How is the 'journey to a dream' going? Pretty damn awesome! 🙌🏼

Hello friends!

I was going through my business blog over at www.ittybittybookco.com and I realised there is a lot of personal stuff in those posts! Those posts share how my journey to a dream is progressing and what is going on in my life... So I wanted to share the more personal bits here if you're interested (and miss out the more sales-y ones) so that any of you guys who encouraged me 4 years ago and believed in me can see that it's actually happened LOL so thank you so much for that!

Yup, I really have created a business that I love, is ethical, does good and supports my family... It's obviously not all rainbows and sparkles but most of the time I really do need to pinch myself :)

Here's a little breakdown - first the intro video we made at the end of summer - if the outtakes one tries to play after I recommend that hehe!



We took on some staff, to allow Al and I to step away from the day to day order fulfilment, production etc and to allow him more time to design (the business had started to feel like it really needed some new designs and products) and for me to get my head back into a creative space where I could strategise, bring new ideas into the business and focus on expansion -

https://ittybittybookco.com/blogs/blog/the-itty-bitty-team-is-growing

Love over Gold - as the business has been growing we have been able to reduce our production cost and we passed the savings back to our customers. More on the ethical side of our business here -

https://ittybittybookco.com/blogs/blog/love-over-gold

I was super excited to launch the #PositivityTakeover which is a fun 'pay it forward' type of movement :) You can read about it here -

https://ittybittybookco.com/blogs/blog/positivity-take-over-preview

But I think Instagram gives a better idea of what it really looks like -

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/positivitytakeover/

As the Business has grown I've found myself becoming more and more interested in the science behind happiness and positivity - it's really quite incredible! Did you know that you can decide to be happier - that you can teach your brain how? Happiness levels are not just something we are born with or that develop and that's just it, if we want to we can change our happiness levels!

Gratitude is an easy place to start and to make it easier, we've created a printable worksheet on Etsy and a gratitude journal on our main site, which you can get via the links below. Do it for 21 days and see the difference yourself! -

Printable:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/512267305/gratitude-download-gratitude-printable?ref=shop_home_active_1

Journals:
https://ittybittybookco.com/collections/gratitude-journal/products/itty-bitty-gratitude-journal

Tomorrow is Ché Phoenix's 4th birthday... and our 10 year anniversary 💜 So I'll be doing a little 'family life' post soon ☺️

How is the journey going for you? Are you balancing all the aspects of a happy/fulfilled life? As you can tell by the sporadic nature of my posts here, I've still not quite hit the sweet spot with 'me time'. The space I create for myself generally gets used up on long baths, exercise and seeing friends which is obviously just where my priorities lie right now, but part of me still misses the unique type of sharing and connecting of blogging... So I'm not giving up! Once again I'm going to try and make a little more time for it... The only failure is to stop trying, right? 😆

Love and happiness to you this Valentines Day 💕
From Astra ✌🏼

How do you find the time???

Sometimes I get frustrated with myself because I am so ambitious, I just want to do so much! Be the best mum I can be all the time, keep really fit and healthy, see my friends, have quality husband and wife time, chill out time, gardening time, cooking and baking time, keep my blog going, run and expand my new business... Plus enjoy each day of the journey to a dream of course :) My list goes on, and it is hard sometimes but totally do-able!

Making Itty Bitty Book stands with Ché Phoenix - he's a great helper!

When ever I'm feeling overwhelmed I talk it out with Al and we make a new plan, tweak our routine a bit to make time for what ever it is I feel like I need more time for. We are beginning to realise that for us, time management is a necessity and I'm starting to feel like I am doing all of the above now.

Keeping fit on a family hike in the foothills of the Mourne Mountains, County Down

Here's how we make time for it all, we've found you have to MAKE the time, it's never just spare, waiting to be used :)

• Up each day at 7am and we both work on The Itty Bitty Book Company for 2 hours before Ché Phoenix wakes up and then we have family breakfast :)
• During the days we alternate 'baby duty' so while he's awake at least one of us is fully focused on him, giving him the attention he needs :) During this time who ever is with him gets things like washing and odd jobs around the house/garden done.
• Monday mornings (after our 2 hours work) we head out to a local cafe and have a weekly strategy meeting, chatting about how last week went and what each of us needs to get done/focus on this week, we write lists and drink tea basically! Then while I'm at my mums and babes group Al works in the cafe.
• Tuesday and Thursday 9.30-12.30 I have computer time to blog etc and Al's on 'baby duty'
• Wednesday we head into town (after our 2 hours work) and while I'm at our baby sensory class with Ché Phoenix Al goes to the gym.
• Friday I'm on 'baby duty' all day so Al can work.
• Saturday and Sunday are family days where we go hiking, do gardening, see friends and family etc. On our day trips out we always see if there are any markets or gift shops to stop in on as well for The Itty Bitty Book Company so we hit 2 birds with one stone there.
• Our work day ends between 5.30 and 6, we cook healthy fresh meals together as a family every night and eat together. 
• Ché Phoenix is mostly asleep for the night by 9 and us by 10.30
• Some evenings I go out walking with my friends and Ché (catch up time and exercise time), other times I bake or we just chill and watch a movie or something :)

Choosing which story he wants before bedtime :)

Since writing this post about practicing what we preach we have been so pro-active in making sure we are living our dreams, making sure we are reaching our goals and it's easier than you think, you just need to set aside time to work on your dreams, every single day!

How do you fit in the important things when you think you have no time?