The Legend of the Ruffled Christmas Tree Skirt

Hey everybody. I should probably tell you, there is no "legend."  But there is a story!


Who all was with me last year when I could TAKE no more and went on a (blogging) hiatus?  Anyone? Buehler...Buehler?

Well there's something I didn't show you that I really, really wanted to post about.  But I didn't, because I felt like, I shouldn't be doing things just "for the blog."  I wanted to start doing things for my family - just for my family - again.  And I have been.  And it's been really fun!

Anyway, now that I've been sufficiently de-toxed from the feeling of servitude to my blog (more accurately, let's be honest, now that ALL MY READERS HAVE ABANDONED ME FOR GOOD, except Uncle Bob - thanks Uncle Bob!  Love ya!  And Wendy and Molly too, so that makes 3 - and after this past weekend, a few more family members...), I may as well just spill it.

Last Christmas, I decided I wanted to really do something special for my family.  On our budget, though.  Which is usually, like, super-slim.  Unlike me, ever since I canceled my gym membership.  But as I was saying, I spent a whopping $0.00 on this.  I went through my fabric stash and scraps, and used what I could find.  I even dismantled a tote bag, cut it into strips and ruffled it.  No joke! Not too shabby, right?  (Although, if "time is money," then I probably could have paid off the house with how much time I spent doing this thing!)

I spent a week - every free moment I had, for a solid week - making our family a Christmas tree skirt.  You could say I was kicking it old school, because I didn't have my ruffling foot back then...(it reminds me of the days before we had ELECTRICITY.  Seriously, how did I ever tolerate ruffling everything by hand???)  

Anyway, the tree skirt!  I followed no tutorial, no pattern...I just did it.  I rarely "just do it."  I should do that more often because I love our tree skirt and I cannot wait to get it out again this year!

Immediately after finishing the skirt, in Scarlett O'Hara style, I vowed to never do a ruffle again.  It was a very dramatic moment.

Months later, I bought a ruffling foot for my sewing machine, and my whole quality of life improved. ;)

Fast-forward to today!

I want this one.

 I'm selling my "Tree Skirt 2.0" on Etsy - a few months ago, I worked on the design & construction to make it prettier, higher quality, and less time consuming to create.  Each one still takes a good bit of time, but nothing like the original one. 

I want this one, too.

There are SO MANY different color combos!  Every time I finish a new one, I think, "awww...I want this one!" 

And this one!

Lots of custom orders rolling in this weekend, the most blessed of all shopping weekends. Can you guess what I'll be doing tomorrow and Monday? 

Love that fruit!  I want this one too!

*****
Linking up this week!
www.sumossweetstuff.com
http://www.canoeridgecreations.com/

Some Recent Custom Embroidery

Hey, my Etsy Shop has been open for a little over 2 months now!  Overall I'm happy with how it's been going.  I've had a handful of sales, and I think I have a really great product - my ruffled Christmas tree skirts! - for this holiday season, which I hope to sell a lot of this month.  :)

And then on the other side of my shop, is the hand embroidery.  I started out just embroidering whatever I thought was pretty, and then narrowed it down to Scripture verses.  I am very open to custom orders in this category, and am starting to get some interest!

Listen to THIS crazy story!

Two days after I opened my shop - TWO DAYS AFTER - I got an email.  From Danielle Burkleo.  She blogs at a blog called Take Heart.  In her email, she said that she liked my shop, and asked if I'd be willing to make a custom embroidery piece for a fundraiser she was hosting for the organization LOVE 146.  LOVE 146's mission is to abolish child trafficking & exploitation.  How could I not get behind that?  She gave me a few general guidelines - basically, she wanted the 4 phrases that LOVE 146 embraces...

I finished the piece and sent the picture to my sister.  She thought the safety pin was weird.  I showed it to my husband.  He thought the safety pin was weird.  You, looking at this now!  You probably think the safety pin is weird.  Go read the story of how LOVE 146 got its name.  Heartbreaking.  It makes sense now, right?

So, I'm just really honored to have been asked to contribute something to this cause.  

Here is another custom piece I created, a few weeks ago:

It was fun to work on.  Love those colors! "Thessalonians" was kind of a pain to spell out, but what can you do.  ;)


Linking to:
Tatertots & Jello
Six Sisters' Stuff
It's Overflowing
DIY Showoff
Twigg Studios

I have lived and I have learned.

Ugggghhhhh.  I really hate "live and learn" moments. 

Here we go: and any of you more experienced Etsy sellers out there, feel free to give me a little advice!

So in my Etsy shop, among other things, I feature embroidery hoop art.  Mostly Scripture verses and things like that.  I design the layout myself, because as I found out early on, finding embroidery designs WITH permission to sell the finished product, is like finding a needle in a haystack!  Here's one of mine:

 
And another...

And in every one of these listings, I let people know that if they want a custom piece made, they can do that, too.  They can pick their own verse/color scheme/etc.  I've done one custom piece so far (pics to come!) and it was, you know, a nice transaction and all. 

So I got an Etsy message about a week ago from a perfectly legit-sounding person, wanting a custom piece.  We went back and forth about what verse she wanted, and she asked if she could see a sketch before she ordered.  I thought that sounded fair, so I worked up a design, watermarked it, and emailed it to her. 

Have not heard from her since.  

Ugh.  Did I fall for something?  What just happened???

The thing is, if it were me, I would also want to see a preview before I ordered.  So her request didn't send up any red flags. 

So...um...I don't know what to make of this. 

Opinions?  Speculations?  Advice?

When $12 feels like a million bucks

Do you know what this is?

It's my first Etsy sale!  

Oh joy, rapture!  My shop is one of the cool kids now! (Well, at least, I got invited to a party.)

Let's keep the good feelings going.  To celebrate the new UN-lame status of Gilbert Street Stitches, I'm offering free shipping for YOU, my readers, for the rest of the month of September.

Here's the coupon code: COOLKIDNOW.
And here's a link that will take you right to my shop.

Etsy vs. Lunch Lady Land

LONG STORY SHORT: I opened an Etsy shop!  Here it is:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/GilbertStreetStitch

just...LONG STORY:  Here is how I came to open my shop:

Last year, as some of you may remember, I did the "Nanny for 7 under 7" thing.  I remember my first day...walking into the house, wondering if I'd be able to get all their names straight by the end of the year.  I got introduced to the kids, and then I was alone...with the theme song of "Chuggington" playing (ominously? Can Disney Jr. sound ominous?  YES.  Yes it can.) in the background.  I remember thinking..."Oh My Gosh.  What am I doing???"   Now, lest anyone think that I had a terrible time and was a terrible nanny, don't get too excited.  I rocked my "Miss Rachel" job as best I could.  And I came to TRULY love each of those kids.  And it only took me till, like, April to remember all their names. (I joke!)

But it was not for me.

Here's the situation.  I have been a stay at home mom for most of the almost-9 years (whaa?) I've BEEN a mom.  People would say to me, "oh, I wish I could do that but we could just never afford it."  That used to irritate me so much.  Listen to me when I tell you, we were not living it up during those years.  Come to think of it, we're still not...DANG it!  Everyone's definition of "affording it" is different.  But we made it priority uno for me to be home with the kids, even at the expense of the lifestyle we would have liked to have.  There were very few vacations.  There were a lot of consignment store clothes.  There was very little "retail therapy" for me.  There was a lot of beans & rice.  There was a period of about a year and a half that I worked full time.   But otherwise, it's been me & the kids, here at home.

I really do have a point to all that...let me remember what it was...OH YEAH.  My point is, we did not sacrifice and struggle through those years up till now, only to have me go to work full time just because they're in school.  I could.  It would certainly be nice to have a second paycheck rolling in.  But what would the kids do during the summers?  That's what my dilemma boils down to: the summers.  What can I do, besides teaching, that would allow time off every summer?

So I was talking to my friend who works at our kids' elementary school, and she told me that there were some part-time substitute cafeteria jobs open.  I thought, hmmm...that'll work!  I came home and told DH, expecting him to say "hey, that'll work!"  Instead, he just looked at me funny and said, "Rachel, do you want to be a part-time substitute lunch lady?"  

I thought he had misunderstood what I was telling him.  I re-iterated what the hours and schedule would be like.  And he re-iterated: "But do you want to be a part-time substitute lunch lady?"  

(Are you getting visions of Chris Farley dancing around in knee-highs right now?  No reason.  Just wondering.)

So I said (paraphrased):  No, of course I don't really want to do that.  What's your point? 

And he said something that stopped me in my tracks.  He said, "I think your BEST chance of bringing some extra money in on that kind of schedule, is to start making things and selling them.  It's what you're good at, and you love it, and it's what you want to do."  

wow.

Knowing that I have full support in this...game-changing.  No longer do I have to sneak in bits of time here and there on the sewing machine, feeling like I should really be doing something more productive.  That time has now become my productive time.  I'm not at all used to it yet.  The kids are in school, and I'm in the process of figuring out my new schedule/routine. 

So anyway, that's the roundabout way of how my vast Etsy empire came to be. 

Uh, well not "empire," exactly...but I did get a few hearts on a few items, so...

And I don't think you have to have more than 20 items for it to be considered "vast," so I stand by that...

Oh, and I hope I didn't offend any lunch ladies.  In fact, if there are any from my kids' school reading this?  If you happen to see my son try to sneak past without getting any veggies on his tray, please go ahead and give him a big helping.  And tell him he can't be done until he eats at least 2 bites.  Thanks.

Venturing into Etsy

Yay, my Etsy shop is up and running!  I even figured out how to put a linky thing on the side of my blog.  I am sooooo not great at this whole "make your blog fancy and efficient" thing yet.  But I made a little progress today.  :)

Last night I finally listed some of my bags - I call them my "go-to" bags because they are really versatile.  I use mine a lot, and not just for knitting projects. 

that would be the cowl I've been working on for....forever, it seems

 I put together some really pretty color combos and am very excited about them!  It was fun to take pictures too.  Pics on Etsy are no joke.  If your picture stinks, there are like 10 million other listings for the same thing that people would rather look at.  I hope mine are OK, I did my best!

I just want to EAT this one, so fresh and citrusy

Pretty! 

love that lining

the contents of my (other) (one of many others) (too many) purses.  Usually there's more litter than useful items, but I cleaned it up just for you people.  Look at my cute new wallet!  I totally copied off of my friend Allena.  She has an aqua one and told me where she got it. 

So anyway, there you have it!  I have these bags, and some (knitting) stitch markers up right now.  Making stitch markers is so addictive!  I am having a hard time deciding on what to make.  I make so many things, it's hard to focus.

Knitted items are out...too time-consuming for me.  And personal.  I like to knit for my family & close friends, and myself of course.

Jewelry...in theory, I enjoy making jewelry.  In reality, I seriously have no eye for jewelry design.  So I think that's gonna be out, too. 

Sewn items, that's where I'm leaning.  Just not sure where I want to focus yet.  Suggestions?  (Yes, this is a thinly veiled plea for comments!)  Come on you lurkers, give me some feedback!  :)