4 Seasons of Busy-ness!

Every year we have the same 4 seasons...no surprise. But for needle workers, those lovely 4 seasons mean lots of great opportunities for beautiful projects. And...BONUS...you get to pull them out and enjoy them year after year.

During my 22 years designing for L*K, I've done a lot of seasonal and holiday designs. SO MUCH Christmas and Halloween, and all the other holidays...Independence Day, Valentine's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day...even one little New Year's Day design.

#190 Spring Smalls with embellishments

I also have several seasonal series...Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. I just completed the most recent seasonal series with my Seasonal Smalls - a set of 4 small adorable designs for each season. ***Scroll back through the last 2 posts if you haven't seen the Seasonal Smalls!

Lately, we've been spending busy 12 hours days at the L*K office, then returning home in the evenings to prep for the following day. What does prep mean? We put thousands of things in little bags...buttons, beads, charms...so they're ready for assembly the next day in the office.

I keep trying to find a way to get help with this, but inventory is flowing through the office so quickly, it's hard to plan ahead. I would literally need to send stuff home with someone one day and need it back the next morning. That sounds like a job for Alan and Linda, right?

We've got more daily help in the office than ever, and we're cranking out an amazing amount of L*K product each day. But it's a daily struggle to keep enough 1" x 1" zip bags filled with appropriate goodies for whatever product bin is running low. ***And we have to have the needed embellishments IN STOCK, so we're ordering beads, buttons, charms, etc. every day.

Actually, after a full day at the office, it's great to SIT DOWN with our current Netflix addiction, make some popcorn (and a cup of tea for me), and prep for the next day.

Longmire - current Netflix addiction - men in hats and boots!

Speaking of Netflix addiction, is anyone else watching LONGMIRE? Oh my! I had this recommended to me by a girlfriend. I heard it was a Western, and couldn't imagine loving it, but I'm hooked (actually, Alan loves it too). The setting is so unique and the stories are great. But I can't neglect to mention the best part - the MEN of Longmire. Need I say more? Is it warm in here?

FINALLY...here's what I really wanted to blog about:

#001 Hats Off to Halloween - our very 1st design in 1996

As we pull orders every day, we see trends of what is selling best. Sometimes it's expected (Halloween Rules and Christmas Rules Flip-its, Seasonal Smalls, etc.) and sometimes it's a surprise. The designs that usually sell the best are selling well now. We're also selling a lot of "oldies, but goodies". I can't believe how many shop orders include our very first design - Hats Off to Halloween.

Lately, we just can't make enough of this seasonal series (pictured below).They're called 4 Seasons Flip-its. (I know...original name!). They originally published in 2014. With only 4 designs, hey're the smallest set of Flip-its we've ever done. And at the time, they were moderate sellers. Now they're super hot...go figure! I've always loved them, and really enjoyed designing and stitching the models.

Each seasonal Flip-it comes with 3 tiny buttons...mint for Spring, pink for Summer, black for Autumn and white for Winter. We just keep ordering in more and more of these tiny buttons.

These bitty buttons aren't only used for 4 Seasons Flip-its...they're literally included with hundreds of L*K designs. The ones that don't get tucked into little 1" x 1" sacks get sucked up with the vacuum. Which, by the way, really needs to be exercised around the L*K office.

B41 Dance in the Rain Inspiration Boxer.

One thing I've discovered over the years...just because I really love a design doesn't mean it will be a top seller. I've learned to listen to my customers. If bunches of stitchers request a saying, it will probably be popular, even if it's not my fave. Prime example is the Inspiration Boxer above. It's our best seller in the Inspiration series, and I never would have guessed it. But thanks to persistent requests...

Thanks, as always, for reading along. Back to the shipping table!

LEAVE A COMMENT and tell us your favorite "Longmire man"...and why you chose him!

More DOTS!

Those busy ladies at Zappy Dots have been at it again - creating more little Needle Nanny masterpieces with L*K designs!

Clockwise from upper left: Winter, Spring, Autumn and Summer Smalls

Kim, one of the "mistresses of dots" just sent me this darling graphic, and I wanted to share it with you.

What is a Needle Nanny?

It's a super magnetic little dot where you can park your needle and/or scissors. You attach it to both sides of your stitching fabric, or wherever you want to hold things securely. And then you enjoy how cute this little functional "dot" looks while you are stitching.

These little magnetic marvels are SUPER strong, and I'm not kidding. Last fall when we commissioned a special batch of dots for our Spirit of Christmas Mystery Sampler we had lots of funny experiences with these magnets. They will literally slide/jump towards anything metal. We have a small batch of Spirit of Christmas Needle Nannies remaining at the office - all firmly magnetized to each other!

Here's a link to all the L*K Needle Nannies in the collection.

ZappyDots

190 Spring Smalls

We just released our final design in our seasonal Smalls series last week - Spring Smalls. In addition to the 4 designs, it comes with a little embellishment pack with small white buttons and a dragonfly charm. I have been sacking so many little dragonflies, I'm seeing them in my dreams...and on the floor. 

We pulled our K-State Wildcats through a tough March Madness basketball game last night - with 10 of our faithful sports fans anxiously huddled in our basement. While we all cheered, Alan and I were madly sacking charms and chartpaks! I get so anxious during close games that the distraction of having my hands busy really helps.

Receiving more dragonflies in mail today - they keep flying away

It's really appropriate that we are experiencing the busiest time of our L*K career during March Madness, because that's what it feels like at the overwhelmed L*K office...March Madness/Mania/Cross Stitch Overload.

"Vintage" Purple Power People pic at our old house

Hope you're enjoying the annual basketball bedlam...and can keep your hands busy with stitches during all the fun!

"Organized chaos" at L*K world headquarters

Three years ago we moved to a different home and moved our home office into a nearby strip mall. We jokingly began referring to our new office as L*K world headquarters. It's not very glamorous, but it's 5 minutes from home and on the way to groceries and all sorts of neighborhood things.

I guess the "world headquarters" thing is really true, though. Would you believe about 15% of our total biz is OUTSIDE the US? Maybe we should try to visit those shops when we retire?!

I remember many years ago I walked into a cross stitch shop in Paris. I was traveling with my best cross stitch buddy Judy Whitman (JBW Designs). We literally trekked all over Paris looking for this shop because Judy was determined. I mean, we walked miles and miles looking for this shop...BEFORE cell phone navigation.

Judy Whitman (JBW Designs) at elusive Paris cross stitch shop

Anyway, we get there and the shop is lovely and large and thoroughly charming. I spotted a little pile of L*K designs and was thrilled. Then I tried to tell the shopkeeper that it was ME - I am Lizzie*Kate. Nothing. Total failure to communicate. Humbling and funny. However, we did buy some cool stuff in that shop. And a stop for gelato afterwards (gelato was our daily food requirement) made the afternoon perfect.

But I digress...back to my L*K office story...

Shelves with L*K inventory surround our shipping table

When we moved into our new office Alan had "a vision" for how to arrange things. He was so sure this setup would work, he practically banned me from the move/set up. Which was great for us both...he got to arrange it the way he wanted and I didn't have to help!

Shipping table view from other side - supplies underneath

And it has been a great little office, next to a chiropractor and smelling distance from the best Italian restaurant in town, DeFazio's. (Pietro DeFazio is actually our landlord).

The best feature is our shipping area. Literally, every L*K product is lined up on 3 sides on a big shipping table. Underneath the table are shipping supplies. There are sections for each of our product lines...chartpaks, Snippets, Flip-its, kits and embellishements - with everything in numerical order.

Alan's "desk" made the move to our "real" office. Really it's just a piece of plywood on top of file cabinets. I also have a "fake desk" where I never work and stuff piles up. I always work from my home office. We call/text each other constantly during a typical workday.

So...What's the point of this post?

Just to say that USUALLY our office is pretty well organized and not too embarrassing when the mailman or UPS guy drops in daily.

Scary office scene - work in progress!

AND here's what happened when we announced we were retiring and you all flooded us with your heart's content worth of orders!!! This pile of orders )pic below) is like some weird sort of reverse thing...the harder we work, the bigger it gets. Orders go out, but more orders pile in.

I am calling it "organized chaos"!

Piles of orders is "haunting" us every day

This pesky pile of orders is just not getting any smaller. We're ordering reprints and supplies every day. We recently ran out of 6" x 9" plastic zip bags (horrors!) and even the roller adhesive we use for color photos on our oldest products.

Overflowing "to do" table - designs that need assembly!

We have created a NEW office area during our transition time. We set up a folding table devoted to products that need to be assembled. Usually we just piled these on Carmen's desk, but the pile is too big and evolving too rapidly. Now both of our helpers, and Alan and I, grab designs from this table (and under this table) and get to work.

Here's one little challenge you might not consider. Lots of our products use embellishments...brass charms, tiny buttons, beads, embellishments of all shapes and sizes. We need to have these in stock, but we have to be able to FIND THEM in our office - I know, embarrassing. We're trying extra hard to keep track of popular embellishments (tiny white and black buttons, white beads, dragonfly charms, etc.) and reordering frequently.

Did I mention we have hired more daily help than we've ever had at L*K? Usually our assembly whiz, Carmen, helps us 2 mornings a week...and that works perfectly. Now Carmen is working every morning. We've also hired a fab afternoon assistant that is a super fast newbie. Joyce worked for years at our LNS, (Heart's Desire in Wichita, KS) so she actually knows and understands L*K inventory. Between Carmen, Joyce and me in the office, Alan rarely has a moment to himself (which I know is driving him a bit crazy, but too bad).

FINAL DESIGN - 190 Spring Smalls (includes embellishments)

In the midst of all this L*K pre-retirement frenzy, we did manage to RELEASE OUR FINAL DESIGN THIS WEEK. We shipped Spring Smalls to shops everywhere last Monday. I should have photographed that pile of USPS totes leaving the office. We were relieved to get those boxes out of our path.

This final "Smalls" series of chartpaks is really popular right now! We have devoted a "special office shelf" to this series - temporarily - to keep track of the rapidly disappearing inventory.

#182 Summer Smalls (with embellishments)

#185 Autumn Smalls (with embellishments)

#189 Winter Smalls (with embellishments)

Thanks again for being patient with us during this busy time. It makes us both crazy to have orders piling up and not being able to ship in our usual efficient style. But we're doing the best we can.

Klutz glove (rotary cutter protection) and favorite hoodie for a big day at work

So long from the L*K world headquarters. The whole gang will be in the office today - Carmen, Joyce, Alan and I. I better refill the snack box...it's gonna be a BIG day!