Be inspired!

Have no fear, keep learning, and practice, practice, practice!

What inspires you to create?

Share the Love,

Chelsea

 

 

Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday – Where to Shop & SAVE!

So, if you’ve watched the news or have been on any social media site lately, you’ve probably witnessed, and possibly participated in, the disappointment many have felt toward the companies who have decided to open, and even have mega-sales, on Thanksgiving this year. So, if you’re looking for a way to encourage big businesses to allow their employees to spend the day with their loved ones on Thanksgiving, the obvious choice is to not shop there on the holiday.

You can even go a step further, though, and not have to sacrifice awesome discounts and deals, by supporting local, small, and/or handmade businesses! You see, there’s this nifty day beyond Thanksgiving and Black Friday called Small Business Saturday, on which small businesses around the world participate in giving Black Friday worthy deals to their customers. To top it off, most of us small business people have websites and online stores, and can participate in Cyber Monday, a day when we can all stay in the comfort of our own homes (and, let’s be honest, pajamas,) and still find good deals on merchandise that we may not have been willing to fight the crowds for during the big, in-person shopping extravaganzas. The best part is that if you buy from small businesses online, you’re more likely to find more unique and personal items, and you can still have a less stressful shopping experience while you help your local economy thrive.

As for us, we’ll be offering 20% OFF your entire purchase from Saturday, 11/3, to Monday, 12/2 in our Etsy shop! Simply enter EFWHolidays at checkout to receive your discount. Not only that, but most of the members of our Etsy Fort Worth team will be offering various discounts or free shipping, too, and we’re all using the same discount code to keep things easy. Click the image above to view a list of the participating shops, and their special offers.

We wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving, and a happy holiday shopping experience!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Join us for a good scare!

You may remember the custom orders we did for our friend, Tiinia, and her Friday the 13th wedding at a Dallas haunted house’s grounds (which was all featured on Offbeat Bride – how cool is that?)

We’ve become friends with Tiinia and her husband Kevin, who play delightfully creepy characters at 13th Street, and Alex, the owner/operator of the haunt grounds, and we’re constantly in awe of their talents!

Several weeks ago, our friend Stephanie from Studio Longoria sent me a message with a great idea. Since we (JuJu Eyeball) and another of our Etsy teammates, Amy of Larkspur Studio and Frankensister all sell Halloween appropriate items, why shouldn’t we contact some local haunted houses to see if we could set up shop on the grounds?

I instantly thought of Alex and his awesome haunts, 13th Street Morgue and Dungeon of Doom (which neighbor Reindeer Manor.)

So, I got in touch with him, and we’ll be setting up booths this Friday, 10/18, and next Friday, 10/25; we’re so excited! It’s definitely a unique job. It’s not an arts and crafts “show” or convention, and we won’t be working typical show hours, which are usually morning to mid afternoon, or afternoon to evening. Nope, we’ll be set up in time for the houses to open at 8, and we’ll close the place down around 12:30 a.m. So, if you’re in the DFW area, and you’re looking for some fantastic Halloween fun (maybe after a Friday night football game?) come out and see us!

Another Week Away Giveaway!

9/23: Congratulations to our randomly selected winner, Cheryl Pullen Navalinsky!

In light of all the loving support we’ve received in the Martha Stewart Living American Made competition, and the deadline for the first round of voting being extended another week (and two days, to be precise,) we’ve decided to hold our very own giveaway!

Each time you vote for a nominee in the competition, you enter to win prizes from MSL, like an American Express gift card. Now, every day you vote, you can enter to win prizes from us, too!

Vote now through 9/22/13. One lucky winner will be randomly selected on 9/23/13 to win this fantastic prize package of unique, American made gifts, a value of over $60.00!:

1 $25 Etsy Gift Card; 1 Luchador Mask Pillow by Studio Longoria; 1 Bamboo Calendula Bar Soap by Clover Hollow Soaps & Sundries; 1 Blue Rhinestone Bracelet by Leslie Anne Levine; 15% OFF Your Next Purchase at Buy Me Love or JuJu Eyeball on Etsy; 1 Surprise Gift From Our Store, Buy Me Love!

Two Ways To Enter:

1. This step is mandatory. Simply vote for us, using any number of your 6 daily votes here:

Then, comment that you voted below, and include the total number of votes after you voted UPDATE: No need to keep track of the total number of times you’ve voted, personally! Just include the total number on the screen after you’ve voted for the day. For example, if the number is 2,222 before you vote, and you vote for us 6 times, the total you’ll include in your comment will be 2,228. Easy peasy. Sorry for the confusion! Please leave only one “I voted!” comment per voter per day, not one comment per vote. For example, if you use all 6 of your votes on our profile (wink, wink,) there’s no need to comment 6 times – just comment once.

2. For extra chances to win, you can Pin this giveaway on Pinterest , and leave a comment below up to once a day that you pinned, including the pin URL. (After you pin, click the “see it now” button to copy and paste the pin’s URL into your comment below.) This entry method is completely optional.

IMPORTANT NOTES: If you leave more than one “I voted!” comment, or “I pinned it!” comment per day, only one of each of those comments will count toward your chances of winning. You do not need to have a WordPress.com account to enter. This contest is in no way affiliated with Martha Stewart Living/MSL American Made, or Etsy. Contest valid only in the Continental U.S.

How To Know If You Won: 

The randomly selected winner of the prize package will be announced in this post on 9/23/13, and we will also contact the winner via the email address listed on their account. If you do not have a valid email address listed on the account you use to log in/comment, you must leave your email address in your comment(s.) (The $25 Etsy gift card will also be emailed to the winner.) If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, we will choose another winner for the prize package.

Thank you for supporting our small, handmade, and American made business, and good luck to all our voters!

Share the Love,

Chelsea & Karyn

Important update on the Martha Stewart American Made competition.

I have to say, I’ve been a bit obsessive about the voting on our nominee page for the Martha Stewart Living American Made competition. Lots of refreshing, friends. We’d been receiving around 100 votes a day thanks to our wonderful friends and family, until the weekend hit. Saturday was the most exciting day yet! My regularly schedule pleas on Facebook were heard, and we accumulated the largest amount of votes in one day yet: 440. I think I had heart palpitations every time I saw the numbers jump.

Those of you who know us or follow this blog know that there have been plenty of obstacles on this journey my mom and I have been on, starting a small business together. There have been plenty of health struggles along the way that have gotten in the way of us being able to do shows and list regularly in our Etsy shops. It’s been the support from our Etsy Fort Worth team, our family, our friends, and our small group of loyal customers that has kept us going.

Our competition in this particular contest is big. We’re competing in the style category, and that category is filled with not only clothing and accessories, but bath and body and cosmetic products. The largest number of votes to beat so far is 4446, and that’s just in our category! After the first round of voting, the nominee with the biggest amount of votes from each category goes on to compete for the grand prize. So, we were excited to learn that the deadline for the first round of voting has been extended another week and two days. That plus the increase we’ve seen in our votes gives us a little extra boost of hope that we can give our competition a run for their money! In this case, the grand prize is $10,000 … can you imagine what we could do for our business with that kind of money?

So, please keep voting, and sharing our nominee page with your friends and family! You can join us on Facebook, or just go straight to our page here. Go back every day to use your 6 votes. You’ll be supporting small, local, handmade business, and you’ll be entering yourself to win prizes from MSL every time you vote.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

 

A Gatsby Summer

I’ve taken a break from making treasuries for a while, partially because of time restraints, and partly because I couldn’t come up with any interesting themes for a collection. I have to confess, I haven’t read “The Great Gatsby,” but it’s on my long list of books. With Baz Lurhmann’s version out in film this summer, though, people are going wild for the the roaring twenties, a decade that’s been one of my favorites since I was about 12 years old.

So, here’s my nod to the 1920’s, with hints at Gatsby, and plenty of glamour.

Be sure to “favorite” and share anything that tickles your fancy!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Make It Monday – Martha’s American Made Awards

If you look to the right of this post, below the photo of me looking very colorful, you’ll see a new button that looks like this:

Yesterday, a friend from our local Etsy team, Etsy Fort Worth, shared the link for our team members to nominate themselves for Martha Stewart’s Made In America Awards. The finalists from the six categories will receive an AM gift basket, and will be featured on the site and on Sirius radio. The first prize winner receives $10,000 to use toward their business, and a trip to NYC!

All you have to do to enter is click the green button on the right (or the picture below,) check out our profile, of course, and click the “nominate  yourself” button at the top right of the page. You’ll select your category, add any photos, videos, and links you’d like to share, then write a short bio about yourself/your business, and answer a couple of questions. You can save a copy of your profile before publishing it, and once you publish, you can edit your profile if you notice any mistakes or something you may have left out.

A sneak peek of our profile!

 

Voting starts August 26, so be sure to add our profile to your favorites list for later! Mom is looking for a house right now, and we’ve been planning out our studio space (who cares about the rest of the house, right?) So, if we win the grand prize, part of the money will go toward renovating one or two of the rooms to create a space where we can make and market together, and where we can invite customers to talk about custom orders, and host fittings for models. We are in serious need of a collective, designated space for our work, so that we can collaborate on projects, and store our supplies in one space. I’m especially excited to designate an area for taking photos, with different backdrops and a light box, without having to take it all down and reassemble it to save space in our current, small apartments.  

Of course, if we don’t win, we’re just excited about the opportunity for free exposure. By creating our profile, we’ll reach potential customers that haven’t heard of us before, who’ll visit our Etsy shops and other links, and get to know us better. If you or anyone you know has a handmade business, take the opportunity to put yourself out there! It could be craft, design, food, gardening, or style related. Nominate yourself (or make them nominate themselves,) because you never know who’ll fall in love with your product.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

It’s Always Time To Give!

If you’ve been watching the news, you probably know that Moore, OK has suffered through devastating tornado damage, and is trying to rebuild thanks to the awesome amount of assistance they’ve received. Unfortunately, it’s that time of year for tornadoes, and other places that have suffered damage may not qualify for government assistance, or get a large amount of media coverage to let people know how they can help. One example are our neighbors in Hood County, TX, who are also trying to recover from a tornado that demolished the towns of Granbury and Cleburne just one week before the tornado in Moore. Fortunately, people everywhere are fantastic and giving, and a couple of ladies from our Etsy team suggested we use our annual craft party as a way to raise money to donate to the disaster relief in Hood County. You can find more information about the party and how to donate here.

In other news, our team member, Julie, of Coco and Cocoa, is giving away a $40 gift card to another team member’s shop: Peach Plum Pear! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment with your favorite piece from the Etsy shop, so get yourself on over there.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Change Is A Crafty Thing

My husband and I are settled into our new apartment, comfy and cozy, with only a few lingering items to be unpacked. It’s exciting to experience this new chapter of our lives, and we’re sharing similar excitement with my mom! We’ve been actively house hunting with her, and she’s found one out of the handful we’ve viewed together that she really loves. Rather than put a bed in the large master bedroom, the plan is to convert it into our studio for work. It’s so fun to think of ripping out the carpet, staining the concrete, and arranging the space to store all of our supplies, and create big work spaces. Here are a few photos that have inspired us so far:

 

 

Of course, these craft studios are pristine and untouched, which will not be the case with ours. (Is anyone’s creative space that tidy?) The goal is to use the space to create and design for both of our shops, Buy Me Love & JuJu Eyeball, store our vintage backstock, hold crafting lessons and parties, and to invite local customers who have custom orders, and our makeup artist and model friends, to meet with us so that they can get a better idea of what we do and what materials we have available. We’ll each need our own work spaces, which could also serve as work surfaces for classes, space to store our supplies, a place for our vintage clothing and accessories (as well as an area for models to try them on,) a space to take product photos, and an “office” area for the computer and paperwork that needs to be done on occasion. We can’t wait to create our studio so we can share it with you!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Tuesday’s Treasure: With Mom In Mind

Mother’s Day is coming up fast on Sunday, May 12! Take a look at the beautiful new Etsy Fort Worth Mother’s Day Treasury:

 

 

Share the Love,

Chelsea