Hi. I have exciting news.

Ok, maybe I'm the ONLY person excited about this but it's hot off the press news so I'm sharing with you too! I personally try to find the joy in every situation and this situation brings me a great amount of joy. 

I bought the domain for Essentially Alison.

You might be saying to yourself, uhhh duh, Alison, we know that? Well. Technically my website was housed on Shopify's website using the URL essentially-alison.myshopify.com BEFORE.

But, now, it's essentiallyalison.com in all it's GLORY!!! And merging the Shopify link with my domain was as easy as a click of a button! Thank you to Shopify for making this wanna be blogger/influencer's life much easier! 

{Also, I do not recommend shouting in excitement about this domain purchase while your partner is upstairs on an important work call. #DoorSlam}

Now, back to regularly programmed scheduling.

The world is opening back up again

And while that is AMAZING news, is anyone else terrified? It's been a year of no chaos, no calendar events, nothing to plan but ALSO nothing to look forward to. I will admit, I have missed the hustle and bustle, but I will also admit, I have kind of loved the slow pace.

Looking forward from May to the end of September, WOAH. The calendar is B.U.S.Y. 

So I took some intentional time this morning and looked at my calendar of events already planned and tried to squeeze in some vendor markets for Essentially Alison. I do have A LOT of inventory I would love to sell you and I also don't know WHEN TO STOP making more. I feel like people get bored with the same 'ole so this summer I'm branching out to a few nearby towns to attend some vendor markets there in addition to a couple in Baraboo.

I don't want to give up every free weekend day so I tried to give myself some GRACE. (See former blog post on grace here.)

Here are the upcoming vendor markets Essentially Alison will be participating in! If you would like to come check them out, please do!

There will be lots of other vendors there and I'm sure some delicious food. I've learned that people will attend events solely on the food offerings! 

Thank you in advance for support of Essentially Alison and if you would like to see what I will be selling at the these markets, all of my inventory is on this website. I do offer FREE SHIPPING with the code FREESHIPPING and also local pickup options. 

Finally, if you would like something custom made, please check out my Google Form here to specific your request. You can always reach me directly at essentiallyalison@hotmail.com as well.

One more thing. A TikTok, of course.

Have you ever been to an acupuncturist? I have been seeing a local gal (local to Baraboo, that is) for awhile now and I love it. She sticks needles in my face, hands, arms and feet and it doesn't hurt hardly at all. She also cups my back which leaves horrible purplish bruise-like marks on your back (that means your blood is stagnated) but it feels so good! Her name is Melissa and she's the boss lady for Origins Acupuncture & Wellness. 

She knew I had a crafty side hustle and asked me to make a sign to hang on a bracket in Downtown Baraboo in front of a door that leads to her upstairs office. After getting her logo images and the size of the bracket, I didn't have too many options but settled on a 12" x 12" treated plywood board. I painted several coats of outside paint and then used my Cricut™ to create vinyl stickers of her logo and branding images, using printable vinyl. The design and logo is on both sides of the sign and I sprayed it with a poly to seal it in. The treated plywood, exterior paint and poly *should* protect it from the elements.

Sadly, we didn't bring a tall enough ladder for my vertically challenged self to hang it up but my partner did it while I took pictures. 

NATURALLY. (He loves it, haha.)

Anyway. I made a TikTok™ about it, because WHY NOT. If you want to view it, check it out here and give it some love.

@alisonkepner

Origins Acupuncture & Wellness sign in downtown Baraboo, WI made by Essentially Alison ##smalltown ##smalltownwisconsin ##acupuncture ##baraboo

♬ Send Me on My Way - Vibe Street

I just posted it this morning so I'm certain it doesn't have many views. (Still working on the influencer status here.) There are rumblings that I might do a much bigger sign for a different bracket to highlight different businesses in Downtown Baraboo as well. {Fingers crossed.}

I may not have made it on the interwebs yet, but having an Essentially Alison sign hanging in Downtown Baraboo is "making it" to me. 

Thank you as always for reading my ramblings and I hope to see you on the streets this summer at a vendor market!

Stop by and say hi! I'm Alison, nice to meet you!