WIX - My experience so far

Some of you may have seen in your Facebook News Feed, 

an ad for an easy way to build your own website using templates

over at WIX.

I was looking for an affordable way to have my own nice and

professional looking website for my business so I decided to check it out. 

So far I am super pleased with it! 

I dont know much about building websites, let alone anything to do with

"behind the scenes" type of stuff to do with computers

and the internet, so when I saw how easy it really was and that it

is fairly inexpensive - even to upgrade to Premium - I decided to try it out.

As some of you may know, I will be splitting Tumblestone up

in to two separate entities in the coming new year - This blog, The Tumblestone Facebook Page and 

of course the super pretty Etsy Shop will remain "Tumblestone" but the name will

slightly change to "Tumblestone Studio" and will only be my beautiful jewelry.

I will be growing my custom sewn business as it has been so 

successful and it will have it's own name - Which is a secret for now!

Once it launches, it will have it's own Facebook page, blog, Pinterest, Twitter and Website - and

that's where the WIX site comes in! 

I am so happy with how easy the WIX site has been, I'm finding it quite similar to

using Blogger templates - but a little more fun!

I bought my own domain name from GoDaddy and hooked it up to my new site

which was super easy and have been steadily working on it - making it

exactly what I had envisioned - This dream is becoming a reality and I am SO excited 

and having so much fun watching it unfold and grow!

I wont be launching it until my custom sewn wait list has been whittled down

quite a bit more - It's currently sitting at about 3 1/2 months long - So it will be

awhile yet! But in between sewing away, creating jewelry and building my new site, I

have been trying to tie up loose ends, such as purchasing my new sew in labels with my brand

name and website on them - I researched this quite a bit and decided to go

with RememberWynn on Etsy - they have some neat, different and fun 

labels, I cant wait until they come so I can actually brand my creations properly :)

Does anyone have any advice they can give me for starting up

a new website or branding? 

Do you have any good sites that you can point me to with resources 

or anything I may need for my business?

So far I still need a logo and business cards - I'm sure a lot more... 

Christmas pre-orders are almost FULL! Get your order in!

Wow, Already that time!

I know I had quite a few people say earlier on in the year that

they wanted to get a couple of my ever popular 

Minky Munkins from me as Christmas gifts for their children.

I thought I would give you all a heads up that I've only got a few 

spots left (6 at this very moment) for Minkie Munkin pre-orders.

Isn't she adorable!?

Minkie Munkins are approx. 10"X20" and you can choose from

a girl (with your choice of bow color/s) or a boy (no bow).

I designed and created my own pattern using my own imagination and 

these Minkie Munkins have found homes worldwide!

The dimpled minkie fabric is the softest stuff around, usually found on

high quality baby blankets. 

Since at the moment my wait list for custom sewn items is quite long (It's that time

of year!) The earliest any of the pre-orders will be shipped out is 

November 15th and the latest being November 25th.

After these spots are filled I will no longer be making Minkie Munkins

as next year I am starting a separate GIANT sewing project

and I just wont have the time. So these are very limited. 

The project next year is quite exciting.....

For more information, photos and pricing the listing in my Etsy shop is

~> HERE <~

I hope all who wanted one gets one, I know that there are 

quite a few of you.

Enjoy!

Back to school earrings :)

I made some pretty earrings for a special lil girl for

her back to school gift!

Sometimes I like trading and bartering rather than taking money,

especially from someone as talented as Sabrina Blok

of Sab's Creations!

Here are the pretty earrings that I made for Bella :)

Arent they lovely?!

She is the cutest little girl and she's so girly! She's going

to love them :) Also, since she is a child I put niobium ear wires on so

she shouldnt be irritated at all. I love the hand blackened brass and Czech glass together.

She also chose this pretty necklace to give to Bella's last teacher/sitter/friend

at the end of last year for the barter. 

OOPS! I noticed my spelling error I did there in the watermark....!

2 beautiful pieces!!

Want to see what I got in return??

I LOVE IT!!

The colors in this lil bebe quilt are just so vivid and bright!

I am super excited to become an auntie soon :)

Only 4 weeks left! 

I chose this quilt because I LOVED the colors - and that Minkie 

fabric - so soft!

That was before we knew that baby Farrah is a girl!!

She did offer to switch it for a more feminine one, but I just love this quilt

so much! I really am not in to the standard stereotypes anyways.

Megan (my sister) hasnt received this gift from me yet, but I dont think

she reads my blog anyways!  

I got the quilt months ago and she got the necklace way back when,

but Bella just got her Back to School earrings today, so I thought I would share.

enjoy!

Minky Munkins - Now available to ship!

Minky Munkins!

I have an announcement that I know quite a few

of you are going to be excited about!....

Previously these cute 'lil Munkins were only

available to purchase locally - but I have listened to

your requests and have decided to add them to the shop!

They are just so darned cute!

They can be 'lil boy Munkins.....

Or 'lil girl Munkins....

You can even choose the color of her bow :)

I have never worked with Minky previously but I think

I am hooked! Within the next month or two I will be

expanding the Minky line - the Mommy's of the world

can shop for their jewelry here and while they are, they can

pick something up for the kiddos too :D

Enjoy!

Pumpin' out the Munkins!

A little while back I had a custom sewn order

that was heading to the UK.

It was for two lil' stuffies for 2 special lil' girls.

They wanted a bebe monkey head

and a unicorn. 

Here is the lovely photo they sent me to show

me that they had arrived safely to the UK:

What a lovely photo! Thanks girls!

I loved these creations so much that I decided for my booth

for the upcoming MissionFest I'm going to have these 

creatures available, I hope all of the children like them

and want one! 

I call the monkey "Munkin" and the

past few days in between packing to move Ive

been pumpin' out the Munkins!!

But this time.........

I'm using that super soft dimpled minky fabric.

Minky Munkin!!! Oh-so-soft!!

I'm hoping to make quite a few for the booth. 

Not sure if I will be able to get to the unicorns, but 

I will be taking 2 weeks off of work before the event

so I'm hoping to get as much as I want completed. 

Usually before a booth it's insane because Im working 8-12 hr 

days at the shop then sewing til 4am to do it over again

but this time I wont have to, it will be so nice!!!

I hope that you enjoy the Munkins!

Heres one more goofy shot for you....

Lola the Munkin & Una the Unicorn! My newest creations.

I just wanted to show off my most recent custom

order, Lola the Munkin

&

Una the Unicorn!

They are going to love their new home

all the way on the other side of the world...

in England!

I hope you enjoy them!

GIANT beard/moustache pillow!!!

As a lot of you know, 

I LOVE getting my goofy custom sewn orders!!

A while back I got a message from one of my lovely 

customers, asking if I could make a "salt & pepper"

beard and moustache combo pillow!

The recipient that she was giving it to was turning the big 4-0

And she wanted to bug him just a lil bit.... 

So I found the perfect super fuzzy fleece with flecks of grey

hairs throughout!!! Hahahahaha!

Aw Jordan! Youre not that old! 

A super goofy picture of myself playing with it before
sending it off to it's new owners!

I always get excited when this particular group of people

request something from me because it's always

so super fun and goofy.

They are the same that got me to make the 

cheese platter & scalloped potatoes

A photo of the new owner loving his new pillow!
It's soooo cuddly and soft!! I'm so glad they all loved it!

I just wanted to share my goofy most recent custom order!

Thanks for looking!

I have made quite a few goofy things for people in the past. 

What is the strangest thing a person has asked you to make for them?

Ive made my favorite owl pillow so far!

I think I'm in love!

Some of you know that when I touched a sewing machine 

for the first time ever I made an owl pillow, 

I havent shared that story here in BlogLand

yet, but I will!

Since then, I havent changed my original patterns 

that I designed at all,

I'm still using the two originals. 

Since I am going to be having a booth at a 

local coffee shop soon (will be announced tomorrow),

I have decided to

stock up on my signature owls. 

I played with a few fabrics and found 

such a wonderful color combo,

I am sad to get rid of it (I cant keep them all! 

I do make them to sell!)

Someone is already interested and would 

like to come and look at it in 

person tomorrow :)

I'm going to have to stop showing what I make 

or Im not goingto have any stock at the show!!

Anyways, here's my newest creation, I love her colors!

And her vintage button eyes are just perfect!

Oh yes, I am in love!

The owl pillow is leaning against one of my "blonde"

moustaches, Those swirls are not a part of the owl pillow!

If you would like to have a look at the other owls and past projects,

 have a look here.

I hope you enjoy her!

Dog memorial pillow

A couples of months ago, a lovely lady I know asked if I could make her a

custom pillowof her dog that had recently passed away.

She had a cute little Boston Terrier named Rocky.

I had met him a few

times and he was so happy and active! Oh how I miss having a dog!

She gave me a picture of him to use for inspiration:

Oh that picture made me howl when I saw it for the first time! Hehe!

I've only had large dogs myself, Laddie the massive and

oh~so~gentle Doberman X German Shepard and

Shadow the wonderful German Shepard X Rhodesian Ridgeback.

They really do become a part of the family and its so sad to see them go.

Alan (my husband)and I have been thinking about getting a dog, he's never had one growing up

and I dont think its something that one should go without having in their lifetime!

Anywho, back to the pillows... this is the first Rocky pillow I had made for her:

Hahaha! Oh I love it!

I just love how it turned out! It does actually say "ROCKY" above his head

but I chose this photo so you can see the details.

She then recently asked me to do the same pillow again but with a

red background:

In this one you can see his name above :)

Oh I love it, she came and picked it up about an hour ago

and of course just loved it!

I love making special things for people, I love to see the smiles on their faces.

It's so special to me.

Enjoy!



Cthulhu Dreamin' (Ooooh the cute lil' octopus?!)

I have this strange fascination with H.P Lovecraft's character Cthulhu...

Before I decided to make my own Cthulhu items I would sit online searching the web for anything Cthulhu I could find. The one thing about Cthulhu items, since they are usually quite intricate and usually some kind of sculpture or art piece, I found most things Cthulhu were quite pricey.

For any of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, or have never heard the word Cthulhu before, I will give you a quick lesson.

Cthulhu is no children's character.

He is a scaly beastly creature, trapped in the sea and is part octopus, dragon and human combined.

He has long tentacles and wings and he is massively huge!

There is quite the following surrounding this creature and Cthulhu items are not easy to come across.

Soooo, I decided to make my very own Cthulhu pillow.

When I posted the finished pillow on to Tumblestone's Facebook page, I got a swarm of people wanting their very own Cthulhu pillows and one guy has even asked if I can make him a Cthulhu couch cover!

The pillows that I have done are just of Cthulhu's head, his body is massive and has huge wings, so I thought to just stick with his head for now. With that being said, A LOT of people that have no idea who nasty, creepy, scary Cthulhu is would ask me,

"I would like one of your cute little octopus pillows please! We just love octopus'!"

How can I argue with  that?!

I say what he is but on my pillows he does kinda look like an octopus doesnt he?

  But........!

He does look like Cthulhu too! Cthulhus are one of my more popular pillow styles

(besides the moustaches of course!)

I want to make a nice Cthulhu throw blanket next, with a massive monster on it! That would be awesome!

At this moment in time I only have one more custom order to finish and I'm set!

So possibly soon :)

Enjoy the rest of your day all! Back to sewing it is for me!

          

I LOVE my customers! They ask for such silly things....!

Hey all!

So I've gotten yet another custom sewn request that was a bit on the odd side :)

Around Festivus time last year (for all you people that dont know what Festivus is feel free to Google it....

it's right around Christmas time), I got a rather silly request from a customer to make sewn up scalloped potatoes to bring as a gift to the Festivus feast. There is a short story about that here.

Here are a couple of photos of how they turned out:

If these were real scalloped potatoes, cooked not sewn, they would be all dried out &
burnt! Luckily Im married to a man that loves to cook and is actually great at it and I can sew!!!

So, seeing as how I absolutely love a good challenge and love odd requests even more, I was excited when I got a custom request from a different person from that same group of friends.

This time it was for a person within the group that cant stand cheese! 

Cheese?! I LOVE cheese!! 

If I could I would put it on everything and buy fancy cheeses all the time :)

mmmmmmmmmmm......!!!

She said the stinkier the better, possibly a pillow? 

After much brainstorming, I decided to make a cheese platter with a few different types of 

cheeses on it. It is all hand sewn, except for the holy cheese and crackers!

So without further ado......

The Cheese!!

So I've included a circle of brie cheese with 2 triangle pieces cut out of it, 

a hunk of stinky blue cheese, 4 slices of holy swiss (I know its not usually yellowy orange, but we needed some color!) and 5 crackers complete with sesame seeds on top for added detail!

I didnt realize until after it was picked up that I didnt take a picture of the back of the plate... It is a white fleece and in the middle I hand sewed my TH logo just like a makers mark stamp :)

Showing all pieces are separate

That was so fun to make! I cant wait to see what custom requests I get to do next!

For now, I'm finishing a few other ones for people, pillows of a lovely ladies' dog and a couple requested character stuffies and trying to get myself all stocked up so I can do the handmade market next week!
I better get back to it... A lot of work to catch up on!!


Thanks for reading! I always appreciate comments!

The stranger side of Tumblestone Handmakery...!

I thought it would be a funny to show the stranger side of Tumblestone handmakery!

  For the most part, I have made a lot of super cute throw pillows for customers, including the super duper lovely vintage-like owls of different shapes and sizes, video game characters, requested stuffed animals from a childs' favorite show etc.... but sometimes I get a bit of an odd request.



(Photo of the blood pillow has been removed so I can post this on family friendly blog hops!)

 There are a few strange items I had already made without the suggestion of customers of course, like the pool of blood pillows... so that when you lie on your comfy pillow, it looks like there had been a bad accident!! The material is so perfect for the blood too, it's got a wonderful "wet" looking satin finish to it... perfect!

 The uterus heating pad which is actually amazingly shaped for cramp relief!
After you heat it in the microwave, when it is applied to the crampy area, the nice, warm fallopian tubes reach around your sore back as well!     BONUS!  
These uteri are so awesome, I even put microwaveable glass marble sized beads in each ovary.... they feel like they are full of ovum! Weird!



Then there are the strange things that customers have asked me to make.

  Some ask if I can alter things that I already have made... one guy asked me if I could take one of my cute owl pillows, give one a stump leg, pirate eye patch and a cigarette hanging out of it's beak! That was actually pretty rad.

Shortly after that order, around the Festivus holiday season, a customer inboxed me asking if I could whip him up a pan of scalloped potatoes....
I guess his sister (or sister in law?) has this almost phobia of scalloped potatoes...
The smell, the taste, and from what I hear even the simple mention of scalloped potatoes makes her quite literally gag! (I'm like that with eggs.....)
  So the plan was, when they were to get together for the evenings' Festivus feast, they were going to give her her "gag" gift!

   I had no idea how I was going to sew up some scalloped potatoes, no idea at all.... after brainstorming and looking through my fabrics, I ended up using the bottom of a gift box (to keep the shape of the pan), wrapping that with padding and fabric, and then cutting out countless different sized ovals and circles out of a tight wool batting and sewed each one on to a white sheet. From then I attached the "potato" covered sheet to the "pan" and VOILA! Scalloped potatoes!!
They are seriously amazing and look real dont they?!

   I hear that it has been taken over by her cats, they on the other hand LOVE scalloped potatoes and sleep on their new comfy bed all the time! So it is actually going to good use!

  I cant wait to share the request I'm working on now.... I cant expose what it is though as of yet.... it's a surprise gift for someone, and I cant let the cat out of the bag for now... but I will post it once the recipient gets her surprise gift! 

  All of my previous work can be seen on Tumblestone's Facebook page and I am always happy to do custom orders for anyone who asks!  

Build your own Owl is here!!

Yay! I have finally got the Build your own custom Owl pillow album up on the Tumblestone Facebook page!!
It's great since the owls are just so adorable but a lot of the time the pillow doesnt match your decor or maybe you just want to browse through the fabrics and choose something more "you".
There are loads of different styles of fabrics to go through and two different owl styles of which I posted the two photos. The three owls in the photos were previously sold. Here is the album.

Arent they cute?! If you arent much in to owls, I am always open to doing custom orders... so far no request has been denied! I have many many different types, just have a look through the Tumblestone Pillows - Ready to Ship albums and the Items that have found new homes album for inspiration.

If you could choose any shape or themed decorative pillow, what would it be??