Posts

It's been awhile!

Wow, it's been a really long time since my last post! I have had a series of surgeries this past year for cancer prevention. I am an unlucky BRCA 2+. This genetic mutation is similar to the one Angelina Jolie has. Hers is BRCA 1. In order to decrease my risk for these life threatening cancers, I had a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy. Luckily, I have already had my the wonderful kids, so I didn't have to decide with that consideration in mind. These gene mutations give those of us who have them, a very high, above average risk for cancers. My risks are still high for pancreatic, skin, and colon cancer. But I'm happy I was able to have a chance to do something proactively! Anyway, now on to some shop talk. I have gotten some amazing new fabrics in and plan to make some new wallets for the store. Just a matter of keeping up! Here are some photos of the wallets in their cut out stages. They are in the queue, but are behind my current orders. Take a look and let me kno...

Back from Italy

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I am back from my very amazing trip to Italy. My sister and I had a great time and I learned some great things while I was there. It was my first time to Venice and we had a tour guide of the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Church. It was so interesting to learn the history and makes me very motivated to learn more about it. I'm back into the swing of things sewing away! I am hoping to get some new fabrics in the shop soon, but it will have to wait until I catch up on all of my orders. I'm getting there. Here are a few photos from the trip!

2012

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Here it is, a brand new year! I'm excited for 2012 for a number of reasons. The first being that my wonderful, and extremely lovely sister is taking me with her to Italy at the end of January! In a mere 19 days! I am so flipping excited! Last time I went to Italy was in college, in 1998. So a very, very long time ago. We are going for nine nights, three in each of the following cities, Rome, Florence and Venice. When I did my study abroad in Rome all those years ago, I never managed to make it to Venice. The reasons are pretty stupid, but at the time I was very concerned about over spending and was on a very strict budget. And a trip to Venice was a lot of of extra dough that I didn't have to spend. But now in retrospect of course I see how ridiculous that was of me. Oh to go back in time with a smarter brain! But alas, that's what being young is all about. Now at least I feel like I will get a lot more out of a trip to Italy then I did back then. I certainly will not be ...

Long time

I really am terrible about updating my blog. I suppose it's partly because I feel like what happens in my life isn't all that exciting. I work a lot! And when I'm not working I am taking care of my kids. So there isn't much in there that makes for a super interesting read. But the Thanksgiving holiday was nice, so I thought I'd blog a little about that. Yesterday my sister flew in from Florida for a quick visit. We had a lovely meal at my aunt's house, and my husband made delicious pumpkin chiffon pies, which were promptly devoured! I made two loaves of Challah, which turned out nice. I added more honey this time, because I saw some of the recipe reviewers said this was a good idea. I think I'll put the recipe amount next time. I didn't like the too honey taste. Today we are all hanging out an enjoying having family around. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Lots of new fabrics

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I have to say that my favorite part of having my own business is getting to choose all of the fabrics! I have so much fun going through the fabric choices at online fabric stores and picking my favorites. I only wish I had more money to buy even more fabric. But I have to sell what I have first before I can buy more. Here are a few examples of the new fabrics.

Using new closures!

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I am starting something a little different over here at Happy Kathy HQ, I am putting anorak snaps on my wallets as an extra option. Now if there are customers who would rather not have a magnetic snap they can choose the other snap option. I am thinking of converting over to anorak snaps entirely as I bought a very cool snap press. It's pretty heavy and industrial looking, funny for my small time operation to have this thing! Here's a photo of it. It is very easy to use and makes applying snaps so much easier! So we will see how these snap closure wallets do on the site and if they sell I will convert most if not all of the wallets over to this style of closure. Newest wallets up

Sad news

One of my fellow Etsy artists, Cindy, designsbylucinda, lost her 11 Year-old son, her home, pets, possessions, everything. The wonderful community of Etsy sellers has put together a shop of donated items. Please go and donate by purchasing something! One of my wallets is there. If you want to donate by buying a different wallet, let me know. Helping Hearts Please click on the link Helping Hearts and take a look!