Martha Stewart Living Magazine!!

So we at Mahalo.Etsy have skills - design skills.  Children's dress up clothes skills.  Sewing skills.  Maybe we are even pretty skilled in other areas of our lives but blogging....this might not be our best skill.  BUT just in case we have fans from our circles of friends as well as our customer friends from the Etsy shop here is a post about what had kept the gals at Mahalo busy for so long:

See the skill there - it won't rotate.  Trust me I tried. Several times. Ok we will move on.  So we were contacted by Martha's people in October 2011 and asked for samples of our Woodland Masks set for consideration for an article on Winter Boredom for Kids in the upcoming February 2012 issue.  After several long shouting with excitement sessions and some jumping up and down, the samples were sent off to the studios in New York City.  And then we waited...... Suddenly in mid-January a friend of mine sent me a Facebook message to congratulate us on the feature in the February issue.  Again the shouting and jumping commenced. There it was - Mahalo.Etsy right on the pages of MSLM and a great picture of several of the masks. Here are the pictures: (not of the jumping, of the magazine - though the jumping and shouting should have been recorded by my husband, you would have enjoyed it)

And then we saw the ipad version of the magazine:

Even more amazing!!!!! And you click on the masks to be routed to our website. I am not getting paid by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to say this (trust me - I owe them for this exposure, not the reverse) but the her ipad version of the magazine is my favorite ipad app!! If you've never tried it, I highly endorse trying at least one.  The features are amazing and entertaining. Photo's just as beautiful as you'd expect and informative articles. Well done ipad app department.  Well done.

Here is the set and the link for purchase:

Now, during said excitement we were very occupied with making 1100 animal masks and 200 capes and 200 masks for Gilt.com.  We are currently featured in "The Perfect Easter Basket" sale

The items in the sale (discounted from our retail shop prices) are - The Chocolate Bunny Mask set of 3 (white, milk and dark chocolate), Farm Mask Set (bunny, chicken, pig, goat), Bunny and Duck Set (bunny, duck, chick, mouse), Boys Red Super Cape / Mask Combo, and Girls Pink Super Cape / Mask Combo.  All of this sewing did not leave much time to properly celebrate the magazine feature.  But trust us, both of these events are very proud moments for Bethany and Alisha (myself). 

There are many exciting new designs coming to Mahalo this year - including the Peep inspired masks on the site now:

And the bird wing cape, also on the site now:

So keep watching.  Next month the circus may come to town! www.mahalo.etsy.com

Pinterest

They say lack of posting is the death in the blogging world.  We know that reality all too well.  If you're reading this then perhaps you've just stumbled upon us or you're for whatever reason still hang on to the hope that "maybe" we will again post.  Thank you for your dedication. lol.  Mahalo has been doing so much these days in the way of our online business that the blogging part has unfortunately fallen to the wayside.  We are hoping to change this and vow to try our hardest to post more frequently.

Just to reward you for reading I'll throw out a quick 2 day promo code.  Enter: pixiedust as the coupon code when checking out and you will receive 20% off your purchase.  It's a great time to think ahead to Christmas ;) http://www.etsy.com/shop/mahalo

So....on to what the actual title of this blog post is: PINTEREST.  Definitely one of my new favorite websites.  I've known of "pinterest" for a while, but it was recently that I started "pinning" things and really took hold of the idea that is "pinterest".

How to Join:  Well you are either "invited" via e-mail by someone who thought you would enjoy the site OR you can click on the "request an invitation" button on the site.  Either one works.

Here is the link directly to the "about" page on pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/about/

*Warning*  Upon signing up the site will link to your facebook account and find any facebook "friends" who also use the website.  This can be intimidating to some as there is already the sense among us that facebook is stalking us. ;)  If you feel this way (as my friend Heather does) then no worries.  You can simply "unfollow" any friends that you prefer not to connect with in a world other than facebook.

So... once you've signed up and been confirmed as a real person.  You will start "pinning" and "liking" things; all the while categorizing them into either "prenamed" categories that pinterest starts for you OR categories that you name (this is my preference).

I've found hair styles for my girls on there like this:

Craft Ideas like this amazing wreath:

Home Design Ideas (This one is great for my kids as we are expecting our 5th to arrive over the next 4 weeks):

Amazing Culinary Ideas and Tricks of the Trade:

and great organizational ideas for our homeschool:

All of these ideas and MORE are all categorized waiting for me to have the time and resources to accomplish on my own!!  I've already done the above hair style twice on my 6 year old and it looks amazing!  I'm planning out our Christmas almost 100% based on ideas found right off pinterest.  It saves me a ton of time by putting all these wonderful ideas in one location.  No more searching the internet for hours on end to find that one idea that I need.

Next new website for me to check out: Stumble Upon http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Thanks for reading and sticking with us!  Did you know Alisha's masks will be featured in another amazing magazine this upcoming year?  Stay posted..... (we'll try not to keep you waiting as long this time) ;)

Mahalo,
Beth

Celebrate 1000

The way I remember it......In November 2006 (or sometime slightly before that) my sister Beth came to me and said "lets sell these great things we enjoy making for children on line - I found a site called Etsy that would work really well for us."  I had been making the felt puppets since my son was 4 (2001) and Beth had been sewing beautiful clothing and other items from time to time for her children as well.  I was a bit computer challenged yet she picked up that end and taught me along the way.  We have been designing and creating dress up clothes, puppets and other creations for mothers and babies ever since.  We've been busy working our shop as well as raising families - I slowly moving in to the preteen/teen phase exclusively and she continues to build her beautiful family inviting a new precious child into their home this November.   All this while continuing to be creative and enjoying using our sewing talents to add to our shop.

A couple months ago we were approached by a writer for Parenting Magazine who found our shop and asked to feature the Woodland Masks.  Yes, please.  What a great opportunity!  We've never been in a magazine - a national magazine for that matter.  And so last week Parenting Magazine August 2011 hit the stands and there we were.... www.mahalo.etsy.com featured right in the article with a 1/4 page photo of our masks. Letting everyone else know what we already thought - our masks are great for birthday parties as well as dress up fun.

This is so exciting.  There was one even more cool detail....we had been at 999 sales on our etsy shop for almost a week, maybe a bit less and all of the sudden we received and email from a customer who read about us in a magazine and wanted to customize the set.  A bear instead of a rabbit:

YES we customize.  And sooooo on July 15th we made our 1000th sale from Mahalo!  (We've made countless sales to family and friends so this number was most likely surpassed years ago but....now we can see the sales total in our shop over 1000) 

***insert balloons and confetti flying about here***  

Hooray for Mahalo, 

Hooray for sisters doing something they enjoy together, 

Hooray for enjoying what we do both for business and as mothers in our homes, 

Hooray for Etsy for designing such a user friendly site for people to sell their creative designs.

 Hooray for using our God given talents and creativity in a super fun way.

Hooray for Parenting Magazine featuring us and 

Hooray to our customers!!

Thank you for supporting artisans, hand made items and small business.

Ta Da!

I did it! 
I made chenille. 

Oh my, I am thankful for this new skill and for this great blog that shared the skill! I don't even care if it is silly that I am this excited about chenille.  I enjoyed every bit of learning this and there are a few tedious parts.  Plus I was able to make this adorable blanket for my friend who just had her little boy (a little too early BUT he is doing great thank the Lord).   
 

It starts with : Zoology Sea Michael Miller Fabric and three layers of super soft flannel from the fabric store..

And then after you follow all the steps from the link you will have a finished blanket that is so soft! One side note - she uses home decor fabric as the outer print fabric, I do not prefer that option at it would not be as soft. 

There it is - the newest skill from the sewing corner.  

Get Organized....Part 1

taming the

L A U N D R Y

One of my long time goals has been to be an organized woman.  This is a challenge for me; as it is for most of us artsy types.  ;)  Just to be completely transparent.... I am so disorganized simply by nature that when I sew something I very happily and freely toss my cut threads onto the floor beneath me.  (It is quite freeing... you should try it sometime. lol).  Honestly I never even thought much of this until my sister (business partner as well) saw me do this and started laughing.  I had no idea what she was laughing about until she told me that people normally don't do this.  This installment of the "get organized" series of posts will have nothing to do with the thread issue... baby steps people.... baby steps. ;) I simply wanted you to know who the writer is... a genuinely organizationally challenged individual.  It takes me quite a bit of effort.  One area that I feel I HAVE mastered however is laundry.

Have you ever had to climb Mt. Killaman Laundry in your home?  I have!  Sorting the clothes down the hallway in our small ranch style home with first floor laundry used to be the norm for us.  Not anymore!  This is one area that we got under control prior to the arrival of our fourth child.  It was almost a prerequisite of sorts for me.  I determined that another child would mean another mountain of laundry and I was not going to climb over them any more!  Thus, our laundry solution.

Here it is in steps:

1. Get rid of the laundry hampers in each individual room.  This might or might not work for you depending on the set up of your home.  For us it works.  If you must have hampers in the rooms due to the laundry being on different floors or due to distance from the laundry room then I recommend that you keep them SMALL! Why? Because the smaller the hamper the less often you will have a, "Mom, I don't have any clean underwear." moment upon completion of your doing the laundry. ;)

2. Replace and relocate the laundry hampers (or just relocate the old ones).  We replaced them with new Antonius white ones from IKEA.

 We started with 3 of these but then added two more.  They were placed in our laundry area, then labeled with stickers that you would purchase for marking your mailbox with your name.  These stickers are wonderful!  They stick great and they are cheap.  You can find them at Lowe's or any other hardware store I'm sure.

Antonius Laundry Bag + Stand from IKEA $12.99ea.

Here's what we put on the flap of each laundry bag:  BRIGHTS, DARKS, WHITES, on the two that we added later we put DELICATES and TOWELS.

3.  Require everyone to sort his/her own laundry!  This cuts out a ton of time for you as the mom.  Believe me it works!  Even a 2 year old can figure this out rather quickly, or be helped along by an older sibling.

4.  When a basket fills you dump it in.  That's it!  It's amazing, and I have not seen another Mt. Killaman Laundry in the house since we started.  Occasionally I will find a small pile in a room, but it is very easy to tell the responsible party to get it in the proper baskets.


I will add one more super fun and exciting thing!   I just found something new... yes again from IKEA... It's called the Pressa and is simply wonderful!! I think of an octopus but it really has more arms than that  ;)  I guess it looks more like a chandelier for your laundry:

Pressa: Hanging Dryer with 16 clothes clips $4.99

It's amazing!  No more hanging my cloth diapers, bras or other small line dry items over the shower bar ;)

Ok. That's it.  I hope this helps someone with their mountains of laundry ;)  If I can help even one of you weary climbers it was worth it lol.


~Beth~

Make your own seam binding.

So many binding choices and yet.....the possibilities are endless.  You can find such a variety of colors in bias tape but no where on this display will you find orange with white flowers.  (if that's what you need)  You would have trouble finding almost anything with a print or stripe.  Wait a moment, I must now retract that statement before I even post.... There are some really cute Japanese prints made into double fold bias tape on etsy and also this great designer from Australia has a few sweet print bias tapes.  So the real issue is finding something that matches your project. 

This brings me to a conversation with my sister and partner in business.  Which is better?  The approximately  $3.75 tool that helps you make bias tape? Or the approximately $64.00 bias tape maker machine?  I can't say I'm 100% qualified to weigh in on that choice because I only have the less expensive tool in my possession.

But I assured her that if you have an iron, this is so easy that I can't see why you'd need to spend the extra.  So here is my little tutorial just to convince her. 

Cut as many strips as you need on the bias of the fabric (sized to package directions - 1 3/4 inch for this tool) and iron them.

Sew the pieces together on the diagonal at a 90 degree angle.

Trim seam to 1/4 inch and iron open.

Feed the end into the tool with the right side of the fabric facing down.

Iron the strip as it exits the tool. Continue to the end moving slowly and carefully making sure the fabric is feeding though straight.

Now, for double fold bias tape, you simply iron this in half.

Ta da!  The only orange with white flower bias tape I've seen today. ;)

I have to say, I could be missing out on something as most of the reviews I have seen give the machine 4-5 stars but I'm pretty sure it's not a tool I'd like to spend the extra $60.25 when I've gotten into a groove with my little inexpensive bias tape maker.

Be inspired and make something this week - maybe even with some custom bias tape.

and the winners are.....

Congratulations!! Please send your address to mahalo.etsy@gmail.com

Winners in your e-mail to us be sure to include the type of cape you would like: boy/girl ~ star w/ initial OR princess crown, lightning bolt, heart emblem.  Also, is it for a baby toddler or kid ;)

Thanks so much for following our ramblings here :)
Bethany and Alisha