shop inspiration: small stump + studio choo

Isn't small stump+studio choo the cutest? How awesome is the bark birch tree tubes! Everything I do not need but want to buy. A first place ribbon--of course I need that.  Mini items, nature, illustration, vintage, the best of the best. The adorable owners are two best friends who have an array of talents. Not only to they have this cute shop but they also are florists! 

two brunettes on Howdy Do it!

If you have not heard of the amazing duo Ellie of Mint & Margot of Pitch Design Union have teamed up! They are writing an amazing column for the past 4 weeks on tips for the self employed and small business owners. Being a work from home freelance graphic designer and business owner, I can't WAIT for Monday's posts from the two of them. The one thing that has really opened my eyes is that I can relate so much to them and what they are have been writing about! I have realized that I AM NOT ALONE! *smile*

The lovely and amazingly talented Ellie, asked me to participate this week along with several others in her post on what to do when you are feeling "stuck" and overwhelmed! So go check out my little blurb and all the others! 

photos: Castanets, unknown but on mint

Ink + Wit

Yesterday I met up with the beautiful and talented Tara Hogan from Ink + Wit. I never realized this amazing Designer lived so close to me!  During a recent feature on Decor 8 of Tara's home I realized WOW she lives in Syracuse as well. This was too good to be true.  So we met up at a local cafe and just talked, and I could have talked to her all day, she's so great. Her work is so original and smart which is hard to find and on top of that its super adorable.  You MUST check out her ready made wedding suites they are to die for. She also gave me a little package of cards which made me all gitty inside. She is a woman of many talents and on top of it all is a Yoga instructor!  Thank you Tara :o) 

Oh and check out her spring sale! 

blog header designs

Here is a blog header I just designed for Kelly of Just a Girl In a City. She's adorable and so pleasant to work with! Below is how we arrived at this design.   
If you decide to order a blog header, three designs are created just for you. You then choose one and we can make some more changes and arrive at your final design!  So if anyone is interested  head on over to the shop and purchase one and we can get started.   

Etsy shop update!

So its not quite there yet but I'm am slowly uploading products working out all the little kinks but I wanted to share a couple things I've learned so far. 

First off Etsy is really cool and I don't think I really realized it until I actually started adding things to the store. They have all of these little features that really help you display your store and make it all come together! 

SIDE NOTE: I was just thinkin HEY i need one of those little Mini windows with some of my shops items in it for my blog. Where do I get it? WELL its sooo easy.  Alls you do is add a gadget (for blogspot user anyway) select the HTML Javascript. Then go to Your Etsy and scroll down to Mini Etsy and select what you would like to see appear on your blog.  Then your last step is to add it into you blog. So copy and paste the Javascript into your Gadget window and TADAAA. There you have it.  

Since I began uploading products I started to get a little nervous, and second guessing everything I was putting up, its a bit overwhelming at first because you want to do some many different things all at once, but just take it one step at a time and pretty soon it starts coming together and looking like a store! I still have a bunch more to put up but I'm happy to have actually started doing it instead of just sitting around thinking about it!  

One more piece of advice I can give (that I should really listen to myself); look at what other stores do but at the same time don't; If that makes any sense at all. Try to be yourself and I think that will really help your store come along. Its very easy to go to the Etsy home page and look at the spewing sea of talent that your amongst. Not that I've sold a thing yet but for anyone who is thinking of starting an Etsy shop just do it! You have nothing to lose, its easy to do and fun.  

PS. Buy something :o) 

wonderfulness

Modish  is a bizzzness tip blog and it certainly is amazing. Design Lovely recommended to it me the other day and now its featured on mint as one of her new finds.  It really is wonderful and I recommend it to all! Its going to be so helpful to us along the way. I just sat down and read a couple posts and I'm in love.  

On a separate note I'm thinkin I NEED a way to post my new favorites I'm finding. My bookmark page for blogs is going to explode I have so many new finds its endless! 

Starting it up tips!

The shop is coming! It's all set up and waiting for me to load our product.  Hopefully the first week in April we will be up and running ! I guess ya never know but thats the date im giving us! 

Steps we took to get here:

1. the want- Nell and I have always talked about opening a greeting card shop

2. doing it! Finally when I lost my job I said thats it we ARE doing it

3. getting loads of advice from some of the amazing women on the web. To name a few Design*Sponge, Avie Designs, Etsy emails, The Sweetest Occasion, mint,  beautiful paper, All of the women who I have talked to about anything blogging, business etc have been so wonderful thank you!

4.  Getting your name out there! Kinda the same as #3 Talk to people and never stop talking to people. This is actually my favorite part there are so many people out there who want to do nothing but help you, give advice and spread the word for you too! Its amazing what nice people are out there and who you have a lot in common with. 

5. The hard part- creating organizing and pricing your product. Yikes. We are going to have a little twist on our store, everything is going to be completely customize to what the customer wants. So if you like our cards and want to buy them you basically get to pick out everything about it! You'll see! :o) 

6. Making the product! (in the process) but figuring out not only what your product is but also how to show your product! I'm going to post different backgrounds I've shot our work on and hopefully I can get some feed back on the direction we should go in. 

7. Wholesale. I'm told this is the way to go and I'm trying to get there this is hard and still need to wrap my brain around the whole thing! 

 This is where we are at now, These steps are mostly obvious but it can be overwhelming. We just thought we would  share what we have learned along the way so far. I would love to share any advice I can with anyone and vice-versa! 

PS. This is great.

-Carolynn