In the last month or so, I became the proud owner of a sack filled with patterns for doll clothes. Most particular, they were patterns for the American Girl Doll and Cabbage Patch doll clothes. When I began sorting the patterns, my four year old granddaughter, Rose, sat wide eyed watching each pattern that slipped through my hand. She exclaimed how much she wanted each one, and each doll.

As I flipped through the patterns, I told her about the Cabbage Patch-like doll I had back in 1983. The entire body was made of cloth and she wore real baby clothes. I told her how my godmother had made that doll. It had blue eyes and freckles, and of course, long yellow yarn hair. Rose looked at me and said, “Are you going to make me one?”

After an online search, I indeed found the exact similar pattern for her doll. She picked out the hot pink yarn for the hair, and I have struggled to find just the right knit fabric for the body. I’m not sure how this will work out, but I’m hoping that I can at least make something that she will want to keep for a long time.

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We had been pushing to grow our business at the beginning of the summer, but health issues that had started before the beginning of the year gradually began to take its toll. I had made several doctor’s appointments with my doctor being certain that she knew what was wrong, and began to treat it. Unfortunately, much vomiting and 40 lbs lost, I found myself back in her office and instead of discussing what should’ve been a regular 6 month check up, I told her that on top of the vomiting, the pain had become so severe that I could no longer tolerate it.

After sending me immediately for an EKG and ultrasound, I had to go see a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist. Cardiology cleared me and GI doctor had to have more tests once he realized I did not have gastroparesis (what my doctor thought I had, too). CT scan revealed a lesion on my liver. Blood tests revealed elevated inflammatory response. I have surgery and biopsy scheduled for November 8th.

I had so many plans for this time of year. I needed to get 6 new items made and uploaded for Halloween. That never happened. I had Thanksgiving shirts to make. That never happened. I had Christmas ideas that I know will not make it. In fact, I’m barely hanging in there trying to keep up with the full time teaching that I do, plus manage my duties as Jr. Beta Club sponsor, and co-sponsor of the Battle of the Books. Instead, I’m tired. Extremely tired. You may notice fewer social media or YouTube posts, but rest assured, as soon as this is all over, we’ll be back in full swing.

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When I received the notification from Etsy that our shop had been suspended, I was a bit devastated at first. However, my daughter-in-law reminded me that this was an opportunity to strike out in a different direction and form the business the way that we need to in order to be successful.

I’m not sure if you are aware of this or not, but when we sell something on Etsy, Etsy takes a huge chunk of our money. We are charged to list an item (and relist after we sell). We are charged a percentage of our sale and they charge us for taking the payment.

When we sell on our website, we only pay for payment processing and not for relisting (or listing) an item. Plus, Etsy never let us double dip with the coupons. What’s up with that?

We also have plans for wanting to expand into brick-and-mortar retail. Can you blame us? Online is nice because we can reach so many people all around the world, but we really need to expand beyond 2 rooms in my house. We need space to grow, and having a retail space will provide that. Just hang in there as we go through some growing pains. We will start with updating Facebook shops to sell there, and then we will be prepping our website to be more efficient. We’re looking forward to providing you with a better shopping experience, something that Etsy didn’t allow us to give you.

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We did our first vendor event on May 8th, and I have to tell you that we learned a lot from that first event. The biggest was what we need to do next time!

While we had 3 weeks to prepare, trying to keep up with orders and build stock was an intimidating feat that we did not do well. However, it wasn’t a complete waste. It was great meeting all of the people at the event, and even being interrogated by the competition (Here’s a little toss out: They’re not much of a competition). More on that in a moment.

Yes, my dear customers, I hear you loud and clear! You want:

1. More items for boys
2. Larger bibs
3. Different colors
4. Large tumblers

We are working on that. We should have them developed soon. I’ve been busy working on tweaking our pattern to make you the larger bib sizes that you want, plus searching, digitizing, and designing boy’s clothing. Do sharks count?

As for that competition…

We’ve invested a lot in our business to grow it the way that we need to grow it. Yes, we do not do screen printing, yet, because we have outgrown our space that we are in now. We do offer Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV), Direct to Garment(DTG) printing, Sublimation, Heat Transfers, and plenty of Embroidery. No, we do not do signs and banners because we started as a clothing business (Children and Adult clothing), and we’ve merged Just Martha Designs (party supplies and decor) with K & R Expressions (Embroidered home goods) into one business.

We also offer gift wrapping, and cards with all purchases that are marked as gifts. We are currently in the process of defining our business and business practices.

While you (our competition) thought that you were intimidating us by stating that you could get items out (big quantities of items, I might add) quicker than we could, we want you to know that we looked at your website and what we noticed is our quality is better than your quality; therefore, we weren’t impressed. Not at all. You may beat us at some prices, but good boutique quality is what we aim for. Not cheap, mass produced goods.

And, oh yeah, I noticed a typo on your business card. Very unprofessional. Just sayin’.

P.S. My competition: Perhaps I can offer you my editing services?

The post Our First Vendor Event appeared first on K and R Styles LLC.

We feel that if we cannot guarantee where an item ships from (and this includes materials that we use to make our items) then we will remove it from our inventory. We take great pride in the fact that we use Organic Cotton Onesies, support small businesses when purchasing materials (if available), and avoid waste when possible (scraps of vinyl go into appliques as well as scraps of fabrics). Protecting our customers is also our number 1 goal. Therefore, you can rest assured that the items currently in our Etsy shop and website store are safe to purchase.

The post Dropshipping Suspended appeared first on K and R Styles LLC.

Nope. Wrong. It is for the actual size of the item or package size itself.

Please do not mistake the dimension size for the size of the actual item. This is the packaging that the item comes in. The actual sizes of the item, if needed, will be in the description of the item.

The post Product Mistakes appeared first on K and R Styles LLC.

That’s right! All items on our Etsy and our website store will be discounted 20% starting today! Plus, if you order online in our website store, AND you are a newsletter subscriber, you could potentially get 40%! Etsy doesn’t allow the double dip, but here at K and R Styles, we do! We think that you deserve the best deals, especially if you are a newsletter subscriber!

Not all Black Friday Sales are the same, that’s why we wanted to make sure that this Black Friday Sale was one of a kind!

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