Secret Holiday

A brand new year: 2012

Hello friends! Happy New Year! I know, I'm nearly a month late. These past few weeks feel as if they have taken their time (in the best way), but then I'm still surprised January is almost over.

I've been very busy since the holidays. Banner orders keep flowing in which is amazing, but it has kept me feeling like I am continuously behind. I don't like falling behind in work. Not only have I not been able to sew fast enough, but I keep running out of supplies! So frustrating. I have decided to take the banner listings down for a bit... to finally catch up and to take a mini break.

Some of you may have noticed I began a new project at the start of the year: The Daily Photo Project. In this new little space I am posting one 35mm photo every day for a full year. I have been thinking about doing a 365 project for some time, but never had the courage or the right project to feel I could stick it out. After By Mountain & Sea, I felt ready for something a bit more challenging. And it turns out 2012 is a leap year! 366 days this year! I think this makes my choice to make the leap (har har) into a daily project even more special.

I chose to post strictly film photos because, well, for one it gives me a good excuse to shoot and process a roll every week. Also, I've been really loving getting back into taking pictures with my trusty Canon, and with this project to keep up with, I have to take photos all week long. I have even been spending spare moments researching photography techniques and freshening up on the basics. I feel pretty confident about composition, but I want to feel more confident that I can capture the light I want. To not feel like I am kind of winging it (which I often am. shh!). I also love that I always have my "photo-eyes" on now, even when I don't have my camera on me. That means I am being more observant. I am noticing beauty in everything, enjoying the small moments, and it feels good. I know, that sounds pretty cheesy, but I like cheesy.

I have also learned (or rather, confirmed) that having my film processed at my local photo lab is FAR superior to getting it done at cvs. And cheaper! What?! How does that even make sense? Everything about my local cvs photo lab is lame and cheap and overpriced. I just need to be a bit more on top of things to allow time for processing at a independent shop that closes at 6pm each day.

Hmm. What else do I have to catch you all up on? I finally joined Pinterest a few weeks ago and love it! You can follow my favorites HERE.

I've had a pretty bad head cold for the past two days, so things are a bit foggy tonight. I'll think of other things to tell you about later. I think I better get some sleep. Lots of work to catch up on tomorrow... hopefully. But maybe another day of rest is needed....

Christmas time.

I'm trying hard to take some time off, to let myself relax and set aside all the work I still have to do. I will be officially on vacation starting Thursday evening, for a few days at least. I am very much looking forward to baking cookies, watching nothing but holiday movies, building forts with my niece and nephews and playing games with my family. I can't wait!

Here are a couple photos from our tree-getting trip:

And our wintery mantel (still need to re-embroider those vintage stockings!):
Happy Holidays!!

Pretty things to look at:

via brown dress with white dots

I could get lost on this tumblr for hours. Even though I have so much sewing to do. Enjoy!

Quick catch-up!

This week has been the craziest ever! Blogging here has been on my To Do list for weeks, but I just couldn't find the time to sit down and do it. I don't really have time right now either, but I wanted to pop in to very quickly mention a couple things:

No.1 My good friend Anna and I have been working for months on our first little Pop-Up shop here in Northampton, MA. It's called GOLDMINE and is chock full of truly awesome stuff! We opened on Wednesday and run through Monday. Visit our website for more information. And if you're in the area, please come by! Most items are of limited quantity! These photos are a little glimpse at the space we have put together.

No.2 We just hosted the craziest Thanksgiving get-together! Lots of friends and little kiddos, and everyone in our cozy little apartment. Complete chaos but full of love and fun! I'll post some photos soon.

No.3 Banners have been selling like hot cakes! I have so many to sew up, which is amazing, though very overwhelming since there is just one of me! I wanted to let you all know that if you were thinking of purchasing one to give this Christmas, the last day to place an order is December 2nd. I cannot guarantee Christmas delivery for international orders, but if you place your order by next Friday, I will do my very very best to deliver domestic orders in time for Christmas. Get those orders in today!

No.4 FREE SHIPPPING IN MY SHOP THIS WEEKEND ONLY!! Starting today and ending Monday at midnight est. Just enter the code "GIVETHANKS" during checkout. Visit my shop HERE.

OK, I think that just about covers it all, very quickly. I'm sure there is something I am leaving out... But now I have to grab something to eat and head on over to GOLDMINE! Remember: we're open from 10am-8pm! Come on by!

Melissa Loves Pop-Up Shop

If you are in or around New Jersey this Saturday, please make plans to stop by the Melissa Loves Pop-Up Shop. I am honored to have my goods in Melissa's home amongst the work of 8 other amazing ladies. I only wish I could make it there myself! 

This is a funny arrangement of the small selection of items I was able to round up in time for the show:

 

Go HERE for more information (and to RSVP).

I can't wait to see photos of the event - I'm sure it will be lovely! Thanks so much to Melissa and Marichelle for organizing and hosting, and for inviting me to be a part of it!

October snow storm.

Justin made this new drawing in anticipation for the October snow storm we were rumored to get. We had no idea just how much snow it would be! It was so beautiful, maybe the biggest snow flakes I have ever seen. We were loving it, all cozy and warm inside while the thick snow fell quietly outside.

And then the power went out.

It stayed out for about 36 hours which is the longest power outage I've experienced. This is probably becuase I have always lived closed to downtown in whatever small city I lived in (except growing up in a neighborhood in the woods in New Hampshire, but the power lines were underground there...)

These situations make you realize all the things you take for granted every day -- the not-so-necessary things like tv, internet, radio, but also use of a phone, an oven, and heat. Honestly I enjoyed how it slowed everything down. Justin and I spent the first full day working on projects. But the silence was maddening! I finally dug an old walkman out of the closet and listened to some super old mix tapes really loud through big head phones so we could both enjoy it. The sound quality was equivilent to listening to music on a laptop, and such a relief! For the most part, the day felt good. I kind of liked not knowing what time it was and I was really productive. I made two new Fern Animals in their entirety (along with other things). I didn't hand sew the bodies, but unstead used my sewing machine by hand-cranking the needle up and down. Yeah, it was totally ridiculous and not necessary, but I wanted to see if I could do it! It made me pine a tiny bit for one of those old fashioned foot pedal machines.

When the sun went down it was so incredibly dark and creepy outside. We left our cold house to walk two blocks over for soup with some friends (they have a gas stove) and it felt strange and kind of scary with no street lights, no traffic lights, and every house completely dark with only a faint orange flickering in a one or two windows each.

But now the power is back and things (life, work, etc) are right where we left them. But Justin and I have agreed that it was really nice spending two dark nights reading aloud to each other by candle light. We are planning on making it a once-a-week routine. A plan to slow down and really enjoy eachother's company.

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In other news, Justin has been making some really great new pictures! We've decided to join forces and add some special new pieces to my online shop. I'm always wanting to simplify my internet pressence and combining our goods into one place feels like it makes sense. We've talked before about creating a new company name to head our joint efforts, but I've already made the big name change and I don't think doing it again would be ultimately benificial. Instead I have added "& Co." to Secret Holiday to expand it just enough that it feels like I can comfortably add the work of others to my shop.

Things are still in transition, I'm still reorganizing stuff, but we've put some Justin's work up and I'm excited about having there, amongst my things. The October Snow drawing at the top of this post can be found HERE. He's also made four witchy drawings that are being sold framed (I love getting work that is ready to hang up right away!) and three Santa Claus pictures. These new drawings remind me of 70's children book illustrations. I really like them! Check out Justin's work HERE.

We're offering free shipping on everything in the shop this week. Just enter the discount code "FREESHIP" during checkout and save!

Ok, was that long enough? Ha! Too much to talk about. I still have some exciting upcoming events to mention, but I'll save that for my next post... just to leave you hanging. 

Little Quilts are here!

I finally found a chance to photograph my Little Quilts this weekend. The light was beautiful (wasnt the weather gorgeous?) and the leafy hedge across the street was the perfect backdrop. Well, that and our new bigger and brighter bedroom - - our friend Anna moved out last week, and we moved our bed into the room she had. The light in there is incredible!

Also Justin added these great little shelves above the doors in our room. Although we still need to hang pictures on the walls, these are making our room feel cozy.

I listed three Little Quilts in my shop last night and will be adding one more this morning. I'm hoping to have a couple new ones completed next week (we'll see!) I am still working on a small collection of larger, throw-size quilts... I just need to get some batting so I can finally back them. I'm super excited about all of my new designs. I hope you like them too! Do you have any new little ones in your life in need of a super snugly little quilt? I love handmade quilts. Every blanket on our bed is a handmade quilt - yep, three at once this time of the year. No store-bought comforters in our home!

Please take a minute to check out my new Little Quilts HERE. Hope you're having a nice start to your week. I heard it's supposed to rain here later in the week. But it's beautiful today, and I like the rain anyway :)

COMING SOON!

Sneak-peek: Little Quilts

I'm not sure if you noticed, but I wrote a post a couple days ago that was a little bit like a confessional. I woke up that morning feeling kind of awful after a pretty bad week and needed to let it out. Shortly after publishing the post, I went to work. When I returned home I was still feeling awful, but then also super embarrassed that I maybe sounded silly and like a whiny baby. So I removed the post and tried to pretend it never happened. That's not so easy to do. I actually struggle more than I would like with this whole writing for the world to see thing. I want to be honest, but at the same time I am running an online business so in many ways I know I should try to keep things chipper and positive and confident. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that when I'm not feeling so great I tend to disappear from the internet so as to not contaminate things with my bad feelings...

But I'm not here today to dwell on those things! Focus Ashley! I wanted to admit that I removed that post because I just put it back up (see below). It's really not so bad. It is what it is, you know? I'm feeling much better today -- with a great positive outlook and I feel like I need to just go with my gut. If someone decides to not buy something I made because I admitted I've been having a hard time and sales have been slow... well, geez, oh well. Right?

I covered someone's shift at Sweetie's today and then came home and sewed for hours. It felt so good! I finished a quilt top I started a couple days ago and I'm feeling really great from the progress and it's exciting. I've been cranking out these quilt tops lately that I am so in love with, so excited about that I just can't wait to share them!

But that's not what I'm showing you today. Instead I am finally posting a couple photos of the Little Quilts I made a few weeks ago. I haven't uploaded any images of them yet because I haven't been able to get any photos I really like. I'm really needing a large white wall with lots of natural light, but that just can't be found in my house! All of our walls are painted *other* colors.

These few photos were shot in the too-small-to-photograph-a-quilt front hallway downstairs. Tomorrow I am planning on shooting some film photos of these guys. I finally realized that it is super silly that I prefer to shoot film when taking regular ole photos, but then use my digital camera exclusively to shoot product shots. And then I'm never really that happy with the outcome. So silly! I'm excited about the photo shoot I have planned in my head for tomorrow! Hopefully it won't downpour all day like it did today, though I do love a good downpour :)

Sale! (and a few honest words)

I just thought I should pop over here to announce a big sale I'm holding in my shops this weekend:

You can use the discount code in my big cartel shop as well as my Etsy shop.

This seems to be about the time of year I start thinking about getting a "real job". This is a struggle that is plagueing me often, though I always avoid talking about it on here...

Do I get a full-time suck-the-life-and-creativity-out-of-me job and put my art making on the back burner for a while? Or do I keep plowing ahead, struggling financially, but doing what I love? Becuase it feels like I would be wasting all these years I have put into my little company if I just dropped it for a steady paycheck. Though a steady paycheck could be so nice...

Things have been kind of tough lately and I think whenever this happens I feel this huge pressure to make a big decision about what I am doing with my life. A huge decision that I am obviously incapable of making. I keep holding on to these little side jobs to help out with bills when sales are slow, but then sometimes I feel like that is just a distraction, a low-paying distraction that isn't quite helpful enough. So would I be better off finding one full time job, ditching the side jobs, sew my own things less, but have a little money for once? Probably.

I was supposed to come on here and tell you all about my sale and act like it is purely a "celebrate the fall!" sale, but let's be honest: I love this time of the year (it's my very favorite!) and am happy today is the first day of fall, but I would be even more happy to sell a couple things this week. I am going to be totally straight forward and announce that my sales have been low and it is hurting. I know, I'm not supposed to say these things. But I need to be honest today. It feels good to put these things out there and not pretend like my life is super perfect all. the. time. Because things get hard and ugly sometimes and that is just how it is.

Alright... rambling done. Thank you for listening! I'll come back soon with cheerful news of a couple projects that I have in the works that really are terribly exciting (fern animals, quilts - - finally, almost - - and a pop-up shop!!)  Stay tuned, ok?