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Welcome to Allison Barnes Collection "the blog"

Considering how gutsy my friend, Christine has been with starting up her new business this year, I've decided that I need to do more things to promote my business as well.  That is why you now see Allison Barnes Collection "the blog" before you.

I can't guarantee the regularity with which I'll be posting on this blog, but I hope to use it to connect with my friends and followers of both my personal and "professional" life.  Why is professional in quotes?  Well, I'm a stay-at-home-mom of a nearly 2-year-old son named Bret.  When my husband and I decided that I would stay at home to raise our son I knew that it was the right time for me to spread my creative wings.

Although I have a science background I always had a desire to be more creative.  Ah!  I've just had an idea...I want to show you some pictures of my creations from way back when.  That will be another post - those photos need to be scanned into the computer first. :)  Sorry to digress... With my year of maternity leave nearly complete and having informed my boss of my decision to stay home, I decided to try and sell some of my photographs.  I took an interest in photography about 10 years ago and took some pretty nice photos over the years, many of which are displayed on the walls all over my home.  I got so excited and planned and schemed up ideas of business names and how I wanted my etsy shop banner and avatar to look.  I literally took about 6 weeks to get everything "perfect" before opening my etsy shop.  Do you want to know how many photos I sold?.....

...one.  Just one photo, to a friend who bought it as a gift.  Thanks, Tina!

Were my hopes dashed?  Not in the slightest, because as I sat back after all my hard work of setting up the photo page, I relaxed by making mosaics.  Then the sewing started.  I brought out my little sewing machine that my mother-in-law gifted to me as a wedding shower present (a 5-year-old machine that had never been touched) and figured I would try to make Bret a wool soaker (for the new or non-cloth diapering families, a wool soaker is worn over a cloth diaper to be used in place of a plastic diaper cover).  I loved the soakers and longies (think long wool pants) I had bought from Sarah at Someday Sarah and with her guidance I sewed my first soaker and then my first pair of longies.   

About the same time we learned of my nephew Aidan's brain tumor.  Sewing was therapeutic - I think of nothing else when I sew.  I sewed a lot.  It's great stress relief for me.  I sewed a few soakers for some friends and then sold a few more in my etsy shop.  Although Aidan lost his battle with cancer just before Christmas, I continue to sew in his memory.

Recently I had a wonderful opportunity to sell my woolies at a used cloth diaper sale in a neighboring community and the response was more than I could have hoped for!  My local customers are great - thank-you! 

One of my newest projects is sewing clutch purses from men's neckties.  They are so unique!  I've had some custom orders that have been fun to work on and I hope there will be many more to come.  You can see photos of all my creations on my facebook page Allison Barnes Collection.

Stay tuned for future posts and a giveaway coming at the end of Janurary!

-Allison

Comments

  1. This is a great initiative Allison! I look forward to seeing the scanned photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If I win I would buy another pair of longies we love the ones we have! Congrats on 100 fans!

    ReplyDelete

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