Hustle and Bustle and Blog What?

So... it's the lovely hustle and bustle of the holiday season.  It seems like just yesterday was Thanksgiving... and here I am 5 shopping days from Christmas and I got nuthin.  I took a pledge to buy handmade and local... guess what... not gonna happen.  I am sure that somewhere it was handmade, but it prolly wasn't local at all!  I have been working on a few things lately, but not alot new in my shop.  I have been playing around with the idea of having a clearance section on my website www.ellajoecouture.com, where when I make one offs that maybe I don't like or something you can get them for a steal if you do like them and need them in the size that they are being offered.  So, keep that in mind and I will be sure to post when I get the page created and items listed.

Sorry it's been so long since I have actually blogged!  I am making a bit of headway in the boutique in New York, however I believe that my sales have been slacking in Texas due to my inability to keep up with everything.  Yes, I am still working on the Spina Bifida onesies.  After how long now?  They have almost all gone out, but not quite.  I still have a whole work area full of them, but I have some packages made and lots are ready to go out, but some of the orders are missing like 1 or 2 shirts due to sizes that aren't available.  Which is becoming a huge pain, because I can't send the order out if it isn't complete.  I don't know who is snatchin up all the sizes I need before I get to the store, but I do know that it needs to stop!!!

I have some more information on techniques that I have used with the Yudu... but I am sure that there will be more on that later... Maybe even later this evening.

New Website! Yee!

Okay... So, a while ago I put up an Alchemy request on Etsy for someone to help me revamp my website.  After lots of offers from free (they even provided me free instructions and their own hand made templates to do it) and other offers into the $$$$ (thousands of dollars) I just kind of let it sit there.  I knew that I needed to spruce it up a bit, but I didn't really know what I was going to do with it.  I mean, the whole point of me even starting a website was so that if someone wanted to know anything about my brand at least I didn't have to worry about a porn site buying my domain name and my customers weren't going to get more than they bargained for.  Someone was gracious enough to give me a copy of FrontPage 2000, which if you didn't know is about the most not nice software to use to create a website!  It is all HTML and guess how much training I had in that?  None.  It was a long and tedious process, but I was at least able to fix my website just to include a link to my etsy shop and then a link to this here lacking blog.

Then my computer went on the fritz.  Actually it just stopped doing anything.  The motherboard... fried.  For whatever reason.... so I had to buy a new one :(  I like it don't get me wrong, but do you know how much energy it takes to get everything on a new computer back to the way you were use to it after you had been adding things to make your computing experience more enjoyable over a 2 year period?  Well, it definitely takes much longer than I wanted to spend.

And then with the loss of my computer, also came the loss of my software to update my website... UGH!  So, I did some research... watched a random marketing video that told me about Weebly.  I already have my domain through GoDaddy.  Well, about 24 hours later, I am soooo excited to tell everyone about my new website www.ellajoecouture.com.  Please feel free to check it out.  It was sooo eaasy to do once I got the hang of things.  Maybe eventually I will even get some of my items up there for sale, but I think at this point having a consolidated place where I sell my wares is going to work out easiest for me.

My new website (www.ellajoecouture.com) (incase you haven't gone there yet, please do and give me your feedback!) even features a place where you can tell me what you want, where as my other one... didn't.  It told you to e-mail me at my yahoo address which, after I got my gmail address, just kind of fell by the wayside :(  Sorry Yahoo but sometimes you don't work so well with my Google Android phone. :(

So, it was easy!  I don't know how hard it is for other people to figure out all of this stuff on their own but for me I know that all of this sort of stuff isn't really my forte.  But anyhoo... please feel free to tell me your thoughts and let me know if you have any ideas or if I missed something on my site!

Turning 30... New York... Oh My!!!

So, on July 23, 2010, I turned 30.  Luckily for me I got to do that in New York.  I am pretty much like the luckiest girl alive.  My boyfriend surprised me with a trip so that I would have something to remember it by... like I needed the help.  But I rang in my new year with a bang in Times Square so at least I will always remember it being a great time and not a depressing one!

So... in New York... I shopped and I shopped and I shopped.  I don't think that I had ever walked so much in my entire life.  My feet hurt horribly and my crowd toleration was about non existant, which made New York the worst place to be sometimes!  But, I sucked it up and perservered!  And, found so many exciting things in all the different fabric shops down there... I can't even explain to you all the wonderful and fun things I found.  But, I did make my fall line out of them :)

Unfortunately, I didn't do much in line for the boys :(  I'm still working on that part.  And, I have been sooo busy getting everything made and lined up that, I haven't even posted any of these to sell on Etsy... or Artfire... or... anywhere for that matter.  Probably something that I am going to try to tackle tomorrow.

I came home with some awesome fabric to make a black and white Ella dress out of.  Super excited about that.

Okay, it's late, and I have to get back on a normal schedule (I really don't even know what one of those are) tomorrow to get my things cranked out and shipped and, I gotta do something to get my traffic back up on my etsy site so... Go there!  www.ellajoecouture.etsy.com

:)

Boys Tuxedo Wedding Onesie

So, I have dubbed this one of my "Wedding" onesies. Who would have ever thought there would be such things? I have noticed that this is quickly becoming my biggest seller basically because, there is just nothing out there that is cute for boys! I feel sorry for them! I have sold sooo many of these cute little tuxedo onesies that I have even suprised myself! They are super cute, and super easy! I just made them for my sister-in-laws sister's twins because there dad was in my little brothers wedding and they were absolutely adorable! Please take a look at my listing in my etsy shop here

Let's give them Something to Blog About...

Actually, will someone give me something? Actually, lots of things going on! My lil' brother is getting married in T-2 days. I am super excited for him, but I also have some more t-shirts for him and his soon to be bride for their honeymoon!  I have been looking for lots of pics to put up of the shirts that I have already made that they wore to one of their bridal showers, but they are all horrible pics... and it's kinda early, and I haven't mastered photo editing software yet... so... you can get the gist of it with this pic...

So... I have to come up with some new things to put on these t-shirts!  They are really basic, they just say Bride and Groom (respectively) with the date 07-10-10 underneath.  I made these with my trusty YuDu... the Brides is made with the YuDu Silver paint.  It's holding up okay, but not great.  I saw her in it the other day and I could tell that it didn't sparkle as much as it did when I first did it, but it was still presentable and if you didn't know what it looked like when it was first made you wouldn't know that anything had changed.  The Groom's I just did in regular white and it still looks the same as it did when I first made it.

So, what else should I put on shirts for them?  Hm... back to work!

 

 

 

 

Hi All! It's been a long long time since I have "Blogged" anything... but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy. But then again that doesn't mean that I have been productive either. So, above are a few pics of onesies that I have been working on. It's all screen printing, and I am still learning how to do it! If you read my previous post regarding all of the supplies that I have purchased and from where to work with the Yudu... THEY ALL WORK GREAT!! Everything is splendid! The emulsion that I have been using... well, it's been about what they say is the "Life" of the product... I think like 45 days... and I don't want to jinx myself, but I am still getting good use out of it. And, it doesn't look like it's gonna go away anytime soon. They say to store it in your fridge... but any room that is usually pretty dark and room temp will be fine. At least that is what I can tell. Also... when it comes to transparencies... AAHHHH!!! Such a pain! Buy them off of the internet where ever I said that I did. I ran out. So, I purchased some from Office Max... total waste! Whatever it is on them that makes them inkjet compatible is showing up as lines in my screen... and, they are the same stinkin price... sheesh! A stupid piece of plastic! Speaking of, I should prolly go and buy myself some more since I am thinking about it.

I don't remember if I have blogged about my new "Rockstar" line or not... if I haven't, you can check it out in my shop at: www.ellajoecouture.etsy.com

Please feel free to well... do whatever you want :)

Not Bad... Not Great... Not Productive! YuDu part 2

Okay, I previously posted about all of these lovely products that I had purchased for my Yudu... basically different paints/inks, emulsion instead of capillary sheets... a different squeegee. I have finally received all of those products. I received the first set from one of the websites that I purchased within 2 days and then I finally had e-mailed the other website letting them know that I had not received even a confirmation of my order and I spent like $100 so I wanted to at least know that I didn't just send that money to joe schmoe somewhere on a beach. So, that afternoon I received an e-mail from them stating that they had shipped my order that day. I have received both of them, but I have just not had the time to start playing as I had wanted. I did burn my first 2 screens today. I first used the capillary film that comes with the Yudu... but I am slightly confused, because they did not send emulsion remover which is what you use to clean the screen, but they sent you enough stuff to make 2 screens... but if you can't clean the first one then how do you make the second? And, they only send you 1 transparancy. That didn't make sense to me either. I want whatever the person that came up with that system was on...

Anyhoo contrary to almost everything I had read about making the screens with the capillary film it wasn't that hard. I burned it right the first time... I think. I did like a practice print on an old tshirt I stole out of my lil' bros old room... Really cute... on the front of a gray shirt is has a ginormous gawdy Tommy Hilfiger logo and on the back it has Ella Joe Couture twice in pink. Sweet. Anyhoo... I had put my logo two different ways on the same screen figuring I could just tape over the one I didn't want to use right? So, after making sure that both came out looking good I went to clean the screen... oh... that is where the headache started. It was not fun. Not fun at all. I don't know what I was doing wrong or anything... but it sucked... so, I flipped the screen over and started trying to get the paint off on that side... well, then the emulsion just started coming off too. So... I had to burn another screen the exact same one mind you because I didn't get anything actually done that I wanted to get done! Ugh!! And, during this process I also went to make a video of what I was doing, and apparently only when I picture lots of people looking at or seeing my video (don't know why... no one reads my blog... blah ha ha!) I freaked out because everything was so dirty because well... I just have crafty crap everywhere... so... not so good!

Anyhoo... that's a bit of a run down on how my first experience with a yudu went. Not bad... not great... not productive.