Email Satisfaction

Toward the tail end of last year my mom started talking to me about changing the way we sent out our shoppe newsletters. Until just a little over 4 months ago they where completely composed of text (without any images) and went mostly to our local shoppers, all of whom had signed up through walking in and actually "signing" up to receive our letters (now you can sign up through our webstore). My mom had to send them out in a very monotonous way, in small email groups from her own personal e-mail account. As more and more people signed up that method became inefficient. Then after the launch of our webstore we knew we had to go bigger.

I thought this might be something we'd have to hire our web guy to do. I was intimidated by the gorgeous newsletters of Anna Maria and other leading shops, but Mom said "I know you can do it."

Now, after sending out the fourth "new" newsletter, I must say I'm feeling really proud. I'm proud of us, of our little shoppe, and I'm pretty proud of little old me. I had zero knowledge of Dreamweaver, or any web design exsperience before starting this venture, and I still have very little technical "know how", but I am. I'm doing it :)

Satisfaction... thats what I feel. The satisfaction of accomplishing something I believed to be beyond my capabilities.

Too often I think "oh wow, I'd really like to do something like that..." Followed by "no, you couldn't do that April..." So next time I hope I can remember to look back to this as an example that maybe I can. I want to think to myself "yes you can," or at least "you'll never know until you try."

I hope the same for you, when you find yourself in a moment of self-doubt.

Then once we all try and we actually do what ever it was we thought we could not, we can say to our selves "yay! look what you did (self)!" or "wow, that wasn't that hard" or even "that was pretty fun." Then maybe next time trying something new won't be so intimidating.

hmm....

Happy Sunday. 

♥April

P.S. I've just figured out how to put our newsletter online so that you are able to view it even if you choose not to be on our email list.

Off to NY

Final WARNING!!!!

Sew to Speak will be closed for the first part of next week. So if you need anything, tomorrow (11am-5pm) is the time to stop in.

We'll be closed Tuesday, April 28th through Thursday, April 30th.
We will reopen Friday, May 1st at 11am.
However, all classes will continue through the week as scheduled.

Call if you forget - 267-3011

Have a great week!
See you when we return :)
Sincerely,
Sew To Speak

Spring Classes

Just a quick note to let you know we have many wonderful classes this spring.
Above is a photo of just one class sample you can find hanging in the Shoppe... to view our full list of classes look to the right hand column on this page, and scull down a bit. We have something for every style and skill level. If weekday evenings don't work we have weekend classes too.
Interested? You can stop by Sew To Speak - 4610 N. High Street, call us at (614)267-3011 or e-mail Anita at anitabowman@columbus.rr.com.

Your Shoppe Blogger,
April Rhodes

P.S. The Shoppe Birthday party was an awesome success!
Big thanks to everyone that made it out! We had a FULL house, you can check out a few more pic's of the party here. They where all taken in the first 15 minutes after opening... thats about all the free time we had that day :)

Happy Birthday SEW TO SPEAK!!! :)

She's One!!

As of February 5th Sew To Speak has officially been open for business for one year!
If you receive our e-mails you may have already read when Anita wrote "Someone asked me, 'Does it seem like a year?' and I said, 'It feels like 5!' "
While it has been hard work, I do believe that she would say it's been equally rewarding. She also wrote that "the wonderful part is all of you great customers. I love seeing you and sharing in the joy of sewing. You make my job fun and worthwhile. So thank you for a great first year!"

Getting her started early, Gammy teaches Aelyn to sew!

I want to join her in thanking you for this wonderful first year, but even more than that I want to thank her. Thank you mom for being so brave as to go for your dream, to open your own business and to walk through the fear that comes with taking a chance. And WOW, what an amazing result!
Of course I'm a bit bias, but I think our shoppe rocks! All the faith and hard work shows.
In this first year the shoppe's reception by the community has been awesome. It has certainly become a beneficial resource to our Columbus, Ohio sewers, even to sewers as far away as Suluda, North Carolina and Portland, Oregon (hi Shelly and Jane). People are coming to Sew to Speak for both leisure sewing and profession. Shoppers are being inspired and inspiring us in return.

The satisfaction received from making something to wear, carry, hold or just look at, something for yourself or for someone else, finishing something you're proud of, that you've invested time in, that satisfaction is indescribable. That is what I feel Sew To Speak has become, a place to find, learn and share in that satisfaction.

An adorable customer shows off her great tote made in Amy Butler fabrics.

Our friend Laurie in her beautifully made Joel Dewberry dress.

(just look at those shelves behind her... a little sparse in the beginning, but now
we sit around trying to figure out where we're gonna fit the 30+ new bolts of
Alexander Henry due in any day now..)

Precious Anna poses in her purple skirt made from one of our favorite
Kokka prints. And of course her doll needed one to match. :)

Laura came in to shop wearing her gorgeous Barcelona skirt she
made in Pat's class last summer.

To honor the first birthday we have a celebration planned for
Saturday, March 14th, 11-5
We will have a real birthday party with birthday hats, decorations,
great gift ideas and drawings where you could win a present.
We will draw a name every half hour from 11am - 5pm
and give away some great stuff.
So mark your calendar for March 14th
and come party!

The GOOD FOLKS are here!!

Only a few gray days ago, our dearly loved UPS man rolled up to our front door. His dolly brought in slippery tracks of slush and salt but this didn't matter so much once we saw who he brought with him. It's the "Good Folks" by Anna Maria. Twenty-one new beautiful prints. Bright blooms cheerfully alluding to the Spring to come.


What divine timing. Seeing as how much of Columbus is all gray/brown and icy these days. We needed a heavy saturation of color. And who better to deliver color then the brilliant designer Anna Maria Horner.




Certainly I couldn't go home without a happy little pile of my own.

Here's to new projects and neglected house work! :)
Your shoppe blogger,
April

Yeah!!

Healthy and happy.
Aelyn's back to her old tricks... running around "her" shoppe, eagerly awaiting customers to entertain by dancing to Moby, sprawling herself out in the middle of the sales floor...
or just sitting cutely on her shelf amongst the beautiful prints of Anna Maria. :)




Meanwhile I finally had a chance to do a little photo shoot with the adorable winners of our Holiday Sheep Contest.
Here they are as voted by you...

Winners!

Adult division

1st place : Alfi
made by Martha

2nd place: Petey
made by: AnnMarie

3rd place: Tastie
made by Holly

Young Sewers Division

1st place: Bluebell
made by Sarah

2nd place: Shearie
made by Annalise

Congratulations! And thanks again to everyone who entered. It was so much fun seeing all the wonderful and uniquely personal sheep each maker came up with. May you continue making happy little buddies like these.. because you are never to old for something soft and friendly!

Happy Every-Day and Joyful New-Year!

Hello friends,
Hope you all have had joyful and love filled days with your family and friends.
We are greatly looking forward to a New Year of service to you and to our sewing community. There are many wonderful things coming up, two that I am particularly excited about. The first: Over 20 prints of Anna Maria Horner's gorgeous NEW line Good Folks (oh, look at this too!), due to arrive January '09! and second our Shoppe is gonna have it's first Birthday! February '09. Yippy :)

Happy New-Year,
From your friends at Sew To Speak.



P.S. My apologies for not yet sharing pictures of the winning sheep. I will be posting some soon, I promise. But first things first... my baby's got a flu bug we've gotta nip. When it's safe to come out of quarantine we'll be going straight to the shoppe to visit Grammy, feed my fabric addiction and snap some pictures of those winning sheep.

Share With Us!

Bashful Behhhny says
"Tis the season for sharing, giving and gratitude".

I (April) recently created a Flickr group for the shoppe. Actually for all of you who shop at "the Shoppe" to share the goodies that you've made out of our fabrics, with us and with one another. If you're already a Flickr member it is really easy to add your pictures to our group. Just join our Flickr group here and then go to your own photostream, view a photo you'd like to share with us, above it you will find an "send to group" button, select our "Sew To Speak" group, and your pic is in. If you are not a flikr member you may consider joining, it's free, easy and lots of fun, click on the flickr link above to see more.

We would truly be delighted if you shared with us. We'd especialy love to see all of the handmade gifts you're giving this year.

On behalf of The Sew to Speak Team - Thank you for being a part of our shop and our lives. Happy Days to all of you and your families!!
April Rhodes.

Hello, long time no blog! / Washed and ready to SEW

Hey friends! It has been far too long since my last post... over a month... wow, how time flies. There has been lots of great things keeping mom (Anita) and I busy.
The most notable is our newly walking shoppe girl. My daughter, our darling Aelyn, started walking about a month ago and has had me running ever since. Therefore, I haven't had much time to sit down and blog. And it certainly doesn't help that every time I pull up to the computer my little munchkin waddles over to me, points to the screen and sputters "baybay, baybay" witch means she would like to sit on my lap and watch baby videos of herself :) Sooooo cute! but not at all productive.
Here's one of the most recent videos I've taken... Check out those facial expressions, so silly.


Other than that we've both (Anita and I) been busy on our machines. My mom has sewn several new samples for the store and just finished an awesome cape, sorry no pictures, you'll just have to stop by the shoppe and see it. As for me, I finally finished a pillow project for my dear friend Tracy and can't wait to start my next little project. The beautiful fibers have already been washed and are longing to be cut and sewn . . . .

"Nouveau Bouquet" in rose, from Anna Maria's Drawing Room and a gorgeous red cotton velveteen. mmmm... yummy!!!

. . . more on that soon to come (and I promise not to leave you waiting a whole month this time).
Sincerely,
April

HOT OFF THE PRESS

New shoppe cards are here...

It's always fun to switch up the design just a bit.
This time mom asked if I could include both of our little owl friends.
At first I just had them floating in the frame but that didn't seem right.
I thought "these owls need some branches to rest on while they talk about their love of sewing".
So I gave them branches and I think they look pretty happy now.
The end.
:) April