I love honey

I do. I really really do.

Here are some of my favorite Etsy Honey Products

Powdered Honey - I would use this in homemade conditioner to keep in the moisture. I'm thinking it will mix with the vinegar easier than gooey honey. From layla.

I have been dying to try some handmade soap, I'd love one with honey and oatmeal, moisturizing and exfoliating! From goodenoughtoeatsoap.

I have some honey in my tea cabinet that comes from Northern New Mexico and I use it only for special occasions, it is so much stronger and sweeter, not to mention stickier, than the store-bought honey. I'd also really like to try some raw honey from an Etsy seller and ButterflyHeavens is offering a whole pound!

This card would be so cute to give to Matt, I call him my Honey Bunny :) From ZuqandZoe

Coming Soon!

I have been working on some beanies this week, check the shop frequently to see all kinds of new designs :)

A lightly cabled red beanie, knit double thick for warmth and made out a durable, machine-washable yarn.


A chocolate cabled beanie that will have a flower pin to add to its charm :) Knit out of superwash merino in a dark brown heather with specks of blue and orange throughout.

Finished Custom Order

Here is what became of that yarn I showed you back in this post.


Custom order for a coworker based off of a design from a comic book he and his boyfriend read. (From what I hear, his boyfriend wanted to wear it to bed last night he likes it so much!) I'm so glad they both appreciate the beanie, it was really fun for me to make :)

Tuesday Learn Something New Day - Advertising Ideas

So for my second installment of Tuesday Learn Something New Day I have decided to list a whole bunch of ideas for pimping your shop. Please don't take these as the only suggestions, feel free to get creative and post your creative advertising methods in the comments below. These are merely meant to get you thinking of ways that may help increase traffic to your shop. Some may not work for you, some may work better than anything else you've tried. One thing I've learned is that you simply must try everything at least once to truly see if you have good results from it. So, without further ado, here is the list of suggestions :)

-Post in Etsy Forums

-Engage in Etsy chat rooms

-Project Wonderful advertisements

-Flickr

-Twitter

-Facebook

-Myspace

-Business Cards

-To friends and family

-To waiters/waitresses

-Mail in with the bills

-On bulletin boards

-In restaurants “free meal” bowls

-to random people you think might be interested in your store

-leave them in movie cases when you return them, Netflix, libraries, rental stores, etc

-leave them in library books

-Carry something with you

- if you make bags, carry one

- if you screen print T's, wear one or have your kids, SO or friends wear one

- if you make journals, use one

There are so many different ideas out there and don't ever think that just because something works for "everyone else" that it will definitely work for you as well, or just because something never works for "everyone else" that it won't work for you. Part of finding your niche in the market is finding what advertising brings your target market to your products. Now hop to it and try out some new things!

Adventures in Small Town

The other day after having been productive around the house for most of the day, I approached Matt with the idea to go on a moped adventure around little Socorro.

Here are some of the places we visited and sites we saw

you are NEVER too old for swings :)this picture SO does not do the sunset justice

Monday Color - Peridot

Another Monday, another month, another color! Today's color is Peridot. It is such a beautiful light green color and both Matt and I's mom's have birthdays this month, I figured why not? So hard to go wrong with peridot :)

Peace Earrings from MariCollection

Roots from TinyArtbyJMullin

Needle Felted Acorns from truLuxe

Handspun Yarn from Ozknits

One R Two In The Middle from Mwilson

Vintage Green Stacking Mug from bythewayside

August from stilettoheights

Sea Cucumber from JesseDanger

Shy Peacock from artistscs28

Handpainted Silk Scarf from oceanavesilks

August Business Goals

So my July Goals didn’t all get completed, it was a busy month and a few unexpected twists took place, of course. But here is a basic rundown of how they all turned out:

1) 1) Start blogging twice a day, at least *during the week, Monday through Friday*

-this was completed except for a few days this month, which, in my book, is success!

2) Contact a blog or two about being featured

-I did contact a blog, still waiting to hear back, will send follow up email next week

3) I want to start stream-lining my shop some so that it doesn't look so disorganized and after much thought, consideration and chatting with my friends and family I've decided to streamline to hats only, or hats mainly, so I want to start incorporating that change.

-I know it doesn’t look like I have since I’ve been listing pouches and hacky sacks, but really, I need these to be listed before I can start making beanies. They were completed a while ago but never made it to the shop.

4) Finish a two main custom orders I have right now:
- a Dr. Who scarf

-still working on this one, its slow going!
- a frog beanie for a friend's coming niece

-all done, pictures can be found here

5) Retake photos of old items using the photo tips on Mint

-did not get a chance to do this one, very sad. But maybe next month!

So based on the results of the previous goals, here are my goals for next month!

August Goals

1) Continue blogging twice everyday

a. Monday Colors

b. Tuesday Learn Something New Day

c. Friday Feature

2) Contact at least three B&M shops to wholesale or consign

3) Finish custom orders
a. Dr. Who Scarf
b. Pink Runaways Beanie
c. Any others that come in throughout the month

4) List at least two new beanies in my shop

5) Retake photos