A little bit of this and that

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Hello friends!

oops, I did it again - that is, not blog for weeks on end. At this point I'm probably writing into the void, bar for the handful of exceptionally loyal readers who have stuck with me throughout the years. Know that I appreciate you so much 💕

So while my poor blog has been collecting dust, I have been busy dealing once again with new rules and regulations affecting my small business. In fact, in the past 3 - 4 years it seems like the powers that be have been targeting small businesses - especially online businesses. I finally had to loop in my tax consultant, because the whole process is quite complicated. As the new regulation goes into effect next month I've sadly had to "lower my sights" businesswise. It's kind of depressing actually, but I'm not throwing in the towel just yet. I love my shop, my products and of course my fabulous customers!

In a nutshell, this basically means that I will be shipping my goods primarily to the following countries:

GERMANY, USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, JAPAN, NORWAY, SWITZERLAND, SINGAPORE, MALAYSIA 

I may be able to ship my goods to:

ENGLAND (with reservations), LATIN AND SOUTH AMERICA, SELECT ASIAN COUNTRIES

I may be able to ship my goods to:

AUSTRIA, if you use one of those companies that provide delivery addresses in Germany close to the border and are able  to pick up the goods from there.

Finally, I won't be able to ship my goods to: EU countries outside Germany

The latter must seem especially confusing and not wanting to get into the nitty-gritty, trust that I have gone through all options available to me 😔

If your country isn't listed - contact me at my email and I will check if I can ship to you!

All of this comes at an unfortunate time, because my own website plus Etsy have propelled forward in the last pandemic year and I was actually hoping for a repeat this year. Now with having to cut important shipping destinations I will really need to up my game locally.

As if that wasn't enough to deal with I will also have to primarily source my goods locally too. Thankfully, I have been carrying popular acufactum fabrics for a while now and they are based right here in Germany. Below are some new fabrics that I have received recently. They are certified oekotex® cotton fabrics at 58" wide. 

Except for the fox one, all are available both at my website and at Etsy.

In other news...

This past Monday I received my second vaccination. So far I only have a sore arm and felt a bit tired the next day. I am so relieved. I have decided to keep wearing my mask while grocery shopping, though, out of courtesy for those that haven't had a shot yet. It is slow going in Germany, as there aren't enough vaccines available. sigh.

My beloved sewing machine of 12 years broke down a few weeks ago. Ugh.  I'm still deciding whether to get a new one or bring it to the repair shop, which is actually a bike repair shop, but the guy does sewing machines on the side. I will have to make a decision soon, as it is really weird not being able to sew!

Plus I'm still suffering slightly from "creative block". I'm putting it down to being cooped up at home for 14 months. I miss those garden days . I always found inspiration there. Speaking of garden, we have started picking up where we left off in our garden again, however it's a bigger project than we initially thought! So, no pictures as of yet. 

While browsing the internet I came upon this art site and suddenly I felt the urge to paint again. I haven't held a paint brush in probably over ten years...

Anyway one art site led to another and another and basically I'm now passionate about mixed media art. I know I'm very late to the game, but I am just happy it sparked my creativity again, even though it's completely different to sewing 🌈

I have been circling Dina Wakley's Mixed Media Art Journal for a while and finally bought it. I was intrigued by the various painting surfaces - watercolor, canvas, burlap and kraft paper - inside and wanted to try out some new techniques. I bought some basic art supplies (that was fun!) and also unearthed the swag bag I once received while attending the KreativMesse. I hadn't even opened some of those crafty things and now they will be put to good use!

Hopefully I can show you some stuff I've done with it in the near future. I know the burlap is tricky. We'll see what I come up with. 

Thank you for reading along. I hope you are all doing well. I know these past months have been so tough for many of us. Take care! Love ~