Good Day To All!

Hello all blog followers and fans!

I've been MIA for quite some time and I must apologize for my absence.  I've dearly missed the interaction on my business page!  I took a break to help relieve some stress and to help me get back on track.  This seems to be taking longer then I had originally thought!

In this time I have started up a small animal rescue with a good friend.  I run the bird portion, and she runs the small critter portion.  It's working out quite well and I really love doing it!  As you know I also have my own personal pets.  I have cockatiels.  I have a breeding pair who are sitting on eggs now.  They are both inexperienced and it hasn't been going well for them so I'm hoping for the best!  Our website is:  http://londonontariosmallanimalrescue.weebly.com

I've been wanting to take my business in a slightly different direction.  I've been designing some of my own personal patterns as I'm sure some of you are aware of.  This has been very slow going for me for a few reasons.

I feel cleaning must come before I can sit down and knit or crochet.  That way my family can feel relaxed and my son can have a clean place to play (and make messy again).  I have gotten severely behind in my cleaning as of late because I have been rather sick because...  I'm 12 weeks pregnant! =) Along with this news comes the 'morning sickness' which I much prefer to term as 'any-time-of-the-day-or-night-sickness'.  This is a constant feeling for me (although quite mild).  It's just strong enough to make me get VERY little accomplished!

I have been feeling much better this past week and I've managed to get my place back into shape.  It's not perfect, but it will do.  This and my rescue keep me busy!  But now that I'm caught up on housewife duties and feeling more like myself again, I hope to get back on track with my business.

I will be holding regular crochet and knitting lessons (please email me for details and to sign up - ewenmeboutique@gmail.com).  I will still be taking a small amount of orders and I will be working on designing more patterns.  I'm always open to suggestions on what to design next!  And of course I will do my best to keep up on my blog (once a month).

Pinterest

Hello All!

I've just started up my Pinterest and I'm having a hard time figuring it out.  Feel free to follow me.  Any help would be great to!  ;)

<a href="http://pinterest.com/ewenmeboutique/"><img src="http://passets-cdn.pinterest.com/images/follow-on-pinterest-button.png" width="156" height="26" alt="Follow Me on Pinterest" /></a>

Speckled Frog Pattern Giveaway!

Giveaway with Speckled Frog Crochet

Cyprianne from Speckled Frog is having a pattern giveaway.  I was most honored when she chose me to be one of the hosts!  It was her patterns that got my business started and for that I feel I can't repay her enough!  So let's get started!

 

Tjhe Prize? A pattern of your choice form her Etsy Pattern Shop

Here is how to enter:

1. Go to Speckled Frog Crochet Facebook Page and "Like" the page
2. Go to Ewe 'N' Me Boutiuqe Facebook Page and "Like" the page
3. Visit Speckled Frog Crochet Etsy Shop and check out her patterns
4. Comment on this Blog Post (not on the  Facebook Pages) with the patterns you like most.

You may enter until Noon (EST) on Sept. 14. I will draw for the winner Sept 14th in the evening. The winner will be announced in the comments of this post and on both Facebook Pages. It will be verified that the winner "Likes" both Facebook Pages.  Please share and have fun!!

New Adventures

I've been having a great time over the summer so far.  I've been keeping myself busy for sure.  I was able to sneak in a few custom orders, and design a few of my own patterns, and even get them on paper and out of my head!  I sent them off to testers so they will be released 'officially' soon.

I have a bunch of new items coming into my shop that I'm so very excited about.  They are at my most wonderful photographers place anxiously awaiting their turn to get their pictures done.  I hope you will all love my new items as much as I enjoy making them.  Once they are done at Middle of July Photography, I will be posting them on facebook as well as Etsy.

My baby birdies are now 8 weeks old and are ready to go to their new homes.  They are just stunning and such sweet hearts!  If anyone is interested, I'm asking $50.  You will be getting a truly wonderful bird.  Please email me if interested.  ewenmeboutique@gmail.com

I am so so very excited about my next adventure.  I will be taking SPINNING lessons and eventually purchasing my very own spinning wheel.  I can not express to you how excited I am about this.  I've been loosing sleep and just can't wait to start this new journey in my life.  BUT!  Bills must be paid first right?  (Oh the joys of being an adult huh?)  So, a little debt repayment, and a little saving later and I'll be able to start!

So, to all my wonderful fans out there! - I have a referral contest going on right now, so hurry and get those referrals coming in!  The busier I am the sooner I can start spinning!  HURRY and GO!  :)

Update On What I've Been Up To :)

Hello Everyone!

It's been a long time!  So I will give you all an update :)


I recently held my 1000 fan celebration.  I had an auction to raise funds for Southern Ontario Animal Rescue.  This rescue helped me out so much with getting my wonderful dog healthy again (helping to find out what was wrong with her), and finding her a new amazing home.  The lady who runs the rescue (Jan) is truly amazing at what she does, so I wanted give back.  I miss my dog terribly but I know she is in a great home thanks to Jan!  With my auction and the vendors involved we were able to donate over $100.  Thank you again to all who were involved!

The month of June has proved to be very trying.  I closed my little shop to custom orders for a few reasons.  I needed to catch up, Canada Post was on strike, I needed time to get some of my pattern designs down on paper, and I need to get working on my top secret project.  Plus I was going away for a few days to Windsor.  The day I got home from Windsor I was supposed to have all four wisdom teeth removed so I wanted some recovery time.  However my surgery was cancelled (for about 6 months).  On the Sunday I was in Windsor I got Bells Palsy.  So half my face is paralyzed.  99% of cases it get's better but it takes a few weeks.  So I'm trying not to get too down about it.

Needless to say I am very glad I have closed my shop for a short time.  It's given me personal time that has been a life saver.  Thank you to all my fans for being so understanding in my need for time off.  I am very much looking forward to coming back with lot's of great new things!

I'm also looking forward to moving this weekend!  We will be the care takers of an income property that my mother has purchased.  So we are upgrading to a 3 (3!!!  3 whole bedrooms!!!) apartment!  This is exciting for me because we are currently in a one bedroom basement apartment.  It's been great but, way way too small for a family of three!  Currently my son has the only bedroom, so my husband and I get to sleep on a futon in the living room.  So...  Not ideal ;)  So I am very much looking forward to having 3 bedrooms!


Also I have breeding pair of cockatiels that have laid and hatched 2 babies!  I am very excited about this.  I have wanted to raise cockatiels for a while now so I'm very very happy about this :)

It's very dirty because the Parents weren't letting me in!

2 Babies barely visible but here's the fam!

Anyway.  I hope you all have enjoyed the read!  I am hoping to have some giveaways on my blog soon.  So suggestions would be great!  :)

New Spring/Summer Ideas?

 Hello everyone!  This is going to be a quick blog today.

I wanted to give everyone a glance at my little family.  I am ever proud of my family.  My son is now almost 3!  I can't believe that.  He is going to be a heart breaker when he grows up.  I realize I may have a biased opinion, but he is a very handsome boy!  Just like his daddy!

I married my husband in August of 2003.  We've been through a lot together and it's only made us stronger.  I'm proud to have him beside me!

Anyway.  I'm curious to what others have in mind.  I'm looking for new ideas for Spring and Summer to keep me busy!  Suggestions are very much welcome!  Hope you all enjoyed the quick look at my family!

Special Thanks

Where to start...

I'm just going to get right into it.  This is going to be the biggest thank you ever written.  Stefanie Ponting from her own business Middle of July Photography is awesome.

Stefanie emailed me one day asking about working together.  She found my little Etsy shop and was wondering if I was interested in her taking pictures for me.  I was thrilled with this!  This was exactly what I was looking for and here's a lady coming to me!  Well, we talked, I threw her some ideas of what I would like to see happen and we struck a deal.

She came a few days later to pick up my items.  I asked her to sign a receipt with all the items she was going to take...  She asked me 'why do I don't swindle you?'  Well yes to be honest!  She of course did not say this with any ill intentions and she was more then willing to do so and thought it was a good idea also.  I explained to her that I had been seriously taken advantage of before with this kind of thing and was merely trying to protect my self.  You see, our "lawyer" (she wasn't even a paralegal, she clearly lied to us about this as well!) ran away with the money of the sale of our house...  So, $185,000 was gone...  We were floored!  But this is a whole other blog...

So away my items went, with a nearly perfect stranger.  Needless to say I was still a little worried.  But Stefanie contacted me a few times to ask questions, and I asked many in return.  She had quite a few pictures for me with in a few days.  I was thrilled!  I wanted to ask her if she could do a few focusing on my item.  She called them product shots...  Can you tell I'm no photographer?  lol  She had all my items done that same day I asked that of her!

As she started getting more models in I noticed that my sizing may not be quite right because her models were older then then the size on my stuff.  So she offered to put ages on all the models for me under the pictures she'd already given me.  She had this done with in an hour or so to!

It's a rare thing these days to find some one so genuine and honest.  She does great work and has gotten many many amazing pictures for me and fast!  She is so great to work with, and I look forward to working with her for much much longer.  I find her easy to talk to about any thing that concerns me to do with our work together.  She's very easy going.

Stefanie Ponting from Middle of July Photography, you are amazing.  That doesn't even seem to cut it!  Thank you isn't enough, but...  Thank you!  :)

www.middleofjuly.com

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/Stefanie.Ponting