Every. Single. Piece ☺️
The result? Less fabric waste, more attention to detail, more care, better quality.
When you buy from me, know that every piece of fabric, every bit of collar guts (webbing), all the harness straps, each piece of interfacing for bows... They're all cut right here, individually, by me. And if I wouldn't put it on my own dog, I wouldn't sell it to you either.
Even as recently as yesterday, I missed out on a sale for telling someone they were about to buy the wrong size for their dog (a 50ish pound pittie and the person wanted a Very big but I told them a 75 pound drax wears a big). Instead of choosing the size down, they decided not to purchase and that's ok! It's hard for people with big dogs to realize their dog doesn't always wear the biggest size with me- stay tuned for a post about harness sizes featuring Brutus, a real big perfect boy.
A big corporation wouldn't care about you buying the wrong size as long as you spend your money.
But for me, it does absolutely no good if I sell you something and it doesn't fit your dog. I want happy customers who come back.
Money is tight for everyone right now and I want you to feel good about the money you spend with me, so I'll keep cutting my fabrics individually with my little pizza cutter lookin rotary blade, keeping my eyes and hands on every individual product for the best quality, and making sure you get the right size for your dog.
And as always thank you for shopping your local handmade dog accessory business
Y'all remember the ghost from last year?! WE HAVE ANOTHER ONE, and this time it's a 😱skinwalker😱
He may look like Drax, but don't be fooled. Nobody is safe at spooky season (which I still hate but I'm trying my best to change my attitude).
Really this post is to tell you I got some new halloween muscle tee fabric in and it is capital C Cute. I threw the ghost (fabric) in the washing machine right after it chased me into the basement, so I should have even more spooky tees at the Menomonee falls Festival of The Arts this Saturday since the real drax goes to daycare tomorrow, leaving me a full day to sew!
No harnesses this time- I need to get some more "rated G" fabric before those can make their way to such an event- but I'll be stacked with collars, bows, bandies, bandanas, and muscle tees!
And, seemingly as soon as it started, it's over.
The longest shortest consecutive working days of my business owner life (so far 😉) are done and I'm emotional. You never know what kind of booth neighbors you're gonna get, but I had the BEST ones. We've spent approximately 135 hours together in the last 11 days and tomorrow I'm not seeing them? What? 😭
Every single day for the last 11 days, I've been awake before 6 AM to cut fabric and/or make muscle tees, at the fair to get organized and start sewing by no later than 9AM, and selling/sewing until 9PM. Home by 10, wash, rinse, repeat entirely by myself.
It's weird that tomorrow I'm not doing that. I do have a billion loads of laundry and SO much cleaning to do, fabric & supplies to order, most definitely Jiu jitsu class to attend, and- get ready for it- SEWING to do. Your girl is at the @mkenightmarket this Wednesday and Holy Hill Art Farm Thursday but.. isn't it time for the fair?
My booth didn't win any awards this year, but maaaaan my customers made me feel pretty great. Every time something bad happened, I'd question if I should even keep doing this business (all small biz owners have been there and I was exhausted ok) one of my people would show up and say something nice out of nowhere. So for that, THANK YOU. The fair was successful for me because of you. More than SEVEN HUNDRED handmade products went to new homes in the last 11 days. 🥹😭😍
And now I have a tired naked ginger named Drax in my bed and he needs me to be the big spoon. Goodnight world.
Y'all there's been a *ghost sighting* at @wistatefair ! 🤭👻🤠
Listen. It's the start of day 6 and your girl is t i r e d. Cut me some slack. This is the most creative content I got right now. 🤣
Check out my ✨new sign✨
I was planning to debut this at @wistatefair but it's gonna be pretty hard to keep this thing home for my events between now and then 😍
Brand clarity ✅
*Side note: I will not be at dog days at Drexel this weekend*
I have 3 events before state fair, which starts in 2 weeks. And Drax thinks we have no responsibilities.
Y'all wanna see something cool?
Well you're gonna..
Sometimes you just gotta shoot your shot, especially after one article reports that you're not a local small business and then the live news shows someone else's products while interviewing you.
Through my extreme type A personality and refusal to be late for anything ever, I was able to get a "drinkin buddy" collar and a cheeseburger bow to @chaserice 's people. And... He put them on Jack. 😭 If you've ever heard the song "Bench Seat" you know how much Chase loves that dog, and every time I hear the song I lose my 💩. Drax has changed my career, saved my life (that's for real) gotten me through the worst times ever, been obnoxiously close to me at all freakin times 🤣 and brought me to this.
Thank you, Chase, for letting Jack wear my products, especially during such a meaningful song. I'm honored.
And just like that, it's over. 😭
All year long, especially in winter, I think about @summerfest . In the middle of a snowy Wisconsin winter, it feels so far away. Then it comes and it can feel very overwhelming with such long days but then it's gone so soon and a little bit of sadness kicks in. Milwaukee (and every other city that showed up) THANK YOU. In 9 days, more than 600 handmade-by-me dog accessories were sold. Tomorrow I'll go clean up my booth and do absolutely zero sewing. I have fabric & hardware to order, a house to clean, and a weird little ginger mutt that needs- and deserves- some extra attention. Prep for the rest of the month (and my first state fair which I know is in August but woah holy crap I'm doing state fair) starts Monday.
We're leaving the original audio on this week's recap because it was... Chaotic. 🤣
Wednesday I redid my whole booth, ran into a chair, heavy sighed a lot, and complained about string lights. Thursday morning I was at Summerfest at 5:15AM for an interview where, on LIVE TV, I was asked to explain more about the video footage of my business that was being shown to the viewers. Only problem was, it wasn't my business, my products, my logo, or my booth. 🤣. Still a cool opportunity though. Friday brought rain, again. My setup was more prepared but someone walked into my space, shook their umbrella out, and left out the other side. Friday night brought about 15 drunk people telling cat stories, an amazing Charles Wesley Godwin, and a gentle warning about squirrels. I have no footage of Saturday, but on the way out, a very drunk man dang near tripped over my hulken bag and his apologetic cousin instantly recognized the sewing machine in my bag as a Singer brand. He was correct. @jenwernerclinton and I were impressed. The end. See you Thursday for round 3.
Strap up this finished chest piece with me.... In 10x speed because it takes forevverrrr to do it in real speed. 🤣 2 whole days this week will be dedicated to making new harnesses in preparation for the final weekend of @summerfest !🥳🥳🥳
@summerfest week 1 recap:
Got set up.
Moved things around a hundred times.
Strung up string lights that have THIRTY EIGHT INCHES between bulbs and of course they were worthless. It was darker in my tent than in the whole artisan tent.
Came in Friday morning and cut the top off my tent to let more light in.
Still too dark.
Planned to put some cute colored lights up Saturday morning. Gave up because it was already raining and blowing water all into my tent.
Stuff got real wet.
Closed half of the entrance, which half way blocked people from coming in.
Lame.
Way bad weather was expected and I have my sewing machine and all kinds of "have to have it to run my business" stuff in there so when they said we could leave to beat the bad weather (they haven't done that once since I started Summerfest so I thought it might get WAY bad) I thought it would be smart to go.
So...
I'm going in tomorrow with some waterproof curtains, a real bright light (no I definitely didn't stare directly into it) and some other stuff to redo the whole thing.
Still a success given the circumstances
See ya soon, week 2. 🤩
Reminder: if you're coming to Summerfest (which starts in 8 days omgplshelpiamnotready) you can customize a collar necklace for your dog! Make sure you have measurements on hand- this is how they should fit. They should easily slide over your dog's head with no difficulty. Measure your dog's head and neck loosely, then remember the larger of those 2 numbers. I add half an inch to drax just to be safe. I'd rather have extra space than not enough because if you force it over their head and it's too small, you have to use wire cutters to get it off. These have ZERO stretch and are made using an aircraft grade wire with a coating over it. But they're such a cute little accessory for drax's harness. He's a big hit on the Starbucks patio while he waits for his pup cups.
And yes, he's looking in 2 different directions in that last photo. He's trying to see which direction his last brain cell went.
Y'all, like 3 years ago I was helping @happybuddhapopup take some things into Summerfest and I was just obsessed with her @hulkenbag . Every time I see it, I can't help but roll it around just for fun. I finally got (was gifted 😍) one and I am in love! I was able to fit every one of the orders from my FB group sale in it and wheel it right into the post office. Catch me rolling my new baby hulken bag at all outdoor events this market season. And thank you everyone who helped me give this rolly bag a good first run full of products headed to their new homes!
...loading....
Update: 99% of you liked the checkout stand. Turns out I'm with the 1% who hate it.
I always see people using crates to stack their products, create height, and other stuff. I figured I'd stack them to save space as a checkout stand and paint them cool for color since I'm 90% on real racks at this point.
A year ago I was still using old dog crates on tables so each market I try something new and this stand is one big fat "no" for me. It's gonna blow in the wind and I have nowhere to put stuff, plus the top is small enough that there isn't really a place for people to put their products- or their drinks while they're shopping which is way more common than you would expect- and the crates are bulky to carry. If you've ever seen me load in/out of shows, you know I'm a 1 trip girly.
so if you missed the stand this past weekend, then you missed it for good 😂 you're not missing much. See you this weekend.
If you saw my IG story (I'll put the pics in the comments), you know there was a glitch in the system for my print-to-order fabric that made 1" scale turn to 6" scale. My widest collar is 2" so this is 3X too big for even my biggest collar.
I was trying to do a "thank you" video for the place that helped pay for this fabric (it's for Summerfest) and wanted it to be genuine as I opened the box.
I'll try again when the reprints get here. 😂
My bad! The other video didn't have sound. And now this one is backwards. Whatever
But I SAID...
Y'all. WUT.
Rebranding is stressful but oh my gosh. 😍 I opened my business cards and got a little emotional so I decided to bring y'all along for the big outdoor banner reveal. We're *all* seeing the banner together for the first time.
Also you're 34 and Big Time Rush was and still is your jam.
A huge massive THANK YOU to @winstonswishes for having me at Doggy Day today and to all of you, whether new customers or long time faves, for showing up in full force.
I'll be sewing for the next 5ish+ hours to replenish for @milwaukeemakersmarket at Discovery world tomorrow!
That's definitely an iridescent purple bow tie. 😈😍
Trying to get the CEO to, I don't know, HELP ME WORK, but nooOooOoo.
BTS of what the workplace is like with Drax.
