I can’t believe how long it’s been since I updated here!

Looking after a wee baby and working is turning out to be quite a challenge :)

I am keeping up with shipping your orders out quickly (very important!) but I haven’t found a lot of extra time to make new designs or products… rest assured I am still here, and I hope I will soon be able to work on some of the ideas that have been building up these past few weeks!

In the meantime, a photo of my lovely smiley girl:

We’re starting to get the hang of this baby thing, so I’ve set the date for re-opening Nut and Bee – I’ll be taking orders again from April 19th :D

A couple of products might not be available right away as I’m having some technical/supply issues, but I’m doing my best to sort those out, and I plan to start regular updates with new designs again at the beginning of May!

I don’t intend to turn this into a baby-photo-blog, but I can’t resist posting one more – this is Willow and I yesterday afternoon:

I’ve had a few queries recently about what will be happening with Nut and Bee while we welcome our imminent bean.

I didn’t want to make plans too far in advance, as I didn’t know what these last weeks would be like, but I’m getting to the stage where work is very challenging – especially in this weather, what was I thinking having a summer baby?! – so I’ve decided that my final working day will be February 10th.

After that I will still be contactable by email for customer service queries, and I will be posting miscellaneous things on the blog, but the shopping cart will be disabled and I will not be accepting or shipping orders. (I can’t make any exceptions to that, as it’s a legal requirement that I do nothing other than minor administrative tasks while I’m claiming paid parental leave!)

I plan to open for business again around the beginning of April, though the exact date will depend on when the baby makes its appearance and how quickly I manage to find a satisfactory work routine. I have fantastic family support lined up, so I am hoping for a smooth transition back.

If there is anything you would like in the next couple of months, please place your orders soon! I’ll post another reminder closer to the time. Thank you for your patience, and all the excitement and joy you’ve already shared with us :)

My poor iMac has some serious problems and has to go into the shop tomorrow to get a new hard drive.

Luckily I have a creaky old laptop which gives me web and email access, so I am receiving orders and shipping as normal!

I just wanted to let you know there won’t be any drawings posted for a little while, and next month’s update might be a few days late as I can’t work on it right now.

I also don’t have current access to any emails that came in more than 30-ish hours ago. They are safe on my backup drive, but I can’t reply until I have my main machine back and restore my data. I don’t think there was anything urgent in there, but please send again if you’re waiting for a reply from me.

P.S. Do you back up your computer? If not, please, please start doing so! If I didn’t have two backup systems I would be in so much trouble right now – fortunately, having my data safe means this is more of an annoyance than a crisis :)

The exchange rate has been moving unfavourably for me lately, and after doing a little shipping audit this week it turns out I’m undercharging on most orders.

The differences aren’t much, but they really add up over time, so I’m going to have to put postage up a little bit. There won’t be any change for small/lightweight orders, but larger orders will increase between 25c and $1.00 to Australia, and between 50c and $1.50 to other destinations.

I won’t make the changes until tomorrow, so you can order now and save a wee bit if you like :)

I’ve also been checking stock levels, and I’m running low on Loveblorp and Warm Whale rubber stamps. I won’t be making more of these once they’re gone, so the last ones are strictly while-stocks-last.

Sarah from The Small Object wrote an excellent post about being a maker.

“When you buy handmade directly from an individual, you are investing in me. And not just in me, but in my products, in my ideas and in my own well-being. When you buy something from me, you just gave me a double high five. We just connected and shook hands like mad.”

I love Sarah’s site because every piece she makes has such a clear sense of her own style. Every time you see something new you know it couldn’t have come from anyone else. If you haven’t visited The Small Object before, or recently, I would highly recommend it :)

I’ve been getting a lot of enquiries about amigurumi lately, specifically queries about why I don’t make very many of them and requests for custom work.

Amigurumi is tricky business-wise because while I LOVE the process, it is extremely time-consuming. I feel a little uncomfortable talking about money, but to explain my position it’s important for you to know that after the cost of materials and Etsy/Paypal fees are taken from the sales price I make around $2/hour for the time I put into each piece. That’s okay when I’m just doing a little in front of TV each evening, which is how my amigurumi are currently made, but it means I really cannot afford to take time away from other aspects of Nut and Bee to work on them!

I’ve been hesitant in the past to take on custom requests because I feel that if I accept one project I must accept them all, to be fair to everyone, and then I wouldn’t have any pieces available for general sale. I’d hoped that making the update time known in advance would make it easier for buyers, but actually it just meant that the octopus sold even more quickly than usual, and I received more disappointed emails.

I’ve been thinking about this all day and the best plan I can come up with is:

1) Raise the amigurumi prices a little, so that I can afford to spend more time crocheting. From now on owls will be $30; jellyfish and ghostysquid $32; octopuses and acorns $34; and if I make more complex things (I’m working on a couple of new patterns!) they will be priced accordingly.

2) Accept one custom project per month. I can realistically complete two amigurumi per month without compromising my other work too much, so that will leave one for general sale. I’ll schedule requests in the order they are received, so if you make a “booking” I’ll be able to tell you in which month I can complete your piece.

I hope that sounds okay… it’s the best plan I’ve been able to come up with so far! If you’ve emailed me about amigurumi in the last couple of days I’ll be getting back to you this evening.

P.S. I’d be interested in hearing from other craftspeople how you handle these kinds of situations!