Don't Ever Change!

But I've got to...things are different now...I'm not the same as I once was. I want more variety. I want to try new things.

And so it goes. Painted Patootie has been swallowed up by the big ol' Fishnoodle. Yet she will live on, as a subset of the larger entity. In the belly of the whale, so to speak.

I'm adding all sorts of things to my Hyena Cart store: All-in-one diapers with quick dry soakers in side snap, aplix, and front snap options. More styles of my gusset covers - now front snap and aplix in addition to the popular side snap. New fabrics - I'm getting in shipments of bamboo, cotton and hemp velour in all sorts of lovely colors. And lots of PUL prints, too.

All this requires a reconfiguration of my Hyena Cart and a name change to signal where all this is going. Plus, I need something more simple and clear. So Painted Patootie, that then became Painted Patootie & Fishnoodles, will now be known simply as Fishnoodles.

Yes, I'll still be doing my Painted Patootie line of painted pocket diapers. And covers. And now AIOs too. And so much more!

The deal is, I'm closing down temporarily starting late June to go on a couple of little vacation jaunts with my family. Come mid-August I plan to have all this new goodness up and running. In the meantime I'll be prepping and doing all the behind-the-scenes work to make this possible.

Craziness, I know. Still, I gotta be free to evolve!

Ewwww...!

That's what she calls 'em. Ewwws. It did at long last stop raining and warm up enough to plant the tomatoes and peppers and cukes and zuchinni. My little garden helper followed along as I turned over the damp soil, looking for ewwws to examine. She studied each worm carefully, then said she'll "put it to night night" and tucked it carefully into the soil. I am happy to report that no worms were harmed in the making of our garden.

Recent Custom Work

I fully admit this blog has gotten a bit neglected as of late; March and April were the all-time busiest months in the history of my business. Looking back at it, I averaged an order a day those months. That's a LOT of sewing!

It's nice that the work has slowed now in May. I'm soon going to be posting a notice that I plan to be gone from late June to July...if anyone wants pockets or covers, they have to be ordered by June 15 or else wait until late July.

Here is some of my recent custom work:


A side-snap cover for a baby girl named Anna. You can guess what her nickname is!

A dyed and painted tee for the daughter of Lori at BTRT. The colors kind of remind me of the Northern Lights. The painted design is my celtic dogs motif, done in a different colorway from my previous sets.

And a girly pirate cover and tee shirt set for a very cool baby girl.

Happy Spring! I'll be planting veggies and flowers if it EVER stops raining...

Keeping on top of things

This morning I was thinking about my plans for the week and realized that over time I've evolved a schedule for myself. It has to stay flexible with 3 kids between ages 2 and 8, but having some sense of what needs to get done helps me stay on top of my orders and customs list.

Monday - Cutting day. Cut out PUL for painting new designs, cut diaper outers that have been ordered to the correct style and mark snap placement, cut out diaper inners. If there is time, start attaching snaps.
Tuesday - Painting day. Paint new designs on PUL. Paint shirts or applique patches.
Wednesday - Sewing day one. Finish attaching snaps, sew pocket diaper inners, prepare side snap covers for binding. Also take photos of new work.
Thursday - Sewing day two. Finish sewing pockets and covers, attach final snaps, check for quality control. Prepare new stockings.
Friday - Finishing. Applique sewing on tees. Print shipping labels, prepare packages, go to post office, monitor new stockings.

I work about 2 hours each morning and 3 hours each afternoon, plus another hour (or more!) on the computer at night. I like to batch up all the orders for each week and sew them all together in steps, rather than sewing all of one diaper, all of the next diaper and so on. This means that my turnaround time is about 7 to 10 days. I really try to get everything for the week done by the end of the week, though sometimes when orders are many, it has spilled into a 7-hour sewing stretch on Saturday!

I like to reserve the weekends for family time, of course, but that's when my mind is often generating new ideas and when I try to sneak in a few hours worth of dyeing.

Really, when you run your own business, you're never entirely not thinking about it. At least, its hard to stop...Even when I'm not in my studio, I take my sketchbook on trips and am always playing with design ideas. So far I've had 3 or 4 ideas for every one I have time to execute. So, I feel confident I'll be doing this for some time to come!