Cutilize... My Mountain Girl... My New Baby

I got my business cards and magnets in yesterday. Yay!! I thought the background color was going to be pink, but it's more of a coral color. Oh well, it's still cute. To my friends reading (because I know you're out there :-) ) if you want me to mail you some cards to spread around and chat about my soon-to-come goodies let me know and I'll put some in an envelope and send them.

I've been working on my new idea. I'm calling it 'Cutilize'... no, not like 'Cut-ilize'... like 'Cute-ilize'. I thought about going with 'Cuteilize'... but that goes against the whole "i before e except after c". More and more things keep coming to mind. In addition to the new thing, I've decided to still do clothing. I just love it too much. I get too much personal satisfaction out of it. I am going to set aside a certain amount of time per week to work on my shop and custom orders. As for promoting.... it's going to be limited because that was a BIG time consuming task. I'm just going to try to list every day or two. The new thing, that'll be a ship-upon-payment type thing. The clothing... I'm going to try to do some ship-upon-payment things that are flexible on sizing.

I added some new pics to my flickr yesterday... check it out...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaytiebugs/

Here are a few shots of my new baby... I still haven't used it yet. Also, a few shots from my moms this past weekend. Her house is in such a beautiful area. Kaytlin loves riding too. The horse is old and she's the only one who rides it. These look better on Flickr, by the way.

My new toy

My grandmother gave me her 1960's Singer Touch & Sew 600E a while back, before she passed, but I never had any way to transport it to my house. I finally brought it home from my mothersh house yesterday and I'm so excited!!! I spent all night last night reading the manual front to back, examining all of the stuff that came with it.... 7-8 feet, 17 "special discs", and all kinds of doo-dads that I still can't figure out what they are.

I must say... we have it MADE these days. If we want to change stitches we simply turn a dial OR press a button OR slide a knob (or something similar.... one simple action). To change the stitch on this, you must select your stitch pattern, and select if you want to sew it to the left right or center, and select your stitch width, AND your stitch length, and some of them require you to adjust the tension. Holy moly!!! Well worth it though. I can't wait to use my new baby.

I'm particularly excited about two of the feet (if they actually do what they're supposed to). The hemmer foot and the binding foot. The hemmer foot, you just tuck the fabric through this little swirly thing and it continues the hem through the whole length of the fabric (no more folding, pinning, and pressing). The binding foot, it has this cone thing you slip either pre fold bias tape or tape you've made and there's a slit you put the fabric in.... voila no pinning, no being sure whether or not you're catching both sides, the foot does all the work for you... IF it works.

Okay, enough about my new baby. I'll post pics next time.

We had a nice memorial day. We went to my moms Saturday and came home yesterday evening. It was very peaceful and relaxing, but by yesterday afternoon I was VERY ready to get back to "the city" lol. My mom lives in the Georgia mountains. I don't see how people can stand living in the middle of nowhere. It seemed like everything was in slow motion. Everyone drives slow, days go by slow, service at the restaurant is slow, and even folks at the grocery store were walking slow.

Still working on my new idea. I've made a bit of it for myself and I'm really enjoying it. Some things still need work, some things I haven't even begun to try.... but that's because I'm still on a break. Hubby seems to be under the impression that I'll be going back to making kids clothes once I decide to start back. I really want to. I'm really passionate about it. I think I'm probably going to, but it's not going to be the same. I'll be paying myself FAIRLY. I've also got a few ideas up my sleeve for clothing. I ordered the supplies needed, they're on the way. I'm super excited. Again.... my hobby ADD is getting the best of me. At least it's just a spin on something I already have the stuff for versus a whole new hobby. I've got tons of hairbow stuff and I've made a grand total of one hairbow and bow flops to match. Wait, I have made a couple of button style clips but I'm referring to the stack of ribbon, dowels, etc. that's now collecting dust. I kinda knew that would happen though... I'm bad about that kinda thing.

Here's a pic of the sewing machine I got. This isn't mine though, I just want to go ahead and share it with you all though. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to use it!!!

I'm closing for a little while...

I'm still going to blog, flickr, etc. but I've decided to take a break from sewing. I didn't realize the work that went into managing an online shop. It's a lot more than sew some goodies, take pics, post a listing, and sew another one when it sells. It's constant marketing and promoting, answering zillions of messages with only about half ending in purchases, and so much more. It's a LOT of work and can be a little inconvenient. For example... I'm working on a huge custom order (and I'm really excited about it). However, throw in Mothers Day, my wedding annviersary, and a 5 day spell of food poisoning and BAM sewing a big custom order is all of a sudden not so awesome anymore.

I've decided that when I open back up, it's going to go more like this..... I'm going to make things at my own pace and only make items that can be shipped right after they are ordered. I really enjoyed making clothing, but quite frankly it's a TON of work with a profit that leaves me feeling like I work in a Chinese sweat shop.

I mean no offense to anyone who has purchased from me. I've set my own prices and unfortunately my experience level, lack of established clientele, along with folks charging next to nothing for similar items has left me no choice but to price low.

Anywho.... on to more exciting things. When I open back up, it's going to be pretty different. I've thought of something all on my own that has NOT been done. I've got a whole line of goodies I'm going to do that all work together. I don't want to say what it is, because honestly no one has thought of this yet... but I'll give ya a hint - it's got to do with sprucing up a VERY DULL area that not many women truly enjoy being in. Nope, it's not the laundry room... that's all you get for now.

I feel relieved to be done with custom clothing. I REALLY REALLY like doing it, but it's really tough. Plus I'm always nervous that it won't fit right. I've had no complaints yet, but maybe people are just being nice.... or maybe I just haven't jacked anything up yet. I'm still going to make lots of handmade goodness for my daughter. You'll probably be seeing more of the custom boutique style clothing.

I'm really excited about Sandi Henderson's new fabric line. Click over to her from my links section. It's gorgeous.

I modeled :-P

I modeled these for pink*marshmallow. I'll be doing more. Watch out Heidi and Gisele! lol
It is a super comfortable set. Very figure flattering too. See the listing for more pics, these are just my faves. I was going for the "deep in thought" look lol. I promise to smile more next time. Kaytlin received a big package of hair accessories and a hat to model for a fellow etsian. I'm really excited. We used one of them yesterday and they managed to stay in her hair for a good 4 hours of running around outside. Thus far, I'm impressed. Not only are they functional and sturdy, but they're cute!! Anywho... here's the photos. They aren't as grainy in the listing, not sure why they are here.

Tutorial: The Newbie's Guide to Buying on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/


No matter if you’re in a shop, the forums, etc, you’ll always see the same info up at the top. Click ‘Register’.


Fill out a little info… It’s not a lot, I promise.


Now you’re ready to shop!! After registering, you will be prompted to check your email. Etsy will send you a verification email and you will need to click the link inside it to complete your registration.

You can use your browsers back button to get back to the shop you were in.

So you’ve spotted something you love in a shop. What now?



Click on the item. You’ll see all the wonderful details and photos of it. Click ‘ADD TO CART’




Then click ‘CHECK OUT’



The rest is pretty self explanatory… I can’t actually click check out because this is just an example, I’m not actually purchasing this item. From the checkout screen, you will select your method of payment. If you choose to pay using paypal, it will take you over to the paypal site to complete your transaction.

Etsy is a wonderful site. I am a big supporter of all things handmade. It will probably take you less time to register on Etsy than it did for you to read this tutorial. Now go shopping!!

Serious destashitation... blog readers get discount... ~ETSY BUYER TUTORIAL~

I finally took some time to organize my hoard. I had random bags of fabric scattered about the house and I finally decided I needed to organize it and get rid of some stuff. I've got waaay too much fabric that I bought for something but either didn't use it all or decided to use something else. Plus I'm a major scrap saver and I have accumulated like 6 grocery store bags crammed slap full of scraps.... AND I've got trims and ribbons that I'll never use. I like to buy things with a plan in mind, because whenever I buy something because it's on sale or because it just catches my eye, I never use it. That's what the majority of the ribbons and trims are. Anywho, lets get to the point.

Blog readers get 15% off. See directions below. All of my destash goodness is in my etsy shop (or will be, there's a LOT so it's going to take some time, I've gotten three items listed as of right now and there will be tons more). I know some folks aren't familiar with etsy, but this'll be a great way to GET FAMILIAR! :-). I need the feedback... so help a sister out, will ya? I'm doing some things as PIF (pay it forward... which means free but with the requirement of doing something nice for someone else in return... most etsians just sell something for free in return).

New to etsy??? Here's the procedure.... you sign up and create a user name and password, you go to my shop, open the items and look at them, if you see something you like you click "ADD TO CART" on the right hand side. The smaller pics are clickable and will become larger if you click them. You can go back to see all of the listings by either hitting your browser back button or by clicking 'Shop' under the 'seller info' section on your right. If you find something you would like to purchase (and you've already signed up for etsy, have a user name and password, and have signed in), you click "ADD TO CART". When you're finished shopping click the Cart at the top left of the page (feel free to check out other shops on etsy by searching for keywords or click the 'cafemom etsy moms' blog link on the left side in the links section of my blog... lots of other great etsy sellers there), I won't get mad I promise :-)). Click the big green "CHECK OUT" button on the right. Select your payment method (I prefer paypal, if you need to know how to use paypal please email me at kaytiebugs@yahoo.com). If you choose paypal, it'll automatically shoot you over to paypal and all you'll have to do is select your payment method and click pay! I'll be sent your address and everything. The only other thing is if you order clothing you need to enter the requested measurements in the notes to seller section of the etsy checkout area. Hope I didn't make it sound too confusing. ***To receive 15% off, don't pay right then, go ahead and check out, I'll send you a revised paypal invoice for the correct amount***

Here are some of the destashed goodies I'll be putting in my etsy shop...

Living Vicariously

Deep inside me lies a hippie wanting to break free... wanting to wear really flowy clothes, long natural colored hair, liberal views, an organic vegetable garden, nose ring, college degree in something really "useless", and a bunch of really mellow acoustic music (which I already have a lot of) etc.

Beside the hippie is this goth-y person who wants to wear up to the knee boots with 6" heels, lots of shiny pleather clothes, black hair with pink highlights, a lip ring (and some other rings that aren't really for others to see lol), a CD book full of metal music (which I already have a lot of), and that "I DON'T GIVE A CRAP WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT ME!!" attitude.

But unfortunately neither are really who I am on the outside (or on the inside very often... if I had to pick one I'd pick hippie)... so I just clicky clicky all around flickr.

Just wanted to share.

Still wondering who those top six are :-)