It's been CRAY-ZEE around here

Seriously though...insane!  I have been busy, but the kids have been especially nuts this week.  To the point that I want to send them somewhere for about 2 weeks just so I can have a little peace and quiet.  I should say that it's just the boys, Bailey is pretty quiet unless the boys are messing with her.

I have been staying up way too late at night reading and then having trouble sleeping once I do go to bed   I am so lucky to have kids that wake up at the crack of dawn and can't be quiet even though they are WAY too old to still be loud when they wake up....that way totally sarcastic and 100% true!

I have been working, sewing again.  It's nice to have a little extra money, but the stress that comes with offering a custom service is still there.  I don't care for that at all, that's why this will just be a summer gig.  I will take my last orders probably the 2nd week of July, so if you want anything make sure you get it ordered before then.  I start my new job on August 15th and I don't want to have any orders unshipped at that point. I am shooting for having everything shipped at least a week prior to my starting school again.

I have been working hard on my other blog, my book review blog {Dive} Under the Cover.  I have been working on getting it out there and getting more views and followers.  I am finding that numbers are pretty important to publishers when it comes to who they pick to receive ARC's of their books.  Right now I am just trying to build it up.  I am not really actively seeking out books.  I have had a couple that I really would like to review that I have taken a chance on, but haven't had to much luck.  I am okay with that really, since I am just starting out I don't expect to get any.  I am hoping that by building up my following and by posting regular, what I consider nice quality, reviews I will be someone that they will look at in the future.  That said, I have had a couple of authors actually contact me about reviewing their books and that's super awesome as far as I am concerned!  I am broadening my reading scope and reviewing some books that I may not have come across otherwise.

Speaking of books, I got this is the mail today...how awesome is this?!!

 This is my very first signed book and I was pretty excited when I saw that envelope in my mailbox today.

I am going to have to buy a new bookshelf for all the books I am going to be getting!

I am off to get the kids in their rooms so I can watch Pretty Little Liars from last night and then maybe catch some Mad Med before I head off to bed to read a little.

Oh Yes I did !!

I have been thinking about this all week and decided to open Pink Punk Boutique back up on a temporary basis.  It will only be for the summer and I am only taking a limited number of orders at a time so that I never get behind and so that I never feel overwhelmed.

I am not re-opening the store, per se, just my Facebook Page.  I did open a very limited Big Cartel store front to put up the custom listings.  It's easier for you and it's easier for me to keep track of them.  I can only do 5 listings at a time with this store so it's super easy for me!

I have already taken all my orders for this week, but become a fan and be the first to get in line when I take new orders on Friday mornings!

Hard Decisions

I have been thinking long and hard about what I want to do about Pink Punk Boutique this year.  I have come to the decision that I am going to keep my custom store closed.  I had planned to take a couple orders here and there, but for now I am enjoying my time off.  I will be honest and say that it's been nice not having that pressure weighing on me day and night.  I like knowing that I can go to work all day and come home and sit with a cup of coffee and my kindle and not have to worry about needing to get something done.  I like knowing that when I get my sewing machine out, since I don't have to keep it out all the time, I am going to make something because I want to not because I have to.

I think that I made the final decision when I started going through all my fabric and started getting it all put away.  I think deep down I knew that I wasn't going to be getting it out again, not for a long time.

Here is what most people don't realize about what I have been doing for the past 3 years.  It's a labor of love, really, to do this for so long and when you don't love it anymore it's just work.  And when it's just work and you aren't really making any money doing it then it's not worth the time.  Don't get me wrong, I love to sew and hopefully I always will.  Here is what I don't love

• countless time answering e-mail questions from people who never end up ordering anything
• countless time looking up fabric for people who don't order anything, or have no clue what they want

People don't understand the time that goes into custom work.  People say, "oh it's such a shame to let that business go, why not hire someone to help?".  Here is the answer to that...if I was making anywhere near enough money to hire someone I wouldn't need to get a job outside the home to make money!!  People see that I charge $90 for a camera bag and can't imagine why it's so much.  Here is a quick rundown of how much of that money I actually see.

• fabric - $16 - $30 (depending on what fabric picked)
• interfacing - $14
• hardware and zippers- $7

So right there alone, I have $37 - $51 just in supplies and that's not counting thread, needles, wear and tear to my machine.  Just say that I have average of $44 into each DSLR 2.0 bag, that leaves me $46 left over to count toward labor.  It takes me about 6 hours start to finish on a bag this size so I am making roughly $7.50 an hour.  That's not even minimum wage and I am being generous with my totals, I probably have more money into each bag truth be told.  If I add embroidery to the bag I lose even more money since I have to make 2 trips to town to have it done and they always end up charging me more than I charge the customer.  I always come out behind on the embroidery jobs.  And don't even get me started on factoring in time looking for fabric and going back and forth on email to nail down the fabric choices.  I think it's pretty safe to say that my profit from each bag is much less than 1/2 of what I charged.

That's why the decision was easy for me to make.  I don't love it enough anymore to have it take up all the free time that I have now that I am working.  The tiny bit of money I end up making just isn't worth the stress of it.  This past year was really stressful for me with the site hacking and moving my shop around to try to find a good fit.  I had one customer who didn't finalize the fabric for her order for OVER a year.  Yes, OVER a year!  All these little things add up and make big stress and for me it's just not worth it.  I want to be able to say that I still love to sew and will for a long time, but I can only do that if it's fun again.  I don't want it to feel like a job anymore.

I guess that's a really long way to say that I am not going to take any more custom work, but there you have it!  I am going to keep my Etsy store, but honestly, I don't know if I will make anything new for it, at least for awhile.  I haven't sold one single thing since I re-opened so why bother to make new stuff at this point?  It's been kind of a let down really.  I just want to get back to a place where I love what I am doing again.  I will get there at some point, right now I am just tired!

News!!

I had my interview today and they hired me, I did my paperwork and once I am in the system I can start working!  In case you are new to my blog, I am going to be a substitute teacher.  This is a whole new world for me.  Other than my Macy's job that lasted a month, of which I only actually worked about 20 hours (the reason I quit!) I have been a stay at home mom for just at 12 years now.  Another thing that makes it something new is that, while I have kids in public schools, I never actually attended public school.  I home-schooled my Sophomore year, but all my other schooling was in Christian Schools.  This doesn't include my years of college.  Anyway, the public school system will be a new experience for me.  I am nervous, but really excited at the same time.

One Step Closer...

I got my Substitute Certification yesterday!  I turned in my application today and I should hear back within a week.  She said that I may not even need to interview...that would be awesome.  I always get so nervous.  I have been checking into pointing my domain name to my Etsy store.  That will be happening on or around the 30th of this month so that I don't have to pay my Big Cartel fees again.  Since I will be going to 100% pre-made items, it's just not worth it to pay a monthly fee when I can pay only for the items I sell on Etsy.  I will also get a little more exposure for the items that I do list.  You will still be able to find me by typing in pinkpunkboutique.com too, so that's a good thing!

Another Monday...

I just realized that I haven't posted since last Monday!  I didn't realize it had been that long.  I really didn't do much last week.  I got a couple orders done, but I ran out of fleece on Thursday so I wasn't able to do any more.  Luckily, I anticipated that I was going to run out so I ordered a bolt early in the week and it should be here today.  I have had some trouble getting the type of fleece I use at Joann so I just ordered it.  They haven't been stocking the one I use so I have been buying another one that cost more, but isn't as sturdy.  I have no idea why something that's less would cost more...anyway, I ordered the kind I like and I only had a couple days of waiting.

New Fan Code!!

I have just posted a new code up on my Facebook Page for FREE US SHIPPING!!  Check  it out to get free shipping until 10/1!!  If you are a fan and you like to see my posts be sure to "like" something or comment on something soon.  With the new FB changes all the Fan Page updates are not showing in the new feeds so be sure to do one or the other to continue to see my posts!

Start of a new week...

It's the start of a new week, but it's been a slow start for me!  I slept in this morning until after 10, I was going to get up earlier, but I was so tired I kept going back to sleep.  I had to make myself get up when I did!  We had to run to town to go by the bank so we ate a quick lunch at Hardee's and stopped by Macy's so I could get some new cookie sheets.  I had a couple of the old "air in the middle" ones and one of them got a crack in the corner and started "spitting" out rust dust!  I think I have had them for probably 12 years or so, it was time for some new ones.  I got 2 new non-stick Analon cookie sheets and a big cooling rack.  I have also needed some new cooling racks, but this one rectangle one held 3 dozen cake mix cookies so I think one will do for now!  I also ordered a Emerilware 12" cast iron skillet from Macy's.com.  It was $24 cheaper than the same one in the store and I saved 20% when I ordered and I will save another 20% when my employee discount goes through!  All of these kitchen things were my 15 year anniversary gifts.  Our anniversary is on Wednesday...I really wanted to go to Hawaii for our 15th, but that's SO not going to be happening!  Maybe on our 20th anniversary...

I haven't even started sewing today.  I have a bunch of accessories that I will be working on this afternoon and probably tomorrow.  That will get out another 3-4 orders!  I have a code up now for FREE US SHIPPING, check out my FB page to get that.  You have to be a fan to get the code though!  It's good for the next 4 orders.

I am so excited that one of my favorite shows is back tonight!!  Castle season 4 starts tonight!  I LOVE this show and I can't wait to see what happens to Kate.  I have been a Nathan Fillion fan for almost 20 years now, since way back when he was on OLTL.  He is the only celebrity that I have met, actually.  It was back around 1996ish when he was still playing Joey on OLTL.  We had a new Sears store open and he was at the grand opening signing autographs...weird, I know!  Anyway, I was working and so I send Jake to get an autograph for me, he did, but he also made me go in on my lunch break and get my own.  I was mortified, but Nathan was super nice and he shook my hand and gave me an autographed picture (I have 2 now).  I am going to have to dig those out and find a safe place to keep them!  Since then I have followed him to Firefly, Buffy, Serenity and now to Castle and I love him just as much now as I did when he was the skinny kid playing Joey Buchannan on OLTL.  Captain Mal is my favorite character that he has played, but Rick is definitely my 2nd!

I need to get to work now, but I am going to talk some more about the shows I am loving later!

Promo Code!!

I just posted a Promo Code on Facebook...you can save 10% on everything in the store even sale items.  Just "like" Pink Punk Boutique on FB and you get instant access to all the sales and promo codes that I offer only to my fans!

I'm having a contest!!!

Pink Punk Boutique 3 Year Anniversary Contest!!!

It's been almost 3 years since I started Pink Punk Boutique and I want to have a contest to give away some PPB goodies!  Here is how the contest is going to work...You can get your name entered multiple times for the drawing that I will do at the end of the contest.  I am going to run the contest for 2 weeks, it will end on 9/8/11 at midnight CST and I will do the drawing on the following day and announce the winners here on my page.

Here are all the ways you can get your name entered:

1. Refer your friends to this page, you get your name entered one time for each friend you refer when they tell me who referred them.
2. Get your friends to buy something!  You get your name entered one time for each friend you refer that makes a purchase.  You need to make sure that they put your name in the comments to seller when they order though.
3. You buy something!  You get your name entered one time for every $10 you spend.  If you spend $40 you get 4 entries.
4. Write a review...if you have bought something from me and not done a review, do one now and get one entry.  Only one review per person though, and it has to be a new review, entries dated before today don't count.
5. Leave a comment here on my blog at.  It doesn't have to be on a PPB related post and you get an entry for each day you leave a comment starting with today's blog!

Now for the Prizes, I am going to draw 3 different names and here is what you can win:

• FIRST PRIZE - $40 off any purchase of $40 or more
• SECOND PRIZE -  $20 off any purchase of $20 or more
• THIRD PRIZE - Your choice of accessory up to $20 value

So get the word out and start getting your name entered!!

Not so Wordless Wednesday...

I would do a Wordless Wednesday, but I don't have any pictures other than sewing pictures to share, really.  I guess I could show you what's on my desktop (as in wall paper), but I really must talk about it!  Here it is...

 

I started watching White Collar on Monday night and I am almost done with Season 1 already!  It's an excellent show and I always liked Tim DeKay way back from Carnivale, but the show stealer here is obviously Matt Bomer.  I loved him in Tru Calling with Eliza Dushku, but he is awesome in White Collar.  You have to admit that he is a beautiful man!  I know that he is gay in real life, but this girl can't help spending a little time wanting to stare into those blue eyes!

I spent a little time last week working on an order for a pillow and matching bunting.  The idea for the pillow started out simple enough, but turned into this

I kind of ended up running with the monster idea and spent the whole day drawing, cutting and machine stitching these monsters on.  I LOVE how the pillow turned out though.  

Jake is taking vacation next week so I am trying to get as much done this week as I can.  We are planning to do some fun stuff with the kids next week and I know I won't get as much done.  There are a couple days left to take advantage of the June Specials.  I am still working on what the specials for July will be, if you have any suggestions just let me know and I will see what I can do!  

For some reason Blogger isn't letting me upload any more pictures so I will share some of my more recent bag pictures tomorrow if I can.  

Have a great day!!

Secret Projects...

Well at least one secret project anyway!  That's what I worked on most of the day yesterday.  I didn't even get to the bag I wanted to do.  I will get that done today though!  This is a little sneak peak of what took up my day yesterday.  Yep, that little stack of yumminess got turned into something pretty, but I can't share it yet.  I don't know when I will be able to share it, but it's worth the wait...at least I think it is!  Aren't those colors just awesome?  I just love them and I hated to take the ribbon off that Honey Bun, they always look so pretty all rolled up like that!  This Tula Pink Neptune is a beachy and warm, I think I am going to have to make myself something with the leftovers!

So today I have errands to run.  I need white thread, I am all out and I go through it like crazy.  I also need fleece and we have to get tubes for both boys bikes and a tire for Dillon's bike.  It's been so nice and warm lately that they want to ride bikes to school, but they can't so they have been walking instead.  It's so nice to only live a few blocks from the school!

I have been having an awful time with my web browser.  I have used Firefox for years now and I upgraded to FF 4 last week and ever since then it's been dogging down and making everything SOOO slow.  They say it's supposed to run faster, yada yada....but it never does for some reason!  So, this morning I deleted it and went back to FF 3.17 or something.  I am sure I will have to upgrade again soon, but hopefully by that time they will have worked out whatever kinks are hanging it up.

In work news, I sat down and worked out my schedule for the next few weeks and at the rate I am going I could be all caught up in about 2.5 weeks!  That, of course, would only happen if I got no more orders, but right now it feels good to be somewhat ahead of schedule.  I have one order that's not a bag order and I am excited to see how it's going to turn out.  It's for drapes and pillows for my cousin-in-law who just turned 16!  It's all pinks and pretty colors...I am excited to see what I can come up with for the pillows, the drapes are may be a  bit daunting, but I am sure they will be easier than what I am expecting.

Well, I guess I should go make sure I have everything on my list that I need to get today so I don't have to make an unexpected run to town.  Have a great day!

A brand new week....

I have a pile of work that I need to get done this week!  I ended up getting quite a lot done last week, but I have been working on a couple of special projects that I need to have done really soon and I am going to be burning the midnight oil this week and next to get them done.  I think I am going to have to make a trip to Target for a BIG can of coffee!

I guess this means that I won't get to spend too much time watching TV this week.  There are a couple of my shows that I have to watch, like Vampire Diaries and Supernatural, the rest can wait though.  I am about 10 episodes behind on Smallville.  To say that I am glad this is the last season would be an understatement.  Don't get me wrong I like the show, but by the 10th season of a show like this it gets a little old.  So I am waiting until it's all over and then I will go and watch them all to the end.  Jake and I got all caught up on Dexter last night.   I know that everyone says that Season 4 is the best, but I think Season 5 was my favorite.  It seems that Julia Stiles one of those "love her/hate her" actresses, but I like her and I LOVED her character on the show .  I think the reason was that she brought out the emotions in Dexter that we haven't seen in the 4 previous seasons.  He seemed to just be going through the expected motions before, but I really think he evolved this season.  Now I do think that there were issues and other story lines that needed to be addressed that weren't for some reason, but overall I was happy.


Game of Thrones is another one of my favorite shows right now too.  I started reading the book right before the first episode aired. It's slow going because there is just so mush information in the book, but the show is very true to the book and I think they did an excellent job with the cast.  Jason Momoa plays Khal Drogo and he is one of my favorite characters even though he hasn't really had any lines yet!  He plays the "barbarian" type very well.  I also really like Sean Bean as Ned Stark and Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.  HBO has already given it a 2nd season and I have read that the book for season 2 is pretty spectacular so we'll see!  I think I am going to read the books as the seasons are airing though, at this rate I will never get anything else read.  I have been working on this one for over a week now!

In Pink Punk news, I posted my May Specials yesterday.  They are all marked 10% off for the entire month.  The coupon code had been disabled for the time being, it's kind of a come and go thing.  I won't run it all the time, but I will put one up now and then as a special treat for my Facebook Fans.  If you want to get in on these little extra discounts and promotions you just need to be a fan on my Pink Punk Boutique page, that's where I post all the specials.

In light of all the stuff going on in the news today I just want to leave you with this verse that some of my friends have been posting on Facebook today.  I think that it's very appropriate today.

Proverbs 24:17-21 KJV  "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked; For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out. My son, fear thou the Lord and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change."