announcements

I have been putting off making this announcement because I’m really sad that I’m going to be taking a break from Superhero Cape making. I have a good reason though – I’m going to have my 2nd baby in about a month! As much as I want to keep sewing – my big belly is making it harder and harder to cut fabric and sit at my machine and sew!

Right now I’m only going to be taking new orders until August 5th, 2009 and then not opening up again until sometime around the beginning of October. If you have any birthdays or celebrations coming up in August, September or October that you’d like to have a cape for – please order early so I have enough time to get them done for you! Depending on how my recovery goes I might take a longer break – so order now so I don’t accidentally miss out on getting you outfitted with an awesome Superhero cape!

Also, looking ahead to the Christmas season – if you place & pay for an order with me by my August 5th cutoff date that is for a Christmas gift (meaning it will have a guaranteed delivery date to you of December 15th, 2009) you’ll get a 10% discount on your order total. I expect to be even busier with this years Christmas gift rush than I was last year, and with a newborn in the house I might have to have an even earlier cut off date than I did last year (December 1st). If you already know you’d like a cape for a Christmas gift you could do me a big favor by placing an order early and help me plan ahead a little bit – and get 10% off in the mean time.

Thanks to all my great customers – I’ve had such a great time in the past year making hundreds of capes for your little Superheroes – and I can’t wait to be back soon with a new little Superhero of my own.

Mr. Random Generator pulled #27 – so our winner is RACHEL who said “my fam makes me happy!”

Rachel, hopefully there’s someone in your family who is a Superhero in training – because you’re the lucky recipient of my very first pre-made capes! I’ll email you! :)

Thanks to everyone that entered and made this Giveaway Day so fun, and thanks to Sew, Mama, Sew for organizing it all!

The giveaway is now closed! Thanks for all that entered – I’ll post and notify the winner tomorrow!

Welcome Sew, Mama, Sew readers!

Thanks for visiting my little shop here on the web where I make and sell custom Superhero Capes for kids! I hand make all the capes myself from my home using only the best methods and materials. I believe every child is a Superhero and doesn’t need a cape to prove it — but has so much more fun with a colorful, rad cape flying behind them. :)

What You Can Win:

I’m taking this opportunity to debut my brand new product: Ready-to-Ship capes! I have so many orders for custom capes that keep me busy, I often have a production turnaround time of up to two weeks! This works for most people, but sometimes people need a cape that can be shipped out to them same day for a birthday party that weekend! That’s where the Ready-to-Ship capes come in. They’re still made by me with the same high level of workmanship, but they don’t come with an initial on them & you don’t get to customize the different fabrics and colors. They’re just that — premade and Ready-to-Ship!

Here’s a sneak peek, but look for more Ready-to-Ship capes being posted in the coming days. (Make sure to subscribe to my blog through your RSS feeder so you don’t miss any of my upcoming posts!)

How to Enter:

Just leave a comment on this post stating one thing that makes you happy. That’s it! One comment per person, winner will be chosen and notified on June 1st via the random number generator. Winner gets their choice of ONE of the Ready-to-Ship capes above. International entrants welcome!

Now Go Win!

Thanks for stopping by Plum Pear Apple! Now go back to the Sew, Mama, Sew blog to enter to win more great stuff!

Can you believe that we made it through December? I can barely believe it! Here’s Mason helping me get ready for one of the last trips to the post office to mail capes for Christmas delivery — there were about 30 packages in this trip alone — most with multiples capes!

I can’t complain though – I am flattered that my capes are so well-loved and are adorning the necks of more and more little Superheroes out there.

I think I am caught up on all my emails, too, so if you are expecting a reply from me and haven’t gotten one – PLEASE forgive me and email me again – it might have gotten lost in the Bermuda Spam Triangle or been mistakenly marked “read” by me. I tend to do my emailing late at night and sometimes I am a little too tired for my own good.

Cape production is back to 7-10 days – and I’m working on getting a bunch of new fabrics photographed and posted in the fabric gallery. Thanks to all my great customers who blog about and tell their friends about my Superhero capes – I couldn’t do it without you!

A post here is long overdue! What can I say, I’ve been INCREDIBLY busy sewing. I absolutely LOVE making these capes for all the little Superheroes out there – but whew! It’s a busy life. Now I know how Edna Mode must feel (get it – Edna Mode, the Superhero outfit maker on the Incredibles!)

I’ve decided to extend my holiday cut off date until DECEMBER 1ST, 2008. This means, if I get your order by midnight, December 1st, I’ll fulfill your order and have it to you no later than December 20th, 2008. If you’re thinking about ordering a cape for Christmas – please order early. That will help me out tons in getting fabric and knowing how much more sewing I have to do.

Here’s another example of a custom cape I did – it’s got 2 emblems on it. I love the way these turn out, the double layer (triple if you count the letters) really makes the emblem thick and sturdy.

Also – if you’re waiting on an email from me – it’s coming, I promise! My inbox is overflowing and I’m trying to weed through them and get them all sorted and answered.

I always wish I had the time to take a picture of every single cape I make – but it’s just not possible. But this one was just too cute to not document! I love the Rainbow Hearts and Stars fabric and it just goes so cute with the turquoise. This just proves that girls don’t need pastels and soft colors – bright, punchy colors look awesome for them, too!

I have people ask me all the time if I do special order capes. I do! I’ve had a few orders for Halloween with different logos on them and recently I had a custom order that turned out amazing. I can’t spill all the details yet (hint – check back on November 4th!) but here’s a sneak peek:

[flickr]photo:2964692477[/flickr]
I just added some new fabric to my site (finally!) and still have a few more swatches to get posted. There is just so much cute, fun, Superhero-ish fabric out there that would be perfect on capes. See the new fabric on the Fabrics & Colors page.

My holiday cut-off is quickly approaching. I am guaranteeing that all orders placed by November 15th will be received by you (barring any crazy Post Office disaster) no later than December 20th. If you would like me to mail a cape directly to the Superhero, I can do that too. I’ve decided to have a waiting list for capes for orders that come in after November 15th. If I can squeeze in a few more capes before Christmas, I will go on a first-come-first-serve basis for people on the waiting list.

[flickr]photo:2965535582[/flickr]

I added a Superhero Cape Gallery to my site to make it easier to see samples of different fabric and color combinations. I wish that I could take a picture of every cape I make – but I unfortunately just don’t have time for that! You can see small images of the pictures on the Cape Gallery page, and click on any picture to view the photo larger on Flickr. You can get to the Cape Gallery any time by the tab in the navigation menu at the top of the page.

A couple housekeeping notes (and some fun stuff at the end!):

• I am currently FINALLY caught up with my orders from the 3 weeks that I was on vacation at the end of August. If you placed an order with me during that time, it has either been mailed or is included in the next batch that is going to the post office tomorrow. THANK YOU so much for your patience and understanding … I thought I had properly planned enough time for me to work and get caught up but apparently I had planned poorly. I felt so bad that I was behind for so long – but I am committed to keeping my quality top-notch and didn’t feel there were any areas I could compromise for the sake of getting the capes done faster.

• Planning ahead to Christmas and the upcoming holiday season — I have been thinking about what my method is going to be for holiday orders — I want to have a balance of getting as many capes made for gifts as I possibly can – while still being able to enjoy the holiday season with my family. I have decided to have a holiday order cut-off date of November 15th. If you place an order with me before that date, I will guarantee that you will have it by December 24th.  If you place an order with me after November 15th, you will be placed on a waiting list and your capes will be completed on a first come first serve basis, but with no December 24th guarantee.

• I have had some issues with emails lately – 99.9% of the time I answer an email within 24 hours from when I receive it.  If you have placed an order with me or sent me an email for any other reason and haven’t seen a reply back from me (I send a confirmation email when you place an order with your order total) within about a day – PLEASE check your spam folders.  Especially if you have a Hotmail account – they especially like to mark my email address as spam.  Better yet, add erin@plumpearapple.com to your “safe list” right after you email me.   I need you to see and read the confirmation email – sometimes customers don’t give me all the pertinent information or I have a question for you about your order.

• I’ve always wanted Plum Pear Apple to give back to the wonderful blog community and be involved as much as it can – more that just any other handmade-wares boutique.  I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of some wonderful causes and giveaways so far – and I know there are many more opportunities to come (watch for an announcement soon for a great cause I’m so excited to be be involved with!).  If you have a giveaway, promotion, cause, fundraiser or run a review blog – please get in contact with me.  I may not be able to be involved right away, but I will keep your blog and name for future reference.

• And lastly, I am quickly approaching my 200th Superhero Cape ordered!  This number is AMAZING to me — I am so grateful for all the wonderful support I am getting and the amazing people that are believing in me and ordering my cute capes.   In honor of this milestone – I’ve decided to have a little contest:  Whoever happens to order lucky cape #200 will win that cape for free – as well as another cape to send as a gift to a friend! This way the Superhero love is spread and TWO people will get to be great winners.  (No, I won’t tell you exactly how many cape orders I have had so far, but I will tell you that I expect to hit #200 in the next week or so … so if you’re thinking about ordering soon you have a good chance of winning!)

I apologize for the unannounced downtime we had over the past few days at Plum Pear Apple. I got the bright idea to change hosts and install WordPress all by myself with little knowledge of exactly WHAT I was getting myself into. I think things are all back up (for the most part) and I even have a spiffy new blog design to show for it.

Changing hosts did interrupt my email service for a few days, too, so if you had sent me an email over the weekend, chances are I didn’t get it. Please send it again (I’m so sorry!).

So cape making is back into full swing – I have a bunch of really cute capes coming through my sewing desk – can’t wait to share some pictures with you.

Just wanted to let you know that we’re back from our California vacation and ready to get back in the CAPE business (but really — did I ever escape it?!).

I have a TON of emails in my Inbox so I apologize in advance if you’ve sent me an order or an email and I haven’t responded yet. I’m working on it! I’m just a one-woman show here.

As I announced before – cape prices are going up as of September 1st. This is to better cover my costs of materials, packing and shipping supplies, and my time. I am a stay at home mom and while I LOVE making these adorable kids for Superheroes all over, I need to make sure that I price the capes according to how much time they take me to make — time that takes me away from my family. Thanks for understanding. :)

I also have some fun things in store in the next few weeks – so keep an eye out for more little customizations you will be able to add to your capes, along with a newly designed (and easier to navigate!) website.

Lastly, a shout out to some of the great sites that have posted about my capes in the past weeks — look at all the neat places that my Superhero Capes have been spotted:

Stolen Goods
Everyday Yogini
O’Keefe Family Fun
Buby & Bleu
Jogirls Journey

Thanks everyone!