Latest in buttonboxdesigns...

Here's a few shots of my booth at Creative Chaos from a couple weeks ago.  I have been so busy with other things that the blog has fallen by the wayside a bit, and I haven't put up any of my latest creations!

Sleepy Owl Earflap Hat

Fuzzy Brown Bunny

Brown Sock Monkey

Small Crochet Flower Barrette ($5)

Large Crochet Flower Barrette ($10)

Such a Deal for You... And Me!!

So, I've been trying to think of some kind of fun promotion to do with my hats... and I realized I don't have many photos of kids "modeling" buttonbox hats (other than my own kids, and a few done by a photographer friend of mine).  A friend sent me some GORGEOUS pictures of her youngest wearing his hat, and the pictures were so great I asked for permission to use them on my Etsy site.  So here's what I'm thinking of for a promotion...

Send me pictures of your kids wearing buttonbox hats that I've created.  IF I choose to use the pictures you will receive a gift certificate for 50% off your next purchase of one hat.

The requirements of the photo must be that it is: 

• "professional" quality (no, you don't need to be a professional photographer, but it does need to have that certain "je ne sais quoi") 
• ready to use (no touch ups required, as I'm a low-maitenance, low-tech kind of gal) 
• features the buttonbox hat not just your child (I know your kids are beautiful!)
• and I must have your full permission to use the picture as I choose (that means on facebook, etsy, here on my blog, or possibly printed and framed for display at any shows I am involved in).  I understand that these are your children in the pictures, and I promise you that I will never use the photos in any manner that would compromise you or your child's integrity or privacy.
• you may enter more than one photo, but you will only be eligible for one certificate per style of hat.  (ie. You can submit three photos of three different styles of hat and be eligible for three different discounts)

You may submit your photos to me by email (jckinnib[!]telus.net).  I will respond to you via email, and if I choose to use your photo I will send along a photo release form.  After you have returned that to me (again, via email), I will send you a gift certificate for 50% off the price of one hat.  Whether or not I use your photo is up to my discretion, and you will receive the gift certificate only if I choose to use your photo.

I'm super excited to see what you all send me!  Here are a few pics my friend sent me of her little one that inspired this promotion...

New Things

In December I got an early Christmas present in the mail one day.  I found out that I'll be showing at Creative Chaos in Vernon in June again this year.  It was a such a fabulous way to connect with families in my area, and to get my product and business name out there!  I'm very much looking forward to the show this June, especially since I have a little experience now, and know a little of what to expect.  I had set some pretty outlandish goals for myself and what I wanted to take to the show last year, and had to keep editing and editing my lofty ambitions for new designs and product.  Building display racks and printing off cards to display product on, and finishing touches kept me away from accomplishing all I had dreamed of.  But this year is a different story.  I have all the displays built already (thanks to my hubby!), and I've already been working on new designs, so now I'm ready to "mass produce" them (at the incredible speed of one hat per evening... or two, depending on the size).

 

I definitely still welcome custom orders at anytime, but in the next couple months, there may be a lot more to buttonboxdesigns than hats and flowers! 

An Assortment of Ramblings

Yikes!  Can I just say that my little man keeps me busy?  If he is out of sight, he is definitely into some mischief.  I have a girlfriend who has been watching the kids a little bit here and there, and she is always commenting on how quickly he moves.  Welcome to my world! 

Naptime is the best time of day, isn't it?  Its the only guaranteed stretch of quiet during the day (other than bedtime... oh, bliss!) where I can sit down and catch up on phone calls, emails, eating, cleaning... all the things I never have time for.  Bedtime quiet is reserved for crocheting right now as I'm preparing for the Vernon Baby & Tot Show next month.  So, naptime, is my catch up time... and look at me!  I'm actually blogging! 

Here's a couple pictures from the early birthday celebration we had last weekend when Jeremy's parents and grandparents were out for a visit!

All the grandparents and great grandparents, except for Roscoe's namesake; Grandpa Kinniburgh

 

Well, its time to run.  I have a game of Shrek monopoly that I'm being asked to play!  Cheers!

Yay September!

So, I started working in Kids Ministry at my church in May, and in between being a full-time mom, summertime, crocheting (very little), and running summer ministries for K-Gr 5 kids, I have been planning and dreaming for the Fall.  In August I gained a new partner at the church, Amy, who is working full-time (I'm part-time), and we have been planning, and training, and prepping, and dreaming, and painting, and typing, and recruiting like crazy women!  But, this weekend... is the weekend.  Our Fall Kickoff for VAC Kids (www.vernonalliance.org/home/ministries/families/vac_kids/)!  Hooray!  We don't have enough volunteers yet (as if you can ever have enough!), and we didn't get a stage or set built yet (there's always next month), but its coming together and I'm so excited!
At the same time, I am working on another local order for Chicken Little.  Apparently my hats have been selling like hot-cakes.  I've even had a local mom email to say how much she loves the hat, and would I make one for her!  So neat!  Jeremy and I have been debating whether or not I should have a booth at a local Christmas fair, but I don't really want to.  I love being out in the community, connecting with my clients, but its a big sacrifice to stand around for two days, especially when I have been doing so well with custom orders, and selling through local shops.  So, I think for this year, I won't do the Christmas fairs.
However, as I mentioned I am still doing custom orders, by email or on my Etsy site (www.buttonboxdesigns.etsy.com), and I picked up some new yarn yesterday to work on some new fall-themed designs.  Last night I made Aria a cute little beret with some pink bamboo yarn that I had in my stash.  I just have to put the finishing touches on it, then I'll photograph it, and post them online here.  I've wanted to develop a design for a beret for awhile, and I'm super pleased with how it turned out, and how quickly it worked up (considering I was designing as I went, which often means I end up pulling out rows as I go if I don't like how its looking!).  A couple of my girlfriends are having babes this fall, so they'll probably be the recipients of my first fall hat designs.
I love the Fall.  After the heat of the summer in the Okanagan, the cool, crisp air of the fall is always welcome and so fun to go out walking in!  Aria starts preschool again next week, and I'm excited to have an excuse for walking to and from the school to pick her up.  Ballet starts up next week as well.  Every morning she asks me how many more sleeps until preschool?  How many more sleeps until ballet?  The countdown is on!

Retail, and Other Summer Excitement!

So, around the middle of July I did up a whole bunch of hats for a local shop, called Chicken Little Childhood Outfitters Ltd.  This is my first opportunity I've had to sell my products out in the big, wide retail world, and I'm super excited about it!  I had a girlfriend stop me at church the other day to say she had bought some hats there, so that was really encouraging.  Chicken Little is a fabulous little shop here in Vernon, and I used to work there, back in 2005 when we first moved to Vernon.  There was a different owner then, but the new owner, Lindsay, is fabulous and such a great source of encouragement and support.
I've had a couple other shops mention they would be interested in carrying my product, which is super cool, but baby steps.  Right now, I've been busy working at my new job with K-Gr. 5 students at Vernon Alliance Church (one of my dream jobs!).  So, I'm pretty focused on that... and my kids... after all, it is summer, and we have been having fun going to the "peanut pool" near our home, watersliding, hanging out at Eagle Bay Camp, houseboating, and playing with friends and family.  Here's some favorite pics from the first half of the summer... 

Roscoe watching the boat at EBC

The food is GOOD at EBC

The kids love to try getting the ball in the net

Aria's sandcastle she built all by herself!

My side of the family on the houseboat (just missing Phil)

A stream near the beach where we pulled in one night

Excuses, excuses

So, I haven't been blogging FOREVER for a couple reasons.  One is my new job.  I'm currently trying to balance three jobs, plus my craft business, for which I have a show coming up in only three weeks!  Yikes.  I'm starting to get a little nervous.  You know classic self-doubt questions...  Will people like my product that I've poured so many hours into?  Am I charging too much?  Too little?  I don't need this stress, so why am I doing this?  Do I have enough product?  Will my display look okay?  Where will my display be?  Will I be able to fill the space?  Will I have too much to fill the space?  SO MANY QUESTIONS!


The other reason I haven't written, is because the other day Aria accidently knocked over my tea all over the keyboard!  You can't imagine how crippling it is to not be able to type the letter 'a' or use the spacebar!  I literally couldn't email anyone for two days, and when you work from home, that's tough to handle.  So, I thought "Hey! Perfect opportunity to get a wireless mouse and keyboard!".  So I went and bought them at Future Shop, got them home and realized that my Mac is too old and doesn't come with bluetooth, so I couldn't install my wireless stuff.  So back I headed to Future Shop to return the stuff and pick up a different one.  Only, I didn't have my bank card, so they couldn't refund me the money unless I wanted it on a gift card.  No thanks...  So I came home with the wireless stuff that didn't work, and the new keyboard and mouse that would work.  And then headed back to Future Shop for a third time after having scoured my house looking for my bank card.  Good grief!  Why can't things be simple????  So that's my excuse for not typing.  I was getting so desperate though, I was copying and pasting spaces and a's from other documents onto my emails just so that I could communicate with people! 

Onto other things... Jer's been working on some flowers I designed, and we sold our first one on Etsy this week!  Very exciting!  Actually to a gal in the UK... so now I'm international!  I just need to pop it in the mail today, along with birthday cards for my nephews...

And, yes!  Jeremy HAND-SEWED all these flowers!  Isn't he amazing?

Other than that life is busy but good. We've been experiencing some warmth again here which is nice, and even better are the sweet spring storms!  Lots of rain, so everything is very green and even some thunder and lightning.

Spring Break!

We had such a lovely day today.  We've been spending the last week in Fairmont, with some friends, at their timeshare.  It has been such a fantastic week... full of much swimming, which the kids have loved, a muddy attempt at hiking, much relaxing, crocheting, and today, a road-trip to Fort Steele, Cranbrook and Kimberly! 
I managed to finish a mohair baby pod for my photographer friend Sharla (www.sharlapike.com), FINALLY.  Seems as though its taken me forever!  Its very soft, and I'm hoping its big enough.  I'm still trying to perfect my patterns as I venture into the world of photo props.

I also managed to do two hats to add to my Creative Chaos stock, and hope that I'll get some more done tonight... although I'll probably end up working on some matching sister hats that I've promised to a friend who just had a baby girl.
I was inspired today by a little shop I found in Kimberly called The Back Door.  I could tell from the outside that it was a shop I'd love to poke around in.  It was probably a good thing that I forgot my money in the car, and didn't have time to go back to get it!  I saw this super cute black bird coat or towel hanger by Umbra that I may have to hunt down somewhere else... The shop had all her items displayed on apple crates, which is what I like to display my hats on when I do a show... so that was what inspired me.  I liked how she had them stacked, and she had her shop name stenciled on the bottom.  So, I may attempt that for the CC show in June.  Hopefully my mom and dad don't mind, since the boxes are on loan from them!
I've been enjoying the convenience of using my husband's laptop as we've been on vacation.  Its been so nice to just have it wherever I want to use it, rather than running to the kitchen everytime I want to use the computer at home!  We debated getting a laptop when we purchased our iMac four years ago, but wanted to have a stationary computer for when the kids were older... I think I'd probably be on the computer WAY more if I had a laptop, so maybe its a good thing I don't!
We head home tomorrow.  Back to the real world of work and meetings and commitments. Its been so great to have this little holiday together.  I took some great photos that I'm looking forward to scrapbooking eventually.  And I mean, eventually.  I'm still working on Aria's baby album, but getting there.  Going away for a scrapbook weekend really helped in that department, and it was great to spend a weekend on myself with some girlfriends!  Hard to believe that was only three weeks ago.
Well, good night for today!  Cheers.

Latest Projects

I figured I should include some of the projects I've been working on lately.  I'm trying to figure out a summer hat pattern for girls, but haven't loved anything that I've some up with yet.  I just don't feel as though they've been in-keeping with the rest of my designs.  But because I've been working on patterns, I don't feel as though I'm being as productive as I need to be!  Balance...  I'm trying to build my inventory so that I'm ready for Creative Chaos in June.  Already I think that I have more stock than I had when I did the show in Kelowna at Christmas.  However, I had Ralna and her creations to help "beef up" the display then.  This time its all me!  Anyways, here's some old and new pics of what I've been working on lately.

 

Shell beanie

 

Brimmed Beanie

 

Earflap Hat

 

Fuzzy Earflap Hat

 

Shell Beanie with Singed Flower

 

Singed Flower

 

Baby Pod photo prop

 

Brown Tassel Blanket photo prop

 

Stork Sling photo prop

 

Roscoe's Christmas Sweater Vest (the best part about dressing a boy!)