In the Workroom Recap : Week 329

And by "see you next week," I meant, of course, see you at the end of next week obviously... One of a Kind Show is now officially 19 days away so there is plenty to do and the usual not enough time to do it in. So quick blog time:

Tickets arrived! It's coming!

Robot sewing!

Workroom helpers:

Sew, sew, sew!

I'll be (continuing) finishing up more little robots, kitties and owls this week and am lucky enough to have some more workroom help this weekend so things are coming along! I am trying to be very "zen" about the show this year. Sometimes living the full-time craft life means going through a sort of panic for months before a large show because I think we never feel like we did enough but this time I'm just going to work hard, do what I can and hope for the best! (Which is always my goal anyway.) 

See you lovelies soon!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 328

Week 328! (I think) We missed a few in there but if my math is correct, I'm pretty sure we're in the 328 neighbourhood.

Things are still a little slower than usual around here but I did manage to get a big batch of phone sleeves all finished up for One of Kind Show, with the exception of a small stack that was waiting on me to restock my supply of yellow rick rack. They're next on the list!

Just packaging and 7 left to go! In the meantime I'm a little more disorganized than usual too, working on multiple stacks of things at once (it's good to have a few things ready to go that I can work on by hand if I have to head down to the hospital) so I have a few robots I've been sewing, kitties cutting, and more owl faces sewing for little owlings. There's just about one month until One of a Kind but I'm hopeful I'll manage to have a full booth with lots of goodies available!

Luckily I am lucky to have a few lovely helpers to help me along the way! Parts cutting and packaging help is always amazing. Plus we get to hang out and have tea and treats! Best job, right?

See you next week!

February Update

Hello friends! Thanks for stopping by! Things have been a little slow around here in Needlings world but after a month of no regular "In the Workroom," updates, I thought it was time to explain myself and hopefully get back on track after a difficult month filled with days spent almost exclusively outside of the workroom.

A month ago now (wow, a whole month!), I took my dear 69 year old dad to the emergency room at St. Joe's hospital in Hamilton where he has been since, now with an unexpected dementia/alzheimer's diagnosis to accompany his other health problems, and now waiting on a long term care home. It seemed to come out of nowhere but after spending almost an hour talking to him every day on the phone and seeing the change in him now, I know he's in and heading to the safest place for him - heartbreaking as it is. If any of you have experience dealing with loved ones who struggle with dementia of any kind, hugs to you! And thank you for your patience and understanding. Life goes on and all I can do it be thankful of all the lovely support I have.

So between spending most days helping him at the hospital and getting a crash course in long term care home placement - I haven't done much sewing!

I am in the process of (slowly) getting back in to things and working on a very big bunch of cell phone sleeves for the One of a Kind Show coming up next month and will hopefully get back in to more Needlings work at a steady pace until then in between lots of hospital visits. It's definitely going to be a busy month to match the already busy year. But I can do it! (RIGHT? Right.)

Wish me luck! And give your dear ones a hug for me.

Love,

Heather

In the Workroom Recap : Week 323

Hi guys! Things may look a little different here at Needlings.ca but nothing too crazy. In fact, new things and the very first Needlings blog entries from way back in 2007 are all in the same place now. Full circle stuff! Most of them are completely embarrassing to me so read at your own risk. It is though kind of fun to see how far Needlings' has come since then.

This week, more time than I would care to remember was spent on boring behind the scenes internet stuff involving a lot of stuff I don't really love doing. But it's mostly done! Yep, mostly!

It started with a little fun cupcake order which I was happy to have the chance to make!

Then I took some time to package and ship some orders before getting back to some more studio organization and parts cutting.

So many scraps! I'm happy to say they are a little more condensed and there are a lot more pieces cut and ready to turn in to various Needlings goodies.

I hope you all have a lovely week! I'll see you when it's done!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 322

Hey guys! Week 322 was filled with a little early Spring cleaning, which really just involved a little rearranging of the workroom, and finishing up Needlings brand new line of fancy kitties and bunnies! It was fun to work on something new before getting going on restocking to prepare for the Spring One of a Kind Show in a few months (ah!).

At least I can start with a relatively clean workroom before the stacks of scraps and parts grow bigger and bigger...


Reorganization done! Then I got back to sewing work!



Which isn't always a tidy job...



Notice the start of a schedule for all the little guys that have to come together in the coming weeks! I'll try to take my own advice and just do what I can with the time I have! This will be my second year of doing such a big show so it's nice to feel like I have an idea of what I need. Which is a lot! I am happy that I will have some new Spring-y additions to the booth in March though!



Over the holidays I came across an old dance recital video (yep) where baby Needlings was dressed as a ballerina bunny hopping around the stage to "Cats and Rabbits" from Alice in Wonderland. I guess I was super inspiring. I also haven't been able to get that song out of my head so I may have sang a bit about cats and rabbits residing "in fancy little houses" while I sewed these little ladies up. We'll see what happens Needlings-wise when I come across that "I'm the Scatman" jazz dance performance from a few years later...

But until then, cats and rabbits! Or Beatrix Bun and Madeline Minou. Now available in the shop!



Speaking of cats...



Gus decided he found a fancy little house to reside in himself after I made use of some new shelves on my worktable. And when I closed the door on that one...



He just found another! 

I will say Gus normally does a really good job of staying clear of all the Needlings goodies but he just couldn't resist these ones. I can't really blame him. I guess I'm stuck with hiding things away in these drawers now which seems to have solved Gus' problem of deciding if he should sleep in his usual favourite spot or check out the new soft spots I seemingly created just for him to sleep in. You're welcome, Gus.

Cats!
(and rabbits.)

See you next week, friends!
 

In the Workroom Recap : Week 321

Hi guys! The very first week of 2014 is already over and I spent most of it finishing up some jobs that were on the list for the end of the year, most of which involved a bunch of organizing, paperwork and putting away of things. It is safe to say, after almost a month, that everything is all back in order after the One of a Kind show last month - pretty much. I still have some workspace organizing and rearranging on my mind but nothing pressing. Little things like a new spot for buttons and trims and reorganizing the "doll wall" above my worktable - fun stuff!

What's left of my inventory is definitely not taking up as much room so lots of stocking up for store restocks and the Spring One of a Kind show in March is definitely in order! For now though, I took some time to get a few things up in the shop that weren't there before and to revamp (I hate that word but edit sounds super boring) some shop photos and other little things. These are kind of boring always on the list jobs that I just have to do whenever it comes to me. Things don't get better unless there is at least a little change so there we go. I can thank my dear mother for that lesson. There is definitely never an end to that kind of stuff but you get to hear about it this week anyway. (Fun, right?)

So after a few little photo shoots, two little dolls and three large dolls are now up in the shop!







I hope to add more little Spring ladies to the collection in the coming months so stay tuned for those. In the meantime I am working on a new little prototype for a series I might potentially work in to the line depending on how I like the first one. It's only just in the works now, but I plan on getting at least this new one done before starting on stocking up on more of the old favourites. As a break for myself and also just because it was on my mind and now's the time to do it before I realize how little time I have left for everything else!




I'm sure you'll see the finished product soon! Not too difficult to come up with a guess as to what it may be though! 

I hope everyone is staying safe from all the winter weather we're having lately if you're in my part of the world! And if you're not, lucky you! (Although generally this is a pretty great place to be.)

I'm off to cozy up with my sweet little puppy and kitty and get some sewing done. See you next week, friends!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 319 and 320

Happy New Year! Almost anyway. The last two weeks were pretty eventful as far as Christmas and power outages go so I thought I should get one last blog in before 2014 starts so I can pretend I had a spotless record of updates instead of one spotty month of a few updates all mashed in to a couple. I'm sure you guys don't mind! 

I spent the week before Christmas doing general work stuff and taking some extra time to make some gifts and do some holiday baking.





It was so nice to do some knitting for a change. I love sewing too but I went back to my craft roots and knit a couple thank you mittens and slippers for all the cutting and packaging/pricing help I had before the One of a Kind Show earlier this month. And Christmas shortbread cookies of course! My mom always made these as kid and I always hated them but somewhere along the way I decided it was pretty silly to not like shortbread. Kids!

I also managed to get the last of the Christmas orders out before we had a big icestorm that caused big tree branches to fall all over the place which left the Needlings headquarters without power for almost four days.





It was really pretty beautiful and calm with everything coated in ice but the short Winter days are made even shorter when the sun is down before 5pm so there wasn't a lot of daylight. I don't think I'll take the electricity for granted from here on out. Luckily it came back on Christmas Eve so the lights came on and so did the Christmas movies. 

As soon as the power was back and the Christmas celebrations were out of the way (in a good way I mean), I finished a custom fox!



I have made a small bunch of these guys in the last year and I hope to have more of them available at shows and stores in 2014. One thing that is hard to do when I get to make and sell lots of the same old favourites is spend time working on new things - but I'll fit it in somewhere!

After some work was out of the way, Lisa of Nerdbiskit and I made a visit to a new supply store not far away which was exciting and went pretty well - bulk stuffing found and lots of other goodies relevant to our interests.







Yep! I'll definitely be working this place in to the supply shopping when needed! Next year of course!

I hope you all have a safe and fun night ringing in the new year and I'll see you again next week, friends!

Thank you all for reading and for all the support in 2013 - it really means the world to me!

Happy New Year!

Can't wait to see what 2014 has ahead for us! See you next year!

In the Workroom Recap (and out of the workroom winter adventures) : Week 318

Hello again! I'm going to try my best to get back in the habit of our weekly workroom recaps now that this year's shows are out of the way but I admit I still feel a bit disoriented in terms of what day, month (and year?) it is! Pretty intense couple of months, you guys. 

This week was spent finishing some more custom orders and getting my to do list straightened away for the remainder of the year and in to prepping for next year's shows!  I just know the Spring One of a Kind show will pop up before I know it so there's no end to it really! 








I have been having a lot of phone sleeve orders/requests after they sold out at One of a Kind earlier this month so I'm sure I'll be making lots of those in the next little bit (which is awesome - thank you!). I also have some store restocks to take care of soon so there's still lots to do!
I did take a little time to do some holiday things and fun stuff out of the workroom and I'm sure there will be a few more opportunities for that in the next couple weeks with Christmas/New Year being just around the corner.

One of the first things on the list this week was to get the family Christmas tree! We headed over to Bennetts in Ancaster, one of my favourite local places, just 2 minutes down the road and picked out a good fluffy Fraser Fir! Callie had fun chewing on any branches that fell and Gus has been happily sitting under it.




It's only half decorated at best but in the next few days we'll be breaking out the baskets of handmade ornaments and old favourites to cover it with. Christmas is my favourite.

After our first bit snow storm...


and some quiet snow day knitting inside...


We headed in to Toronto on Sunday to check out City of Craft, one of my fave craft shows to visit!


So many great things to see that we just had to brave the snow for it! Luckily the roads were all mostly cleared and I would have been pretty sad if we didn't keep up this new winter tradition!

And that was it for the week! It feels like a month all put in to one week - but nope - one week! Now on to the next one! I hope you are all getting excited for holiday breaks and family times! See you soon, friends!