Spring is in Bloom!

The warm weather is still not here in New Jersey but fortunately there are flowers blooming at Purplelicious! When I first started Purplelicious I knew I wanted to make headbands but as I have learned more about sewing I was able to introduce some other accessories like belts and keychains. What inpsired those new lines was not only my desire to expand and grow the business but I was looking for ways to use every last scrap of fabric I have. Most sewers know to never throw out your fabric scraps! You never know what you can make with them! I have a LOT of scraps saved but I mostly have been hanging on to a stack of strips that are a hair less than 10" which make them too short for the wristlet keychains. They are a result of my strip cutting fabric for headbands. Sometimes I have to cut along the length of the fabric to capture the pattern just right and that always leaves me with this little strip of fabric. I was saving them at first to make patchwork fabric belts but for some reason was not motivated to do that, although I have not ruled it out. So then I did a quick google search on how to make fabric flowers. I was not sure what I would make with them yet but thought it might be a cute way to use the scraps. I found this Fabric Flower Tutorial and immediately cut my squares and tried it. They came out SO cute! I got addicted to making them but I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. After a little consult with my mom I decided to make them into ponytail holders! I decided to attempt the project while I was sitting at my most recent craft show. I brought 5 of the flowers with me. As soon as I put the first completed flower on the table, it sold. Then I made another one and it sold and the same customer also wanted the one I was working on. It was then I knew I had to add these to my shop! Since this is what I consider a new product launch I wanted to make sure I had a good variety. So I went back to the those scraps and went to town! These fabric flower ponytail holders are made with the same fabric combinations I use for my headbands. You can buy them to match your favorite Purplelicious headband or alone to add an adorable accent to your ponytail! They are also perfect for fabulous ladies of any age! I am hoping this product reaches out to the person that does not wear headbands but still loves cute accessories! I hope you enjoy these as much as I have enjoyed making them. As for what else I plan to do with these awesome little creations...you will just have to stay tuned. I definitely have more tricks, I mean accessory ideas, up my sleeve!

Wow!!! 400 Sales!

Over the past month or so I have been so busy trying to promote my Etsy shop that I failed to realize that I was so close to hitting another sales milestone! Yesterday I officially surpassed 400 sales! I cannot believe it. I am approaching my 2 year anniversary on Etsy and could not be more pleased with this amount of sales. If you would have asked me when I opened my shop that I would get 400 sales I would have thought you were kidding! And here I am! So another big thank you to all of my fabulous customers and friends who support Handmade items and Purplelicious!

One of the things that helped bump me over this milestone is my Headband Madness Sale! In the spirit of the NCAA tournament, I decided to have a little March Madness sale of my own and I am giving away free headbands! See the listing in the Purplelicious Sale Section of my shop for more details!

New Shoes + Sunny Day = Time to Run!

Lately I have been on a bit of a running hiatus. I really do enjoy running but have a tendency to not be as motivated unless I have something to train for. The past two weeks I have been working to get on track (no pun intended) running wise since I am participating in a 10 mile run in less than 2 months Yikes! I have been running the gym during the winter because I don't like running when it is cold! I am here to tell you that treadmill running is WAY different than road running. I went out for my first outdoor run this past Monday and I FELT it big time. I also felt my feet not being very happy. It was then that I realized I had these running shoes since November of 2007 and they have WAY too many miles on them and barely any cushion left! I went on Zappos and ordered the most current model of my shoe and they were delivered to my house in two days! While yesterday I thought it would be better to have a rest day after a 5 mile run on Monday and a tough spin class on Tuesday. The surprise warm sunny day and the brand new running shoes were calling my name. I gave in and enjoyed a nice 4 mile run in my brand new shoes. There is nothing like running in a brand new pair of shoes, it is like running on clouds! It made me really hope that spring and warmer weather gets here soon, so I am more motivated to get outside, feel the sunshine on my face, and run my stresses away!

A Green Kind of Day

St Patrick's Day has come and gone but I hope that I did what I could to make it fun for my daughter! For some reason on Monday I was feeling a little creative, and I was not feeling headband or accessory creative! I was trying to think of fun things to make for Bella for St Patrick's Day. Creative Idea #1: Cute Handmade St Patty's Day Shirt. I realized Monday morning that I had not gotten around to purchasing a St Patrick's Day shirt for Bella. I figured the stores would be out of them so I decided to make one myself. I had a plain white t-shirt for her, stared at the un-used St Patrick's Day cookie cutter and was hit with inspiration. I went up to the craft room and found the green non-shamrock fabric I purchased and placed the cookie cutter over it. Perfect!!! I washed a section of the fabric. Ironed on some heat n bond, traced the cookie cutter, and an adorable fabric shamrock was born. I felt like it was too plain so I found some St Patrick's Day ribbon and made a bow. Then I asked my fellow Internet and Etsy friends to help me decide. Bow or No Bow! Well the Bow won and here is a pic of Bella in her handmade St Patrick's Day shirt. And yes I think I will sell these next year!

Creative Idea #2: Cupcakes for Class St Patty's Day party. One of the things that is challenging for creative people is that the bar is always raised. Once you come up with one good idea you have to brainstorm on how to make it the same or better, which isn't always easy. I don't know why I feel the need to show off when I bake but it is fun for me! This year I decided to add a chocolate shamrock as a cupcake topper. I headed to Michael's and of course they were out of green Wilton chocolate melts so I was forced to buy white chocolate and tint it green myself. Which was easier than I though. Now I had the chocolate but how was I going to make shamrocks. I am not much of a free hand artist. So I found a shamrock outline graphic printed them out and placed it under a sheet of parchment paper. Put the melted chocolate in a piping bag and traced the outline. I need more practice at this but I think that part came out cute. I baked the funfetti cupcakes (the cake mix picked by Bella) and then made a fresh batch of buttercream. It is so easy to make it I hardly ever use tub icing anymore. I piped the icing in a swirl design, added another swirl of the new Wilton Sparkle Glaze, and topped it with a chocolate shamrock! Fun and delicious!!

I ended my St Patrick's Day but going to the gym for spinning class. When you are a single mom, partying on St Patty's Day doesn't happen to often. I was reminded of my years working in the beer industry when St Patrick's Day was practically considered a holiday. We always had a half day and ended up drinking beer somewhere! Good times!

For someone who is not even an ounce Irish I think I did some pretty creative things for the holiday! I really enjoy the days when I have these creative inspirations. It is another benefit of being unemployed I guess...I actually have the time to turn the inspirations into reality!

Blog Neglect

I apologize for not writing a new blog in over a week. Seriously a craft show really wipes me out and even sometimes gives me crafter's block! I get so burnt out from all of the prep, the thought of creating is sometimes a bit painful. Fortunately for me there was no rest for the weary. Allow me to catch you up on all that occurred last week!

For starters, I met an amazing woman at the craft show that helped me get in touch with her child's soccer coach in an attempt to sell my new athletic headbands. I say new because I made them for the craft show knowing that the town is known for their sports. In talking to her, she asked for some that were specific sports themes. Off to the fabric store I go and discovered ribbon for pretty much every sport. Fun! She had requested soccer and basketball but I picked up some baseball ribbon since my little one just started playing Tball! Not only did I get to make up some new samples but I also got to have a little fun and make a flier to hand out to sports teams! If you are interested in receiving one for your team, please contact me. What makes these headbands so special...well underneath the ribbon is a Goody Stay Put Athletic Elastic. That helps keep the headband in place during activity and the ribbon adds a little fun to the mix! Here is a pic of the sports themed headbands and a sample of the custom Team Colors headbands.



While I was making the kids ones, I decided it would be fun to make them for grown-ups too. I am an active person and due to my naturally curly hair, always need some kind of headband during a workout, run or spin class to keep the fly aways at bay. So I applied the same concept and added colorful ribbon to make Women's Gym/Athletic Headbands. It is the perfect combination of function and style! These can be custom made with any ribbon!


I ended the week with a trip to my first ever Quilt Show. My mom is a member of a local quilter's guild and they were the hosts of the quilt show. I went to not only support my mom, but also to experience a quilt show. All I can really say is Wow! Some of those quilts were completely amazing. My mom keeps trying to get me to learn how to quilt but I don't know if I have the patience for it, but who knows. Maybe someday! I visited with some of the vendors and picked up this adorable jelly roll of fabric from the Flutterby line by Moda. What is a jelly roll (I had to learn this myself!). It is a bundle that contains strips of fabric from an entire fabric collection. The strips are 2.5" by 44". I realized instantly that these are perfect to make headbands with because it saves me a LOT of cutting time! I will be purchasing more of these jelly rolls in the future. I went through and picked out the ones that I liked and gave the rest to my mom so she could make some kind of quilt with it!

I also bought this amazing handmade wool pin from The Noble Wife. This woman makes the most AMAZING pins. They come in all different colors and styles. And some now include a hand painted button in the center. I also bought the pattern so I can learn how to make them myself. Here is the best part. When you purchase one of her pins, you not only get an amazing handmade accessory, you help support a cause. Some of the profit from the sale of the pins go towards purchasing a sheep for poor families around the world. Very Cool. Check out her website for more info and to see more of her amazing pins and quilt patterns! www.thenoblewife.com.

In all, a busy week and it looks like I will have another one this week. Seriously, who knew being unemployed would keep me so busy!!!

Craft Show Success!!!

If any of you reading this have ever done multiple crafts shows you know that every one you do is a roll of the dice. I have done one show three times and have had three different results. One thing that is the same, is the amount of work that goes into participating in a show. Just read my previous blog for details about all of that! Surprisingly enough I only stayed up until 2am getting ready for the craft show on Saturday. I did not know what to expect from this show. I knew it was a big show and that it has been around for years since I remember going to this show as a child. I pulled up into the high school from my hometown and walked in to check in. On my way I walked past a small room of people setting up, the gym, and found the table. I was told my location was in the small cafeteria and immediately I was not too happy. But there was nothing I could do that was my location and I had to make the best of it. I started to set up my stuff and noticed that my location was directly in front of the kitchen of the cafeteria. I didn't really think anything of it until I saw people actually IN the kitchen and other people buying stuff. It hit me! This is where they are selling food!!! Maybe this location is not so bad after all. And it wasn't. Our little room was filled with people for most of the day. Later I learned that the small cafeteria was the first room people saw when they entered the building which also helped! I had a blast, it was great talking to the customers, seeing some of my friends who came to visit, and making connections. I am already talking with someone I met at the show about a possible order for their daughters soccer team! Without even counting my money I knew I had a good day. And all of my hard work paid off. I also changed up my display a lot. I don't know if it helped but I think it made a difference. I took some pictures yesterday and compared them some pictures I took from a show this summer. For starters, I bought a three tier stand for my headbands. Before I divided them among three t-stands and placed the rest on the table because I ran out of room. The stand worked out well, because my headbands were vertical, I had more space on the table to display some speciality items. While I liked the concept of the 3 Tier Stand, I need a little more space between the tiers but the customers liked being able to see the headbands and turn the racks. I think it also helped to have product at eye level. This may prove to be more beneficial at a street fair.


For the keychains, I had them in a purple basket and then some displayed on the table. People just didn't know what they were. I found these great display stands on ebay and think it worked out great! People immediately knew what they were and liked spinning the rack to see all of the styles. This is definitely staying for future shows.

For the belts, I used another one of the stands I used for the keychains. While I think it looks better than before I still want to do something different for the belts for my next outdoor show.

The ponytail holders are also tricky for me. For this show, instead of piling them into a basket I added them to some jewelry tstands I had bought when I first started doing shows. I like those stands because they really showcase the cover button. I think for the next show I am going to put them on the other stand I used for the belts. So people can really see the variety.

As for the overall table, I think using the stands to pick the items off of the table worked out really well. As you can see from the two photos, from a distance you can really see what I am selling which will help me at an outdoor show. It also gave me more table space to add some new items and spread everything out. I think I need to test the new set up at a show I have done before to really see if it works, but I think I am on the right track. That is what is fun about having a business, you always need to be innovative and thinking of better ways to connect to your customers. Especially when doing craft shows it is so important to make your table stand out from the rest and break through the clutter.
Summer Craft Show Table:

Saturday Craft Show Table with new Displays:

Now go back to the aftermath, organizing the remaining inventory, taking some new pictures, and planning how to make my next craft show table...even better!

Procrastination + Looming Craft Show = Madness

I happen to be the Queen of Procrastination. I know that I have many counterparts in this arena as well! I cannot think of a time when I wasn't a procrastinator, even when I was in school. I remember one time in college I actually tried to write a paper ahead of time, as opposed to the night before. I felt so accomplished until I saw that I got a bad grade on it. My conclusion, I put forth some of my best work while under pressure. I am not sure why but that is how I operate. My productivity and time management skills improve when I have more on my plate. Even though I have come to accept and embrace this aspect of my personality, working this way really stressed me out!

For some unknown reason, I had a brain lapse after my last not so successful craft show and decided to sign up for another one. Wait, forgive me, I know the reason. I am unemployed and have been trying to grow Purplelicious because I honestly love it and craft shows are a good way to get the word out. I received my acceptance e-mail about 3 weeks ago and I just started building inventory Monday. I have been quoting the Three Amigos on my facebook status joking that I am in the Village of Santa Poco. As you can see from the picture above I am doing pretty well. My plan is to finish most of the sewing today that way tomorrow I can put the tags on everything and make my inventory list.

I bought some new display pieces for this show in an attempt to take my products vertical. The last two craft shows I did, I took a lot of time to observe people and what makes them approach the table. The one thing I realized is that people have no idea what I am selling. The second is when you are walking around, having my headbands displayed flat on the table doesn't make them visible. Since I have no carpentry skills I was forced to by some stands but I think they will really help. So also added to the list for tomorrow is setting up the new displays and rearranging my table setup.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for a successful show. I am hopeful that the addition of a Bridal/Special Occasion Line, a Sorority Line, and an expanded Kids Line will help attract the various consumers that come to craft shows. I also made a series of headbands to match the High School colors for the purpose of attracting the students that are only there because their parents made them come and also to showcase that I can make customized headbands for just about anything!

Ok enough procrastinating!! It is time to get back to sewing!