Marketing

This year, 2012, I decided that I'd like my business to be more successful. To do that, I decided that I need to promote more. I'm not that great at self-promotion - it seems so conceited -- definitely not what I want to feel like I'm doing! But it's a part of being a retail business so I need to do it!  My sister helps when she can and with what she can (she enjoys marketing) and my husband proofreads stuff to make sure that it's not braggy and not meek.


I decided to delve into the world of paid ads. This past month, I paid for a FaceBook ad. It did reasonably well gaining me 90 additional followers (wanna be 91?) and I can attribute one $8.50 sale to it (okay, so without taking into account supplies, my net was -$13.50). I'm hoping that I can at least break even without playing FaceBook games (Pa-Tooie) with my fans!


Next, I'm considering putting my business cards with a code printed on them in a local consignment sale's bag. But it's $50 plus the cost of the cards (I could do 1/4 page fliers instead to save some money) and I never look at the paper that comes in my bag and I'm not sure consignment sale shoppers are my target market (they tend to be looking for a deal)... so I'm definitely not going to make the March sale...


Finally, I'm considering an ad on a local Mommy Blog... I've gotten as far as creating an ad:

I'm still a little nervous about the cost. (fyi - this coupon code is not yet active)


Now, I decided that I need to hone down where my advertising would be best served. I started using Outright.com for keeping track of expenses and such. One of the reports I can generate is a map that shows my sales by state. Most of my sales are made to Florida and Texas and I haven't made any sales in South Carolina or much of the non-coastal western US! So, my question, dear readers, is do I focus on reaching NEW customers or do I find ways to bring customers back to my shop?  I think I need a way awesome BROWNIE bow...


And if I don't write again before then, Happy Valentine's Day!!

Are we on the same page?

I actually don't consult cookbooks that often - I studied organic chemistry in college and it's the same basic principle - throw a few things together, get something better! I have a couple of go-to recipes that I use in my handy-dandy red and white cookbook (you know the one, The Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook - type "red and white cookbook" into google and it's the first thing so I'm not the only one who calls it that!) but I don't actually follow the recipes that are in that - I've made changes and wrote them down in the margins. I actually have 2 copies of this cookbook - the falling apart paperback (copyright 1996) that I got in my first apartment and the ringed binder one from my grandmother's house (copyright 1981).

When we cleaned out my grandparent's house after my grandmother passed away, I took the binder one to replace the paperback because, even though it was less than 5 years old, the spine was broken (because, duh, you need it to lay flat to follow recipes) and the pages were falling out. I was going to copy some of my favorite notes (like the for my apple pie that wins taste-tests and the secret ingredient for the topping) but found the recipes so different that I just put a rubberband around my paperback one and found some new faves in the binder. Today, I was reminded of how different these 2 editions are when the paperback edition had slid too far back to reach without a chair in the pantry cupboard. My son had requested banana bread and I was done what I needed to do for the day so I could make it for him. How different can they be?

 I do this all the time - I dive into a project without thinking (or reading) it through properly... Okay, so the older edition used shortening - that's different but the rest must be close to the same, it will be fine... um - what? no cinnamon? There's now something wrong and how do I fix this without going to the store... Uh - about the only thing that's the same is flour, sugar, bananas and eggs... Time to find the other cookbook!

I sure hope my family likes this banana bread well enough to eat it but not well enough to ask for it again because I will never be able to re-create it!

Banana Bread tips:
-freeze your bananas when they are at the peak of ripeness - just as they start to turn brown. This serves several purposes but 2 notable ones 1. You can make banana bread when you want to make banana bread, not when you have extra ripe bananas (because you know, as soon as you decide that you want to make banana bread, your little monkeys will eat all your bananas) 2. Frozen bananas don't blend too well so you easily get little banana chunks in your bread.
-I sub McCormack's Pumpkin Pie Spice almost any time that it says cinnamon in a recipe and then add a little more cinnamon. It's a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. I could probably make a better blend myself from more exotic, less processed versions of these spices (according to wikipedia, there are 4 major types of cinnamon and 7 varieties of the most common one) but honestly, they don't fit into my spice-rack and I have no room for a dehydrator in the cupboards (plus they stink).

 Upcoming holidays: St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day Here's one of my favorite V-day bows:

I HEART Pinterest

So I started on Pinterest, what? 2 months ago and I'm totally in love with the creativity and access to creativity that I find on there!  So, back to Handmade Holiday (I promise this ties in), I found a project on there that I just knew if I did, my kids would love, love, love!  Etsy seller and blogger Haddy-Grace (probably better known as RuthAnn Zimmerman) lives in Iowa which is apparently really cold in the winter so she made FLEECE fitted sheets for her kids!  Look at this picture of one of her girls on their bed:

Okay - it doesn't get that cold here in the mid-Atlantic to warrant fleece sheets but my kids don't like their comforters on their beds - they prefer to sleep with a throw blanket (can you see where I'm going with this?) and then complain that it's too small or that their feet poke out. Soooo - I took RuthAnn's design and made a fitted top sheet like I had for their toddler bed! I'm calling it a "stay-put blanket".

I made a matching pillow case too although it's really just so I can use it as wrapping...

So the features of this "Stay-Put Blanket", a fitted bottom portion of the sheet

and that 3" fold-over portion that I don't really understand the purpose of on regular sheets.

Also coming along, Pixiebell Elfinwear hats for my sisters and Tangled scarf for my mom

(the dark one is purple and yes, they are cast on to the same round needles - why read directions twice??)

Not that I need to add anything to my Handmade Holiday but I did - another Pinterest find (again, I <3 Pinterest - if you want to stick with my Handmade Holiday theme, you can screen print me a shirt that says that, wrap it up in what I'm about to tell you about and mail it to me) - cloth gift bags! Reusable, ecofriendly, fun!  How Does She talks about them here. The Christmas Bags seemed perfect - but I'm low on funds and don't have lots of Christmas-themed fabric just sitting around so I tore through my collection of fat quarters (okay, so this may be considered almost cheating but what really is cheating is that I left the selvage edge at the opening - also, most of my fat quarters are flowers and spring...). Wanna know what I learned? a) not all fat quarters are the same size; b) I don't use that many fat quarters and should probably stop buying them except they came in handy tonight.  Anyway, I put fabrics together and had a good time sewing up a bunch of wrapping bags. They don't look as good as the photos from the blog but for a quickie craft where I didn't have to buy anything that I didn't have already, they turned out great! here's my favorite - Owls on Orange. It fits a shoe box and notice the tag (it's the only right side up owl and it has chalkboard fabric on the back - that marker on the right is ChalkInk)?

Okay, the count down to Christmas is heating up - we're getting close!  Too bad I don't have an Advent Calendar - actually may have worked out by not putting too much pressure on us since someone in our house has been sick since the week before Thanksgiving, myself included.  Oh! We did finally get the tree up:

See the tree skirt I was talking about a couple of posts ago? I added the angel this year and will add shepherd next year (another Pinterest project pinned by Missy again - plain as plain tree skirt and fabric paint your kids handprints on each year).

And made melting snowmen cookies from another Pinterest pin.

What's new in my Etsy shop? Not much - I've been busy and not feeling well - but, new booties!!

Handmade Holiday for the Religious Ed class

I volunteer-teach for one of my kid's Catholic religious education class (used to be called CCD but this is a politically progressive - although dogmatically conservative - church - Hippy Catholics if you will - so they renamed it to be more on target with what they do - and there are no tests or grades!). Anyway, back to what I was focused on - the Winter Holiday or since we're now in the religious ed zone Advent and CHRISTMAS!  We're celebrating by having a party in our classroom where the kids each bring something (including our kids) and watching a Veggie Tales Christmas movie. My co-teacher, assistant and I decided to give our students a couple of things in a gift bag like we did last year. My co-teacher picked up a couple of things from Oriental Trading (great, although not always accurate, selection of church crafts) and a Holy Card from the Catholic Shop, our assistant is bringing some candy and I'm bringing something fun and secular!

Snowman Melt and Reindeer Noses!!

I'm obsessed with Pinterest (<-- you can follow me here) these days and found the reindeer noses on there repinned by my friend Missy who always pins cool kid stuff! All they are is Whoppers and a red gum ball.

Snowman melt was the invention of another RE co-teacher although that's not what she called it - it's hot chocolate, marshmallows and a hershey's kiss in an adorable baggie I found at Dollar Tree by my house.

I've also added the little candy canes to use to stir as well in previous years although, not this time (true is that I couldn't find them at the one store I went to).  I found chocolate mint marshmallows to add this year!

My kids gave mixed reviews on the marshmallows but that's about what I expected from them and all kids in general. It at least give the kids some color in the package and a medium sized marshmallow to make a snowman with if they play with their food!

What else am I up to? Booties! I now have baby booties in my shop:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/86575889/crochet-baby-beanie-skull-cap-hat-and

The Count down begins... Handmade Holidays

Updates on my Handmade Holiday:
Thanksgiving cooking: I made twice baked potatoes (only one out of 13 exploded in the oven!) but forgot the sour cream at home (note to self: must find something to do with sour cream that I don't ever use) and homemade scalloped potatoes for Thanksgiving as well as the birthday cakes for the November Birthday Girls.

Advent calendar: ACK! I haven't done the advent calendar and there are TWO days until Dec 1 and technically, Advent has already begun!! Gotta get going on that!

Scarf for mom: I've ordered a cashmere silk blend that I'm going to dye to make my mom's scarf

Tree Skirt: This is totally from last year but I need to work on it. I just pulled it out - I have Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus stitched on and the angel tacked on but no shepherds or wisemen... I did redo my patterns and make a new felt board (the roll-up, stiffened felt version got smushed and now the characters don't stick so I backed some felt with the left-over peg-board instead). Here's the new felt board nativity:

I hope my mom doesn't read my blog

I've never asked her if she does or not and I don't promote my posts too often(having a blog where I link back to my shop is all I really want - go SEO!) but since I'm going to be posting about her Christmas present right now, I hope she doesn't!

So HANDMADE HOLIDAY - Mom's Christmas Present... I kind of made her a present last year for this year but I gave it to her for her birthday...


See, she bought a live flower arrangement last year for Christmas and commented that she'd like a silk flower version, so I kept my eye out for silk flower sales and went the first time I saw one so the arrangement was fresh in my mind. There's a candle that goes in the middle too.

So while we were visiting NYC and my sister,

she saw a lovely scarf that she liked on someone else that looks like leaves and it's long. I have a pattern for that! Anyway, I've never done the pattern but I'm going to attempt it... it starts with an iCord...

Handmade Holiday continued

Another part of a Handmade Holiday, let's all face it, is FOOD! I'd like to come out of the holidays skinnier than I went in. Thanksgiving usually isn't a problem since I don't really like the traditional foods so there's not a lot of over-consumption going on there. This year, my parents are between houses so Thanksgiving is being held at my sister's house. Now this sister was never the one to play house or Barbies or anything that involved "domestic engineering", so the deal is that she's a venue. I got assigned birthday cake for our November birthday girls (easy peasy - they want a Carvel cake - eh, handmade only goes so far!) and potatoes. I think I'm going to make a couple of varieties. There's been a request for Au Gratin potatoes and the second is up to me. Mashed potatoes are the go to but not my favorite so I'm testing out recipes on my family.

Test 1 (Nov 9): Hasselback Potatoes
Yeah, I never heard of them either but I'm expanding my horizons with Pinterest. Here's the gist: garlic baked potatoes. These are not my pictures (I kept cutting the ends off - mine were yummy - I had to pick the garlic bits out after cooking for my kids - but I'm not sure I can cut that many potatoes like that for potentially 10 adults and 4 kids)


So this weekend, I have to come up with test 2 (au gratins from scratch?? or just go with twice baked potatoes using muffin tins to keep them standing up?)...and get ready to RUN!!