Boutique Designers

I love this guy!

2008-09-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that I love this guy? He's too cute...and he comes with a story. Yes, a story. He has a history! How about that? What a super creative designer! I found this on etsy today while cruising the toys. He's actually a lot bigger than the picture portrays. He's actually 7.5 inches tall. I love the material. This designer even lists the brand and collection of the material. You can check him out HERE on etsy.com.

Etsy Coolness

2008-09-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

How cool is this lampshade? You won't find this in Target! Not even IKEA...which I love, by the way. This shade is bound to spice up any room! I may need to get one of these... I tell ya, Etsy can be a dangerous place for me! You can find this LampShade HERE on Etsy.com!

I love this!

2008-09-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

I love anything can be personalized, and who doesn't? It's not only attractive to us as parents, but children love it too! I found this while surfing YouCanMakeThis.com. It's a pillow that you can personalize with your childs name. It's too cool! My kids love pillows, and I'm sure they'd be thrilled to have a pillow with their name on it! You can find these instructions HERE for $6.95.

You Can Make This?

2008-09-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Yep, I gotta make one of these bad boys! These instructions sell for $7.50 (on sale right now). I love the contrast of the materials in each of the examples they give. More contrast, the better, I always say. :) This pattern is called "She loves me, She loves me knot". You can buy these instructions HERE!

cool find!

2008-09-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

I so need one of these for lollidoodle! What a cool way to advertise. This a custom made, self inking stamp. You could stamp this thing on notes, business cards, envelopes, hang tags...wherever! I love it! They have personalized stamps for the holidays too! I may need one of those as well! It would be perfect for christmas cards...especially since I've been crowned "Card Queen" every year at christmas! lol
You can find this listing HERE!

Gas prices Drop....

2008-09-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

...for the sixth straight day in a row. Sweet! Or is it? Is it a trick? Will they soar again soon due to all the storms? Who knows, but the reason for the decline in prices is most likely the lack of demand. Which I think is wonderful. People are finding other ways to commute, and even doing without this or that and just staying home, rather than filling up. I think this kind of practice should continue always. We can convert. I think life is getting too fast, anyway. We're all expecting to do things quicker today than 10 years ago...leaving us all stressed and always in a rush. We all need to slow down, and think about priorities, and whats really important.

Warming your Legs on Etsy

2008-09-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

I've been considering buying leg warmers for my daughters from babylegs, and possibly even buying them wholesale for Lollidoodle.com, if I like them. (still might) But I found these on Etsy this morning. I love the prints and pattern! Way cool! Way Punk!
Find them HERE!

Halloween Crafting

2008-09-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am a Halloween crazed maniac in October! I love it! So, I found something really cute to make at YouCanMakeThis.com...Halloween Hair Accessories. Take a look!
You can find the instructions HERE for $6.95.

Unemployment surges to a 5 year high says CNN.com

2008-09-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

This CNN headline hits home with me. I was layed off from my job almost 6 years ago due to outsourcing. Months before, my director promised us that our department was not a good candidate and there was nothing to worry about. These days, NCR has been reduced to one building of employees, as there used to be 4. But, we weren't a good candidate for outsourcing?? That bologna is why I sit here at home and work on this computer. I should be grateful for where I am today, and I am...but I still to this day feel betrayed. To hear from CNN.Com that 80,000 jobs were lost just this month, makes me so angry. (How many lies were they told before they got the boot?) And on the other hand, I think of the town my father lives in. It's a small town in Connecticut, where most businesses are family owned. There are all these cute little shops with mostly handmade items, even a lot of the restaurants are family owned. My dad says that Franchises and commercial company's come and go, they just don't last long there because no one supports them. They do have Dunkin Donuts, and they do have a Starbucks, but you would never recognize them. You'd have to read the sign to know what kind of business it was..this is because the town...like most of connecticut, says, if you're going to start a business here, your decor and cosmetics, must look like the rest of the town. Which is mostly white, nautical or colonial. The Starbucks even looks like an old colonial house. Interesting. There's way more to Connecticut, than what I am explaing, but this is how this particular town is. They keep it small and don't care much for the corporate world. I love the thought.
Back to the sadness...I am heartbroken over the article. I feel for all people that have lost their jobs, but I have faith that they'll eventually move on to something better, just as I did after losing my job!

Etsy Sweetness!

2008-09-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking for a really cool apron....as I was doing so today, I stumbled upon this one. Totally Bitchin', right? Can I say that word on here? LOL I guess it's my blog! I love the idea of an apron and like I said, I'm always looking for a sweet one, but I wonder if I actually did start wearing one around the house, if it would somewhat label me? Like, would my family treat me more like a maid? Geez, I would hope not! But, it does make me wonder. ha ha I think I would wear it just to be silly, anyway. I'm sure the minute my girls saw it on me, they would immediately want one for themselves!
This apron was made by perdoozy on etsy.com

You Can Make This finds!

2008-09-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Anyone ever heard of YouCanMakeThis.com? Awesome site! I found some really cool stuff to make for a small cost for instructions! It's the perfect place to find weekend crafts...or find new products you make to add to your boutique!
If I ever were to start drinking coffee...I would so make this!

Oh my goodnesses! I love this fringe barrette! You can buy these instructions for $9.95. Way cool!

Ok, ok...just one more! I totally want to buy this one! These cookie bouquet's are way awesome! I can think of atleast 10 people I could make this for in the near future!

Google Ads

2008-06-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

If any of you have been to any of my websites, you've seen Google Ads. Why? Because Google pays me cash money for those ads on my site. I'm not suppose to talk about what I make from the Ads, but I will tell you it's more than $100 a month. Isn't much, but pretty good for doing nothing. Which of course, it varies from site to site and depends mostly on how much traffic you have and how many times visitors click on an ad. I learned about Google Adsense last summer while reading an article about a 17 year old girl that was making $17,000 a month from her web sites ads....not just google ads...she was also using another company as well. She started using Google Adsense because she couldn't afford to pay for her web sites hosting, so she thought she might make enough to cover the hosting but, instead she made enough money for her mom to quit her job. Craziness! She runs a Myspace graphics and layout sites and obviously she's got traffic backed up for miles! Just something to think about....especially if you have a blog or informational site!

15 minute rule!

2008-06-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Ok...so I totally need to take up on this rule, myself. Practice what you preach....this I will do. Follow the 15 minute rule every day by taking time out from the laundry (it will still be there), playing twister and adding products to your site to do some networking. Very simple:: 15 minute rule = networking 15 minutes a day. How? Email another designer and make a friend. Read designer blogs and post comments or reply to comments from other readers, get the hook up on myspace, join designer groups, find other couture sites to advertise on....that's what those banners are for! If you spend 15 minutes a day on networking and you make 2 friends per day for a whole year, you would have 730 new friends that might take advantage of or talk to another friend or customer about your business, which obviously in turn, generates traffic to your site. Making a small concious effort daily, can lead to large results....unfortunately, I am backwards (until now) I don't make an effort to network daily. I take one day a month and spend that whole day networking. WRONG! It does work. But doing it daily is way more effective. (so, I've been told)
Ok, so....FRILL dogg!
Thanks, Lovesssss!

Here I go again....

2008-06-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Trying to do something with this blog. I was actually inspired by another blog today. I have been sooooo down in the dumps about my YAHOO email giving me trouble for such a long time and I've had so many people get mad at me because of it. I would get emails days sometimes weeks late and even worse not at all. Then, I started to discover that my clients and potential customers were not getting my emails either. The problem? YAHOO's email filtering and spam protection. Slightly OVER-protective, I'd say. Today, while reading another designers blog, she mentioned how she had the SAME terrible issues with YAHOO email. I was actually excited to hear some one had the same issue and my email address is not cursed. I've lost atleast 5 clients that I can think of over my email issues....and I am heartbroken over it. If anyone out there uses YAHOO email, please reconsider. I really cannot stress to you how important it is...especially when you're trying to run a business from home. Or even if you don't have YAHOO email, please keep in mind that people with YAHOO email might not be getting your emails.
Thanks, Lovesss!

Today

2008-02-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

So, Today I've decided to use this blog....how about that. I've had this account for well over a year and have done nothing with it. Suprise, Suprise!
I am soooo thinking that I need a site just for eBay graphics and auction templates. Is anyone interested? All FREE graphics, of course! I will post a poll for that! Please hang out and vote! Who couldn't use free eBay graphics? Non-sellers, of course. But I actually saw the other day that people were using my eBay graphics on their websites, as well. Interesting. But, I love it. I love it when I see a site that has something I made on it. Makes me HAPPY! :) VOTE! (when I post a poll)