A walk down memory lane.

The 2009 Shows have started. I had my first show of the year last weekend. Hence the delay in posts. Anyone who knows me well will tell you I become a crazy lady right before a show. I never feel organized enough and I always question if I am bringing enough of this product or are these the right designs for this show...its goes on and on. I am getting better. This year I had it all organized and packed in one week...it used to take me a full month or longer. I thought it would be fun to take a quick walk down memory lane and share some of my photos of Snuggle Time Embroidery's shows over the last few years.

I decided to try Craft Fairs in the Spring of 2005. Having never really been a Craft Fair person I just jumped in head first. I picked one of the largest in my area for my first show (big mistake). I will never forget arriving the night before for setup. People were there with trailers full of their products. These professional crafters had very expensive and professional booth setups. Then there was me. My heart dropped I knew I was in trouble since I had my little 9' tent, a table and clothes line. At the time I had maybe 2 boxes of stuff to sell. I ran home and made my Mother and Sister stay up till 4 am as I stitched like a mad women. They rolled blankets, price tagged everyone and told me it was going to be fine. I ended up having 6 boxes of blankets and apparel to sell.
The photo on the left shows the shelf unit I grabbed from my sisters room to put my product "Bib in a Bottle" I thought it was a neat idea I would stitch a bib and stick it into a bottle. To finish it off I tied a pretty ribbon around the top. They did ok, but they just were not the hit I thought they would be. I no longer make them.
The photo on the right shows my old layout. I actually rolled each one of my fleece blankets and laid them on the table. I had every color that was available in each design on the table. Then I had tied a clothes line around the tent posts and had the apparel and tote bags hanging. What a disaster! Customers couldn't reach the apparel and totes, so they would have to ask...which no one likes doing. Not to mention if anyone grabbed one blanket the rest of the blankets would fall off the table. The worst part about this show was I had stayed up so late that I was falling asleep during the day and unable to think clearly when people had questions. My sister did most of the sales that day. I have not done that show since 2005. I stick to some of the medium sized fairs with reasonable entry fees. This one cost me $250 just in booth space alone!
One good thing about the fairs in 2005. At one of my Fall fairs my husband and I had our second date. He came to the show to give me a hand. It was only our second time meeting, but I put him to work!

In 2006 I was engaged and planning to marry Josh that fall. We didn't do as many shows this year because of the wedding, but the few we did Josh was helping me with the set up. He knew the fleece blankets falling off the table were hard to shop and a big problem. We brained stormed and came up with this:

We used these wire bins. Each fleece design got its own bin and then all the colors it was available in was stored in that bin. I had little stitch outs of each design tied to the front. The gift baskets I made sat on top of the bins. Apparel went into a big plastic tub where people could pick through without having to ask to look at something that was hung up.
I also had three bins of my feeder bibs and some mini cubes that the bibs hung on. I still had the bibs in a bottle, they were displayed on the top of the mini bins. Towels and totes sat on a table next to the bibs.
My new product this year was wooden magnets that I made. I would hot glue a magnet to a clothespin, then glue the clothespin to the wooden design. They made great clips for the fridge. I really enjoyed making them, but they had nothing to do with embroidery. So I have a few that I made hanging on my fridge but I don't sell these anymore. I nicknamed it my Product of the year. It was a "great" idea that didn't make it a year. However, during 2006 I decided to take my friend Kristen's advice and make child barrettes. We take an embroidered patch and glue it to a barrette. They are cute and I still sell these, but only at my shows. I liked this layout but it took about 4 hours to fully set up. The cubes were heavy and took forever to get them to fit right. Not to mention they were taller then me. So the baskets on top were way up! If it was a windy day forget it everything was falling over. It also took a lot of time to sort the blankets and bibs into the right cubes. We only could stand this layout for one year.

In 2007 we knew we wanted to expand our show circuit. We try to do shows that are Winter and Spring. It's way to hot in the summer to be lugging this stuff around. We found that our Winter shows are more profitable. We found 3 new shows for the winter and one new one for the spring. We ditch the cubes...I think Josh was going to divorce me if he had to lug them and set them up again. This was also the year I was pregnant with Rebekah. Poor Josh, during the spring shows I was useless because my morning sickness was so bad. Then during the fall shows I was 9 months pregnant and ready to give birth at any moment. It was this year that we finally got it! I was at a show that I had seen someone displaying doll clothes in a laundry basket...Boy I wish I had thought of it on my own. I ran to Michaels, grabbed a few sets of lined baskets. Now I am able to arrange all of my product in these baskets and they are all set and ready to go. The extras I bring in plastic tubs to keep under the table. We also invested in some 6' grid-wall to hang up samples, we had a bag spinner to hang our totes on. Most of our product is displayed in the baskets. Barrettes are clipped onto strips of ribbon which makes it really easy to put out and sell. Our set up time is now just over 1 hour. The most annoying thing is the grid wall. It's not difficult to assemble, just a few screws will attach the legs, but its tall and heavy which makes it awkward to carry. Oh and it I don't want to forget to mention my "great" product idea of the year. Embroidered photo frames...Never again! Each frame took over 45 minutes to stitch then they had to be cut out and glued onto the plastic frames...and I couldn't sell them for more then $5.00 each.

For the 2008 Shows we really didn't change much at all! We had our hands full with Rebekah so not as much time to focus on the business. We did add products like our stuffed animals, child's security blankies, and nursery wall art. It's looking like the Wall Art might be the 2008 product of the year. It just hasn't sold much. I like the idea, but the demand isn't there.



This is us at our 2009 Show last weekend. This year we have added shelves to our grid wall. It makes it easier to show off the stuffed animals and gift baskets. We have our key fobs, barrettes and aprons laid out on the table. Everything else is in baskets. We only have one basket of feeder bibs now. For next year I would love to get a large banner to hang on our table skirt with our name. For the time being we have our sign hanging above the grid wall.
Not sure yet what the product of the year is. If I had to guess it will probably be the last year you will see the feeder bibs. I am heading towards the cotton terry cloth bibs. They are bigger and people like them more. It's hard for me to let go of something that was one of my original ideas...I guess thats part of the process.
I don't know if anyone out there does shows or is thinking about doing a show, but if you want some free advice or some great local shows feel free to email me, Mandi, at:
Snuggletime@gmail.com I love to chat about this stuff. I have made enough mistakes and done enough right at this point that maybe I can help.
I hope to see you at one of our shows! Check out our facebook page to see our list of events
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=68428751488

A Stitch in Time.

I woke up today and decided it was the perfect day for working on some of my older cross stitch pieces. Here is the one I decided to work on. It's from Lizzie Kate. I love to stitch and I think large cross stitch pieces are stunning...but I have a really hard time finishing them because I find them daunting and overtime I get frustrated with them. So maybe I have a touch of A.D.D. I recently discovered Lizzie Kate snippets! She has a series that is these little blocks that can be done in an afternoon if you are an avid cross stitcher. However, if your like me and you don't have a whole lot of time for this wonderful hobby a block will probably take you a month to complete. I started this piece last year before Halloween. My goal was to finish it for the New Year and have it hanging up. It's a snippet for each month of the year. I also found on Lizzie Kate's website a free pattern to make a border around them all so you can make a larger piece that ties all the small ones together. I figured with just over 3 months I should be able to finish this. Hmmm well here we are in March and I can say I haven't finished. I did finish stitching March today! So I guess I am on schedual if you say it's on block per month.
This poor cross stitch. I have managed to store items ontop of it stretching out the fabric and warping my stitching. I also spilled rootbeer on it. Lets see if it makes it to its final month before too much more happens to it. There are so many cute and quick designs on Lizzie Kate if anyone is interested take a look at www.Lizziekate.com They are great designs if you are looking to learn the craft because she keeps it simple no half stitches or daisy stitches or french knots. She also gives with each pattern the thread colors for DMC (for those who want to keep it affordable) and she gives the colors for Shaker and Weeks (for those who are fiber snobs like me). Ok thats enough time spent blogging...its back to stitching!

A Creative Mess

I haven't decided what I want to do more sew, draw, write or design patterns. I finally decided I wanted to create this dress I have had in my head for a while. So I went and dug out my old dress form. I got out some Muslin. I had my pins and my markers. I was all set to drape. Then a funny thing happened. I realized that it's been 4 years since I had to drape anything. The worst part is I could remember snips and pieces of how to do it. I had my center line marked and squared on the form. So I figured ok, my old college text book should help fill in the gaps. So feeling annoyed at myself I dug the book out. I don't know what happened but I will blame it on having kids. Apparently in the last few years I have forgotten the skill of drapping. The book might as well have been written in Greek. All my oh so helpful notes that I scribbled in the margins during my college days are now useless to me. The straw that broke the camels back was when I found my old measurements filled in. REALLY!!! Someone should have force fed me in college. I am pretty sure it was unhealthy to be that tiny. I did the only thing any sensible women would do in this situation, I hid the book far far away where it will never been seen again and I quickly stuffed some more of my homemade brownies in my mouth. At least I solved that problem.
So now what do I have? I have a dress form with 2 yards of muslin hanging off of it mocking me. This was not working for me. I immediatly drove to Joanns fabrics, found the closest pattern to the idea in my head. I was able to cut the pattern out, make a few adjustments to how I want it to look, but nothing has been sewn. After cutting everything out I got blocked. You know like writers block, only this is for sewing. So my cute Spring dress is sitting in pieces just waiting for me to have the urge to stitch it. I guess Mother Natures being kind to me and giving me a few more weeks of winter before I feel guilty about not having made ths stupid dress. (Yes, it went from being Cute to being Stupid just like all great projects that start with good intentions and end up annoying the hell out of me). Just ask Josh about how well embroidered photoframes went.

Just for the record I want it to be known that at one point I could sew.
So here are a few photos from my college portfolio.
This is a piece that was inspired from a Victorian riding jacket. Their are three levels of split skirt. The bottom two are silk lined brocade. The top is black velvet. This piece was constructed in my summer tailoring course. I made the whole jacket in just 4 weeks. From pattern to completion. The best part was everything is stitched by hand! A sewing machine never touched this jacket. It was done the old old fashion way!
I still own this one and I think it truly is a labor of love.

This one is my next favorite piece ever. I made it for my boss at the time. She told me what she wanted for a wedding dress and I still needed a final piece for my college portfolio so we agreed. I would make a wedding dress and if she liked it she could have it for the cost of materials. Needless to say she loved it and it looked stunning on her. I did really good with this one. At the time I was cursing the dress out. There is over 5,000 crystals, sequins and pearls sewn onto this gown. I started with a piece of bias strip tape that went around her hip. Then I covered the entire strip with pearls, then silver glass seed beads, then AB Crystals, with some scattered sequins and crystals. This strip alone took me 60 hours of hand sewing. And her flowers covered it in the full length photo!!!! Oh well. I wish I could remember how many yards of Tulle was in the skirt, but I can tell you it filled my entire work area up to my knees! The top layer of tulle had scattered pearls, AB crystals, rhinestones and sequins on it. It was heaviest around the top of the skirt and became lighter around the bottom.

So see everyone there was a point in time where I could sew!

Dust Bunnies

Ok I have no good excuse. It's been way to long since my last post. I can say I have had both machines running at full speed (yep full 1000 stitches per minute) filling orders. It has been our best January/February ever!!! Thank you everyone!!!
Because I have spent so much time stitching the housework has sort of fallen by the wayside. Since this has happened I have acquired a few new pesky pets. DUST BUNNIES!!! I call them Floppsie, BunBun and Bob. It was these large dust balls that inspired my new door hanging. It says "Please don't feed the Dust Bunnies" I figured that warned my guests as to what to expect behind the door. Much to my surprise a few of my guests have asked me to make these little hanging pillows for them (apparently dust bunnies have taken over their houses as well). So now my house is also overwhelmed with little pillows and dust bunnies.

I have two shows coming up one on March 21st and the other on April 4th! Both are at Keefe Tech in Framingham if anyone is looking for a Craft Fair to Crash come on by.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed but it is a year of girls! I have sold 13 pink bear blankeys in the last month and only 1 blue bear blankey. I need the boys to make a come back and even things out. There is only so much pink this stitcher can take!!!
Oh for those of you have been following my posts I found a great use for my magnahoop frames. I have started embroidering Key Fobs! The wristlet kind. I use mine all the time. I have them holding one of my hundred keys so I can slip it on my wrist while I carry my 15 month stubborn daughter who has no interest in walking and the bag of groceries!!! If anyone has a magnahoop and is trying to figure out what use they can get from it...embroidering ribbon or flat cotton webbing is super easy with it.
To my faithful blog followers here is a online coupon for you take 15% off your purchase using code blog15 (original code I know).
PS. For those wondering how the diet is going...I made my weight loss brownies the other day...you know the kind of brownies I am talking about. You eat them and you know your weight loss is just that a lost cause. :) Hey I am happy thats what counts...but who wouldn't be happy eating brownies!!! Go ahead you know your heading off to make brownies...I wont judge.

Random Thoughts

Today is my final day to have to celebrate the holiday season. Don't get me wrong I love Christmas. Nothing is more peaceful to me then sitting next to my Christmas tree listening to Silent Night and working on a Holiday Cross Stitch.
The stressful part is trying to organize family and friends schedules so that you can visit everyone to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I was looking at my calendar last night and my last weekend at home with nothing happening was November 8th and 9th. Every weekend since then the kids have been dressed up and driven to this place or that place to say Hi and be Pleasant. (They have done really well since all they want to do now is stay home hyped up on holiday sweets and play with the new toys). Heck I can't blame them I have my brand new PR620 upstairs and a big bowl of M & M's to eat and I can't play with the machine or eat the M & M's. Ok so maybe I am finding the time to eat the M & M's, but I certainly haven't been able to set up the PR620. When I can stitch its still on my old PR600. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but hey any stitcher will tell you when you have a new machine its fun to play! So I am a bit excited that today is the last of the formal holiday get togethers. Next weekends plan...Stay home in my Tinkerbell PJ's play with the kids and then during nap lock myself in the office and see what creative stuff I come up with.
Still haven't come up with a saying for the blue bear....great I had to remember that I didn't have a saying for the bear...now my brain will be stuck on this for the day. Which will just make me insane today. Well more insane then normal.
PS. M & M's must be ok on a diet because they are so small they can't amount up to much...even in a five pound bag. I am sure the bag they store those little guys in weighs at least 4.5 lbs.

Why Fruit is God

I learned a few things today. All relating to why Fruit is God

1. Kiwi paper in the world of embroidery is God of all sewing paper. Ok so its the only paper that I found that can be stitched on. Perhaps its because Kiwi paper is a "Treeless" Paper. What exactly does "Treeless" Paper mean?
2. Raspberry Smirnoff Ice is very yummy. One may say its the best Smirnoff Flavored Ice's yet per-se. (Yes that is a South Park reference for those of you who followed it, for everyone else I was just trying to sound smarter per-se).
   
3. Fruit flavored cheesecake is on my diet plan. After all I am allowed as much fruits as I want, and as far as I am concerned the Strawberry Cheesecake is 99% Strawberry's and only 1% cheesecake.
   
4. My family and friends seem to think I am a fruitcake...Ok so that one is a stretch, but I had to try.

PS. I am not a trained nutritionist so you may not want to take my advice on the whole fruitcake in diet plan.
PPS. I am not a trained Theologian so you might not want to share my beliefs on Fruit being God.
PPSS. I am forced to watch South Park against my will as my husband is the one who likes the show. I just find myself quoting it more then I would like to.
PPPSS. I am still lost on the whole treeless paper thing. :)
PPPSSS. Nope that's it. Have a good night everyone!

New project ideas

I have been racking my brain lately trying to come up with new designs and sayings. I can only stitch Crabby Crab or Silly Monkey so many times before I go insane. I hate when I decide its time for new stuff. At first its fun, but then you get that one item you can't come up with a good saying for...like a Blue Bear Security Blanket...or a Cow Stuffed animal. So after driving myself crazy for two weeks I give up on trying to come up with the saying. Then my wonderful daughter inspires me. She can be very moody...MOOdy...Cows say Moo...that might work. Or I am just so overtired that it sounds great to me.
Stupid blue bear....still nothing hits me for him. So its back to two weeks of insanity over him. Then I decide I want to try out this really cool idea that embroiderers are doing. Stitching on paper to put in items like key chains, ornaments and other things. So I think how hard can stitching on paper be??? I change my machines needles to sharp point. Set up the new Magna hoop frame system I got for Christmas. (Still new to me, but so far I seem to like it). I put in some really pretty scrapbook paper. Start the design. At first glance it looks really great. I was so excited my brain was already zooming ahead with thousands of new things I could make with embroidered paper.
Then I took it off the frame and the backing pulled away from the paper....Along with the pretty stitched "A" I had just done. So whats left? A cut out silhouette of the letter A on very pretty scrapbook paper and in my other hand a perfectly stitched letter A. I don't think the point was for them to become separated.
Hmmm...ok maybe the paper was too thin. Tried Cardstock...people are talking about how cardstock works...well I tried 4 different types of cardstock and got the same result each time. Since I refuse to be defeated by this project I run over to my local craft store, pick up some suede paper (another recommendation from a fellow embroiderer). If that fails I have my one piece of Kiwi paper to try...but if anyone has ever heard of Kiwi paper you also know it comes with a hefty price tag for something thats treeless paper. For some reason or another the price alone makes me not want to embroider it. I feel like I should just frame it and say thats my piece of Kiwi paper. Ok so it's not that expensive, but it does run around $1.99 per sheet.
If Kiwi fails me too I am going to start experimenting using my stitched A's, pretty scrapbook paper and packing tape. :)
Oh and as far as my weight loss is going...I enjoyed eating French Fries and Pizza today! Maybe tomorrow will be better!