Happy New Year!

New Year is far from my favorite holiday. For one thing, it means the Christmas season is over and my mom has to go back home to Florida and we have to relearn parenting without huge amounts of help. For another, now that I have kids, it seems kind of bittersweet. Like another year in our lives together is behind us. I truly do look forward to the coming years with them, New Year just kind of throws it in your face that they are growing up.

So you wanna know what kind of exciting adventures I got into last night? Well, you're going to be disappointed. Even in the days in the distant past (well, like 8 or so years ago when I did the college thing) I never got into New Year's shenanigans. Guess I'm boring. And now I've seen the ball drop enough times in my life that I didn't even watch it last night. I sewed this new outfit (loooooove it, pictures to follow) and then came upstairs to realize sweet girl was coughing an awful lot. And so here starts the sickness phase again. Just as the third child is getting over his or her cold, and you think you are due a stretch of healthiness, the first child gets another cold. I.despise.winter. Toooootaallly.

So here's the one I was working on. I am committed to not buying fabric until I weed through what I've got, which is hard because I suffer fabric boredom. Just when I think it's time to whip out that Paypal account because I am just not inspired anymore, I dig through my cabinets and find some fabulous combination that I didn't realize I had. Cute boy one coming up today too, maybe.

Resoutions - Business Style

So, I have the typical resolutions in my personal life...get healthy; aka. stop being lazy because it's too cold out (remember I spent the first 24 years of my life in south Florida, the last 4 in Virginia, a "southern" state. I realize many places are far colder, but here we spend 4 months in the 30s or lower. Not. Good. I liked when it was "freezing" in the 60s in South Florida) and start running again. I *swear* I was being good about this when the weather was mild. I do live within 10 minutes to an entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mountains. The backside of my neighborhood lets out onto a ridge, and when I first moved here (from South Florida, only saying that again so you relize I lived in COMPLETE flatlands before moving here) I literally couldn't even walk around the circle of my neighborhood. So, for me to have been running the last few months is a major deal to me. With twin 2 year olds in a massive double stroller, no less. I hate running. Got cold out, lost motivation, enough said.

Anyway, been eating like it's Christmas and not running. SERIOUSLY ready for a good workout, so I might suck it up and bundle myself and the 2 non-school age kids up and start running again. And ignore the whining of said 2 year olds who also hate the cold and complain a LOT. Or maybe it's a normal amount of whining but just seems like a lot because there are 2 of them. ****Life is more annoying when you have multiple 2 year olds*****

BUSINESS RESOLUTIONS!!!!!!!
The point of my post, so I'll stop with the other stuff.

1) GET ORGANIZED, for goodness sake! I literally have 3 different calendars for organizing myself and still forget to fill them out. Maybe this year I will find that *perfect* organizer including all aspects of my life to use this year. And maybe it will cost so much money that I will have no choice but to use it, for fear of wasting hard earned money. ***Note to self:: Google search a mommy/business organizer and sort by the MOST expensive first (always wondered why that was even an option). This will likely force me to use it***

2) Every morning, spend 10 minutes cleaning the sewing room from the night before. Typically, I sew until midnight or later, at which point I decide I am about to pass out from tiredness and barely brush my teeth and fall into bed in the clothes I am wearing. Luckily, I am a morning showerer. Taking a shower in the morning - before your husband leaves - buys you 10 minutes of alone time. So, so, so worth it. Somehow makes it better that you went to bed at 2:30, and your kids wake up at 6:30 in the throws of extremely loud and hyper behavior (SUCKS!). So, the room typically builds up into such a state of disorganization that when it becomes mandatory that you clean it (or risk losing all of your scissors in a pile of fabric scraps), it takes a whole night to do. Cutting back on sewing time. Also?? That gives you ANOTHER 10 minutes to yourself in the morning. Take a shower and then clean the sewing room = 20 minutes of almost quiet time (cause generally you can still hear the kids screaming and running in the shower AND downstairs in the sewing room. But you can choose to ignore it because you are "busy"). My kids are awesome!! And best served after 8:00 in the morning :))

3) Use up all the fabric erupting out of my cabinets and onto all surfaces of my beautiful, husband-created, workroom. Good lord, I love fabric. So much. And it shows in this space. Time to get busy with the stuff I have already picked out and not drool over the stuff that I don't own yet. I love fabric. Did I mention I love fabric? **Another note to self: look into a 12 step program for fabric addictions**

4) Make beautiful stuff and take beautiful pictures of it. Have already conquered the first and am working on the latter ;)

5) Make lots of happy customers!!! Thank you all so much!

Merry Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas. And yet, I am one of those people who start dreading Christmas being over before it is even here. So, here we are - the depressing day after Christmas, when all my previously fun and festive holiday decor now looks messy and stresses me out and I want to put it away and just look forward to next Christmas. I do also have 3 really littles, and hence lots of new toys and tiny pieces of shredded present wrappings all over the place. I am still in that place where putting away their new goods really means Christmas is over, so I haven't done it yet. It's coming, a massive reorg of their closets to fit all this new stuff. We didn't even go overboard (I mean, Santa didn't - I am lucky I still have 3 gullible toddlers/preschooler or I would have been caught in a lie probably 27 times this year), but when you have 2 pair of spoiling grandparents added to Santa's pressies, it turns out to be a lot! Luckily, I have been slowly doing a massive toy purge over the last few months, and they don't have a whole lot outside of the new stuff. The twins are in the phase of leaving baby toys behind and moving on to big kid stuff *sob*. Anyway, this is good, because disorganization and clutter hurts my mental piece of mind. (and I am NOT normally an organized person - 3 small kids will make you that way).

So, kids are napping, company is watching a movie, and I came down to my little basement hideaway to get some sewing done. Christmas is over, time to look forward to new designs and fabrics!!!!

Sneak Peek!

Had SO much fun breaking into all my glorious new bolts of fabric today and creating with it. And had fun realizing that my little girl is a lot easier to work with for pictures! No more crawling away, no more screaming at me, no more wandering off. My tactic of, "hey! Look over there! It's something amazing!" actually worked. She'll wisen up again though :)

Today I also got 5 dresses/outfits cut out and will be ready to bang out some orders tonight - and maybe sneak in more more item for my Fall/Winter line. Probably a boy thing, I have so many ideas that I need to make into reality.

Today I ALSO found myself annoyed at my poor children for asking for drinks. But it's like a wash, rinse, repeat kind of cycle that could go on all day. And then when I realized my head hurt and I had eye fuzzies (do you ever get those white dancey things in your vision??) that I had absolutely NOTHING to drink since my morning cup of coffee. This realization occurred just as I was refilling the 20th sippy cup of the day and so I chugged my own sippy cup of water. With three kids, you kinda need to do everything at once so you get a break. Like with dinner...I don't serve any food until I have all food, drink, and utensils on their high chair trays. If not, the second I sit down to take a bite (or wash dishes) someone says, "more dis" or "down!" or "dink!!". Well, they do that anyway, it just buys me 2 minutes of stuffing my face and "enjoying" my food (wait, what did I just eat?)

Color Pallette

I've had to go back to the drawing board a few times on my fabric choices, but that's okay because I love nothing better than looking at fabric!!!

So, here's what my shop will look like when I stock it back up in September:









Yummy chocolates, peaches, greens, blues, ORANGE! My faves. Can't wait to get this stuff :)

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Some of you might have noticed that my shop is pretty empty. This has been a big decision for me, and it's based on several different things.

1) I have decided to create "lines" in my business. My first line, Fall/Winter 2010, will debut in September 2010. This will limit the choices a lot as far as fabric color but I am pouring over all my options to pick the most amazing color and design schemes that I think will appeal to everyone. It will create a more put together look for my shop/name and I think is altogether more professional and easier to maintain.

2) I realize that 2-3 weeks is a long time to wait for something, coming from someone who believes immensely in instant gratification :) However, when you consider the time and energy that is put into making an article of clothing from a bolt of fabric into something made specifically for one very special little girl or boy, it's really not a lot of time. And I am on the verge of having to bump my turnaround time up to 4-5 weeks, and I really don't want to go there. But my "timeframe" has become something I think about constantly. In fact, I dreamt about it the other night. It reminds me of when I was a waitress in college and on busy nights when you would get triple or quadruple sat and could hardly keep up - and would then go home and dream about serving chicken wings and beer all night. No rest for the weary ;) I am "in the weeds" my friends. So it's time to catch up, get organized, and find different ways to maximize my resources. In the meantime (until my Fall/Winter line debut) I will be adding things periodically in one of a kind sizes. I do, afterall, have massive amounts of gorgeous fabric that needs to make way for the new stuff! I will be a busy bee making new products, and making many of them to allow for a shorter turnaround time. I am VERY excited about Fall/Winter 2010!

3) I am a candidate for one of these reality TV shows about organization. Don't think "hoarders". I am NOT a hoarder. I am generally a purger. Except when it comes to fabric. So, I need some down time to make use of the 7 foot tall cabinet I have full of different fabric. I absolutely cannot wait to go picking through there and come up with some new things. Also? I have two friends about to have babies and I need to get cracking on some baby projects! Crib sheets/skirt, nursing cover, big brother shirts, and CLOTH DIAPERS!! I have a love hate relationship with cloth diapering and my twins (currently *love*), but overall really think it's a great thing and I am very excited to try my hands at some diapers for tiny baby Ari.

Anyway, just thought I should mention the sudden departure of PRODUCTS from my store!! I already have a one-of-a-kind knot dress to list. Trying to decide if it should be called Sugar and Spice or Cotton Candy. It's that sweet.

Giveaways for my Facebook Fans!

(I realize I neglect my poor blog. Vacation coming up means more time for Internet funsies!)

When I first started selling products online, I had a shop on eBay and I strictly sold embroidered T-shirts, onesies, blankets, etc. I am a self-proclaimed "craft-it-all". Meaning, I have turned into my mother :) She used to tell me "oh, I can make that" to anything and everything. And she literally could...I am sure I get alot of my skillz from her, but she's even more broad in her talents. She paints, draws, sculpts, sews, crochets, knits, and is absolutely talented on a scroll saw.

I have pretty much always known how to use a sewing machine but admit I never had much fun with it until I had a baby girl to act as my muse. I can't draw, paint, or use a saw. I have tried knitting and crocheting, but I am simply not patient enough for that. But, when I see something made out of fabric, my thoughts are always, "I can make that". Totally unrelated, but my husband is the same way. Because he thinks we have more time than money (not true, 3 under 4 makes for precious little time), we have about 2 pages worth of household projects waiting to be done. And, bless his heart, he can do anything. But then he has to deal with the wrath of a wife who doesn't want to be the car/basement/water softener/insert project here-widow. It's a lose-lose situation :)

Anyway, all this to say that I prefer to make my own clothes now than order blank shirts and embroider them. I'm sticking to the basics - white T-shirts and onesies are the only thing I stock anymore. But I have TRIED AND TRIED for years to get rid of the stuff that I do have. It bugs me to have my humongous storage cabinet full of stuff that I don't even sell, when I could be stacking my beautiful bolts of fabric in there.

So, I had the BRILLIANT idea to start some giveaways for my facebook fans. A little reward. Starting tonight I will be doing random giveaways of one of the items (blue/pink T-shirts, T-shirt dresses, bloomers) I am trying to destash. I will pick the item and announce on my facebook page the steps required to win it. The winner will simply have to pay postage and will receive their very own cust om embroidered clothing (for kids, of course). Here's a link in case you aren't already a fan:
http://www.facebook.com/leaveyouinstitches
The first random giveaway will be tonight! Stay tuned!!