Friday, October 28, 2011

Sneak Peek 6

     Here is another sneak peek at the New Line; sorry I missed last week, relocation is monopolizing my time.  This one should sufficiently confuse you :).


Thursday, October 27, 2011

Quick Update

      The past couple weeks have been pretty hectic but there is an end in sight.  The relocation is slowly coming together; packing is coming along, slowly but surely.  All my business operations seem to have ground to a halt, including the New Line and the Craft Sale.  Hopefully today I can dedicate most of my time to crafting and squeeze in just a little packing.  I've only got a few days left with my fantastic sewing room so I may as well get in as much quality time with it as possible!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

New Line Update

     With everything that's been going on lately (coming craft sale, relocation) and the jumble that came from the demo which I was apparently seriously under prepared for, the New Line release dates are gonna need a little "tweaking".  Today was to be the fan release date, but unfortunately, sad to say but I don't even have the demo where I want it yet so I'm gonna need to sort that out first.  I was really hoping to have the New Line out for this Christmas but things don't always go the way we want them to, despite one's thoughts of having it all set up :P.  So here is the new plan..... for now....

     I'm going to keep the demo going for another month at least, then in December I will open sales and release the New Line to fans for purchase and custom orders.  Then early in the new year I should be ready to release the New Line to the rest of the world. Of course, this is very tentative.  I can only hope that the relocation goes smoothly and that once there I have an optimal environment within which to unleash my creativity upon unsuspecting materials to make up sufficient amounts of product.

     I still have several products from the New Line available for demo, so if you are interested, send me your e-mail and I'll fill you in on what's been going on.  Be sure to stop by HN&S' facebook page and *like*, or visit our Etsy shop.

Keep Crafty everyone!!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Relocation

     One of the main reasons the New Line has taken a hit and been put on the back burner (aside from the demo jumble) is a new and exciting development: HN&S will be relocating to Ottawa next month!  Although it has not yet been determined if this relocation is of a permanent nature it will certainly open up more doors and opportunities for HN&S this holiday season and in the new year. This was a very abrupt happening so the planning and working out of details has taken up much of my time.  That coupled with the up coming craft sale has left little to no time for the New Line, though I would still like to have some of the New Line available to fans on the fan release date and for the craft sale; we'll have to see just how much I can fit into a day.

     HN&S will be staying in Fort Frances for the craft sale on November 5th but then leaving the next day for Ottawa.  Unfortunately this means there will be a small interruption in operations though hopefully it will be minimal and won't cause any inconveniences.  This interruption, if all goes according to plan, will be only for a few days during the travel time and while I set up.  I will have more details and exact dates as we approach the big day, so stay tuned and I'll keep you posted! 

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Sneak Peek 5

    So here is the last Sneak Peek before the hopeful fan release date next week! I know it's a day late, but I have a good excuse I promise!


   Unfortunately it looks like I'm gonna need to review the release dates for the New Line.  With so many things on the go, the time I had allotted to the New Line has taken quite a hit.  I'm hoping to keep the fan release date the same, but change the public release date to some time in the new year perhaps (unless by some miracle I can manage to find the time, energy and materials to pump out a large amount of quality product in a short amount of time).  I will keep you all posted with the New Line changes and the other exciting happenings going on this month and the next (including the main reason the New Line has taken such a hit : next blog post).

So Keep Crafty and Stay Tuned!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Sneak Peek 4

     Another Friday, another sneak peek! Just under 2 weeks left till the fan release date, and good thing, cause I'm running out of ideas for sneak peeks.


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

HN&S' First Craft Sale

     Although the title mostly diminishes the effect of a drumroll, I'm going to selfishly do one anyway:
     *drum roll please* .................... HN&S will be doing it's very first craft sale next month! How exciting is that? (Answer: very). In case you haven't noticed, I am personally very excited about this.  My childhood is speckled with memories of small craft sales and I'm both excited and nervous to be handling my own booth.  The craft sale will be held on November 5th at a local church (more details to come in a later blog entry).  It's is just a small one, as of last week 16 tables had registered, and the sale will only be on for one day.  I still haven't decided which products to stock up on though rest assure I will bring all my totes. Since the craft sale is so close to the New Line release date I've decided to feature it at the craft sale and see how many I can sell before releasing the product to the rest of the world. I'm also considering a nice little stack of slippers, scarves, shawls, cowls and possibly an afghan if I can find the time.  I'm also most likely going to be selling items from HN&S' sister shop "DoulaMonica" which features baby items such as cribquilts/sets, booties, plush lamb teddy bears and mobiles.  However, this is all conditional on how much time I have to dedicate to each item.  With exactly one month to go, and still playing catch up on the demo for the new line I'm skeptical of how well this will all go down.  But, with a good plan in place and lasting energy and motivation I can hopefully reach a nice and modest goal for the craft sale without turning into this:

Sleepy Mangled Kitty


     On a side note another exciting happening: I now have my business cards!! And they are fantastic!  A big thanks goes out to my friend Dave J for all his help!

My new awesome business cards!

     

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Demo Letters

     After a frustratingly long day of arguing with the internet I've finally managed to get the demo letters/e-mails out to those who've signed up for it! It's slightly overdue, but at least I found a good secure way to share the photos of the products and their making. (and my internet finally decided to be nice long enough for me to upload the photos).

     Unfortunately the line in general isn't progressing as quickly as I hoped it would.  At the moment the line is about 1-2 weeks behind schedule though there is much potential for it to be caught up.  Without going into too much detail before the public release date: I'm getting pretty sick of the monotony that the 2nd step provides.  It's VERY time consuming and VERY tedious.  I'm gonna be really happy when I'm done that part and get on to the much more fun steps in making more of the product.  I'm in a position now where I have a lot of the raw materials I need to create the product and so the "x" factor so to speak is me.  As long as my sewing machine and ironing board keep up as well as my motivation I should be back on track by the fan release date on October 20th 2011.  Just 19 days away before I start selling them and taking custom orders from fans.  Very exciting, though today was also a very quick awakening at how much more preparation I still need to do electronically before the release date.  The sites still need a lot of work before I can hit that "publish" button.

     All that being said, I'm still very excited about the line and hopefully this excitement will keep me full of steam as I plow through the coming week.  September went by so quickly, before we know it, it'll be November and NaNoWriMo will be upon me as well as the craft show (which I will talk about in a later post).  But for now, time to wind down after a long day of computer aggravations.

     Keep Crafty Everyone! And have a great night!