A very happy new year to all of you from SewingWeb.com. We hope you have been enjoying the holiday calendar on the site. It's up through the end of this week, so if you haven't started clicking, go for it! It's been a pleasant hit, so I'm sure you'll see something like it next year.

Lois is going to be writing for us again soon. We have several ideas for articles - taking pictures of you work, for instance. If you have suggestions for topics, just let me know and we'll do some investigating.

This week, though, it's quiet time. I've created a couple of photo transfer pillows that I will be picturing on the site soon. We have new pictures to put in the gallery, and those should be up by the end of the week.

Ever used any of the online auction sites? Are you looking for oddball fabric? I found some very interesting fabrics doing searches for "hippie fabric" and "funky fabric" on eBay. There are some genuine oldies but goodies out there. I can't seem to find the gumption to buy any of the large, colorful designs, but I'm wondering what someone would do with them? Would this stuff be used for costumes, doll patterns, retro clothing for kids or teens, or is it something you'd use for yourself? Regardless, take a time travel through eBay some time and check it out. If you do a search for "retro fabric", you'll get a lot of the Miller prints; you can buy them at your local fabric store for a lot less than people are auctioning them. If you want to do a specific search on eBay, be sure to use quotation marks - "hippie fabric". If you want to make your search larger, be sure and click the box that allows you to search through titles and listings; otherwise, you'll only get listings with your search words in the title. Look for sellers with a decent feedback rating. Click on the number beside a seller's name to see how many positive, negative, or neutral feedbacks they have. The more positive ones, the better. Read ALL the print in the auction listing. Make sure that you're prepared to pay the shipping price that is listed; sometimes it is highly inflated and you need to take care. If there is no shipping fee indicated, you may wish to utilize the "contact the seller" option and ask about it. Most sellers are fairly nice about providing that information for you. Lastly, make sure you're comfortable with your transaction. Don't like the picture? Don't buy. Don't like the price? Don't buy. Don't like the shipping? Don't buy. Don't like the attitude? Don't buy. If you get that niggling feeling that says - something's wrong here - listen to it. BUT, remember, you can find some smashing bargains and some long lost fabrics out there in Internet auctionland. I do it all the time. (Remind me to write about buying my very first sewing machine - AGAIN - on eBay. I had to have it - it's the one I had when I was a teen and I just had to have it!)

With that, enjoy the beginning of your near year. Take a breather. Holiday season is just about over and it's almost time to relax. The kids will be back at school and your schedules will be leveling out again. Me? I'm going to sew some doll clothes. How about you?

Here's a toast to all of us and the continued success of SewingWeb.com.

Donna Gettings-Apperson
Webmaster, Online Community Director
http://www.sewingweb.com