Website & Cart Explained

Website & Cart Explained

I’m seizing this moment to explain the website and it’s checkout process since a few people have had trouble.  I’ve broken this down into steps and highlighted things that need to be paid attention to.

So let’s go over to the website, shall we?!

First when you arrive you will be greeted by me!  There I am, cheerfully welcoming you into my world of design, art, and hand stitching.

Do you see those two big red arrows?  That’s showing you the navigation bar because I’m going to go over all of the items listed, but first let’s just look for a second at the bottom of this landing page, the page with me smiling at you.  If you scroll down you’ll see a whole bunch of images and text about my past design work and then at the very bottom you’ll see this:

This is how you can get in touch with me.

Now you can also use the “contact” at the top in the navigation bar.

Either one will work.  So if you get into trouble, just know we’re here to help answer any and all questions you may have.  And most of you, who follow me elsewhere, know I’m pretty good about responding to you in a timely manner.

Okay.  Now, let’s move on to “Workshops”.

Yay, workshops!! So much fun.  This is what you’ll see. At some point I’ll change the large header image with my most recent piece, but until then this is exactly what you should see.  Scroll down and you’ll see the calendar break down of all my workshops as of today.  I’ll be adding a few more in the coming weeks, but for now, this is it.

Click on the blue link from the photo above (I’ve circled it in red).  All those blue titles are hotlinks and when clicked on, they will open that workshop!

Here we are in the Stitch Along Dorset Button Glasses Case Workshop.

Look at the drop down menu! How cool is that?!  That’s what you’ll see if you click on the button to the right of “Customize your experience”.  This is where you can add stuff.  Fun stuff like fabric kits and thread kits.  If you don’t see a drop down menu it’s because no kits are available for that workshop. But for both my Stitch Along workshops you get to add kits!!  One more thing about the drop down menu… when you choose one of the options, you’ll see that the price changes.

See how the price changed when you added the Fabric Kit?  And can we just admire for a moment those fabulous linens?  These include enough linen and lining for TWO cases – Pat Pauly’s hand dyed linens, my own ice dyed linen, a cotton lining AND a micro fiber lining, (you’ll get both) which is perfect for glasses lens, fusible fleece interfacing, again enough for two cases and enough wool for one. Same with the Stitch Along Scissor Case, but I’m getting side tracked…

So the price includes the workshop, plus the Fabric Kit, which also includes shipping and the design and the detailed instruction booklet.  “What!” you’re saying to yourself, “that must be a typo!” but no, it’s just one of the perks you get for signing up for this Stitch Along. “But what about the thread kit?” you might ask.

Here you go!

This is the workshop and the thread kit.  Please note that if you live outside the US you MUST order at least 4 weeks before the beginning of the workshop.  Even so it’s dicey with customs and covid causing delays.  Bottom line –  if you don’t live in the US, hurry and enroll now!

Here we are with the Workshop, the fabric kit AND the thread kit.  See all those beautiful threads above?  Oh!  And look!  See that gorgeous hand dyed linen underneath?  Yup that’s the whole package.  One last thing – this workshop features Dorset Buttons.  Not just your traditional Dorset Button, but really, really wild dorset buttons.  Dorset Buttons like you’ve not seen before.  Last year I gave a couple workshops called Dorset Buttons Gone Wild.  It was a huge hit.  This workshop and the other Stitch Along I’m doing in July will teach you how to create dorset buttons that are little pieces of art unto themselves.  So even if you don’t want to make a glasses case or scissor case, you can still take this workshop and create dorset buttons for something else you’re working on.  It’s all about thinking outside the box, using the dorset button as a jumping off point, but doing things you’ve never thought of doing.  That’s what we’ll be doing in both of these Stitch Alongs.

Okay, let’s keep going with the website.  So now you’re convinced this is just the coolest Stitch Along/Workshop that you’ve ever seen and you can hardly wait to sign up.  So what do you do now?   

Click on the “Add to cart” button and you’ll see the little, light blue, transparent box at the top that I’ve helpfully circled in red!  And if you look at the navigation bar you’ll see the number 1 in your “cart”, showing you that you’ve added one thing to your shopping cart. And now you can do a couple of things:  You can keep shopping and sign up for more workshops and/or designs or you can check out.

There are two ways to check out.  The first is to click on the button that I’ve circled in red in the image above.

Or you can click on the the “Go to cart once all items are added?” button, which is right below the “Add to cart” button. Do you see it? ⬆️

Once you click on “view cart” or “Go to cart once all items are added?” you’ll be asked to login, if you haven’t already done so.  This is for your security and this is what you’ll see

If you remember your user name and password you’re good to go.  If you’ve forgotten your password, like everyone else in the world, you’ll need to click on “login” and you’ll see this image above.  Do you see the dreaded “Lost your password?” No problem, we can help you with that.  I can’t remember my middle name, much less every password I’ve created for different websites, oh wait, I don’t have a middle name, but you get the point…  Click on “Lost your password” and you’ll get an email to reset your password.  This is so that no one pretending to be you can get in here and make mischief.

Once you’ve created a new password and logged in, you’ll see this page above… wait, what?  Coupon???? I want a coupon!  I can help you with that too.  If you signed up for my newsletter you will have seen that I give one to everyone who signed up.  If you missed that, you can join Patreon where I also gave a different coupon just a few weeks ago!  Lots of coupons, lots of different ways to get one.

Once you’ve entered your coupon code or decided you just want to get enrolled because the workshops are filling up fast, you’ll click on “Proceed to checkout” and voila, you’ll be taken to this page.

A couple things here – there’s yet another reminder to use a coupon, if you have one (upper left corner circled in red) and don’t forget to un-click “Ship to a different address?” unless your credit card info is different than your shipping address.  For the kits, the shipping address is really important because this is what will be given to me to ship all that beautiful fabric and threads to, so make sure it’s correct.  I cannot tell you how many times I go to the post office only to be told “that address doesn’t exist”.  So please, please, please, double check and make sure it’s correct.  And include you’re phone number so that we can call you to verify, if we run into problems.

Once you’ve filled out all the credit card info, you’ll get an email welcoming you to the workshop and then you’ll get another email from me asking you to choose which kit you’d like.  Make sure you have my email address in your contacts so that your email security doesn’t block me, thinking I’m spamming you.  I promise, I would never do that. ❤️

Congratulations you are now successfully enrolled in my workshop and the fun has just begun!
But wait!  What about the rest of the website?
Okay, okay, here’s the Stitching Shop:

After that is the blog, which is where you’re reading all of this.  But have you looked at the right hand side bar?  You haven’t!?  Well let me show you around because there’s some cool stuff.

So above the red circle there are all the social media icons which you can click on and follow me in various places.  And then there’s the Subscribe to this blog! That’s where you enter your email address so that you never miss one of my blog posts.

But there’s more!

When you sign up for my newsletter you’ll get lots of other things stitching related. I wrote my first ever newsletter just a few weeks ago!  And I’ll be writing another every month or so.  I’m not really sure how often I’ll be writing one, but it won’t be daily or even several times a week, because I don’t have the time, but it will certainly be once a month.

So now that you’ve subscribed to this blog AND you’ve signed up for my newsletter, I want to point out something else: the Translate button.

If English isn’t your first language or second or third, you can have this blog translated to the language you’re most comfortable with.  How great is that!

Okay, we’re in the home stretch…  Along that top navigation bar after “Blog” and “Contact” (remember I told you about the Contact tab earlier?) then there’s “Account”.  And if you hover your mouse over it, another drop down menu like this one will magically appear.

Click on “Account Details” and the image above will appear.

Lost Your Password is the next item on that drop down menu and where you can make a new password.

“Orders” is where you can see all the things you’ve signed up for and purchased and the next item “Downloads” is where you’ll find any and all downloads that came with anything you’ve purchased and finally there’s the “Logout” button.

So that’s it!  You are now a pro at finding, ordering and navigating all the different things on my website!

Oh!! and I added another The Basics Workshop in July, since the one coming up, sold out quickly, so don’t wait and grab your spot now!

Blogging on my New Website!

Blogging on my New Website!

I just can’t tell you how thrilling it is to go to my website and write a new blog post! For those who may be confused, last week I was still posting on my old site, which now is housed under the umbrella of my new website! I know, I know, I’ve already talked about all of this at length and I’m not going to do another post all on the fabulousness of my new website, however I just have to say that as I sit here typing this I’m silently bouncing up and down and squealing with joy. Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It’s been such a long time in the making!!

So. Now that I got that out of the way, what are we going to talk about?

Oh! Before it slips from my mind, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. It’s just to the right of this post. ❤️

The other thing that leaps to mind is that I just released a new video on my YouTube channel.

The title of this video sums it up.

This video begins with an 8 minute riff on life, aging, Merlin, facial recognition, the results of my MRI and whatever else flew into my mind as I was recording. So yeah, there’s that. However don’t despair, I did some stitching too.

In other news… okay there IS no other news. This is my life in a nutshell. It’s evidently a very, very tiny nutshell. 😂 So I will add a few videos of other people’s lives that came up when I went to schedule this video. The first is my favorite Golden Retriever, Bailey and his new best friend.

And then I had to share this one, because going to Africa to see the gorillas has been on my bucket list for decades now.

I wasn’t familiar with Keith Urban and his music until I saw this pop up and hit play while waiting for my video to finish uploading. How great is he? And Nicole Kidman? Love them both.

Enjoy the weekend everyone and don’t forget to check out my upcoming workshops!

MRI’s & Inspiration for Stitching

MRI’s & Inspiration for Stitching

Yesterday I had to have an MRI because I’ve been getting headaches that often wake me in the middle of the night. I was quite sure I was fine, but it’s a precaution and being an adult and all, it seemed the responsible thing to do. So off I went feeling I’d prepared myself adequately. I don’t care for small, enclosed spaces, so I knew I was going to need to practice breathing and asked for something to put under my knees so my back didn’t begin to hurt. I believed I was on top of the situation and lay down, dutifully putting the ear plugs in and began counting my breath. Except once I was in the machine, I could feel my jaw shaking. As in uncontrollably and I was so freaked out that my jaw was doing this weird thing that I seemed to have no control over, I became convinced that it was so bad it would make my head move and ruin the imaging, which only made it worse. It took everything in me to breathe in and out, count my breath and eventually my jaw calmed down.

The upshot of the whole thing is that I’m fine. Perfectly fine. My neurologist called yesterday evening to tell me all looks well, “for someone your age” which of course gave me pause. “What does that mean?” I asked a bit defensively. He explained that you expect to see a few tiny white dots in “someone my age” and that this is also common in those who experience migraines. Evidently I have a couple of those white dots and also a tiny cyst, which is not in my brain at all, and is about 4mm. So another MRI in about a year to make sure that doesn’t grow. All in all the news is excellent and blood work is all good too. Whew. I knew I was as healthy as a horse.

After I returned home the skies opened up and the rain came down like some sort of end of the world scenario. That was when I decided to do a livestream, which you can see here if you care to.

And then I had to do a lot of work on my website, so I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening writing copy, learning how to input new workshops into my workshop schedule and create images for the workshops.

Every now and then when I needed a break I’d work on the piece below, which I’ve fallen in love with and that is inspired by plant and human cells. Pinterest is great for finding amazing images of organisms, cells and plant life that have been put under a microscope. I have a whole board where I’m saving such images.

This piece I’ve added some of my hand dyed t-shirting to and then stitched on top of it. It’s very relaxing.

My mother and two of my brothers are scientists: a chemist, an astro physicist and a bio-chemist. I was never very good at science, but I do love looking at the microscopic images of organisms and cells. They are things of such exquisite beauty.

The photograph below is of a coronary blood clot, horrible, but if you remove what it IS and just view it as an image, it is incredible.

Coronary blood clot. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a blood clot (thrombus) in the coronary artery, showing red blood cells (purple) in a fibrin mesh (threads). Magnification: x2500, when printed 10cm wide.
This is a microscopic image of a cactus (I think). Amazing.

Which took me to viewing images of brain cells. Talk about inspiration!

Microscopic image of neurons
Amazing, right?!

There is beauty in just about anything if looked at through a different lens. ❤️

New YouTube Videos, & Other News

I have a couple pieces I’m working on simultaneously at the moment. One is a piece I began for my Improvisational Stitching Workshop. We are having SO much fun! As I was working on it, I decided to do a video on one way I like to create organic looking shapes. That video is premiering at 1pm EDT today, so if you’re around, come join me as I will be watching with you and can chat as we watch. Typically I go online a few minutes prior to the release time so that I can chat with anyone who is waiting. The Premieres are lots of fun and a way to connect with each other.

Another piece that I’m working on is what I thought was going to be a Stitch Along and then got stuck and decided to play around with a few different ideas before I committed one way or the other. That piece is just beginning to take shape. So far so good. I talk about it and begin working on it a little in the video below.

And then finally I’ve got another improvisational stitching piece that I’m just beginning and that is much larger than what I have done before. It measures about 44″ x 36″. So exciting!

In other news we continue to steam ahead on my website, which we’re hoping will be up and running by the end of this month. And I’ll be adding some fun workshops, a newsletter and lots of other things, so stay tuned!

By the way, that silk scarf I’m wearing in the photo at the top of this post? Yup, that one. It’s made by my friend Pat Pauly, who does the most gorgeous work. If you aren’t familiar with Pat’s work, go over to her website. She’s fabulous!

Videos From My Mother and Other News!

Videos From My Mother and Other News!

First things first. My mother sent me two videos this week and both are too wonderful to not pass along.

The text within this video roughly translates to: “What an animal concert: The Cologne pianist Thelonious Herrmann came up with this unusual idea. He took his piano to the Koln Zoo to play among goats, monkeys and giraffes. Many zoos are closed due to the COVID19 pandemic. He hopes to collect donations for the Cologne Zoo. Usually the young musician travels all over Europe with his piano. He has already toured 18 countries with his project “Stadtgeklimper”. Incidentally, the music for the zoo animals was composed by himself. The sea lions seem to like it in particular!”

And then there’s this. Adorable…

And finally, I have some spaces left in the Dorset Button II workshop, this coming Wednesday, March 31st from 2-5pm EDT.

Dorset Buttons Gone Wild Part II:  Wednesday, March 31st 2-5pm EDT. $60 This includes a recording of the entire 3-hour class that you can refer to whenever and as often as you like.

This workshop is for those who’ve already taken the Dorset Buttons Gone Wild Workshop and/or have a good working knowledge of how to make a basic Dorset Button.  We will NOT be going over the basics, but instead will be going rogue, incorporating all kinds of other materials as well as changing the way we make the spokes so that you can make “tree-like” Dorset Buttons, as well as more abstract looking buttons.  

For those of you who are interested in either workshop you must send payment via Paypal, Venmo or Zelle using my email address: ariane@arianezurcher.com.

My Scissor’s Case Design, but using Dorset Buttons.

I am also teaching an improvisational workshop! This is the YouTube Video I did about it, which includes a little about my design background.