no foolin'

oh, my! it has been a month since my last post! things have been up and down and all over the place in that time.
i assure you i have been hard at work, but many of the things i have been focused on have taken me away from the internet. as i mentioned before, i have the newest set of sewn illustrations on display at benna's cafe (whose sister location was recently mentioned in the new york times!) right now, until next week. i made seven new pieces, and yesterday when i went in for one of the best cups of coffee in town, i saw that they are all sold! which is very exciting, of course. the piece that was on display at snyderman gallery also sold a few weeks back, which is also very exciting. i am going to try to have someone who actually knows how to use a camera (i.e. not me) so i can show all of you. i tried to snap some quick shots on my iphone, but it is a little too dark in there. i am going to take a good long break from that type of sewing, as it is especially taxing on both my time and arms and eyes. particularly the set i made for the benna's show, since there were so many little tiny flowers, and each one is about one hundred teeny little stitches. i do love making them, but this is the first time i have worked on those while also working as a fulltime purse-making machine. i have some ideas that i would like to work on eventually, but for the coming months, it will be all bags, all the time.

speaking of bags, i finished up a new batch the other day and the rain finally let up after days and days of what felt like neverending soggy, so i was able to snap some photos earlier today. i am going to do this shop update similar to the previous one (in two parts, at two different times of day), except this time, they are all sewn and ready to ship! if you purchased from the last batch, you know that it ended up taking me far longer than expected to finish them. and though each of you were extremely sweet and understanding and patient with me (thank you, you are the best!), i like to send things out right away to make your experience with my shop that much more enjoyable.

and i know that many of you who have sent me messages recently have been waiting far too long for a response, and this is a situation i hope to remedy by the end of this weekend. i do receive a sometimes overwhelming number of inquiries and requests, but this is a good thing! i just do not like to be the cause of frustration or disappointment for anyone. also, you may have noticed that my email address over there to the right of this page has changed. madebyhank.net no longer exists (at least for now), so please feel free to check in with me there (madebyhank@gmail.com) if you have sent me an etsy convo and have not yet heard back. those are very confusing at times and disorganized, so the best and quickest way to hear back from me is through direct email (madebyhank@gmail.com).