Finally sewing again!

I spent all day yesterday unpacking my sewing supplies and setting my studio back up. Right now, we are going through a nightmare with the car troubles (I will write about it in a later post after we talk to the owner of the company. That's how far up we are having to go to get this thing sorted out! It's been dreadful!) so there's no point in keeping everything packed up since we have no clue when we can move and I am going bonkers not being able to sew.

Unpacking was a lot more fun than packing it all up! I took extra time sorting my fabric by type + colors.

 

 

And I turned the shelves in the closet into a space to hold craft show supplies + promotional materials (extra business cards, goodies for packages, etc) and also I have a cute little divided bucket I forgot to photograph that I sorted stickers to decorate packages, markers for labeling, and tape into for packaging orders!

And my bulb in my studio blew, so we had this brilliant idea to hang green LED lights around my studio. The effect is pretty funky - it creates a great atmosphere for middle of the work day dance parties. :D

Me hanging the lights.

Jessica hanging some of them + a view of my space!

When I have my task lights on, you can barely see the green tinge at all since the bright white washes it out, but they still twinkle and look cute! And ironically right after we finished I went in our bedroom and found a bulb for my ceiling fixture. Haha!

So today I did some final touched around my studio, sorted my threads and finished unpacking supplies and cleaning out the boxes. Then I decided to sew! I was going to work on trick or treat monster totes but my rotary mat is messed up for getting squished between two boxes I am trying to flatten that under a heavy box. So I made this Mon-stor instead!

His name is Jilbert - you can see more photos of him here! I have more fabric combos laid out for this weekend - enough for at least five trick or treat totes, and these for Mon-stors:

Orange fur and monster print!

Green fur and monster print!

Spotted fabric with striped lining in candy colors!

Mint fur with a yellow/white striped vintage sheet for liner!

 Excited to spend the weekend sewing! ♥ I have missed it a lot this past week!

which of the Mon-stor fabric combos do you like the best?

New type of posts...

Latest Monster In The Shop!

Hey guys! Sorry I have been kinda MIA lately. I think in my last post, I promised I would post more? Yeah, total fail on that!

I have been sick, off and on. First a really nasty stomach bug, got over that. Then my son was sick with a really nasty cough, that kept us all up all hours of the night. By day I was too exhausted to consider sewing, unless anyone wants a hand sewn into their monsters. Then I got the nasty headcold, cough, sore body thing my son had. Still recovering from that. Ugh!

Then, there was also the mechanical failures. Bernie, my Bernina sewing machine, decided to start choking on thread. Every inch or so it would go bargblargityblargblarrrrrrrrrrrrh and when I pulled out the fabric, there would be a huge WAD of thread on the bottom. D: Set him aside and started saving for a trip to the repair shop. My friend loaned me an old Brother Pacesetter and it worked for a few monsters, but then it decided it didn't like me. :'( The thread got to a point where I couldn't remove my product from the machine without breaking the thread or jacking up the stitching in my monsters. I'm pretty this is 100% user error on my part somehow, though I didn't mess with the tension at all! Oh well. So, packed him up, teared up a bit. :'( Then my fiancè insisted upon taking me to buy a back up machine so I could continue to work, since it would be a week before I could even take Bernie in, and two weeks for the repair. So, we went out, and picked up the Brother Project Runway machine. It ain't half bad, but I can't tell it won't be able to handle the workload I push through Bernie regularly so I'm anxiously awaiting dropping Bernie off for repairs and then his  arrival back to me in shining, minty condition.

Then, there was also all this beautiful March weather! I don't think it will last, I keep expecting to wake up to a blizzard, but while it's here, we are trying to enjoy it as much as possible when we aren't hacking and sickly! We have been hiking, visiting parks in the evenings, and yesterday, we hit up the zoo! Here's my favorite pic from that.♥

And that explains the very limited amount of monsters you have seen recently! ;)

But now all the beautiful Spring-y colors, flowers, prints, patterns, and birds are inspiring my creativity and I am so stoked to start making new monsters! I am still not officially taking custom orders at this time, so I can focus on stocking my online store to max capacity. My time is so divided right now - 11-6 three days a week at Daft Crafts, and 11-9 two days a week at Daft Crafts. That leaves me a few hours here and there on those days to sew, and then two days off. Sundays are family days, but I squeeze in some sewing when the boys are doing their boy things, and Mondays are full tilt coffee and monster days! :) But, as you can see, with the limited time slots to commit to sewing, I can't really take on custom orders at this time. :[ I miss them!!! But  I have started training volunteers at Daft Crafts so I can have more time off from the shop to handle the business side of things (taxes and such, ugh) and more time to ♥sew♥. So things are in motion, I just have to remind myself to be patient and calm... :)

In the mean time, I have decided to start adding new types of posts to this blog! Some artist showcases, featuring items from my favorite (handmade) online shops, artist interviews, and possibly hosting giveaways for some of them! I can put my two favorite things together - handmade art and my monster biz! ♥ What a great mix. I hope you will all enjoy it as much as I do! First post will be either later today, possibly tomorrow. :) Leave me comments on the posts or click the amount of hearts you think it deserves so I know what content you are enjoying the most! :)

I have kept a secret for far too long

I am terrible at keeping secrets. Honestly, just terrible. I guess you could say my lips are a bit loose or maybe even make it sound like a cool character trait, like believing in the free flow of all information, if you want. No matter how you word it I have just never liked keeping things from people. But this time I felt it was necessary to protect the integrity of Lu & Ed and everything I had worked so hard for. I didn't want anyone to even speculate that I had even lost a sliver of my dedication to this monster making madness that I call my job. I love what I do. I am passionate about it, and I made the decisions recently in the best interest of Lu & Ed, and all my monster loving fans. Most people would probably start the next paragraph with "I thought long and hard about this before I decided..." but not me.

I decided I wanted to open a local brick and mortar store. Less than two weeks later I sat outside in the rain on E Lexington Ave waiting to view a store front right off Main St that was for lease. Less than a week later, I'm planning the grand opening event to take place in July.

It has all flown together so fast. It's exhilarating! I have known the name of this store for years, and had a vision for this store for even longer. Daft Crafts will be a colorful shop filled with amazing, off-the-wall handmade merchandise geared towards punky young adults and parents. As a 20-something mom, this will be the shop I always dreamed existed but never did. I'm so excited to have vendors such as Shear Nonsense with furry hats galore, Kamikaze Kreations with duct tape creations, JB Baby with up cycled clothing, Quilted Callings with amazing quilts(these aren't your grandma's quilts, guys!), Karma Crochet with fun tile pendants and button pins, Melli's Trinkets with unique beaded jewelry, and many more. I love their creations and can't wait to be surrounded by them and sharing them with everyone else!

Now let me address the top three questions I've had since beginning to release the news about the store:

Yes, I will still be making monsters. I am going to be taking my machine into the shop with me to work on orders and stock monsters during down time, and still working on them when I'm at home! I could never stop making monsters!

Lu & Ed monsters and Mon-stors will still be available in my online store, though I am going to be focusing primarily on selling local! I won't be promoting as much online anymore. I love all my online fans and I will always provide you guys with monstery awesomeness, but I am spending too much time online every day trying to make sales! That's time I could be sewing more of these guys for you, or spending time with my kid and fiance. Even workaholics like me have priorities. :)

I will keep selling my monsters at Scrivner's in Leavenworth, KS as well as in Daft Crafts in Independence, MO. If you are local and you haven't checked out Scrivner's yet, you should. :)

I hope that clears up any confusion, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask me! :) I will keep you updated on news about Daft Crafts, but if you want day by day updates be sure to fan our page on Facebook. :)

Finally!

Blogger has been down for a few days so I wasn't able to update here how the market and stuff went in much detail, and you know I love to yak, so, here is the (light) run-down of going-ons and happenings.

Opening day at the market was a little chaotic, being that I didn't know exactly where I was going so I was a little late (but still the first craft vendor) setting up at 5:20am. The weather seemed to be foreboding, cloudy and drizzling, but that blew away by 7am for sunny - and hot - weather. We lucked up that the first day of the Market fell on Harry S. Truman's birthday, so the entire Square of downtown Independence was full of festivities and the amazing smell of kettle corn. Yum. Seriously, yum. I love kettle corn. And Jess and I sent a bunch of monsters off to new homes Saturday, and had a great time getting to know our fellow vendors. We got a lot of feedback from the local kidlets about what monsters they liked the best and what we should name future monsters. Adults even stopped in to play and get to know the monsters! :) I can't wait for next Saturday, we really had a great time and I know it's the perfect place to set up weekly with the monsters! We unfortunately won't be at the market this Saturday, the 14th, but we will be returning weekly on the 21st! :) Come and check it out, Truman Rd in Independence, MO, between Main and Liberty! Produce, flowers and plants, all locally grown, as well as handmade crafts and jewelry from local artists! Shop local!

Tomorrow I will be at downtown Scrivner's Creativity Center in downtown Leavenworth, KS from 1-3ish to partake in fun that is Leavenworth's Second Saturdays. Scrivner's is hosting a Kids Zone fun strip! They will have games, prizes, live music, and awesome shopping as always, and Lu & Ed will be dropping off new stock of monsters, including several baby monsters. Stop by and check it out! :) The Kid Zone and Second Saturday fun is going from 1pm to 6pm.

So, if you throw in Mother's day, my fiancè's birthday, baby sitting, and sewing like a woman obsessed, this week has been pretty busy. :) I wouldn't have it any other way though! Chaotic, busy, and fun. That's what my life is. :) And now that Blogger is up and at 'em again I keep you posted with long and drawn out updates again...

Like that I'm moving my studio from the master bedroom upstairs to the full basement downstairs! I'll have a two room studio complete with cable and internet,and completely separate from the living area so I can make as big of a mess as I want. :D Joy! Jess and I are sooooo busy with custom orders and making inventory for the online store and Scrivners that we need more space to spread out our projects and store this plethora of supplies we're accumulating. I'll be sure to post pictures later this week after the big switcheroo!

For now, I have a few customs I need to finish up before I start packing up stuff to move downstairs. :)

Shop update!

I had put off updating monsters in the shop until after our big show, but that's over now and I just finished adding some I'd had hidden away to the shop. :) Pop over and check them out!

Click here to shop!

Now to get started making monsters for Scrivner's of Leavenworth, KS. I can't wait to get my monsters in her incredible shop!