back to reality

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Things were busy over here, as usual, but thankfully we had a great time. Just wanted to let you all know that I will be taking a little blogging break from sotosofties for a bit. I'll be back in mid-January, hopefully with a whole slew of new designs to share with you and maybe even a pattern or two. Right now, I need to focus on family and on working on a few crafty endeavors that are not softie-related. I want to actually finish a quilt or two and do some selfish crafting. I don't really celebrate Christmas with my family; we celebrate "El Dia de los Reyes," which is on January 6th. Hence, I luckily have two weeks to get cranking on gifts for my family, provided my right hand stops hurting. There are a few other familial obligations for January, so I won't really have time to work on stuff for the shop.

Besides, 'tis the season for change as far as this blog and the shop go. There are a few things that I need to work out as far as how I do business through the shop. I am not sure if I want to do commission work again. I had a couple of experiences this season that really left a bad taste in my mouth, and I am seriously wondering if it is worth my while to continue doing commissions. Also, as you can see, the poll for whether it is alright to reserve non-commissioned pieces for people through etsy has closed and the majority of you (3 to 1) say it is okay to do so. I think it's fine, too, but to be honest with you, I am not so sure about the waiting lists for specific items. After all, if you are on my mailing list, you are notified immediately when I post new stuff onto etsy. As it is, I don't think the system I am utilizing right now is the most efficient. I need to rethink all these things and then some. I'm sorry and hope I am not offending anyone by talking about it on here. I hope I am not being tacky as all get-out, but the truth is that I feel I need to be clearer about my policies. If I discuss them here and get feedback from an open forum, then it helps me make better decisions, I think. Anyway.... There are a few softie-related projects that I am extremely excited about which are still in the embryonic stage. Once I get those going and am free to discuss them without fear of jinxing anything (yes, I am superstitious that way), I will be sharing that on here with you at great length (because I am that excited about them). One more thing - this blog will be strictly softie-related going forward. That was my intention when I first started this blog, but I haven't been faithful to it. What can I say? Life is multi-faceted. It's hard for me to stay on-topic all the time. I'll be talking about my other crafty endeavors (knitting, quilting, whatever), life, books, pop culture and people I heart on inside the softie machine, and I will of course continue my obsessive relationship with Flickr, where you can see all sorts of photos I take. In the meanwhile, thank you all for reading this blog. Thank you for all of your comments and your support this last year. It has meant a lot to me. Wishing all of you all the best in the new year and lots and lots of love.