♥~♥~♥ 2019 ♥ JANUARY / FEBRUARY Team Chat Thread ♥~♥~♥

[JulsSewCrazy]

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~~~ WELCOME TO PARADISE FRIENDS!!! ~~~
(Established in 2008)

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Formerly known as Shopper's Paradise, then just Paradise...
Welcome to the NEW Paradise Friends! Just a place to share your creations, your successes, your troubles, your questions and most likely find answers.

We've been around for awhile, we're a personable group. We love past, old and new members!!! Come on in and say hello!!! Just add to the Featured Chat thread below. :) Thanks for hanging out with us!

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♥ New thread starts when the leaders are prepared to start a new Chat 😂

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[JulsSewCrazy]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ JANUARY / FEBRUARY ♥ TEAM SPECIALS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Members, please add your shop(s) and coupon codes to this list in alphabetical order. Make sure to change or delete them if your promo codes change. Copy the whole list, including this header part! Thanks! ♥

♥ H20Designs.etsy.com : PARADISE10 =10% off (not valid on Pick Any Deals)
♥ H20WhiteLacePromises.etsy.com : PARADISE10 = 10% off
♥ H20works.etsy.com : PARADISE10 = 10% off
♥ JulsCraftCrazy.etsy.com : PARADISE10 = 10% off
♥ JulsSewCrazy.etsy.com : PARADISE10 = 10% off
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[JulsSewCrazy]

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***** THINGS TO WORK ON THESE MONTHS AS A TEAM *****

Let's take advantage of the new Chatty team and the Etsy feature of Notifications (upper right-hand side) to invite past friends to come back to say hello. We sure do miss them and it's always so great to catch up! Let them know they can just pop in any time... and out, too.

♥ Feel free to invite your other friends and old friends to our team. ♥

Also, Etsy will be making some changes to teams. We will roll with the punches and make our changes to help us all continue to be successful. Thanks for making Paradise a place to come and feel at home.

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[JulsSewCrazy]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/116776793/camouflage-hooded-jacket-12-zip-mossy?ref=shop_home_active_1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165782940/hunk-t-shirt-smart-hunk-tshirt-ready-to?ref=shop_home_active_...
https://www.etsy.com/listing/165808439/mens-medium-denim-jacket-see-no-evil?ref=shop_home_active_2

[jerise]

Hey, everybody! Hi Jul! Glad to stop in--sorry I'm never here anymore, but I do remember and think about y'all!

I have a new calendar, so Happy New Year! You can get a discount on it by using the code SNOWDAYS!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/593830455/paper-moon-2019-calendar-approx-425-x-11

[jerise]

This is my favorite new papercut:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/655790998/blue-ridge-mountain-daybreak-papercut

And this is also something I'm happy about--it was a gift for my brother:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/670068219/wolf-skylark-stars-and-moon-papercut

[AlwaysBeadBeautiful]

Hi Jerise - long time no see or hear.

It's very quiet in here .... how is everyone doing this New Year?

I have dismantled my tree and removed all but the bannister garland. Everything is packed up ready to move down into the basement. I have been too lazy to do it. LOL Woke up very late today and still in my nightie.

I have continued online shopping since Christmas with my usual annual calendar (late again this year) I went through a different company this time. I usually go through Shutterfly. Had troubles with photo editing at the new place but their Customer Service (VistaPrint) is amazing. I was not happy with the calendars when they came (within a couple of days!) so had to re-edit them (with a customer rep) and they are sending out new ones (tomorrow) free of charge. Also waiting for a parcel - FedEX - Lego for my grandson as his sister gets so much from me.
Her much awaited dance leotards for ballet school finally arrived on Friday - after being on the courier truck for a week! I was not happy! :( Happy with the leotards through. :)

It's back to the normal routine this week with my granddaughter's dance classes Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and babysitting on Thursday evening. I also have appointments Monday (dentist) and Thursday (hairdresser) and going to lunch to celebrate a long time friend's birthday on Tuesday. I will be looking forward to Sunday to relax!

What are you all up to?

[JulsSewCrazy]

Hello, Jerise! Wonderful to see you again! Don't be a stranger.
Life is busy. Sounds like your business is still doing well. Did you do any performances with your acting class/drama club?

Ruth, you sound busy as always. Glad it all worked out.

My sewing machine is in the shop... a new shop closer to home. I will have to start from scratch - the $200 payment to look at the machine and do regular routine check ups - they can't guarantee the other place's work... I wouldn't either. So they still have to do the point check for everything. And I know it's a lot of work. It will cost more than that to fix... I am hoping less than $300 more. (Yep... $500 to fix it AGAIN). But, I believe they will stand by their work and a new machine costs retail $16,000... so, this is worth it. I have only 7 more payments on it. Like a car payment, yes.

I just really miss my machine working properly. I miss the wiper cutting correctly and not having to turn it off and on with every thread color change. So I truly hope this shop will do a good job and fix it properly AND stand behind their work. I really like the lady and her husband. And it's a local shop. And then, I can stitch again!

I removed all "custom and Made-to-Order" items from my shop. And business is now slower than molasses on a freezing winter day.
I guess most of my business is "custom made". And that is okay.
I needed this winter break to catch up at home... and rewind.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/36234803/fleece-baby-blanket-with-embroidered?ref=shop_home_active_76
https://www.etsy.com/listing/181060523/energy-embroidered-chinese-characters?ref=shop_home_active_9
https://www.etsy.com/listing/66230341/beautiful-velour-hoodie-embroidered-big?ref=shop_home_active_9...

[JulsSewCrazy]

Just renewed about 30 items.
January is normally a slow month for me (all months that start with J).
But, I need to do this now before I get wrapped up in school again.

I usually have close to 500 items in my shop. I reached 198 today. So, I had to bolster that up a bit. If it's not in the shop, it can't sell. :)
So I renewed a bunch of ready-to-ship items.
yay... here's hoping 2019 is a more successful year for us all.
Kisses!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/223318224/set-of-4-goth-green-lips-washcloths-4?ref=shop_home_active_1

[JulsSewCrazy]

Shipping Rates are increasing again. Just a heads up:
United States Postal Service

* There will be a 11.9% average increase for domestic First Class packages.
* Zone-based pricing is being added to First Class Package Service in 2019.
* Domestic Priority Mail rates will rise by an average of 5.9% and Priority Mail Express by an average of 3.9%.

Can you say "OUCH!"
And Etsy wants us to do "free shipping" like Amazon and big corporations. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
(fell out of my chair laughing)

[AlwaysBeadBeautiful]

Jul: We already have zone based pricing here for packages. It is an average of $14+ to mail any package that measures over 2 cm in depths. It's cheaper for us to mail something small to you in the U.S. than to our neighbours in the next city or across town. Our postage is going up again - or already has at the beginning of the month. :(

Unless we send small flat packages within canada we just can't afford free shipping unless the product price factors in the shipping rate....Something 17 cm x 23 cm (bubble wrap envelope) and less than 2 cm deep can be sent standard oversize letter rate ($2) as long as it is not going anywhere outside of Canada.