My Friend In Kyoto Is Having A Sale

I met my friend in Kyoto via the SewMamaSew Blog.
We have so much in common with her growing up near where I live now. Her family lives in Oregon but she met and married a Japanese dude man over 25 years ago.

She has lived in Tokyo as well as other cities in Japan. She now makes her home in Kyoto which I visited a year ago in March of 2015.

She is in the process of building a house in Kyoto which is seriously different than building a house in Oregon. She blogs about it occasionally - the frustration of wanting a bathroom counter at "high" american standards instead of the lower japanese standard.

We both like to sew. And any other handcraft, for that matter. We love nature. When she travels back to the states to see her family, they make a beeline to camp out at Detroit Lake and make a family reunion of it.

She's having a sale in her etsy store this August of 20% off. Which is a really good deal.

Featuring many items made of Japanese fabrics, she can make you anything. She's that amazing. She usually adds something special to the package and will add Japanese stamps (better variety than in the states) to reflect your interests. I often see airplane stamps on my envelopes.  Packaging is definitely an awesome superpower of hers.

The sale code is AUGUST20. Her store is called CraftyTokyoMama on etsy.

One item she makes is well-made shopping totes - Tight 'n Tidy Totes. I have two and they have lasted quite well. I keep one rolled up in my purse for amazing garage sale luck. Some of the people running sales are so amazed at my tote bag filled with goodies that they start offering me discounts right and left. lol


I notice her store is at 883 sales today. I had a goal of 1000 sales by Christmas last year and reached it in January 2016. I am passing this goal along to her.




Janine makes and sews Japanese Notebooks, book covers, shopping totes, handbags, etc.
She also knits and crochets.



I bought this adorable hedgehog fabric from her.
She also sells some of the amazing japanese fabrics she finds.

 Here is my garage sale bag I keep rolled up in my purse.
It easily unfolds to a large size tote.
I get the best deals when I use this bag.

Even if you can't make up your mind what to buy, could you show Janine some etsy "Heart" love? Just hover over the heart on each photo in her etsy shop and tap on it. This "hearting" really helps move things up the queue in the etsy algorythms. (thanks!)

CraftyTokyoMama on etsy. Use Coupon code AUGUST20 throughout the month of August to get 20% off your purchase.

I would like to see her get to  1000 sales too.

Camouflage

I did sew today.

A customer order for  a CD Organizer that fits on a car sun visor.
She wanted Pink Camouflage. I received the fabrics Thursday and sewed two CD organizers and one Zippy pouch.

Aren't these cute?

I'm not much of a pink girl but hey - if it's in camo, it's awesome.

They are now  in my new etsy store. Part of my future business plan involves more sewing. My RunningWithNeedles etsy shop is filled with vintage sewing treasures. I felt like I was dumping my handmade items in there. This year,   I opened RunningWithHandmade, my second (*third) shop back in January, getting all my finance/organizational ducks in a row.

It's been slow going as I got seriously overwhelmed by not only my business plan, but the usual culprits of work, parents/family, and health issues all deciding to flare up as well.

So, I stalled.

 I'm pretty good with outlining the steps necessary to move forward.
Breaking down the big picture and organizing the flow.

This big picture is big.

I had to take a step back and wonder if it is too much. It has to do with retiring from work and how will I earn a paycheck big. Dealing with family issues that I will be more responsible for when I quit my current job.

I got depressed about, well, everything.
Which led me to getting sick with the worst spring flu ever this last week.
Which also led me to talk to someone, actually several someones.

It helped. having the downtime, getting feedback. I have a family history of depression and I think we all experience it at times. My older sister is hip-deep in it right now. She acknowledges she is depressed but can't seem to find her way out.

I'm working overtime the next couple of weeks so it preys on my mind. I can't help her right now.
I have to help myself first. Which is something my voodoo-hippie doc tries to imprint into my brain cells. If I over-extend myself, I get really sick.

So- what to do?

Ask for help. Put on hold things that don't need to be done today. Minimize your outside commitments. Ask for help.


I feel better in my head about my own situation. I know my on-going business plan is to my benefit. I know that we, as a family, will figure out how to help my sister.

Because of my auto-immune issues, I try to live my life as if I won't be able to do everything I want to do before my disease gets the better of me. Do the best I can. Every day. Try something new. Keep engaged.

 

***second etsy shop is RunningWithAirplanes which I never stocked as I've never had enough time in the day to do it all.

Winnings

I won a couple of giveaways lately.

I won $25 of Superior thread during Elm Street Quilt's BagIt series in December. It took me several weeks to where I could peruse the thread pages at Superior Threads to decide what to get.

In the end, I picked three serger cones to try and step up my serger thread game - I'm prone to using what's already threaded - as in black cones or white cones. By just changing the upper looper cone, I can add some pizazz.

The small spool is King Tut Quilting thread - made in Japan of longer staple cotton. It's a variegated thread that is very pretty to me.

It will, knowing me, take about four years to actually open the plastic wrap and use this. I have a penchant for new, shiny things and sometimes, you just have to pet new things for a bit while the perfect project percolates up to the surface.

 I didn't win the zippers - this etsy store, ZipIt,  is my personal fave for ordering zippers. They come *instantly* within two days and they always provide a free zipper pull for fun.

 SewMamaSew hosts a giveaway series in November - Handmade Holidays where you can see new sewing tutorials and also comment to win crafty books each day.


I won the new Cath Kidston book, SEW!, and it's a delight to drool over the pages and dream.

 My final pics are of a dish towel, I literally, figuratively, stumbled over at Fancy Tiger Crafts.

I wandered into the site from elsewhere, and found this $7.95 dish towel of awesomeness.


Cotton, printed with sewing and crafting notions. You have to pay shipping but it's still cheaper than the pineapple dish towel I bought in Hawaii. Or the ones my DD buys me from Alaska. I might have a thing for dish towels.

My significant other tends to wipe his mouth and hands first and then wash them (guys.)

My towels gets used wrongly so I need a lot of them. I love picking them up at estate sales for a buck (50 cents even) from that persons' travels around the world. Touristy towels tend to be pricey originally and made of linen and cotton.


I bought one to check quality. These may be bought again to use as gifts. Who doesn't need a new dish towel?

1000 Customers on Etsy And Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to my awesome customers on etsy.
I looked at my etsy stats last fall and was quietly surprised that I was so close to 1000 sales since I  opened the sh0p in 2009. I put a concerted effort into realizing my #1000 goal and reached it January 20th.

My customer was ecstatic that I had the vintage pattern she had been searching for and replied, "OMG! Jupiter luck again! That's amazing and I'm so glad I am your 1000th order! Thank you for making this order free! And, thanks to you having this pattern, I can unleash my creative potential. May you have many more thousands of sales! :)"

Jupiter Luck!

Jupiter Luck received everything here FREE for being my 1000th customer.

Missy Jupiter Luck ordered a pattern bundle and I enclosed some sewing goodies as well as some Hawaiian zipper pulls & notepad. I made the zippy bag on right a couple months ago with some japanese silk kimono scraps and put everything inside. On the left-hand side of the photo below a pattern,  I made a quick pocket tissue cover with some fabric I bought in Oahu at Fabricmart.

I was thinking about stopping at the dollar store to see if they had any bells and whistles to put inside the package, but I'm afraid I am still on Hawaiian time and it's all buttoned up and sent now.


I have some of the best customers on Etsy. I've sold online for many years - since before ebay started. Etsy customers truly appreciate hand made and love vintage.
*****************************************************

While in Hawaii, I did a giveaway. "How much is a simple 5" x 7" zippy pouch?

It was lined, it did have a strap. Whoever guessed closest to how much that puppy was going for would win something.

I had guesses of $22.00, $19.95, $28, $35 & $39.95.



A no-special-fabric zippy pouch with strap
is $45.00
in Haleiwa, Oahu.



**** And our winner is  ****

$39.95 - I'll take the Macadamia nuts! LOL! You lucky person! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

I'll be sending Teresa some Macadamia Nuts tomorrow.

Thank you for playing my pricing game!

Friendship Quilt Pincushions

I thought I had already blogged about this estate sale find. All of $1 - that's right - one dollar!
The quilt was in pretty poor condition but it was a friendship quilt.
Back in the 1930's, 40's and even into the 50's, these quilts were very popular.

Each lady hand-embroidered their block with their signature done in their signature embroidery stitches. Embellished or not.

This particular quilt was done mostly by ladies from Oregon (swoon) in the 1930's using feedsack fabrics and tiny little hand stitches throughout. No machine piecing done.

If I hadn't of bought it, it would have gone to a landfill.

I sat on it for about a year before thinking of a way to upcycle it into something 'new'. 

All of the blocks were the same, hand-stitched six-sided stars with hexagons created  in-between. There is a fancy name for this block . . .maybe one of my readers knows it?

Seaside, Oregon. Complete with fishing boat and fish jumping. A crab! and a seashell.
Some ladies embroidered their town in addition to the date.
 This block was age-spotted but I couldn't leave it out of my pincushion collection.

 Cutting out 6 inch circles, preparatory to making the pincushions.

I gave the remaining holey quilt to a friend. There is still some usable parts of feedsack but I was done with it.

I made 20 pincushions.
Stuffed with lavender and polyester stuffing.
Finished off with floss and buttons from my grandmother's stash.
For sale in the etsy shop.

 More information on Friendship Quilts.

Ahh-Choo Giveaway

Pencil Girl wanted a tissue holder. Do you?

Any of the above or comment below with your preferred color, stripe, print, dots, lace, airplane,  or ?

I'm more than happy to make one and post it to you. These are for standard USA pocket tissues with the opening running end to end. I know the japanese tissue packs are thinner than this holder.  I'm not sure about Europe. USA pocket tissue pack is about 1/2" thick (1.27 cm)

I'll be sending them inside out (flatter) without the tissue pack.

I'm mostly using scraps, except for some Tula Pink rabbits that snuck onto the cutting mat.

 Rusty and I went outside to smell things - a few raindrops are very welcome to our parched yard.
My zucchini I planted in late July are coming on strong - I swear I looked yesterday and missed the big honker in back.

My pumpkins and cucumbers are blooming crazy with little 'fruits' starting next week. Everyone else planted at the normal time in June and had orange pumpkins in August. We had about four months with no rain this summer.

By planting late, I'll have orange pumpkins in October. Plus I was super lazy about the garden with too much overtime and no rain and dragging hoses around.

Anyway - leave me a comment or contact me directly at k8hobbies (At)yahoo (dot)com if you'd like a free tissue holder.
The leftovers will get listed into my etsy shop.
4:42pm - I sewed some more up this last hour:::

backsides

...and four more last night.....

Custom Sewing Orders

I love my etsy shop. I've sold online for a thousand years, I was there when Ebay started.

I love all the options etsy allows me in building a business. I can communicate directly with customers. I can direct customers to my blog/store/website without etsy getting their panties in a twist. I can set my prices to reflect what I am worth and more importantly, etsy has the buyership to support handmade.

I think the fees are fair (unlike Ebay's 15%) because I certainly could not sell my sewing  locally for two bucks. I helped run a Christmas bazaar with some friends and I had to source my materials very carefully - that's where I learned to buy from garage sales and estate sales and to make do from my stash.

Etsy has been instrumental in me dreaming the dream.

Customers have an easy option of requesting customization's and this was one I actually made money on for once. A little while ago, another customer contacted me about making something in LSU colors.  I probably made enough to cover my cost in buying fabric as Oregon is no where near Louisiana. This second customer seridipitiously also wanted something for LSU and all the materials were in my stash. Love it.
I made her a bonus tissue holder because it just takes scraps and they are super easy as an add-on.
Customers are the best part of Etsy. You want to wrap it pretty and add little bonuses.

A CD Holder for the car visor plus a Tissue Holder in coordinating LSU colors.