Thursday, November 30, 2006

work in progress


Hard at work on some cards for a client.

Then, it'll be on to making xmas cards to send to my friends and family. In the meanwhile, I also have calendar pages to make for a group swap... and the ever present stuff to make for the Etsy shop.

Good thing I'm getting up at 6 A.M. I might need to push back the alarm to 5:45 A.M. because my brain doesn't seem to kick into gear until about 6:20 A.M., so getting those few extra minutes really helps.

This will also require me to reprogramme the coffeemaker so I have coffee ready. It takes about five minutes for the cycle to complete, so if I set alarm clock to 5:45, hit the snooze and sleep for 5 minutes, set coffee to start brewing at 5:50, I should be good to go at 6 A.M. on the dot. Of course, I also should go to sleep at a reasonable hour instead of sitting up watching weather reports. We did not get snow. :(

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

trial and error



An experiment with making a more "doll" like stuffie formed organically as I sewed. I had an idea to add snaps or velcro to the robot's arms after I finished sewing, and since I didn't want to rip seams, I just left them long. This was difficult to sew because both the arms and legs created too much bulk in the body--the one arm shifted too low and the other needed to be a little higher.

I like the head attached to the body, but that was actually backwards--the right-side of the fabric is actually on the inside, now.

So, I will try another robot, but I'm going to experiment with the pattern a bit. Afterall, this robot won't be leaving the house any time soon--it has become N's favorite stuffie. (And he does have preferences for my stuffies; some he's very attached to--like the Halloween experiment he's tucked away somewhere--and some he just doesn't care about.)

Sunday, November 19, 2006

growing pains

The new version of Etsy has been going through some intense bug fixes. Lots of things came out as much needed fixes, and the etsy team seem to be doing all they can to make it right.

I'm still sitting here waiting for an image to upload to their system, which hasn't changed since their beta. But for $0.20 listing fee, I'm not that upset to be made to wait. I'm unconvinced the bugs are preventing customers from buying my stuffies and cards despite some of the voices of doom.

I finally tacked up some business cards at the local Whole Foods community board, which is tucked away by the restrooms. I think I should make up some larger postcards with images of the stuffies in a holiday scene and use those for attention getting promos. I printed and cut the business cards myself, so the stock isn't the highest quality and the images could probably use some more photoshopping, but I haven't yet decided whether or not to order actual REAL offset printed cards from the 'net.

I procrastinate about these sorts of things, but the deal on overnightprints.com is about $10 for 100 cards plus shipping (which I couldn't determine without going through the whole process up till checkout). A couple of people on etsy have used them and report nice things, so I might check them out.



Meet a Snugglie, my newest line for the very young or the just the young at heart. Once etsy lets me in, you'll be able to see the others. These are fun to make and I might just make one in every color I own.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

new stuffies!



Meet Cutie Pie, also known as CP. She's just one of three new stuffies up at the shop.