Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Shop Under Construction

Hallo again!  Welcome back to another rousing entry to the Ball-Jointed Baby!  >w<  Lol.

First things first, LETTIE HAS ARRIVED!!  She's here, and she's gorgeous!!  Unfortunately, I went to spray her with sealant, and found out my bottle was empty.  x_x  What made me keep the empty bottle and NOT throw it away is a mystery to me, but now I'm waiting on my new can to arrive.  It should be here by Friday, so I can make her perfectly lovely then.  ;)  Lol. (Sorry for the shabby photo, iPhone pic + the last of the quickies I took as I removed her from her box.  Quick eye, wig, and Rolly's apron placement.  Lol.)

I hope everyone is staying well, it's freezing here today, both inside and out, but I'm trying my best at keeping my fingers warm so I can finish working. ;)

If you haven't noticed, the shop is close for "vacation" time.  Lol.  I shut it down for now, so I can re-list and update my listings.  Hopefully, it will look like a brand new store once I finish.  Come February 1st, I shall have new stockings listed in Yo-SD, MSD, and Art Doll sizes.  I wanted to do SD, and it is still on my To-Do List, but I do not have an SD to try things on yet, so those will need to wait until a later time, unfortunately.  :\  Perhaps sometime soon.  ;)

So, this month is stockings and next month is shirts.  I should be able to start early on the shirts, though, since stockings can be made easily in less than an hour for a single pair. (I still sew them by hand, but I've been debating on the sewing machine, not that you can tell the difference. Lol.)

School has begun again as of today, so I'm back to juggling classes and the Etsy store, since Kole has become a cinch.  XD  Lol.  Hopefully I can stay on track as school work picks up.  I'm officially in my required classes for my degree (instead of the basic required classes), so I now have to go to a school and "shadow" a teacher for 35 class hours by the end of my 16 week semester... Well, 15-14 because I wont be able to go to a school until I am placed and properly notified, so hopefully I can get this done well without too many panic attacks.  >.<  I am in Chinese, Education, Algebra II, and Psychology this semester.  Let's hope I can have fun again!  >w<  Learning is always better when one is having fun, and I want to be that classy, fun teacher! >w<

Well, better get back to work!  Thanks for reading~! ♥

See you again soon!
-The BJD Addict

Monday, January 14, 2013

Planning

"Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"
- Mrs. Frizzle; The Magic School Bus

Welcome! :)  I hope everyone's new year is going well thus far!  Mine has been full of planning already.  Lol.  Never a dull moment here, that's for sure.

So, as you know, my first (almost) year with the shop has been a definite learning experience.  I set out with a goal too large for me to complete with the time-frame and the life obstacles I had.  This time around, I'm planning it out properly.  I made up two worksheets, one for the first 6 months of this year and one for the second 6 months of this year, so I can stay organized.  Each month, I will have a set item to make in each size.  I want to do SD sized clothing, however, I do not have an SD sized doll nor access to one at the moment, so I'm a little wary of making them and selling them without being able to try them out on a doll.  So, hopefully, this will be the proper workload and will enable me to get everything done before the end of the year.  I want to have the SteamPunk set completed by the time May 1st comes around, and I'm even thinking about making one for a Yo-SD, but I'm not sure if I will.  I don't want to bite off more than I can chew again.  Lol.

As you can see, I also added a few new things to the TABS bar up above. ;) I figured we needed a way to let everyone who doesn't read the blog or doesn't like to shift through all my ramblings know what's going on every month with the shop, so I planned out a monthly newsletter.  Each newsletter will tell of things just added to the shop and things that will be added by the end of the month. :)

Sorry this is so short, but I wanted to post it ages ago and was too busy to finish. Hopefully I can post a longer one this weekend.

Thanks for reading~! ♥
-The BJD Addict

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Sorry I have been away, this time of year is busier than normal now. :/

Well, my New Year's Resolution this year is to make and list more clothing. I started out with an enormous goal that I had the audacity to believe I could finish, however, now I know and now I can adjust things to sew faster and make better patterns. Everything has been trial and error here, and now I see how silly I had been thinking, how inexperienced I really was. This year, I vow to do better. I vow to finish the Steampunk outfit in time for the one year anniversary, and to have more outfits as well as more separates. :) Hopefully I will have some sets that fit Leeke Ariana as well. :) (She'll be here soon! I'm so excited!)

I DID finish Rolly's cute little snowflake outfit, however, I had to remove her head to put her shirt on, but now I know how NOT to make that shirt. XD Ah well, it's a learn-as-you-go type of thing. I feel like I will need to cut the neck seam a bit and then take it off, fix the stitches I may have destroyed, and then add snaps. >w< I should have done snaps to begin with, but I'm just too stubborn. Lol. I plan on making more sets like this, OOAK or limited sets, however, because this outfit was actually very difficult to sew by hand, let alone attempting the machine. Lol. I will definitely have sets like this up by the 1 year mark. I already have different fabrics selected for it and I plan on making before listing with this one, since it takes about 3 weeks to complete and school is already just around the corner again. >w< Hopefully I can have some OOAK ones for springtime up soon, at least one for sure. I even got new sewing supplies from my mother for Christmas, so I have more to work with now (and a bigger sewing box, I was working out of an 11" by 5" by 5" box, and that is NOT enough room).

I'm going to start more outfits today as I celebrate my New Year with my love, our son, and my family at my grandmother's house. :) (I managed to start one yesterday, but we'll see how that one goes.)

On some family-like notes: Kole is progressing much faster than most children. He is speaking full sentences, learning new words and creating his own sentences from them, reciting his ABCs, and he even used the loo all by himself on Saturday. (He had just gotten out of the tub and I was toweling him off when he says, "Mommy, I need to poopie," and runs away back to the bathroom. I chase him down to find him sitting there on his potty all gentleman-like, and then I actually hear him go (#1, not #2, he isn't really good with knowing which is which yet, lol)! I literally started jumping up and down and yelling to the rest of the family that he was going all by himself. And this was the first time he's ever tried to actually go! I was so proud of him. >w<) My little man still isn't even two and he's already surpassing myself as a child (who spoke and read at one) as well as kids older than him that he plays with. It's almost scary, really. I'm thankful he's shy to adults he's never met, or else I'd be even more worried about him. Lol. (I'm such a worrying mama.)

Well, in the news of school, I managed to get an A, two Bs, and a C, passing every one of them. >w< I truly could not believe it, especially the B in math... I never get Bs in math. Lol. (I'm more of an arts, languages, and history person.) Now I just need to get the rest of my books for this semester, hopefully by the week before, so I can be at least a little prepared. My school is kinda funny on when you can purchase books from the store, and the lines are never friendly. Lol.

Well, forgive me for not updating more, hopefully I can do that now, but that's all for the moment. This post has become long enough. :)

I hope everyone is well and I wish you all a very prosperous New Year. :) ♥

Thanks for joining me~!
♥ The BJD Addict