3,000 Squares, Oh My!

First off, I'd like to remind anyone that's interested, my magnet sets are marked down to $5 for all of December! They make a great stocking stuffer!

Now moving on... :)

I am officially insane. This has been confirmed by many of my close personal friends over the years, and again today by a few members of the Twitter community. I spent a good 5 hours of my day today cutting, cutting, cutting. 3,000 squares -- without a rotary cutter! I cherish my razor-edged titanium scissors my step-dad bought for me. Without them this wouldn't be possible and I'd have to go out and spend the $12 on a rotary cutter. I know, I should anyway.

I used up the last bits of many of my fabrics, and broke into a few I've been avoiding cutting. I'm weird like that with fabric. A lot of people have asked me if I will have quilts available in my shop. The answer is finally YES! I would've earlier, but I've loved them all so much that I kept them all for myself. I even have quilts set aside for babies I haven't even had yet. And babies I will never have, since I'm only enduring the madness of pregnancy once more. I've gifted quilts to lots of the new soon-to-come babies in my life, and now it's time for me to share with the Etsy community. So keep your eyes peeled, they're coming soon!

I blogged earlier about the Fashion Show at The Strutt. A few people have asked me how it went. Long story short - there's a reason I work alone. The girls I was working with on it are great people, so sweet! However, the details were fuzzy on tons of things and come last Tuesday I realized that in order to show a cohesive group of clothing, I was out. My stuff is wild and colorful. The group was pretty, but mild. Simple shapes, common colors, very mellow in comparison. So I backed out. I still set up a table at the show and hoped for the best.

Once I arrived I realized what a giant clusterfuck I was involved in. One group was the mild and mellow. The other collection being shown was out-there. Not my style of crazy, but gorgeous! Neither were handmade. These 2 collections mish-mashed together was NOT cohesive. If someone would've informed me of what the hell was going on (and believe me, I asked numerous times), I would've just found my own models, put my own clothes on them, and actually been in the show! I was also told that no one under 21 was allowed in the bar it was at. Then saw 15 year old models. I have a huge group of 13 year olds that would have absolutely LOVED to spend their Friday night modelling for my show. And every one of their tiny butts would've fit in the Ninja Pants I had already made. For a fleeting moment I thought of calling their moms and begging to borrow their children. It could have been done. If things were more organized and I had had some sort of clue what was happening, it really could've paid off big time. It's unfortunate things turned out the way they did.

Important Lesson Learned -- Don't say Yes so quickly. Get more info.

In the end, it was a riot though. We all had a good time, and I met some other amazing artists. I had fun and keep trying not to remind myself how much more fun it would've been had I had my things on a runway. I was just so excited for it. Won't do it again under the same circumstances.

I was all set for the Bizarre Bazaar on Sunday at my favorite bar, Bell's Brewery too. I was supposed to share a table with someone. I asked her how much space we had and was told "oh there's lots of room!" and spent Saturday night making new signage, organizing, and collecting all my show goodies that I haven't pulled out in a while. Got my car all loaded up, got my Mom to babysit, and I was on my way! Fast forward to Bell's. My "table" was more like a nightstand. 3'x4'.... seriously?! That's it? Really? For a 7 hour show you want me to put out 5% of my product? Uh no. Quick call to Mom to catch her before she zooms out of town and I'm out of that show too. Why do I bother? *sigh*

I did take something from all of this. I learned not to mix wine, tequila, and bloody marys if you don't want to have a horrendous Saturday morning. And I also decided to set back from the shows and get to work on my wholesale terms. I've had tons of people ask me for wholesale in the past, and I didn't have my terms together. So nows the time. I need to get more of my items into stores. That is my mission, so stay tuned, hopefully I have much success!