Getting ready for Sunday's No Nonsense Neutering event

So, on Sunday I'm going to a craft, vendor, and flea market in Shartlesville, PA to benefit No Nonsense Neutering. Unlike most of the places I sell at, this event takes all the table fees and requests a small donation to be raffled off, and ALL of the proceeds are going to benefit this great cause! They provide low-cost, but high quality spay and neuter services for feral cats and request only a $15 donation per cat! This is a great way to keep feral cats out of shelters and humane societies, where they are usually put down immediately. As long as they aren't breeding and aren't a danger to other animals or humans, there is no reason a feral cat can't be caught, fixed, and released.

Phillies Kee-Shirts in Progress

Since I'll be selling my crafts at this event, I plan to get my stocks back up, plus add a new variant of my Kee-Shirts. I finally got the right size and type of Phillies fabric I've been looking for, and I have the shirts cut out and partially ironed. They're not complete yet, because I want to get a whole batch ready to be sewn at once, since it's quicker that way. I also want to get a few bead magnets and keychains made up too. Oh, and the lady from my rant post? Never showed up Wednesday to pay for her items. I don't know why I expected anything different, but I already have a few people express interest in them. If you want to purchase anything before it disappears Sunday, visit my craft shop! As I've said before, most of my items are one of a kind, and once they're gone, they're gone. And if you want a Phillies Kee-Shirt, please leave a comment. I only have a limited quantity of them because the fabric is out of print and nearly impossible to find.

Some Annoyances from Sundays Flea Market

Sunday was not a good flea market day for me. The wind was crazy, it was kind of chilly, and sales were terrible. These were the two worst points for me. 

First off, it's obvious to any normal person that my bead magnets are potentially fragile. At the very least, they shouldn't be bent. They're made of melted plastic and plastic breaks. I had a woman stop by, and at first seemed alright. She wanted to order keychains and told me what kind and how many she'd like. Then, things started to get weird as she kept picking up and putting down my magnets, until I realized she was actually bending them each to see how far they'd bend before snapping! Fortunately, she only broke one before choosing which designs she wanted to order. She kept messing with them a few more minutes before finally leaving. I don't know if she's actually going to show Wednesday to pick them up, but if she doesn't, someone will buy the designs. This was a grown adult, too. All the kids that pick up my magnets know better than to be rough with them, so it was insane that an adult would do what would obviously break them. The other fortunate thing is that the beads easily remelt together, so the broken one is fixable and can be returned to stock. 

The other thing that made me really mad was discovering someone that may have contributed to my poor sales. At one point I went to the bathroom, and the woman behind me was carrying a large crocheted afghan. Someone behind her asked about it, and it turned out, she'd bought it early in the morning from a woman for five dollars. This wouldn't have been so bad for me, except the seller was telling people she was crocheting them herself and they took five months each to make! There is absolutely no way she was making them over that time period and selling them so cheaply. That five dollars wouldn't cover the cost of yarn, let alone her time. She is clearly one of those resellers who get their goods cheap from another country and resell them as handmade. However, this does nothing but hurt those of us who actually make our own products and have to charge accordingly to pay for our supplies and time! I have no problem with her selling afghans that cheap, but she really needs to stop lying and hurting the handmade industry. I thought about finding her and giving her a piece of my mind, but I decided to be the bigger person, have a small rant here, and let it go.

That's all for now. More bead magnets and keychains to come tonight. I need to get my stock up before my craft show in Shartlesville, PA at Haag's Hotel on Sunday. It's for a great cause, so if you're in Berks County, stop on by!

An Update

Vintage Tan Kee-Shirt ©

I did a little house-cleaning on the blog today, reorganizing the links on the side page and adding in my all-new Instagram account and former personal Twitter turned business Twitter account, as well as Tumblr. Feel free to follow me on any of those! Also, looks like there was a problem with my Paypal connection on the shop and purchases weren't working. That is now functional, so feel free to go shopping!

Added a new batch of Kee-Shirts to my shop!

Vintage Paisley Kee-Shirt ©

Vintage Sunflowers Kee-Shirt ©

Vintage Chair Kee-Shirt ©

I just added a huge new batch of Kee-Shirts to my craft shop! Fifteen new ones, including three duplicates. Nearly all of this batch is made of vintage fabric. The only shirts I make duplicates of I have a lot of fabric in that print, which means it's a fabric purchased within the last seven years. All of my other fabrics are hand-me-downs from my great-grandmother, grandmother, and a friend of the family.

Vintage Tan Kee-Shirt ©

Autumn Leaves Kee-Shirt ©

Many of these fabrics are one of a kind, as they are quilt square leftovers and I only have enough to make one shirt from each one. That means when you purchase a Kee-Shirt with me, you are getting a one of a kind item that will never be duplicated! For example, I just added a Vintage Sunflowers Kee-Shirt and a Vintage Chair Kee-Shirt. Both of these were squeezed out of just two four inch quilt squares each. When I need to fussy-cut a shirt front/back out of one of the squares, it makes it that much harder to be able to get sleeves out of the rest. However, the effort is worth the end result!

I also added a few patriotic themed Kee-Shirts just in time for Memorial Day! Check them out here.

Twelve New Kee-Shirts © Complete and Available for Sale!

Bowling Balls Kee-Shirt ©

Pink Plaid Goose Kee-Shirt ©

Blue/Pink Flowers Kee-Shirt ©

Today, I uploaded TWELVE new Kee-Shirts to my craft shop! I actually beat my record and got eight of them done just last night. The previous record was just four! I also have a basket nearly full of pieces that need to be ironed. It's so easy to sit in front of the tv and cut out the pieces that I just keep going and going. I still have a small pile of fabric right next to me designated for cutting. 

Green/Pink Flowers Kee-Shirt ©

Pink Forest Kee-Shirt ©

I went to Joann's yesterday on the advice of my manager at work, looking for some of the local sports favorites in cotton fabric (Phillies, Eagles, Penn State) and unfortunately struck out. I didn't take my pattern pieces with me, so I couldn't tell if the fabric would work for me, not to mention they don't even sell Phillies cotton fabric anywhere! They have a nice print with rectangles that would work nicely, but it's a fleece, so I need to do some testing before I decide if I want to add fuzzy shirts (possibly hoodies?) to my shop. 

Pink Diamonds Kee-Shirt ©

Pink Branches Kee-Shirt ©

Vintage Santa Kee-Shirt ©

I did, however, go a little nuts on fabric. I really should learn to wait until there's a sale on it, but I found some great prints and couldn't resist. So now, I have Simpsons, Family Guy, Cupcakes, Coffee Mugs, Food-Related Prints (I'm saving the Seafood one for my work uniform), and a Military Print. Also, cut out and waiting in my basket for ironing, I've got Care Bears, many more flowers, Nemo Fish, Purple Glitter, Red Flames, Cats, and Plaid. To be cut, I've got Frogs, more Cats, Plaid, Halloween, and more Fish. If anyone has ideas about other prints that might be popular in a Kee-Shirt, please let me know in the comments! I'm always open to new ideas! 

More Kee-Shirts © Added to My Shop

Black Butterflies Kee-Shirt ©

School Days Kee-Shirt ©

I just uploaded a new batch of Kee-Shirts © to my craft shop. There's butterflies, Spongebob, flames, apples, school print, and more!

Spongebob Kee-Shirt ©

I also have about forty more pattern pieces ironed and ready to get buttonholes and be sewn together and I'm cutting more pieces out tonight! Unfortunately, I won't be able to take them to the markets this week like I'd planned. The weather refuses to cooperate this week and the forecast is calling for rain both Sunday and Wednesday! So I'll be taking the week off and hopefully get out next week with them. In the meantime, all the shirts that are complete are available for purchase!

Kee-Shirts © Craft Shop Section

Introducing Kee-Shirts © !

Orange Print Kee-Shirt ©

Tan Branches Kee-Shirt ©

I'd like to introduce you all to my latest creation, Kee-Shirts ©! I was inspired to create them when I saw a post on Modge-Podging images to your keys to tell them apart. However, that's not exactly something I could market and sell, so I let the idea go. A few hours later, it came to me... little shirts for your keys! I looked around, and all I could find was a company selling Key Shirts made from plastic. Mine, however, are handmade from fabric and since I'm using my fabric scraps and assorted leftover quilt squares, nearly all of them are one of a kind. Some of them are even from my stash of vintage fabric!

Green Plaid Kee-Shirt ©

Christmas Balls Kee-Shirt ©

It took me a few days to figure out the exact process, and I'm still tweaking it a bit, but the ones I have up for sale are nearly the finished design. As I get better, I plan on adding more shirt styles than the traditional tee-shirt (t-shirt), but for now, I'm sticking with this design. Sewing so tiny was harder than I originally thought it would be! The edit I'll be making tonight involves using fusible webbing instead of top-stitching the collars. I feel it will look much neater without the stitching, since I can't get it exact to the edge without a lot more practice.

All the ones pictured are currently available in my shop for $5.00 each, plus $2.00 shipping, $.50 for each additional shirt.

Kee-Shirts © Storenvy Collection

These are my original design. Please do not copy or reproduce them without my permission.

Today starts a new adventure

I had some inspirations the last few days. I saw someone making little pockets from jean pockets and was inspired to buy some jeans from my favorite store, Goodwill, and I'm going to use up every piece of fabric from each of them. I'm figuring on making aprons from the butts, pocket bags from the side pockets, change purses from the zipper areas, and bags and stuffed toys from the legs! So much from one pair of jeans! And I have tons of buttons, ribbon, and scraps to doll them up with! 

My other venture, I won't say much on, because its a BRAND NEW idea I've never seen before, and didn't see any of when I googled, but I'll be adding them to my shop very very soon. I just want to protect my own idea, that's why I'm not posting specific details. But rest assured, it will be available for sale soon! 

Just for fun, here's a picture of my studio and its current state of chaos. 

Lots of Tote Bags

So I've been working frantically to get products made for Saturday's craft show. I've got four totes done in the last two days, two in progress and hopefully two more by the end of tonight. I have to work at the restaurant tonight, so I'm hoping to make decent money as well as have enough time to get those last four done tonight. Here's a peek at the four I have done. More pics to come later, I promise!

New Items Added to My Craft Shop!

Today, I added all the new items to my craft shop! There's a lot of different fused bead magnets. I have Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, animals, patriotic, dinosaurs, food, treats, picture frames, a Hogwarts crest, glow in the dark stars, and way, way more. I also added a grocery bag holder and a gift card holder.

I just made more candles today, so those will be added soon too. I have some in teacups, traditional glasses, and bottlecaps and in various colors and scents.

Check them out in my shop!

Lesson Learned

So, I learned Wednesday that crafters don't belong in the field at Leesport... The field is full of people selling nothing but junk and "antiques". I went down to the office to ask some questions about the craft fair and learned that I could get a space in the lower area, where people sell quality merchandise. All I need to do is show up next week and ask. I'll hopefully do much better in sales next to people who aren't selling their junk.

Also, since I know know how my booth area will look at the fair, I have my booth design complete. All I need now is to paint my foam core sign and make a stand to hold it up and make my mini signs. I saw some 8 x 10 canvases on sale and got a pack to turn into little chalkboards as my signs. They'll work nicely with the vintage basket look I have as my design.

I'll need to get a lot more goods made before the 11th! I'm currently working on some more bead magnets, since those should sell well at Jakes on Sunday and I want to have plenty in stock. When I have my days off this week, I'll be working on some more tote bags.

Craft Shop Link Has Changed

Just a real quick post to let everyone know that the URL for my craft shop has changed, as I am testing out a different service that I'm already liking better. Who wants to be the first to purchase from the new shop? The first person will receive a free gift with their purchase!

Ashley Glidewell Fine Art & Crafts Shop