October 💌
How wonderful and special that you’re part of this edition of the Happy Mail Club again! ✨ It’s certainly special if you managed to get one, because it sold out in just 3 minutes!!! 😱 I really don’t have the words for it; it feels so surreal. After it sold out, I received so many disappointed messages. That feels very bittersweet: it’s amazing that there’s so much demand, but it also feels awful when you work incredibly hard for weeks and can’t make everyone happy...
In the meantime, we’ve already been working on the next edition for quite some time, and it’s going to be even bigger and truly fantastic!! What exactly? That will remain a surprise for just a little while longer 😉 Have lots of fun unpacking, journaling, and reading the magazine!
Such a silly mistake... 😭
I would normally write a whole blog post here with fun updates, behind-the-scenes content, and news, but this time I designed a magazine especially for the 1-year anniversary of the Happy Mail Club. Alongside all my other work, it was quite a big project, and these things always take more time than you expect. I thought it would be incredibly fun to let some customers have their say and put them in the spotlight (once again, thank you so much Maud, Josephine & Denise 🥰)
On the day of the deadline, I finished the last pages. I started at the office at 7 a.m. packing orders, and then I got to work on the magazine. I still had to create a page and take a photo for the cover, and I wanted to mention the creators who inspire me. In the evening, I continued working at home, and before I knew it, it was 1 a.m. I quickly looked through the magazine and then ordered it. It wasn’t until after it had been printed that I realized I had made a really silly mistake... 🥺
Wrong text...
First, I wrote all the texts, and then I started working on the magazine’s layout. Each time, I copied the previous page so I could use the same elements for the next page. Unfortunately, something went wrong here: Lieve Merlijn still has Pip’s text, and Femke has Celina’s text. I could kick myself, but there’s nothing I can do about it now...
Note to self: plan better and work ahead so there’s enough time to check things and you don’t have to keep working at 1 a.m. It was all just a little too much at once. But I’m very proud that everything worked out in the end (apart from a few mistakes, of course...)
Here are the texts for Lieve Merlijn and Femke after all, because they deserve it. They’re both very creative girls, and I draw a lot of inspiration from their content and projects myself, so that definitely deserves to be mentioned! 💖
Dear Merlijn 🌸
Merlijn (@lievemerlijn) shares a mix of creative DIY projects and her beautiful drawings. She shows how you can combine different materials and techniques to achieve a wonderful final result. It’s really fun and inspiring to follow her!
Femke ⭐
Femke (@femkestudio) shares her beautiful artwork. She works mainly with alcohol markers and pencil, and uses lots of color. In her sketchbook, she also incorporates extra elements such as sticky notes into her illustrations. Very inspiring and definitely worth following!
Inspiration page 🍂
In the magazine, you can already find a fun inspiration page with items from the package, but I also made another page. I used to create a goals page at the beginning of every month. It’s incredibly fun to reflect on it at the end of the month and really take a moment to pause and think about it. Because of how busy things have been, I’ve let that slip a little over the past few months, but I really want to start doing it monthly again. I write fun appointments and events on the calendar, so you have an overview of the month at a glance. That’s also really nice to look back on later. I stuck the HMC card over my goals as a flap using washi tape. Hopefully, this will inspire you too!
And through... 💪🏼
On Wednesday, September 24 at 7:00 p.m., the Happy Mail Club became available to order (and for subscribers, two days earlier). Normally, we get started right away the next day making the name tags, putting the packages together, and packing everything into boxes. But this time, we first had a very busy weekend at a trade show. On Thursday, we set up our booth in Rijswijk, and then we spent all day at the show on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was incredibly fun to speak with customers in person and finally put faces to the names. The show ended at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, after which all the things had to be packed up again and the booth dismantled. I got home at 8:00 p.m., quickly ate something, took a shower, and went straight to bed. The next morning, we got back to work early to pack all the Happy Mail Club packages and ship them as quickly as possible. Luckily, I had help from my wonderful mother and boyfriend, and we managed to get everything—including the weekend orders—to the PostNL drop-off point before 5:00 p.m.! We worked incredibly hard, and I’m proud that we pulled it off! 💛
Small favor 🌸
Are you satisfied with your purchase and/or my service?
Then please help me very briefly with a 5-star review via this link.
Thank you so much in advance, it takes very little effort but means an incredible amount to me! 🥰