Chirp, Chirp!

Love Chirp by yumiyumi

I know I've been a little quiet lately so I thought I better catch you up on all that's been happening. I'm still here working as always. I've just been sidetracked by a few events in my life.

Child Memorial by PhenomeGNOME

The first one being a miscarriage about a month ago. My husband and I were expecting our first baby, but nature took it's course and things didn't go as planned. I was only 7.5 weeks along and was just starting to tell my family about it. Some had to hear the bad news within days of finding out. Others didn't even know I was pregnant yet. Surprisingly I wasn't as upset as I thought I would. It was no doubt heartbreaking and I did need time to grieve the loss, however, I thought I'd be much more devastated. I really owe my grandma for inheriting so much emotional resilience. She is such a strong woman and I think that has rubbed off on me.

I truly believe God was with me through all of this because about the the time miscarriage took place a cactus flower began to develop. One week later it blossomed. One of our bedroom windows opens to the sun porch, so this is what I saw when I woke up that morning. After a week of doctor visits and feeling so emotionally distraught I felt like God was giving me new hope. I found it very encouraging and uplifting.

Once I was finally physically healed enough to get out of bed I was more motivated than ever to get back to work. In between orders and custom requests I decided to get a head start on this years Christmas stockings. Due to the popularity of my stockings last year I decided after last season I would be much more prepared. So far I have 51 stockings complete with 12 different designs and 8 different colors. Four of the designs are the same as last year, as seen in these photos. I certainly expect to sell more than 51, but that is all the fabric I could afford to buy right now. Plus I have more fabric reserved in case some designs are more popular than others. I'm considering wholesaling them too. Once I work out my policies I will announce more about it later.

 

 

Before working on stockings I started developing basic children's patterns to design clothes from. I bought a book that gave most of the measurements I needed. I had to guess on a back measurement, but my guess was wrong so I'm left with patterns that are much too wide. If you have a kid between the sizes of 3T-12, I would greatly appreciate a post in the comments with their clothing size, gender and back measurement as indicated in the photo. It's a very precise measurement so stick to the closest 1/8th inch if you can. Thank you very much to those who are willing to do this.

Lastly I'd like to remind you all I do custom work too. I've been getting many requests for custom banners. Usually this is a Happy Birthday banner with a separate name banner. Take a look at my banners section for more information. 

Since I don't know if too many people realize this I also do custom embroidery. At the end of this week you will find blank baby bibs and newborn onesies for personalization in my shop. The price listed will be for a single word or phrase. You can also send me a clip art image and have that embroidered on the items. These charges will be outlined in the listing.

That about covers everything that's been going on in the last few months.
Feel free to comment or ask questions about anything I've mentioned.