Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Happiest of New Years!


Well, at least that's what I'm wishing for, aren't you?
It's been a bad year for me healthwise. I had colds that lingered, allergies that hung around for months, and strains & pains besides the ever present agoraphobia.
At least I'm back to making things again! No pics of what I'm working on but will post some next time after the holidays. I'm having so much fun tatting rings that I stopped working on anything else. I did get out all the stuff I bought to make art charms about 4 years ago. I never did them because I couldn't decide what to put inside. Now I just want to have a go at soldering. I put a few sequin snowflakes between the slides so I have something to practice on. I'll post about it next time.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Happy Holidays!


Thought I'd pop in to wish you all a Merry Christmas and if you celebrate another holiday I hope it's happy, too. I finally got the tree up this afternoon and decorated the house on Monday. Just didn't feel like spending time doing it so I kept putting it off. Speaking of putting things off. I finally started gift shopping yesterday. I know, could I have waited any longer! I don't have many to buy so it was pretty easy. I just have a few more things to get either tomorrow or Christmas eve. I used to do all of my shopping on Christmas eve but stopped when people would stop by and I couldn't get out.



These are 2 more totes I made for Tapas in Sewickley. You can see others in my last post if you missed it. Janet, the owner, sent this great vintage fabric for me to sew whatever I wanted so I lined a jean purse and made the water bottle tote to match. I'm not a huge fan of the jeans purses so these will be my last. I'm going to use old skirts from now on.


Here are 2 more made from the same pair of kid's jeans. I lined the purse with star print. I love the water bottle tote. I found this great cat print for the top of it.


On Monday I literally stayed up all night going thru all the inventory lists I had for Tapas and the sold receipts Janet sends when she pays me. I haven't done this since 2003 so had quite a few to go thru even though she now only pays me about 2 times a year. I was amazed when I realized just how much stuff I have at that shop and how old some of it is (from the 90's!). If I can get my panic attacks under some sort of control I hope to get there sometime in the next few months and pick up a bunch of the older stuff that's not selling and is probably looking more than a little worn.


This pic is of the fall tatting patterns I'm finishing up on top of a pile of holiday fabric. I've gotten side tracked by tatting rings for the new etsy store I want to open just for tatted and beaded jewelry. I'd like to have about 10 things to put in it when I open it next month. Tonight I'll be making earrings.

*Merry Christmas * Happy Hanuka *

*Happy Kwanzaa * Happy New Year*

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Pics of totes and more!


These are a few of the totes I made and sent to tapas in Sewickley. The denim ones with the embroidered flowers are from the bottom of a pair of girls jeans I got at the local Salvation Army store. Great place to look for things to re/upcycle. In fact I bought the strawberry fabric I used to make the next totes there, too. There were 3, 1 yard matching pieces with strawberries. Couldn't resist as they are my favorite fruit. I thought these totes would be great to carry a water bottle and few other small things.


This bear waas a special order for a Tapas customer. She provided a shirt and I cut it up to make this bear. I used the cuff for the collar. My husband had a hard time letting this one go. He's a Steeler fan and loved the face on this one. I have more pics of the totes I made that I'll post next time.
I have talked to the most lovely person last week. Tamalyn is from Washington and has now bought 4 of my Christmas dolls. It's so nice to talk to customers and get their feedback. It's the one thing I miss about not doing craft shows. What I don't miss is the early mornings of getting everything ready and setting up. As I've posted before, I'm NOT a morning person.
So what am I doing now? I'm still working on the fall and winter tatting patterns and I started a winter fairy pattern. She is so cute! I just hope everything will go alright with the design.
I should be decorating but I just can't get in the mood to drag everything out. I don't even have the outside wreathes and bows out. Jack took the metal box I always stored them in up to his camp and I had to put everything in a few cardboard boxes. Now it's not as easy to find them.
Ok, I've embarrassed myself enough that I'm off to the basement to find the wreathes!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Sold the Winter Witch!

This is so amazing, I guess I have a new fan! I just sold the Christmas wynter witch I posted at ebay. The same customer also bought 2 of my elves. It's so great when someone likes your work so much they buy more than one thing. I was so happy I included one of the small bears I've been making in her package. I wasn't happy about the postage costs. I offered free postage thinking it would go for $5.80 but it was $8.30! I hate how postage has gone up so much. I guess I need to either stop offering free postage on things that have to be boxed or up the price to help cover the cost.

I finished the bears I made for Tapas but haven't mailed them. I need a bigger box! I would like to try for a trip to Sewickley but I haven't been that far from home in over 4 years. In case you readers don't know I have agoraphobia. I can travel close to home but anything further than 15 minutes away and I start to have panic attacks. I've had this trouble since I was a small child.

We had a new furnace installed the past 2 days so while all that was going on I sewed and tidied up my sewing room (it needed it!). I'm not a morning person and getting up at 7 am was very hard. I think I slept 3 hours Sunday/Monday and 4 Monday/Tuesday morning. I'm not a napper either. I was such a zombie but I did get a lot done. I had a stack of purses to make so I've been sewing them. Need to get some pics taken. They'll go to Tapas when they're done. It feels so good to go into the sewing room now that it's tidy. I'm really in the mood for sewing and not sitting here at the computer so I'm off to sew ;)

Friday, December 4, 2009

Bear Pics!


Couldn't get the good Nikon camera to work so I pulled out the Canon sureshot and YAY! got some pics to post. Guess the Nikon needs the battery pack charged.

The pic above is a bad shot of the bears and chenille dog I made to sent to Tapas. Really don't like these and can't understand why anyone would so I admit it took me almost 2 months to make these. They are so boring!



This one and the next are of the mini bears I making from an old jacket. I ran out of polyfil so I'm using the bag to hold the unstuffed pieces and the heads that need to be finished. I'll add the button eyes, embroider the nose & mouth, and sew on the ears before I sew the heads to the bodies. I had enough polyfil for 4 and a half so I have to hit the store to get more. The basket is holding the stuffed pieces.

This is a close-up of the label from the Jacket. When I used to make bears from clothes I always added the labels to them but with so many bears I don't think I'll be using them. Tonight I plan on getting the ones I have stuffed put together and hopefully I'll get out this weekend to get more polyfil. I do use the brand Polyfil. I've tried others but always come back to it.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Can you believe it, I'm back again!


I know, what a shock! I'm back again to add another pic. This one is of the skinny snowman I made. He's another put together last Dec. but never finished. My husband dislikes him because he's so thin but I think he's funny. One thing I did learn while adding the finishing touches, he would have made a great skeleton! I've got to remember that for next Halloween.

Finished the Tapas bears but when I went to package them I found I had gotten rid of the box I needed to mail them in. Took ages but found one I can use.

Got 9 bears out of the old jacket I've been writing about. They're all machine sewn, now for all the hand work. I think 4 will go in prim totes, 2 in each. Then I'll put 2 in metal sleds and the other 3 in stockings (I have to make). Was going to take pics but need to figure out how to use the flash on my camera. I always take pics outside so I never use it and didn't bother to learn how to turn it on.

Today's been another bad day. I'm out of black ink for my printer. I thought for sure there was one more in the box I store all the extras in but no. I did manage to print a pattern to go out today but I don't think I'd even be able to get a label printed. I'm trying to buy ink from the person I get it at at ebay but she's not answering my email so I tried a message thru ebay today. If I don't hear from her tomorrow I'll buy it elsewhere.

With all this trouble I thought I'd fire up the old win98 computer and use it's old epson printer for a few things I need printed but that didn't work out either. The printer turns on ok but when I send files to be printed it just sits there. Guess I'll have to uninstall the software and reinstall it tomorrow. I removed a usb hub I didn't need anymore so I guess it's confused as to where the printer is.

It's been like this for a month now. My small spaniel ended up in hospital after having a bowel obstruction. I've had a cold that one minute seems like it's going away and then it slams me so I can't do anything but sneeze, cough, and blow my nose. I broke one pair of my glasses and lost another in a huge pile of leaves. I'm scared to color my hair for fear it will all break off. Just hope it all ends soon as I'm having a new furnace installed on Monday. I know, stupid to do it in the the cold weather but try to tell that to my husband. Maybe that the thing this time. The furnace will be fine but after 2 days and no real heat I'll be sicker. Guess I'll be sitting in front of both electric heater blasting!

Ill try to get some pics of all these bears up once I figure out the flash!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Surprise! I'm back again!


I've been perusing some of my favorite blogs and realized I should be writing instead of reading! The pic above is of the Christmas Witch I made. It's over at the ebay store and remember all my dolls have free shipping all the time, not just for the holidays. The great thing about this doll is that the hat is removeable and the broom and basket at not sewn to the hands. If you like her but don't want a witch you can remove them. In fact if you say you read it here in I'll make her a different hat and instead of the broom I'll add another basket! Now you can have a Christmas Granny instead of a witch. If you're still looking for Halloween dollies, mine are still up at ebay. I find I tend to sell more of them at Christmas than at Halloween!

I thought I finished the bears for Tapas last night but as I was showing them to my husband I noticed I had forgot to stitch two sections in one bear's legs. At least I noticed it before packing them for the PO. Oh well, I'll do that tonight while I stuff some of the small teddy's I sewed up this afternoon. I still have a few to cut out. I found I got 8 out of the jacket I cut them from. There's a bit left so I may do a rabbit or pig out of it. Also planning on finally getting a snow fairy or 2 cut out if I can decided on the fabric.

WooHoo, I'm finaly in the mood to sew again! Now if my cold would just go away so I'd have more energy.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Things Selling at eBay


This is one of the elf dolls I actually made but didn't quite finish last year. She just sold at ebay this past week along with one of the boy elves. I still have one more boy, a skinny snowman, a Christmas witch, and some snowladies over at ebay. At etsy I have a tree top angel and some snowmen ornies. Here's a pic of the boy elf at ebay.



I'm busy sewing bears for a local shop called Tapas. I have 2 more to finish and then I'm starting on 4 small bears I'm making from an old cotton fleece jacket. I plan on tea staining them and using old buttons for the eyes and joints. I want them to look real primmie.

Oh, and I'm finishing up the fall series of tatting patterns. The tatting is done, I just have to decide how I want to display them. Like putting them on cards or on totes. Then I have to write the directions and take pictures. Guess the fall and winter series won't be out anytime soon ;) I'm working on a few tatted projects I needed for the winter series and I'm beginning to think I should just skip to the spring series. I've been doing a lot of research on tatting patterns, sites, and blogs online. I was surprised to see a person selling just one downloadable pattern for earrings for $2.95. I was worried my patterns were too high but I guess I'm still ok.

I'll post more pics next time!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Go Daddy is driving me CRAZY but the domain is working!

All I wanted was an easy to use site like geocities was but Go Daddy is beyond frustrating! It took ages to figure out how to set the domain for the page I made with them. They no longer have the toll free number so it's email for me. After 2 weeks it's finally working today! When my domain comes up for renewal I think I'll be moving it elsewhere unless they start thinking "easy to use" and less "techie pain in the a_ _ let's make it as hard for regular people to use as we can". I think they have people from microsoft working for them. That's another site where I've found the help section worthless. No I take that back, the Pennsylvannia tax site's help section is awful, too.

Now I'm going to vent about their file manager. Again go daddy can't seem to help themselves when it comes to too many bells and whistles so everything is slowwwwwwwwwwww. Not a fan anymore. I loved them when I first transfered my domain from yahoo to them but not any more. Guess they want you to sign up for their techies to make your site instead of doing it yourself.

If for some reason it stops working you can go to:
http://heislerscreativestitches.webs.com/ or http://creativestitchery.tripod.com/
to get to the site. I did 2 sites in case one should go down the other is still there.

Need to vent about something else. First I got burnt when I bought a copy of Paint Shop Pro at ebay. It was a try and buy so would stop working right every 30 days. I thought I had a virus or somehting that kept corrupting the files. $20 down the drain and it took me a 6 months to figure out it was the software not my computer so the jerk got good feedback from me and all the others he screwed. Hope karma hits him! Not wanting to risk paying for another bad one I did the cheating thing and found free downloads of version 9, which is now longer being made by the way, so is it really cheating? No matter, it worked fine for 2 monthes until last night. I did a virusscan, spyware scan, and 2 disk cleanups. One was verizon which is my security software and one with the one that comes with winXP. I think the verizon one corupted the new PSP cause now all the crap that happened before is happening again. Looks like I'll be spending the night uninstalling and reinstalling. You bet I'm taking good notes on everything so I can keep track. I haven't used the verizon cleanup for months just the windows one. Another company I hate. Makes me wonder if that program caused some of the computer problem wew had all last spring and summer.

Did get some Christmas Dolls up at ebay and etsy today. Also found a bag of cute dolls that never made it up last year so need to get pictures this weekend and get them up, too. I finshed them right before Christmas so I never bothered to even list them last year. Look for some Christmas elves, a Christams witch, a snowman, and some ornies.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Almost done with new site!

I have 2 sites for heisler's creative stitchery finished! They are the same except one is at webs.com and the other is at my old tripod addresses. I thought I'd do 2 in case one is down. That happens a lot, I've come across it. When you want free sites I guess you have to expect it. I'm now waiting for godaddy to ok my free space with them. I didn't know it would take at least 24 hours or I would have signed up for it last week. I got the free space because I have my domain with them. I plan on putting an opening page here with links to the 2 sites. It will be the page that is www.heislerscreativestitchery.com I may eventually put yet another mirror site at godaddy. A quick promo for webs. I really like them and they only require a button or bar on each of your pages. It's great that they let you choose from an assortment. I was able to get a small red button that looks great at the bottom of my pages. Of course the tripod sites have ads top and bottom with no choice of what kind. I had the 2 adresses from when I first started a web site so I thought I'd use them.

Google finally moved my googlepages over to sites and now it's a mess! I'm going to have to do a lot of work on it so I can use it for doll photos again.

Ok, I admit it. I DIDN"T make anything new for Halloween! I've been so busy with the web sites and sewing a few things for local customers I just didn't have the time. Now that it's too late I'm tatting a mask. I found the directions from totusmel at etsy. Here's a picture of her version:


With all the boxes and bags of thread I have I didn't have the size 10 in black I needed for this so I'm tatting it in ecru. I have black in every other size. I'm really enjoying tatting again and have the fall tatting patterns almost done. Then will come writing the directions. I think I'll give customers a choice on buying the patterns with or without the basic directions. I'll be able to lower the price a bit, too.
I'm off to try to fix my googlesites pages. Will fix the links at the side when I get them done.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Getting site moved!

Finally I'm getting around to moving the business site before geocities closes. BTW, they closed one of my sites with no explaination. It was for the psp classes I took. Luckily I still had all the files on my old computer so I made sure to burn them to a cd.

I spent way too much time searching for a free site or at least one that wasn't expensive. I finally gave up and decided on webs.com and I'm so very happy with them! Such a tiny button to have to have on the free site. I was even able to get a red one! Very, very easy to use! Just wish they offered a better upload. With the free version you only get to upload one picture at a time. Here's a real link to the home page as I haven't switched from the geo site yet.
http://heislerscreativestitches.webs.com/

Today I was working on getting the pattern pages up for each of the patterns I sell. I managed to get 9 up on the google pages site before it went wonky. Gave up and came over here. It may have to do with it still being on pages. Don't know when they will ever get my pages moved to the new 'sites' place. Have to admit how much easier it would be to be able to just copy and paste the code from geocities instead of the 'what you see is what you get' way they are set up. I decided on them just because of no ads and the chance to get in on the new sites pages. I may give up and put them all at the webs site. I'm just a bit worried about the bandwidth so that's why I put the patterns on a separate site.

Hope you'll take a look!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Made this store link at Ebay!

Ebay now has this widget so I thought I'd have a try and post it.

BTW, the new tatting pattern is up at ebay, etsy, and Patternmart if you want to buy it.

Friday, September 25, 2009

FINALLY ! The first of my tatting pattern packs is ready for sale!

Well here it is, at last, my first tatting pattern! I have been working on these patterns since 1995 when I was a member of my local quilt guild, Beaver Valley Piecemakers. I have dedicated this series of pattern packs to the members. Right now I have plans for at least 1 more old fashioned quilts and 4 for each of the seasons. I'm working on Fall and hope to have it ready sometime next month.

I call this pattern pack "Tatting Mini Old Fashioned Quilts #1". The patterns are printed like the rest of my patterns. There is a cover with a photograph, and info on the 5 patterns and basic instructions that are in the pack. The rest of the pattern is printed book-style with 1 booklet of basic directions and hints. Each pattern is printed separately so you can just have the pages you need. I also have some directions on what I did with each tatted piece. There are color photos and diagrams for each of the tatted quilts. Everything comes in a zip top plastic bag.

Look for it at my Patternmart, etsy, and ebay stores in the next few days. I don't have it at my web site and won't until I get it moved. Remember geocities is closing so I'll be moving my web site. As long as you have it bookmarked as www.heislerscreativestitchery.com you'll find my site where ever I move it.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Finally Reopened Ebay Store!



Wow I have been so lazy this past summer. When I had trouble starting up the ebay store back in July I just said I'll try later. Then in August same thing, but last Friday I thought I better get on it since Halloween is next month and I have a lot of things to sell. I decided to change the name of the store to Creative Stitches which is also my ebay id. I'm also thinking about changing my business name to that too cause the stitchery part doesn't fit anymore since I quit selling embroidery supplies. I'll fix the link so you can have a look at my new store with all new graphics, like the one above. I love the simplicity of the black, white, and red!
Almost done (finally) with my first tatting booklet/pattern. I have 2 to finish and then take the pics. There are now 5 patterns in the booklet and I'm really pleased with how it's turning out.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Still Not Sewing!



Ok, so I'm still being lazy about sewing and reopening my ebay store so I thought I'd show you that I'm not just spending my time in front of the tv or reading. These are 2 more tags I made for my paint shop pro group. I'm really hooked on these scrap tags, in fact I've been spending way too much time over at www.lafleurstuffs.blogspot.com . Between her fantastic FREE kits and the links she has to other sites with more FREE kits I'm spending way to much time downloading. I must have over 100 by now!

Maybe by my next post I'll have something about the businness to report. :)





Saturday, May 9, 2009

Yahoo is closing Geocities, Now what?

First, the graphic above is another of my psp designs. I started with a mask provided by the Master's group and added scraps from various kits. Most are from a kit by Yvette at http://misfitsscrapz.blogspot.com/ They've got some nice things there. I don't know who made the fairy but if you do, please let me know so I can give the artist credit. If the artist doesn't allow use of their art I'll remove it.

Now for the big news. Yesterday when I went to log into my geocities account to do an update at my psp results site, back when I used to post everything I made, I found a message saying that they are going to close geocities. That means I have to move my store site which is spread over 3 accounts plus all the others I use for pictures and psp. I guess I'll finally move the store to godaddy where I bought my domain. I'm even thinking about buying another domain name to use for non-business stuff just to avoid ads. I'll keep you updated here and at the web site.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Look for July Doll Crafter & Costuming!


I know it's been awhile since I last posted. I've been fighting health probs and spending most of my time reading instead of designing and crafting like I should be doing. Yesterday I receievd 2 free issues of Doll Crafter & Costuming July 2009 magazine. My pattern for flower ladies is in it! They did a great job of using a lot of the picture jpgs I sent. I really think pictures help so much with directions. Now I just hope the readers like them.
I'm still working or should I say ignoring the rabbit patterns I've been working on since Feb. and the tatting patterns. I lost so much time because we were having trouble with the computer. We thought it might be a virus but it turned out the IE7 I installed wasn't downloaded right so it installed bad. Now I'm back to IE6 and I think I'll stay with it.

I am still taking Paint Shop Pro classes and enjoy making things so I thought I'd post 2 of the graphics I made. We were given things for an egypt based scrap so I thought I'd do one using the title of a book I just finished. The Elizabeth Peters books are fun mysteries set in the late 1800's to the early 1900's. I really like the butterfly tag and have been thinking about designing new graphics for my web site similar to it.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

It may be St. Pats but I'm thinking rabbits!


Here I am, finally back to posting something and can you believe it, I'm down with a cold again! I've really had it with this winter, I just keep going from being sick to a few weeks of feeling a bit better to getting sick again. Will be glad to see summer and hope for no summer colds.

The pic above are of the heads I've made for the rabbit pattern I'm designing. I know thay look more like people heads but the rabbits I'm making are more like rabbit people. I tea-stained the bodies last night and got a real prim look. I love how the staining is all uneven on the heads. It will probably take a few days for them to dry because I don't want to darken the staining so I'm not going to put them in the oven to dry.

Update on ebay store: still haven't reopened it yet. I know I had said I was going to reopen at the beginning of March but I just haven't gotten around to it. Read on yahoo and at ebay that more changes are going to happen as they are finally admitting they can't compete with Amazon and are going back to what they did best, auctions. Who knows what kind of craziness this is going to cause but I think I'll just sit a while and watch.


Have heard back from editor at Doll Crafter & Costuming magazine. She's asked for an opening paragraph so I guess they will be publishing my flower ladies pattern but I still haven't received a contract. Maybe they don't send one, they just send a check?


Started taking Paint Shop Pro classes again at http://www.artistrypsp.com/ so I could learn more about the version 9 I'm using. I realized I bought a bootleg copy at ebay last year and a new version would have come with a user guide. I really thought it was a new one some guy was selling. I was searching for a book to use with it at Amazon when I came across a few of the manuals for sale. I bought one and LOVE it! This was one of the reasons I loved JASC, the original company that owned Paint Shop Pro. I don't think I'll ever buy one of the newer Corel versions because I don't think they really care about psp or it's users the way Jasc did.




Happy St. Patrick's Day! Right click and steal it if you want. The tutorial can be found at http://www.designsbykoko.com/ but I did my own thing with the tubes.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

What's going on around here!

No pictures since I'm not finishing anything, I just keep starting new projects. Well I did finish a few things. I knitted myself new mittens and a neck scarf. I found the directions in the Jan. Living magazine. I'm also making crocheted squares for an big afghan. When I get tired of the big stuff I've been making tiny hearts to include in packages when I sell something. It's a change from the snowflakes I enclosed in Dec and Jan.

I just finished dragon parts for a friend. Go to thecopperdragon to see my friend Andrea's great stuff. She has me sew and stuff the dragons, then she puts them together and adds the finishing touches.

Now that's done I'll be getting back to the tatting patterns and dolls. This afternoon I worked out a pattern for a new fairy. I still haven't drawn out the rabbit I designed. So much to do and so much time wasted playing games over at msn.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Ice and Snow Storm!

What a day! First rain turned to ice and now it's snowing. I think I've shoveled more snow this month than all of last winter.

I'm working on a new pattern with 4 tatting patterns in it. Instead of publishing all of my tatting designs in book form I decided to do them as patterns like my doll ones. Easier to keep the price down since I use so many color photos.

Been feeling lazy, no sewing, only doing a lot of reading and tatting. I've made about 4 dozen snowflakes to include in packages I send out to customers. So if you order from me I'll probably include a snowflake at least until March. If you don't get one, sorry I may have forgotten.

Got a "booth" opened at http://www.bonanzle.com . Just search for creativestitches. When I get more than 2 things up I'll put a link here to it. We're all hoping this is the site to do as well or better than ebay. No auctions, it's set up like etsy but calls the stores boothes. Have a look you may find something you want!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

New Blog Links & More

I decided it was time to add some blog links. The newest are from friends at my ebay group SEHA.

I'm having a 10% off Christmas items at my ebay store! It will last until the end of the month and then I'll remove all Christmas things until Nov. In case you're wondering I don't put the Halloween items on sale. Just sold 3 of my Halloween dolls. The green witch and cat, the mardi gras/pierot cat, and one of the half cat doll witches. YEA! Thanks so much Jennifer!

Still planning on closing the store for Feb. so I can do a lot of updating. I love the brown and blue but the colors always look awful with my holiday doll listings. I'm planning on doing it over in black and white like my etsy store. Same with my web site. I'm finally tired of the blue, lace and pearl buttons so I just need to take the time to work on new graphics for everything.

Have been leaving many of the groups I belong to at yahoo and ebay. I just don't feel like spending the time it takes to check in all the time. I wish I could find a group at ebay for my folk art and art dolls but I just haven't found one that I want to join that's taking new members. Plan on leaving my mini bear group at the end of the month. Seems stupid to pay a membership fee when I don't participate in the group.

Great News------ I was contacted by Doll Crafter & Costuming magazine!!!!!!!!!!!!
They are interested in printing one of my designs. I actually submitted it by email last year and didn't hear back from them but I've found this is normal for the magazine industry. I've even had magazines pay me for a design and then never get around to using it! It's much harder to sell designs now than when I first started in the late 80's, not as many doll magazines.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

It's a New Year and I'm still Sick!


Wow! It's been so long since I last posted. I lost a filling before Thanksgiving, got the stomach flu at the beginning of Dec, a week later went to get the cap on my tooth I needed and ended up getting a cold from the dental assistant. The regular flu arrived a few days after Christams to add to the cold. I'm still fighting the cold, one day I'll feel like it's going away and then the next day I'm back to coughing and blowing my nose.

I did get a few things finished in Dec. like this angel and the other dolls I posted here, but I never did finish 3 santa elves, a snowman and a candy witch. I've just packed them away with the 2 halloween dolls I didn't finish to get to in the summer or fall.

I thought about closing my ebay store for 2 months but I was so sick on Dec. 31 I never got to it so I decded to keep it open this month and close it next for a month so I can make some changes. I also thought about closing my Patternmart account as not much sells there but after going over my sales I decided to stick it out so I could keep the links to the download PDF files on my site. I've been doing a bit of work at the esty store. I'm adding the pdf patterns that are too large for patternmart.

Found a new place to sell, http://www.bonanazle.com/ . I'll be putting more things there as I end listings at ebay. I'm creativestitches there as I thought it best to stay with the same name as ebay and etsy.