Quarterly Donation total and shop news

The total tally for USO donation has been tallied and check is in the mail. We came in a respectable total of $53.00. Sales are down considerably from last year, not sure if all the changes that Etsy continues to make, in what they assure us is a more streamline approach, is having a impact or if it is the economy ? All I can continue to do is assure my Military customers that the tally is being kept and the donations are being made, USO is even giving away free items with the donations which I have decline and put the whole amount into helping our soldiers :)

For shop news, as I have made reference to above Etsy is making some very large changes to the site, if anyone has any issues making purchases or getting your messages about your custom orders to me, by all means email me @ gabbysquilts@yahoo.com, if they go missing on Etsy :( I can find them in that location. It seem trivial but I have gotten messages from customers that with all the changes their messages when sent bounce back to them.

New fabric, notions and patterns are still being loaded into the shop, but you will notice the largest change in the site when shopping for those items, it has been rumored that Etsy direcst you to Etsy Studio unless you directly type in the shop you are looking for. I have checked out their new site, in which we have been told that we supply sellers will have our items on there only sometime in the future, and I have to say good luck in finding anything, as of my last check search wasn't working and you had to go back to the main site to find the items you were looking for. Why they would have a site available where search doesn't work is beyond me, but this is Etsy we are talking about after all.

New for my military customers are luggage tags, still working on the prototypes but have a light weight one worked out and the supplies are coming in for the heavy duty one in the coming weeks.
Here is a picture of the light weight one:

The biggest difference between the two will be the weight of the tag, this one will have the option of having the name embroidered on both sides and is 2 strips of material sewn together with the luggage clip at one end and a metal band clip at the other.
The heavy weight on will only have the option of having the name on one side and the material will be sewn to a heavy weight cotton webbing with the luggage clip at one end and the metal band on the other.
I am thinking the lighter one would be good for carry on baggage, tote bag, or back packs. The heavy weight one would definitely be strong enough to go onto the actual check on luggage totes and military tactical bags and back packs. My son was actually home for a visit as I was working out the prototype and was impressed with the lightweight one so far, and of course left with the instructions that when the prototype of the heavyweight one was worked out I had to send it to him for his approval, LOL :)

Well that is it for now, I'll be back soon with any new updates and or pointers on how to navigate the new changes on Etsy, thats if I can figure them out before they make any more changes :)

Have a nice Memorial day, and remember this is Military Appreciation month so remember to thank them for serving.

First Quarter Shop News

January and February donation tallys have been done, yes you read that right, both months, this is how far behind I am falling as I try and juggle the two Etsy shops and a part time job :)

January total was $11.50
February was $29.10

Numbers are lower then last year but still respectable given the economy.

New inventory is arriving to be loaded into the etsy shops and the craft fairs have begun for the year so we are making items for them as well. The ones that have sent confirmation have been loaded to the web site under the tab labeled Craft Fairs 2017, www.GabbysQuilts.com, we have a bunch of new ones coming up but no confirmation on them yet so they have not been listed, yet :)

Eagerly awaiting spring and some warm weather so that we can start turning the garden and got a phone call from my son the other day that he is attempting to come home for a visit soon so that is something we are very much looking forward to, it has been another 18 month separation other then the trip we took to the airport when he came home from the last deployment and between lack of sleep and jet lag the poor kid slept the whole visit :)

I will leave you with some pictures of some of the new patterns coming to the shop soon and will hopefully be back next month with the first quarter donation total to be sent to the USO.

Shop News

We have some new items coming in from the supplier that will be loaded onto the web site, just got notification that they shipped so I can't wait.

Some of the new items are Fashion colored fun tapes, these will be coming in some really neat colors and would be perfect for gift giving for a sewing or crafty friend or maybe for yourself. The colors that the vendor has listed are fushia pink, melon orange, lime green, purple and blue, can't wait to see them.
Red Heart has introduced a new line of yarn called Scrubby and the notification from the supplier said all the colorways would be coming except for Royal blue, so look for these colors to be loaded as soon as they arrive; coconut, black, duckie yellow, orange, ocean blue, lime green, bubblegum pink, and cherry red. I have only seen the black and coconut and have made one scrubby from each of the skeins, my husband loves them for scrubbing his frying pan in the morning after making his bacon and eggs for breakfast. My daughter wants me to make her one for a exfoliating scrub for her face to see how that works, so that is the project for tonight :)

Military paperwork has been completed, the US Marine Corps just sent through the approval for licensing for another year and the royalty report for Air Force is complete and sent. The donation tally has been done and a check for $125.00 will be going to the USO as soon as I get a chance, and the total donation amount thus far for the next quarter is $29.00. Sales are down all across the board on Etsy so that is the reason for the low numbers, haven't seen sales numbers this low since early this year hoping it doesn't continue for too much longer.

Well we are done for now be back as soon as I can with anymore news of items or products that we found that are new and interesting or that I might have had the chance to finish making. Remember all these products are going to be added to my web site, which you can find here: http;//www.GabbysQuilts.com

Til next time :)

Happenings in the Shop

I have been making progress in adding more supplies and handmade items to my Etsy shop, I also did finally get a web site up, but finding the time to keep editing it everytime I add something to Etsy can be a bit of a pain. I, at this point, am trying not to worry about it too much, it isn't receiving any traffic that I can track and with the same listings being in my Etsy shop is probably not receiving any Google traffic because of the duplication of listings.

On another business note we are getting ready for the fall craft fairs now so that if we end up moving by the end of the year it will be one less stress-er to worry about when the time comes up and we have to go to the venue and set up, hopefully things will already be set and marked and we can semi relax and enjoy meeting the new people and spreading my shop name out there :)

General News

Well the this week has been a really busy one, I can't believe how fast the time is going, before we know it summer will be over. I know, nobody really wants to hear that, but I swear every time I blink it is speeding by faster and faster, funny thing is my daughter said the same thing to me the other day.

Lots of things going on, I made the decision to put some of my handmade items back up for sale, they are in the one shop now with the supplies, it is easier to promote that way. Having a handmade and a supply shop just didn't make any sense with my work schedule the way it is, we are gearing up for the upcoming craft fairs this fall, any free moment that I have I have been sewing up a storm. Some of it is already being posted in the shop, others have been set aside to go to the craft fairs. I have found keeping things separated works better for me, that way when the date comes around all I have to do it grab the bins for the craft fairs and we head out the door.

Well that is it for now, headed off to spend some quality time with my son, before he doesn't have time anymore. Enjoy the rest of your week and the hot weather that goes with it :)

General News

Well it has been awhile since I have had a chance to write, alot of things are going on some good, some not so good.

Good:
My son is now officially enlisted in the Air Force, he can be call anytime after June 20th to do his basic training and from there go to where ever they need him to. He has chosen to work on the big plane engines, doing what I haven't the foggest idea, but as long as he is happy, that's all that matters. My daughters boyfriend has been in Greenland working on their networking issues most of the week, then sometime this year he is suppose to go south for 6 months for more training in his particular Air Force training, so things are finally on track for that.

I have started the signing up progress to get into the fall craft fairs, biggest problem there is that I only just found the listings and most of them are already filled in my area, so I have been putting myself on the waiting lists for cancellations, but if nothing else I can back track through my email and possibly get the ball rolling on these in January of next year so that I can do them next year.

My husbands work is going full steam ahead, which is good, but the bad part is no time to QUILT. I have been trying to fit in time for hand sewing, but sometimes there is no time at the end of day for even that. Someday when things slow down, I will be ready to sew, then watch out :)

Bad:

We are still struggling with medical paperwork for health coverage for my son til he goes into the Air Force. I have filled the applications out three times, and each time they come back to be refilled out again, because they can't find out in what tier we fit. At this rate, I am thinking he will probably get called out to do basic and I will get the call the next day that they have found what tier we fit in and we won't need it anymore. Oh well, such is life.

Everything else is going along, summer is coming, hopefully time lounging in a lawn chair looking out over a lake is in the future.
Til then, everybody have a gorgeous spring :)

Newest Project

Just finished this last night, it is crochet which I have not done in a million years, well not quite that long, and instead of using yarn, I used old bed sheets. My husband is enjoying it on his side of the bed, says it keeps his feet warm when he has to get up at night.  Started another one, and when it is finished just might put it on my side of the bed to feel what he is talking about :)

I received a Award

A Big Thank You to Mountain Quiltworks for this;

My job now is to share 7 things with you all, that you may or may not know about me,  and then find 15 other bloggers who also deserve this award and pass it on to them.   Finding deserving bloggers isn't hard, but coming up with seven things? 

#1 - I have a full time job during the day and I am balancing running 3 shops around that.

#2 - I have been quilting for 14 years now, and am beginning to take the plunge into long arm quilting with a new frame that my husband bought me two years ago.

#3 - My favorite type of quilting is hand work, I am particularly addicted to English paper pieced hexagons.

#4 - I like a challenge, but I am very nervous with new things

#5 - I will soon have a empty nest, my son is in the home stretch on plans for enrolling in the Air Force, and my daughter is planning on following her boyfriend to a possible job deployment in Florida.

#6 - I will be starting a new venture this year with my business, we are going to be doing Craft Fairs in our area in the hopes of getting my name out there for prospective customers.

#7 - I have dreams of someday owning my own brick and mortar quilt shop.

The blogs I am passing the torch to are ones that I follow, and each offer their own perspective on these very addicting crafts that we do and love.

http://anitadeansews.blogspot.com 

http://www.cluckclucksew.com/ 

http://kwansquilt.blogspot.com 

http://monashandcraftedgiftsquilts.blogspot.com 

http://sylviesdesigns.blogspot.com 

http://rooeesconfetti.blogspot.com 

http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com 

http://petitehermine.blogspot.com 

http://dianesdangles.blogspot.com 

http://vroomansquilts.blogspot.com 

http://vivianperry.blogspot.com 

http://susietenzer.blogspot.com 

http://dlitesbydorene.blogspot.com 

http://calliopecreations.blogspot.com 

http://lostlemonade101.blogspot.com 

A Very Good Day

Well today turned out to be a very good day, I had to make a investment in a new phone in order to do credit card sales at what I was hoping were confirmed dates for craft fairs.

The craft fairs are finally confirmed, and the phone proved itself worth its weight in gold, I was able to get my email and converse with the customers enough to be able to get two possible sales today through my supply shop. Then tonight, it is BNR night at Promofrenzy team, I made a sale through my handmade shop, probably not enough to warrant keeping the shop open, but we shall see. I have already moved most of the handmade items into the bins for craft fair, and the embroidery blanks will be moved into the supply shop when they expire.

Everything I need for the craft fairs are on their way and will hopefully be here in time for the first one, it has been awhile since I have done a craft fair, 25 years to be exact, so I am alittle nervous, but I am sure not that much could have possibly changed.

I still have a few more items to finish up, get my son set up for some of his college appointments, get our taxes done, and my father heads in for surgery on the 20th of this month, so we are off and running for the third month of the year. Which is good, but alittle nerve wracking sometimes :)

Very Important Read

This was in my mailbox this morning, and is a very important read if you have a online business, or shop online;

http://www.etsy.com/protect-innovation

And this is a petition that you can sign;


https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/ 

Interesting reading

I was perusing my teams on Etsy the other day and came across a interesting  comment left in one of the forums. The woman was telling them about a radio commercial that she had heard on her way to work that had her seriously upset. This woman was talking on the radio about the bargains that can be picked up at big box stores around the holidays, and then goes on to explain how you can do the same thing at smaller ONLINE stores. She went on to explain that what you do is hold your item for 30 days (Etsy is coming out with a change in January, where they want all of us to change our return policies to 30 days ), then get in touch with the seller and inform them that you want a cheaper price on the item that they bought or they will return it . She mentioned doing this on Etsy and Ebay as well as a few other places. The blog I was reading this off of was " The Homespun Loft " and I wish I had thought to  keep a link to it, it was very scary and informative.

Work

Well we were in Prattsville New York today, one of the houses we had to check for the bank was one of the ones that is slated to be wrecked. Really no surprise seeing as Irene pretty much wiped the whole town off the map, but still very heart breaking. You can take as many pictures as you want of this area, but to see it up close is just gut wrenching, especially seeing as I remember how picturesque it was a few months ago next to a very calm and soothing schoharie river, and kids playing in the water. Now there are no children to be seen and very few people who used to live there. Lots of big machinery and workers tearing down the houses, and as you leave town one of the huge areas that the river carved out is now full of the debris that they have pulled from the river as well as the houses that have already met the wrecking ball.
We have not been down near Phonecia or Margaretville yet, so I am not sure what we will see there. The Delaware and Schoharie Rivers were just a devastating to that area as well. They carved their own paths and it really didn't matter if your house was there or not. Fema still has a huge presence in that area, although from the news reports these poor people shouldn't rely too much on anything from them, budget constraints have made the size of the grants available to rebuild virtually non existent.