hello? is anybody out there???

Hello, hello, hello...


My poor blog has been abandoned for far too long. Sadly I am still without a computer (though it's in the shop so maybe with some luck I will have it back soon). In the mean time, typing up a blog post on my itty bitty iphone screen is just not a possibility! BUT today I am borrowing my sons laptop so I thought I would post a big update to catch everyone up and breath a little life back into my blog! :) A LOT has happened since my last post so pull up a chair and get comfortable...

SALE, SALE, SALE!

First and foremost, if you haven't been over to my Facebook page you may not be aware that I am running a SALE for the next few days! SO rush on over to the shop and save 15% on all of your orders from now until Friday (the 17th) at midnight EST. Just enter this code at checkout VALENTINE15

VALENTINE CUTIES READY TO SHIP!

Next up... I still have some sweet Valentine Lens Pets available for immediate shipping! Don't let the fact that they're covered in hearts deter you from using them year round. They're bright and fun and sure to bring the smiles! Here are a couple of my favorites:

WHOOO LOVES YOU?!

LOVE MOO!

SOCK MONSTERS

I've added a few small sock monsters to the shop in the last couple months, and I'm planning to add more soon. They're ready to ship right away so if you need a unique gift for a loved one look no further. :) This bumble bee is one of my favorites...

INSTAGRAM

I know many of us are big fans of Pinterest and you can find me there under the name MandeeFranee. But how many of you are on Instagram?! I am ADDICTED! Like crazy addicted! I'm on there multiple times a day browsing and posting pictures. On January 1st I started participating in a Photo of the Day challenge where we get a word for each day and I have been having so much fun with it! Here are a few of my recent images:

{sweet}

{someone you love}

{words}

{self portrait}

Come check me out over there if you're an Instagram user, I'll give you one guess what my user name is! ;)  mandeefranee :) 

THE BIG MOVE

The last few months have been a little crazy. As I posted back in August, without a lot of advance notice my three boys and I moved from Michigan to Ohio to be closer to my family. We left a small 3 bedroom ranch town home in Michigan, and found ourselves a nice 4 bedroom house - plus a basement - here in Ohio. The extra space is AMAZING!!! As an added bonus, we're only 7 blocks away from my sister so the kids are able to see their cousins multiple times a week and they all go to school together. :) It's pretty awesome!

Though most of the unpacking was completed right away, I have yet to unpack my scrapbook/craft items. I think that's going to be a big project for me this summer, going through it all (because my move was planned so last minute I wasn't able to sort/purge before packing and it all just got thrown into boxes and put on the truck). After I'm able to get rid of a bunch of stuff I have an area I plan to turn into my craft space and I will definitely be sharing pictures of the before-during-after process. :)

SPEAKING OF CRAFTING...

Some of you may know, long before I started making Lens Pets and sock monsters, before I even had an Etsy shop, I used to make a lot of cakes and holiday themed treats for my friends and family. In the last month or so I've been able to dip my toes back into the pond of baking/decorating and I think I've caught the bug again!!

First I made a cake for my youngest niece's birthday. She happens to be a BIG Minnie Mouse fan so I chose a heart shaped pan then after a quick layer of frosting I drew Minnie freehand and filled her in with a star tip. My niece was super excited about her cake and I can't wait to make the other kids special cakes this summer! :)

Last weekend I joined my sister, her boyfriend and his siblings for game night. Everyone was supposed to bring some kind of food to share. As soon as I heard that I KNEW I couldn't just bring some prepackaged snack! NO WAY! Thanks to Pinterest, I found this great idea for dipped marshmallows. I coated them in dark chocolate first them rolled them in sprinkles, toffee, chocolate chips and crushed candy cane. They were a hit! :)

Most recently, I made Valentine cupcakes for my boys to munch on after school. :) I just did a quick frosting them topped them with a variety of candies and sprinkles. The boys loved them and if I hadn't put a limit on the number they could eat at once, they might have devoured all 24 of them!

GIVEAWAY!

That's right... next month a few of you might just "Get Lucky!" I'll have more details as March gets a  little closer but keep your eyes peeled! There will be a contest (and maybe a few Lens Pets *wink wink*) to tie in with St. Patrick's Day!

I think that's just about everything that's been going on over here! With any luck I will have my computer back SOON so I can keep posting and chatting with all my bloggy friends. :)


Hope everyone out there had an awesome Valentine's Day today! <3






See you soon...

Something old, something new!

I've been working even harder than usual to get orders completed and shipped with the HOPE that I could catch up and stock my shop with ready to ship items instead of everything having to be custom made and with such a long wait. After weeks of literally, non-stop sewing, I can see the finish line!! I'm back IN FRONT of my wait time and chuggin' right along. I have a list of games and contests planned for the week after next to celebrate the one year anniversary of my first Lens Pet™ sold on Etsy. :) There are new things to come in the second half of this year and a glimpse of them can be found in the new Lens Pets™ introduced lately...

Persnickety the Parakeet is one of the new characters who recently joined the cast. I sketched and cut out the pieces for him months ago but just didn't have the time to put him together until recently.

Something old was updated and turned into something new. In my opinion, the updated version is a million times better. I had a standard size tiger in the shop awhile ago but decided I wasn't entirely thrilled with it so when I received an order for a large tiger I decided to give him a little facelift.

OLD (standard size)

NEW (large size)

I don't have the same orange scrunchie for the standard size, but I do have another shade of orange that will work and I will be adding a standard tiger with the new look back to the shop soon. :)

Two more Lens Pets™ recently received facelifts as well, the cow and the jellyfish...

and this unique ladybug joined her more recognizable friend in red and black...

In addition to these and of course the many (many, MANY) unchanged Lens Pets™ churning out of the MandeeFranee workshop these days, I've also had a few sock monster orders to complete...

a couple of brand new designs - the lion and the turtle

and another kitty cat

As you can see I've been a busy bee. :)  I'm off to take a walk with my youngest as the weather is GORGEOUS here today and I feel like I haven't been outside in a year! Stay tuned for details on the anniversary celebration and a couple of new products in the near future!!

the perfect beginning to a new year

I am a BIG fan of sunsets! (sunrises as well, of course, I just have more opportunity to catch the sun going down than coming up) I am always amazed at the number of colors the sky can turn during one amazing sunset! On January 1st I left the house just as the sun was beginning to set on my way to the airport to pick up my kids (who spent their Christmas break with their dad in NC). I noticed the first bit of pink in the sky and was glad I had my camera with me to snap a couple pictures. The first one I took at 6:09 pm looked like this: 

But just a few minutes later at a stop light and I'm seeing this!

6:15 pm

6:16 pm

6:17 pm

6:19 pm

6:20 pm

6:21 pm

Simply stunning!!! I think this definitely means 2011 is going to be a GREAT year! :) In fact... I've got a little bit of shop gossip for you. I'll be working over the next few weeks to really get orders shipped and get my wait time down to something much more manageable. I *might* have to close the shop for a few days in the next couple months to help with this. BUT the good news is that not only with there be NEW Lens Pet designs and NEW ready to ship sock monsters, I also have a completely new product line that I will be debuting this year! :) I haven't been able to come up with a suitable name yet though so I might just need to create a contest to get some help in that department! Lots of fun stuff on the horizon! So thankful for everyone who has ordered and supported me over the last seven months! (can you BELIEVE it's only been seven months?!?!) Thank you thank you thank you!

Back to work I go! Hope everyone has a great first week back to school and work! :)

sock monster overload!!

You may have noticed that my poor blog has been completely neglected as of late. With Christmas quickly approaching I have been SUPER SWAMPED trying to get orders made and shipped out. The Lens Pets have had to make a little room on the desk as I've also been spending MANY hours making sock monsters! 

this was my favorite of all the recent sock monsters. I LOVE how cartoon-y his cute little face is! He even has hooves. ;) MOOOOOOOO!

MONKEYS! These have been crazy popular. I tried out two new designs for the ears. Which is your favorite? I love for the ears to be BIG! The goofy look it gives them just makes me giggle. ;)

some people might mistake him for a mouse with those big perfectly round ears! lol

I went just a *smidge* smaller and more oval as opposed to circle the second time, so we hopefully avoid the whole mouse issue. ;)

then there were the doggies...

this guy has a removable treasure map and pirate hat. :) I love how the hat turned out (completely pieced from felt) and the treasure map fabric that I found was just perfect!

there were a few small sock monsters

one of them with a very BIG expression ;)

a fun stripey kitty cat (and that turquoise blob looking thing behind his head is actually the end of his tail in a little curl)

while I've made lots of small penguins, this was my first big one!! I can totally picture this guy as part of a penguin bowling set, lol. maybe I'll make that for my shop in the new year, each penguin could have a number on his belly. ;)

check out the comparison in sizes...

last two... just a couple group shots of the monsters that went off to live together with their new families. :)

In the new year once I'm more caught up on Lens Pet orders I hope to start listing more sock monsters in my shop. :) I have plenty of socks and LOTS of ideas. All the monster sewing over the last couple weeks has really kicked my creativity into gear. Not to mention there will be VALENTINE designs coming soon (of the Lens Pet AND sock monster varieties)!

Christmas Sale!

ONE WEEK ONLY - free shipping on all **READY TO SHIP** items in my shop!!! Sock monsters and Lens Pets! Everything will ship same day! If you live in the US, all packages mailed by the 20th should arrive in time for Christmas (according to the USPS website)

Does someone you know love owls???

or penguins???

Maybe you know a little boy (or girl) that might like to snuggle up with a slithery sock snake?! ;)

OR maybe you want a Lens Pet for taking pictures at your family Christmas party? This snowman is sure to get everyone smiling! :)

Sale runs for one week only! All in stock items already reflect the free shipping discount so just check out as usual.

Happy Holidays!

Craft Show...

Yesterday I participated in my first craft show. It was interesting... a LONG day (especially for two of my boys who had to tag along). Though I didn't sell much, I did make enough to cover my costs plus a little profit so I suppose it was worth it. I definitely don't think it will become a regular occurrence. As I watched the people at the tables around me I wondered how they do it all the time! I'm sure not every show is the same but what I saw were a lot of people browsing, not many people buying. Some tables sat most of the day with very few people even stopping to look! 

As I am super swamped with orders I didn't have a ton of stuff to take, but here are some shots of my little table...

the Lens Pet side of the table looks a little bare, but oh well. I did end up adding a few more to the cake plate in front because I sat and sewed for the entire show. I think the four cameras there showing what their intended use was really helped because A LOT of people came by thinking they were for your hair. ;)

and the sock monster side... I found that little shelf at the thrift shop for $5... the night before the show I slapped a little paint on the front side edges and glued some scrapbook paper to the inside. Not bad for $5 and about 10 minutes. :) the little pots with monsters in them also came from the thrift shop, 99¢ each. kinda hard to tell in the pic but they each had a different little raised design on them :) I had no plan for their use when I bought them but I liked them so I got them anyway ;) the photo album was sort of like a catalog, had a bunch of pictures of sock monsters and lens pets. lots of people flipped through it, ooo-ing and ahh-ing :)

last but not least, the whole shebang! the flower bowl in the center also came from the thrift shop (99¢) and holds a handful of paper pinecone ornaments that I made LAST year. I found them when I was packing up for the show and thought I'd take em along just for the heck of it. I even sold one. lol I'm debating whether or not to list the rest in my shop now...

I listed everything that came home with me in the shop today as 'ready to ship' so hopefully a few people will be able to squeeze in some last minute gifts. ;)