ThreadAbell

 I feel so honored that I was asked to participate in a blog hop - the post from my friend Kim at Fall Hill Bead and Gem will be hard to beat, but here goes!: What are you working on?    Muppets, Muppets and more Muppets... in my craft room, I have bits and pieces of Animal, Kermit, Fozzie, Rowlf and the Swedish chef cut up and lying in little piles. Sounds morbid, right? But the month of June has been my busiest EVER, especially with my Etsy shop. I was commissioned by a customer to decorate their nursery Muppet-style (is there any other style, really?) and every day is a new order for something amazing!  When I say I have all of those characters in little pieces, I do that because many of my items feature a sewing technique called applique . In the fabric arts, you can create ANY picture you want by deconstructing it and then layering them piece by piece. I use a wonderful quilting book for my designs, which gives detailed instructions for creating many of...

 "Do you want to build a snowman?"  Or, more recently, do you want to sew an Elsa dress?  Whether you have children or have listened to the radio in the past 6 months or seen one of million sing-a-long Frozen videos on YouTube, you KNOW that the Frozen phenomenon is huge. No pun intended (really), but the movies' popularity has snowballed  (heh heh) into crazy obsession for both parents and children alike.  I should have known that my friend Noelle would be the first one to ask for an Elsa dress! I wish I were better at staying on top of trends and holidays... but in all honesty, I never have that stuff done in time. I know the *smart* crafter is already sewing Christmas stockings and decorations this time of year, but I am still in that day-to-day, complete each order kind of schedule.  Our search for an adequate pattern at the craft store was frustrating... nothing Frozen. And nothing that could be adapted to look just right. Yes, I am sure Disn...

... One is silver and the other gold!  (If you were singing along, then you were a Girl Scout. That was one of the songs we used to sing at camp.... in fact, I am almost positive that I have a cross-stitch sampler somewhere with the lyrics on it!)  Anywho, isn't that a good mantra, though? Girl Scout or not - "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold."  Or in a more relatable tone: Don't be flaky. Appreciate everyone you know!  We transition through our lives having friends to different degrees: babies don't have "friends". They, at best, sit next to other babies without freaking out. But once we enter school - friends are EVERYTHING. This continues through college when friends help you gain the freshman 15 and haul your intoxicated butt safely home from parties. Then, in adulthood, we take jobs where sometimes you can't be friends with the people you spend most of your waking hours with. You are either the sup...

 Here I am, working on a new "essential" part of my business, blogging at 11:00 on a Saturday night. These are my hours - productivity at its' finest... or most desperate, I'm not sure. Working from home, and working within the framework of a busy, hungry family often leads to late nights either at the computer or sewing machine. Or cutting out patterns on the living room floor.  I don't mind staying up past the normal bedtime... sometimes my brain doesn't really wake up until after 11 pm. I feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle detailed tasks. But it doesn't leave me a very pleasant person in the morning.  I have always worked a wide variety of hours in my work history: overnights as a supervisor in 24 room service, God-awful 6 am shifts in hotel restaurants, weekend nights almost always and only once have I worked in an office. And even that one was open until the evening and on Saturdays. My husband also works quirky hours: always has, always will. ...

Ha!  What's easier than starting a business in a new city, with three small children and a very, very small budget? Many things, obviously! But I have to say that building my Etsy shop and ThreadAbell business from virtually nothing has been probably the most important aspect of success. It was either work hard or fail. And it still is every day.  If this was *easy*, I probably wouldn't be as motivated. I may not be ready to sell my brand to Martha Stewart crafts - but I am busier than I was a year ago. I am growing all of the time and each finished project is a new skill, new marketable item and one more notch in my confidence belt (weird analogy?). We all weird confidence belts, right?  So, yes, I spend many hours challenging my skills in the sewing room. I read frustrating patterns and use many a Youtube video to figure out sewing terms that are simply easier to SEE than to read. But I also have other resources and support that have helped make ThreadAb...

 Hi. This is my first "professional" blog post. I spent several years documenting my life (and my family's) as a Mommy blogger at Balancing on One Foot . Good times were had, funny stories were shared... and then my nightly writing time was replaced with nightly sewing time. That nightly sewing time morphed into several hours a day of sewing time, into an Etsy shop and into my certified home office/craft room. With three children and you know, the necessity to feed and care for them - I was certainly earning more money sewing custom quilts and Etsy orders than blabbing about my life as a "work from home" mother.  But I miss the blog. So often I sit at my sewing room, wanting to discuss the evolution of my business and how it fits (or doesn't on some days) into the rest of my life. The theme of my personal blog was all about "balance" - making sure that all of the different components of our lives get just the right amount of attention. How th...