Looking Ahead

Yesterday was my birthday. It's crazy stuff, I tell ya.

It seems I hold many of the same ideas and values dear that I did in my 20's, but now I know how to put them into action, am more confident in my abilities, and am actually taken seriously by others. I know, how exciting and odd at the same time (muahahaha)! Since I have been in grad school these past two years (has it really been that long already? How can it be that I am now closer to graduating than I am to registering for my first semester?!), my sewing and embroidery, alongside my little etsy shop, have developed in ways I never expected. I have also stepped into new roles and opportunities in the other half of my professional life in the museum world. I still love having this split identity, even though it can be stressful juggling the two worlds at times. They are equally important parts of me and I feel lucky to be able to pursue lines of interest in both. Just this semester, in addition to classes and the million+1 projects I have going, I've begun some part-time work on campus, embarked on my internship and thesis, and may have the opportunity to start teaching sewing and embroidery classes in the Boston area soon!

As you can imagine, that doesn't leave a lot of time for custom orders (and yes, this is the point I have been building to). It has been an agonizing decision to come to, and one that I have pondered over for some time now, but I know now that this is the right time to stop taking on any more custom shoe orders for the foreseeable future. To be clear, I will still be blogging here and updating my etsy shop with ready-to-ship items, but will not be accepting orders for custom embroidered shoes.

It's been a pleasure and an honor to work with all the clients who have entrusted me with their requests over the years, but I no longer have the time to keep up the level of service I feel my clients deserve. It's difficult to justify the long-term viability of the work when communicating the details of each order, an unpaid task, takes far more time than the embroidery work itself. In addition, there are now many who have copied my designs for resale at lower price points and I don't feel it is a worthy competition. If there ever comes a day when I am able to do more custom shoes, I will be sure to let you know (I will update this post if that is the case). In the meantime,  I'm looking forward to putting my embroidery to the test in new endeavors, including teaching, pattern drafting, and if I get my way, hopefully more opportunities for publication. By doing so, I can continue to balance both worlds, just in new and different ways. On that note, I do have a new embroidery pattern I hope to release sometime in the coming month, so keep your eyes peeled!

nose to the grindstone

color theory bunting in my new shop based on some that i made for our wedding reception this past summer

my apologies for being absent from the blog this week, i decided i needed to step away for a few days to really focus on some special things for my shop and the blog! we've recovered from the 4th (or is it 5th?) major blizzard in these parts, i've been able to work through a fun tutorial featuring some anna maria horner fabric that i'm going to share here on monday, AND i've got the new shop opened up (!!) with several items posted, including my color theory draft stoppers and some new color theory bunting which turned out wonderfully. i am feeling so good about the aesthetic and cohesiveness of the new shop which is what i've been thinking about and working towards for so long so it's great to be able to finally share some of that progress here too. i do have several new items up my sleeve which are still in the planning stages though so i hope you will bear with me as i continue to roll them out!

one of those is my line of embroidery patterns and i have just finished up the first one titled, "farmer's market." i've had the file ready but wanted to stitch it up to have an example to show and i have to say that it is something i am really very proud of. tomorrow i am going to list it in the shop and will also share a bit more about it here—can't wait to show you!

santa's little helper

after finishing my blog redesign my next goal was to revamp my packaging and product presentation. i wanted to keep it light for the environment's sake but still pretty and smart. i finally decided that when i ran out of business cards, i would not get them reprinted, but instead start making my own little tags (above) to attach to each item with baker's twine, customized for whatever object they are paired with. if i do more craft shows then it might still make sense to have a business card again but i would really prefer to do more wholesale and i know that these little tags will work better for that.

now that i've been catching up on admin the past few days, i just really want to dive into christmas projects for the shop and home. i've been getting so inspired by the work all my blogger friends are doing and by this lovely new online magazine Gifted, which my awesome friend emily shared with me (p.s. you should totally check out emily's blog because, well, the girl has got mad skillz, we were art/photo majors together, and did i mention she is pretty darn awesome?!).

do you have any christmas projects in the works yet? where do you find your inspiration?

and then some.

it's been a very long week here and then some! but i'm going to do my darndest to get back to my normal weekday posts as of tomorrow. in the meantime, i'm sharing this really nice etsy treasury which i was lucky to be included in...it's really well done i think! the shop owner who created it also has a really nice blog set-up.

speaking of...how are you liking the new "widescreen" etsy? bigger treasuries is a plus of course and the subtle design changes over the past few weeks/months are even growing on me...a very picky former graphic designer (ok, rephrase: what graphic designer isn't picky?!). but i have quite mixed feelings about the changes being made to the search bar feature. that and sometimes i'm afraid to go into the forums for updates on all these changes because it's like a crazy hen house in there with folks pecking at each other to no end. don't get me wrong, the forums can be a great tool but does anyone else ever feel that way, especially outside the promotion categories? how do you make yourself known on a regular basis and manage to stay clear of the squabbles?