signed, sealed, delivered.

phew- that was one. crazy. week.

but i did it!

i received nearly three hundred orders last weekend, and almost half of them were made-to-order. but i finished carefully sewing and packaging each of them, and just shipped the last of them this morning!

this was my first experience with listing items in my shop that were not yet made. during the three-and-one-half days that i was etsy's featured seller, i had to keep my shop stocked as well as i possibly could, so i had to keep up by adding some made-to-order items for the first time.



i may continue to do this (on a much smaller scale), with a few of the smaller items, to make things a bit easier on myself and be able to produce a little more each week. but because i work with mainly vintage and repurposed fabrics and belts, i often have only the smallest amounts of each. so the shoulder bags will continue to be one-of-a-kind, while i may make some of the smaller zipper purses and clutches a few-of-a-kind here and there, when possible.

speaking of my shop, you may have noticed two things.

first, there have been zero items for sale for the past few days. i am very sorry and a bit embarrassed about this, but i wanted to make sure i finished up and shipped out all of the orders i already had before i took on more. i am very, very excited about the success of madebyhank so far, and do not want to take on more than i can handle at the risk of sacrificing quality or my own sanity or health.

and so, yesterday i took the day off. well, sort of. i spent the better part of the early morning packaging up and shipping out a big batch of orders, but come noon, i had made my way to south philly, to enjoy some delicious coffee in the company of good folks. maeve (who i think must be three or four now?) told me lots of stories about her favorite movies and animals. and liz (who is kat moran's sister) was in town and on spring break, so we had fun soaking up the sunshine on passyunk avenue and enjoying tasty beverages all day, and into the night. certainly the very best day i have had in a very long time, and exactly what i needed.

the second thing you may have noticed about the shop is that i have over

O N E T H O U S A N D etsy sales.

oh, my! i remember back in august, when i was so excited to hit one hundred sales. i sort of can't believe this is true! in the next week or so, i will stitch up something special, and we will have a proper celebration with a giveaway and maybe we can set a time for us to all eat cake at the same time, and it will be like we are eating cake together.

in the meantime, look for the first of many new items to come in the shop sometime monday or tuesday. possibly a bit sooner. i have few last special orders to finish up, and then i will be so happy to stitch up a serious storm of new creations for you to enjoy. i will be adding them in small batches, as i am able to complete them. you know, between packing boxes and preparing to move.



which brings me to the signed part of this post. i found the dreamiest, prettiest, most charming little gem of a home to live in. well, actually it found me, by way of a little chance and good luck. in two weeks, i will live here. can you believe this? i certainly cannot. rentals have gotten quite expensive in philadelphia over the past few years, and it just happens that eleanor was moving out, and mike wanted to move in but needed a roommate, and happened to mention this to joseph, who happened to mention to mike that i was looking for a place and voila! when i went to see the place, i knew it looked familiar, and then realized that i had seen it on design sponge!

dream. home. found.



manny and i are splitting up, which is sad and difficult (and weird to mention on a blog), but will best best for both of us. so i will move to this magical palace and live with mike bukowski and his cat vinegar and my frances. hopefully the pets will love each other! i am pretty excited to see zombie posters next to vintage floral. and to live near people again. and to have a separate room for work space. right now, we live in a converted warehouse-type space. while the exposed brick, high ceilings and huge wooden carriage doors that open right onto the sidewalk are all definitely very charming (not to mention we have the best landlords ever), it is one room. which means my sewing machine is always watching me and calling me and this new space will be much more conducive to having regular work hours, and being more organized and productive.

2009 has been quite the whirlwind so far, and i am keeping my head up and my expectations high that it will continue to get better and better. i mean, summer is coming soon. which means in just a few short months, my toes will be buried in the sand and i will be enjoying banana whips while reading books in the sun, followed by ferris wheel rides and photo booth sessions. i am already stockpiling dresses.