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I wish I was a naturally organized person. The whole “a place for everything and everything in its place” idea is wonderful – but the first problem for me is finding a place for everything! Back before the holidays, orders started flooding in for my art and I felt like all I was doing was packaging and shipping orders – and the packaging was taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r. For one thing, I didn’t have a good inventory storage system. Also, every time I needed to package something, I had to go gather all my supplies together. I don’t have a separate studio, … Read more

Well, we’ve reached the end of the 6 weeks for the Creative Business challenge! And for the finale, we’ll be covering the single most asked-about topic from your handmade biz questions: marketing. I left it for last because one of the reasons marketing can be so difficult is because there are other things about your business that have to be in place first to be able to market more easily, and so I wanted to cover those in the first in the series. I hope you found those posts helpful. If you missed them, they lay out groundwork for how … Read more

Black Friday is almost here! Closely followed, of course, by Cyber Monday. I’m very excited to announce that for the entire time from Black Friday through Cyber Monday (11/23/12 – 11/26/12) my entire shop, FlourishCafe, will be buy one get one free. So how does it work? Just purchase the print(s) you are wanting, and then in the “message to seller” section at check out, simply link to the other print(s) you would like to get for free. If you buy one print, you get one free. If you buy five prints, you get five free! The only stipulation is … Read more

Well, at last the burn ban has been lifted!! Remember that fire pit project we did a while back? It’s been a really dry summer here, so there has been a burn ban in effect ever since then … but at long last we had some rain and were finally able to use it! We grilled some polish sausages, and had s’mores … yeah, really healthy, huh? But delicious. 😉 Since I wasn’t able to post pictures of what it looked like with fire in it before, I just wanted to show you how it came out – it sparkled … Read more

My apologies that this post is a day late! I usually stay up really late on Thursday nights (or stay up late into Friday morning would be more like it) to put up my Friday post. I must admit that sleep won over this week. Life has been crazy lately. (Although, is life ever NOT crazy and busy? I guess not.) Anyway! On to this week’s topic for the creative biz challenge, which I think is one of the stickiest: Pricing. It is hard to figure out how much to charge, especially on handmade items. Pricing feels strange because it … Read more

Ah, the holidays. I love this time of year. Special memories with family, seasonal good cheer, laughter, delicious food … and the post-holiday surprise of extra pounds when we step on the scale. Um, yeah, not so fond of that last part. No wonder getting in shape is such a common New Years resolution! This year, I’m hoping to keep all the good parts of the holidays, but not feel the regret in the mirror. So for the next weekly Friday challenge, happy holidays can still be healthy holidays! This challenge is actually very personal to me. It’s not that … Read more

Last week I kicked off a new challenge series: Looking Good .. Despite the Holidays. I’m very excited about it! A little while back I emailed myself a list of smaller goals and habits that I wanted to aim for to help me along the way, and I wanted to share that list with you. As you will see, there are a variety of different types of things on my list. The exercise related goals are in red, the style related goals are in blue, and the food related goals are in gray, so there is definitely a mix. This … Read more

I decided to make shepherd’s pie recently for our family and some friends – and one of my friends suggested putting it in a pumpkin! Apparently this is something that others I know have done, but I had never heard of it. But, you know me, if it’s unusual and quirky and delicious sounding, I’m up for it! You can use whatever shepherd’s pie recipe you like (I tend to cook off-the-cuff, not measuring or anything – I think I had about 15 spices in mine!) but cooking in a pumpkin called for a little different strategy than a normal … Read more

Ah, the holidays. I love this time of year. Special memories with family, seasonal good cheer, laughter, delicious food … and the post-holiday surprise of extra pounds when we step on the scale. Um, yeah, not so fond of that last part. No wonder getting in shape is such a common New Years resolution! This year, I’m hoping to keep all the good parts of the holidays, but not feel the regret in the mirror. So for the next weekly Friday challenge, happy holidays can still be healthy holidays! This challenge is actually very personal to me. It’s not that … Read more

Time to announce August’s print-of-the-month for half off! And also let you know that since it’s getting to the end of the summer, this is the last month I’ll be doing this. Also – I wanted to let you know we have a moving date! Lord willing, the day we are leaving for Boston will be August 25th!! WooT! I am SO excited!! However, I will probably be closing up my shop sometime around the 19th or 20th. So if you want the print-of-the-month, or anything else from my shop before we move, you probably will want to do that … Read more