• Bad Mom,  Bug,  Family Matters,  Shop Talk,  Tis the Season

    regarding my lack of web presence

    envelope elf

    Greetings from the Shipping and Receiving Department! You might as well call my living room the north pole because there are toys being made (flash cards) and there are elves. My elves just happen to not be very helpful.

    "helping"

    Baby Bug thinks it’s great fun to empty my warehouse size box of envelopes, 250 at a time and the cats? They think all these new flat surfaces with paper on them are special beds just for them.

    Lily

    Yesterday I had to call in reinforcements. The Grandmas. It was a two Grandma day. The Grandmas are great. They might not be good at peeling stickers and ironing on decals but they are very good at playing with Baby Bug and making gravy.

    Have I ever told you about Toby’s undying love for gravy? In his book, it is one of my fatal flaws that I am not fascinated by the process of which one makes gravy. Ugh. I just can’t be bothered. I don’t know how to make it and who needs all those extra calories anyway? Apparently, Toby does because he’s always asking me to watch his mom and learn how to make it. I’ve tried but I’ve been a dismal failure so far.

    I’d much rather be peeling stickers and ironing on decals. How can I think about the art of mixing flour and oil to the right consistency when I have characters in my head just dying to get out and be illustrated? Sigh. I keep forgetting that he pays me to be the housewife and mom and he barely tolerates my little side business I have going on. But that doesn’t mean I can’t pan the gravy job off on his mom when she is here!

    One Grandma had to go home but my mom is still here. I think I might force her to stay all week so I can get caught up with work (tis the season!) I’ll have to take more pictures today. The ones I took are pretty pathetic. No wonder everyone always complains about being too busy to blog. I guess this is what that feels like.

    Shop news: Orders are being filled. Bags are here and first set of 50 cards are printed. Second set will arrive today! I’ll post when I send out the first batch.

  • BIG news,  illos,  Shop Talk

    News from the Shop!

    wheeeeee!

    Wow. What can I say? I’m wordless… almost. I am never wordless but I just don’t know where to begin.

    First: Thank you. Thank you to everyone who shopped in my shop today and bought alphabet cards. You guys rocked my world. Thank you.

    It was a bit of a risk for me to get these printed. I hate spending money that I don’t really have but there seemed to be so much interest. I seriously wavered on it. I had no idea a shop would be so successful. I mean, I knew everyone wanted them but I was worried the price was too high, etc, etc, etc.

    So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

    the bag

    Second: I’m shipping out gift tags daily but the flash cards will not go out until the end of this week. The muslin bags are being sewn as we speak. I cannot thank my Oregonian seamstress sister-in-law enough. She is working so hard making these so nice! If you think of it, drop her a line and tell her she rocks. Because she does. I think I need to give her a raise or two.

    I just put an order in to the printer for another set of 50. I can’t believe these sold so quickly. As of 9 pm there are still 17 sets left but they are selling like hotcakes! Who knew! Apparently you guys did and I was clueless. I hope my sister-in-law can keep up because I think her bags really make the package.

    Shipping of the gift tags seems to be going well but I did find one extra tag on the floor after I had mailed my first batch off. So if you ended up with 11 tags instead of your proper 12, email me and I will fix you up. I’m so sorry about that.

    I’m kind of intimidated by all the orders I need to fill this week. I’ve had a few mix ups already on my etsy shop (sent poor Davenport the Lumpy Cat all the way to the east coast when he was supposed to go one county over) but thankfully my customers are really super nice and very understanding.

    If I screw up any of your orders in any way, please let me know and I will find a way to make it right. I’m going to be very careful and only work on one envelope at a time. It shouldn’t be that hard since I’m only really selling the tags and the cards. But who knows. I’m so right-brained sometimes, I can’t even count.

    roundy corners!

    But that’s okay, because we have rounded corners! Round corners make everything okay.

    Third: I still need to make a downloadable pdf. I would do that tonight but I am swamped! It’s the holidays and I have several Christmas-card jobs I’m working on for clients! Ack! I think I will get the pdf done tomorrow. I have some questions first though.

    I’ve made some changes on the cards that are for sale. They now feature the lower case and the upper case together. It would be easiest for me to offer that same layout as a pdf. BUT I know some people have been diligently collecting the freebies and might be missing only one letter. I’d hate to mess up your set with one card that has both upper and lower case. At the same time I want to give you the most bang for your buck. Leave me some comments or emails so I can decide what to do. I could do both but that will take even more time.

    And lastly, maybe there is someone new here and has no idea what I’m talking about! Hi! Nice to meet you. Here is a link.

    Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and Happy Shopping! I will be doing my best to make sure your purchases are tip-top and timely. And if it says “sold out” click back later. I will print more as long as there is a demand.