Wind.

So the winds are changing, blowing in a different direction.

I have loved My 3 Lil Monkeys. I have loved learning how to screen print, and I have loved re-discovering sewing. I have loved creating and I have loved putting a smile on people's faces.

But as I said. The winds are changing. The fact of the matter is, I really do love screen printing - but right now, the only way I am able to do it (order blank shirts as I make a sale) it is not profitable. Which makes it a VERY time consuming hobby. Again, a hobby that I love, but a hobby non the less. And being a full time nursing student, I don't have a lot of time to spare for non-profit hobbies (especially when we're so broke - but they again, who isn't broke?).

So here's where things sit. I have started my photography business {and am loving it WAY more than I ever imagined}, I am finishing up this semester and am about to start my final semester of nursing school, and as always, I am enjoying my family as much as I possibly can. Financially, things are tough, and for as much time as it takes to make custom shirts, it is not profitable, which is very frustrating. So, I am backing off from My 3 Lil Monkeys a little.

I am no longer offering custom shirts, only pre-printed shirts. My focus is elsewhere and it's not fair to my customers to make them wait for shirts because my life is too busy. Life is a balancing act, and I'm just leveling the scales.

I'll still post here, and I'm still going through with Duncan the Traveling Monkey. I will still post feature posts, and I still LOVE Etsy :-) I'm just scaling back a bit.

I just wanted you all to know. :-) Cause I love you muchos.

Thank you for your support and love!

Getting my act together.

Ok so we've now lived here for almost 3 months. I can't keep using the "we just moved" excuse to get me out of making new screens for screen printing. So today - I got my act together.

Over a month ago, I purchased the wood to make new frames.

A couple weeks after that I finally got around to cutting the wood.

Now, weeks later, I finally got around to piecing the wood together to make the actual frame. I'm hoping I can keep my mojo long enough to actually put the mesh on the frame by today. I have tomorrow off {shock! 2 days off in a row! I haven't had a day off in a LONG time!} so I'd love to get a screen completely made (with emulsion on it, and if I can get a transparency made up, hopefully burn an image onto the screen) by the end of tomorrow.


In other news...

I've been listing more in my shop - finally! And somethings working, cause I've been getting a few more sales! I'm anxious for the day that I can have enough extra funds to have a small inventory of my most popular shirts (ie: black, and white Ts, size 2, 4, and 6). As it is, I have to order each shirt as I make a sale - which, if I were making multiple sales in a day, it would be ok. However, with one sale one day, and the next one 2 days later - I end up having to place 2 orders, which means i have to pay for shipping twice {thus making my actual profit way less}.

Anyway, it all works out in the end. And for now, I'm just having fun with it!

12 days

That's how long it's been since my last post.

My goodness, now that I have my other blogs {helps me organize and separate from business, family, personal and weight loss} and school has started, I find myself blogging here less and less. I haven't done much with My 3 Lil Monkeys lately because I've been busy with school and life in general. I still have all those shirts and sewn goodies to list in my shop and I haven't done it yet. But I've had a few orders come through that I will be finishing today {I would have had them done sooner, but I was trying a new dye [only because I couldn't find the color I needed in RIT dye] and it didn't turn out the way I wanted, so I had to wait till I went to Ames yesterday to get the color I needed in RIT}. They're just more My Mom Shoots People shirts - I REALLY need to list the pre-printed ones I have, I've got some really cute ones.

Anyway, I'll get back in the game here soon. And soon I will be doing/getting Christmas gifts and I hope to either hand make {myself} or BUY handmade all of the gifts for everyone - which means I'll be showcasing them here! I love giving out the Etsy love, so hopefully I'll get back in the game with that too.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend - my family and I are loving just kicking back and relaxing after a tiring week. See you soon!

New Look!

I was SO happy to have stumbled across Leelou's blog today! She's created a TON of adorable {FREE} blog layouts! Of course eventually I want a blog layout completely customized just for me, but in the meantime, I am in love :-) These are colorful, fun, bright, cheery, and just my style! I had a little mishap when I switched the family blog and I lost all my widgets, but I'm rebuilding, so it's ok ;-) My next course of action is to figure out how to make this layout a 3-column. I was looking through my old code to find where it was that I added the 3rd column last time (the original layout was a 2 column that I changed) but it wasn't working when I tried changing it, so I'll get back to it. I just don't like having ALL my widgets, buttons, blog lists, etc on one side. Seems too cluttered and easy to miss the stuff at the bottom if someone's just stopping by and not scrolling down to read much further than the main screen area.

Anyway, thanks so much to Leelou Blogs for the BEEYOUTIFUL (and {FREE}) layouts :-) I have a slightly different one on my Monkey blog, my Family blog, and my Me blog!

*Oh, also have to make new headers for all the blogs... Any takers? {wink}

Knock Knock

{Who's there?}

Me! I'm here! I really really am!


So I've been a little pre-occupied after the move, with the start of school, and with homecomings and preparing for goodbyes... The end of summer is a busy time, but I don't see my school year getting much easier. I'll just have to learn to adjust and keep on multi-tasking.

As for the business, wow. I've completely slacked off. Which is sad because I've started to get a handful of requests for custom orders, so I know if I were to get my butt in gear and actually LIST all the stuff I have to list, I'd get some sales!


I kid you not, I have probably over 15 shirts (pre-printed) that I have waiting to be listed (they've been photographed, but I hung them on a branch and am not crazy about the leaf shadows on them... still deciding if I want to re-photograph) not to mention all the Key Fobs I made that are waiting to be listed, and mini-wallets, and some zippered pouches AND some adorable diaper/wipes holders.


Yeah. I look in my closet (the craft closet) and see all those shirts, and I look at my "stash" of sewn goodies, and all I see is money. Money just sitting there. Normally I don't look at my stuff and see dollar signs, but lately money has been crazy tight (or in the red) so I've been trying to find little ways to make extra money or save money... so it really has me kicking myself to see all this "merchandise" just sitting there where nobody can even look at it.


Anyway. Enough of that. I just wanted to say that I was here and I hope to be posting here more again. I've been posting on my family blog and my new "me" blog, so I really have been around... just not on this loverly blog.

Family Fest {fun?}

This weekend my boddy Caitlin {over at CarmelTurtle} and I had our first "outing" with our goods. Months ago, Caitlin was approached by the woman who was putting this "Family Fest" together, and she/we were under the impression (based off of how this lady described it) that it was going to be like a giant craft fair out at Bandshell Park and we wouldn't have to pay for a table and we could sell our goodies. So Caitlin talked to me about it and we decided that it would be way fun and a great way to get our names out there in our town!


Fast forward to the first {and only} meeting that all the "vendors" (or so we thought) sat in on to discuss the goings on of the Family Fest day. We quickly realized that not only was this NOT a craft fair of ANY sort, but we were going to be the only two people even selling anything! We later found out that yes, there would be food vendors (hot dogs, pop corn, etc) and there were a couple tables like {for example} realtors, so technically we weren't the ONLY people selling things... But still.


We got a fairly good spot in the shade, in a pretty corner, and next to a small chuch (table/spot of people representing their church. In fact, there were a LOT of churches there represented) that was giving away free balloons - which meant we got a LOT of people over by our table just because we were near the popular table *wink* {Location - Location - Location!}


The overall vibe that we got from that day was... it was NOT a buying crowd. It was a crowd of people (the whole day was aimed at families throughout ALL of Ames) that was there to play the games, get the free candy (which we thankfully had, and that actually did bring people directly to our table) and get whatever other freebies the tables had to offer.

Caitlin sold one thing right away - we got our hopes up and thought it would be a great selling day. I sold another thing awhile later to a friend of the family (she paid full price, so it still counts! lol!). I later had one more sale.

That was it. Well, and we gave away a lot of business cards (which is always a good thing).

We both had put a LOT of time, energy, and even extra money from our personal accounts just to make sure we had enough to sell that day. We were both up till 3 the night before getting ready. We were up and getting things together by 8:30 and we set up our table before 10. We stayed till after 5.

All in all, we made a couple sales, we made some friends (yay for the balloon church people!), we gave out lots of biz cards, we got some sun (ahem... I got some sun {read: burn} and Caitlin got a nice tan, as always), and we had fun hanging out together. It was not the day we were expecting, but we actually did learn a lot about having a booth/table to sell our goods, and it prepared us for the next time we do a REAL craft fair {yes, there will be a next time!}. Oh, and for quite a few hours we both felt really rich carrying around the wad of cash that we'd gotten from the bank to make change :-P

Anyway, I guess it did make my day that I got a picture with all the "characters" that were there that day ;-)

Me with Silly Sally the Clown {yes, I know I would probably make a natural clown}

What? I have something on my face?

Smyles the Dog - the Library dog

McGruff the Dog and the hottie police man!

Me with Cy - the Iowa State University mascot

Me with Sparky {from Sparks - AWANA mascot}

My niece and nephew (oh and their mama ;-)) came for awhile to check things out - they enjoyed the Kindermusik booth.

Caitlin and her awesome little man Ki who looks super adorable in the nose {grin}

My new friend {who's name escapes me at the moment} from the booth next to us - the church group giving out free balloons.

The noses brought some great entertainment {wink}

So that was our day. It wasn't a bad day, just far from what we were expecting. We probably won't do it again, but we are on the lookout for an actual craft fair - THAT will be fun :-) This day was our learning day :-) And everyone needs one of those every so often *wink*

Boxes.

My entire craft room (including my precious sewing machine and fabrics) is packed away in boxes. On one hand it makes me sad because I love just looking at my fabrics (yes, I know I'm a geek, but I LOVE fabrics!) but it actually makes me more excited because my new craft room is going to rock! I'm so excited for it! I won't be in the dungeon of a basement, I'll have french/double doors that make me feel special, I'll have a bigger space, and I'll be right on the main floor so I can still be involved with everything. Oh, and my computer will be in that room!

We will have everything packed up by today - cause we're taking the first load over tomorrow when we sign the lease!!! That includes my {precious} computer and Ryan's {addiction} TV. Man, we'll have to like - gasp - hang out with each OTHER tomorrow!! Hehe, just kidding! We've actually been having a BLAST lately spending so much time together! It's so nice and it's been fun to laugh with him despite our stressful situation. He really is my best friend!! Love it!

My heart and my brain.

I've started keeping a journal again. As a kid I used to love getting new journals, I loved the pretty covers, I loved taking them with me, I loved feeling them in my hands. Apparently I didn't love writing in them though. I would start one and maybe write a couple days in a row... then I'd write again a few weeks later... then I'd re-discover it a few months later and read what I'd written and I'd get embarrassed or feel stupid so I'd rip out the pages. Over the years I've probably {collected} 10+ journals just because I wished I was "one of those" girls who could jot down her thoughts, her dreams, her hurts, her joys, her fears, and all of it would be penned in eloquence and beauty. Did I mention I have always hated my handwriting too?

So here I am again. It's not a diary. It's not a journal. It's my heart. It's my soul. It's my book of ideas, quotes, and mini thoughts. Already it's impressively filled (well, for me) with intimate thoughts, scribbles, ideas, doodles, and it's even got pressed flowers in it. I love it. And I think for the first time in my entire life, I'm actually going to stick with it. It's been therapeutic for me. Aside from our marriage counselor, I don't really talk deeply about my inner heart issues to anyone (aside from a long distance friend) so having this has really helped me through a few things. I like that.


And I can't leave out my other new favorite book - my "brain"! In my {desperate} attempts to become organized, I finally found the perfect planner! It's got a calendar (with detailed weeks following the main calendar page), it's got tons of "extras" (ie: meal planning, exercise tracker, etc), places for notes, lists/tasks, and addresses! All in one place! I love it and I carry it with me EVERYWHERE. It's cute, it's a great size, it's got everything I wanted in a planner, and it has genuinely helped me become a little more organized - especially when I write everything down now!


So this was a bit of a random post, but I just wanted to share. I truly am an easy-to-please kind of girl. And my 2 new babies sure have put a smile on my face. :-)

And now you know.





Have I mentioned how much I love being able to "post in the future"? ;-) (I wrote this days before it will actually post to my blog) It's wonderful for when busy me has lots to say and little time to blog.

SURPRISE in my mailbox!!!

About a month ago, Wonder Mommy was having a giveaway - a big giveaway - and I entered to win! Well, I was shocked to get an email from Wonder Mommy recently telling me that I had WON! Not only that, but I won the BIG prize! The pattern AND the yard of fabric! I was beyond thrilled!


Well, it's been crazy around here, and honestly, I had forgotten about it. Until I got the mail today. Inside was a package that felt soft yet heavy. I was racking my brain trying to remember if I'd bought anything recently, but I didn't remember doing that. So when I opened it up to see what was inside, I was THRILLED! I think I squealed out loud ;-)



The pattern is adorable. And the one yard of fabric is amazing! AAANNNNDDD... The extra YARD of fabric that Wonder Mommy threw in as an extra is gorgeous as well!!! What a fabulous package!! I love it all and can't WAIT to try out this pattern!!!


Thank you SO SO much Wonder Mommy - you totally made my day!!!

Proceed with caution!

My house is a land mine! I've started packing (got a really good start on it too!) and my place is even messier than it usually is! There are packed and partially packed totes and boxes everywhere (starting to organize them against a wall now though) and junk on every surface of my house. We are trying really hard to get rid of as much as possible, and being the pack rat that I am, it's HARD!! But I'm doing it! Ryan (hubster) has told me at least 3 times now that he's proud of me for all the work I've done with packing so far. I'm a procrastinator, so it's common for me to leave this kind of stuff for last minute (or in this case, waiting till the week we move). I'm proud of me too. It feels good to be making so much progress.

My goal for these next couple weeks is to have as much packed as possible, tons of stuff thrown/given/sold (in other words OUT OF MY HOUSE), and only our bare necessities left for the last couple weeks we're here. I figure all we need is some clothes, some toys for the boys, food of course, and basic toiletries. It's helped to see everything that's been sitting and not used for so long - makes it easier to get rid of. I'm trying to be as heartless in that manner as my husband is ;-) He has no sentimental attachment to ANYTHING [exaggeration] so he could throw away the most precious things without blinking. That's part of my motivation for getting this done without him, cause then he has no say in it and I can get rid of enough to make him happy *wink*

Anyway, packing sucks, but it's bittersweet cause we're really excited to move :-) It will feel good to downsize our junk, get in a new (and really cool) place, be closer to school, and kind of give us a little power boost (as opposed to starting over). We're happy :-)

Picasso brothers

They had lots of fun yesterday "finger" (or brush) painting. They started in the kitchen but I was getting frustrated trying to get good photos (I abhor flash photography) so I took them outside - yes, in their underoo's briefly - to finish painting. I'm glad, we had fun and I got a couple good shots ;-) They love to do fun things like that.

And here is a picture of our new place! Well, it's identical to the one we'll be moving into - this is just the one that we were able to walk through. We'll be on the bottom level, on the left side :-) We're SO excited!! Now if I could just get more motivated to pack!

productive evening!

I spent the evening sewing with my Boddy! I ended up making a little tote (that I'd had pieces cut for a couple months now) and I got to make a little doll from a pattern by Bit of Whimsy! I am so in love with her dolls, I have loved them for awhile now, so I was ecstatic to be able to sew one myself! Of course there are a couple quirks that come from sewing your first doll EVER, and I haven't done her face yet, but aside from those things, I am VERY pleased! I think I am going to name her Penny (short for Penelope of course). Anyway, here are a few pictures of my new little treats!

Purse/Tote

Penelope, AKA Penny

Penny hanging out in the new purse.

There are a couple more pictures on my Flickr - including the picture of Tanner "playing with a doll" and Cody showing me that "mama! The doll has LEGS!!" When I came home with my little loves last night I was teasing Ryan by telling him that I had made the boys a doll to play with. He scolded me and told me that I need to be sewing them TRUCKS and MANLY things :-P Lol.

Oh, and right now Penny is apparently taking a nap in my son Cody's bed. Cody told me that she was tired and needed a nap. I guarantee you if I checked, she'd be all tucked in with her head on a pillow and everything. What a sweetie ;-)

Following the lines...

A couple weeks ago I sold one of my favorite zippered pouches (lol, of the what, THREE I've listed? *wink*). I was all excited, I told Ryan right away that I sold something! As I went to check the details of the sale, I noticed the name. I thought "well hmm, that's interesting, I know a _____ _____". Then I looked at the address... Well come on, how often is it a coincidence that someone has the same name AND same address of someone you know?

Yeah, so I figured out that a friend had bought the pouch! I was happy, and I tucked in a sweet little onesie for her little unborn baby girl.

Not long ago her husband called and was teasing my husband, telling him to tell me to "stop selling my wife stuff online!" So I took the phone to assure him that she bought it all on her own, I did no advertising - and that in fact, I was wondering how she remembered my shop name - an email (links in my siggy) or myspace or facebook? Well, come to find out, she DIDN'T KNOW she was buying from me! She had just searched for a little purse/pouch and decided on mine - she didn't make the connection until she opened the package and was wondering how the heck "that seller" knew she was pregnant! Then she looked at the return address and that's when SHE made the connection!

I just thought it was funny and I felt pretty darn cool that I was "found" randomly on the internet and someone "chose" me *smile*.

**Poll below this post, please read and respond!**

Question?

What would you like to see more of in my shop? More variety of designs for screen printed items? More baby blankets? More zippered pouches? More diaper/wipes holders? Something I haven't mentioned? Something that's not even listed in my shop?

I'd love some feedback.

I'm the type of person who has so many ideas and so many good intentions to do something... but it doesn't always get done. I have many many patterns that I have plans to make and list, but they just sit (I've even got fabric for a lot of them!). I have materials for things that I don't always get around to making (I have materials for Key Fobs - which I'm really excited about - that I still need to sit down and put together and list). So I guess I am looking to see which one of my many "projects" I should start with first. Because I bet whatever idea you give me (of something you want to see in my shop) I probably have plans for, I just keep procrastinating on making it.

So you tell me. What would you like to see?

A learning experience.

I really don't know what happened. I don't recall any big huge event happening this past weekend. I did have class all this week, but I know I had other down time. And yet, I had a custom order that needed to be in her hands by Father's Day. Which means, it was an expedited order (she needed it before my estimated ship time was up).

Anyway, it's Wednesday. I have the shirt all printed and packaged, but did it get shipped? Nope. And because of my apparent procrastination (which I'm normally a procrastinator but when it comes to my business, customer service is #1 on my list and I pride myself on fantastic customer service and that includes shipping time!) I am going to be forced to ship Express. I just don't want to risk it not getting to her. Technically Priority says it could get to her by Saturday, but there's a chance that it won't, and I would be OH so mad at myself if Father's Day came and she didn't have a gift to give her husband - because of me.

So I'm kicking myself. In the shin. Probably will leave a bruise. But it's a lesson learned - cause it really sucks to make absolutely no money (perhaps even losing money, I haven't figured it up yet) on an order that was so time consuming.

*Kick*Kick*Kick*




ouch.

Bummer...

So apparently I have no cahones. I was at the check out at the grocery store. I whip out my little mini wallet (it's the only thing I use for a wallet anymore, I love it) and the cashier says "that's so cute! Where did you get it?" So I told her that I made it and thank you. Then I pulled out my card to pay. I pulled out my card, from my wallet, that contained my BUSINESS CARDS, that contained the website that SELLS these wallets that she thought was "so cute".

*sigh*

No cahones I tell ya. None. I didn't give her a business card, I dropped the ball. Dang it.

Tshirt in action!

I love getting feedback on my shirts. Today I saw a post from my friend Mandi (yes, another Mandi who's awesome enough to spell her name with an 'i') and she shared pictures of her "little" (who are we kidding this kid was 10 lbs 6.6 oz at birth!) man wearing my "My Mom Shoots People" shirt! His mama is an awesome photographer, so it's really an honor to see her guy wearing it :-)Look how cute he is!! I love it! Thanks for the love Mandi!

Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino

Yum.

I know that's what you said when you read that title. :-) And you would be right. I re-discovered an old Starbucks gift card in an unused wallet the other day and last night I decided to check and see if I was blessed enough to have some money left over on it. Sure enough I had over $2.00 on it! I was so excited! So after my trip to the post office today to mail out some orders, I drove through the Starbucks drive through and got a Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino. To be honest, Starbucks isn't exactly on my top 3 favorites for coffee places, but there are a couple things that I could order anywhere and be pleased. (by the way, my top 3 - in no particular order - are Caribou Coffee, Burgies (local) and Cafe Milo (also local, my brother is the manager)).

So yeah. I got my fix and I pretty much got it for 50% off since I had a couple "free" bucks to spend :-) It made my day!

Birthday Boy!

Today is my hubby's birthday! Unfortunately both of us have class - mine is in the morning (I should be going soon) and his is in the early afternoon. Hopefully we can have a fun evening planned to make up for the fact that I can't stay home and pamper him all day!

So, happy birthday to my partner in crime! I love you so much baby!

My favorite contest entry.

Ok so I've had a lot of great feedback regarding my contest. I've had one friend (Jenn) earn 10 entries just by linking my site on other websites! She's got my banner on our message board and her myspace, she's got my shop's link in her email siggy's, her kids' websites, and more, and she's left comments here! A couple other people have earned multiple entries too!

But I have to be completely honest. My favorite entry so far has to be from Lori. Dude - she wrote me a POEM! Seriously, the creativity would be enough to win if this contest weren't completely random *wink* So between her and Jenn (creativity VS. quantity) I gotta say, karma is in their favor (if I believed in karma ;-))

Good luck all, there's only 1 day left to enter!