Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Kittens Are Not Toys, and Will I Make it to Chicago in Time?

The busyness of this spring was a surprise to me. I have tripled my dress sales from last year in just five months.  This year's orders for First Communion dresses, graduation dresses,  and other formal dresses knocked me out as I struggled to keep up as well as work part time waitressing and be a mom.  I cut back my hours at the restaurant to just on the weekends and had to stop taking orders for dresses.  After May, the orders slowed down and were left to a handful of Flower Girl dresses.  I stopped taking orders for the summer as well as I needed some more family time.  Here are some of the dress I made this spring:

 








Life outside of sewing update:


I hosted 30 family members for Easter this spring which was bittersweet.  It was a good get together and we enjoyed having my cousin's family come in town, but one of my cats, a 2 year old tabby went missing in all the commotion.  Three weeks later, my second cat, a purebred Oriental Shorthair disappeared.

I'm not sure if we have coyotes or what happened to them.  But after weeks of a cat free home, I was beginning to feel a part of me was missing.  I felt guilty that I thought they would be ok playing outside sensing all of the joy it brought them - I kept imaging them returning -the scene in my mind went a lot like that "running slow motion through a field, arms outstretched" scenario.  So, I decided that kittens were in order.  I played with the thought of buying a purebred again (this time a Turkish Angora - a white one with odd colored eyes!), but I would have to be on a waiting list and the kitten would be $800.  So I then thought it good to get two kittens from the shelter.  After visiting Cincinnati's SPCA looking for my missing cats, I discovered they had a lot of kittens.  But when I made a call to see if any were available for adoption, the curt woman on the phone told me they had no kittens!

My need to fill my kitten fix was growing stronger by the day, by the hour.  I enlisted Lucy in this quest as her role was to soften her Daddy's heart to the idea as he was rather enjoying the kitty litter free home we were now inhabiting.  He was a bit keen on the idea of a little white kitten and agreed that you can't get just one.  Plus, he thought it funny that Lucy wanted to name her cat "Chicken!" So, sensing an opening, I went for it and fate complied.  I found kittens through our local Craigslist and made arrangements to take Lucy to a nearby amusement park for most of the day, followed by going to pick up two kittens that late afternoon - a pretty awesome day for a four-year-old!

We paid $20 total for the two remaining kittens from a litter of seven.  One was a little white runt boy, and the other was a skittish, huskier creamy orange tabby boy.  Enzo and Oscar, respectively, have been with us for about a month and have cleaned up nicely and are doing great.  (The name Chicken was dropped as I feared it would predisposition the kitten's temperament) Enzo is still smaller than his brother, but his personality would have you think he thinks he is a tiger.  Oscar is my special little cuddle buddy after the kids go to bed at night.  I have found myself saying too often to my kids "Kittens are not toys!"  They haven't quite got the gist of it, but at least Lucy has stopped putting Enzo in her riding toy's little trunk.



I'm going to keep a good eye on these two (you can take that to mean my kittens or my kids)!  There will be no outdoors for them, either.   I just felt like I had more love to give after I lost my first two, but I guess I needed to get more love, too.

Now, a very quick note about Chicago.  I am trying very hard to get two flower girl dresses done, and create at least three samples of a collection from my portfolio in the next two weeks.  But the irony of me being a seamstress/fashion designer is that in my case "The cobbler's kids have no shoes!"  I rarely get the opportunity to make myself or my kids anything, so I have very little to show.  On Sunday, July 22 is an open call casting for Fox TV's Fashion Star.  I will need to organize a lookbook/portfolio to show as well.  I am a crazy person to take all of this on, but we'll see, right!?  I needed a break from the mad rush to get things done, something to clear my head and thought my about my patient little blog awaiting me and how it would be a great revitalizer to fuel me up.  I'm glad I took the time to update this blog and will let you know how things turned out.

And a final update from me.  Right before Easter, I received a call from my Aunt Cathi that she was diagnosed with a form of terminal cancer.  She passed two weeks ago, aged 52, leaving behind my uncle, and her two daughters, and all of the rest of us.

I feel a part of me is missing again.


Saturday, March 10, 2012

Now Casting!

So my beloved Project Runway is casting up until March 15th.  (big sigh)  I won't be applying, at least not this season.  But...eleven has always been my lucky number - and that will be the following season's number.  So, I finally have given myself a deadline.  Also, the application that I have been working from is the same as they are currently using; same questions and requirements.  The major hold up for me is that I will not have ten completed looks done in time.  Currently, I have twelve dresses ordered, so I am busing doing them.  The fun part is that I will be doing three new designs, which I will post pictures of as they are completed.

I completed the order of nine dresses and got them shipped in time.  I think that they turned out great.  I have heard little feedback, though, as the buyer was not happy with the amount of money that her Country charged her to import the dresses.  It was very frustrating for me, as well, as I wasn't aware of the amount to claim (a reasonable amount had to be claimed so I could insure them as they did represent two months of work done).  It will be a lesson learned on my side.  Here is the finished work:




After the nine dresses were completed, I did a dress for an eight year old's Baptism in California.  It was a similar design, but in white silk and lace.  I surprised her by making her a gift, a matching dress for her American Girl doll:


It was a hit!

Next in line are the remaining orders, what did I say? Thirteen? Twelve? Anyway -I have Erin to help me until she is off to New York City for her next coop at the end of March.  Business is good, I have tripled my business from last year and it is only March.  At this rate, I told Erin, I could pay her if she wanted to do her last coop this Fall with me.  It may work out.  We had the idea of throwing our own fashion show next year, an opportunity for the seniors at her school to showcase their designs as well as bring in other talent in Cincinnati.  Our little city has much talent to offer!  I'm putting this idea here so that it doesn't go away and so I'm held to it.  A huge part of my Project Runway dream is my imaginings of what my fashion show would look like.  The thought of it almost makes me cry each time.  I get so filled up with joy/pride/humility/passion/etc. that I could just "pop."

Speaking about happy thoughts, my next blog will be about my recent vacation to St. john and how it gave me design inspirations!

Take Care!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Update On My Update/ I Love Erin!

Hello!

So yesterday was very important in that Erin, who did an intern stint with me back in 2010, came over.  She has agreed to take on some work to help me finish all my ordered dresses on a commission basis.  It's like having an employee.  She is still in school finishing up her Marketing and Fashion Designs degrees, so I am lucky that she is fitting me in to her schedule.  It seems we always have the perfect timing for each other!

What I love about Erin is that she went back to school to pursue her dreams.  I love living vicariously through her since there is no way I can go to DAAP (the awesome design school here in Cincinnati) because I'll never have the time to do so.  I would love to take the classes there to learn new skills and perfect my current ones, but I will have to stick with my books and online resources.

I also love how well Erin and I work together and am looking forward to our future sewing connection!

So, currently I am working on the nine dresses that will be heading to Ontario.  I am really excited about how they are turning out - I'll post a picture when one is perfectly complete.  Also I have two more orders for dresses and 13 possible orders!  Things are going great.  My sales are more than half of what they were for the entire year last year and January is not even over.

This is all great, but I admit that I have a tinge of remorse in that I do not have time to pursue my projects to further my journey toward Project Runway.  I believe that this year the application process will start soon, but it is not the year for me.  But who knows how long the show will continue?  Will I be too late?  I must set a goal.  I will apply next spring.  I will do my projects between orders.

There you have it!

Monday, January 16, 2012

What's Going on...

Hello blog, I miss you!

Right now I am creating nine dresses for a dance studio in Ontario that are to be completed and shipped by the end of February.  I cannot wait to show you all pictures.  But, needless to say, I am very busy.  I am enjoying watching Project Runway All Stars and have been playing along in my mind, but am not able to draw along and post about it due to my time restraints.  Also, Tim Gunn was in Cincinnati this past weekend and I enjoyed imaging running into him, which included me slipping him a note with this post's address on it.  :)

Ok, back to work for me!