1/26 Update!
Okay, wow! it's been awhile since an update! my bad! I'm happy to say we've been busy over here and I haven't had the time. Good busy! But busy none the less!
Orders placed at the end of December are being worked on and hopefully completed this week! Like many others we were hit by the snow pretty bad and I don't have as much assistance in the shop this week, but we've got a game plan and are going to try and get as many completed by the end of this week as possible. If your order is sitting in limbo from between being packaged and updating tracking, I'm sorry now. I'll likely only get to the post office once or twice this week.
Orders placed on at the start of January are set to soon follow after the December batch is packaged and out the door. We're at about a 4-5 week turnaround on all items (other than the heart bags) and really appreciate the patience. Being able to have the amount of orders to give my production assistant is such an amazing gift!! and we're so thrilled to have more people finding us all the time. Between orders I've been adding small batch collection pieces here and there so I can do small drops each month (or every other, all depending on what's going on!) where all the items are ready to ship. Which is exactly what I've been working on this month for our first round of valentines day stuff.
So we're doing two Valentines updates! This first one is some totes, classic valentines style wall hearts, bag charms, under loves heavy burden wall hearts, and some odds and ends. This was really fun to prep and work on between orders and I'm so excited to start integrating this style of production into our monthly workload to both break up production for myself (I can't do the same thing for too long or else I go stir crazy!!) and so we can have more ready to ship items available in the shop! There will be another valentines day update in the start of February with some of our Love Letter bags from last year (ready to ship) and some new clown totes with artwork from Stacia Collins! (make to order) along with any other last minute valentine themed stuff I make. it'll be so fun!!
I'm so insanely blown away by the love our heart pillow bags have been getting lately! it is incredible, it really is. Dana and I love to make them so much and I can't believe so many people want them now. When I first drafted the pattern and rolled them out in the fall of 2024 I was hopeful that people would one day really want them. They've really come a long way and we're getting better at making larger batches of them at a time! which is really helpful since people ask about them so much more often. Our current plan is to re-open orders every other month so we can catch up and complete as many from the last batch of orders as possible. So we took orders in November, finished them up mid January and also took orders for more of them during mid January as well. Our current batch is set to be finished around Mid March and that's when we'll open them back up!
We're going to be sending a large batch of our Valentines collection out to Nocturne in Salem for their Oh So Sweet weekend! And we'll be sending some stuff to Wonder Witch Co in Pittsburgh as well during their Valentine's weekend. So there will be some spots with some of our stuff in person during the biggest weekend of LOVE!!
End of February I'll be releasing a small whimsigoth winter collection, reopening mood board quote tote pre-orders, and we'll be re-listing our best selling wall hearts and banners for make to order as well. I am so incredibly BLESSED that so many people are interested in our best selling items that we are able to reopen them each month and keep production alive. This is huge! This is how a sewing studio is created and run! this is how we're able to ensure work for a TEAM and not just myself. A team that gets faster and more dynamic each month as well. I can't stress enough how terrible the sewing jobs were in our area. Between the lack of decent pay for this "dying skill" everyone fawns over, respect and patience to get to a point where they're happy with production (and production being incredibly picky and overly scrutinized) and watching people not originally from this country being exploited for their labor next to you-it feels so empowering and beautiful to have the work to provide to myself and my assistant in a hopeful, appreciative and financially appropriate workplace. So thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you for everyone who has shopped and kept us busy.
If you've made it this far in the blog I'd like to take a moment and have a vulnerable conversation. It's one that many other shop owners and artists are having right now and I can't help, but feel the same in so many ways. It feels so insanely weird and selfish to go online and try to promote our work right now along side with the literal hellscape news cycle and actions that are happening in our country right now. It feels so selfish to take the spotlight from anything other than the conversations that need to be had between everyone. The talks of just how out of control and disgusting the abuse of power is right now. How scary things are, how unfair and unending it all feels. We all need a little pick me up and treat, but to ask people to spend any sort of money on non-essential items right now and also posting on social media? Wow. I hope you know more than ever how much we appreciate the support. The capitalism machine is very hard to turn off, but choosing to spend whatever fun money you have right now with small businesses is a form of rebellion. Choosing to not run down to the big box store for your cheap valentines day decor and getting one of our handmade wall hearts keeps our business alive, and it keeps their pockets a little less lined. I know it feels totally ridiculous to think if one person decides not to buy at one of these corporations that it's really going to make a difference, and it might not to them, but it really does to us. I'm actively trying to budget how to pull out of big box stores for our supplies all together. When we first started funds are tight and you've got to pick and choose where the money should go while also needing to grow. As we grow this is a huge part of my monthly budget goal and I hope to make the switch entirely very soon so I know our supplies are coming from places that don't line the pockets of these cooperations that fund things like ICE. As we grow and can source all our materials from companies that aren't funding literal war crimes I also hope to pour that into more crowd funding and assistance programs as well. It may be small on the huge scale of things, but it's important to recognize that turning off more and more of our funds to these big box stores is the best way to get ourselves out of the cycle that keeps these things from thriving.
I also hope that everyone is taking care of themselves. Mental health right now so important to keep in mind right now. It's dark, it's cold, it's gloomy, and it's fucking hopeless feeling right now. I hope you're taking care of yourself in any way that you can. This is something I've been personally struggling with myself, but I'm trying to carve out more time to keep myself from doom spiral scrolling into a place of total madness.
wow this got so long!! Okay!! thank you for checking in!!
xoxo Ally