Monday, November 1, 2010

www.ummathreads.com reroute

Hi all. Giving an important announcement. WWW.Ummathreads.com is still opened, but I have switched to my etsy shop name only. Please continue to visit me at WWW.Ummathreads.etsy.com .All custom orders and premade items can still be purchased there.
I am sorry for the inconvience of those who have been given my card or recieved my labels/tags on their items. A link to my shop can be found on the right ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
Just click one of the pictures. On another note, if anyone out there would like to trade for design website setup or even blog design setup, please contact me. I'm willng to trade any of my items to obtain something to my liking. TIA

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I'm Caving

I've been pro Delayed/No Vac for nearly six (6) yrs. In a few weeks oldest will finally complete all his immunizations and my youngest will start his round. I've made the decision to switch or consider switching over to getting vaccines, only due to the amount of close contact he will begin having with other despite my home schooling and semi strict healthy eating. The school that I may send him to next yr insist that all children be up to date on their shots. I'm a bit nervous in explaining that I haven't kept him up to date on shots. I hate that the health community makes us as parents/people feel like trash for not going along with the flow. I just returned from my own doctors visit and was asked no less than 3x's by 3 diff people was I going to get a flu shot. I said 'no' and gave no explanation. I heardly think I will die from the flu and I am am not entirely sure that a flu shot will stop myself or my children from getting the flu. Delay/No Vacc is my choice and one I would most likely repeat, if I had another child. I don't see the point in offering an option if when we are given the option as parents, choose not to participate and then we are made to asthough we are less than caring because we choose to go against them. In truth I've felt good not pumping my son full of shots at every wellness visit it's tramatizing for children ( I have my oldesst son to prove that). And, only the MMR has had limited research in it's effect on children. He hasn't caught anything contagious besides a couple colds and pink eye (which cleared right up with some collidal silver) in the nearly 4 yrs he's been born. I'm hoping he is given a clean bill of health, since his brother has a clean bill of health as well as myself. If he gets sick, I know the blame will set in from myself and others around me (especially in the medical field), but for now we are living healthy, eating as much natural & organic foods as we can and carry on as a happy and healthy family. I wish I could here more Delay/No vacc parents speak out and know that my family and I aren't alone.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Where in the world were you?

Today at approx 2 pm in the United States of America in upstate NY I came in from putting a load of clothing in my washer machine. I sat on my living room floor with legs crossed, looked out the window of my apartment and was meet with this gorgeous sky!
I had to wonder 'Where and what in the world is everyone doing at this moment in time?
Rather than daydreaming, I figured I would ask you all myself. Where and what were you doing at 2pm October 13 2010? I'd really like as many replies as possible, leave a comment with your country, state and city if you'd like then pass my link onto your friends & family! Receiving 100 comments would make my day. TIA!
Umma

Etsy Boot Camp -week 2

Okay, I'm keep the ball rolling here to get up to speed, here is my week 2 checked off.
[] Accessing my own shop. What items have the most hearts, expand on them and toss those that don't.
This proved to be much more difficult then I thought it would be. I have a ton of hearts for my shop, but I can't tell who's hearting and why they are hearting an item. Getting to the bottom of that, may prove to be very difficult. I remember which items were very popular, however
* 1 .) Once an item is purchased you can no longer see who hearted that item on etsy. So, you won't gain anything in the way of popularity.
*2.) Most of my hearted or highly requested items won't be hitting my shop again 2 different reasons. They were either very detailed in the process of making them and due to lower prices setting the bar for these items, I can't manage to create them, make a decent profit and continue to feel good about all the work that goes into them. The other reason is, I created the item people wanted them, but the buyers of those were more interested in trading instead of paying -therefore I traded. There is a whoooole different research needed to determine if they would acutally pay for the items, why or why not. So, I'm leaving those items off to themselves for a while.

[2] Brain storm new items, check! Which actually will bring about my changing my profile info and maybe reworking some of my policies to be easier to read.
[3] Found my buddy! Now to consistanly check in with him/her. We aren't making the same items, so they're are positives and negatives in supporting each other. I always feel a bit weird talking out the process of developing a new items with a fellow sewist/seller. There's always the moment of uncertainty when you don't know who they are or how they roll (for lack of a better term). Will they or won't they take my idea, will they feel that I took theirs? I do like to share where to get the best prices on certain items though and how to make an item. There is a fine balance between giving out too much of your sources and tips, but I try to keep a positive attitude, what is meant for me won't pass me by. So, if I tell and they make a profit off my sharing - it was meant for them, no matter the means to the end they used to receive it.

Okay enough rambaling for me. I'm off to get my kiddo ready for some homeschooling, breakfast and then crafting. See Yer, as salaamu alaykum

Monday, October 11, 2010

Week 1 Etsy boot camp

Welp, I'm still playing catchup two days late and 2 weeks behind. Let's get a running start and re -cover week 1.

Where do I want my business to be in the future (or atleast what are my goals until the new year)? Until I read momgul, I had the typically hoo hum answer (not that it's a bad answer at all) 'I just want to make enough money to stay home with my kids and pay the bills'. I never honestly put much thought into all the work and money I needed to make or how famous and out there I would have to be to cover my bills or atleast supplement them. My goal had been $500, When my items are selling for $24 each the goal seems so near, however most of that is split up into materials, time, shipping, advertisements, packaging and gas for post office trips and lets not forget etsy and paypal fees as well. Since looking at the big picture made me break out in anixety hives, I've decided to break all those months and many bills into a Mission statement each month or two. It seems more reasonable and much less over whelming.
* Complete 1 project every other day.
*This month my mission is to give 5% to L.I.F.E a program based in WNY to help children in worn torn countries.
* Most important of all is to list 20 items this month, sale atleast $50 worth of items (about 2 sales - I'm not aiming too high am I?) And, promote more by visiting etsy forum.

I visited craftopolis.com and craftcult. I'm a bit dissappointed with my shop views. If any wonderful fellow etsy sellers have suggestions on how I can get more view please do tell. I would appreciate it.
Check 1 for me for Boot camp week 1.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Etsy Success Holiday BOOT CAMP

I'm late in the game. For some reason, I was seeing that crazy little etsy monster mascot and not linking 2&2 together with the quick skim of my etsy success newsletter/e-mail. Well, I'm into the game now and here we go with my pledge.
Why won't blogspot, let you copy paste? It's such a pain in the butt. Hey! Blogspot..blogger fix this will you???!!!??? Here's my alternative...I've got nothing, maybe I can ask my little computer nerd friend, later tonight so I don't have to type it all out.... I do pleadge though! Go pleadge too!
Etsy Boot Camp sign up

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Speakease.net ?

I keep receiving this crazy e-mail in my spam folder telling me Congradulations. Now, I'm ususally not suckered into anger virus loaded e-mails, so I deleted it for the 3rd time. However, if this is a reply to one of the giveaway blogs I entered recently, please inform mr through this post. If it was and I missed you, too bad for me :(. And, if I was just a nasty virus being passed around by some angry idiot then....nananana naaaah! I'm not opening it. Now, please do not take that to heart and send me a worse virus, thank you! ;)

Friday, October 1, 2010

It all came together

I've been trying to squeeze in everything that I needed to for the last few day and it finally all came
together.

Homeschooling was fun! As you can see,
we are in disperate need of a printer! I didn't realize how crooked my lines were until I seen this picture. We also had great fun playing this youtube video of "Marvelous Martha" for the letter 'M' over and and over again



Delicous snacks await us.
No kidding this has been my staple as a snack for the last few days.
Wheat Thins are delcious with colby and chedder cheese.
A full glass of water and a pomegrante yogurt are all I need.



One to some cutesy sewing!
This water proof organic bamboo changing mat gave me fits!
I new that there would be some shifting, but oh GOD the horror.






Being that it was sent off as a gift for the newest baby girl in
our community. I feel slightly bad the edges came out a bit wobbly.





I tried my best and that's all that matters.
Next time I'm going to save myself the headache
and bind the edges instead of turning and topstitching.
How in the world do you talented etsy women/men keep
all those slippery corners straight???


I finished off my day by attending open house for my son and nieces. Because children weren't allowed my mother had to stay home with them, that means I was stretched between 3 very different schedules. I caught quite a few of their teachers, but I totally missed all of their art, gym and music teachers. All reports were pretty good and I am told my little person is taking off superbly in school. I wish he was more of the obedient helpful child at home as he is in school. But, nothing in life is perfect, so I keep him, love him and charish him -flaws and all. That was my day! What did everyone else accomplish?

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

What's the hold up???

I know it's all me, I'm just feeling a bit blah lately and spent all day getting over a cold. It seems like whenever I decide to do a bit a homeschooling with my son it just sucks up the entire day. Then I'm off napping or sitting here chatting on etsy. I'm making a serious effort to suck it up and spin out some great items from my shop. I have a whole white board set up with what I want to accomplish and have yet to do. On the brighter side, I finally handed in my application pick up earning a college ( I don't know how I will be able to use etsy for my full time income and balance college and being a single parent) . My major is still - majorily up in the air (no pun intended). I have a 3 -4 week wait to know whether or not I'll be accepted. *deep breath*. I hope I can get everything together and in an easy schedule for myself and my family. Send me good vibes, I wishes them for everyone out there. Enjoy your night blog land.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Sweet Tooth Confections

Anyone who knows me knows I have a major sweet tooth. Today (and yesterday) I got my sweet fix from the very (not so popular) 'Good n' Plenty candy. I bought a mega box! I love licorice like no nothing else. It lets me reminisce about the times my father would make us sing the whole song before he gave us our tasty white and pink confections. I found the old commerical for all the 'Good n Plenty' lovers out there.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Rolled hem learning curve -un accomplished


I churned out those cantankerous flannel unpaper towels, in short - I hate them. But aren't they pretty pictured. I still haven't mastered the rolled hem learning curve. I only managed to get one end evenly flat, the rest are a bumpy, stitch skipping mess. Maybe a larger rolled hem would work better? I have also found that while the concept of unpaper towels are great, I think that the fabrics they are made with should stick to birdseye and terrry towelling. Flannel pills way too much, it isn't a surface you would want to put a crumby snack onto -case in point, I ate crackers on mine and in an attempt to lick the crumbs off I got flannel lint in my mouth. Which, acutally leads to a very unbalanced benefical aspect of flannel unpaper towels - they hold crumbs. Holding tight to the crumbs is great when you have an itchy child like my 3 yr old, he's always getting up and making a mess. The down side is when I tried to shake, rub and shimmy cake crumbs off our flannel unpaper towels they hardly budged. I'm thinking my inability to clean these throughly before dropping them in the hamper could easly lead to unwanted six leg visitors. My guess is as good as your as to what I should actually use these for now. They are all new (except the three we used) and made with new material. My mother thinks they would make excellent night training absorbant pads, I'm not too sure on that. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

New blog gadget

I'm always on the look out for ways to improve my blog, because let's face it, mine is not even close to pretty. Today I popped by 'the heart of mary' blog and not only found mouth watering cakes, but this cool routating widget by Rotanck. You can see mine rotate on the right hand side of my blog. I know my pictures are blah, I will soon be replacing them, until then everyone hop on over and get your own.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

First Etsy Treasury

I made me first treasury and I couldn't be happier with it. Someone commented that there was too much blue at the bottom, but I want it that way....Some of the items sold too! Congrats to the shop owners. Here is the lovely link to Sweet and Savory. I wish I knew how to post the pictures here, if anyone knows how please let me know. Indulge visual your sweet tooth with some of the 0 calorie stand ins.

Me & My Hem Foot

Don't you love when you discover you had something cool and workable all along? I found my rolled hem foot for making un-paper towels. For joy! One of those must haves that you never knew you needed, indeed. However, the rolled hem foot and I aren't getting along too well. It's this teeny tiny little opening that's driving me nuts. I tried to abandon the sucker and use a zigzag stitch but I'm just too obsessive for that. So off I go to find a tutorial on how to start the edges (because let's face it mine look like crap). And what do I find? For the mine part I've been doing it right all along, just a bit lazily and rolled hem foot sewing has a learning curve. WT??? A learning curve, how long has it been since I've run into one of those? So, instead of sewing for my shop, my one day of family sewing time has creeped along to 3 days and more if need be. I'm not giving up until I've master this 'learning curve'. I did get some great tips from The Sewing Divas on sewing my corners better. Well, enough yapping for me, off I go to start my day.
As salaamu alaykum and See yer!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Adventures of Paul & Natalie..: KAMsnaps $15 Gift Certificate Giveaway (Open to US...

I am def signing up for the most recent Paul and Natalie give away. $15 worth of Kam snaps, who wouldn't love that prize?!? Well maybe not you NeverTooOld, lol - but the rest of us might. I am in so much need of snaps, especially basic black and white colors, but I'm not greedy so here's the link to join in the fun. Sending good vibes to all entrants and a bit of extra prayer that I win myself. Have a great day everyone and Best wishes!
umma

The Adventures of Paul & Natalie..: KAMsnaps $15 Gift Certificate Giveaway (Open to US...: " I have been lucky to be able to do a review and giveaway for KAMsnaps in the past! I am happy to bring to you a $15 KAMsnaps Gift..."

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Monday, August 9, 2010

Chat & TRADE etsy style




I just finished up the last of my chat & trade customs via etsy forums. It was a blast...I think I have 3 unfinished/unanswered convos lurking around in my convos folder. I apologize to those who I missed, I'm searching page by page for you! I'm just placing photos of the items that I sent out! Over $40 in shipping trades - wow weee! And much more in cash products quivalents. Tomorrows blog will be on what goodies I got from my swap partners. I'm still waiting on 2 more deliveries and then on to my shout outs. I hope everyone loves their items. Check out my shop off to the right to see what other goodies I have in my store and run on over to my facebook account as well, listed under the same name (ummathreads). I'd give you a link, but I'm not that savvy!



















Tuesday, July 6, 2010

8 reviews later

Hi all.
I know I haven't been around much lately. I am admittedly addicted to etsy chat and all the lovely chatters there. A great big whoop! to me, I have 8 reviews so far and waiting for three more. I've only had 2 sales (the rest are trades), but I couldn't be any happier. I am now posting my etsy link on the right of my blog, take a peek for me everyone. And, I have some new items I've been dreaming up. I can't wait to get those on the machine and crank them out. Have a lovely night and a great week incase I don't make it back again.
umma

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Saturday fundraiser fair

There's another fair coming up. Another chance for me to get some sales, sadly I haven't made anything new for it. My sewing machine broke on monday while finishing up an order. I missed the fix it men at my local quilt shop Wednesday and just got my machine fixed and returned home after 6 pm yesturday. The guys happily fixed/adjusted the tension in the shop for me yesterday. The price was 1 sewing needle. They didn't know if it was old, so they tossed it. It was perfectly new, but eh I'm just happy my machine is fixed. Needless to say, no sewing was done when I got home -I got side tracked again. To make up for my laziness, err lack of sewing (due to my broken machine) my goal for today is to

* Complete Photo trade order
*Mail off FFS tissue cozy
*Cut & prep 3 aprons -two for order on saturday.
*Sew 1 yellow pixie purse.
*List 3 new items in my etsy shop.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Loving this surah



a reminder benefits the believers. And on a side note my etsy shop is open, yay!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Judy's Fabric Addiction: May Give Away Prizes I'm Giving Away

Judy is giving away the most awesome premade cat themed fabric collage. I'm so excited and really digging the second pic listed. Hope I win, here's your chance to enter before the end of the day...not that I want competition but, sharing the love anyway, lol.

Judy's Fabric Addiction: May Give Away Prizes I'm Giving Away

JCasa *handmade: happy making + giveaway day

JCasa *handmade: happy making + giveaway day

Last day for giveaway day

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

SYG cake winners


These crazy put together photos are pics of my table. I really need to get some manniquins (sP) and some display racks. Everyone was touching all over the things and they kept sliding around. So, my next investment has to be racks, insha'Allaah. Here are the other beautiful cakes below.

Wow, I have no idea who made this lovely cake or the story behind it but, it looks yummy.

Made by a sister that lives around the corner from me. Isn't it cute! You can find out how to make this cake yourself by going on youtube and looking up howdini train cakes.

This pillow cake was made by the daughter of my mothers friend. She used marzapin to form the letters and won 3rd place. Her peach cobblers are awesome. so I'm sure pretty sure this cake was delicious as well.
I believe this cake represents the mount of hudaybeeya? It came in 2nd place.

Last, but not least, this cutie has all handpipped roses. It's so cute. I think it was raffled off for $40-45. I hope whoever bought it enjoyed it.
Welp, that's all for today, insha'Allaah (God willing) I will be writing back again tomorrow. Here's what I'm listening to today. Enjoy!










SYG update -cake is served!

So, here's my SYG update. The selling part went, oookay. I asked that I could sell everything with the best of good. I ended up selling 2 items, which turned out awesome after all, because it made up what I paid for my table and dinner. No money lost. BTW Ladies, those dinners were great!
1st Prize winner was this 2 tier wedding cake.

Isn't it beautiful, the flowers are edible! Moving on, the girls poetry and singing was muntaz (good). They all had very beautiful voices -even though I have no idea what they were saying, lol. It's sad that I don't speak arabic by now, maasha'Allaah.

The cakes! On to the other cakes, who ever made this cake with the pink floweres - it was beautiful as well as absolutely tasty. I wish I brought home seconds or had enough money that when they raffled them off I could have bought it. I guess it's a good thing I didn't do either or I'd be 4lbs heavier with a major sugar headache.
I'm getting sugar cravings just looking at it again,lol. Others will be posted in seperately.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Crochet taco yummys.

My 1st custom order crochet order. Sorry it took so long K. I've been so overwhelmed recently, but this was well work the many 'froggings' I had to do to get the tray correct. I ran out of yarn so, I couldn't form a box. Your tray(s) are nice and soft - I couldn't find any liquid startch to stiffen it. Here's your crochet Taco kit in all it's glory. The only thing missing is the guacamole. Hope you love it K.

Items are crocheted with acrylic & wool blended yarns. To clean your set: please wash on cold, gentle cycle and let air dry.






Friday, May 14, 2010

Craft fair at SYG

As salaamu alaykum and hello to everyone. Tomorrow will be SYG, there's suppose to be tons of fun, volley ball, cake decorating contest and more. Of course, the best part is that I will be setting up for my first craft fair show. Wish me the best of good and in selling all my things and getting custom orders. I will be back with photos of all the fun and beautiful masjid grounds insha'Allaah (God willing). Until then my blog will not be updated, but come back soon to sign up for my first contest extended contest. All trades and custom orders are on hold until Monday, May 17, 2010. Jazak'Allaah/ Thank you for your support and visit my blog again. Now, it's time for me to sew, sew, sew.
Wishing you all the best of good in this life & the next.
Umma