14 Items

Ugh! How many items do I need for a new page in my Etsy store! (It looks like 20).

I have 14 right now, and that is the most I've ever had at one time. It's going to take me some more time to get to a second page. Maybe next year...

5 Distributions and Shipping

It may be the first time ever, but I have all 5 distributions plushies that I currently make in stock, at one time! I don't know about you, but I'm excited.

Also, if you are looking to get your package shipped in the continental US in time for Christmas, I would get your order in by Friday night. I plan to mail things on Saturday the 19th. Using USPS First Class, they seem to take about 3ish days to get places, so shipping on Monday or even Tuesday may get it there in time, but there is no guarantee with First Class. If you decide to purchase after Saturday, that is fine! We could work out a different shipping arrangement. If you'd still like to receive your package before the holidays.

All Caught Up

I've finished all of my requested items. :)

I made a Shapiro-Wilk cross stitch, a Pythagorean Theorem coffee cozy, some "bell curves", a black standard normal, and two green chi-squares. I also had some requests for the green standard normal distributions and some magnets. All done! Now I can make some other things that I've been out of.

I've been considering getting an embroidery machine. They are expensive. Especially since I'd like software that allows me to take any image I make and digitize it. But I can keep considering and maybe one day I'll go ahead and splurge. I'm sure it'd be loads of fun and I'd use it a bunch. Any one have any suggestions/comments on embroidery machines? I'm a pretty uninformed audience.

Happy Holidays and Happy Stitching

Despite the sparseness of goods in my Etsy shop, I've still been pretty busy with selling things. I have a few custom requests that I'm working on and some requests to replenish the standard normal distributions.

I'm currently working on:

• 11 Standard Normal Distribution Plushies. If I can get 11 done soon, then I should be able to make some other plushies and not have to worry about the most common of them all.
• 1 Shapiro-Wilk Cross-stitch. A fellow Etsian has requested my service in stitching up the finished piece. That has been fun to work on.
• 1 Pythagorean Theorem Coffee Cozy. It will be just the the Euler's cozy, but with the Pythagorean Theorem instead of Euler's Identity.

And that is it for this week. As soon as I get all of that finished (which I plan to do by Friday), I will make some more Chi-square distributions and then possibly some LogNormal distributions.

To Revise or Not to Revise

Recently, each time I make a t-distribution plushie I am not quite 100% satisfied. I am just not really that happy with it's shape and size.

I tell my statistics students that as n increased the t-distribution approaches the standard normal distribution. But if you look at my plushies, this is not the case.

The green standard normal plushie is considerably shorter than the t-distribution plushie. I don't agree with this.


I know what the problem is. I used R to create my patterns. Both pdfs go from -4 to 4 on the x-axis. But, when I copied over the images to a image editing software, to clean them up and size them, I didn't keep the heights the same, I should have.

So, even though both are correct, my t-distribution is taller than my z-distribution by about 2 inches. I just need to trim that pattern back. Or make the z-distribution taller. I just don't know which one to do. But I do believe I should do something. These two distributions should look more like each other (when df=200 for t) than they currently do.

Giveaways and Holiday

I love the holidays! Come October they just roll in. My birthday, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and finish it off with New Years. Wonderful!

This is my first holiday season with Etsy and I'm not really sure what to expect. I know that my products are aimed at a pretty small crowd, but I'm sure that at least some of that crowd still celebrates holidays. I need to get more items in stock!

I have some ideas for new things to work on too. I'd still like to make that graphing calculator case. I know, I mentioned it months ago, but just haven't actually made one yet. I'd also really like to make a statistical quilt! But that will take some time. We'll see. Maybe I'll spend a long weekend sewing and embroidering and making all things stat-y.


In other news, I was recently approached by a "fan" about donating items for a giveaway she was doing on her blog, The World Through My Eyes. Rachael and I worked it out that I would donate two sets of pin/magnet combinations. I've made the magnets before, but this is the only time I've done the pins. They are basically the same, just will a pin stitched on instead of a magnet.

It was fun to decide what to make and sometime this week we'll ship off the little fellas to the lucky winners she chooses!

Happy Fall!

Last week the weather was a bit chilly here in Tulsa. But the past few days its been in the 60's-70's again. However, the trees are still pretty. Our neighborhood has a good variety of colors and sizes. It makes driving more fun.

Now that my sister's wedding dress is complete and her wedding is past, I have more time to work on things for my Etsy shop again! Which is wonderful because I really enjoy making statistical crafts.

So far, I've just relisted some chi-square plushies and remade the Euler coffee cozy. I changed the color of some of the threads. I think it looks better now.

In other news, my birthday is tomorrow! And Halloween is in only 10 days. Fun!

Euler's Identity Coffee Cozy

I've been meaning to design a new coffee cozy for a while now. I've had ideas, but never actually tried anything out.

Well, that's changed. I recently drew up a sketch and embroidered a new cozy design. It's Euler's Identity, surrounded by some swirly border.

I think next time I stitch it up, I'll try using a stem stitch instead of a back stitch.

Pumpkins

Last night I started work on a jack-o-lantern standard normal distribution plushie. I would have finished him, but I don't have any empty bobbins! So, I will need to go buy some so I can finish. So far, I find him rather cute.

Weekend Crafts

This weekend I had some fun. I stitched up 3 new standard normal plushies and started making 2 new magnets, with purple instead of blue, lines.

I also took advantage of some sales and some coupons for my local craft store and bought some new flannel and fleece. I'm going to make Halloween distribution plushies! I'm so exited to make them. I needed to get some other things done before I can get them started (like get normal plushies back in stock). But now, I can to work on some fun, Halloween-themed plushies. Woo hoo.

I plan to make a witch, mummy, jack-o-lantern, and vampire bat. :)

Log Normal Distribution Plushie

It's been a busy 2 weeks. I was contacted by a local community college and asked to teach two statistics courses about 2.5 weeks ago. Those courses started last Tuesday. So, in between those days I spent time at meetings, filling out paper work, making notes, and other such new-job/beginning-of-semester things.

It took a little longer to finish some of my crafting than I would have liked. So far I've finished one lognormal distribution plushie.


Of course, I think he's a cutie.

Calculator Case and Plushies

I've decided to make a calculator case. I haven't gotten very far on it yet. It actually is a rather ugly pre-prototype. I plan to make it lined with fleece or some other soft fabric and to embroider some wonderful mathy design onto a pretty exterior fabric. It will likely have a elastic and button closure, similar to the cozies I make. That seems to be an easy way to open and close the case. (My graphing calculator is the same one my mom bought me back in high school, about 11 years ago.)


I've also started to make some more Chi-Square plushies, shown in yellow. And I've cut out fabric for one log-normal plushie (in pink). I know that I've done one custom already, but I'm still testing my pattern. It would be a shame to cut out many and then realize I messed up some where!

P-value Cross Stitch

When I made my p-value cross stitch, I decided to use green because, well, I really like green. When the pattern was requested, the person buying it said she was going to stitch her's in blue. She's done and has sent me a picture of the finished piece and it's come out wonderfully! She even framed it with a coordinating blue mat. It's looks really good!


Thanks tewksbug for sending me a completed picture! It looks great!

New Projects

To take a break from sewing up distributions and embroidering coffee cozies, I've been sewing some clothes. Well, the actual reason I've been sewing clothes is because I have deadlines!

I'm working on a wedding dress for one of my sisters. We had a fitting this past weekend. Also, this past weekend, I had a fitting for a Renaissance costume I'm making for my mother-in-law. And! My niece just turned 3 on Saturday and for her birthday I made her a dress-up kit. So, there were many skirts, hats, and other things to be stitched up by last Saturday.

Now that all of that is done though (at least for now), I can make some new items for my store. I've got a few ideas, but I haven't started on all of them yet. I think I'm going to make some lognormal distributions. I had a custom order for one a while back and just haven't yet made any to sell besides that. So, those will come soon.

I also think I'm going to make some calculator cases. I haven't started that yet. Right now its in the idea phase, which is equivalent to the wheat-growing phase of making bread (meaning, it's not far along at all).

I'll post some pictures of my progress when I start making some.

Pillows, Magnets, and Patterns

The request for a normal plushie pillow has been met. After creating a large pattern and setting some details with the customer, I finished and shipped the pillow to the other side of the world!


I'm quite pleased with how he came out. I made and shipped just the pillow case (with a zippered opening) to save on shipping. The picture above just has him partly stuffed. Just enough to hold his shape.

Working huge brought up the idea of working tiny. Enter little 3" long magnets!


And, a while ago I listed a p-value cross-stitch piece. It's complete, accurate, and ready to go. But a returning customer who happens to enjoy cross-stitching herself has requested the pattern. So, now you can also buy the pattern for the piece!



I would also like to say, if you have any ideas or suggestions, or if you are reading this after you've stuffed your pillow case or cross-stitched your piece, I'd love to hear about it!

New Blue

As you can see, my husband has done his work. My blog (which you will get directed to if you visit nausicaadistribution.com) is now staty and cute. He made the post-header bar complete with mu and sigma-squared. He created a button in my banner that leads to my Etsy store (it was a lot lot of work to get that button in the banner to work out). He even made a cute little icon that shows up next to the web address and on the tab. Marvelous!

In crafty news, I recently got a request for a giant normal plushie. So, I've been working on it. He's going to be about 30" wide and about 15" tall. Normally (ha, normal) they are about 10x5. So this guy's thrice as big. The picture below is just of the pattern I made for it. The request came from a person in New Zealand. That'll be my first shipping over seas! Its two exciting things rolled into one!

Making Changes

Please bear with us as we update the look of this blog. My husband is helping me (again) to make this look a little less cookie cutter and little more statistical. We still have a lot of red to get rid of though!

Also, yesterday I had 32 people heart my Etsy shop! I only had 17 before that! Also, the standard normal plushie's number of views went from around 120 to over 500! I'm not sure what happened, but I know I like it. If you know why I had a short burst of attention, feel free to share. I'd love to know why.

Tags

My husband has been a big help with my Etsy store. He suggests products. He is always willing to give his comments on colors, sizes, and the such. He designed my banner and logo. Not to mention the fact that he's been willing to let me do all of this! At least once a week after work, we go to the store and buy all sorts of fun crafty things for me to try out! It's awesome.

Now I can add a new thing to the list of things he's done for me. And that is create some tags. Now when I make a plushie it can have a fancy tag. (Also, thanks go to my mom for letting me use her color printer to make them, Mom's are great.)

The Adventure Begins

Well, actually the adventure began a few months ago. But, only now will I be documenting the adventure of the Nausicaa Distribution as it occurs right here in blog-world.

I've been a member of Etsy for 83 days (since April 7th). I've made a few sales and had lots of smiling while doing so. And I plan to continue doing so (both smiling and being a member of Etsy).