We've come a long way, Birdie!

Ah little birdie and owlie... how far you have come! I was just cleaning out some of my photo files and came across my first bibs and appliques and wanted to share.

My first bibs - I made these for my niece. This was the first bib pattern that later got reworked into the one I use now. It's not a whole lot different! I did use a lot of velour on the back of the bibs at first and now exclusively use anti-pill fleece.
Oh birdie. You were not very cute. Sorry to whoever has this one (Haley, is that you? I owe you a new one!!)
Birdie now...Owl before... I have since learned exactly where to put the eyes (between the wings!) and how to position the wings better. Thankfully!
Owl now!

And my newest little guy, the dinosaur! He is a QUICK seller on my boys tees and bibs, I can hardly keep them in stock!
I was also asked to make a 1st birthday bib for a sweet little boy with a cupcake. I wasn't so sure how a boy cupcake bib would turn out but I think it was super cute!
Check out all my upcoming shows on the sidebar - there are a ton of them coming up! If you're planning on coming and I don't post a coupon, e-mail me and I'll send one to you!

Craft Sales Galore!

I'm so excited about my new craft show tent (and banner!). It was so easy to set up and my bibs and onesies fit quite nicely inside.

Unfortunately the weather was less than wonderful - it was overcast, chilly and raining. We ended up packing up early in a downpour. BUT I still had a really good show. Since it was in my 'hood it was fun to meet people who knew about Hip Violet already. A bunch of my friends also stopped by and shopped - thanks guys!

In other news I have been embellishing some other things too... I put some birdies on my Moby Wrap the other day. Here is my super-professional bathroom-mirror photo with my sweet little Willa.

My sister-in-law Heather from Mani Celesti (awesome prenatal, postpartum and infant massage if you're in the Denver area!) wrapped Willa up at the festival this weekend (I know, you can hardly tell there is a baby in there, she was sooo comfy!). Soo cute! I am be offering to "jesify" other items too - let me know if you are interested and we can work out the details!In other news, check out the sidebar on the right for all my shows I have booked this fall. I even have two that I'm still waiting to hear about. I'll be BUSY but they are so much fun!

AND don't forget to become my fan on facebook by clicking here.

Till next time,
jesi

My first show of the year is this weekend and I'm SO excited! I'll be at the Sunnyside Music Festival in Denver. If you haven't been, it's a really fun, laid back event with great music, yummy food, a kids area and of course lots of fun and unique vendors. It's completely free - come on by, bring a blanket to sit and watch the bands and let the kids play!

This is also my first show since having my daughter Willa almost 3 months ago. Needless to say, it's a good thing she's sleeping a little better so I can get some sewing time in! It's been a bit more tricky to find the time to sew with two little ladies around the house, but we're getting into the swing of things slowly but surely!

First, here is a coupon to use if you do make it to the festival (click on it to enlarge, then print):
To prepare for the show, I finally broke down and bought a canopy tent. It arrived this week and already we LOVE it and I can tell we'll be getting a lot more use out of it than just the craft shows! Right now it's set up in our backyard in preparation for a BBQ tomorrow:
The Colorado sun can get pretty hot, and even though we have a covered back porch we get the afternoon (super hot) sun so I think we'll love having something to put up and get some relief! I got this one from Costco, it's called a Caravan Canopy and I've heard that they are pretty good and comparable to Ez-Up tents... but MUCH cheaper!

I am really excited to get all my stuff set up in here this weekend. I love that I can hang things from the bars inside and it came with sidewalls so it will look very bright and cheerful inside - and like its own little store!

I also had my dear husband build me a few more racks for clothes. These sit right on my tables. I would like to paint them but I'm not going to have time before this weekend. I'm currently thinking of ways I can bribe him to sand, prime and paint them too.

Speaking of my husband, he also helped me out this week by cutting up my fleece into bib-sized pieces for me. It was a HUGE help! Funny, this is only about 1/3 the fleece I have, but it's a start! After this show I'm definitely going to take an evening to cut up ALL my fleece so I can make my process more time-efficient.
And here is a little stack of brand new bibs awaiting their snaps. I am planning on having around 40 bibs and 10 bib and onesie sets, as well as a bunch of onesies and tees for the kids. Someday, I promise, I will actually get out my stash of adult tees and start sewing THOSE up!
I hope to see all my Denver friends at the festival this weekend! Check back soon for a play-by-play of how the show went and pictures of my booth!

Front Page & One Year Anniversary!

What a great one-year anniversary present! I made it on Etsy's front page just a few days ago!

My bib and onesie set was featured and the best part was that it was chosen by Etsy Admin which I feel like is a pretty big honor!

The funniest thing is that it was found by searching for the word "modern" - I had literally JUST added this set the day before, and had JUST decided to start using the tag modern on my items after seeing a few other people use it. How crazy is that? The Universe aligned for me on that one!

Over the one hour that it was on the front page I got almost 500 views, 23 item heart and 33 new shop hearts. That pushed me over the edge to more than 400 shop hearts! I was pretty excited about that!

And yes, the other part of this is that my shop has now officially been open for ONE WHOLE YEAR! Yay! It has been such a fun year - from learning the tricks of selling on Etsy (check out my writeup here about some of the Etsy Tips & Tricks I've learned!) and fabric/notions buying (I love sales!) and dealing with the whole CPSIA stuff, to modifying and designing a whole slew of appliques... it's been so much fun! My favorite part is hearing how much my friends, family and complete strangers like my stuff. It gives me warm fuzzies all the time!

I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things and sewing more now that Willa is napping a bit better. I still don't have nearly the time I did before and I'm hoping that can change for the better soon since I have SO many new ideas and SO much I want to sew! I'm trying to slowly build up my stash for my first sale of the year - I'll be at the Sunnyside Music Festival in Denver on September 12. It's an awesome neighborhood festival and it was really fun last year!

I am also happy to announce that Hip Violet bibs and apparel can be found at a great new cloth diaper store in Denver (the only one of its kind! How a city as "green" as this could not have a cloth diaper store before this is beyond me!) called the Giggling Green Bean. It's on Tennyson Street in Denver and besides carrying all my favorite cloth diaper brands, they now have a bunch of Hip Violet gear too!

Here are a few of my latest editions to my website too:


AND I'm now on Facebook! Search for Hip Violet and look for my logo (there is one other "business" called Hip Violet - raising money for a little girl). Become a fan and you'll be registered to win a FREE custom item!

Later!
jesi

My latest creation

I've been working on this one for NINE whole months! :) Meet my newest little lady, Willa. She was born on June 11 and is just the sweetest little thing! Since she was a "surprise" baby (we didn't find out what we were having) I wasted no time after she was born in making her a few "hip" onesies!
Now that she's a whole 2 weeks old, I think I'm ready to open my shop up to custom orders again. If there is anything you've been wanting, please let me know, I'd love to make it up for you! I do have to limit myself to existing applique patterns and fabrics I have on hand (check them out, I've added new ones!).

The Nesting has Set In!

Well folks, it's happened. I'm 8.5 months pregnant for baby #2 and the nesting has hit full force! We kicked my 2 year old daughter out of her bed this past weekend (okay, so she very willingly transfered to her "big girl bed"), I got the nursery kinda set up, AND I made the Going Home From the Hospital Onesies for this little girl or boy who is boppin' around in there!
We're pretty excited to see exactly WHICH outfit is going to be used! :) My daughter has said it's a boy from the very beginning and I'm starting to believe her. We soon shall see!

In other news, I am officially done taking custom orders until further notice. Mostly because I got THIS whopper of an order the other day and I think it will take me until my due date to finish it! A friend of mine ordered TEN custom bibs for her little girl who is due in July. I'm so excited to be making things for friends and she has great taste in her fabric choices :) I did throw in a couple of extras so hopefully I can update my Etsy site with just a few more new bibs before this little munchkin arrives!
I also did this hand-dyed twins boy set with elephants. Cute, huh? I have come to both dread and LOVE when my customers say "Do whatever you want!" which was kind of the case with this set (she knew what colors she wanted but that was it!). It was really fun to put it together and make them the same, yet different. Ah the fun of twins!
Even though I am not taking customs, I HAVE been replenishing my fabric supply (which is, of course, half the fun of making stuff - SHOPPING!). I have updated my flickr account with all sorts of new hip and trendy fabrics. Check them out here!

Have a great day!
jesi

I can finally feel my fingers again...

Holy Chilly Craft Show, Batman! We all nearly died of hypothermia. Okay, so it wasn't QUITE that bad, but it was cold (low 40's), rainy and just plain cold. But we survived! And we actually had a lot of fun despite the weather.

My friend Nicole and I set up our tent (it was probably a hilarious thing for others to watch since neither of us really knew what we were doing) and set up our gear. I'm actually pretty happy with how the booth turned out, although next time I definitely want to get a sign or something to hang on the front to say who we are and what we have.


And me and my favorite craft-show booth-sharer, Nicole. Yes, I have on a winter coat, hat, scarf and even had long undies on.
Unfortunately because of the "craptastic" weather, the turnout in Boulder was less than stellar. I did, however, get to meet a couple of people who came from Denver which was really great, and did sell enough to cover my booth space (and the 37,294 cups of Chai Tea I had to keep warm!).

So the bad news was that it was not that great of a sale. AND we didn't get in to any of the other sales at the Boulder Farmer's Market which is very sad as I really think it would be the perfect venue for us. We are on the waitlist and I talked to the director and told her we had a lot of people asking if we'd be back so hopefully that will help move us up the list!

The GOOD news is that I have an absolute TON of bibs (I was a sewing Mad Woman and made up almost 30 new ones in the last week), five adorable bib/onesie sets and a bunch of shirts and onesies. I will have them online within the next week or so and I think you're going to love them! I specifically tried to make some cute gender neutral ones (which, consequently, was what sold at the show) too!

So check back soon to my Etsy site to see the huge inventory I'll have soon!
jesi