Panda Bag Update

Things have been crazy at The Crafty Panda. Orders have been flying in and I am super busy.

Amidst all this craziness, we're also updating my son's room. He has outgrown his Lil' Firefighter theme and now wants a nature theme. My hubby is a city boy all the way, so my son and I are designing and hubby is the muscle/"go to" guy, as in "Honey, could you please run to the hardware store and pick up four of those big hooks?" :)

We're also repainting bathrooms, hallways and the living room/dining room. Don't you just love having more than one project going at a time?

The Panda Bag is now finished, but it's so cute I've decided to keep it! It's perfect for The Crafty Panda.

The bag is getting lots of compliments while I'm out, so I still plan to make a series of Panda purses. I love how this bag can go from a purse to a handbag to a wristlet! There are lots of Panda fans out there, so I'll keep you posted. Let me know what you think.

Not a Panda fan? What would you like to see on a bag?

Girly Girl Wants New Clothes

My little girl loves clothes and accessories. This pint-sized bundle puts together styles worthy of a fashion magazine. Where does she get this talent? Most days, I'm hard at work in jeans and a t-shirt (shoes & jewelry optional).

Designing and sewing for The Crafty Panda limits my design time for this little fashionista. She has a unique, funky style that's hard to find in the children's department of most retailers. Every couple of months, I drop everything and design/sew new outfits in her preferred bright colors (orange, purple or pink).

I found these darling patterns from Pink Fig which will stitch up in no time. So, my girly girl is going to get a couple of new outfits - no design time needed for these - straight to the sewing machine!

The Olivia Top features 3/4 or short sleeve - perfect for any season. Even better yet? The pattern includes sizes 6 months to 10 years. Woohoo! Check out this link for more details and where to purchase: http://pinkfig.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/the-olivia-top.html 

The Bella Pants are so sweet. Love the ruffles! A great way of combining striking fabrics worthy of a junior fashionista. The pants pattern is also sized for 6 months to 10 years. You can find the pattern and details at: http://pinkfig.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/the-bella-pants.html

Tax Time

Starting 2010 with starting your own business? Now is the perfect time to setup an accounting program to track your successes, fix what's not working and pay your taxes so you can sleep at night.

The Crafty Panda has been in business since late 2007 and it seems that I've had a new accounting program every year. I started with an Excel spreadsheet that my techie husband created. It was easy to understand and quick to update in the early days. But, as my business rapidly grew, days went by that I didn't have time to manually update the spreadsheet. Ship out 10 items to waiting customers or update financials? No brainer, every time I chose the customer first. Great for business, not so good for accounting.

My husband spent a month updating everything. It left us both grumpy.

The following year, he bought me an expensive version of QuickBooks. Wow!! Fantastic accounting software with a stellar reputation. What could make my life easier?

I was in way over my head. QuickBooks had too many accounting terms (I barely kept my sanity during an accounting course in college - I'm a creative person and there didn't seem to be much room for creativity in accounting), confusing options and it still seemed like a ton of work and manual entries!

This year I'm with Outright.com (which I heard about on Etsy) and so far, I love it! I have three businesses and they are all set up with Outright. I am easily able to import merchant information, expenses, income and more. It's so fast that I actually don't mind doing financials! I thought that would never happen!!

Outright helps keep track of quarterly tax payments, sends reminders and best of all - it's free. Check it out at http://outright.com/

During my research, these also came up with rave reviews http://www.xero.com/ which is $19 per month for a small business and QuickBooks Online Basic http://search.quickbooksonline.com/bookkeeping-accounting-systems/ which has a 30 day free trial and then $9.95 per month. Very reasonably priced and definitely worth paying to keep your sanity.

Find an accounting program that you understand, one that will grow with you and give you the access to share information with your accountant and the time and resources you save will be all yours!

Get Organized with Stack 'N Store Bobbin Tower

January is always a "get organized" month for me with a fresh start to the New Year. My blogs have been sporadic this month while I'm in this organizing frenzy (sorry!). After the craziness of the holidays and sewing/designing non-stop for the past couple of months, it's time to make sure I'm ready to do it all again this year :)

I have great organizers in my studio for ribbons, trims, beads, zippers, thread and fabric, but my sewing machine bobbins always drive me crazy! I use lots of different colors of thread on my bags - especially when I do freehand machine embroidery. That means lots of spools of thread and lots of bobbins. The bobbins are always scattered across my shelves, on the sewing table, tucked in closed boxes and unraveling everywhere. Frustrated with spending tons of time trying to find the right color, I usually just end up winding a new one.

This month I ran across a perfect storage solution for my bobbins. The Stack 'N Store Bobbin Tower from Clover and Nancy Zieman holds up to 30 bobbins, keeps the end of the threads secure and I can easily see all the colors. It's $15.95 plus shipping. Love it!!

Here's the link in case you want to order one (or more!) for yourself: http://www.clover-usa.com/product/0/9508/_/Stack_%27N_Store_Bobbin_Tower_with_Nancy_Zieman

In future posts look for information on accounting programs if you own a craft business and a sneak peak at the paint color for my hallway and living room!