Well, Hello - My Fabulous Weekend Sale Featured on Etsy

Son of a gun, What an amazing way to wake up....seeing my shop featured in Etsy Finds: Weekend Deals !

Here's the scoop: (1/30-2/1) $5 off orders of $25 or more, $10 off orders of $50 or more. Please enter "WELL HELLO" in the message to seller section and discount will be refunded. *Totals determined before shipping & is not applicable to previous orders.

Now, off to sew!

Long Arm of the Law- The Fight to Revise the CPSIA

Man, oh man...when I was young I always wondered why folks grumbled about the law & politics & government. Now I know. I think my first realization that the "gov'ment" actually did something (I mean when you're young, it just seems so remote, far away, & hollywood-ish) was when No Child Left Behind was passed my second year of teaching- it became clear that with a sweep of a signature all hell could break loose.

That was the first time I became enraged at legislation (except of course, curfew- which always seemed lame). Here's the second- CPSIA.

This new law, which takes effect Feb 10th, bans lead & phtalates in children's items. Sounds honest enough right? However....it is so broadly written that it includes not only toys, but any item deemed likely to be used by a child under 12. This means anything- bikes, books, resale items, and yes, sadly- handmade items.

After working so hard this past year in building Quiltish, pouring in my time & money & creativity in effort to make something from my very own hands to help benefit our family... this new law threatens to take a big chunk of that away. I am still in the process of developing a plan to test, introduce a new line, focus only on bags, wait it out...etc. But, I think an important factor in all this is just how much money & trade will be lost amongst small fries like me and how much will be gained by the big-wigs whom this law was originally directed towards.

So here's my breakdown of those who will be affected if the Quiltish line of baby items are discontinued:

• My family- obviously, at least in the short term, there will be a loss of this income
• Fabric Store- Local, family-owned business from whom I purchase large amounts of fabric, notions, and supplies
• Craft Stores- local shops where I also purchase much of my notions
  
• USPS- I ship a fair amount of packages- using USPS each time
• PayPal- I pay fees for PayPal to process each of my orders....while they are quite large, I imagine they employ a fair amount of people
• Small Online Fabric Shops- I love to have small amounts of fabric, for little projects or seasonal items & often buy them from small online businesses like mine
• Boutiques & Baby Shops- Shops that will no longer be able to carry my baby items & shops I've had to turn away with this law coming into effect
• Packaging Suppliers- my orders have to get there somehow....I use poly mailers, tissue paper & mailing tape to ship each order
• Nanny- our nanny currently works two days a week to watch my son so that I can work on Quiltish...with less orders for me, less hours for her
• Etsy- again they are huge, and of course, I'll be creating something else if need be, but undoubtedly there will be a loss for them (obviously other sites as well, such as 1,000 Markets, Artfire, etc.)
• Peripheral Companies- businesses who make my business cards & labels...less orders= less need for these supplies

Wow. I'm actually amazed myself, seeing it all written out like that. Now, multiply that by all the other small business who won't be able to afford testing (the first or the second round)- the folks who make wooden cars, reusable diaper covers, hand knit caps, soft stuffies...the list goes on.

Here is a link to Etsy's toolkit which paraphrases the law & includes contact information to raise awareness & fight to revise this law: http://www.etsy.com/storque/media/bunker/2009/01/CPSIA-Etsy-Resources.pdf

Here's a few items that I may need to say farewell to:

Restless Heart- Quiltish Valentine's Day Collection

So Valentine's Day has never been my favorite holiday. Not even my second favorite. It probably ranks right up there with National Boss Day or April Fool's Day. Maybe, on a good year, I love it as much as Groundhog Day. I mean, really, what else is more torturous than being an awkward sixth grader hoping against hope that "the boy" has left a message declaring his ultimate state of 'like' for you....only to find some silly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle card his mom probably made him sign his name to. Not personalized, no message, not even a box of chalky hearts.

Ah, well. How things change. Now, with my stud muffin of a husband & handsome little boy- what's not to celebrate? Bring on the chocolate, construction paper hearts, & cupid's arrows! To tribute the holiday of red, pink, & love/disappointment I've whipped up a few Quiltish lovelies using Alexander Henry's Heart to Heart fabric:
(and trust me, Jack will be personally writing a very sincere valentine's message to each & every girl- freckles or not- during his elementary school years).

Movin' On Out- Quiltish SALE Section

My head is spinning with ideas for bags & accessories, businessy plans, & new fabric (mostly from Bee Square Fabric...my fabric shop heroine!) However, in an attempt to start anew (one of my favorite aspects of the new year...except of course for the dropping disco ball...) I've added gobs of cute items to my SALE section, and who doesn't love a good sale? Here's a few of the Quiltish lovelies:

How'd You Get This Number- Yay for Etsy Analytics...Now, what does it all mean?

Many Etsy folks have been hoopin' & hollerin' the last couple days- celebrating Etsy's release of Etsy Web Analytics provided through Google Analytics (read the Etsy Storque article here). This service is free, helpful, addicting (or addictive? I never know). I've used it for my blog- mostly to see random bits o' trivia like which countries people visit from & which languages they speak. The beneficial aspects for Etsy shops include nifty graphs comparing visits & pageviews, new visitors, & average time spent on the site.
Those are the parts I understand at least. The rest is a wee bit complicated. Google offers a help section and a glossary of terms....but I found myself looking for a dictionary to decipher the glossary. I did find this extremely informative article from Biznik that breaks down all the jargon into words that don't require a tech degree to understand. Here's a brief snippet:

TERMS

There are MANY terms used in a Google Analytics report, and sometimes people get mystified simply because they don't understand the terms and have no one around to explain them.

Here are the important ones:

Bounce Rate: the bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who come and exit immediately. Example: I get to your home page and then instead of viewing your other pages, I immediately leave your website and go to someone else's website. It's a quality metric.

The higher your bounce rate, the more this "leave instantly" thing is happening. You want a low bounce rate. Something lower than 40% is good, particularly if you have a lot of new people visiting your website.

Traffic Sources: Traffic sources are the places your visitors are coming from. See below for further explanation, but your visitors are either coming from search engines, referral sites or by directly entering your website address (your www) into the browser.

Referring Site: A referring site is another website that links to yours. So, if a visitor clicks on your website link in your Biznik profile, Biznik will be listed as a referral source on your Google Analytics report.

Direct traffic: Direct traffic is any visit to your website that is a result of someone entering your website address directly into the browser bar. Example - you go to your browser and type in www.biznik.com - that counts as direct traffic to Biznik.

Keywords: If you've had any visits to your website that are a result of search, Google Analytics tracks the keywords or phrases that were used to find you.

Avg. Time: Google Analytics also tracks the amount of time a visitor spent on a page, as well as per visit. The more time spent, in theory, the better for you. In general, the longer you can keep someone's attention on your site, the better.

Absolute Unique Visitors: Google Analytics tracks visits to your website by geographic location and IP address. But, it counts every visit and click, even if it's the same person constantly hitting the back and forth buttons, for example. So, you can use the Absolute Unique Visitors tool to discover precisely how many new visitors you've gotten within a given time period.

Entrance and Exit paths / Navigation Summary - Analytics can show you exactly how a visitor got to any page in your site, and then can tell you where they went (if they left by clicking a link to another site).

*I do recommend reading the whole article though for more explanations!

Here are a few more great resources & tutorials I've found:

YouTube Tutorial Video- walks you through the interface: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KK7i084W2w

Google Analytics Official Blog: http://analytics.blogspot.com/

Basic Set-Up Tutorial: http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2007/02/google_analytics_video_tutoria_1.htm

Analytics for Beginners- Clear Explanations:

http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_Use_Google_Analytics_for_Beginners

Understanding the Stats Tutorial: http://timothyadamdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/01/google-analytics-and-your-etsy-shop.html

Tracking Internal Etsy Traffic from Ferolux:

http://www.screencast.com/users/thatdingo/folders/Default/media/7e2479d4-1e2c-4f86-b760-3416b324be91

Tutorial for Setting Up Analytics with Photos from TinyFig:

http://sweetfigments.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-set-up-your-google-analytics.html

Recognizing Trends on your Analytics by Timothy Adams:

http://timothyadamdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/01/google-analytics-tracking-time-trends.html

Press On - Well, Hello Lovely New Rowenta Iron

Who knew a new iron could make a girl so giddy? This one has been a long time coming. After many brownish deposit stains, ruined projects, futile attempts to clean my old irons, and trips home to double check the iron had been turned off (and yes, sometimes realizing I hadn't!) I gave in & used our Christmas gift cards on this big beauty- a Rowenta Effective Steam Iron. I found it on sale at Target- sure there were some more advanced styles, but I'm a simple girl & if it presses my lovely fabrics & keeps me from burning the house down- that's all I ask for.

Plus, I have a secret passion for ironing. As a little girl I ironed just about everything- sheets, my doll clothes, pillow cases, wash cloths....seriously. I would stand back & marvel & the crisp clean fabric & starched folds and think, "ahhh, all is right with the world."

Here's a list of reasons why I love my new Rowenta:

1. Auto Shut-Off: Did I mention this yet? Ha. It turns itself off if left face down on fabric, sitting up after 8 minutes, or tipped over. Now, if I do burn the house down, I guess it's just my own darned fault- no excuses with this one.

2. BIG: It's large & heavy & maybe a tad bit bulky. But you know, I love it that way. It makes me feel like my fabric is finally being given the special treatment...no more messing around with those wimpy lightweights. True, the model up was a touch easier to handle but at 3lbs 12oz. this one really packs a punch.

3. Anti-Drip: Hmm, this feature sounds a little yukky...but I know my last iron sputtered around constantly ruining fabric and *eeek* even completed projects. Hopefully this lives up to it's promise.

4. Cord Reel: I had no idea I would even want this feature but now that I have it I just keep playin with it like it's a new toy. Makes my ironing area a whole lot neater, plus I can't lie- it's like a little touch of luxury :)

5. On Sale: I can justify just about any purchase if it has a cute little red markdown sticker. I know, I know- a sucker, I know.

6. Vertical Steam: I can iron drapes now. If we had drapes I'd be ironing them right this second. Someday, I will be ironing drapes- just watch.

7. Self- Cleaning. self cleaning. I don't think this really needs an explanation....

Here are a few lovelies my iron pressed for me today....

Here For the Party- Jack's First Birthday Bash

Woo Hoo! This weekend we celebrated Jack's first birthday by hosting a play party at Gymboree. Though that place can be a little much to take in- with all the bubbles n' clowns n' parachutes n' singing n' smiles'- Jack definitely loves it...plus it made it easy to gather around all the relatives & friends. Jack was a bit spacey from apparently pre-partying in his crib the night before at 12:30, 1:15, 3:20, 4:00 and then again at 6:00 a.m, but was really happy to see his pals & family. I really appreciate all the folks that showed up- some drove as much as 3 hours!

This such a memorable day & I'm already excited about planning his second party...watch out sweet sixteen. I am super thankful for my sister-in-law, Jennifer, who eagerly helped me make- and lick the bowls for, over 40 vegan vanilla cupcakes! My good friend Jen also joined the cupcake brigade & really rocked the frosting...and later rocked Jack to sleep. My in-laws & Mark really helped it all run smoothly...

Here's a few photos- the first is of the invitations we made- I sketched it out, Mark created it on the computer & then printed out...ah, I love orange. Notice Jack's look of awe & surprise in each picture!

Best Year- Happy Birthday Little Man Jack!

Dear Jack-

Happy Birthday to you! A whole year has passed since you entered this world- ringing in the new year for us....and I can't possibly think of a better new year's party! You are such an active, curious, kind, and rambunctious little boy with a heart for other children, music, and your kitty Boston.

I am so lucky to be your mother & am excited to see you continue to grow in this upcoming year!

Love you more than all the birthday candles in the world,

Mama