Sometimes I Sew Things

Posted by Stephanie on May 13th, 2016

Lee and I have been tossing around ideas for a vacation that wasn’t partially a visit with family for a couple years now, and finally decided to actually do it in April. We ended up doing something completely different than we originally set out to do, but it was such a nice trip! Lee has been pretty busy at work, so we decided we wanted to go do some fun touristy things in a big city, but we also needed to take at least a few days of completely unplugged time. We ended up spending 3 days in NYC and then taking a cruise from New Jersey to Bermuda. We had such a good time!

We caught a 6am flight on Wednesday to Newark, which went surprisingly well. Last time we had a flight that early, (coincidentally the last time we went to NYC…) we woke up at the time we were supposed to leave for the airport. We ended up getting there after check-in was closed and we had to gate check our giant bags. This time, Lee’s brother picked us up about 4:15am, and we were actually awake and almost ready when he got here! Anyway, we flew into Newark and pretty much hit the ground running. Lee posted a whole bunch of pictures to Flickr, but here are a few of my faves!

We went from the airport to the hotel and then straight to the Ed Sullivan Theater to try into to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. I was able to get reserved tickets to a couple late night shows before we left, but all those do is guarantee you a spot to wait in line and see if you can get actual tickets. Anyway, we got there in plenty of time and were able to get in. Lee watches Colbert pretty frequently (I’m usually asleep… on the couch… by that point in the evening) and the show was a lot of fun! It was cool to see some of the behind the scenes action. After we finished with all of that, we pretty much ate dinner and crashed. 3:45am is an early morning!

On Thursday, we got a little bit of a slow start, but we had a pretty busy day once it got going! We started by walking the Highline North to South. Last time we were there, we walked a good part of it, but it was like 30 degrees and miserable. So this time, we took our time and made our way down to Chelsea Market. We walked around there for a little while and ate lunch. I had a pie, Lee had a Japanese burrito bowl, and then we split some mini donuts. All very yummy!

From there, we headed back Uptown to stand in line to see if we could get into the Daily Show with Trevor Noah. We were able to get into that one too, and I think I actually enjoyed it more! The audience was much smaller, so it felt like a more intimate experience. Once the show was over, we took an Uber to Soho and did a little shopping. We planned to eat dinner there, but the place we wanted to go was closed, so after a few failures, we ended up at John’s of Bleeker St. for some yummy pizza! Wasn’t exactly what we planned on, but it was really good!

The next day we got up and headed back to Soho to go to the few places we didn’t have time for the night before before heading up to Central Park. We didn’t really have an agenda for Central Park other than that we wanted to see some areas we weren’t able to last time. We had a really nice time walking around for a few hours.

We took the subway from there to One World Trade Center. The observatory there opened a few months after we were there last time and Lee was really excited about it. I’m really glad we were able to fit it in! It’s a little expensive, but really well done and the views are beautiful. There weren’t any lines at all when we were there, so we bought tickets, went through security, and got on the elevators in probably less than 5 minutes.

We ended our night seeing Les Miserables on Broadway (which was seriously awesome!) and then grabbing a shake at Shake Shack.

The next morning, we had breakfast - yummy pastries and coffee at a bakery close to our hotel - and then took a car to New Jersey to board the ship for our Cruise to Bermuda!

Posted by Stephanie on May 10th, 2016

I’ve been wanting to try Stitch Fix for a while, but just hadn’t pulled the trigger. I decided a new job was a great time to update my wardrobe though! I’m counting my first box a huge success; I don’t think I’ll keep everything, but my stylist did a good job! Everything fit well, and all but one item were things I’d probably pick out for myself. I have until Thursday to decide what I am keeping, so I’m still debating.

Item #1
Juli Lasercut Detail Blouse ($48)

I really like this blouse! The color and pattern are right up my alley and the cut of the shirt is similar to others I own. I’m not always a huge fan of sleeveless shirts, but I’d likely pair this with a cardigan or jacket. I think I am probably keeping this one for sure.

Item #2
Radka V-Neck Blouse ($44)

I really like this shirt as well! Again with the sleeveless shirts, but I think the back is so much fun, and the pattern is just far enough out of my comfort zone without going crazy. I think I’ll probably keep this one as well.

Item #3
Joey Skinny Jean ($88)

These jeans are pictured above with both of the tops. These fit pretty well! Magically, my stylist managed to send me pants that fit in both the waist and length on the first try. An impressive feat given I think I’ve only ever owned one pair that came from the store that way. I’m still on the fence about these. If these were any color but denim, I’d keep them in a heartbeat, but I’m pretty well set on jeans and I’m not sure I can justify the pricetag.

Item #4
Millie Textured Knit Dress ($68)

I really like this dress! I love a good fit and flare and the pattern on this one is so cute! And it is super soft and comfortable as well. My hesitation here is that I already have so many cute dresses that I rarely wear. I keep buying dresses because I love them, but I so rarely wear dresses anymore, so I’m not sure I can justify the price on this one either.

Item #5
Gennie Knit Romper ($68)

I so badly want to be a romper wearer, but I’ve yet to find one that I actually like how it fits. This is no exception. My sisters have both told me I should get out of my comfort zone with this one and keep it, but I’m still on the fence. The front is really what is putting me off. It is pretty much wide open from the waist, so I’d need to make some adjustments to be able to wear it out of the house. It is very comfortable, and I like the pattern, but I’m just not sure it is for me. I will, however, keep it if I decide to keep the pants and dress because after the 25% discount for buying the whole box, I end up spending less. Thoughts?

I’m really happy with my first experience. I really liked that I had a few days to try things on in my own house and have time to think it over. I also was pretty impressed with my stylist’s attention to my preferences. I made pretty good notes on my style profile and I also made a Pinterest board for her to refer to. In the note included in the box, she gave me specific reasons for choosing certain items based on my pins, which I thought was great!

Long story short, I loved the box, loved the experience, and I’m already looking forward to my next box! If you are interested in trying Stitch Fix out, sign up here with my referral code!

Posted by Stephanie on May 8th, 2016

Well, so much for posting more often. The last several months have been interesting to say the least - some good, some bad - but I’ve been having a hard time wanting to write anything down. But the good news is that I have several posts I’m planning for this week, and I’m hoping to get into a regular rhythm now that my life will hopefully be settling down a bit.

Where to start… how about the job? I stopped working at Edgecase full-time in January, but continued on part-time from home until a few weeks ago. It has been kind of a bittersweet time, but I’m so excited to say that I am starting somewhere new next week! I accepted a position at Indeed and I start on May 16th! I’ll share more details later, but I am so very excited about this opportunity!

Lee and I were able to take a vacation this past week! I’ll do a separate post with some fun pictures, but here’s the short version. We spent 3 days in NYC doing some fun touristy things and seeing a few late night shows and a broadway show, and then we took a 5 night cruise from New Jersey to Bermuda and back. It was such a fun, relaxing time for us and I am so glad we were able to have the time to do it!

I’m working on a few things for my store right now. I’ll likely do a separate post at some point, but I am trying out a new inventory management system. I say new, but I’ve never really had one. Anyway, I’m doing a free trial of Craftybase, and so far I like it. It is going to take me a while to actually add all of my materials, but I think it will definitely make things run more smoothly on my end. And hopefully cut down on the duplicate supply purchasing I tend to do… If you are interested in trying it out, use my referral code: b7f2fa2b and we both get 10% off!

And then for some of the most exciting news recently, I am now a proud aunt to my first nephew, Luke! My middle sister Jessica and her husband had their first child on April 13, and he is perfect of course.

I may be biased, but seriously, is this not the sweetest face you have ever seen?

That is all I have for now, but I’m working on some more new posts for this week!

Posted by Stephanie on Feb 19th, 2016

Boy time is just flying by. I haven’t been able to do nearly as much in the first 2 months of the year as I hoped to, but I did hit a few big milestones! In January, I got my 100th sale! I also experienced the first time I’ve ever gotten 3 orders in one day! Between work, fulfilling orders, and making some personal gifts I’ve kept pretty busy, and I haven’t been able to do as much in the way of new products as I had hoped. Oh well. I’m hoping that now that I am caught up, I’ll be able to spend some time this weekend and next week working on that.

I was able to go to Dallas a few weeks ago and spend some time with my family and hang out with my sister a bit before she has her baby in April. It was such a nice visit! No real plans, aside from her baby shower, so I had nearly a week to just hang out with my family - I even got to go wedding dress shopping with my sister-in-law!

I’ve been having some technical difficulties for the last few weeks, but we were finally able to spend some time last night fixing the issues (by we, I really mean Lee…) so I should be able to pick my post frequency back up! I can’t wait to post some of the things I’ve been working on!

Posted by Stephanie on Jan 7th, 2016

I’m alive!

It has been a crazy busy few months and I’m not sure things will slow down anytime soon! Lee and I are doing well! We were mega busy right up until Christmas, so we took a few days and escaped to a cabin in the hill country for a for New Years. We had such a nice and relaxing time. We were able to spend time reflecting on the 2015 and talking about goals and plans for 2016, but we mostly just sat in front of the fireplace and relaxed.

I set some loose goals for myself business-wise last year (you can read some of them in my first post here) and I’ve done the same this year.

• I’ve been open for about a year and a half and am sitting at 95 sales. I’d like to hit 200 (stretch goal of 250) by the end of 2016.
• Last year I wanted to try my hand at a in-person craft show. I did one in November and it went pretty well! (I made nearly 1/4 of my last year’s sales in one day! Not bad for my first attempt with my super part-time Etsy store!) This year I’d like to do two. Baby steps! Heres a picture of my booth:

• And then just more of the same with regards to adding new products, building inventory, and improving my online presence. I have some fun ideas for a few new products, so now I just need time to build up inventory of them and get them listed.

I’m going to attempt to not disappear again! I’ll be posting my progress on some of my new projects soon!