Packages in the Mail

There are a lot of packages going in and out of the house here lately. 
I order most of my fabric online, and I often get multiple packages on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.  No matter how many packages that arrive in the mail, they are always so fun to open.  By the time they get there I have usually forgotten what I ordered.  So it is like Christmas to open them and see what wonderful surprises (usually fabric) are inside.  Scott thought he was being funny to capture me being silly while opening the new treasures...

Online business is GREAT!

Trends

I do not claim to be very on-trend by any stretch... I am just too lazy and frankly too thrifty to want to keep up with the ever-changing trends.  However, trends fascinate me.  Especially now that I am working with brides who are always very interested in the latest and greatest trends.  Have you seen a bridal magazine lately.  (OK beware, I am about to date myself...)  The colors are so very interesting... really they bring me back to the 80's!  (Though some say they are 60's colors... I wouldn't know...?)   Bright Orange, Lime Green, Hot Pink, Deep Purple... and the list goes on.  Oh, did I mention all of these colors can often be used in conjunction?  At first I wasn't sure about the trends, but they have grown on me.  Use the right fabrics with these colors and anything is possible.
What amazes... truly stuns me, is that I will often get multiple requests for the same color palette in the same few days.  I cannot tell you how many times this has happened.  It is like there is a new trend report every few days and all of the sudden every bride wants that to be her color palette.  It does make it nice when selecting fabrics as I can gently persuade brides to use similar fabrics and it helps keep my costs down.
One of my recent favorite trends is gray and yellow.  Actually I cannot stop getting orders for this color palette.  If I were getting married again I would use these colors.

Or there is the shades of gray...

Then I might be persuaded to use the robins egg blue and gray... I am very partial to this too...

The Barn Wood Chalk Board

In the previous post I mentioned the Chalk Board that Scott helped me create for my sewing room.  We had some barn wood that I had taken a few years ago from the barn that sat on the back corner of the 2 acres I grew up on.  It was a GREAT old barn that we used to play in!  And before my parents moved we took as much barn wood as we could for future creative uses.  (Sad note... we SHOULD have taken it all as the new owners tore the barn down and probably threw the wood away... EEK it makes me cringe to think of all that good wood thrown away)
I had used a couple pieces of this beautiful red barn wood for a little creative decoration for a number of years and finally decided to re-purpose it for this little project.
I just love my new little chalk board (never mind my terrible penmanship).  And never mind the terrible picture.. hopefully you get the idea. 

I am ashamed to say it has been two months since my last post.  Where does the time go?
It is now officially summer (well actually tomorrow is the first day of summer).  And it is HOT here!
Summer is the time for weddings, and boy don't I know it!  Each week I have more and more contacts from brides, and more and more orders.  I was feeling quite overwhelmed by it all for a while until my fantastic father helped me get my business tracking organized.  My wonderful husband also helped me create the perfect and stylish little chalkboard for the sewing room so that I can have my "to do" list right there in front of me. It is all coming together, and this business is flying!
On a recent Saturday (or was it Wednesday? The days meld together), I was busy fulfilling two orders that just happened to be using similar fabrics.  (That is another strange phenomenon- how I can have three different requests all in the same week for nearly the exact same color palette...another post to follow on that one!)
Anyway, I thought I would take some pictures of the madness (or as I like to call it- Organized Chaos) in the sewing room.

Insides and Outsides waiting to be put together

Waiting for their final seam...

All lined up and ready for their frames...

Standing pretty ready to be shipped. 


Am I the only one that thinks it would be kinda fun to get married again just to plan it and decorate it all over again...?

Just a few springtime flowers

In the busyness of creating so many custom orders I cannot stop coming up with new ideas.  In my spare moments this week (usually taking breaks from the mundane of creating multiples of the same clutch over and over) I researched fabric flowers online.  I re-created a few that I found.
What do you think of these springtime flowers?  Probably still a work in progress... just like me!

Too Busy to Post

You may remember that I mentioned a bride had contacted me to created custom clutches for her bridesmaids.  The first set of Hot Pink with white Polka-dot clutches (8 of them in all) were sent out weeks ago to one happy bride.  Since then the inquiries and the orders have not stopped coming in!  The first order inspired new "marketing" techniques and a new spin on my previous creations. 
Have I hit a niche?  Or is it due to the new, concisely organized sewing space? 
Whatever it is, I know in my heart of hearts that all credit goes to the Lord!  It is He that has given me the talents and passion to create!  It is He that directs my path and leads me to new creations and new business.  I am so thankful to the Lord for this business and I am beyond excited and so very fulfilled to see my long-time dream turning into reality.  Needless to say I have been busy.  I am so thankful for this busyness.  God is good!
Here are just a few of my most recent creations and custom orders:

New Work Space

I recently relocated my work space to a new room.  It is no small task to take an entire room of sewing and work space down to only part of a room.  One must be organized and minimalistic.  I was quite surprised to find that my new work space is not only functional it is quite efficient.  I wonder if less space is sometimes best?
New Work Space:

Old sewing room: can you say clutter???