You Really Have To Look At It From ALL Angles

and ask yourself, what is it that I'm doing differently here than over there? I'm very excited for the success of Pinpinn, but at the same time I'm bothered by why Tumus is hardly moving. Maybe it's because I found a strange vibe with pincushions and clever designs. New and quirky does very well over on Etsy so Pinpinn really fits.

For a while I thought Tumus was the bee's knees really. It did very well over the Holidays and slow trickled out over the last few months. And trust me it's not from lack of exposure or bad photos. It's not from NOT having great products or excellent customer service. I think it might be that I am having a hard time finding that precious target market.
Pinpinn is pretty easy to market because pincushions are darn useful and Etsy is filled with crafters who need them! So I found a hole, a smaller market and I went and did my thing.
But the stuffed animals of Tumus are struggling to find their way into homes of curious children and adults obsessed with cuteness. I won't lie. It bums me out knowing so many of them are loved and yet they sit there staring back at me with bewildered eyes.
It's like their asking me, "why doesn't anyone care about us anymore? Do something!"

And frankly any time stuffed animals start talking to me it freaks me the heck out.

So for my sanity and the sake of the zoo I've created I need to figure it out, soon.

I Need To Make a Vow

To get to bed BEFORE 11pm.
But I insisted on listing this :lol: and then blogging about it. Omg. It'll be a coffee morning tomorrow. Tea will have to wait.



You can find this on Pinpinn

I Feel Absurdly Busy

I really do. I'm not even sure the word absurd is quite right, but I feel like I've been running every which way but up. I should check my shoes to make sure smoke isn't rising......
Believe it or not I DO have 2 new pincushions to list on Pinpinn but I've been bent on finishing these cats I've had cut out for Tumus and giving them all names. I was finally struck by the name bug and have come up with some amusing combos.
These cats will be sold as sets. Something which I've only offered once because, well sometimes you just never know how well people will love them.

There's Kit & Kat, they're chocolate brown cats with orange eyes and have 3 layered hearts sewn onto their tummies. Pretty cute and the look delicious. I love KitKats (for those who might not know, KitKats are delicious wafer bars covered in layers of milk chocolate)

Then there's Smokey & Bandit, obviously named after one of my classic favorite movies "Smokey and the Bandit" starring Burt Reynolds and Sally Field. It's just funny nonsense really....oh and beer of course. These are two smokey grey colored cats, one with green eyes and I haven't quite decided on the other color of eyes for the Bandit one, but I can do that tomorrow ^_^

I'm really happy with how they're turning out so far. I've even got a white cat done and named her Chloe.

Sometimes it's not a matter of running out of things to make or do, but finding time to photography them all lol.

Tuesday Tea

Did you know tea grows in over 30 countries and on every continent except Antarctica? (of course not Antarctica lol) Serious tea drinkers will argue where the best tea comes from but most will agree that exceptional tea comes from Sri Lanka, Taiwan, India, Japan and China.

Saturday Dawned A Bit Too Early

Funny how the WHOOOOLE neighborhood stays dead silent till about 9am then suddenly kids are out playing on the streets, lawn mowers are running and people are hurrying to the grocery already. It was almost like there was an alarm that went off at exactly 9 and life started up again.

Anyhoo. Tumus was featured again on the FP with Juniper bunny ^_^ Carolina'sCreations was kind enough to nab a lovely full view screenshot! (thanks again Carolina!)




Pinpinn'sbeen busy with a sizable order coming thru quite unexpectedly last night. So I rushed to the Post this morning to get in before they closed. I'm sure they'll be very happy with it once it arrives, they were really cute all packed together ^_^

Tuesday Tea

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. - T'ien Yiheng

It's Been A Long Weekend

BUT a productive one. I successfully finished one project each night. Though my pile of felt cats are still standing idly by waiting to be named and stuffed :( I feel a bit guilty as I'm sure those who keep tabs on Tumus are waiting for new additions each week. Funny how no one REALLY tells you how challenging it is to balance work, family and well a second job :lol: Still even though I admit I broke my own promise of finishing those kitties I WILL (and I mean it this time) finish at least 3 of them by Friday.

In case you WERE wondering what I've been up to Pinpinn's going to have 2 new additions this week. Here's Clyde.



and Tumus will have 2 new birdies flying in tomorrow and Wednesday.




Hope that's enough to tide you over. Pattern development on these things has been wicked tough :( Lots of trial and error and unfortunately a few lots causes that couldn't be salvaged....well at least they'll end up being stuffing bits ^_^

Missed It! Darn :-(

I meant to join up on this Unravelling but didn't realize that there was a size limit and just how quickly it fills up. I only JUST discovered it the other day from "blog hopping" so I'd only had a day to think on it.

I'm still excited to get another opportunity to do it soon come July. So I'm going to keep my fingers and toes crossed I can still afford to do so because it sounds SWEET and I'd really like to try a few new things out!

In the mean time maybe I'll just make up my own self-portraits.......

CrAzY!

PinPinn totally won my admiration today when it managed to get it's fancy, schmancy pears up on the front page! Holy crap, I'm just in disbelief. Both my shops had made it to the fp in record time.

Big wheel keep on turning
Proud mary keep on burning
And were rolling, rolling
Rolling on the river!

The Ick

It's interesting when you get sick from stress. At first you feel just run down and wore out. Then you might get a nagging dry cough and a bit of sinus headache, then finally it just beats you down until you've managed to work yourself so far under the covers that coming out seems like a really bad idea.

I'm there today. What do you do when you're sick, especially if you've quit your day "9-5" job and work strictly as an artist from home? Do you close up your shop with a little note? Do you simply work thru it by sewing in bed or cutting out fabric in front of the TV? or do you try and sleep it off hoping that tomorrow will be better?

If I had a choice I'd more than likely work thru it, but at a slow pace. Kind of like a sew, eat, sleep pattern for a few hours.

It's been very hard this week to make time for Tumus and Pinpinn and it all started Saturday. I went to go get some odds and ends to start making our wedding invitations. I forced myself to sit down for a few hours and measure out scrapbook paper and figure out invitation wording. It was productive but felt like it took too long. I'm glad I did it and now that all "parties" of parents and fiance alike agree on the look of it I can actually get around to making them in quantities. Hooray! Then Easter hit on Sunday and I think that's about when the general feeling of "ick" started in. Monday didn't feel much better, Tuesday was so-so, yesterday was definitely declining and now today I'm half dead. Go me.
Doesn't help that all we've done since Easter Sunday is run around visiting family and friends. Monday we were gone all evening (one hour of sewing done), Tuesday visiting family (one hour of sewing done), Wednesday was the same as Tuesday.
I'm SO glad that TODAY despite feeling like poo I don't have to go anywhere and I can sit and work in peace once I get home.

It's aggravating when you can't make time to do your fun job and then you get sick :(

Tuesday Tea

I've decided to try and dedicate for a full year, a bit of time to tea. So every Tuesday I'll put in a little writing about tea or at least at "tea-theme" ^_^ I also have a fun little calendar called Tea 365 that also provides a great deal of information and intrigue about tea. Some of it is even from my own knowledge! Enjoy!

Long before the West made a social event of tea, Zen Buddhist monks brought the leaf from China to Japan. In 1588, the tea master Rikyu formalized a poetic ritual still practiced today, the Japanese tea ceremony.

(Tea 365)

Tag your it!

Wonderful tags designed by MAUpromos It's so official that it's redonkulous. I mean LOOK at that cuteness. *faints* I also received my new satin ribbon tags in the mail just last week and got to use my first one on my wee birdie.

Again?! *faint*

Holey Guacamole!!! I can't believe another Bon Bon made it to the front page of Etsy again!! This time it was Cloud and he was picked by the Etsy staff. Go Cloud Go!



Catch Cloud and all the other Bon Bon's over at Tumus. I hope to add a Bird to the collection of "In the Woods" series. He's my first attempt at a new pattern I'm trying out, but he's turned out really well ^_^ Look for him and my promised Owl by tomorrow at the latest!

Raving Rabbits Have Nothing On Me

I've been working incredibly hard at making good pictures and cute animals and it finally paid off this afternoon when I made the front page of Etsy with Bon Bon Bunny - Rose. This is REALLY a huge nod to me because I've pushed to get there and I just proved to myself that persistence pays off as do good photos.



You can find Rose and other Bon Bon Bunnies over at my shop Tumus I can't tell you how excited and satisfied I feel right now.

Dream big little bunnies, dream big.

I Kind of Want an Indoor Plant

Specifically a succulent. I don't know why I've suddenly got this itch to have one, but I want one. I think I'd keep it in my sewing room on the window sill (which is currently being used as a spare shelf and should be cleaned off....note to self). I can't keep it in the kitchen though I'd really like to. Guinness has taken a liking to jumping up on the counters and watching the birds at the suet feeder that's just outside our kitchen window.
I'm afraid he'd "nom" on it and I'm sure succulents are not the best thing for cats to eat.

I really like the succulents that are in vintage pots.
There's several over at monkeysalwayslook. She has several that I want includingitty bitty ones. I've also been eyeballing the African Violets at our local hardware store, but I'd much rather have an orchid.

I kind of also want a cactus. You know if I move my crafting studio into the basement (as is the plan in the future) I will have to find another place for these plants to sit and be happy. I'm sure a cat would not want to eat a cactus and maybe by that time Guinness will have stopped jumping up on the counters anyways.

The Man's Kite

Well Chris has been puttering away in our basement for the last 5 days constructing a rather enormous kite. I think the word "enormous" is an understatement though. This is a Jordan 200 (don't ask me what it's named for because I don't know). It's a little over 18 feet long and I have no idea how wide, but if the pictures give you any indication to it's size you can tell that it takes up 1/4 of the basement.



Tumus also enjoyed a nice cameo for size reference.