Spring Fever! 9

By Shari Fuller

Thimbles and Acorns

Ahhhh… spring at last! After a long hard Minnesota winter, feeling the warmth in the sunshine again is like a balm to a weary soul. But the beauty of spring is only in its promise… winter always makes an ugly retreat here, leaving a mucky and disheveled world in its wake. As I stand outside, drinking in warm sunshine, the fresh earthy smells, and the cheerful twitter of the returning songbirds, my spirit stirs, and I am eager to put the world in order again… but outside, the world is still chaffing from winter and is not ready to be meddled with, so I will need to satisfy myself with putting my home in order first.

Spring has been making its way into our house in the form of muddy footprints and the continual battle to keep my floors clean has made me keenly aware of how disorderly things had become over our long winter reclusion. My boys became the first victims of my pent up energy, and while they were away at school one day last week, I began the task of shoveling all the dirt and clutter out of their room into the living room… be it known, they had been forewarned the weekend before to clean up their room themselves, or I would do it for them. Their first reaction was one of dismay when they saw the mountain of dirty clothes, toys, books, and old school papers they needed to sort through. However, as they began finding long lost treasures amongst the rubble, they soon caught the revitalizing effect of spring themselves. I was surprised at how centralizing their mess sped up the process, as they were able to take care of pretty much everything before dinner. With all the clutter removed from their room, it became apparent that some mending was in order as well. A large hole in one wall… due to a misdirected bow and arrow project, and some scuffed up paint… due to some rather energetic wrestling matches, left the room looking a bit shabby. The final touch this weekend will be a lesson in patching sheetrock and then a trip to the paint store to pick out a fresh new color for their walls. Though these changes don’t affect the overall structure of their room, they do make a big difference in how it feels and how it works for them.

Over the winter, we have spent a lot of time moving forward on numerous projects here at Thimbles and Acorns, but just like in my boys room, the disorder created in the process has gotten a little out of control. As a creative person, I thrive in a certain amount of chaos, but when that chaos begins to overtake my ability to work efficiently, it is high time to do a little spring cleaning and reorganization. Tom and I have loved having the opportunity to get our business up and running. Rolling up our sleeves and learning by doing has been a fascinating process and has been a great way to develop new skills and discover what we are really good at… and what we are not so good at. Let’s just say that managing our own website shop is something we are not so good at. After wrestling with it for several months, we decided it was time to get someone to help us so we can focus on the heart of our business. Over the next several weeks, we will be transitioning our website store over to Pixie Faire, an online marketplace specifically for doll clothes patterns. Everything at our website will still be the same, only now, our shop will link over to PixieFaire.com where your checkout experience will be smooth and secure. In case you are wondering, this will not affect our Etsy site in any way. As we make the transition over to Pixie Faire, we are finally going to begin the process of editing and revising all of our patterns. To be more recognizable, pattern covers will be updated so they have a uniform style. To be more user friendly, multi-sizes will be split into separate patterns that can be purchased individually at $8.99 or with the optional bundle of all the available sizes for $10.99.

While doing my business spring cleaning, I noticed that my Facebook page is just 5 likes away from 500! Seems to me, we should do something to celebrate this marker, so let’s play another game of “Who read this article to the very end?” This time, however, the game will start once we reach 500 likes on my Facebook page. So, here is what I have this month… currently, I am in the process of designing a new 18^th century pattern, and I am also working on the next “Keepers” pattern. This, of course, means I will have some really nice prototypes in need of a good home. After the 500 likes are met, I will begin listing the prototypes on my Etsy site for $10 each… to know when each item is listed, watch for the notification of “500 and counting” on my Facebook page… only those of you who have read this article will know what this means. These outfits may be prototypes, but they will be high quality in construction and materials. At this point, I am not sure how many will be made available, but there should be at least five. The $10 purchase includes the outfit listed, a wood hanger, and shipping! This offer will be good until the next newsletter comes out, so keep your eyes peeled!