Goal Setting

I have one major goal for Pretty Jane in 2009:

It comes with a bit of a story behind it. In 2008, I hired some sewing ladies to work for me, in order to increase supply to meet demand, and hopefully grow my business. They were amazing, and one especially taught me a lot about what I want and don't want in the products that I create and put out for sale. They weren't cheap, though. Yes, I increased my supply. Yes, I was able to meet greater demand. I was also more anxious about meeting deadlines and spending a great deal to have these women stitch items that I still had to design, cut out, ship, market, and sell. I was saving time sewing, for sure, but that's part of the fun of doing what I do! My profit margin was shrinking alarmingly and the hours I was investing were actually GROWING.

I started my company because I love my family, and I want to make them my very top priority. I want to have time to be with my husband, in our home and on vacations; I want to be the one caring for all our children, day-to-day; I want to cook our meals and clean and clothe; I want Family Movie Night every Friday and Lazy Day on Sundays; I want all of ussitting down to supper cooked from scratch each night and able to have real conversations with one another. I liked the idea of growing my business, having success and making a little more money for us, but the cost was higher than I anticipated, and the anxiety it was producing was taking away from what I most want: my home and family as #1.

Fortunately, I have no business debt, and paid these women cash. Through Beehive's Warehouse Sale I was able to clear out my unsold inventory and am able to look at 2009 as a new year to determine how I want to structure my business operations. And the decision was easy: in 2009, I won't be using any sewers. I'm going back to my original business model, in which I stitch every individual garment by hand myself. Yes, there will be fewer items. Yes, it means more sewing for me. But the results will be exactly what I expect, there will be substantially less anxiety since I'll be only my boss again (and not anyone else's), and I can stay focused on what matters most. Besides, with things going well at my fabric shop, and teaching two or three classes a week at Beehive while the kids are asleep, scaling back a little will allow me to continue to design while balancing all the other things I have in my life--personal AND professional.

So, the Three. My major goal for Pretty Jane this year is to maintain my production rate at three garments per day, on average. Some days will necessarily be devoted to design, others to R & D, others to cutting, and only some exclusively to stitching. But on the whole, I hope to average 3 garments per day over the course of each week. I'm aiming for now through April as the major test of the system, since the Inman Park Festival is in late April and I'm hoping to display solo there for the first year.

I'm keeping it right above my workspace to keep me focused--so I won't spend all my time checking email and drafting blog posts!

Happy New Year, everyone!

**The sign is made from an Ikea cork board, a fat quarter of Robert Kaufman's Iota's Garden vegetable print, two scraps of quilting fabric, and some WonderUnder. Took maybe 25 minutes total to put together, and will be repurposed at M's #3 birthday next summer. Not bad for a spur-of-the-moment creation!

35 Before 35

A number of other bloggers have composed lists of Things to Do Before One Turns 35. As my 35th will come in September of the dawning year, now's as good a time as any to make MY list and then endeavor to complete it in the next nine months. Lofty ambitions, to be sure.

Again, these aren't resolutions--we all know how I feel about those. These are GOALS for my 35th year of life. Hold me to 'em, folks!

My list:

1.  Organize the master closet--oh, the shame!

2.  Get back into my size 4 pants I bought a month before I got pregnant this last time--the tiniest size I've ever worn, and it only lasted a few weeks!

3.  Make some clothes for MYSELF.

4.  Display Pretty Jane in a solo booth at the Inman Park Festival.

5.  Set up my bookkeeping the way it OUGHT to be lest the I R S come knocking and find shoeboxes of receipts.

6.  Publish an eBook.

7.  Complete 500 sales in my Etsy shop.

8.  Take a great vacation with my husband--again.

9.  Repair the leak under our kitchen sink that has been making me insane for five months.

10.  Send my sister the most amazing gift package she has ever received, to make up for the fact that I am a crappy, crappy gift-giver and she is the greatest.

11.  Teach my 100th student in my sewing classes at Beehive.

12.  Have my little company featured prominently on some really famous blog.

13.  Lose the extra 14 pounds I'm still carrying around since our baby was born.

14.  See our eldest perform in her first school play.

15.  Buy a minivan.  Say what you will, I've embraced the minivan.

16.  Design one really great tween dress.

17.  Cut back on sugar--I think it makes me ornery when I have too much!

18.  Get back to running--I'm so out of practice that thinking about running makes me short of breath.

19.  Give myself permission to relax each night with a novel for a few minutes.  It's my way of sharpening the saw, but it feels so indulgent that it must be wrong, right?

20.  Have a weekly date with our oldest so she won't enter her angst-ridden teen years thinking her mother has forgotten her.

21.  Print out the best of our digital photos and create an album to display in our living room.

22.  Begin some sort of really cool summer tradition for our family--everyone has holiday traditions, but we can do better.  Suggestions graciously accepted.

23.  Incorporate my business, and admit to myself that I am an Entrepeneur--well, Momtrepeneur.

24.  Get business letterhead. And matching envelopes.  Oooh, yum!

25.  Always shop Etsy first when gift-giving opportunities present themselves.

26.  Take my vitamin EVERY DAY, and not just when I remember to.

27.  Have an ENORMOUS yard sale and finally, finally win the war against the Garage That Ate Atlanta.

28.  Drink more water.

29.  Have the ring my parents bought me as a 30th birthday gift reset so that I'll actually wear it.

30.  Call my grandmothers, while I still have them.

31.  Visit my sister before she has her second baby.

32.  Keep the flowers in the terra cotta pots on our front steps alive, so that for one summer, just one, my husband won't "tsk" me all season long.

33.  Publish a series of sewing patterns, available for download.

34.  Convince my husband that another baby is a GOOD idea.  And SOON.

35.  Chill out, for heaven's sake, and realize that my life is so far beyond my expectations that even if I accomplish NONE of these things I am blessed beyond all measure.

OK, only nine months to go!  Keep me honest, everyone.

My Year In Cities, 2008

Fun!  Got this from Riffe Raff, who linked to Ahn-Minh.  What a year I've had!

Atlanta, GA

Mildenhall, England

London, England

Paris, France

Rota, Spain

Charleston, SC

Honolulu, Hawaii

Montgomery, AL

Lake Guntersville, AL

Lake Martin, AL

Nashville, TN

Tallahassee, FL

Here's hoping 2009 has even half the amazing memories to offer...

Happy New Year, everyone!

**By the way, thanks for all the button love!  I'm so impressed with all the heart-felt New Year's wishes.  Keep 'em coming!  To clarify, I'll keep comments open until at least 6 p.m. EST on January 2--that's 56ish hours from now. Plenty of time to get your name in the hat!  Best of luck to all of you!

Give Me An Inch--And A GIVEAWAY!

Stupendous holiday, we had.  Hoping the same for you.  All illnesses seem to have passed, and I have learned a valuable lesson: if I take a break from blogging, it is exceptionally hard to return.  So here I am, in the nick of time, ready to saddle up this horse for another year.

Christmas saw our family of five renting an SUV and traveling to my mother, then my in-laws', then home for my father to visit at our house, all in the space of 5 days.  Hectic doesn't even begin.  But our children were showered with amazing gifts, and we two were drenched by our families' generosity, and it was wonderful as always to have those days away together.  Sleep schedules be damned, right?

Aside from all the Christmas booty that awaited us with each visit, I was crazy delighted to sit and watch my husband and his mother go through some old things she's collected over the years.  Not because I cared all that deeply whether he found the grade school photo album he's sure she's got stashed away, but because in my mother-in-law's house there are many rooms--and many closets.  And much to my father-in-law's frustration, they are all FULL TO THE RAFTERS with items his wife has been keeping for more years than anyone can count, lots of them passed down to her from her mother who has been keeping them..well, since she was alive.

Out of the chaos (which included two pillow cases full of "ironing" that my mother-in-law admitted were two years old!) were these treasures:

Handed down from her mother, to my mother-in-law who doesn't sew but couldn't bear to ditch them.  And now, with just a nod and a word, they are MINE!  Mwah-ha-ha!!

And, if you play your cards right, some of them could be YOURS!  

In celebration of the dawning New Year, I'm paying these beauties forward and giving away THREE GRAB BAGS of vintage buttons, still on the cards.  All the grab bags are assorted, my pick, but they'll all be equally awesome.  Some of the cards are torn and incomplete--I'll hang on to those and only send y'all complete cards with fantastic illustrations like this:

And this:

Leave a note in the comments with your New Year's wish, and I'll use the random number generator to pick THREE winners on Friday, January 2.  Feel free to enter as often as you like, as long as you include a new wish for the New Year each time you enter.  Winners will be posted before Alabama plays in their bowl game Friday night.

Roll Tide, people, and good luck!

Let the Holiday Craziness Commence

December? WHAT?? How did THAT happen?

Now that Thanksgiving is officially behind us, there is no denying it: the Holidays are HERE. Our tree went up yesterday. And down today, when gravity toppled our vintage spruce right to the floor. It's in recovery status at the moment; photos when we're out of the ICU**. 

I was out of the house Saturday morning and Sweet Husband, E and M did all the unpacking of decorations and arranging and general holiday-ing up. I got to come home to lights and ribbons and wreaths. It was awesome. I love that the lights are draped in coils on the front porch rather than wrapped around the handrails.
I love that the tchochkes are all mish-mashed on the bookshelves and tables, running into one another like a Christmas boxcar derby.
Mostly, I love that my family did all that for me as a surprise.  See?  I'm not the only one who gets all squishy around here--I was having a tough morning Saturday, too, so this was an awesome way to come home.

And I spent some of my day making for them, too. I had a chunk of this silly Sesame Street print in the stash, and am embarking on more Brother/Sister outfits. Clearly, I am a woman obsessed.
M's got done first, as it took the least thought:

She insisted on wearing it right away.

Next is E's, but we'll need a new tee for her--that last one was an XS, since she is in fact extra small. But their idea of XS is a little, well, trampier than E's idea of XS, so we're getting her an S as she goes into Beta on this whole matching outfits thing. O's will be last, since the Thanksgiving outfit juuuuust fit, and once we sent it through the hot dryer didn't fit at all. He'll need a whole new pattern, so I'm putting that off a bit.

Am also thinking of gifts to give, and who'd like what. My family have largely declared they'll not be exchanging gifts with the adults this year--my sister, my parents, even some of our friends have cut back and are focusing on the kids only this giving season. I, on the other hand, wisely neglected to mail gifts to my sister and mother for the past two Christmases, always thinking, "I really should send those..." And so we have plenty to share this holiday season. See how procrastination can often be in one's favor?? Clever me.

Still, all the little ones would love to have something handmade under the tree this year, so my dance card is filling up with ideas for them. Stay tuned this week as I work my way through sewing projects to give and get.

**I suppose I'll know I've become a true blogger when rather than shriek in horror when I get out of the shower and see our Christmas tree lying sprawled on the living room floor I rush not to rectify the tragedy, but to my camera to document it, instead. Sorry to cheat all of you--us, really, and posterity--out of that image. Will do better next time.

Thanksgiving Recap

Our parade

Our weather

Our kids

Our baking

Our newest tradition

Our favorite tradition: A Christmas Story begins its non-stop screenings on Thanksgiving Day.

A Week of Gratitude, Day 5: Traditions

Taking the WHOLE week off to spend time with my amazing family. Am auto-posting a series titled "A Week of Gratitude" while we're off doing cool stuff like baking, digging out the Christmas decorations, jumping in piles of leaves, making final visits to the playground before the weather gets too cold, visiting with the relatives, taking looooong drives all in one vehicle, singing songs loudly, and anything else we can think of. Be back in a few days! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. This year, let's be glad of all we have...

A Week of Gratitude, Day 5: Traditions

I have spent most of the Thanksgivings in my adult life at my mother's house. She makes the turkey just right, and always has the sides I love. She has an itinerary, but also a aura of ease that makes it natural to relax and let worry leave you. I like that I can sit still and not feel like I need to rush, or take a nap on the sofa without embarrassment, or have a snack any old time I like.

Since our eldest was little, one of the things she and I look forward to each time we go to Grammie's house is walking down the road to the nearby park to play on the playground or walk the exercise trail or enjoy the weather. Going again this year was the first time our middle child really appreciated the playground, and the first time our new baby has gone at all. I loved the feeling that we were building a tradition with all our family, that all our children would look forward to this each year and remember playing there, with us or with one another. I love that all the damp coolness of the playground mixes up in my memory with the smell of the leaves and the sound of their voices and the taste of the food, that I remember what they were wearing and what they said as they ran and played.

On Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful for continuity and the rebirth it brings.

Brother and Sisters

Last post: the Corn Fabric.

This post: Some background.

First, you'll need to know that I'm a lot of different people. I taught school for a long time, theatre and English. Most recently, I was an archaeologist. Really. I have a graduate degree and everything. Wrote a thesis and was offered big fellowships to fancy schools. I studied acorns, mostly--I'm not making this up. My focus was paleoethnobotany, which is just a swanky way of saying that I like food, and I like learning about how food was used in prehistory. And there is simply no way to study prehistoric food in the Americas without studying CORN.

I have some pretty strong feelings about corn. Even as I type that, I am well aware of how crazy cakes it makes me sound, but there it is all the same. I feel powerfully strongly about CORN. So when I saw this fabric with my friend Erin four or five years ago at Jo-Ann, I had to had to had to grab two yards of it. I guess I intended to make a blouse for myself? But this is a much better use of this particular print.

Brother-Sister Outfits.

I used to be one of those moms who sort of "Ewwww"ed when I saw or heard of brother/sister outfits, but maybe that's because I never had a brother, or because sister/sister outfits are so easy and obvious, or because I didn't have any boys. It might be because most of the time when you find a brother/sister outfit set, they're insanely traditional and usually involve smocking and insipid embroidery and probably lace and ruffles (for the brother AND the sister). Not really my style, and not something I aspired to put on my children.

But CORN brother/sister outfits?? Well, now. That's a WHOLE different story.

A quick overview:

For O, a teeny tiny little button-up shirt. No cuffs, since he's still too itzy bitzy; the sleeves are open at the ends. But it does have a shirttail hem and a structured collar, lots of menswear detailing.

And it looks so great under these babywale chocolate overalls. They have a sweet button closure at the crotch for quick diaper changes--this kid can make some poop, it's like Chernobyl in his pants half the time.  I think the red flannel lining and the teeny pockets really make the whole outfit.  And I should point out that this shirt represents the first (and maybe only) time I've made a garment without a pattern of any kind--I totally eyeballed the whole thing.  So, if he tries it on and it doesn't work, E gets new clothes for her dolls, I guess!

For M, a pretty jumper with gathers and a contrast band on the CORN skirt.

Buttons here and on O's whole outfit are coconut ones Sweet Husband and I brought back from our honeymoon in Hawaii.  I even put in pockets on the side seams for all her fall treasures she's sure to collect on our nature walks in the cool weather.

For our big girl, E, an athletic-styled tee with a CORN applique

All this needs is a little freezer paper stencil for humor--I want it to read, "Howdy, Pilgrim," but I loaned out my brown fabric paint at an inopportune time of year. If only I were good enough to do a teeny John Wayne on the sleeve...

We'll need to get a lot of use out of these this next week to make them worth the trouble I went to, but I am crazy insane in love with this silly print, and can' wait to get shots of all of them in their little matching outfits.  Hoping your holidays are cooling off and that the gifts of America's bounty are soon to be on your table!!

**Just for the record, corn is NOT a theme here.  It is a "unifying element."

Two Words: Stuffing.

Thanksgiving, believe it or not, is SO soon. I get excited, since here in the Deep South, that means it might get cold soon. Maybe.

Last year at this time, my Sweet Husband was still in Iraq. I asked my in-laws to put up their Christmas decorations over the Thanksgiving weekend so that we could shoot a video to send to him that looked like Christmas morning for him to watch and feel, just a little, like he was there with us. It was a pile of work, and worth every second, and he was so happy to have that little piece of home out in the desert.

This Thanksgiving, we get to be together, and I can hardly stand how excited I am to have this holiday with my amazing husband. I know, I write about him a lot and say all these sappy things--but truly, he's so great, and even though being happy is boring, it overflows out of me.

In preparation for long walks among the falling leaves, and football games on the wide screen, and six kinds of pie, and a (hopefully) moist bird, the first ever cooked in our little house since we're staying home this year with our new addition--in preparation for all that, I've gotten a little excited.

About this:

Next post: where that sick excitement has taken me. It's yummy.

It's the itty-bitty size that fools you

Because you'd never, NEVER sit down and consume three full-size candy bars on one sitting, not in a million years. But you'll do this as dessert after lunch with no second thoughts:

Wow.

Trick or Treat

Yummy. Hope y'all get as much good candy as I will tonight. With three kids and only one of them old enough to know better, my Sweet Husband and I are all set to tramp the little ones out for free sugar.

Take your glow stick, and see you on the other side!

Halloween's Coming!

It's been at least three years that I've had to endure the "half-angel/half-devil" idea from our eldest as her Halloween costume suggestion. I have a lot of tolerance for plenty of silly ideas, but that one just annoys me. Lack of creativity, maybe? Annoying one side/other side costume ickiness? I dunno, I just don't want to make THAT one.

She's settled on murdered Prom queen, which shows my standards aren't TOO high. And now that I think of it, the last three years have seen her as a mummy, a she-devil, and Dracula. Maybe she just really likes the classics?

Miss M has had her costume chosen by her elders two years in a row--the first year, her dad and I bought her this delightful lobster/crawfish costume (depending on whether you're in the Northeast or closer to N'Awlins).

Then she was a lion last year, selected by her grandmother (and cute, cute, cute).

This year, she's still subject to our whims, and we're at a loss. When we got the lobster outfit, they had the greatest chicken costume, too, and we shoulda just snagged on in a bigger size, since we can't find it anywhere now...

I think she gets to be Snow White this year, a choice my husband likes about as much as M likes raw pumpkin:

Can you tell she's totally spitting it out all over our sidewalk and her own legs??
She adores Snow White, though--it's only that my husband has decided he doesn't want his girls "growing up waiting for a prince to rescue them." I told him when he tells the story he can leave that part out, but for goodness sake, let the child wear the costume.

At least we've got the Baby O figured out, and we can agree on the choice. Two words: BURRITO. Since babies in our house spend a inordinate amount of their early lives swaddled within an inch of their lung capacity and are often referred to as "baby burritoes," it seemed the perfect solution. A little lettuce-and-tomato headrest, a "tortilla" wrap, some cheese around the face=the perfect infant costume!

Best part?? I get all his candy. Sweet!

How are y'all's Halloween plans coming along??