Business As Usual

So, wondering where I have been lately? Seen the smoke coming off of my roof over my sewing room? Heard my sweet mail lady griping about all the packages? If so, we know it is just business as usual. Things have been hopping here at brownie-goose trying to get all the spring/summer orders done and out. Not near finished yet.....but working on it. Here are just a few shots to show that my motto is true. A clean sewing room is an inefficient sewing room.

For all of you that aren't on Facebook (you should cave, I did and I love it...and if you are on there and not a fan yet of brownie-goose's page - you should be) i just wanted to give you some pictures of some of the recent completed orders. I have been a sewing machine and am so in love with all of these new fabrics and patterns. I have been getting a ton of emails asking when i may open orders again, and honestly....i am not sure. i know that i will, but don't know when. i definitely have to get caught up on what i have going on in the meantime in order to avoid the craziness that sometimes occurs in my household. :) Oh yeah, excuse the laziness of me putting these in a slideshow, it was just the easiest thing for the time being!

Back to the machines......

Back In Business

okay, THIS IS NOT THE GREEN LIGHT, just wanted to say that you know you are back in it when you come home to find this at your door. the mail. all fabric, every.last.package. i LOVE it. getting fabric in the mail puts the biggest smile on my face. thankfully i have the sweetest mail lady ever since we don't have a mail box, just a slot on the front door and sweet mrs. susan has to contend with lucy (my black lab alarm system) on a daily basis.

does this make you smile too?

holy haberdashery batman....over 100 orders already!

The title was the status for my BG page on Facebook earlier today, and the madness has continued, so once again the green light has turned red for the moment.

But, don't get discouraged if you didn't get your order in. I will use the orders open/closed as kind of a revolving door. I have closed them for now since I have already taken over 150 orders in 3 days. That is nuts and will have my hands full for the next month or so. In the meantime, I will be posting some pics of the new outfits and once I start to get a handle on it, I will let the green light shine again!

If you have already talked to me about your order, or if you have emailed and just not decided yet...I have you on the list. So, chances are...take you time in deciding, and I will hunt you down when I am ready to start on your order if I haven't heard from you.

Wow....yall are awesome!

The Shazaam

Okay, for all of you that have emailed me and haven't heard back - I apologize. My husband and I were hit by what my sister-in-law so properly named "The Shazaam" yesterday and honestly I am not quite sure what happened in the last 24 hours. If you are wondering what the Shazaam is, it is the rotten stomach bug that comes out of no where, rips your stomach in shreds, leaves you motionless on the bathroom floor and the next day the only reminder you have is the sore stomach muscles from throwing up your toenails and the hangover that remains from the Phenergan.

So, as I lay on the bathroom floor yesterday (thankful that I had cleaned it just hours earlier) I listened to Sambo (my blackberry) BLOWING up with BG emails. So, I will be sitting down to emails at some point today when the fogginess has cleared up.

Thanks again for all of your support!

Okay, I sent this out in my mass mailer today...but somehow it came through as code for some of you. I am pretty impressed with myself as a IT person for this one, I wasn't even trying. Hehe.

But, for those of you that may not have been able to read my code, or if you are not on the mailer - I figured I would let yall play too. Here is what I sent:

Hello all and Happy New Year! It is definitely a new year here at brownie-goose, and I have just a few changes that I wanted to fill everyone in on.

• The website. It is brand-new and *hopefully* improved. I got rid of my actual website and got creative with my blog. I have configured it to where it works as a website and then my home page (http://browniegoose.com) will be kind of a bulletin board with updates, news, etc. I did this to hopefully make it easier for me to update, fix, etc. and easier for all of my readers to follow.

• Order taking. I don’t know if everyone read my post about last years numbers or not (here it is if you are interested, http://browniegoose.blogspot.com/2009/12/numbers-are-in.html) but last year got a little crazy with the amount of orders that I took. This greatly took away from time with my precious family, and I do not want that to happen again this year. Therefore, I am limiting the amount of orders that I take. I am sorry if this inconveniences anyone, but I learned the hard way that family comes first, always. On my home page, I will have written at the top either “orders closed” or “orders open.” Please look for this before you email an order. I will be opening and closing periodically, just making sure that I am not a slave to my sewing machines…and instead to my sweet, understanding husband and spit-fire toddler.

• Sizing. I am no longer making any outfits over a size 4T. Once again, I apologize for any inconveniences, but I had to cut back in some areas, and this is one that I felt was needed since I didn’t have patterns in most of my outfits over 4T anyways…

• Prices. Sorry guys, I am not going to hide it – but I had to increase my prices. I am now solely using designer fabrics, which cost me more to purchase, and also my patterns and appliqués and such are getting more time-consuming, and in the end – last year it boiled down to me making about a penny an hour, if even that – and that just wont work. We all need to make a living, right? I debated about even writing this…but I think honesty is truly the best policy.

• Outfits. I have now made all ordering set up as separates. For example, you must order everything individually. Pants are a separate order from a shirt, or a top, etc.

• Turn-around. Please allow at least 6-8 weeks for delivery. I doubt that it will ever take that long….but each outfit is custom-made by me, myself and I.

Now for the fun part, I have some AMAZING new dress and top patterns in time for Spring/Summer ’10. They are awesome and adorable, and of course fun & funky. The fabrics I have for this season are just about as fun as they come. So, all this aside…..brownie-goose is BRINGING IT this year. Are you ready?

Keep checking my website for the green “orders open.”

Also, have you joined me on Facebook yet? If not, you should! Search brownie goose on Facebook and become a fan.

Thanks again for all the support, understanding, patience, etc. that comes from each and every one of you. You are the reason that I continue to do all this, my fans are the best!

Amy

debuting.......

Just some of the new styles debuting this Spring/Summer '10.

Love them???

Check out more details under the Styles tab.

Featured..........

Okay, I have something new that I am trying out with good-ole BG. Oops....first things first, I just realized I meant to blog about this earlier but forgot. Okay, you will now see at the top of my home page in red writing the words "Orders : Closed." This means I am not currently taking orders. When I am taking orders, it will read "Orders : Open" (genius, I know) in green. I will be doing orders a bit different this year, so it is very important to have it out in the open as to whether or not it is okay to put an order in. More details later, still trying to figure it all out.

Okay, back to something new. I have SO many wonderful customers that high-light me on their blogs and I think that is just awesome. I love the shout-outs, but most of all...love adding people to my blog-stalk list. Hehe. I mean, how much fun is it to read about others and laugh at their kiddos and such. Anyways, I couldn't come up with a way to put it on my BG blog (since I just fancied it all up to make it look more like a website) so instead, I created a brownie-goose blog roll on my personal blog. You can find my personal blog at http://amysnorris.blogspot.com. It can be fun sometimes since I have the most dramatic toddler ever. I also tend to procrastinate other things by blogging and get away with words, so if you love stream of consciousness, this will be right up your ally. But please don't look for correct spelling, grammar, etc. That just isn't me. :) I will also post a new update when someone has featured me. So, if you write about me on your blog, PLEASE email the link to me so that I can give you some recognition! So, for starters, here are two that I know of:

http://toddnsarahnmadysonnaubrie.blogspot.com/2009/12/wednesdays-words-letter-b.html

http://mandyandmikepoirier.blogspot.com/2009/12/merry-christmas-yall.html

Love, love, love it. This is honestly the best feeling. Knowing how much people love what you do for them. This is why I continue. Thanks to all of you who are so awesome!

Ahhhh....the Look of New Fabrics

Okay, I decided to go ahead and show them off. I am not (repeat, am NOT) taking orders yet, but thought I would show off the fabrics so you can get an idea of them and which ones you just cannot live without. I love them, and want to stare at them....do you?

I have a white block around the ones that "match" and would look good paired together on the same outfit. However, you don't have to use them together, and if on their own....they will be just as funky!

Stay posted, I am super close to debuting the new line, just waiting for some warmer weather so I can do some photo shoots to get pictures of the ADORABLE new patterns.

PS - Please click on the fabric tab above for more info regarding the new line.

SPOILER ALERT........

just couldn't resist as i was bolting up some of the spring/summer fabrics and thought i would share just a peek. hope you like. :)

The Numbers Are In

Okay, so I wanted to fill everyone in on what all has been going on. First of all, I am taking a breather from the sewing machine for the months of December and January, mostly so that I can rest up and get ready for all that Spring/Summer '10 has to offer. Another reason is because i have been going strong since July, and the numbers below will show just that. So, if you tend to get bored easily...stop reading now. But, when i sat down and did the counting and numbers last night i was amazed, proud, humbled and exhausted all at the same time!

for the SEC line, i had a total of 45 orders which ended up being 82 articles of clothing that i completed for SEC.

for the Fall '09 line, i had a total of 213 orders which ended up being 402 articles of clothing that i completed for fall.

for Christmas '09 line, i had a total of 106 orders which ended up being 207 articles of clothing that was completed in.....drum roll please, 1 (yes, i said one) month. wowsers. holy moly.

so, what does this all mean? basically, in a nutshell since July the 1st, i have gotten 364 orders, with this producing a total of (holy moly....hold your seats) 691 articles of clothing that i have made in the last 6 months. oh. my. gosh. just to pull a little math on you, let's just say each month had 30 days, and i worked all 30...that would mean 4 outfits a day EVERY day for the last 6 months. needless to say, I'm a bit tired. so are Thelma and Louise.

these numbers, in addition to the crazy-nutcase that i have been in the last couple of months alone added to the countless hours i have spent in front of the sewing machines hardly owns up to the laughable profits i have been making. i don't know why i say laughable, since i don't really think they are funny, but pitiful may be a better word for it. These thoughts got me to a cross-roads with brownie-goose, and if you aren't a follower of my personal blog, you can read about the debate here. but i finally followed my heart and have made the decision to scale-back some for brownie-goose. i can no longer go at the pace that i have been going for the last 6 months. however, i love BG and love sewing for others and such....so i still haven't quite decided how i am going to go about scaling back, but i will let you all in once i know. no one panic, BG still is and will be just as great as ever...but i have to figure out a way to balance it along with my family, which comes first.

so, there are no pictures of fun outfits with this post or cute little kiddos smiling at you wearing their BG best, just words and numbers. I will try to NEVER be this dull again. Also, you may have noticed the blog has changed. In scaling back, I have changed up the website a bit and now am just using some blogs that I am going to work like websites. This will be the home page, and the most recent info/posts, etc will always be at the top under the header just as with other blogs. In case you get a little nostalgic, you can always visit my old blog, what I like to call BG old-school here.

Until later.........