Last Day Shipping…

Last Day for International Shipping is Dec 8th, so get your order in quick. These maps are great for little explorers, durable and washable, ready for all kinds of adventures!

Grab your beautiful Treasure Map HERE

Get this bundle!

You can now get my 5 most popular sewing patterns in a bundle and you save 50%

How darn cool is that, this would be perfect if you are planning on making gifts for the adorable children in your life this Christmas. Pop over to Etsy and grab yours now!

And why not pin this whilst you are at it ;)

Handmade gifts

There is something special about giving and receiving handmade gifts don't you think? You know that the person giving has taken extra time and effort to make that gift for you or even if it isn't handmade by them, they have taken the time to find something special. 

If you sew, then don't forget that I have a collection of great sewing patterns, most of them are for beginner/intermediate level stitchers and you know your kids will love it even more if you have made it for them. The patterns are available as PDF's so as soon as you buy it, it goes whizzing from my end to your end in a matter of seconds. 

You can grab your patterns from the My Organized Chaos website, Craftsy or Etsy, with Etsy I have to email the pattern to you, so not quite instant.

Can't Sew. Won't Sew?

How about brewing up some natural lip balms, tonics, creams and ointments? The new issue of Action Pack is out and this issue is all about Family Apothecary. If you are looking to go greener this Christmas, then all the recipes you need are in here!

As the holiday season approaches...

I just wanted to give you an update. 

My Etsy store will be closed from December 8th, so if you are after a physical product you need to order before then.

Sewing patterns as PDFs are available anytime and you can get them from Craftsy or my new website.

I have just received the last delivery of treasure maps for the year, I have a couple in stock on my site or in the Etsy store. The new batch need the edges sealing and ribbons sewing on, which I will be doing this week. If you were hoping to get one of these as a Christmas present, I recommend you order sooner rather than later.

A quick word about Craftsy. It is a great site and I highly recommend signing up (it's free). They have loads of online classes covering anything from cake decorating to crochet; jewelry making to product photography; quilting to spinning; gardening to sewing! So if you want to take a class but don't have time to join a physical one, this is a great way to keep learning but in the comfort of your own home!

I also love people buying my sewing patterns from Craftsy because it is fully automatic and I don't have to do anything :o)

Just out of interest, OK I am nosey! have you ever taken an online class? What did you study and how did you like it? Tell me in the comments...

Did you miss it?

My chat with Katie, last night? If so, you can listen to most of the recording here. Slight technical (as in forgetting to hit record) problem. So you miss all the juicy bits from the opening :o)

If you have any other questions about anything that came up in the show, pop them in the comments section...

Modern Montessori Placemats...

With the Montessori method, children are encouraged to set the table themselves. When Ebi-kun was younger I made him a mat to help him put everything in the right place, he really enjoyed getting out his cutlery and setting his place every meal and snack time. I wanted to make some similar mats but with a more modern feel to them, these were the test run as it were. One side has the table setting and the back has a bright flower design so once the kids are done you can flip the mats over or as your child grows they can try setting their place without the aid of the pictures.

I couldn't decide of my favourite colour way and everyone I had shown them to have picked a different one! I only have one set of each colour way at the moment, the mats, as a set of two are available in the shop and you can use the discount code APRILMATS to get 10%, valid until the end of this month and remember to tell me which set you want when you check out.

So, for research sake, which is your favourite design/colour?

New goodies....

I have put some new goodies in the shop, first up is this mini quilt. It is made with Cloud 9's organic forest friends flannel and cream cotton, very cute! You can find it here.

And then there are this adorable little brooches, these are a perfect, evening stitching project and I am happy to do custom orders, if you would like different colour skin/hair/expression. let me know and I will see what I can work out for you.

These were born from the massive collection of doodles in my sketch book, I thought it was about time I actually made something with them. 

Don't forget, if you want a discount, all newsletter subscribers get one, just pop your details in here...


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Email

Spring Yellow

I have just listed some new brooches in the shop and made this bright and cheery treasury to celebrate, can you spot one of mine in there?

I have also added a discount code for newsletter subscribers, so if you like getting a discount (who doesn't) you can subscribe here...

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Looking for a pixie friend?

A friend asked make a pixie for her friends new baby and well, long story short, I ended up with twins! So one has gone off to live in New York and the other is looking to be adopted, would you like her to come and live with you? You will need to pop over to my Etsy store sort out her 'adoption' if you prefer to make your own pixie, I have a pattern available too.

You know it's coming....

BLACK

FRIDAY

or shopping spree in other words! and for my lovely readers, place an order from my shop between now and Saturday and I will refund you 10% as long as you tell me that you are a blog reader in the message to seller box.

Pixie Belles...

the pattern is now available in the shop...

New goodies...

I have slowly been adding some new things to the shop, I am in the process of updating my patterns and turning them into PDF files so that you have the choice on how you want to buy them. When we got the new computer we had to update the software too, so I am learning how to use it as I go along.

I don't know about you but I LOVE Red Panda's (I can't bring myself to call them lesser panda's, it is such a rubbish name!) So after several failed sketches i found one I liked and the Red Panda Pass Case was born, it is suitable for you travel card and is tucked away in the panda's head so you don't lose it!

Then there is the little Japanese Owl Brooch Pattern, this is such a great pattern for using up scraps and it is easy too, I am sure kids would be able to make them, the tricky part is sewing on the buttons but you could always glue them on.

Are you in the 'can't sew, won't sew' camp, no problem, I won't hold that against you! I have sets of owl brooches already made up, one for you and one to give away. Just let me know which 'couple' you want when you check out. Out of curiosity, which is your favourite couple?

Now, I don't like to use the C word until at least the end of November, but in case you are one of those people who love to be organised and buy your C gifts early, I have some cute little festive owls to hang on your tree.

and, ALL of them are on SALE until the end of the month!

I have been thinking a lot recently on which direction to move in and what I should be focusing my efforts on, I do a lot of freebies on the blog and I intend to still do tutorials but some of them I will turn into projects you need to pay for. I'm not totally comfortable with this so I am going to grade the pricing according to the time taken to make the end product/tutorial. Anyone who has written a tutorial for a blog will know how much time and effort goes into it all, it all comes down to time and money at the end of the day, sometimes I wish we could go back to the old bartering system! I like the way that Pugly Pixel does her tutes, she has a small freebie but the big file you need to pay for, she sells graphics so I am not sure how I can apply that to my stuff...more thinking is required!

Rainbow shopping...

I still have a thing for anything bright and cheery, looks like it is catching on in the stores here too, I *need* that rainbow laundry hanger, anything is better than the droll usual blue ones!

How about helping to fund my rainbow addiction by buying some rainbow goodies from my shop?

Go on... you know you want to!

Watch Out, There Is A Ninja About....

This ninja is hiding something, 

want to know what? 

You will have to pop over here to find out....

Etsy Craft Party...

On Friday I noticed in one of my emails from Etsy something about a worldwide craft party, intrigued I clicked through, several clicks later I ended up on the Meetup page and discovered that there was party on in Tokyo and at a time where I would actually be able to attend. Usually when I see these kinds of things they are on a week night which makes it impossible for me to attend. It did mean that I would have to take Ebi-kun with me but that seemed to be OK.

It was held at The Pink Cow in Shibuya, I have vague memories of going there before but it was before Ebi-kun was around, they have a lot of artsy events, wish it was a bit closer!

 I guess there were about 30 people there, I didn't get to talk to everyone but what surprised me was that only one person I spoke to actually had an Etsy shop, some were interested in opening one or interested in meeting up with other creative types.

 I got the feeling that the main issue people had was the postage but I have to say that I have had very few problems with the postage here. I use airmail as the standard, if the weight of the package exceeds 2kg then it gets sent EMS (recorded) or if the order is high in value then I offer the customer the choice. I also make it clear that I am not responsible for items lost in the post. I do expect to have some things go missing and so I build that into the shipping costs. 

 There was a good mix of Japanese and foreigners and I was surprised to see so many men there, not sure why, maybe because all the people I know with Etsy shops are female. Another issue that sellers seem to have is language, having the confidence to sell your good in a foreign language and this is one of my problems too. I think there is money to be made by someone who is bilingual in setting up a service to market handmade goods to Japanese stores, I would be happy to sign up! any takers? It is also an issue for Etsy that only people who are comfortable using English are going to use Etsy. I would say 99% of my sales go overseas, the ones I have in Japan tend to be people who approach me through the blog.

 When we first arrived there was a bit of an intro and then we had lunch, the Pink Cow famous burritos, they are really good, I shared with Ebi-kun but they were a bit spicy for him, so he scoffed all the salad and a bag of sweet potato snacks I had in my bag, bit of an odd lunch. Then we got down to some craft making, there was brooch making, I took a bit of the Dragon Slayer fabric and the print turned out to be just the right size, I love the dragon. Christi was running a ring making class (which I forgot to take photos of) and there was a lot of chatting as the making was going on. Ebi-kun joined in and afterwards said it was a fun day, he was expecting it to be as big as Design Festa though.

 When we left, I thought we would drop in at the Metropolitan Kids Hall so Ebi-kun could have a run around but when we got there it was closed due to the effects of the earthquake, I can only assume that the building is damaged. So, we headed back to the station, on the way we passed a graffiti wall, so we added to that.

 We also ran into a demo against nuclear power. It was a good day, I met some great people and hopefully there will be more meet ups in the future.

Sweet Little Green and Afternoon Tea

Woke up to some treasury love, after a rough night due to an earthquake waking me up, then having a spot of dodgy tum and discovering I had 3 pints of blood missing no thanks to the mossies! It was quite lovely to discover this nice fresh treasury...

Sweet Little Green by Travel Tree

and

Afternoon Tea by Grain

pricing and underselling...

For those of you have been hanging around a while (thank you) you might remember this post I wrote about realising the worth of handmade goods and pricing handmade items has to be one of the hardest parts of my job. Well today I stumbled across a new site Worthsy which has been set up as an experiment to see how much people are actually willing to pay for good quality handmade goods. They are doing this by running an auction every week, worth checking out.

little house coasters

If you are selling or thinking of selling handmade, there are some great posts on their resource pages.

Now, I like a bargain as much as the next person but I have changed my thinking when it comes to handmade, especially OOAK (One Of A Kind) or limited edition as they take so much longer to produce and at the end of the day you are getting something that no-one else has and let's face it, if you order a bespoke item, you usually have to pay through the nose, and so you should!

wooden doll story set

slippers for road safety....

Today was road safety day at yochien but it rained so the kids didn't get to ride their bikes around the 'roads' like last time. When we go to the yochien and have to go into the gym or classroom you need to take your own slippers, I am getting the hang of remember now and I usually end up shoving my slippers in a plastic carrier bag, bit embarrassing since most of the moms know that I make bags and the such like to sell. But today, I had a slipper bag, yes, we have only been going there for a year and I finally manage to put my slippers in a bag. I actually used one of these, perfect size, although mine was one with wonky stitching so it didn't make it to the shop!

One of the moms gave me a lift there and then we bought the kids home with us, except half way back we realised that Ebi-kun had picked up another boys bag, quick panic and rush back to the yochien to return the bag, the poor boy who owned was having a flap because it had his rain coat in it *phew* at least we realised in time! So, it was not very exciting and I always feel exhausted afterward, I think it is having to concentrate in Japanese for such a long time, my poor old brain can't cope!

wow, somebody loves me....

three treasuries showcasing my goods in the space of 12 hours,

 can you spot which is mine in each one?

The Boy Who Counted Trees

banners, bunting and garland (oh my)

Little Houses

SALE!

10% off everything in the shop until April 27th. (JST)

Great chance to grab some cute fabrics or sewing patterns and help the Japanese economy :O)