Finally I've ventured out from the traditional square and rectangle pillows once again! The new ornaments will be coming out in the next few days. This is the first of the batch. A funky owl to delight your home. These work not only for Christmas ornaments, but the top of gifts or wine bottle decorations. Back to sewing. Hooray!

Back on Etsy and LOVING it

It's been awhile since I've listed on Etsy. I finished my MFA in Creative Writing and I'm sending out stories for publication. In the mean time I'm still making pillows, but I decided to change the name of my shop to The First Paragraph in order to fuel my writing now that I don't have deadlines. Each pillow I send out I will send a first paragraph with. However, I'm still making Zillow Pillows, so not much has changed. I'm doing movie quote pillows now, the one pictured is from my favorite movie this year: Moonrise Kingdom. Do not miss this movie. It's on DVD now, so get to it. Please visit my shop when you can and send me messages. I love to talk to people and every interaction fuels my writing. Thanks for the help.

Mid-Week Check-offs:

Applied to two shows: Salem Art Festival and Crafty Wonderland (in Portland, Oregon)
Still need to apply: OSU Mom's Art Fair and Corvallis Fall Festival
Pillows completed this week: four
New design line: zero
Posts on FB: one
Posts on Twitter: more than ten (includes RT of other shops)

Still need to bring more pillows down to Mod Pod in downtown Corvallis - the coolest shop in our city! If you live in Corvallis or the surrounding area, check out the Mod Pod on second street for funky, retro, super cute home decor.

What can you check off this week? How many shows do you do a year? Do you like pizza?

Have a wonderful day!

Gnome don't you know me?

Click the button below to join in on the November gnome festivities! Angie over at Gnome Angels is all set and ready for the holiday fun! Check out her blog here: http://www.gnomeangel.com/

Popular Pillow Designs at the Corvallis Fall Festival

The Corvallis Fall Festival was quite an amazing experience! Each year over 30,000 people walk through the 170 booths-buying gifts for themselves, gifts for others. My favorite thing about the festival was talking to people and hearing their excitement about particular pillows. Owls and Peace Signs were the top sellers. The owls were not much of a surprise, but each time a peace sign walked away with a smiling patron, I was overjoyed.

One girl who was probably thirteen or fourteen came to my booth in the last hour on the last day and said she really loved the square peace sign pillow, but she didn't have any money. Then she showed me some beautiful jewelry and said her dad had a booth where he sold them. She offered to watch my booth because I'd said it had been so busy I'd barely been able to walk around to see all the other booths. Then she looked around a bit more and asked if I'd be willing to do a trade for jewelry. She told me she needed to check with her father, Robert Keene (owner of Robert Keene Jewelry from Washington), and she'd be back. When she returned she said he said it would be okay. I gave her the pillow and she left with a big smile. I later visited him booth and chose a gorgeous blue necklace. Funny enough, he also made fabulous peace sign earrings.

Featured Artist on My Craft Corner!

I'm honored to be the featured crafter on My Craft Corner! My Craft Corner is a fabulous website where artists can exchange crafting techniques, promote each other through social networking and make some wonderful connections. Lately, I've been gearing up for my second residency (getting my MFA in creative writing), but trying to work on new Zillow Pillows for the Corvallis Fall Festival on September 25th and 26th 2010. So I've been busier than normal, not being able to keep up with the social networking that I enjoy!

My Craft Corner inspires me to keep on pushing through this busy time. What a wonderful surprise! Join today!

What does a pillow mean to you?

I'm surrounded by pillows every day. Some I've made, some I've purchased, some I've been given, some I've lived with for years. People sometimes ponder the question, what does life mean to you? Well, I'd like to hear about your favorite pillow. It could be a little travel pillow that's been riding with you on vacation for months or even a nighttime pillow you sleep with each night. I'm really interested in office pillows and how they hold up during deadlines and customer visits. I'm talking about any pillow, not just Zillow Pillows. Please, in at least a sentence, tell me, what does a pillow mean to you?

New Tags

I'm excited to have my new Zillow Pillows tags to send with my Etsy orders!

Zillow Pillow Giveaway at Women Who Do It All

Stop on over to the Women Who Do It All blog and enter to win a Zillow Pillow of your choice from my Etsy shop! Anyone can enter. Pause to read through the great posts and follow for fun!

Goals

Goals is a funny word. I guess it's strange to me because I'm horrible at making them, keeping them, talking about them, well you get my drift. I've got no problem wanting to do anything, it's just the final walkthrough I'm struggling with. This month, I'm working on a new line of Zillow Pillows, trying to get into the fantastic Corvallis Fall Festival, and juggling my Etsy shop along with keeping the ultra fancy shop Mod Pod stocked with Zillow Pillows. Okay, these things sound suspiciously like goals. Wants. Needs. Aren't they all the same? Am I actually good at saying what I should be doing, you know, like tending to my blog, but I need to do some mental reconfiguring to finish the tasks I create.

Pillows are the perfect "get-me-on-track-with-my-goals"

Using the squeezability of a retro-themed Zillow Pillow, I can fuel my creative energy into completing the goals I set for myself.

Below: a list of my goals for May - Please leave a comment if you have goals you'd like to attain, agree that goals is a funny word, or just simply want to type some letters because you used to own a manual typewriter. Writing, of any kind, is so Very.

Blogging daily
Four sales a week on Etsy
New pictures on Etsy
Write three short stories in two weeks
Buy my top five necklaces on Etsy (I have a love for necklaces like you may know a shoe lover)

Welcome to My World!: Terrifically Talented Thursday! Wild & Whimsical

Welcome to My World!: Terrifically Talented Thursday! Wild & Whimsical

Spring is here, Famara Designs knows sunny when she sees it!

I love Etsy. Not just for the most unique handmade items, but for the community of friendly people who love to interact and help each other promote. Famara Designs (on Etsy) wrote me today and had compiled a gathering of fantastic yellow handmade goodies from Etsy.

The links to Famara's shop, blog and the FB promotion of twelve wonderful Etsians is to the left!

Start a Zillow Pillow fight. Stylish drama never hurt anyone.

To write or to sew, that is the question

I wasn't even trying to come up with an answer on this one. Yes, I need to be working my creative mind toward my MFA in creative writing. I love it. Writing is more than just an outlet for me, it's like weeding my brain each time I write a story. Getting rid of the clutter, the overgrown thoughts, the sticker bushes that impede the growth of deserving flowers. But I've always loved the blackberries, stickers and all. And who am I to designate what's a weed and what isn't. Heck, can't they all just grow together? I think so.

I'm off to finish a story...

Zillow Pillow Giveaway at Busy Working Mama

Little bird, Don't be shy Zillow Pillow is up for grabs at Busy Working Mama's retro/stylish blog. Don't forget to visit zillows on Etsy, pick your favorite Zillow Pillow and post on her blog. Giveaway end March 25th 11:00 p.m. ET.

http://busyworkingmama.blogspot.com/2010/03/zillow-pillows-giveaway.html

Zillow Pillows soon to be available at Mod Pod in Corvallis, OR

I'm so excited to have my Zillow Pillows in a local shop here in Corvallis called Mod Pod. Here's a link to the website: http://modpoddecor.com/

I spoke with the owner today who kindly deemed my Zillow Pillows "flippin' adorable" Hooray! Jessica seems to know how to target the college girl with her hip furniture, art, rugs and more. I'll be proud to have my Zillow Pillows for sale in such a stylish shop. Now we both win.

Just as buying on Etsy is addictive, I'm sure if they sell regularly at Mod Pod, I'll be getting a few super fancy items from her shop instead of money. Good for me...

Ten yards of fabric on the way, a story in my head and an ice cold Diet Pepsi. Life is fantastic.

It's a happy day to be on the front page of Etsy! Support handmade artists, buy from Etsy.

New Fabric, New Zillow Pillows

The newest Zillow Pillow fabric is in and now all I need is time to sew! Thought about the life of a pillow today, wishing I could have such a cozy life: under a back, under a head, sitting pretty on a cute couch - the details are endless. I love creating new Zillow Pillows and posting them at Etsy.com. Not only do I sell on that wonderful handmade website, of course I buy. My favorite thing is to put quirky words into the search and if I find someone has used the same word I have as a tag, I almost always buy it! The best necklaces on Etsy may have been tagged as "square rooting" or "cube this," either way, I'm sold.

Here's a few of my favorite Etsy shops:

elloh
mamaslittlebabies
marymaryhandmade
suzannaanna
circularaccessories
niceface

Check them out!