Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Wool Felt Sale!!!

It's official: Our Wool Felt Pre-Order Sale is up and running... and you can get some fabulous deals if you stock up soon! We've listed all available colors and blends of wool felt from National Nonwovens in various cuts, and we've determined what our regular prices will be, then taken 10% off of those prices... AND, our every-day tiered discounts will also apply (10% off for orders totaling $25 to $49.99; 15% off for orders totaling $50 to $74.99; and 20% off all orders over $75!!)... AND, we're giving you FREE shipping on all wool-felt pre-orders within the continental U.S. (and only an $8 flat shipping fee, no matter how much you order, to Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand)!

We're making it available in the following cuts (in inches): 12x12, 12x18, 18x18, and 36x36! And, we have it on good authority that the manufacturer's prices will be going up in early January... which probably means most retailers will need to raise their prices as well. Our goal is to carry a very nice variety of wool felt, and make it available to you at very competitive prices... and right now, our pre-order sale is a fantastic opportunity for those of you who use wool felt in your projects to stock up. Hope you'll stop by and check out all the great colors we're offering... and remember to place your pre-order before December 27th, because prices will go up and regular shipping rates will go into effect on/after that date.

Wool felt shopping time! :-)




Saturday, December 11, 2010

A Few More New Goodies!

Now that I'm caught up on custom orders for Autumn Comforts products (and won't be taking any more, due to progression of my rheumatoid arthritis), I'm back to work on stocking Hannah's PinKeep and will continue to build our inventory as best I can! I've just listed a few new goodies that have come in recently, including some beautiful round, mother-of-pearl thread rings from Kelmscott Designs, a gorgeous new sampler cross-stitch/stitchery pattern from Plum Street Samplers called "A Handwork's Pace," and a few new wool felt patterns from Penny Lane Primitives.



It's been very colorful around here lately: I'm also working daily on getting all the DMC cotton flosses listed! We'll have the entire collection available soon! In the hopefully near future we'll get other types and brands of flosses and threads in stock as well. With your support, we're hoping to make Hannah's a huge store, chock full of all the goodies you'll ever need for making your dolls, quilts, cross-stitch/stitchery items, wool/wool felt items, punch needle goodies, rugs, and more!

My next project will be a big one: We're going to go ahead and take pre-orders for wool felt from National Nonwovens! I posted several questions over a few days' time on our Facebook page, and the folks who responded resoundingly indicated that the two things that are the most wanted for Hannah's PinKeep's next products to order are, (1) wool felt, and (2) more doll patterns. So we're working on getting those two things in stock for you. National Nonwovens requires a fairly large first wholesale order, and we're close... but the beauty of taking pre-orders for a week or two is that we'll be able to order precisely what you all want, and you'll get those products at some fantastic prices! So watch for our new section to appear soon, offering discounted rates on pre-orders of wool felt, in an extraordinary variety of colors, sizes, and wool concentrations (they offer 20% wool/80% rayon; 35% wool/65% rayon, or 100% virgin wool, with different colors available in each).

Happy weekend! :-) Jodi

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Building Inventory, Slowly but Surely!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We had a lovely time, with both our boys home for a nice visit from Wednesday evening until Sunday. It was great to see them, spend time with them, and feed them... and boy, do college-age boys LOVE to eat! ;-)

We're back to work and doing our best to get Hannah's PinKeep nicely stocked with all the things you'll love and want for your sewing and needlework projects. I've posted a note on Facebook asking which from a list of different items folks would like us to add to our store next, and I've received a dozen or so replies so far. Seems most are wanting woolfelt, with more doll patterns coming in a close second, thus far. If any of you care to chime in with your votes, we would really appreciate all the opinions and feedback we can get! Our Facebook page is here: Hannah's PinKeep Facebook Page. And, we'd love it if you would "Like" our page while you're there! :-)

It's hard to believe it's December 1st! We've gotten quite a few orders in the past couple of days, so I'd best get back to work on filling those. Don't forget, we're doing our best to continually add new goodies, so pop in and visit us soon and often. :-) Happy December, Everyone!

Jodi

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Checking in on a Snowy Saturday

First order of business: We got in a couple of absolutely gorgeous marbled linens for your primitive cross-stitch projects the other day! Hope you'll pop in at Hannah's and check them out.

We pretty much have two seasons here in central Oregon: Summer and winter. No in-betweens. Nowhere near enough of my personal favorite seasons, autumn and spring (in that order). We can go from 90-degree days straight into a 40-degree daytime high with snow falling that night. We have lived in Bend for 18 years now. You'd think I would be used to it by now. Well, maybe I am, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. But it is what it is. We're fortunate that hubby has a good job with the county here, and even though he's been on reduced hours for 2-1/2 years now (he's a building inspector), at least we have good insurance. And with all my autoimmune diseases, we need it. My weekly injections and my infusion every 6 weeks would be impossible for us to afford without the insurance we have. Even our share of the bills for my doctor visits, drugs, and chemo infusions costs us, well, more than we can really afford right now. But I digress.

Our boys both live back in the valley, in Portland and Vancouver respectively. I was born in Portland. And having our two sons, both in their 20s, living in that area makes me all the more anxious to someday return to my "homeland." As does all this snow. Oh, I don't mind the snow if I don't have to be out in it, which I don't very often. Maybe once a week or so. But the winters and summers here deprive us of autumn and spring. And that gets old. The Willamette valley has rain, yes, but it also has seasons. Not just two of them; all four.

Anyway, I had no idea where I was going when I started to post. I just stopped in to tell you all about the new linen we just listed. Forgive my rants; guess I needed to "unload" a bit. The snow does it to me. That, and not having enough coffee in me yet.

Our boys are coming home for Thanksgiving (weather and road conditions permitting, of course. *Sigh*), and I always look forward to having my family together again, even for just a few days. I enjoy our boys so much, and I love to feed them. They seem to enjoy being fed, too! ;-) They are starving college students, after all.

May all your seasons be distinguishable, and may your loved ones be safe, sound, and with you, at least in spirit, for the holidays.

Bright blessings and a safe, warm, happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Jodi

Friday, November 12, 2010

New Patterns from Pineberry Lane

I'm starting to feel back to normal following a bout with a bug. Today's will be a quick post, as I have a lot of catching up to do! I've added a few new goodies at Hannah's, including more DMC flosses (we'll eventually have the entire collection available!), some DMC Chenille needle packs for doing those cross-stitch and stitchery projects, and a batch of patterns from Pineberry Lane; a new designer in the Hannah's PinKeep line-up! We've added a few different fabulous cross-stitch designs from Wendy of Pineberry, along with one of her needle punch patterns (note; until we carry more for needle punch, I've put that single pattern under "Patterns: Misc." They'll get their own category when we have more of them to offer). Hope you'll scoot on over and check them out! A couple of the cross-stitch patterns are Christmas oriented and are just beautiful!

Now I'm off to catch up on some sewing. I still have a custom rag-quilt bedroom set order to finish up for a very sweet lady who has been more than patient with me! :-) Hope you all have a fantastic November weekend. Blessings & Best, Jodi

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Happy Halloween!

Our "big plans" for the Halloween weekend involve holing up in the house, out of the rain and cold, and enjoying our respective favorite pastimes. Selfish, yup, but hey, at our age, hubby and I deserve some downtime.

Although, I don't know if it counts as downtime when my favorite hobbies are also my business! Hmmmmm, interesting question. I suppose for those of us who are fortunate enough to make our money doing what we love, it doesn't really matter. :-)

So my weekend, my friends, is being spent working on some sewing, catching up on some candle and melt orders (which I sell through my other site, Autumn Comforts), likely some cooking of nice, hot, comfort type foods (don't you love autumn cooking?), watching T.V. (especially my favorites; creepy horror movies!), and working on another cross-stitch. Aaaaahhhh... all of that and mochas with extra whip, and I'm a happy, happy gal!

I just placed an order with a new designer, too! Well, she's not a new designer... just new to my line-up at Hannah's! Expect several new (gorgeous!) primitive cross-stitch patterns and even a couple of needlepunch patterns soon from Pineberry Lane. LOVE her stuff! :-)

Have a fab-BOO-lous Halloween weekend!! :-)

Monday, October 25, 2010

Finally, an UPDATED post! Woo!

Better late than never? :-D

Yep, I'm definitely a bad, bad blogger. And I will try to post more often (promises, promises!), as long as I can stay on top of things now that we're slowly but surely (mostly slowly, but hey...) climbing out of the recession. At least, I surely do hope we're climbing out.

I have actually accomplished something recently! Now available at Hannah's, you'll find my very first PATTERN! Woohoo! Yep, published under my Autumn Comforts name, I have a pattern available for my very own Primitive Long Prairie Bonnet design! And you will find it here, my friends:

Autumn Comforts' Long Prairie Bonnet Pattern, available at Hannah's PinKeep

And, of course, the process of putting the pattern together included making up a new batch of bonnets! I have 6 new primitive prairie bonnets available now, only $19 each, at Autumn Comforts:

Primitive Long Prairie Bonnets, available at Autumn Comforts

I hope you'll all take a peek and let me know what you think. We also have some fantastic Halloween and Autumn patterns available from some fabulous artisans like Stacy Nash, Maureen of Sweet Meadows Farm, Penny Lane Primitives, and more, so if you're clamoring for a new sewing/needlework project (and who among us isn't these days?!), I hope you'll pop in and check out all the goodies we have available!

Oh, and what blog post would be the least bit interesting without a photo?! Here ya go:



Thanks for putting up with me... now, go visit Hannah's and Autumn Comforts! :-D

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Belly Bug... Blah!

Got hit with a belly bug the past couple of days, so I have some catching up to do, but I'm working at it. Glad to be feeling better! Fortunately it was just a 24-hour thing.

I did manage to add some new items to the store today: More cotton fabrics: Assorted solids and tickings. Also added a yo-yo maker under "Notions: Miscellany." I've used one myself and recommend them. They are a lot of fun and make very nice, consistent yo-yo's with much less work than trying to make them "free-hand." And, I hope you all like the solid and ticking fabrics! I had a fairly nice variety of each; I just hadn't gotten around to listing them until now! Stop by and take a peek when you get a chance. More coming soon and often! :-)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Rainy Sunday Musings

I added a few more new products to the store yesterday, including the adorable Love, Putford, and Tudor Rose needlework scissors. I also added the first 3 of what I'm sure will be many patterns from my friend Maureen Mills of Sweet Meadows Farm. Maureen is a FABULOUS artist, and I've made many of her doll patterns myself in the past. I hope you'll take a look... these are 3 of her most recent patterns, and they are all incredible, and too cute for words!

We were awakened by quite a rainstorm this morning! In fact, my husband said that as he began to wake, he was first absolutely certain there was a shower running in the house. Funny how the sleepy mind works. Of course, my own mind can be a little goofy sometimes. After all, I am heavily medicated. Aaahhh, good old immunosuppressants and pain pills. My short-term memory sure isn't what it used to be.... At any rate, we were very glad the heavy rain mostly subsided by the time we got up, or we would have had a pretty tough time getting the girls (our 2 shelties) to go out to potty. They are very spoiled girlies and don't like getting wet!

I'm so pleased to have a follower... thank you so much! I've been doing some blog-hopping this morning, signing on to follow others' blogs I've enjoyed visiting. Perhaps some of them will find this blog and follow it as well. I will be very grateful for all the new blog friends I can find.

I've also been noticing all the great static backgrounds and way-cool formatting many of you are using for your blogs! It's been far too long since I learned me some basic HTML, so I'm afraid I'm out of the loop. I've tried to set this blog up as best I could using Blogger's new template tools, but I'm afraid I'm a bit of an "epic fail" as the kids these days would say. If any of you would care to share the secrets, I'd be forever grateful. Maybe there is a terrific tutorial published somewhere on how you are formatting your blogs... with those great static backgrounds and such. And maybe you'll post a link to me. That would be awesome! I have a lot more work I need to do to this blog, but I'm glad to at least have it started. I had a hard time just getting Blogger's new system to accept my background upload... and as it stands, I'm not overly satisfied with the image I did manage to get posted here. But I'll keep working at it.

I'm also going to make a pledge, right here and now, to try to post to this blog fairly frequently. I have a blog under a separate membership here for Autumn Comforts, and I've been a bad, bad blogger with that one, I'm afraid. But I think I can manage to post here more often, now that I'm not having to spend so much time making items to sell. As slow as I have become, doing resale of supplies instead truly should help me out considerably in terms of time. So, my dear visitors, I promise that I will do my best to post here fairly often. No guarantees on just how often it will be... well, okay, let's say at least 3 times a month. That's a reasonable amount, I think. And, I think I can likely do much better than that. But I'll hold off on pledging daily posts for now.

Until next time....

Prim Blessings,
Jodi

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Greetings from Hannah's PinKeep!

I'm so excited about our new store! Our goal for Hannah's is to eventually have and keep in stock a myriad of great doll, quilt (and quilted goods) cross-stitch, punchneedle, rug hooking (and other forms of rug making), and other needlework patterns, along with all the consumable supplies (and even some of the "hard" supplies as well) that one would need to make each of them. Our focus is on today's styles based on days gone by: Primitive, "primsical," country, colonial, Quaker, Shaker, etc. You won't find any bright, bold, primary colors, modern shapes or styles, cartoonish prints, batiks, etc. at Hannah's. But you will find patterns and supplies for making beautiful raggedy dolls; muted, earthy rugs; muted-toned quilts in the old, traditional styles; Quaker and primitive cross-stitch designs; and so much more... all inspired by those muted, secondary colors and old-fashioned, prim styles so many of us will likely never stop loving!

I'm Jodi, and I am the proprietor of Hannah's. I'm looking forward to chatting with all of our visitors at Hannah's! A little about me: I'm 50 years old, and I live in Bend, Oregon with my husband of 30 years, and our 2 kitties and 2 spoiled rotten shelties. We also have two fantastic sons who are both in their 20s. They live in Portland and Vancouver respectively, so I don't get to see the boys as often as I'd like; but they're both pretty good about keeping in touch with their old Ma. The boys have both gone through the common rituals of some college shortly after high school, then deciding they weren't on the right path, working for awhile, then the recession hit and they both lost jobs and couldn't find new ones. Now they're both back in school, and while neither is thrilled about the sizable student loans they are building, I think they both feel pretty confident now about the paths they are on. Both are quite single at the moment, but I've already put in my order for some grandbabies, so we'll see what the future brings. ;-)

I have been involved in needlework and other handcrafts for most of my life. I taught myself how to crochet starting at about age 8 or 9 (and remember,this was in the 60s; no internet tutorials were available back then!), then got heavily involved in good old macrame in the 70s as a teenager. I even made several plant holders that I sold to a local lady for resale in her books and houseplants store. In 1976, our country's bicentennial, I took a class in high school specifically on this important anniversary. We each had to pick a project that reflected the history of our country. This was when I made my first patchwork quilt. I cut squares of old fabrics (with scissors!) and hand-stitched them together. It was quite an undertaking! At any rate, I've been hooked on handcrafting ever since.

In addition to my new store, Hannah's PinKeep, I also own a site called Autumn Comforts (formerly Gingerbread Mountain... and before that, Whimsy Creek... and before that....) We first got a computer and internet access in around 1992, and it didn't take me long at all to learn some basic html and set up my first web site. My very first was actually called "Jodi's Graphics" ... I know, how original! ;-) I drew and sold mouse-drawn graphics (done in a paint program) for use to decorate web sites. I did pretty well, and this business lasted quite a few years, actually. I sort of "partnered up" with a lovely group of ladies who were my fellow "original, mouse-drawn graphic artists" of the internet back in those days. I think there were only about a dozen (or less) of us when I first started. In fact, I was, as far as I know, the first "mouse-drawn graphic artist" to set up my site to require a paid membership for the conditional use of my graphics. Seems like hundreds more followed suit not long thereafter.

While new graphic artists were seeping out of the woodwork, I was getting tired of seeing my graphics stolen, altered, misused and abused, and I was losing interest in that business while simultaneously gaining more and more interest in selling my handcrafted goodies online instead. I had been turned on to the world of primitive... and I fell in love. While the styles known as "primitive" have evolved somewhat over the past decade or two, I am still head over heels. There is something about the era, the simpler times, the more agrarian style that just suits me. I can't bring myself to even remotely like some of this modern style "stuff" I see these days. Give me an old-fashioned, tattered "Grandmother's Garden" quilt -- stained, frayed, and well-loved -- over one of these new bright-colored, computer-designed, garish quilts I see so many quilters making these days. I'm definitely a prairie doll in a Barbie world.

Anyway, getting back to Autumn Comforts. Any of you who are familiar with my long-time site know me for my raggedy dolls (made using other fabulous artisan's patterns, mostly), candles and melts, and more... especially, I suppose, my rag quilts. I've made and sold well over a hundred rag quilts, from throw-sized to "Cal-King" bed-sized quilts complete with shams and throw pillows to finish off the set. Most have had appliqued raggy stars. And all have been very well received. I've always used very muted, earthy-colored (okay, primitive colored) homespun (woven) fabrics for my rag quilts. They fray better than prints, and the woven plaids and stripes just work for primitive rag quilts.

About 8 years ago, give or take, I developed what later was diagnosed to be the beginnings of rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis. Inflammatory arthritis, which is an autoimmune disease, has become the most serious of the assortment of medical conditions with which I've been blessed. Seems I've had psoriasis pretty much all my life, and psoriasis, a skin condition, is actually also considered an autoimmune disease. And when my kids were just babies, I developed Graves disease (thyroiditis). A dozen or so years ago, I had bouts of vertigo that put me in the hospital again. Turned out that I also have another chronic condition called Meniere's disease; a disorder in the labyrinth in the ear that causes vertigo, balance problems, and hearing loss. And now, we've added the inflammatory arthritis conditions along with fibromyalgia to the mix.

Probably needless to say, in spite of some heavy-duty medical treatments and medications, my hands just don't work like they used to. The joints, muscles, and nerves throughout my body are slowly being damaged more and more, and my hands and feet have suffered the most in terms of loss of function. I used to type like a demon; now I find myself hitting a lot of typos, typing much more slowly, and having to break frequently to stretch out my fingers and wrists. I can't hold a pen and write anymore. Even signing my name is painful, and the signature is illegible as can be. And stuffing dolls and stitching quilts? Well, no. Not really. I can still do some, but it takes awhile and is a painful process.

But there is no way anything is going to keep me completely out of the industry that I love. I'll still be making items to sell; just not as frequently as I'd like, nor as I used to. But I can certainly provide the designs and materials that others use to make similar items to mine! Hence, the birth of Hannah's PinKeep.

So that's "a little" about me. Now you know more about the person behind Hannah's PinKeep. And I hope I'll get the chance to know more about you. I want very much to make Hannah's YOUR favorite place to visit and shop, so please don't hesitate to send me your suggestions and ideas. Remember too that if there's a primitive-style needlework, fabric, or similar item you'd like that I don't yet have in stock, chances are that I could order it for you, so please do ask. And, I hope my visitors will all note that I'm offering tiered discounts on all your purchases; orders under $25 will be at the product prices that are listed. But orders for $25.00 to $49.99 are 10% off the listed prices; orders between $50.00 and $74.99 get 15% off; and all orders worth $75 or more will receive 20% off! And that offer extends to everyone, every day! You don't have to do a thing to get the discount, either; my shopping cart will automatically figure it in for you before you check out.

Thank you for indulging me by reading this "little" bio! ;-) I hope we'll grow to be great friends... and thank you again, so much, for visiting with me and for being a patron of Hannah's PinKeep! :-)

Prim Blessings,
Jodi

Tuesday, September 14, 2010