Crafter in need

Alison Gordon, crafter of WonderlandQ, co-organizer of Bazaar Bizarre and Sampler Contributor Relations superhero, very recently faced a medical emergency. Like so many other independent artists and crafters, Alison is without health insurance.

The Wonderland Retreat etsy shop (named in honor of Alison’s website) was created by her friends to help ease the financial burden of her ordeal, and etsy is waiving all fees. If you would like to help a fellow crafter, please consider purchasing an item from the shop or donating an item of your own. To donate an item, please contact Renee Garner at wonderlandretreat [at] gmail.com for more information. To make a monetary donation of any size, please send paypal to info [at] auroraseven.com.

If you’d like to donate something handmade, please send the following info to Renee:

–name
–1 biographical sentence
–website for more detailed info on the artist/goods (if you have one)
–address/contact email
–a photograph of the product
–a short description of the product
–suggested price
–mailing info: will you mail straight from their location or will you mail to her to ship upon item’s sale. If you mail will you cover shipping or should that be added to the transaction?

Thank you for reading! And Alison, hope you’re feeling much much better after all the craziness.

I just sent along info and pics on this little guy, Drew Bean, from the Lemon Cadet baby line to be added to the Wonderland Retreat shop. He is a size 3 - 6 onesie. Free shipping! As much as my day job takes away from my crafting, I feel very lucky to have health insurance. I hope this little donation helps.

And get well soon, Alison!!

Lemon Cadet's yeti is featured with his sea friends!

Today Lemon Cadet's almost famous yeti panties were featured on the fabulous blog, ilikeseamonsters. This blog is authored by a fellow Etsian, tinaseamonster who makes really cool shirts about zombies. I can't wait to put those on the future cadets.

TinaSeamonster has been blogging for a long time now and has recently started featuring other Etsy sellers. She only picks super great stuff so it is a true honor to be featured.

She also mentioned it on the Craft Mutiny blog.

In other YETI news, four new pairs of yeti panties are on their way to the Etsy shop. One is polka dot, one pink stripes, one blue and one solid pink. I have two pairs of white panties that will get beaned later this week. Don't forget that you can get a yeti on your (new) panties too.

The yeti buttons are also now in the shop. As always, our partner website, YetiPanties.com (a division of Lemon Cadet) is still coming soon.

In a large marble hallway

The craft show this weekend at CMU was really fun and a great learning experience. I met a few Etsy people and some other cool crafters. My table was stocked with goods. I ended up making some panties at the last minute because I wanted to have a range of items. I've been planning on adding panties to the Lemon Cadet line for a while now and Bring It! gave me a good reason to get on it.

The table looked great! All the yellow stood out well against the darkness of the stone hallway so I got great feedback on my little guys. Several people asked where I was going to be next. I didn't sell much (and I didn't expect to given the crowd) but I feel much more confident about my line and where to take it. I'm hoping to do some larger shows in Pittsburgh this Summer.

For the next show I need to think about how to display the mirrors and the buttons better. I thought they would sell better since they're so cute and inexpensive. The buttons were pinned on the scout dolls and the mirrors were in a basket on the left of the table. Now that I see the photos I can tell it's hard to even see the mirrors at all. With the buttons, maybe people were afraid to take them off or something.

Next time I'll do it differently. What's funny is that I actually got a few requests for the scout dolls so I'll probably add some to the shop in the upcoming weeks. You never know!

So thanks to everyone who showed up to support Lemon Cadet. Special thanks to Dee and Steph, my trusty helper elves who stayed with me during the day. They are way better promoters of my stuff than I am.

On that note, I'll be adding lots of new items to the shop this week. I have several yeti tees just about ready to go (need to add their little fingers!) and a super cute bug shirt (see him in the photo just above the buttons).

Coming Soon: www.YetiPanties.com, a division of Lemon Cadet!

Bring It!

The Lemon Cadet bus it trekking up to Pittsburgh to be a part of CMU's Copyright and Transgression Festival: You're Not the Boss of Me. They've added a Trade Fair to this year's event and have invited artists, crafts people, activists, art organizations and others to be be a part.

Please join me at Bring It! on Saturday, March 31 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

In addition to all my onesies and shirts, I'll have some special items not available in my Etsy shop: buttons and mirros, all featuring the famous little guys.

This is my first craft show and hopefully the first of many to come. I'm really excited about it and hope to see a lot of Etsy people and familiar faces.

GETTING THERE: Carnegie Mellon University is located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh at 5000 Forbes Avenue. Parking is available for an hourly rate at the East Campus Garage (location P5 on the campus map). The College of Fine Arts building is just a few minutes walk across the cut (location 7 on the map).

Bring It! will be held in the Great Hall at the College of Fine Arts.

This is a photo of the scout dolls in progress. They'll be used to display all the buttons.

Trading is wonderful

I did a trade with a fellow Etsy seller, theGarbageGoose. She has four super cute children so we traded four of my little guys for some of her little guys.

She made a gorgeous doll for my mom who collects primitive dolls. It's stunning. See it here.

I don't trade very often and I find it very hard to say no to people who have asked me to trade. I've had to though. Sometimes I'm just too busy. I don't think it hurts to ask.

My experiences as both a buyer and a seller at Etsy have been very positive. Seeing this photo of all four of these beautiful children was, by far, the best experience I've ever had. I wish I could see all the kids who wear my clothes. I work so hard to make each little guy unique and well crafted.

Needless to say, this photo is courtesy of theGarbageGoose and better not be reproduced.

Etsy Babyshower

There was a thread in the Etsy forums a while ago about an Etsy Babyshower. Basically Etsy shops send stuff to expecting moms who are other Etsy sellers. The mom assigned to me is waiting until the birth to know the sex of the baby. That was a challenge because at the time, most of my stuff was not really unisex. I have stuff for boys and stuff for girls. So I sent Bean Beastlyn, one of my first onesies because it was the most unisex. I was worried that she wouldn't like it.

I got a convo the other day and the mom LOVED the onesie and was super happy with it. Yay!

She sent along this picture and sent her thanks.

Feature on the Little Ida blog

Just a few days ago I was featured on the Little Ida blog. It's an amazing blog written by the owner of super cool online kidstore, Craftsbury Kids. The items they feature on their blog are really top notch. The items in the store are also amazing. What a thrill to be included!

This morning I got the feeling that I should do a Google search for Lemon Cadet. So far, only my Etsy shop and this blog have come up. Today, it was a whole new story. I'm hoping this is the first of many more to come.

Little Ida featured "Here Kitty Kitty," a custom tee I have in the shop. I made the original for Loriola, another Etsy seller and she was really happy with it. I listed this one as a custom so I could make it in any size. I was wondering why it had gotten so many hits...