Win Prizes!!!

Want to win these wonderful prizes?!?! Stay tuned for our Eclectic Artisans Street Team Scavenger Hunt! It begins July 1st, so keep your eyes on our blog and learn how to win all the prizes shown here!!

Moi! Featured on Friday!

I was alerted by the Etsy Owls Team, that I was featured on their blog! In the words of London Tipton: YAY ME!

That's my Triple Scoop Ice Cream Cup, featured in the bottom row! The best part? I just listed it today! Let's hope it sells! Remember I'm having a BUY ONE GET ONE FREE SALE!!

Change Your Featured Items

Freshen up your shop for the weekend shoppers! Get those featured items changed out! Share what else you have been doing in store to help bring people online during this fabulous weather???

I'm having a SWEET sale! Buy one get one free!!!! Check out my BOGO sale items and just wait for the revised invoice!!

A Belated Note....

I wanted to wish my husband and my father a belated Fathers Day! (No worries, I spent the weekend with both of them! haha!). We all had a lovely time and I even spent the evening of saturday getting pedicures with both of them! haha!!! I hope you guys had as much fun as the kids and I did! Thanks so much for being great dads and wonderful men.

Treasury Feature Friday!

Yay it's Friday! How wonderful the feeling is!! In Shop News today, I have been featured in 2 Treasuries and I love them both!! I hope you get a chance to click on the treasuries and click away at 12 items! Thanks so much for browsing!!

Those are my Yellow Rose Earrings in the top treasury and my Teapot Collector Brooches in the bottom treasury.
Mmmm....Dessert time! It's time to change up your featured items! Go with a food theme (mine is summer desserts) or go with a color theme or the like! Get creative!
Have you been in my shop lately? You will notice that I have craziness going on with photo backrounds and such. I am testing out a plethora of new backrounds, seeing what I like, what I don't like and if I just want to go back to plain white! haha! It's been nuts, so if you have an opinion on any of them let me know!! Have a great and peaceful weekend!

La Joyeux de Vivre

I want to start living my life to the fullest. Sometimes I find myself succumbing to the gloominess of the day, or when one of my children starts getting cranky, I seem to allow myself to get that way too. I'm the kind of gal that sees everything half empty, it's just the way I have always been. I was driving around town running errands when I turned out of the bank parking lot. I was behind this lady on a scooter. She had to easily be in her 80s and she was on a SCOOTER!! From her floral scarf on her head, down to her white Dr. Scholls shoes, everything said granny. Then I just saw her face as I pulled to a stop light next to her. She was so free and happy. I found myself following her! I just knew I had to say something to her. She parked her scooter at Wal Mart and I smiled and waved as she got off, her smile was one that lit up a room. I wanted that feeling of happiness all the time, that freedom, that fabulousness. I knew that I alone am the person that turns my day into what it ends up being. I can choose to let the bad stuff get me down OR work at making it a positive experience. I knew it was time to make a change. I'm not going to start singing on hills or anything, but I just may be smiling a bit more :) Don't Sweat The Small Stuff. Ahhh...words to live by....

A Little About Life...

It's been a great summer so far and last week had my children interviewing for preschool for the second time with this one school. I was nervous for them and we were obviously the over-protective parents because once again we were the only 'set' of parents (both mom and dad) there! hahaha! We waited in the lobby with the baby while teachers took them away into separate rooms! (We wanted to badly to peek in on what was going on!!). This was our first school choice for them because our little boy is 3 and if he could get into the class, it would be perfect for them to start school together. If he didn't get in, our Princess (4yrs) would head over to the Catholic School that only has a 4yr old program with no exceptions. We had to fill out a heap of forms, which my husband then told me a lot of them were the SAME ONES we had to fill out at the first interview!! (Maybe they wanted to make sure we were telling the truth??? haha).

They brought out our 3yr old son first and YAAAAAY! He got it! He will start school in the fall with his big sister in the 4yr old program! We were thrilled! Then they brought out our Princess and WOOT WOOT! She got in too!!! Yaaaaaay! We were all thrilled.

Now that preschool was right around the corner, we wanted to start some way of having them accountable for what they do. My husband and I decided that the easiest way would be to start a chore chart. This way they would do the chores every single day and we would then give them a little money at the end of the day if all was complete. (.25 each day) They are just simple everyday tasks that they do anyways, but this way they make sure to do them on their own. We have been at it for a week and the kids love it. We printed them out and laminated them. (I keep the document on my computer so we can add things as the time goes by). I keep them on clipboards on each of their desks and I give them the wipe-board marker to check off things as they are finished. (Kids love markers, I find that my kids run to do something on the list just to get to use the marker!!). We made a tiny one for Nana and Grandpas house too, because they both give them money each time they visit, so this way they are doing something to earn the money.
I've also decided to go by way of the Bento Box Lunch! I love the cuteness and creativeness of it all, that I am researching the boxes and all that good stuff. I want the kids to have Bentos for preschool and I would love to start sending husband off with a Bento every day too! I will obviously need different sizes forthe kids and husband and I, so I am doing my research before diving right in! I want to be sure to have it all by the time school starts in the fall though! yay!

Craft Show Tips Part 3

finally! I get back to my series on craft shows!! I just wanted to add a bit more to my tips! 1 thing that is a DEFINITE must-have is a money apron. My money is on me at ALL times and I don't have to worry about it walking away! I also keep a jar under the table of loose change, sometimes it gets too heavy to keep in the apron! I arrive at the show with 100.00 in change (anything under 20's works for me). (My apron is from SewInLove on Etsy and all her aprons are on sale right now! It's very sturdy and has gotten me through many craft shows already!

I ALWAYS have my 'emergency' kit as well! It's a toolbox filled with all my random goodies, pens, reciept pads, my shop lables and stamp, jewelry tools, jump rings, duct tape, masking tape, price tags, zip ties, hammer, rope, nails...that sort of thing! I always keep everything and anything in here. Even change for a 20.00 if for some reason, I forgot to get change. I also set up a work table as well with my laptop & my shop pulled up. This way people can browse my shop as well as purchase from there as well! I call ahead of time to find out if there is wi-fi or if it will be available. I do all research possible on show locations! This way I can also accept credit card payments and Paypal payments too since I have my laptop fired up!

I will add more as I upload photos from other shows! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask! I will go into detail on anything!

Oh My Goodness!

Wow! Summer is in full swing and I am so sorry for how behind I am on everything!!! My daily blog posts are becoming non-existant and it's just getting hectic with summer lessons begining for my little ones! I promise to get back on track this week! I have to make time!!! I just always seem to choose to walk outside, take a walk in town or heck just fool around with the little ones! I must get back to my schedule!!! I have tips galore to share soon!!! For now, i'm off to play a game of TWISTER!

Colorful Change To Your Shop!

First, I wanted to let you all know that tomorrow I will continue with part 3 of Craft Show Tips! Today, I wanted to remind everyone to liven up those shops a bit by changing out your featured items! Pull 3 items from the back or something that you really love and want to sell! Move them up there and display them proudly! Maybe even screen shot them like I did and post them on your blog! Go ahead and post them to your Facebook photos, Myspace Bulletin Etc...get creative!! How about printing them out and writing a coupon code on the back and tucking it into your orders from today! It will be like a mini-catalogue! Enjoy your day!!

Craft Show Tips....Part 2 The Coupon Code

Sales are great right? Everytime you see that transaction notice in your email from Etsy it always gives you a little Zing right?! So not that you are making regular sales, it's time to start figuring out WHERE they are coming from. I do ALOT of promoting in order for people to notice my shop. I like to know what kind of promoting is successful and what is not working for me! I use codes, combined with discounts to get to that point!

Here is a look at the back of some leftover business cards from this past weekends show. The show was put on by the Caribou Coffee Company, so I used the code CARIBOUSHIP (because my code was for free shipping). hen I come up with a code AND I am posting it somewhere (On my blog I usually say BlogWhatever or what not) I ALWAYS make sure to either write it down or enter it straight away into my Code book and Excel File. That way when someone redeems it, I can mark it off and double check what the code was for.
When a customer in turn uses your code, they will write it in the messages to seller box. Here, my customer would use CARIBOUSHIP if they had my business card from the show. Then they would check out as normal. As Etsy DOES NOT have any service for coupons or discounts, my customers WAIT for the revised invouice that I will send them from PAYPAL. All this must be done manually until Etsy incorporates a promo code system. After 1 week, my Caribou Promo has brought me 1 sale, so I knew that out of the 20 cards that people took at the show, 1 person bought something straight away. (I also use expiration dates on codes, so that people will be more apt to use it right away as opposed to forgetting about it).

Whenever you have a sale, mention your shop, want to give a discount, run an Ad, you should use a seperate code so that you can keep track of what it working for you in the long run! When I ran a Facebook ad, I used FB3 (since expired) in the ad, because I was keeping an eye on what sales an ad in such a big place would bring. (Not many). Before Flickr started cracking down on profiles and Etsy peeps, I had a code in there for a free pair of earrings that said FlickEar (since expired) and I realized that a HUGE amount of my sales were coming from Flickr! It's not hard to keep a little notebook by your computer or even a file ON your computer of codes to keep track! Hope this has helped you all!!!

Craft Show Tips....

I did a tiny little craft show this weekend up in Dekalb, IL. There were seriously about 15 vendors and were in the parking lot of a Caribou Coffee shop. The turn out however was EXCELLENT! It goes to prove that LOCATION is everything! It was on a MAIN road where everyone driving saw the tents and signs, it was at a coffee shop where everyone getting coffee had to pass us to get in, it was in a parking lot of a strip mall where we were pulling in people from other shops too! Yay! So when you sign up for one make sure it's not in a nowhere location! (This I tell you from experience! I MYSELF got lost on my way to my very first craft show!! If the vendors with maps can't find it, who can???)

Bring business cards! Bring LOTS of them and preferably bring a holder for them! (I left mine at home and it was WINDY!!!!!! A great tip I have is to print a coupon of some sort on the BACK of your cards!! (use a coupon code) Then you know when people from the show are buying things! This past weekend I used a code with the workd Caribou*** on it and so far I have had THREE sales from there! How cool is that? It's great knowing where they are coming from.

Have a tent! Seriously, if the rain comes down your stuff is safe AND if it's a beating hot day, you are in the shade! It was a crazy day on Saturday! A bit chilly in the early morning during set up, but then it got rainy as the show opened and then in the afternoon it was hot hot hot! (OH and it was verrry Windy! So be sure to weigh your tent down!)You don't have to get a big, fancy EZ-Up tent right off the bat, you want to test the show waters first before you make such a large investment. The one I am using in this show is a simple, green one with no sides from Target. It was on sale for 18.88. I use water jugs to weight it down. Simple and re-usable! More tips to follow tomorrow!!!

I NEED YOUR HELP READERS!!!!

So I'm in a tie for a cash prize and I need your help!!! Come on over to this post:
http://theeclecticartisansteam.blogspot.com/2009/06/break-tie-from-our-private-eart-contest.html

And click on COMMENTS and leave this comment:
"Michelle is FUNKY fresh!"


Thanks so much readers!!!!
For you guys helping me out there will be a fabulous giveaway coming up for everyone to get a chance to win!!! So head over and leave a comment!!