Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek of what I've been working on the past couple of weeks!!! There will be some fun things added to my Etsy shop soon!

Stamping is in progress for some fun Christmas cards!

more stamping items!

Most recent creative idea is to take on making a medley of bookmarks to choose from! These could be great little gifts or stocking stuffers, especially if you are already getting someone a book!

 And then the most recent addition to Creative Medley has been fingerless gloves. Custom orders are currently available, but here is a look at gloves in progress:

 So far only one done, but working on it's matching pair!

Also creating cards to use as wall art or for some sort of decoration for your room, desk, or table!

And there you have it! A sneak preview on what's been going on the past few weeks at Creative Medley and all the various designs and little gifts I've been making for you!

Ideas Anyone?

Alright, this post is to see what you think! I am hoping to make Creative Medley more personal and get feedback from current customers, future customers, potential customers and anyone else who wants to voice an opinion.

First however, I want to let you in on how this idea came about. Monday I was out with a dear friend running errands. (It is ALWAYS more fun to do everyday mundane things with good company!) We started bright and early--much TOO early mind you--to make it to the DMV when they opened to get our licenses. Hers needed to be updated to her new married last name and I needed to transfer mine from out of state to our new location in NJ. We spent early morning driving there and getting that done and then proceeded to reward ourselves with coffee and bagels. Yum! After our little treat we went off to get her license plate for her new little car because this was on the way to the pumpkin patch we were headed to to grab us some cute pumpkins! While at the dealership the man helping us noticed my warm and comfy fingerless gloves that I was wearing. He inquired as to where I got them and that his wife would love some like them. What an opportunity!!! I told him that I had made them and happened to have my very last Creative Medley business card to give to him. (Obviously I need to print some more. Now where is that printer cord that got misplaced in our move?...)
   This was quite exciting for me, especially being in a new place with very limited connections to have met someone interested in my knitting. And a product I was planning on putting on the website very soon! So for the next few weeks I will be a knitting fiend to get some stock on the website! Now here is the part where you all come in. I want to offer a product people will want and enjoy and pick as their go-to item to grab as they're heading out the door. My fingerless gloves are first on the list to be offered next. What colors would YOU like to see? Please leave a comment and let me know!

Next I want to hear suggestions of knitwear YOU would want to purchase. Things you would like to see offered. Or gift ideas you would like to see offered for gifts. I have so many things I can do but I want to know what customers would like to see :) More hand knitted scarfs maybe? A specific color of earring? More hand knitted hats? What should I focus on next that YOU would like to see, I want to hear!

Craft Space

   Now that you have read up on how I was inspired to start my own Etsy shop I will share a little more of my personal life.

  My husband was so supportive of me starting up the shop! He helped me brainstorm store names and allowed me to splurge some more on supplies. (Keep in mind that we had been married less than a year at this point, and a newly-wed-just-out-of-college budget is pretty tight!) So I was thrilled and thankful that we had a little extra spending money to start up my little shop. Now let me show you the little desk I had been working on when I first started up:

My old desk

Please note the little tiny white desk at the foot of the twin bed there. This is the same desk I grew up with and brought with me to our first apartment. I had a mere 18" by 33" space to work with. And of course throw in the living room coffee table more than twice that size and all the floor space I wound up using. But it's what I had to work with and I used that space up! Now, the coffee table takeover was not appreciated by either my husband or me. It was cluttered which he can't stand, and it was a pain for me to find a place to stash everything when guests came over.  So we saved our pennies and over the course of a few months I was pleased to hear my husband's approval that we could now go out and find me a new desk! Here is the result of a very happy Ikea visit:

My wonderful new desk has storage cubes that are exposed and encourage me to stay organized, and it has all the desk space I dreamed of!









Now, I am still a clutterbug and this is my response to that:
 

My "Creative Clutter is better than Idle Neatness!" cross stitch

 And now that I have my wonderful new desk and much more crafting space I can focus on more products for my Etsy shop. Now if there were just more hours in the day I'd be set! :)

Birth of a Store

   Now that you know some background of how I began crafting I can share with you the background of my Etsy shop.

   When I was much younger my sister, cousin and I would play all sorts of imaginary and make believe games together. Every Friday night our family would get together for dinner at Meemaw's and spend some time with extended family and enjoy each others company. Of course when I was little I didn't treasure that time together as much as I do now. Back then it was just a fun chance to escape all the 'boring grown up talk' and play games with my little sister and cousin. Pretending to be cats and dogs, princesses in distress with imaginary princes to rescue us-or as a spinoff from that movie stars, and such games were so fun. And then we started playing shop. Those winter months where we were confined indoors and unable to run around inspired new games. 'Shop' was a game where each of us had a store in a different corner of the room and would make things to sell. Mostly drawings or little things out of paper, but it was fun. And of course prices ranged from a couple of cents to two dollars then. Family would indulge us and buy things from our shops, especially our grandparents. And so I began dreaming of one day owning a shop. I loved the idea of having a little shop downstairs with a bay window to display my craft items. A mirrored gallery to display my beaded jewelry. A section to hang my quilts, aprons, and knitted wares. And another area for my cards, paintings, photographs, drawings and other miscellaneous crafts. And so I continue to dream.

   In college I sold some of my knitted items to a lady who owned a shop in the next town. I liked the extra income, but it wasn't my own shop and I wasn't able to see what demographic was purchasing my items or learning how to best present and sell my own wares. But with college classes and studying occupying the majority of my time my focus was on that instead of my crafts. So all worked out as it was. I made a slight profit on my hobby and could still focus on my school and what future lay ahead of me. I graduated with a degree in Health Promotions and a minor in Psychology and was focused on finding some job to help people or communities to be healthier and live a better life. However, the economy had another agenda, as did my boyfriend soon to be fiance. I completed my internship with a senior center which I loved every minute of. And two months later I was getting married to the man of my dreams and moving away from the life, family, friends, and all the connections I had to the foreign state of PA. Now, I had never moved out of the state I was born in. I had never been away from the mountains of NC.
   Being married is enough of a life change but moving 8 hours away from everything I had known was a whole other undertaking I wasn't so sure about. However, I quickly made friends and settled in to our apartment and a new life with a wonderful man. In the meantime I had had two or three close friends mention Etsy to me in college. I had never paid much attention or really looked into what the site was. I had just logged it away in my memory to consider later. And then it was mentioned to me again. And then again through an acquaintance -now close friend- and I decided I should really look into it. I checked out the website and loved the community feel of this craft based buyer/seller website. After a short discussion with my hubby, he encouraged me to go ahead and set up my own shop. I had always intended to pursue that anyway, so why not now? I began brainstorming names and ideas for products. I googled some of the shop names my hubby and I had come up with to see if any were already taken and eliminated a few that way. I stuck with Creative Medley because I have so much variety of handmade items that I love to make that it just made sense. A whole medley of crafted items created for buyers of my own creativity.
   I started the site and was excited to make my first sales (even if they were to my mom and grandmother!). Then reality hit me and I recognized my need for more stock, and the fact that stocking up meant spending money on supplies and materials and that this would be a strain on a newly wed budget. This catch 22 of needing money to buy materials to make some extra cash to spend on my homemade craft store was becoming frustrating. So I gathered things for projects when I could manage to spend some extra, and spent the time working on creating them when I wasn't taking care of the house or my part time job. This has been slow going of course. And then life threw another curve ball. (Funny how that always happens!) My husband was being promoted -hooray!- but that meant we would be moving - sadness -.
   And so I put my store on hold, in 'vacation mode', and proceeded to spend all my extra hours searching for an apartment within our budget in the much higher cost of living state of New Jersey. We had only been in PA for a year and I had only just started feeling like it was truly home. I knew where all the shops were, where my favorite craft stores were, and had started to be able to get around without complete reliance on my GPS. Not to mention the friends that I had made, some of whom I had begun a deeper relationship with and would consider lifelong friends. Phooey. So that brings us to present day in October 2011. Finally finished with the hubbub of finding a place, closing out everything at our old apartment, moving into the new apartment, all the lovely first deposits and expenses of moving, and finally, FINALLY getting everything unpacked and feeling more like a functional home.


   So now my shop is up and running again. Still with only limited items on sale as our budget will allow, and my brainstorming for ideas continues. I want to do so much and offer so many handmade items that I can't (and our budget can't) keep up! Someday, someday, someday all of my ideas will come together and be available for others to enjoy and gift. But today I will be thankful for a desk to work on, the fact that I have a little online shop, and that we are starting to have a little extra for me to spend on craft supplies. So, as I search for yet another job in a new state, I will be creating and adding more and more to my sparse little shop. I am thankful for what I have and where I'm at right now, but I am dreaming big! I hope this gives you a little insight to my shop and the heart behind it. And I look forward to updating and keeping you all in the loop of CreativeMedley!

Let's Start at the Very Beginning

   A very good place to start. I was born and raised in North Carolina, grew up near family and was always doing something. I had a passion for arts and crafts that goes back longer than my memory can recollect, back to when I first scribbled black crayon all over the walls of my room in my parents house. My knowledge of arts and crafts stems from my close knit family. I learned so much from family members who taught and inspired and fed my creativity.
   My mother has always been-and continues to be-very creative especially with card making. So I learned all of my card making skills and stamping arts from her. She is also the calligrapher, sewer, cross-stitcher, scrap-booker, and homemaker that inspired me to mimic her skills in those areas as well.
   My grandmother on my dad's side was a seamstress and I learned much of my sewing from her. She used to let me push the sewing machine peddle as she sewed when I was only eye level with the sewing table! So Meemaw, Mom, and some sewing classes I was able to attend during the summer is where I get my sewing background.
   My grandmother on my mom's side is also extremely creative. She sews too, but I mostly remember going over to her house to bake yummy cookies, pancakes, and other goodies and to delve into her craft drawers for acrylic paints and hundreds of wooden figures to paint on. I do wonder how many hours of my childhood were spent at her dining room table surrounded by newspapers spattered with acrylics and wooden figurines. She allowed me to make a complete mess of her house and spend hours upon hours painting, drawing and coloring to my hearts content. Her mother was also a painter. My great grandmother, Nanny, was a wonderful artist and poet. Although my hours at her house were mostly spent running around outdoors, I did admire her paintings greatly.
   My aunt Amy taught me to knit under some very amusing circumstances in 6th grade. My aunt and uncle were visiting from out of town and my family had taken them to eat at one of our favorite and often frequented restaurants. Apparently one of the staff had shown signs of some infection, and all who had eaten there during a certain time frame were requested to get shots at the local health department just to be safe. So amidst this random and inconvenient event, my aunt brought along her knitting to wait in the long line at the health department. I was intrigued and watched her closely for a number of minutes before she pulled out an extra needle and thread and asked if I would like to learn. Of course, at the age of twelve, with nothing else to do or be entertained by in the middle of a health department awaiting a dreaded shot I leaped at the chance of distraction and amusement. So I learned to knit right there and then. I really did enjoy it so I kept it up, practicing on potholders and tiny stuffed animal scarfs until I developed better tension and consistency of stitches. And now, thanks to my wonderful Aunt, I have been knitting for over a decade! Since my Aunt that taught me was from out of town, I later had to rely on my older cousin and Meemaw to teach me other stitches and inspire me to a variety of projects. But that meant more time with family crafting and learning and I loved every minute of it!
   This same cousin and her family would present me with interesting craft kits nearly every Christmas. Some were the crazy kitchen lab experiments that I'm sure my mom dreaded me to perform in her clean kitchen, but were fun and interesting to do. Others were little pan flutes to put together or a pot holder loom kit or other one time DIY for kids kits. But my favorite became the beading kit she and my aunt picked out one year. This opened the door to another creative outlet, and a very thrifty way for me to create as many earrings as I pleased during my years in middle school and high school when fashion first started to have meaning to me. And so beading was added to my list of crafts.

   All of these family members inspired me to be the creative crafter that I am today. And so many memories are wrapped up in each skill I have learned over the years from my family.