Category Archives: Blog

Blog, Mimi Contest, The Pups

I am stuck on you… 2009 magnetic calendar

Posted on by Amanda Jackson

So glad that I got all my Christmas orders out in time! I felt like I was winding down from it all on Sunday. I promised myself that I wouldn't do an ounce of work, but I couldn't help it. I had to at least design some new Mimi stuff.

I don't want to spoil the surprise of the new stationary or magnets, but I will show one thing. The first 10 orders of 2009 will be receiving this awesome Mimi Green fridge calendar.

Cal

Isn't my Cessie a super beautiful calendar girl??

2009 — geez can you believe it?

At home, Blog, Sew Sew Sew, The babes, The Pups

Fell off the Radar…

Posted on by Amanda Jackson

I don’t know how it happened, but I haven’t written a post in a month!

So much has happened since then, so I will give you a quick photo essay to explain my absence.

First, the super awesome Paws on the Run placed a HUGE order with us! I was sewing sewing sewing and then suddenly it was Nov. 12 — time to go to Mexico!
Anad

Here we are riding horses on the beach in Cabo San Lucas.  I would have had a better time if I hadn’t missed my boys so much.

We came home after a week and I had to sew like a crazy woman once again! Got the order out in the nick of time since my order board was starting to overflow!IMG_8575

Then Auggie put jelly all over his belly.  (No this isn’t Dan, it is Auggie. I know it looks EXACTLY like Dan but I know my own child and this is him. It is a good thing my husband is the most handsome man in the world, eh? I am tempted to have another baby just to see if it comes out looking like a clone of myself. It would only be fair.)

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Sometimes the things this guy thinks are a good idea scare me. You’ve seen him eat coffee grinds, eat the dirt from plants, now jelly on the belly. I have my hands full, oh boy.

In my downtime I was surfing the net and read about this poor old, fat, black pug who had been dumped on the side of the highway and had no home. He was sleeping in the shelter, which although very nice, is still a shelter and kind of scary for dogs.  Dan owed me one for a stupid thing he did (no, I don’t have pictures of that;)  ) so I was able to convince him to let us bring this little guy home just until he gets adopted. IMG_8569

Isn’t he sweet? The name the rescue gave him is Rajah, which I love, but he won’t answer to it. He does, however, answer to Harpo and Pug. And trust me, I must have called him a thousand names before he descided which he liked.

He has been such an awesome guy. I am just dying to find him a new owner.

And then there has been Christmas orders for Mimi Green. More on that tomorrow!

Lastly, I got the best Pottery Barn knock off desk I have ever seen for my studio. I was gifted some money for my birthday and I figured I owed it to myself to make my work space nicer since I practlcally live in there!

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I am so loving the shelves below it. And the room! I can actually put more than just my computer on my desk now. Plus, you might have noticed that I have shelves under my table now.  We moved the sawhorses out, which were genius but served no purpose, and replaced them with shelving to hold all my webbing supplies. Another idea I stole from Pottery Barn, only their table like this costs $1000.

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And Cessie loves were her bed sits now — Right in the sun!

Where did I get this desk awesomeness? You might of heard of it, it is a very exclusive little shop called Targ’et Boutique. And last week they had free shipping and 15% off.  What a very happy early birthday present to me huh!?!?

Blog, The babes

Meet my black son and grandpa

Posted on by Amanda Jackson

grandpaIMG_0966 

I am going to preface my post by showing you a recent photo of my grandfather and a recent photo of my son Noah.  I am also going to say that my grandfather is first generation New Mexican, but his family came from Mexico. Noah is Navajo Indian and New Mexican (Hispanic) and both he and my grandfather are SUPER dark complected. Okay, onto my post….

Noah woke up this morning to see a historic day in our country's history. Even at 8 years old he knew the great significance of this. Here is what his unblemished heart said:

Noah: "Mommy who won the election last night?"

Me: "Obama did baby."

Noah: "Yes! He changed history right?"

Me: "He did. Isn't it exciting?"

Noah: "Yes. Has anyone else other than Obama ever changed history Mommy?"

Me: "Everyday. Sometimes people do small things to change history, sometimes they do big things."

Noah: "Like when do they change big things?"

Me: "Well when Grandma and Grandpa were born black people couldn't even vote for President …"

Noah interrupting: "You mean Grandpa couldn't vote??!!"

Me laughing a bit : "No honey, Grandpa isn't black."

Noah in shock : "He isn't?? Are you sure? Because he looks like Barack Obama"

Me trying not to giggle: "Yes I am sure. He isn't black. If he were black then I would be and so would you."

Noah in extreme shock: "I am black!!"

Me really really trying not to laugh at him: "No honey, you aren't black you just have dark skin"

Noah looking down at his very dark arm: "But Mommy are you sure?"

Me: "Yes, babe, I am sure. You are Indian, it is different than being Black. Remember we have talked about how you are Indian." 

Noah with a very sad disappointed face: "Oh. But Mommy are you SURE Grandpa isn't Black?"

And then I spent the rest of the day smiling about how beautiful youth is. No one has polluted his brain, no one has killed his innocence. I wish he could just stay that way. 

But maybe this win tells us that people are putting race issues aside for the better good of everyone.   Really it doesn't matter if Noah is Indian or Black or white, nor does it matter what color Obama is. What matters is that we are all people and we all deserve to be seen for so much more than just the color of our skin. 

I am so glad that Noah got to feel a sense of pride this morning, I hope everyone did. Even if Obama wasn't who you wanted to win, we all did get so witness a great moment in our history and I think that it gives way for many more to come. We can all take pride in that.

Blog, Mimi Shows

Craft Show Tips from a Total Beginer, part Deux

Posted on by Amanda Jackson

Okay so I have a few more pointers after Sunday’s Dash and Dawdle:

— Credit Cards are your Good Friends
Half of my sales were charged onto credit cards. No, I couldn’t process them on site, but I took the customers address, phone number and ID info and hoped for the best. Every one of them went through fine.  I love Authorize.net, you sign up with them and you can very easily enter the CC info when you get home.  I would say to get a ‘knuckle buster” (why is it called that???) so you can use the whole carbon receipts — makes you look more legit I think. I couldn’t find one on Craigslist and the only new ones I found were $30 and up so I just write the CC number down on my copy of the receipt and promised to shred it later which seemed fine to the 10 or so people who used credit cards with us.
If I wouldn’t have accepted CCs this weekend I woulnd’t have even made back my booth fee. You would be reading a post from a very sad Amanda today if that had happened.

— Mailing lists are your Best Friends.
Lots of people asked me if they could sign up for our mailing list. The answer sadly was  ‘no’ because I didn’t think to bring a sign up sheet for one. Now, why do you need addresses for interested parties? Because you can send them postcards, coupons, show dates, and thank you notes for coming to your booth. I did get a few addresses for people who ordered tags or used CCs so i sent them thank you notes with a coupon inside the card. They liked our stuff then, they have to like our stuff even more with a discount right??!!??  Email addresses are great and yes I should have had a sign up sheet for those too, but physical addresses that are willingly given are  worth their weight in gold. Here I have a stack of postcards for a Dec. show at a coffee house that I need to send to Albuquerque residents. If I had just had a sign up sheet this weekend I could have those addressed right now ready to mail next month!

I stole this cool photo of the start line for the 5K run from my friend Christina. While I stood in my booth drinking coffee with half and half, eating scones and decorated cookies (basically getting fatter by the minute!) Christina and her dog Max ran the 5K in great time. There was even a huge hill to run! I would have never of made it. Yes, I do run everyday but keep in mind that my average is 2.22 miles in 35 minutes which is a good try, but laughable!

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This leads me to my thrid and finaly tip for the day:

— Stuffing your face because you are nervous is bad.
You will be mad at yourself the next day and it won’t help your sales. I know that leaves very few other stress realving options since scotch, finger nail biting, smoking, and hair pulling are not really good options either, but try deep breathing. I really can’t totally blame myself for this one since Flying Star had their booth right next to ours and they were giving out free food which was great for the runners, not so great for yours truely 😉 Point is, find a way to manage your nerves and you will have so much more fun.

Blog, Mimi Shows

Dash and Dawdle Love

Posted on by Amanda Jackson

We didn’t dash and we didn’t dawdle, but I am sure tired today after the Doggie Dash and Dawdle a the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park yesterday!

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(check Cessie out in the bottom right hand corner– she had a blast until she tried to kill a black dog that was 4 times bigger than her! Then she was in time out for the rest of the day)

We met the nicest people (dog people always are right?) and saw the sweetest dogs. I have to say I was disappointed about one thing: I didn’t see a single Setter! That’s all I wanted to see, preferably an Irish Setter but I would have settled for ANY Setter. Not one. Come on Albuquerque! Is there no Setter love here?  I have been really wanting one since I started reading Lucky Fiona’s blog — she also happens to make Dog collars that are very cool, very different from mine, but very cool none the less — She has 3 gorgeous Setters yet Albuquerque doesn’t seem to have a single one. What is up with that???

I was nervous and way busy so I didn’t get great photos, which was really my only regret of the day. We had so much fun, but boy, I have never been so tired! I think it was from spending so much time playing with the doggies, I am getting too old to be bending over all day long!

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The Balloon Fiesta Park is beautiful already, but with thousands of dogs running around it was even cooler.  I can’t wait to see what kind of response our online shop gets from this show. Shockingly we have only had 2 orders from Albuquerque so far so I hope this show got our name out there to all the doggie mommas and daddies out here!

The best part of the day was seeing all the local rescues. So many animals are in need and this was a great benefit for them. I only wish we could have done more.

I did learn a few more things to add to my Craft Show Tips, more on that tomorrow….

Blog

Meet Meru…

Posted on by Amanda Jackson

hound dog, Meru

She is a stunning hound from Utah. Her momma Pamela was nice enough to send me this pic of Meru from a hike they took together.  She is so beautiful! She reminds me of Etta if Etta were a hound. And what a beautiful coat! I just wanna pet her SO bad.

Pamela says all of Meru's friends are jealous of her new collar. I wonder if they are GREEN with envy… hehe.

Blog, Fashion love, Limited Edition Mimi, Sew Sew Sew

Rhapsody in Blue Dog Collar

Posted on by Amanda Jackson

rhapsody in blue dog collar

Today I was inspired. KNME had a show on about young composers and musicians and I was so moved while watching it that I think I came up with a new super cool collar design. Fittingly, I named it “Rhapsody in Blue”.

I’ve been waiting to make a Limited Edition Collar in a boyish color. I just couldn’t find a fabric that moved me. Then this : linen colored with blue polkadot flowers. Perfection. Then I hand beaded the petals with the tiniest beads, they look so delicate, but really they aren’t I had to run the collar through all the buckles after I beaded it, didn’t effect the beads. Then I ran the sewing machine over them to sew it to the webbing and not a one flew off. Awesome. It will work on Cessie even though she is constantly scratching around her collar. rhapsody in blue dog collar

I think I will make 25 ‘Rhapsodys” so get them while you can. They will be on Etsy for $22.50.
rhapsody in blue dog collar

Blog

Doggie Dash and Dawdle Nervousness

Posted on by Amanda Jackson

I am feeling the crunch more than usual lately, but it is for a good cause. On Nov. 2 we will have a super cool booth at the 26th Annual Doggie Dash and Dawdle at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park. The Dash benifits New Mexico Animal Humane, which in my opinion is the best animal shelter in town.

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 I am super excited to be part of this, but super nervous too! I can't sleep because I keep having thoughts like

"What if I don't take enough product to sell and I run out?"

"What if I don't sell anything at all?"

"What if I can't make my booth cool enough?"

"What if I oversleep and miss the whole thing?"

and on and on. Last night Auggie managed to sleep almost the ENTIRE night, which is awesome for him, but his momma was up being a worry wart till 1 am. And not up watching TV or surfing the Internet, I mean up, wide awake in my bed — which is totally the worst.

There is going to be 3,000 people at the Doggie Dash and Dawdle which is the biggest show I have ever done.  Gosh, I am getting butterflies just thinking about it.

My sister Paula interviewed me yesterday for her school project. She asked me what my weapon of choise would be if I were a super hero. I said and eye linner and a sewing hook. I don't feel much like a superhero right now, but I am hoping to turn into one so I can get ready for Nov. 2.  Weapons of choice for that day? A big smile ( that I won't be able to help having because I get to see so many super cool dogs there!) and 100 collars and Leashes. Mimi Green would be proud of that.