One Year Anniversary!

I can't believe it's been a year since I launched my Natural Skincare line? Seems like it's only been a couple of months, I can't even tell you where the time has gone. I've been thinking about where I was when I started and where I am now, it's been a crazy year!

My very first show was at my friends barn sale in August 2013. I had 4 choices (scent-wise) of soap, body butter, lotion bars & salt scrubs and two lip balm flavors. That was it. My table looks pretty empty now that I look at it, but back then I was so excited.

November 2013 we did two Christmas craft shows. One was a complete dud (ironically, that's the only one I have pictures of), the second one was great! My line had expanded to 8 choices of soap, body butter, lotion bars & salt scrubs, 3 flavors of lip balm, plus shampoo bars, pink Himalayan salt soap, honey sugar lip scrub and soap decks. I spent a painful night with a glue gun and foam board building the risers for my display and Brie and I did a dry run to tweak the setup before the shows (she's got a good eye!). Now my table didn't look as empty!

My darling daughter and I, November 2013 craft show.

Fast forward to June 2014. I now have 12 choices of soap, 10 body butter/lotion bar/salt scrubs, everything else mentioned above plus I added my absolute favorite moisturizer in the whole world,  Skin Nourishing Facial Serum. I added the custom banner that I'd been dreaming of for months. I had to arrange, rearrange and rearrange again to make everything fit and look good.

Wow, no wonder I've been so tired this year! But I'm not done yet, I have SO many things I want to add! (Lots of new stuff coming for Christmas!) And I've got to get busy sewing. Thank you for a great year, I'm looking forward to the next year!

Take care!
 Carla

Whirlwind Winter

Normally my winters are turtle-slow and quite boring.  Not this one!  As much as I've whined (yes, whined and it wasn't pretty) about wanting this winter to be over, I can't believe tomorrow is March.  My vision of long, leisurely winter weekends spent sewing was replaced with a whirlwind of  events of every imaginable type, from parties to meetings to funerals and everything in between.  My car decided to die a slow, painful (and expensive) death, so there was car shopping (loved that part!).  And yes, some of it was self-inflicted, like signing Mimi up for obedience classes, volunteering for a new ministry and taking on another Beth Moore Bible study (with all the accompanying homework).  Don't get me wrong, it's been the most fun that I remember having during winter, but the business side of me is throwing fits because my grand plan of having a website full of wonderful creations by spring has not happened. **heavy sigh**  I actually have made a few things for gifts and I have a couple of new designs in progress (translation, they're cut out and sitting on my worktable).  I can't wait for spring, but for the next 20 days I'll be busy creating.............I hope!

Ready for the new year

Sadly, the holidays are over.  The fun, the festivities, the family celebrations, THE FOOD!!  OK, had a little too much of the last one.  I love this time of year.  But as with all good things, it must come to an end, so I'm looking forward to getting my studio cleaned up (it looks like Santa's elves went wild in there!) and getting to work.  My mom and sister inspired me when they were here for Christmas - they had a field day going through my fabric and patterns; they both left me with a list of stuff they want me to make for them.  It got me excited again and I can't wait to start sewing.  So this week my goal is to clean like crazy so I can spend New Years weekend sewing my heart out.  Nothing like starting the year being creative!  Can't wait to start posting new designs on the website!!!

Have a Happy (and safe) New Year!

Making progress............kind of

Just because I don't want to go a whole month between posts, here's the latest.  (Yes, I barely made it)  My studio walls are painted (the woodwork will get painted later), my stuff is moved in and it's looking good.  But.........I've discovered that I HATE painting.  For two reasons.  #1 - it's boring.  #2 - it's painful.  Well, it's probably not painful for most (younger) people, but I managed to pinch a nerve in my back, so it's been painful for me.  The accompanying meds have left me in a fog and I've found myself doing some very strange things.  So........I'm not sewing until I have a clear head again.  (there are those who would argue that I've never had a clear head!) I did take pictures so I'll try to get those posted.

Here's hoping I get some great stuff made for you guys before Christmas!!

Starting over again

Since my life and Carla's Creations is about to head in a whole new direction, I decided to start a new (and hopefully much easier) blog.  We'll see how this goes......................

The reason for this new direction is that I am now officially an empty nester.  My beautiful daughter moved into her first home over Labor Day weekend (with the help of Mom, Dad, Uncle Phil & Auntie Lin).  It took 7 pickup truck loads, 8 car loads (so far) and one SUV packed to the max, but she is moved.  And her old room is in the process of becoming my design studio!  I'll have to post before and after pics so you can watch the progress, I'm excited!

Needless to say, Carla's Creations is on a short break while I move into the new space.  But once I'm in there will be no stopping me, I won't know how to act with all that new workspace!!  The best part will be no more having to put away projects in progress (it's so hard to pick it back up).  I can just close the door and no one will ever know how messy I am when I'm being creative.  :)

Til next time!
Carla