Craft-seller inspiration

One of my all time favorite magazines from the UK is http://www.cardmakingandpapercraft.com/magazine/craftseller  I happened to find a copy at a book store here in the states May 2012 issue and on the very front was Party bunting and celebrate British Crafts. Page 9 detailed how to make Union Jack Bunting. I created some of my own designs, and put together these pillows, for sale in my etsy shop (you can find the link to that on the side)

 Page 60 of the craft seller magazine!

Aprons

While my husband was unemployed I found a cute little shop in Flat Rock NC to feature some of my items. I was really nervous about asking people to have my things in their shop... but well It went something like this. 

I friend' ed a bunch of little places on FB asked them to check out my Madi Sweet and Sassy on FB and check out my etsy store to see if it was something they would have in their shop.  I got a few offers but most of the shops wanted rent PLUS a commission on my items. Seemed too risky for me.  I finally settled on a shop that charged 20% of what I would sell.  They did not sell a whole bunch of items but I did manage to snag a few followers and end up selling more on my Etsy store. I also got quite a few custom orders for aprons and such.  The next few photos represent some custom aprons, a pattern I came up with on my own and a pattern from my friend in Australia http://louisestuart.typepad.com/ she has this blog here and this Amazing APP here http://academyapps.com/

  this pattern I am attempting to make into a dress pattern for summer..

  i should have ironed this one first.. it is a Louise pattern

 my labels.

  another  pattern

  I loved the biker chick fabric on this one!! HOT

 who doesn't love betty Boop?

 pin up girl half apron.. why YES!

 my favorite toile apron!

  Perfect for the fall festival!

Enjoy the views please feel free to ask questions.

long boards! an Unemployment twist.

While my husband was out of work, we spent a good amount of our "dates" out at the book store. 

We happened to pick up a Make Magazine while we were there and it had several "crafty" unique ideas in it that I LOVED. Since he was unemployed we needed some Christmas gift ideas for our son. 

These are just some of the boards he made from the idea from Make Magazine http://makezine.com/

  I thought they were super fantastic and cost a little bit of money for father and son bonding! 

I love http://makezine.com/ for this!! just LOVE!

London Calling!

London calling anyone? 

 This funky beach bag was put together in one afternoon. 

Its all ready to take to the pool this summer. The handles I found in a drapery thrift store, used as tie backs. The fabric both outside and inside I also got in a thrift store, for 20.00 I still have 9 yards left of each. 

This will be truly a one of a kind pool bag for us! After all London has been calling me .....

Unemployment/ Redundant

So one year ago today my husband lost his job, and as you all know I have been a Stay at home mum for many many years.  I decided to shift my blog to a bit about what we did to help those of you that may be facing a job loss, from one income to NO income, except for that unemployment insurance that doesn't even pay for groceries for a family of 4. I will be posting it over some time as he was out of work for 9 months. Thankfully we both now have jobs but you will have to read on to find out how and when that happened.

I love in Australia that they call it Redundant when you lose your job, sounds much more positive than unemployed.


This was me pretty much as I found out. That is what I felt like.  But instead I prayed, and spent a lot of time having Faith.

The very first FIRST thing We did was UPDATE RESUME"S and well mine was a bit of a task because as I said I hadn't worked in a LONG time.  I used to do resumes for my old job as a social worker so I pretty much knew how to do one and what looked good. I did send it around to several friends of mine that still had jobs asking if they would look at it, review it and let me know.

My husband well he updated his resume, put it out there on Linkedin and Twitter, and let all of his colleagues know.  Then we Got our "ducks" in a row to speak. We were not going to have insurance so the first thing I did was contact the state, the children qualified for the state care, but we did not. Rather than pay the HIGH HIGH fees for Cobra we the grown ups,  just went with out. (Risky )

The next thing we did was to call our Mortgage company who worked with us on lower payments, for 6 months..... ( what we did after that will be in a later blog).

Then I cut out all non - essential things, ie, swim team, and started selling all kinds of things on Ebay.
I also RE- Vamped my ETSY store, and spent several days asking for help on making things look better on the ETSY blogs.

I spent HOURS at the library looking for books on job loss, job finding, resume's,  Linkedin,  Social blogging,   I had not yet sought advice from friends nor let too many people know.

I cut out all Races which means if I ran it would be free or just for running. Something I was not used to doing.

stay tuned.