Running the length of a football field

I'm a little like a bear getting ready for a long winter...except instead of hoarding food, I'm hoarding fabric. Craft show season is winding down and my fabric stash is looking more like a pile of scraps. It was time to replenish. Over the past two or three weeks I've aquired a few pretties, and my washer has been working overtime to get them prepped for sewing.

And before you think I'm a crazy hoarder lady, I do have plans for all of these!



Flannel! Four yards of each design. I found two more prints in another bag after I snapped this picture, but that's not important. Joann Fabric put their flannel on sale for $1.49 a yard on Black Friday, and I was ready for it!



Canvas for bags.



Cute boy fabric is so hard to find! These will become bibs... more on that later this week!


YAY! I finally snagged these yummy Joel Dewberry prints I've been lusting over. I stocked up and ordered four yards of each.


For a special order :)



It's back! Amy Butler is reprinting some of her fabrics, and I'm thrilled! I ordered two yards of this one, and I need to pick up the coordinating red dots.



Loving Moda's sock monkeys.



Also loving this yummy black and yellow damask.



And these lovely lovely birds.



How stinking cute are these coordinating prints? I can not wait to cut into them!



Love.



Love love. You know I love birds by now, right?



Yum.

In case you were wondering, all this (plus a few boring fabrics, like chenille, terrycloth, and solid colored flannels) brings my yardage total over the past few weeks to just over 120 yards.

It's going to be a long, wonderful winter :) Here's hoping for MANY snow days!

Holiday Crafts and Confections

This is sure to be a YUMMY event! Etsy Team Columbus is pairing up with Sugar Inc. and preparing the sweetest craft show you've ever feasted your eyes upon.

I'll be there! Stop by and see me for a sneak peek at the new products you can expect to see from Mada's Place in 2010. I'm really excited, and you should be too!

COme on over to Sugar Inc on December 12th from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Sugar Inc. is located in Old Dublin at 36 N. High Street. There's parking behind the building!

Interview with Bella Mia Bows & Things

Today's interview with Bella Mia Bows & Things really makes me wish I had a little girl! Ready to find out more? Read on...

How would you sum up your shop in five words or less? Handmade fun and affordable items!

Fun for sure! You have some really cute items. Where do you find your inspiration?
Most of my inspiration comes from my daughter. I usually make all bows and clips with her in mind. It makes sense since I started making the clips for her, and it just grew from there. I generally don't list anything unless I would have my daughter wear it with pride...so all products are made with the same love and quality I would put on my own daughter.

The quality shows! What are your favorite materials to work with?
My favorite materials to work with are fun printed ribbons, specifically 3/8" ribbon. I love creating clippies that can be used everyday, both by children and adults. I have also developed an unhealthy addiction to creating scrabble tile pendants...and so I love working with patterned papers, scrabble tiles, and glaze!



I wouldn't know anything about addictions to materials. (hee!) Where do you hope to be a year from now?
I would love to be where I am at now, maybe just reaching a bigger audience. Being a stay at home mom to a toddler, I find sometimes it is easy to lose yourself in children's songs, cartoons, planning menus, food shopping, cleaning, etc. Crafting, to me anyway, is a time to recapture a bit of myself and step away from the mom/wife role and enjoy me as me. I think as a woman, we tend to wear alot of hats, and sometimes forget that beneath those responsibilities is a person who maybe once enjoyed different things. I love being a mom and a wife and both roles bring great joy to me, but I also love being creative and having an outlet for that creativity that maybe can't be exercised when I'm running after a toddler or putting dinner on the stove. So in a year, I hope that I am still finding the time and energy to put a little bit of me in every creation I sell to someone else (and maybe making a little more money doing it! lol)

SO TRUE! While you are sharing your words of wisdom, do you mind sharing advice you wished you had known when you were just starting out on Etsy?
Marketing is the key! When I first began Etsy, I listed a few items and sat back and waited for the sales to come POURING in. They didn't...lol. Instead, I realized that just like a brick and mortar store, a store on Etsy takes commitment and work. I began advertising my site, created a Facebook fan page, started hanging out in the Etsy chat rooms, and probably most importantly, upon the advice of another vendor/Nestie, I joined the Knotties and Nesties on Etsy team! It was through all of these things that my sales started happening. I learned new tricks of the trade, spoke to others, and saw that word of mouth has to start with someone and not just a listing. Etsy does not do the work for you...you do the work for you!
So true! So very true! Her clippies would make GREAT stocking stuffers! Be sure to check her out!

Busy Busy Busy!

Totally slacking on the updates lately! There's a lot going on around here, but I promise to update you soon. Right now I'm trying to get a plethora of orders into the mail, but here's what you'll be hearing about within the next few days:

-A new interview with another talented KNET team member.
-A couple of scentsasional products I've been working on.
-A sneak peek at a custom order I'm so excited about.
-and a sneak peek at the 60+ yards of new fabric I've recieved within the last two weeks. It's so yummy!

Hope everyone had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving with much to be thankful for!

Shutter Up

A neighbor recently installed new shutters and left their old shutters out on the curb for trash collection. I'm a bit of a packrat, so I asked my husband to snag them for me. I used a bit of leftover spraypaint to spruce them up, and now they make the perfect message board in my sewing room. Clothespins are used to clip swatches, posters, lists, and other inspirational items to the slats.

Interview with Four Harp Designs

Just in time for the holidays, this second interview is with Jan of Four Harp Designs. She's a member of KNET Etsy Team as well!

How would you sum up your shop in five words or less?
Unique custom creations.

Why did you get involved with Etsy?
Shortly before my second son was born, I went into hyper nesting mode. No joke... I made 20 DOZEN batches of cookies two days before he was born. My nesting included the 'need' to create a birth announcement for him. I had so much fun doing it that I just kept creating. I turned to Etsy where there was a market for custom photo cards (and other items I like to create, like burp rags).

What are your favorite materials to work with?
Right now it's all digital. But as I look to expand my shop, I'm focusing on recycled materials, organic cloths, etc.



Sounds awesome! Where do you find your inspiration?
I always keep my eyes out for designs around me that might make a unique photo card. In fact, my Duo Birth Announcement was inspired by the back of a delivery truck I was driving behind one day! Most of my designs are the product of playing around until I find a little something I like and then I build from there.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Get involved in an Etsy team. Thanks to Steph, I was introduced to Etsy teams and it has opened up a world of support. I have learned so much that I didn't know about selling on Etsy. Another good starting point? Steph again: Etsy Tools You Need.



I swear I didn't pay her to say that! What can we expect to see next from you?
Party invitations, the return of my burp rags detailed in ribbon and buttons, and maybe even some printed notecards.

I'll keep my eyes peeled! In case you were wonder, Jan loves to do custom work and will do everything she can to come up with just the look you want for your special occassions. Thanks, Jan!

Finally! Functional ribbon storage!

I have a confession to make.

I'm not a clean-up-as-you-go person. Nope. I will admit it. I am a drop-it-and-leave-it-for-later person. I would venture to guess this is probably coded in my DNA somewhere.

Anyhow, this is a pretty terrible thing for my sewing room. It means that things tend to pile up and accumulate in my frenzy to get.things.done.

Now that Tiny Canary is over, I'm taking a slow week to restock and reorganize. The first item on my list: ribbon storage. It's one of the things that frustrates me most! The pretty storage cabinet above my cutting table featured two dowels to store spools of ribbon on, but I quickly discovered it wasn't serving my needs. It wasn't easy to remove just one spool without taking all of them off the rack.



I loved this Clip It Up organizer from Simply Renee, but I would need at least two or three... and at $80 MSRP each, that just wasn't an option.




I found a better alternative! These pantry organization racks by Closetmaid are around $10 each at Home Depot.



I pinned the ends of my ribbon to their spools to keep things looking neat, but you could easily let the tails hand between the wire for easy measuring right on the rack. It's easy for me to take just the spool I need.



No more dowels to deal with. No more lose ends. No more boxes to rummage through. I can see exactly what I have at a glance. And one glance tells me I need to indulge in a little ribbon shopping!