Going to the Dogs. And Our Service Men and Women!

Although I only know one soldier personally I have wanted to give back to our service men and women for a long time now. The sacrifices they and their families make to insure our safety and freedom is such a gift.  I wanted to give a gift back.  I just wasn't sure how to do it.

So I talked to some friends, I did some research and I came up with some ideas.  My Wee dogs are pretty popular so I decided perhaps a Wee Military dog would be a good representative.  Then I started thinking about the correlation between dogs and the Military.

So meet Sgt. Woof.  He is here to support two wonderful organizations combining our U.S. military and dogs. America's VetDogs provides service dogs, guide dogs and military therapy dogs to veterans and active duty personnel in need. Nowzad is an organization that rescues stray and abandoned dogs in Afghanistan particularly to reunite dogs who were "adopted" by service personnel during their deployment and brings them to the U.S. to live permanently with the "adopted parent" soldier. 

If you adopt Sgt. Woof 20% of his purchase price will be split between these two organizations.

So if you love dogs and if you are grateful for all our service men and women and their families, I would love to send a Sgt. Woof (or two or ten) your way!

One Girl Show

If you pop into my Etsy Shop and the inventory looks depleted - never fear. There is a reason.

I am really fortunate to have my products in seven stores across the country as well as a handful of online shops.  When I started on Etsy almost three years ago, I never would have predicted that.  But I learned - without even realizing it - "if you build it, they will come."  A couple of awesome shop owners came knocking and soon I found myself doing consignment on both coasts.  That gave me the courage to knock on a couple of local shop doors, email a couple of awesome shops in other parts of the country and I discovered something about myself ~ I enjoyed "selling" and sealing the deal!  (I'm rather shy, so this aspect of my personality still astounds me!)

So with all that going on ~ and I'm planning to add to my brick 'n mortar roster ~ it's a lot to keep up with on my own.  I am determined to -  for as long as I can -  keep my business personal ~ with every product being handmade, handcrafted, stories written, merchandised and shipped by me and me alone. I really don't ever want to lose that personal touch.

So with 2012 upon us I am looking into the new year and I realized if I'm going to keep up (and still have some semblance of a personal life which sadly has been lacking) I needed to restructure a bit.  So here's my plan ~~

*Every Quarter (every 3 months) I will offer a select group of 25 products.  This will be consistent across the board ~ all the brick 'n mortar shops and Etsy. (Etsy may have a couple of extra products if I have things already made and sitting on my studio shelf.)

*Every Quarter (every three months) those 25 products will change to a new offering of 25 products.

From a production point of view this makes sense as it allows me to work more efficiently and get my product out the door more quickly.  Working "assembly-line" style really speeds up production.  Of course I have to indulge my creative spirit and take time to develop new designs, so those will be popping up from time to time. Some of these new designs will be offered as Limited Editions for a short time only and then retired.

So that explains why my Etsy inventory went from over 100 products to 33.  I'm still here. Here. There. There. And there.  And maybe someday ~ everywhere. :)