In the Workroom Recap : Week 308

Another week over already if you can believe it! It went by extra fast but I still managed to get a big chunk of the restock done for Kid Icarus in Toronto while still keeping up with regular orders and One of a Kind Show prep! (In other words, tons of cutting! There are parts of things everywhere around here lately!)

These little faces though are for my little owls as well as my iPhone sleeves so I plan to bring a stack of these when I go away next week so I can try to keep up with stocking things for One of a Kind show (which I know will be here before I know it!). But for now, I've been moving along with the restock for Kid Icarus before heading out of town next Wednesday!




(Creepy mug!)



24 little owlings all ready to go to Toronto! - as soon as the remaining 72 items on the list are ready to go with them of course. Luckily most of the parts are cut and lined up so they will come together quicker than you would think! Luckily I also love it so every little batch of these guys is still fun for me. 

At the beginning of the week, one of my dear friends, Crystal, who I have known since our high school theatre prop making days, stopped by to donate to me her old but now not-used sewing machine which just so happens to coincidentally be almost identical to mine! Needlings has run one Kenmore machine's motor in to the ground already so the one I have now is the back up for that one (which was also pretty identical but purchased new when I was 16 instead of from a newspaper ad from older woman who no longer used her's) so this makes three for me. I have to make sure bases are covered if another one gets sick of the daily abuse I put them through and decides to conk out on me! So thank you so much to Crystal who helped me fill the next back up position with another one and saved me from scouring those classified ads again! I'm so lucky to have such sweet and supportive friends. 



Speaking of those sweet and supportive types, Lisa of Nerdbiskit.com and I had another lunch/sewing date on Saturday where I got started on kitties (after a lunch and latte at Williams on the water in Hamilton) and was eventually able to finish them to start this next week off fresh with a bunch of owly keychains!




The weather was dreary but the pumpkin spice latte was warm and we had a lovely time as always! It's always nice to take my work on a little field trip so I'm not stuck in the workroom all the time! I love fall. I might have mentioned it last week...but you may hear it a few more times before it's over!



Perfect fall day. My favourite!
Then on to more kitty sewing of course.





And the kitties are finished! That makes 32 down and 60 to go on the Kid Icarus restock!

Speaking of restock - I also received my Needlings card restock so that's one more thing checked of the One of a Kind checklist! Hopefully 1000 of these will do the trick. Which also happens to be approximately the amount of things on my to do list! It's going to be a busy couple months, you guys!



Luckily my hands are still functioning and everything is going as planned. So I will see you after another week is over!
This will will be spend sewing away of course with a quick field trip on Wednesday to participate in a fundraiser for Burlington/Hamilton United Way put on by the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington! It's a great cause and I can always bring some handsewing with me, right?! Right.

See you next week everyone! I hope you're all enjoying all the leaves changing and pumpkin flavoured things as much as I am!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 309

Week 309 is all wrapped up! The rest of week 310 and 311 will be spent out of the workroom while I head out to New Brunswick tomorrow to visit family so this is it until the end of October. I'm planning on bringing some handsewing and cutting to work on while I'm away of course but significantly less so it still counts!

These last couple weeks have been busy ones around here but the big important things are taken care of and as soon as I get back I'll be working away on more stock for One of a Kind Show!

This week has mostly been spent finishing up this big store restock for Kid Icarus in Toronto! The big Owl Mamas will have to be put on hold until I get back but I'm happy to say these are all on their way! Whew. 



I'll see you guys when I return where all that and more will be on the worktable yet again before One of a Kind!

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your October! I'll see you in a couple weeks!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 307

Hey guys! There's only one day left in Needlings' anniversary month so the giveaway is over and a winner has been chosen! Congratulations to Susan! I hope to get another little giveaway going very shortly because so many of you entered it was hard to draw just one winner!

I also definitely plan on making more of the little kitty-eared girls before the One of a Kind show this December so keep an eye out for those too if you were one of the many people who asked me about them! 

This week, though, I started off with finishing up a fairly owl heavy (shocking, right?) restock for White Rabbit in Iowa City! White Rabbit is one of the first stores that carried Needlings and one that holds a very special little place in my heart because I lived in Iowa City for many years and it's one of my favourite places. As someone who didn't live in their birthplace hometown very long, I can say after most of my high school years were spent there, it is one of my adopted hometowns for sure. Hamilton is definitely feeling more and more like home every year so you can add my current city to the list.

So back to business! Phone sleeves were first on the restock list because I had zero left after Supercrawl! Thank you so much to all the Hamilton area folks who walked away with a new little owl to keep their phones safe!




Then I had to add some bookmarks, pins and Owl Mamas to the bunch before packing them all up and sending them off to White Rabbit! Lucky!



We also set up a new cutting table in the Needlings workshop this week because, with more restocks ahead, and One of a Kind show coming up in December - there were lots of parts being cut and batches of things on the go and not quite enough places to keep them. Problem solved - works like a charm!
Gus loves a clean table too.



On the weekend I got to spend a little time with my dear friend Lisa's kitties, Greta (pictured below) and Rico, (and Lisa too of course) when we had a little Needlings cutting session after a lady lunch date and stroll on James North in Hamilton. I have the best friends! I'm looking forward to another similar day next Saturday - it's so lovely to have a little extra help here and there - I couldn't thank Lisa enough, who supplied the Pumpkin Chai tea and cut a few (felt) kitties for me!




I'll be spending the week now working on a big restock order for Kid Icarus in Toronto before getting ready to head out on a little family trip to visit extended family in New Brunswick in mid-October. I must say, while I love my job very much, I'm excited to pack up and head out for a little change of pace on the East coast! Autumn road trips are the best!
But I will of course see you all before then for a couple more Needlings recaps! Have a lovely week, friends!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 306

Another week over! After my two big summer shows, this week was a little bit slower on the making and involved some organizing, paperwork, planning, and shipping some goodies off to Cincinnati to be a part of the Plush Team booth at Cincinnati Maker Faire!

This will be the third big American show I have the Plush Team to thank for setting up a little Needlings presence. I'm excited to see photos from the event pop up after the show on October 19th! If you're in the Cincinnate area - be sure to go check out the booth that will be filled with awesome plush from plush artist from all over the world! For more about the event, look here: http://cincinnatimakerfaire.com/

Next on the list was lots of reorganizing and scrap tidying so I could get to work on a little project I had planned for Needlings' sixth anniversary giveaway! The actual anniversary is September 27th when I started my Etsy shop way back in 2007 but I was making Needlings ahead of time so the month of September serves as my vague anniversary month celebrating! This time, after a big owl giveaway last year for my fifth anniversary, I went with kitties! And included an art doll of course.









Feel free to enter if you'd like! A winner will be chosen at the end of the month so you have the week to enter and rack up up to 10 enteries here: http://bit.ly/19pspSU Good luck!

I know I sap it up over here on a regular basis but I really can't say how much I appreciate all the support and love I've got through Needlings over these last six years. They have changed me for the better, I've grown up with you, and truly feel like a happier person excited for the future and endlessly thankful for the love I have and for finding something I love enough to never want to stop doing and putting my love in to. Whew, emotions! I'm such a sap! 

But really, thank you.

Supercrawl 2013

was AMAZING.

I think I've already said it a million times but I really can't say enough how much I adore Supercrawl! Since the first rainy one night event in 2009 with 3,000 people to the two day event they estimated 100,000 people attended, I have loved Supercrawl! I have loved it every year and this year was no different! It makes me so proud of my new adopted home town and despite any hiccups, it's always one of my most favourite days of the year.
 We got there bright and early and after a slow start to setting up due to a sculpture being installed on the street (SOCOOL) everything was set up and ready to go for the crowds!
 




 


It was so wonderful to see so many familiar faces and catch up with visitors from past years. I so love doing Hamilton shows and seeing some of my little regular customers who's parents bought them Needlings years ago, and come back to buy one for themselves or let me know where they keep their little guys Santa brought them. (So sweet!)



My mom was there as well with her knits mixed in to the booth! It was chilly enough by the end of the night that we had to wear our own cowls and happy to say Hamilton cleared us out and not one cowl was left by the end of the night! Same goes for my cell phone sleeves and little owls! Thanks everyone!


  
We we set up right out front of White Elephant which is a great little shop owned by two talented Hamilton girls. I tried to get a photo of them sitting perfectly on their super amazing painted bench during a couple minutes' down time but things picked right up and we were all too busy to stay long enough for my phone to turn on or for me to find my camera burried under my table but they are forgiven! I took a couple later on!

 
I, of course, loved their window filled with pompoms! You can see more aboutForopolis on their blog.
 The late morning set- up meant all my photos needed to be taken fairly quickly in between the crowds which were pretty consisten all day but I still managed to get a few to document the day!




Luckily, Hamilton photographer Vanessa Jeakins also documented a few little moments at my booth that she has so kindly let me share here with you guys in these next seven photos! You can see more of her beautiful photos fromSupercrawl here.












Also some good shots of my booth neighbours, MC² Designs, who were super sweet and lovely all day!
There were so many awesome booths close by and in other parts of the street and Makers' Market, I regret not taking more time to look around at but the day just flew by and it was over before I knew it! Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello! I loved seeing every single one of you and I hope (and am sure!) everyone of you had as great a day as we did. I love being a part of the Hamilton art/craft community and your hugs and hellos are a big part of why I love Supercrawl so much!

So that's it for this year! I'll be all One of a Kind show prep all the the time now until December so get ready! I hope to see some of you there too!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 305

Hey guys! It was a busy weekend filled with Supercrawl and Supercrawl recovery but I'm here!

The week in between Locke Street Festival and Supercrawl (aka week 305) was mostly spent stocking up on items I was cleared out of and making sure I had enough of everything and of course making sure it was all packed in the car and ready to be set up on James St. for Saturday!


Kitties first! It seemed like all those umbrella carrying little girlies at Locke Street just had to have a kitty so I definitely had to make a bunch to refill my display!



Then, of course, the owls! Various sorts of restocking:


 



I sold out of cell phone sleeves on Saturday so I could have probably squeezed a few more of those in that week but hindsight is 20-20! Lots of reorganizing and packing was done in addition to the restocking and then making of some more pom poms of course (lots more to go for One of a Kind Show so I have to keep up the pace).

Happy to say restocking went smoothly and I was all ready to go bright and early on Supercrawl day!

I'll be back later with a recap of Supercrawl day! Pre-view: It was awesome!
 
See you soon!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 304

This week was all about getting ready for Locke Street Festival on the weekend and filling orders. Most of what needed to be done was display prep work and packing up and I'm happy to say it was all done in time and ready to go bright and early on Saturday morning!

 
First, I made a few more brightly coloured Owl Mamas to go with the bunch.



The next thing I worked on was a couple new display signs - a bigger Needlings one and a few more little mirror/chalkboards like the one I made a couple weeks ago. The big frame has been every colour of the rainbow and lived in a few of my childhood bedrooms before ending up in the garage. It was bought at an antique store in Iowa at 100 years old (making it around 120 years old now, I guess!) so I'm pretty happy that it is getting some use now!



 The rest of the week was then spent pricing, tagging, and packing everything to be ready for the weekend!



Luckily now it's all ready to go for Supercrawl this weekend! (After a little bit of drying off of course - after the rain we had!)

I'll see you one more time this week for a Locke Street Festival wrap up and then after Supercrawl this weekend!

Don't forget to stop by and see me at Supercrawl on Saturday and check outthe website to see all the exciting events and performances that will be going on around us! Excited!

Locke Street Festival 2013

Last year, you may or may not remember, we set up for the festival in a crazy downpour. Tarps were needed before we could even get the tent all set. This year at least it waited until we got the tent up! This awesome Hamilton show is probably one of maybe two outdoor shows I have ever done that regardless of how much rain we have, it's still great! Sure the first few hours were a pretty big bummer but halfway through the day I had almost completely forgotten about the downpour from earlier (with the reminder of my wet shoes and dripping pompoms).

I was super excited to test out my brand new display this year and although it took a couple trips in the Yaris - we got everything there and I'm really happy with it! A few things to tweak for Supercrawl this coming weekend but overall I think it worked out great. Even my mom's knits are all mixed in!







I saw so many familiar local faces from past shows and it was great to do a local show again - my first one of the year! It's so wonderful to do this show every year and see the same sweet families and people return. It is absolutely one of my favourite days of the year. I feel like Hamilton is such a supportive city and these shows make me so excited to be a part of this community more and more every year. I literally tear up at how lovely my Hamilton customers have been over these last six years. Sappy! But seriously! I really can't say how much I have appreciated the local support I've gotten for Needlings.



A very wet day but all in all a very great one! I can't wait to get out there again this weekend at Supercrawl and do it all over again! Here's hoping it's a little sunnier out there. See you soon!