So famous

I had to turn this into a blog post. Just had to. While I was facebooking my face off, which is something I do often because it's easy to do from my iphone while I am sitting and feeding my newborn, a friend of mine made an interesting post on my wall.

"Is that your robot on the etsy facebook page wall? It sure looks like yours!" She asked. I immediately investigated.

Yes! Right there on the wall for all 90,368 fans to see was a post FROM ETSY asking people to post their favorite searches. As an example, they had searched robot plush, and from there chose my little ole robot to use for the picture! And I wasn't even a "fan" of the etsy page yet! (I remedied this oversight immediately!) Check it out right HERE!

I had done nothing to "campaign" for this mention, the only thing I had done was last week renew about five or ten expired listings bringing my humble shop offerings up to 18! I didn't renew to get exposure even, I just hadn't sold those items and time ran out, I am trying to get all my current inventory up because I am about to start a whole new batch of goodies. After I make my daughter's curtains.

I know that many of you think that a mere facebook wall post mention is pretty small potatoes, and I guess well, in the GRAND scheme, it is. But for me, my dreams of becoming a Craft Superhero are coming to fruition! I feel like Steve Martin finding his name in the phonebook in the JERK, I am somebody! I'm famous! I have never been able to put a nifty "as seen on the front page of etsy" badge on my anything. I have never been in a treasury, (I don't think? How would I know?) The only other time a picture of my goods has been used was for my own posts here or on facebook or twitter pointing to my blog. OK, once I was on a website where they had a picture from every vendor for a craft fair I did, but yknow.

This time, I was PICKED by someone who works at ETSY to feature on the WALL of their facebook fan page! To me this small thing was a HUGE FREAKING DEAL! I blasted obnoxious all caps posts on my friends and my own wall bragging about my good fortune, I saw my "hearted item" go up ten people in a few hours! I might even make a sale from all this industry buzz!

Ok I am done hyperventilating, and thanks for reading. I added to the wall post that my favorite search lately has been "woodland creatures." Hey, but if any of you bloggers out there feel like it, feel free to search robot plush on etsy anytime!

Rested and awaiting a cape!

Phew, We just had a sweep of family sickness, and I went ahead and totally unplugged from the internet! I was home alone (hubby gone for a week with work, also SICK) and SICK and super pregnant with a SICK and teething baby and a needing to go out five times a day doggie. Superfun! It was really just a minor cold, but lasted a whole week and my lil baby boy has never ever been sick! (He's 16 months, so it was a real bummer to break the streak!)

Anyhoo, we are feeling much better, Daddy's home and I spent all day facebooking my face off and not doing anything for my crafting biz.

Well, not to let down the craftiness of the blog ....my sweet nephew's birthday is next week, and I ordered him the most perfect gift off of etsy! He is turning four, so I looked at so many wonderful things until...Dat Dah Dahh!!! I found it! A magical cape for a Superhero!

http://www.superflykidz.etsy.com/

This shop is obviously a superseller, check it out, OVER 5,000 sales! They knew their market, and I am in it! I got a custom blue cape with a gold lightening bolt and his intital in red. So as a consumer, I feel completely satiated.

That's all for now, I will be back to my usual blogging routine tomorrow, and will come bringing tales of craftiness!

Oh, the great Polyfil Inside Joke!

Allright, I am starting to feel a little punked. I have felt so lucky that right down the road there are both a Joanne's Fabric and a Hancock in the same parking lot. They are big, new, fancy and fully stocked. Unless you need polyfil. I make stuffed robots, stars and skunks. I need polyfil.

Today, I went to the Grand Opening of Joanne's, after missing out on getting Polyfil from the big sale at Hancock, they were out of stock. I was told a week earlier they would have some, but they didn't and you cannot raincheck an out of stock item for the sale. (So, what is a raincheck, then?) I had already been to Joanne's, but they weren't open yet. I picked up a membership card and sale flyers from the table they had set up to greet new customers and get them back for the opening. They opened yesterday!

I am finally going to get my Polyfil, they will surely be fully stocked for their Grand Opening! I grab a sales flyer, YES! 50% off any one item for the Grand Opening Sale-A-Bration! I put on my blinders, (so many aisles, so many fabrics!) and run to the back wall, looking like a crazy pregnant lady at 32 weeks running like a moron! I get to the very well stocked and organized AISLES of Polyfil, batting and pillowforms. Where is the big box? Where Where? They only carry a five pound box. That means I can only use one coupon and come back the next day to use another one. I look at the dates...

The FRIGGIN SALE IS NEXT WEEKEND!!!!!!!! So my "right down the street fortune of craft store placement" (It's 5 1/2 miles) has turned into four 11 mile round trips and counting to get my polyfil. I wonder if you can get a tank of gas refill coupon? I insist on bringing my husband next weekend so we can both get in line and buy a box each with two coupons. I am NOT making 2 more trips! back to the races! Now I will see how many skunks I can get to the stuffing stage before I have Polyfil!

The journey toward becoming the perfect crafter continues...

Yes, I name my crafts

When I am creating a robot or a star or a skunk, even in an assembly line they have their own personality, their own life. The fabrics may seem random, but I feel each piece tells me which ones they want, like a child dressing themselves. I use a pattern I made from paper grocery bags, but the tracing and seam allowance takes on it's own path as well, its as if it were a loose interpretation of the pattern.

Once I get them dressed, it's all about the face. Sewing on the eyes particularly really adds that breath of life, and it is my favorite step. I always freehand the eyes and only cut them one set at a time. This is a slow step, it only takes a sec to sew them on, but this is where I take a moment to appreciate each one like a little newborn I'm going to send out to a loving family. I know, Cheeze Louise, but I'm extra sappy when I'm pregnant.

So the names, where do they come from?

With the Robots, I initially had 60 of them, so as I took pictures of them I stuck little dot tags on them A-Z, AA-whatever, and then named the photos accordingly. I have a book of Sci Fi Baby Names that I recieved from my sister in law when I was pregnant with my first, and I just picked them out alphabetically. They all came from movies or books or tv series, and had a description of the character. I tried to choose ones that fit. Some were boys, some were girls, some were ambiguous and recieved names accordingly. The ones that got into the double letters got double names, with a hyphen, and that gave me a little creative license to mix and match. My favorite was Olivia-Wan.

So then were the stars, and those I chose just by the way they looked, mostly their lips, or the way they held their "arms" or their eye shape. Their faces made it easy. They were like naming your stuffed animals as a kid.

The Skunks took a more interesting and personal twist. Yes, these are the Skunks for Skyla. They are all Albino Skunks in reference of the Albino Skunk Bluegrass Festival, http://www.skunkfest.com/ , and are made for the ASBF founders' grandaughter and Olympic hopeful Skyla Powers http://skylasjourney.blogspot.com/ (competing in Poland this week!) I donate a portion from each skunk directly to her.

The Skunks are all made from canvas, so I named them for their distinctive stripes. I used the same three giant storage boxes of scrap fabrics and goodwill clothes (ALL WASHED!!!) that I used for the pieces of the robots. But each piece of fabric has a unique history of its aquisition. There are the plaids from flannel shirts I used to make myself a modern grunge skirt for my bands cd release party last year. Those fabrics gave birth to Kurt and Eddie. Yeah. They do smell a little like Teen Spirit. (Which is great for a Skunk)

There are the fabrics I recieved from my mother in law, Some hers, Some quilting fabric from her mother. They birthed the two lovely skunks Judy and Blanche, respectively.

There is Wilmington, from a fabric I bought to make pillows when I first graduated college and moved to the beach, I thought it looked sandy. So you see the trend.

Well, above I included a few pics, see if you can guess the skunk with the fabric described. I tried to get some of the robots with their nametag visible for your enjoyment as well.

Thanks for indulging me with the read, naming my crafts really gives you that extra ingredient, listed in my shop item materials as "love." (Yeah yeah, Sap)

Feel free to click to the right on my etsy store to go spy on the items listed, and look at their names, (no purchase necessary, you can peek away, I'll never know it was you!) Feel free to post a comment here or convo me on etsy if you want to know the history behind any of the specific names. Now, if I can only choose a name for this baby that is going to come out of me in 8 weeks, I'll really have something to blog about!

It's Curtains for the Polyfil!

Today I hit Hancock Fabric for their big sale, still needing that elusive giant box of polyfil that they told me two days ago was just coming off the truck. Nope. And I cannot get the sale price on out of stocks. That's ok, because Joanne's Fabric is opening in a few days across the parking lot with their Grand Opening Sale. (this magical place is five minutes down the road from my house!) Since I was already at the fabric store...why not take advantage of the sale?


I bought an off white home decorator fabric with a cool blues botanical print to make curtains for my son's room, I have been working on decorating it since our move. With the new baby on the way, I am trying to really pimp out the nursery because I never did with Lincoln's arrival. We didn't even have a crib until he was three months old!


Of course, I wanted to get some kind of liner to block the light, and even thought the print is cool blues and greens, It is sort of a floral, so I saw exactly what I was looking for at 99c a yard! Burlap! It is dark, and masculine, but perforated enough to let some light through. It seems like it will look good in my head, but we will see when I get it done. Of course, I've never made curtains and have no plan or pattern, I'm just going to wing it. How hard can it be?


I'll post pics once I get them done, but above is a photo of the room right now, after I put up a big tree decal I got on etsy at http://www.bubbaanddoodle.etsy.com/


Happy Labor Day everyone!!!! Anyone else pick up any new projects from the holiday sales or get any new inspirations?

New respect for photographers!

Whew! I spent today doing photo reshoot experiments for my etsy products. I have been on the etsy site doing research on the Storque, in the blogs, convoing with other etsians whose pics I admire, I even got some books at the library. I was ready!

I set up in my bathroom under a heat lamp, the kind they have in hotel rooms that gives a pretty sunlight look. I experimented with different backgrounds and camera settings, but my camera has very few options, it's a digital made for people like me, who don't know how to take pictures, so there really aren't any optional settings, just alot of different scene options, preset. (Y'know, landscape, close up, bright light, snow, beach, children in motion...)

I am not a photographer.

Here are some of my best attempts, I only tried two objects, a star and a robot, so I could get the right look before dragging my whole inventory into it!!!

I used fabric, a towel, and a shag rug under the heat lamp, some with flash, some not. Now if I only knew which settings I used for which pictures?

New Shirt on etsy for the super nerdy baby!

first up, for those who have been following the Skunks for Skyla saga, here is a link to her new blog. GO SKYLA! It was also her bithday yesterday, so a very happy 14 to her!

http://skylasjourney.blogspot.com/

Now back to me! :) I FINALLY got my camera cord in the mail, so armed with the power of a fully charged camera, I set out to redo my etsy photos to make my storefront the mostest! That consisted of doing alot of research on the Storque articles (I did just get the Storque email about this very topic, it would be a waste not to read it!) and then I really wanted to get pics of a tshirt I made so I could post it as a new item. (See photo)

We went on a family walk to get some quality shots, and as soon as I got my star model in the beautiful sunny grassy area, he walked straight up to a giant mound of red ants that swarmed him in less than a second and we ripped off his clothes and shoes. My one year old was miraculously unscathed, but somehow me and Daddy were both bitten about five times each.

I got a few shots, and look forward to another day to work on my other merch, the stars and robots desperately need some TLC, and I have some new Skunks to pic and post as well . I am a really, really crappy photographer, but I take lots of shots, so I get something!

Well, Mommy is soooo sleepy, and I pray that my little man does not awake at 3am again this morning! Good night, and dream of Skunks and robots. I certainly will.

Back to my Skunks!

I sat down to clock in some time with my skunks during Lincoln's forst nap, and lo and behold, the time card does not lie, I had taken 4 days off from sewing! Shock! I did go out of town for 24 hrs. and I was suffering lack of sleep for a few days, but Jeez Louise! Get back to work already!

I am now starting to make record time per skunk, I am an obsessive timer, so that is good, because I am making WAY under minimum wage. I am hoping once I move on to the next assembly line (20 next time) my speed will even out teh per hour manufacture.

More on Skunks for Skyla... My very good friend Skyla Powers is a world champion fencer, and she constantly needs to raise funds to keep going to competitions to keep her ranking. If she misses a meet, that could throw her off the team and dash her chances for the 2012 Olympics. He rtalent is there, this is all about money. She needs to go to Europe every month to compete, and guess what? The athletes also need to pay for their coach to go. She also needs her mother as an adult escort, since she is at the young age of thirteen going on fourteen.

OK OK, long story short, I will do anything I can to help this kid reach her goals. She loves it and is the best in her field. So my meager offering is of course, SKUNKS FOR SKYLA!

Sklya will have a booth at the Albino Skunk Bluegrass Festival (see photo) and I am sending all the Skunks I can make by the festival for her to sell. I am selling them for $15 and she will get $5 per skunk. I will also list them on etsy and donate $5 from each there for Skyla as well. I will surely be blogging more on this topic as the date approaches. Please feel free to comment with any succesful ideas you have all had with fundraising with your crafts or other outlets. I am making some fabric postcards for $1 that people can buy to donate as well. (Who doesn't have ONE dolla?)

That's it for today, I look forward to getting back to Skunk assemblage during nap two today!

Here is the website http://www.albinoskunk.com and a Poster for the Skunk Fest if anyone is interested in going, it is a blast you can camp all weekend, I've been going for 8 yrs. (Missing this year due to impending due date!!!) GO team Skyla! Yeah!

All play and no work!

I haven't gotten anything done, because I went to Atlanta to visit a friend and to go to a VBAC talk with Henci Goer, author of the "Thinking Woman's Guide to Giving Birth"
(try said freind's blog if you are into celiac/gluten free diets or even just want to find some natural foods coupons. http://glutenfreecolleen.blogspot.com )

Well, I did do SOME work, but not the clocked in at the sewing machine kind. I dragged out all of my reciepts (some were found this week during my craft-station reorganization) and balanced my Stars and Robots books. I just had a sale this week, and with that, I am in the black!!! Even though I just bought supplies for my "Skunks for Skyla" line. So even though I am only about 26 dollars in the black, I have inventory out the wazoo, (which is almost like money, right?)
I'll blog more about Skunks for Skyla in the future, please look out for that!

I also left some feedback on etsy, and as you can see, put in a lil time on the blog! I used the drive time to reflect on how I can best divide my time to get the most work done that will translate to sales, meaning profits! I decided I really have to redo some photos on my etsy site, and continue to be active on the etsy boards, facebook, twitter, etc... so people can see me! I feel positive, things are going well. :) Happy babies everyone!

Down to Busy-ness! (Also, Don't Sew Tired!)

Allrighty then, for some inspiration I posted a thread on the etsy forums asking for people to share there blogs and look at mine, so I could get some pointers and see how this Crafter/Blogger lifestyle goes. WOW! I got some overwhelming results! I now have an insanely full dashboard to say the least. I will try to refrain from LIVING online(it's so easy) so I will check in with just a few a day. Glad to know I have some peeps.

Yesterday I did get the ball rolling and go to town on some skunk assemblage, clocked in and all. I only got in a few hrs, but that really beats my usual 45 minute stints when baby gets up from naps. I hope my momentum doesn't go completely in the toilet when #2 comes along in November! I'll just try to get alot done before then. Well, I did great with sewing the stripes on the back, I use a really heavy zig zag stitch, and it sounds like a jackhammer! Luckily I have some really nice sound-blocking headphones on my ipod, and that made ALL the difference! Why didn't I think of that before? I really got cruising along listening to what I thought was the Avett Bros, but really different...What is this? Are they singing about my hometown? Yes! Turns out it was a Ryan Adams I had thought I lost, I had never listened to it, and it was mislabeled. He is from my hometown, we actually went to highschool together, but I didn't know him. It was uncanny how he brought to life the Jacksonville experience. (NC not Florida) had to grow up there to relate! So that was a really weird mind trip on the headphones, and I zipped through all 11 skunk stripes in no time. Here's where my lack of sleep kicked in...

I go to attach the ears and sew the body together. It wasn't making sense, I couldn't do the logic and I had done it easily on my proto-skunk. I knew I wasn't doing it the same way but thought I had outsmarted the system. And turn outside out, NOPE! the ears were sewn to the inside! (You have no idea how hard it is to rip out matching thread from canvas! BLINDING!) So I rip it out, reverse, resew, and "Viola!" they are outside now, but upside down! I decided that this would be Lincoln's skunk. (My one year old) And I quit immediately, vowing never to sew on no sleep again. It took longer to "fix" the ears than to sew on all the stripes!

The rest of my Craft time was online doing Storque article research on etsy. (Invaluable!) and making new blog friends. I am well rested now and I look forward to getting down to busy-ness during nap 2.

Side note, husband had a good idea, I think I will make some vampire/franken robots for Halloween. Maybe even some stars and skunks. Why not? I only have 40 more skunks to make after I finish this batch, then 100 postcards. I can do it...I can do it...

Less action, tired Mommy! Organizing is the Priority

Well, yesterday was the first day I didn't put my nose to the grindstone and "clock in" some hours on the skunk line. I am very tired, as my one year old got up from 1-4 am the other night, and I am catching up with that now. I did however, go to the post office to mail out my etsy sale, and go grocery shopping. I had to go to the post office twice, because my fool proof system failed me, I usually gather my goodies in a paper bag with a post it stuck and paper clipped to the outside with the address. This has worked great, but I sealed my Priority Mail box and had no Post it, just a clip in the bottom of my bag. Woopsie. I am tempted to grab a lot of PM boxes so I can do the packaging at home, but for some reason have not done that yet. Every order is a different size, and I am afraid of stockpiling.

Speaking of clutter, I think it's time to redo my craft situation. I gave myself the excuse to not work on skunks during nap 1 today because I could not get to them. My husband "helped" me move some stuff to vaccuum and boxed in my sewing corner behind heavy boxes. I could move them myself, but just oh so pregnant. The laptop was back there too, but I finally crawled under the dining room table to snatch it. I am going to clock in as soon as I am done with this blog. The whole point of starting this blog was to have a forum to hold myself accountable and really get some work done. I hope to also inspire anyone else to get to it, and hopefully learn a few things from my mistakes and triumphs!

So as far as work goes, I did actually get alot done on etsy yesterday, I posted an item and facebooked it, did some chatboarding, joined a local etsy group, mailed off my sale, and rearranged my craft supplies. Oh, I also decided to lower my skunk prices to 15 at the Skunk Fest to bring in more purchases after email discussing with all parties involved. Five will go to my friend Skyla. ( I need to make a sign, Skunks for Skyla! )They are still going to be 17 on etsy, I always have lower prices in person. I need to figure out the best way to tell people on etsy that 5 from each skunk will help support a world class athlete. I think I need to make some lists to clear my head, I feel a little muddled in thought and list making is my way to streamline my priorities. Blah Blah Blog, Blondie rocks in the background (Heart of Glass, from live concert)Ooooh oooh, Aaaahuh!

Allright then, me and my sleep deprived pregnant brain are going to check out and go clear some skunk making space while nap 2 is still underway....Wish me luck!