too sweet

I'm making a special request for a customer who is having a lollipop themed first birthday party for her daughter. I didn't realize how hard it would be to turn a lollipop swirl into felt when I first started! Lots of trial and error but the end design is super cute. At the customers request I will be switching to a pink onesie and replacing the pink parts with light purple in the lollipop. I like the sprinkles around the lollipop and am tempted to add the design to my shop as a regular item.

Rock On!

I just added a new design to the shop. A cherry red, white and black electric guitar. I was talking with a friend this weekend who has a 1 year old boy and she was lamenting about the very typical designs she finds in the stores. So I thought I would make something a bit different for little boys with my new design. I need to put it on a toddler tee now. I like the gray background. Next up is a gender neutral rubber duck sitting in bubbles that has the option of saying JUST above the ducky.

thank you cards

About a month ago I revamped my packing and shipping methods. I used to ship my items in little cardboard boxes that once held house paint samples. Recently I received about 100 manila envelopes that were in perfect condition except the sticky part that makes the flap stick down doesn't stick. It is easy for me to tape down the flaps so I happily took the envelopes to give them a second life. When I started using the envelopes the weight of my items dropped and shipping cost a lit less, so I decided to put that money back into my packaging. First I went and got some colorful tissue paper and ribbions to wrap my items in. I have always included a little thank you note with each order but I wanted to get better thank you cards, something that people would like but was unique. I was inspired by a lesson I am teaching in my classroom this spring where my students are doing lino cuts of birds. I decided to turn one of my desgins into a lino cut to stamp thank you cards with. I choose my black brid fly desgin because it was more adult and the thank you cards are for the ADULTS that buy the kids stuff.
So here is the orginal desgin template I made and the lino carving


and a close up of the lino cut

and a shot of a row of thank you cards that have been stamped up and are ready to go


no one has mentioned if they like the cards or not, but I feel good each time I see one go out and I think it shows another handmade touch.

Suzanne

106 orders

wow as of toady I have received 106 orders for over 130 items! I've averaging a sale a day and off days are being balanced by multiple purchase from orders. I wonder if this will keep up into the spring...if it will get even better or what. I'm a bit frustrated because people keep ordering the same four designs and I'm getting a bit tired of stitching them. At least St. Patty's day and Easter bunny's are breaking up the constant stream of birds, giraffes and rocket ships. I'd really like to see one of the Apple of My Eye onesies sell again! I know people buy what they see other people have bought so it is a bit of a catch 22. I've had several people buy my baby rosette headbands but no sales on the adult ones. I should probably load my adult one's into the second shop that I set up and just link the two shops. I thought that people would be more likely to buy if they saw my other sales but I can also see how having them in the baby shop may be hurting me. People see me only selling baby items and go looking elsewhere for adult items. I made a elastic stretch headband for a special order and I think I could put them on Sarah and Jo Jo and sell them to young girls.
Tomorrow I plan on putting the baby boys train onesie in the shop for the first time. I would also like to get the electric guitar on the gray onesies I have sitting around into the shop, along with a very hungry caterpillar on the green onesies and a butterfly on the purple ones. For now here are some photos of my girls stretch headbands and some single rosettes on a book background.

more custom orders

I've been working on this custom order set for a very nice women for about a month. She had me turn a few of my designs into boy's tee shirts for her son. I really need to work on getting more toddler tee's into my shop. I converted the giraffe into a tee for her and then did a matching set of the train for boy and baby (I really like how the train onesie worked out...it is going into the shop) and last but not least, she had me desgin a jersey cow for her son's farm theme birthday. The cow took a bit of work and I learned that udders don't translate well on felt children's items...hence no udders. However, I am very pleased with the end result. Not so pleased with my photos as I took them on my non fancy camera and the light was going down. Regardles here they are:

blue headband

blue headband is using an old Christmas onesie listing. Have to remember views are not accurate. starting at 158 views

Hop into spring!

It is getting to be that time of year, baby shower and baby birthing season. I've started making a lot more 0-3 month designs then for the last few months. The rocket ship and the giraffe are the big sellers at the moment for both boys and girls. Sales on the bird and cupcake have slowed down. I've noticed items get bought in waves. Everyone will buy the bird, then the fox, then the giraffe, then the orange slice. I think it is an Etsy phenomenon. People buying items as gifts tend to buy what they see other people have bought because they feel that must be a desirable item. I added two new Easter/spring items to my shop. A boy's and a girls version of my hop into spring bunny. I really like how the items turned out. I'm less excited by the photos. The rainy winter weather hangs on here in Portland and I struggle with my lighting when taking photos. Here they are though!
cadet blue

St. Patty's Day

Several years ago, seven years go to be exact, I lived in Chicago for half a year for a Collage internship. I have a lot of really good memories from that adventure but one of my favorite was celebrating St. Patty's Day. I had never given much thought to the holiday before going to Chicago. Sure I had had corned beef and so forth and received my fair share of pinches for forgetting to wear green. However, in Chicago, St. Patrick's day is epic. I ended up going to a huge paraded in one of the Irish/Polish neighborhoods with a bunch of other people from my program. I would say it was more like what I envision Mardi Gras to be like than any St. Patty's parade I had ever seen. TONS of people, tons of beads being thrown out (no showing of cleavage though) and a whole lot of green and black beer. We had a great time, it was sunny and fairly warm for spring in Chicago. I got dragged into a Walgreen's to get my Chicago St. Patty's tee, and attacked by a gaggle of girls who put green ribbons in my hair and green glitter all over me. I wish I knew where I had photos of that. After the parade we went downtown to have a meal of corned beef and cabbage from a street food cart and watched the now green river flow through the city.

I've made two Shamrock onesies for St. Patty's day. I should have gotten them up a few weeks ago but hopefully I can still sell one or two. I really like the one that says lucky across the shamrock but I have had a hard time photographing it. The letters show up better in real life than they do in the photos. The sun shined today and I took photos outside but I might try an inside photo on black fabric also for that one.
Here is the Lucky Charm one




the shamrock on the bum:


I've been experimenting with adding names and words to my stuff. Cutting the letters by hand has been a pain in the butt. I decided to try something a little different for the word Lucky. I went into word and typed the word and then chose a font I liked and made the letters the size I wanted them. After I printed it out I copied it onto card stock and then cut out each letter into a square shape. Then I put the letter square on top of a square of felt and cut out the printed letter while cutting the felt underneath. It still took a while but I feel the result is more professional than my previous attempts.

This all would be so much easier with just pain old fabric, well the cutting part would be, and then I could fuse the fabric onto the shirts. The stitching would still take the same amount of time. While it is tempting to go for easy with the fabric, then I would be like a ton of other shops on Etsy. Right now the thing that makes me stand out is my use of felt, my hand stitching and the look of felt being stitched.

My second shamrock is simpler but still unique from the other items I have seen because I emphasize the hearts and use different shades of green.



We will see if I sell any or if I waited too long to post them.

Special requests

Well after a week of watching my views I learned ...not much at all. Well that is not true. I learned that I am not smart enough to get google analytic hooked up to my shop and if I WAS smart enough I would not have to track my numbers by hand. Sigh...Jen....hhheeeellllppp. I also learned that the two ways to get sales is to keep listing and re-listing each day and to keep active in the forums. I also have learned, and not from my number tracking, but just from the good ole calender, that sales pick up towards the middle to the end of the month. I also think that if you want to get in on peoples holiday buying that you need to list your items a month or two before the holiday. I made it almost a month before St. Patty's day and I'm doing good on my Easter items...but that is for another post.

I've had the fun and challenge of making two special orders in the last two weeks. One was for a good friend's niece. She wanted me to take a photo of the family's do Duncan and turn it into a applique. It took me quite a few tries to get it look good to me but I was happy with the end results. Hopefully she will like it also.
Here is the dog:

The doggie is a pit bull mix but I think the body was more lab like than stocky pit bull so that was a bit of a challenge to get the right body shape. Here is the felt version!
not bad if I say so myself. In retrospect I do wish I had added the second back leg, but at the time I could not figure out how to add it without making the dog look like he had an extra inappropriate part showing.
And the finished product for Miss Violet.


I also had a really nice lady in Chicago ask me to do a rush order of the Rocket Ship toddler tee for her daughters pre-school performance next week that has a space theme. I've done this shirt and onesie so many times for boys so it was really fun to tweak it with a girl theme. She got the shirt already and is very happy with it and has promised to send photos:)

wednesday numbers

Sweet tweet bird: 52 views and 2 hearts (2) 56 views and 2 hearts(4) 62 views and 2 hearts (6)
Rocket ship : 31 views and 1 heart (5) 34 views and 1 heart (3) 36 views and 1 heart (2)
little fox: 50 views and 1 heart (6) 53 views and 1 heart (3) 54 views and 1 heart (1)
black bird : 328 views and 7 hearts (3) 330 views and 7 hearts (2) 332 views and 7 hearts (2)
Orange : 304 views and 5 hearts (3) 307 views and 5 hearts (3) 309 views and 5 hearts (2)
lion : 38 views (6) 45 views (7) 49 views (4)
cupcake: 63 views and 3 hearts (3) 74 views and 5 hearts (11, 2) 90 views and 6 hearts (16)
Giraffe: 26 views and 1 heart (5) 30 views and 1 heart (4) 33 views and 1 heart (3)
boys rocket: 98 views and 2 hearts (4) 99 views and 2 hearts (1) 103 views (4)
apple: 283 views and 3 hearts (1) 287 views and 3 hearts(4) 288 views and 3 hearts (1)
ice cream: 119 views and 1 heart (3) 126 views 1 heart (7) 128 views and 1 heart (2)

I added 3 new items today: Ladybug (9 views) 11 views
no one hearted my shop today
I got 43 views today. A lot of views on the cupcake that I renewed
One thing I realized is that I have not been active in the fourms for about three days. I'm off to do that right now.

machine and hand sewing...getting better

A few weeks ago I posted my first attempt at merging my hand sewing designs along with machine sewing to cut down on the time it takes. I was not very pleased with my first results so I ripped them apart to try again. I re-thought what parts of my designs I felt really needed the hand sewing to get the right look and what parts could happen on the machine. I'm happy to say that I feel MUCH better about my second attempt. Good enough in fact that I feel I can finally get back to the women who is so patiently waiting for me to work out wholesale with her shop.

So once again...the first attempt with the machine for the cupcake, by hand, and the new version
vs. vs.

in the third pic we see a marriage of machine and hand that I am finally happy with. In the end I discovered that stitching hearts on the machine takes MORE time than it does by hand. Then I decided that the hand stitching on the cupcake base is really part of what I think makes my design unique, so that had to stay. However, the stitching around the the cupcake base and top can be done by machine without changing the integrity of the design. This merging of machine and hand will allow me to bring my price down to what I hope is a "wholesale" price.

Then I tried it with the bird on a toddler tee that will go to my nice who is 4. First by hand and second by machine and hand.
vs.

vs

I think the combo of machine and hand looks pretty good with the bird. There is still quite a bit of hand sewing in this one though, the wing, the hearts, the eye and the legs still need to be done by hand to keep the overall look. However, not having to sew the grass by hand saves a bit of time.

Next up...how to do the giraffe in less time....now that is a challenge

Hello new friends, how about free shipping?

Well...somehow I don't think my best friend Jen, my one follower, and I are racking up 79 views...so hello to everyone, anyone, who has reached my blog. I hope quite a few of you are finding this through my Etsy shop. I know things are pretty boring with all the data tracking right now...but in a way it is interesting to see the inner workings of trying to make a small business become something successful. Let's run a little experiment... If you become a follower of this blog before midnight on Friday the 12th, you will receive free shipping on your next purchase from my shop Apples Love Oranges. I will email the free shipping code to the email associated with your blogger account that shows up with your follower icon. Tell your friends, family and co-workers and lets see who all those views are coming from :)

Suzanne

two days to go! numbers for Tuesday

Sweet tweet bird: 50 views and 2 hearts (5) 52 views and 2 hearts (2) 56 views and 2 hearts(4)
Rocket ship : 26 views and 1 heart (3) 31 views and 1 heart (5) 34 views and 1 heart (3)
little fox: 44 views and 1 heart (5) 50 views and 1 heart (6) 53 views and 1 heart (3)
black bird : 325 views and 7 hearts (3) 328 views and 7 hearts (3) 330 views and 7 hearts (2)
Orange : 301 views and 5 hearts (2) 304 views and 5 hearts (3) 307 views and 5 hearts (3)
lion : 32 views (1) 38 views (6) 45 views (7)
cupcake: 60 views and 3 hearts (6) 63 views and 3 hearts (3) 74 views and 5 hearts (11, 2)
Giraffe: 21 views 1 heart (8) 26 views and 1 heart (5) 30 views and 1 heart (4)
boys rocket: 94 views and 2 hearts (1) 98 views and 2 hearts (4) 99 views and 2 hearts (1)
apple: 282 views and 3 hearts (8) 283 views and 3 hearts (1) 287 views and 3 hearts(4)
ice cream: 116 views and 1 heart (10) 119 views and 1 heart (3) 126 views 1 heart (7)

I added 3 new items today: Ladybug (9 views) and personalization with a total of 15 views I'm not too sure about the personalization, it takes a lot of time for how much I'm charging but I'll be interested to see if anyone takes advantage of it. I think if I put up a cupcake with a name that it will be a good seller. Today's big winner for views was the cupcake. I think I will re-new it in the morning and see if I get a sale. Not taking my new items into consideration...because then my data would not be "true" data collection, today I had 56 new views. That is the highest for several days. Once again proving then when I add a new item it increases views overall. Two new people heart-ed my shop today. Still no sales. For now I guess I should just worry about getting all my orders out and done and hope that some sales will come along soon. I have to make sure not to let the money I put into etsy overtake the money I am making.

here are some more photos of my newest item, the lady bug with personalization. I went ahead and choose my personal fav name that if/when we have a little girl of our own we will name her Emma Rose.

numbers for Monday....this is getting really boring

Sweet tweet bird: 45 views and 2 hearts (2) 50 views and 2 hearts (5) 52 views and 2 hearts (2)
Rocket ship : 23 views and 1 heart (4) 26 views and 1 heart (3) 31 views and 1 heart (5)
little fox: 39 views and 1 heart (3) 44 views and 1 heart (5) 50 views and 1 heart (6)
black bird : 322 views and 7 hearts (4) 325 views and 7 hearts (3) 328 views and 7 hearts (3)
Orange : 299 views and 5 hearts (5) 301 views and 5 hearts (2) 304 views and 5 hearts (3)
lion : 31 views (2) 32 views (1) 38 views (6)
cupcake: 54 views and 3 hearts (1,1) 60 views and 3 hearts (6) 63 views and 3 hearts (3)
Giraffe: 13 views and 1 heart (3) 21 views 1 heart (8) 26 views and 1 heart (5)
boys rocket: 93 views and 2 hearts (7) 94 views and 2 hearts (1) 98 views and 2 hearts (4)
apple: 274 views and 3 hearts (10) 282 views and 3 hearts (8) 283 views and 3 hearts (1)
ice cream: 106 views and 1 heart (9) 116 views and 1 heart (10) 119 views and 1 heart (3)

41 views on items being tracked. as opposed to yesterday I had 49 views and the day before that..50 views. Hum so within 9 views of each other each day. I can see that the views on the bird and the cupcake are down and I still attribute that to a huge decrease in search for valentines items. As for the other items I can find no rhyme or reason to what is viewed each day. I did not post or realist anything today so that may account for my lower views. I'm reluctant to re-list when I'm not getting sales but I know the best way to get sales is to realist. I can't imagine that raising my prices from $12.00 to $12.50 has decreased my views. I will get up early to make sure I can get the lady bug up and running for the morning. Here is a sneak pre-viwe.

wait till you see it with the name I stitched on underneath...too cute.

Sunday numbers

Sweet tweet bird: 43 views 2 hearts (10), 45 views and 2 hearts (2) 50 views and 2 hearts (5)
Rocket ship : 19 views 1 heart (9, 1), 23 views and 1 heart (4) 26 views and 1 heart (3)
little fox: 36 views 1 heart (4,1), 39 views and 1 heart (3) 44 views and 1 heart (5)
black bird :318 views 7 hearts (2,1), 322 views and 7 hearts (4) 325 views and 7 hearts (3)
Orange : 294 views 5 hearts (4), 299 views and 5 hearts (5) 301 views and 5 hearts (2)
lion : 29 views (3), 31 views (2) 32 views (1)
cupcake: 53 views and 2 hearts (6), 54 views and 3 hearts (1,1) 60 views and 3 hearts (6)
Giraffe: new 10 views 1 heart (10,1), 13 views and 1 heart (3) 21 views 1 heart (8)
boys rocket: 86 views and 2 hearts (1), 93 views and 2 hearts (7) 94 views and 2 hearts (1)
apple: 264 views and 3 hearts (0), 274 views and 3 hearts (10) 282 views and 3 hearts (8)
ice cream: 97 views 1 heart (1), 106 views and 1 heart (9) 116 views and 1 heart (10)

hum...views are up on the ice cream cone ...maybe we are getting into the right season. Also good viwes on the apple, the cupcake, the giraffe and so so on the bird. I'll leave the valentines label on the bird for one more day just to see what happens.

crunch those numbers: Saturday

I started the day by renewing the apple and ice cream cone and putting a valentines tag on them. I had no sales today. I realized I rarely make sales on the weekend. Usually on Monday and Tuesdays and Fridays. I think people shop while surfing the web at work or while the kids are at school. Based on views I get today and tomorrow I will have a better idea of when I should re-new, re-list or put up new items. Data in blue is from Friday. Data in Orange is from today.

Sweet tweet bird: 24 views 2 hearts : 43 views 2 hearts (10), 45 views and 2 hearts (2)
Rocket ship : 5 views 0 hearts : 19 views 1 heart (9, 1), 23 views and 1 heart (4)
little fox: 28 views : 36 views 1 heart (4,1), 39 views and 1 heart (3)
black bird :311 views 6 hearts : 318 views 7 hearts (2,1), 322 views and 7 hearts (4)
Orange : 286 views 5 hearts : 294 views 5 hearts (4), 299 views and 5 hearts (5)
lion : 21 views : 29 views (3), 31 views (2)
cupcake: 40 views 2 hearts : 53 views and 2 hearts (6), 54 views and 3 hearts (1,1)
Giraffe: 46 views 2 hearts : new 10 views 1 heart (10,1), 13 views and 1 heart (3)
boys rocket: 85 views 2 hearts : 86 views and 2 hearts (1), 93 views and 2 hearts (7)
apple: 263 views 3 hearts : 264 views and 3 hearts (no change), 274 views and 3 hearts (10)
ice cream: 95 views 1 heart : 97 views 1 heart (1), 106 views and 1 heart (9)

solid conclusions I can draw from today's info: once again we see that items that are re-listed/ renewed, first listed get the highest views for the day. Overall my views are down from the last three days, even down from relevancy Thursday. I believe valentines day shopping for baby items has run it's course with the holiday only a week and a day away. I think it is time to switch the tag to spring or summer. I think it might be a bit early in the season for the ice cream cone. That poor lion. Nobody likes him! I'm not sure what is up. I'll try to find a decent day and take a photo outside. Maybe people just don't like the design. My second best views today were on toddler tee's. Not sure what to make of that. I do plan on putting up one new item each day this week. This will include the girls/toddler version of Black Bird ...which I hope will appeal to the slightly older set.

I will take no action on my shop tomorrow and see what views and hearts and sales look like.

friday data

Data for sales/views and hearts for Friday

1 early morning sale of the giraffe. re-listed giraffe and re-listed bird booties (11)

Sweet tweet bird: 24 views 2 hearts : 33 views and 2 hearts (9) 43 views 2 hearts (10)
Rocket ship : 5 views 0 hearts : 10 views 0 hearts (5) 19 views 1 heart (9, 1)
little fox: 28 views : 32 views and 0 hearts (4) 36 views 1 heart (4,1)
black bird :311 views 6 hearts : 316 views and 7 hearts ( 5, 1) 318 views 7 hearts (2,1)
Orange : 286 views 5 hearts : 290 vies and 5 hearts (4) 294 views 5 hearts (4)
lion : 21 views : 26 views (5) 29 views (3)
cupcake: 40 views 2 hearts : 47 views and 2 hearts (7) 53 views and 2 hearts (6)
Giraffe: 46 views 2 hearts : 52 views and 2 hearts (6) new 10 views 1 heart (10,1)
boys rocket: 85 views 2 hearts : 85 views and 2 hearts (no change) 86 views and 2 hearts (1)
apple: 263 views 3 hearts : 264 views and 3 hearts (1) 264 views and 3 hearts (no change)
ice cream: 95 views 1 heart : 96 views and 1 heart (1) 97 views 1 heart (1)

data conclusions: views pretty much the same as relevancy Thursday. Recency still appearing to be driving factor with their views on most recent items (giraffe, booties, rocket and bird) Lowest views on items that have not been renewed in a long time. Low intrest overall in the lion and black bird (even though black bird was popular last years). Items listed with valentines as a tag getting higher views. Perhapes add spring to tags. Time to renew ice cream and apple. I think black bird did better on toddler shirts. Maybe be more of a fad desgin and have passed with the seasson. Try diffrent version of sheep? maybe jumping over a moon or a star.

items to make:
bunny
chick
four leaf clover saying lucky charm
ladybug with heart dots
guitar
cupcake with one candle
dog
cat
something in spanish
angel wings
bring dino back
turtle

re-arange tittle

after some further reading (I wish I found last night) not only did I need to add baby to my title, I need to re-arrange my words in the title so that they SHOULD read : Baby Onesie bird appliqued Sweet Tweet 0-12 months. The grammar sucks but apparently computers don't care about grammar, they care about the first 18 characters...ok...we will try that next week.

results of relevency thrusday

It is 8pm West coast time and 11pm East Coast time so I'm going to call it a full shopping day and tabulate the numbers I pulled in today.
First of all it was my first day in a while with no sales:( poo.
Lets look at the numbers before and after:

Sweet tweet bird: 24 views 2 hearts : 33 views and 2 hearts (9)
Rocket ship : 5 views 0 hearts : 10 views 0 hearts (5)
little fox: 28 views : 32 views and 0 hearts (4)
black bird :311 views 6 hearts : 316 views and 7 hearts ( 5, 1)
Orange : 286 views 5 hearts : 290 vies and 5 hearts (4)
lion : 21 views : 26 views (5)
cupcake: 40 views 2 hearts : 47 views and 2 hearts (7)
Giraffe: 46 views 2 hearts : 52 views and 2 hearts (6)
boys rocket: 85 views 2 hearts : 85 views and 2 hearts (no change)
apple: 263 views 3 hearts : 264 views and 3 hearts (1)
ice cream: 95 views 1 heart : 96 views and 1 heart (1)

I'll look at the data again tomorrow night at the same time and hopefully will be able to start collecting enough data to draw some conclusions.

relevency Thrusday

just a little test for relevancy Thursday.

Sweet tweet bird: 24 views 2 hearts
Rocket ship : 5 views 0 hearts
little fox: 28 views
black bird :311 views 6 hearts
Orange : 286 views 5 hearts
lion : 21 views
cupcake: 40 views 2 hearts
Giraffe: 46 views 2 hearts
boys rocket: 85 views 2 hearts
apple: 263 views 3 hearts
ice cream: 95 views 1 heart

to hopefully increase my relevance I tweaked my categories so they all start with children, I added the word baby into the title of my items and i listed a bunch of silly extra stuff in materials. Lets see what happens.

machine vs. hand sewing

I prefer to sew by hand with my appliques. I like the look and the portability. However, I see the problems with hand sewing...its slow, if you don't know what a perfectionist I am you might think the sewing is not as sturdy as with a machine and tying knots by hand is a pain. STILL with all that I like the look of a running stitch, something you can not do with a sewing machine.

Regardless, one way to decrease my base cost for wholesale items is to give sewing the design on a machine a try. I decided to start with a left-over cupcake I had on a reject onesie. I already had a hand sewn cupcake that is being shipped tomorrow to compare with. (please note the cupcake top is misshapen and was a reject item)

So let's start with the cupcake sewn by hand. Probably my fastest item to sew by hand, taking about 45 to 50min.

the stitching on the base of the cupcake is what takes the most time on this design.

Now I went ahead and stitched one on the machine. In the end I had to sew the heart by hand. It was faster and looked better when I did it by hand. I believe that stitching on the machine saved me about 12-15 min on this particular design. I used the loosest straight stitch I could trying to get a similar look to by hand...still you will never get the spacing between the stitches. Sewing machines just don't work that way.
Here is the machine one (remember...reject cupcake top)

even though this one was done with a machine it looks less professional to me...however, that might be my personal bias. If I had never seen my hand stitched ones I would think it looks cute, although lopsided.

and now for the side by side photo:
so I think I could offer the hand stitched one for $9 and the machine one for $7 each.
Next up is the bird experiment.

leave a facebook comment if you have any thoughts on this pricing/sewing dilemma issue.