Vintage Stretch and Sew Patterns for sale at Zadoodle

These 1960's Stretch & Sew Patterns are available either online or at my booth at Gum's Mall of Antiques and Collectibles. Click on the photo's caption to find out how to buy it!

Stretch and Sew 2095

Stretch & Sew 2010

Stretch & Sew 1775

Stretch & Sew 875

Stretch & Sew 1700

Stretch & Sew 900 A-B-C

Stretch & Sew 1500

Stretch & Sew 250

Stretch & Sew 800

Stretch & Sew 925

Stretch & Sew 1900

Stretch & Sew 350

Stretch & Sew 1050

Stretch & Sew 700

Stretch & Sew 880

Stretch & Sew 1525

The Polka Dot Teacup

I have a beautiful white teacup with gold edges and turquoise-colored polka dots. It sits safely in a locked china cabinet in the corner of my kitchen where I can admire it every day. It is one teacup out of a huge collection my great aunt kept on display in her Victorian farmhouse, and for the past fifteen years it has been one of my prized possessions... and one of the last things on my mind.

I met a lovely lady this weekend while treasure hunting. We got to chatting about her late mother, and about holding tightly onto the things we grew up with, and the difficulty in letting go of the past.  She seemed to think that I was quite successful at it.

It's funny that she would say that, since it took me 20 years to build up the courage to paint a table that has been in my family for three times that long (I still haven't summoned the courage to tell my mother).

It's funny she would say that, since there are items that I have inherited from my great aunt that I keep in that locked cabinet and never dare to use for fear my rambunctious young boys will break them.

Funny, because I talk a good game but still find it difficult to use the special soap, the fancy perfume, the antique teacup.

The sad fact, however, is that life is shorter than we'd like to admit.  If we get too precious about our stuff, if we never use the good china, never wear the expensive perfume, never drink out of the polka dot teacup, then we're missing out on the enjoyment those things ought to bring us.

So today I'm using the dainty polka-dotted teacup. Yes, that is a crumb on the table, and, if you must know, a stale cookie that I dipped in my coffee. Because life doesn't have to be perfect, just... lived.

Thanks for listening.

Zadoodle Vintage Opens Shop at Gum's

Well, I  tried. 

I tried to stay away from vintage. Tried to build a different kind of business... tried to put Treasure Hunting on the back burner. But vintage found me again and has me firmly in its clutches.

Don't get me wrong. That business still exists. I'm still a loan signing agent. And I still write and produce plays, and I'm even producing a film (more about that  later). But I have returned to vintage, and let me tell you why.

Vintage has character. It has history. It is authentic. And it was made to last, by people who cared.

Today you can find brand-new junk that was made God-knows-where by God-knows whom that may  look old but in fact will break within a month (if not sooner). I figure if it survived long enough to make it to an estate sale, it deserves a place in my home or shop.

So Zadoodle Vintage is back. Come visit  me online at Etsy or at my booth at Gum's Mall of Antiques & Collectibles, 21330 Norwalk Blvd, Hawaiian Gardens, CA 90716

Zadoodle Vintage Goes Digital

For awhile now I have been hemming and hawing about where I am going with my business, and frankly it's been annoying.  To me, to my husband, to my kids... probably the only one in my life who hasn't seemed to notice is the dog.

I have struggled because I love vintage. L. O. V. E. I mean LOVE vintage... and nothing is more thrilling to me than the experience of driving around on a Saturday morning, Starbucks in one hand, bag of loose change in the other (ok, can't figure out yet who's driving), searching out incredible finds to sell in my online shop.  And I have made some really good finds that turned out to make me a bit of money. However, I can't get around several factors.

First, my A.D.D. tendencies inspire me to start several endeavors and open several online stores.  This lack of attention to only one endeavor dilutes my efforts and inhibits my success.  It is said that 20 percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of the results, and when that 20 percent is spread out over 4 stores, each store is only getting 5 percent, which is pretty lousy.

Second, my inventory methods need serious improvement.  I know in my brain that the best method is to handle an item once: bring it home, take a photo and measurements, put it in the box, then don't touch it again until it sells, and then only to ship. As a self-interrupter, I end up opening a box several times because I forgot what's in it or still need to photograph or some other silly reason.

Third, it takes many many steps to sell a tangible product (purchase, photograph, list, market, sell, pack, ship). Very time-consuming.

And fourth, I want to travel and go on extended visits to family who live very far away. The only way I can do that with tangible items is to close my shop while I'm out of town, and that can be detrimental to sales and visibility.

I have decided to focus on digital vintage, that is, to take depressed, damaged bits & pieces of antique sheet music & advertising and restore & preserve them in digital form.This is good for me for several reasons:

• I still get to go on treasure hunts.
• My inventory will consist of a file cabinet filled with antique paper rather than a garage full of boxes.
• The time commitment is shorter (create image, list, sell, relist, sell, relist, sell... or once I can provide instant downloads, it's list once, then sell, sell, sell)
• I can conduct business from anywhere in the world from my cell phone or a laptop.

I'm keeping my ONE store open to sell tangible items as I decide to, but all of my digital is moving here to zadoodle, where I'm hoping to regain my sanity.

So there you have it.

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

My husband doesn't much like me being a work-at-home-mom.  He tends to be a bit overwhelmed by my Ten Projects at Once methodology, my overuse of the Television as Babysitter and my close personal relationship with the microwave oven.

I agree with him 100% (Shh... don't tell).  I have come to realize that I have some form of A.D.D. combined with a jack-of-all-trades quality that makes me think that I can be a writer-graphic designer-vintage seller-handmade artisan-notary public-film producer. And to be quite honest with you... I am capable of all of those things.  The problem is that I am pulled in so many different directions between 4-5 different businesses, 2 children, a dog, a husband, laundry, meals, a household, bills and 136 social networking obligations (times 5) that it's no wonder I fall asleep at the computer and that nobody (least of all me) really knows what it is that I do.

Much as it pains me to say it.... my husband is right.  I cannot do all of these things at once.  I am spread so thin that I am unable to get everything done. I have so much to do (times 5) that I am overwhelmed, and when I'm overwhelmed I kind of become paralyzed.

How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.

Ten Reasons I Stopped Following You on Twitter

I love Twitter. I love the challenge of summing up life's moments in verbal snapshots of 140 characters or less (I'm @zadoodle).  Sometimes the information is banal, and sometimes I feel like a stand up comedian practicing one-liners before my night at the Improv.  Bantering with other Tweeks out there is fun too. And we can never forget the business benefits of Twitter. Just tweeting about a blog post or item in my Etsy store generates a bunch of traffic.

When I first joined Twitter I made the newbie mistake of following anybody I could in the hopes of building my followers (I call this the followback method).  As a result my timeline (the tweets of the people I follow) became pretty ugly, so I have come to the conclusion that there is a time when tweeters go too far.

Coming Soon: Peddle Me This

In an effort to share valuable information, promote small business owners (and -let's be honest- increase our readership), zadoodle is launching a featured seller column entitled "Peddle Me This" in which we feature and promote a seller for an entire week.  The seller will be selected in order to focus on a specific topic such as photography, sales volume, creating a niche, social networking, etc.  This may become a weekly or monthly thing depending on reader response.

zadoodle will not only publish an interview with the shop owner, we will also subscribe to your shop feed for the entire week that you are featured.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Q: "How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?"
A: "Only one... but it has to WANT to change."

Zadoodle is changing. What Zadoodle is changing INTO has yet to be seen, as the metamorphosis has only just begun. All I know is: change is inevitable.

I love vintage, and I will always love vintage.  I love the long-lasting quality of time-tested (aka used) items.  I love the old retro colors.  I love the price (see my blog post "Confessions of a Garage Sale Junkie").

Creating a Brand That Lasts

What's in a name?  Those of you who know the Zadoodle brand, as humble and small as it is, most likely associate it with vintage: vintage store, vintage blog, vintage sheetmusic.  I like that it also conveys the quirky side of my personality.  But maintaining an online vintage store is a huge endeavor, and I'm considering a reinvention of my Zadoodle persona, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on branding. 

Vinyl Records: Remembering a Classic

No one has an appreciation for vinyl any more. "Kids these days" (I never thought I'd hear THAT phrase coming out of my mouth) don't even know what cassettes are, letting alone an actual RECORD.  To actually own a turntable in 2010 is quite remarkable.

There is something about those good old black (and occasional other color) discs that promised hours of listening pleasure accompanied by the snap crackle and pop of the needle in its groove.  That signature crackle is a classic; it almost makes me nostalgic, like a fire in the fireplace (wood, not gas).

I am one of those unremarkable souls that does NOT own a turntable, so the best that I can do anymore is to make art out of my vinyl records.  On one of my many Treasure Hunts (garage sale excursions, for the uninitiated) I found a box of 10" records that I ruthlessly haggled down to $2.00 at a garage sale with the high hopes of selling them online, but by the time you calculate shipping, it still wasn't a profitable endeavor. So I have begun to create.  I have made several clocks out of my 10" records and even managed to sell a couple, but I learned the hard way that the 10" records are much more brittle than the new records, and one of the clocks shattered in transit, so I have put that on hold until I find time to sort out shipping issues.  I would post a photo but I seem to be having technical difficulties!

Making Your House a Home-Vintage Eclectic Style

I'm ready for a change, and I've decided to go with a home decor I like to call Vintage Eclectic Style.  For awhile there my style was Victorian, having lived in a huge Victorian house in Illinois for three years.  (By Victorian I mean shabby chic meets Victorian).  But that part of my life is behind me, and it's time to move on.

Due to changes in our life, my family now lives in a condominium in Southern California.  Coming from a 4000 sq foot Victorian, we downsized a lot, but we are actually happier in our smaller, more modest abode.  It can feel cramped at times, but it sure doesn't take as long to clean as the Great White Monster (as we affectionately called it).

The beauty of being in a rented home is that it's temporary, so you can reinvent yourself as many times as your pocketbook (and your husband) will allow.  I have long been an avid garage sale junkie, so my pocketbook doesn't take as much of a hit.  I once had a friend who redecorated someone's home with a $50 garage sale budget.  The woman was a genius.

I actually acquired some advertising for free that I use as home decor.  It's 4 feet by 8 feet and looked great in our living room.  At first my husband thought it would make the place look like a college dorm.  The way I see it, anything is better than what we had: a half-finished, "stick a picture here and see if it works, no it doesn't but I don't have time to fix it" style.

I think it actually turned out pretty nice!

Confessions of a Twitter Junkie

When I first signed up with Twitter (find me here)I didn't consider the repercussions of what I was doing.  At first it seemed like a popularity contest: how many followers could I collect?  So I started to follow people in hopes that, in true Twitter-karma fashion, I would receive followers and perhaps drive traffic to my Etsy store.

Indeed, I sowed... and I reaped.  Slowly my followers grew, and I grew... excited.  50 followers.  Hey, that's neat.  100 followers.  Ooh, I'm in triple digits.  298 followers.  Come on baby, need to get 2 more for an even 300.  400 followers.  Right on!

Then all of a sudden my offline life superseded my online life, so I neglected to participate in a few #FF (for you non-tweeters, this is Follow Friday, the day of the week when you mention your friends and spread goodwill around Twitter, with the general expectation that harvest principles, aka karma, will come back to you in the form of more followers).

So anyway, after a week or two of non-activity, I discover I have 478 followers.  Hey, cool! I think.  Not too shabby, especially considering I've been schizo lately that I haven't really been able to nurture my online friendships in light of my offline life.  I decide to DM my new followers (this, again for the uninitiated, means to send a Direct Message) with a "thanks for following" message.

In the middle of my process of thanking my new followers, I suddenly notice that I am at 477 followers.

477 followers.  That's one less than 478.

That means *gasp* I have lost one.

Panic begins to set in.  Where could that follower have gone?  Where did I put him (or her)?  How could this have happened????

I begin to look at the list, as if somehow I would be able to tell which username out of nearly 500 was suddenly missing.  What did I do?  How did I offend?  How can I get them back???

This is, of course, a ludicrous train of thought.  I remind myself that I have un-followed people in the past, realizing that we don't share the same goals or interests.  For instance, in my naivete I have discovered that "Retro" does not always mean 1950s kitsch.  Sometimes a search for #retro conjures up foul-mouthed rap artists, and more often than I would have expected.

So my advice to all of you Tweeters, including myself... stop tweaking!  If someone stops following you, consider it a blessing that your network consists of discerning people who are not following you only to inflate their own numbers, but because they actually share common interests with you.

Tweet you later!

Garage Sales vs Estate Sales

Today was an odd shopping day for me.  I did not get a chance to pull my usual estate sale list from Craigslist, so I left the house on a wing and a prayer.  Of course, it's always fun to adventurously drive down the main thoroughfare, keeping my eyes peeled for bits of paper taped or stapled to street signs leading the way down streets and roads on a quest for Goodies.

This kind of expedition is best shared with a friend who rides shotgun as you careen wildly from right lane to left at that last-minute spotting of a badly written Yard Sale sign.

No, these days I mix business with pleasure in an effort to add monetary treasure to the family coffers, so I must be more organized.  And so I present my evaluation of the pros and cons of Garage Sales vs. Estate Sales.


Garage sales are adventurous.  They are spontaneous. They can lead you all over the county: two, even, as you follow the signs like a connect-the-dot puzzle across the map. This method is covered in Indiana Jones movies as well as the (most recently viewed in my home) animated film "The Emperor's New Groove."  Garage sales have the best prices, hands down, unless the proprietor forgets that he/she is running a GARAGE SALE and think that he/she is in fact running an ANTIQUE STORE.  The people at garage sales tend to be friendlier, too, although as we all know, results may vary.

On the other hand, with garage sales you never know what you are going to when you drive down the street following the signs.  I was at a "Block Sale" this morning that consisted of three houses, one of whom clearly only decided this morning to throw a few pieces of  junk on the driveway as a way of "participating".

Garage saling is a form of gambling; you don't know when you throw the dice whether you are going to win or lose. Sometimes a garage sale is beautifully marked and there are 17 signs bringing you in to a pile of baby clothes and a rattle thrown on the lawn, and other times you have one badly written address and a pencil-thin arrow on a piece of typing paper and you have to map it out and consult with your psychic to find the amazing artifacts some guy finally decided to drag out of his garage.

(I'm just kidding, by the way.  I don't do psychics.)

Estate sales have great advantages to someone in my position.  They are usually advertised and organized and you can find many things at one or two locations.  More than once I have completed the bulk of my shopping at one or two estate sales. The last day of the sale can be especially lucrative as prices get slashed steeply.

On the other hand, estate sales are often run by professionals, who are courteous but not particularly friendly (again, results vary), and price the items much higher than a small-time dealer like myself might be inclined to pay. You also aren't very likely to find kids' clothing and such that I prefer to pick up at garage sales as part of my theory on dressing children (more about that later).

The pinnacle of all sales, however, is the hybrid estate sale/garage sale.  These are the places where the proprietors simply don't want to be bothered with the effort of organizing an estate sale or hiring someone to run it and simply want to fling open the garage door and let the vultures flock in.  I don't feel guilty getting a deal at these sales: they wanted to save the hassle of taking the time to do it professionally and want to get it over with quickly.  I am simply there to assist them in their goal.  Time is money, and the time that I spend digging for these treasures is rewarded with a discount on the purchase price.

All that being said, I did in fact find some goodies today that you will be seeing in my etsy shop shortly... and my kids will love their brand-new-in-box 65-cent Matchbox cars!

Learn to Juggle in Ten Easy Steps

I never learned to juggle oranges.  Somehow it earned a low ranking on the List of Things To Do in Life.  Oh, I entertained the thought from time to time, but never long enough to actually venture a trip to the fruit bowl.

What I did not realize early in life is that juggling would become one of the greatest skills I could possess.  Who woulda thunk that the same girl who listened to "Like a Virgin" and "Thriller" on vinyl would one day be a wife, mom, pet owner, writer, director, online seller (and therefore a) facebooker, twitterer, blogger, amateur photographer, marketing executive, sales associate, postal employee, CEO, CFO, office manager, butcher, baker, candlestick maker.

I made those last 3 up. But I probably forgot some, so I'm sure it comes out in the wash.

So how do you learn to juggle in Ten Easy Steps?
1. Live in any developed part of the world in the present day.
2. Sign up for Facebook.
3. Get married.
4. Have a child.
5. Have another child.
6. Start a home-based business so you can be home with the kids.
7. Build your business while attempting to raise your children.
8. Promote your business on every website imaginable.
9. Begin to succeed at your business.
10. Blog about your business.

Confessions of a Garage Sale Junkie

The morning air is crisp.  Oddly enough, I can actually see my breath, unusual in the moderate climate of Southern California.  But it's early.  The birds chirp.  A dog barks.  I look down the street and see a cat performing a balancing act on a fence.  A car door.  Slams.  I deposit the boxes in the trunk of the car and slam the lid, then cross to the driver side door and get in.  I start the car.  I rev the engine, simply because I can.

First stop: Starbucks.  Must have my Venti-upside-down-caramel-macchiato-with-extra-caramel... hot today, but not always.  Add the Blueberry-muffin-with-struesel.  Now I'm ready.

 Consult The List.  Formerly a printed sheet of paper, in the interest of saving time and money The List is now emailed to The Blackberry.

The List gives me my first destination.  My blood pumps.  My heart races. My eyes light up with the anticipation of the day.  I am...

The Treasure Hunter.

I feel a bit like Indiana Jones on these mornings, mornings where I escape the confines of home and family and venture into the unexplored territories of estate and garage sales.  The most exciting are those with a mountain of boxes through which I must dig and search, carefully extracting a rare artifact from the bottom of a cardboard box filled with ratty decks of cards, unwanted plush toys and old silverware.  It is at these sales that I can get a great find for an even better price, as the curators of these excavation sites usually don't care about price and simply want to remove the artifacts from the premises.

Now that I have a vintage shop where I peddle my treasures, it is imperative to embark on these adventures each week.  Right now it is just Saturdays with a few thrift store excursions sprinkled here and there.  Perhaps as business increases I will add Fridays or Sundays to my shopping days.

I don't know how I'll ever manage....

K.I.S.S.

keep it simple... susie.

Whenever I embark on a new endeavor (my husband has affectionately referred to them as "projects") I tend to go overboard.  I found some old sheet music at a garage sale and sold them... so I went on eBay and bought 700 to sell.  duh.  I still have at least 670 left.

The problem my little online shop developed was that it became lopsided.  If I listed all of my sheet music, no one can see anything else I have to offer.  So I had the brilliant thought to open a second Etsy shop.  I hardly have time to market the first, let alone open, maintain and market TWO SHOPS!

I have actually become inspired by the plethora of sheet music and records I have, so I am abandoning my 4 day-old music shop on Etsy and moving my 7 humble items into Zadoodle.  The good thing about my name, zadoodle, is that it could mean anything so I am open to many options.  Many of my sheet music I will use for decoupage and framing projects, selling many pieces for scrapbooking projects, and selling others individually as I have been doing.  I just have to incorporate the items into my art so I can start to make a dent in the pile...s.

Back to work.

So back down to one shop.  Hallelujah.

It's All About Who You Know (Rather, Who Knows You...)

I was doing so well.  I was Twittering (or is it tweeting?). I was blogging.  I set up a Facebook fan page.  I linked my online shop to twitter and FB.  Now I check in the Forums at Etsy and find a list of TWENTY-FOUR networking sites to connect to in order to build my "online presence." It's a great list, find it here.

Now, before I start looking at the cup as half-empty, I must remember that I have been working my new business less than a week, so one day at a time, right?  So if I set myself up on one new site every day, within a month I should be done with the list.  Or maybe I'll give myself more time. Or maybe I won't.

This is my thought process.  Aren't you glad you're not a fly on the wall of my skull?  Who wants to listen to THAT all day?

There is so much to remember to have a successful online business.  You have to build your product.  You have to build your clientele, and you have to build an offramp on the information superhighway leading potential buyers to your door!

My brain hurts.

Success Is a Daily Journey

Yesterday I set a goal for myself: to list at least 10 new items each day at my Etsy online shop, Zadoodle.  Since I started the process late in the day and am generally a confessed self-interrupter, I found myself propping my eyelids open with toothpicks as I toiled to get my ten listings in.

Success!

Ok, so technically, most of them listed today.  But I got them done BEFORE I went to bed, so that's all that matters.

Today I'm starting early, so it's good.  Never mind that I've already checked my Twitter, my Facebook Page, am setting up a StumbledUpon account and I am currently blogging. Networking, I'm learning, is all part of the game.  But I am going to get the listings done.  Early today!

Success to me is not a destination.  If it was we would reach it and then we could just lie down and die.  Then what?  No, success is the process of moving forward toward your goals, toward continued improvement, away from your past failures.  And yes, there will be failures along the way.  I am reminded of Edison's lightbulb that took him hundreds of attempts before he got it.  If it weren't for the perseverence of the Edisons of this world, we would still be sitting around kerosene lamps.  Instead, we have light, we have technology, and medicine, and we can speak to someone on the other side of the planet in seconds.

Uh oh, baby just coughed.  Gotta get a move on.

List ten. Today.

Success!

The Birth of an Online Business

The dust has settled.  The line has been drawn.  It's on.

Zadoodle Vintage: my Etsy vintage store in the making.

Before I settled on launching an online business, I struggled to find a direction for my career, what is it that I would like to do.  I am a very creative chick, but I have never really had a single outlet.  I've worked in theatre, in real estate, in a health club, in a church... and I am now a stay-at-home mom seeking my fortune (or at least a few extra bucks a month) at some endeavor that will continue to allow me to remain a stay-at-home mom.  Hence the idea for launching an online business.  For some time I thought eBay was my only option, but it did not really cater to my more creative side, and the cost of doing business was increasing monthly.

Enter Etsy.  It allows me to peddle my crafty wares but also the vintage oddities that I seem to be attracted to as of late.  Etsy's policies don't seem to change as often as eBay's do, and now that eBay is significantly raising their rates AGAIN, I decided to abandon ship and swim toward Etsy Island, the land of promise, the land of milk and honey.

I gotta start chasing those cows and bees.

Boys vs Girls: If At First You Don't Succeed....???

I have been asked on more than one occasion if I am "going to try for a girl next time." The comment reminds me of shooting hoops, and sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just can't sink that 3-pointer.

A girl is not my 3-pointer. I don't even like basketball that much.

I think I'm ahead of the game with my two boys. In fact, when we were expecting our second child, my husband and I discussed whether or not we wanted a girl or a boy and we were undecided. If it was a girl, we'd have a set: one of each. If it was a boy: hand-me-downs, and they would play together nicely (or so we dreamed).

I was at the library with Hamish (see my first blog) in a vain attempt to introduce him to storytime. He must have been about 19 months, and to be honest, he just wasn't having it; he wanted to tear up the library; run, squeal, jump on the pillows, play with the puzzles... and he took one look at that little room with all the other kids and thought he was being left. As a stay-at-home-mom I am ALWAYS there, so dropping him off in childcare at the gym or church wasn't a happy thing for him at the time. But I digress.

In a brief quiet moment as I interested my eldest in a puzzle, I observed a woman with her young daughter several feet away. The woman appeared to be engaged in a wrestling match with the girl-child over the hair tie that Mom wanted to inflict on her clearly unwilling child. As Mom gave up and girl performed a convincing Cousin It impression, I looked down at my small terror, made of "snips and snails and puppy-dog tails." His white-blond hair was, as usual, a mass of disheveled curls a la "Red Rocker" Sammy Hagar as he intently jammed the letter Q on the hole for the letter O. I smiled.

I'd be just fine with another boy.