Sunday, July 29, 2012

In the Workroom Recap : Week 246

One more week closer to Fan Expo at the end of August and one more week of Needlings working!

I started with finishing us a batch of little Owlings and Robots to bring over to Chapters in Ancaster.





All tagged and ready to go!



I'm very happy with how quickly they've been disappearing from their little temporary home in Chapters! Hopefully that will tide them over for the month!

I was quite excited to receive my Needlings owl fabric in the mail this week! I'm so excited for what I have planned for it - hopefully I can make the time in the next few weeks to finish my planned project!



Before I can get started on stocking up for Fan Expo in Toronto on August 23rd-26th, I have Dots & Loops in Lunenburg to stock up and send a couple additional phone sleeves to Homespun in Indiana. My goal is to finish them up on Sunday and be all Fan Expo all the time for the next few weeks!



A few Owl Mamas first...

Then on to some littles!




I was lucky enough to have my dear friend Lisa of Nerdbiskit stop by again while I worked on these little guys!  And she got to meet Callie, my new little rescue pup! The update on her is that she is an unspayed year old little sweetie that seems not to have anyone looking for her. She was perhaps a lost hunting dog in training or was abandoned in the country for no fault of her own. I think we're lucky to have found her and I'm so glad I saw her on the highway and had the left over fish and chips to gain her trust! 

She's the sweetest!



Lisa kept her company on the couch while doing some handsewing of her own while I sewed away at some littles for Dots & Loops!



I'm always happy to have a coworker for the day!

I then managed to finish up those littles and move on to a batch of phone sleeves! Two purple ones to a customer waiting on them at Homespun in Indiana and the rest to go along with Dots & Loops' restock!





Now to finish them up and send them out!  My list of to-do's is close by this month as I attempt to fit in a LOT of sewing in the next few weeks.  

Be back in a week with an update! Enjoy the rest of July, friends!

Sunday, July 22, 2012

In the Workroom Recap : Week 245


July is almost over and I can hardly believe it!  This week ended with an exciting twist which I will mention at the end of this post but the week started pretty much as usual with finishing up a bunch of phone sleeves for White Rabbit in Iowa City.








And finished! Printed some packaging for them and got them ready to go along with the batch of Owl Mamas from last week.



And in the box they all went! They should be making their merry way to Iowa City as we speak.

In addition to this order I whipped up a little something for myself as well as planned a new additional project before Fan Expo next month (wishful thinking that I can fill everything in).



A little hairbow made with original design Needlings fabric!  This was my first little project made from Spoonflower fabric (Spoonflower is a company that prints custom design fabric) and I'm really excited about potential future ones.  I'll definitely keep you updated! In the meantime I'll be enjoying my new owl bow.



Now, my initial plan for this weekend was to finish up this little batch of Littles for Chapters in Ancaster...



BUT this little lady had other plans for me...



This sweet little one year old girl is the new addition this week. We found her scared, hungry and alone on the side of the highway late on Friday night out in the country. We were told by the SPCA that she has been running around that area (Caledonia) for about a month, being fed donuts at the local Tim Horton's but not allowing anyone to catch her. We've checked back through the SPCA for people with missing beagles like her as far back as March and didn't come up with any matches. They seem to believe someone may have dropped her off in the country unwanted which is heartbreaking.
We took her to the vet and are in the process of getting her all fixed up but of course will be happy to give her a home if we can't find the one who lost her or is looking for her. She's really so sweet and appreciative of her new indoor home. Gus the cat is still adjusting to a new "friend" in the house but hopefully they can figure out some sort of aggreement soon if she'll be sticking around.  She's been tentatively named "Cale" (prounouced "Callie) because we found her in Caledonia.
She's a busy little bee so I haven't been able to do much sewing but I'm back to it today now that she has settled down a bit and all her medications/vaccinations are out of the way.

We'll see how it goes this week! Wish us luck! 

Monday, July 16, 2012

In the Workroom Recap : Week 244


Hi guys!


I'm a bit in to week 245 here with the recap for the week because there were some issues with my website host being down for the better part of my recap writing time. I never realized I had such a regular blog writing schedule going but add a weird computer hiccup and a generally busy day and I almost forgot about my recap! And then where would we be?! I know, it's really an outrage but anyway, here it is.



I'll start with a silly phone photo while waiting to mail a big restock box to Wholly Craft in Columbus. (I now have Instagram so please do add me on your phones if you'd like - username: Needlings)
Thanks to the wonderful technology of parcel tracking, I can inform you that everything is all settled in to Wholly Craft by now so if this is a local spot for you, go look at it! It's also just a super great shop that you should go check out anyway. 

So back to sewing...



With the exception of a fun little trip to visit friends Toronto (which I will blog about soon) and another fun coworker day with Lisa of Nerdbiskit, this week mainly consisted of work on a batch of Owl Mamas for White Rabbit in Iowa City.



Lisa, who makes catnip filled cat toys, decided to feed my little Gus monkey a lidful of her potent catnip while we sewed. He was definitely the least civilized out of the three of us for the rest of the afternoon. And really didn't offer any help as usual.



Despite lots of talking and cat gawking, I still managed to get lots of work done!



I know, it never looks very exciting at that stage...



But I finished! Well sort of. Ran out of stuffing so two of these guys will remain deflated until I stock up on some supplies.



I also had some general wrapping of orders to do and some other behind the scenes work to take care of - some of which involves some new pinback buttons for shows and packages! Which is exciting!

Well that wraps up week 244! This week will hopefully be more sewing and finishing things up!
I hope you all have lovely productive weeks and I will see you soon!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

In the Workroom Recap : Week 243


This week was filled with one big restock for Wholly Craft in Ohio. One of my favourite stockists in one of my favourite cities, Columbus, OH.


They have been carrying my Owl Mamas for years but will now be carrying my Littles as well as phone sleeves and crossbody bags! I started with a little batch of kitties, ninjas, and robots.




Then moved on to some phone sleeves:


I had to do up some new packaging for these too. I was happy with how it came out. I never thought I would get so much use out of my vintage pinking shears I use to fancy up the edges.

I then got started on a polka dot crossbody bag to add to the box.


I was able to finish it while hanging out with one of my favourite fellow-sewers, Lisa of Nerdbiskit.com!
Her birthday is coming up so we had cake and I gifted her a Needlings Dormouse print for over her tea shelf.  Another week with a sweet coworker!


My regular coworker didn't do much work but his furry cuteness more than makes up for it!








I finished tagging and pricing everything while Lisa was over and by the time she left the https://www.etsy.com/listing/103792784/owl-mama-crossbody-bag-navy-sailor-polka" target="_blank">new polkadot crossbody bag was available in the shop and everything was ready to pack up!
I'm looking forward to another summer sewing day with Lisa soon!



Everything was packed up and sent out the next day! 

Next on the list is a restock of Owl Mamas and phone sleeves for another one of my favourites in another one of my favourite cities, White Rabbit in Iowa City!  I lived in Iowa City for pretty much all of my teenage years and again in my twenties to go to the University of Iowa. I'm always happy to work on some things for them!



Owls started and underway! I'm looking forward to getting ahead on restocking stores so I can start working on stock for FanExpo in August. This four day show is quite intense and knowing me I'll be working on filling the table right up until the day before it starts!

I hope everyone is enjoying (or avoiding) the hot hot weather we've been having!
I'll see you next week, friends!