pickles press just celebrated its first birthday in july! my, how quickly this year has flown.

and what a first year it's been. making the transition from full-time advertising art director to full-on designer and small business owner has been a journey filled with many long hours, late nights, lost weekends, fumbling through LLC rules and confusing tax questions (many of which are frankly, still in need of answering) and basically serious blood, sweat and tears. in a nutshell, FIGURING. IT. OUT. it's been a constant learning curve.

there is day-in and day-out responsibility (that rarely takes a weekend completely off) of every single aspect of running this business: keeping clients happy, attracting new ones, figuring out finances (oy), marketing and PR, fielding emails and phone calls and oh yes...actually doing the design work. it can certainly be overwhelming at times, but i love it and wouldn't trade it for annnnnything. (ok, maybe a life of leisure sailing the caribbean with handsome hubs. but JUST that one thing.) there are some big fat honkin' goals in place for this next year; one of them is being fulfilled in just a matter of weeks...exciting news that i'll share in just a few days. hooray! (another reason for cupcakes?)

big love to all of you for your sweet comments, your business, and just all around support. the encouragement truly keeps the train on the tracks when steam is running low. thank you, thank you, thank you!

as a little celebratory giving back, just leave a comment below and i'll pick a random winner to receive a freebie pack filled with a few miss pickles press goodies. you have until wednesday, august 12, at midnight to enter. winner will be announced on august 13! good luck!

{image via veer}