Color Me Happy: Vacation Countdown

{design seeds}

I planned on creating a lovely mood board with lots of minty green for today...but it's been non-stop excitement & chaos over here.  Wedding order mania + cultivating brand-new anxiety inducing ideas....and our countdown to the family vacation has left little time for the non-essentials. Like, you know, dreamily perusing color inspiration with coffee in hand. Instead, I'm ticking things off the to-do list like it's nobody's business (confession: I add things to the list I've *already* completed just to feel more accomplished) Shhh. 

And though we're traveling with two little guys to the 'best place on earth' - I'm hoping there will be a bit of this kind of vacation (photo above :)  on our trip too.  Relaxing is so difficult for me. I'm one of those crazy folks who can't sit still during movies and crowded places make me nervous. Give me a sand dune, mountain, river, or camp site any day.  Can anyone relate?  

Anyhow, I do have some super exciting stuff to look forward to after this much-needed break, I can hardly wait to share! 

xoxo

To Have and To Hold - Etsy Wedding Event

{credit: love lee flowers}

Woo hoo! Doing a little shimmy shake of happiness over here. My personalized embroidered cosmetic bags will be making an appearance at Etsy's first ever, exclusive wedding event, To Have and To Hold this weekend in New York City.   (I love how my bags see all the exciting places :)  Anyhow, tickets have long been sold out but if you're one of the lovely brides or wedding professionals attending this oh-so-fabulous soiree, keep your eye out for me! 

This is them, wrapped, and ready to travel :)   So happy for this amazing opportunity!

Have a lovely weekend! xoxo

Let's Talk Business - Week Ten: Your Horizon

{photo courtesy happee monkee}

Over the last couple months, it's become really clear to me that for a very long time I've operated from a position of fear, that oh-so-elusive fear of failing.  The word 'fear' maybe doesn't even really describe it, but I've had a mindset that is slightly just off the mark.


Hoping, just enough. Dreaming, just a little. Doing, just the safe.   


Sure, I've had some pretty awesome achievements this year (hello, e-book and hello, new baby!) but, if I'm honest with myself I can say that there is even more I've wanted/dreamt/wished that I've somehow put aside.... as if it's not for me. 


Well, that's just not going to do. 


It's time to take some serious leaps. With my heart full of inspiration from my amazing community, husband, and creative compass I'm looking ahead to new horizons.  

So, for the last chat in this series, I invite you to share a new direction you're heading,                      share your horizon.

{It's been a lovely ten weeks of chatting, inspiring, affirming, and connecting! Thank you so much for everyone who has popped in to share in our chats and so many others who touched base with me privately.  I truly tried to address everyone's concerns and hope you found this series useful.  Really appreciate my lovely guest posters Isa, Meagan, and Tracey for their thoughtful contributions. }

More in this series:
Week One: Passion Driven Business
Week Two: Establishing Your Brand
Week Three: To Wholesale or Not
Week Four: Getting It Done - Scheduling Tips with Meagan Visser
Week Five: The Art of Being Different with Tracey Selingo

Week Six: Identifying Your Target Market with Noisette Academy

Week Seven: Building Revenue Streams

Week Eight: Adjusting Your Business Model

Week Nine: Offering Supplementary Products

Color Me Happy, Navy + Orange

A day late on this one, oops! So many wedding orders and new goodness in the works...but I enjoyed this little break to create with a burst of navy + orange.  Happy Day! 

lovely finds: 

print: amanda catherine

dress: mod cloth

fabric: domesticate

teacup: dawn dishaw ceramics

bag: toss designs

necklace: via just b

Exploration Inspiration

Thought we'd be spending this month blissfully painting and decorating our new home, but given massive amounts of stubborn wallpaper, enticing woodsy trails, and a few crazy life changes...we've been doing lots of exploring instead. In our backyard (resuming my love for lawn mowing!), the neighborhood, river trails, and a nature preserve near our house.


Yesterday, I snuck away for a rare bit of time on my own (as in, no children or husband in tow) and captured a few photos of inspiration. 

beauty before the sun

burst. 

true chevron.

a path....

looking up. 

depths of color. 

layers.

outlines. 

tell me, where have you found inspiration lately?

Give One, Keep One Weekend - Free Cosmetic Bags

Celebrating the weekend with this fun offer. A chance to stock up on gifts or keep a little something for yourself :)  I look forward to sending out these surprise cosmetic bags.  (I accept orders directly  allisa.jacobs {at} gmail {dot} com  or through my shop. 


And a bit more goodness for the weekend:

Custom bridesmaid gift order in lovely browns, corals, and teal. Love this group! 

On it's way to a very special destination....

Coral happiness. 

Hey! How'd that cute baby get in here? :) 

A few new color options... (marina blue, I love you!) 

Oh so springful. 

All wedding order great and small. 

Here's to a happy weekend! xo

Washi Tape Vases for Mothers Day

Yesterday, Little Man Jack and I crafted up these sweet little vases for mother's day gifts. Used gobs of frilly washi tape and plain bud vases.  The best part was he did most of the tape choosing, cutting, applying, and repositioning by himself.  Then, we admired them together :) 

Hoping the grandmother's enjoy this year's handmade gift!

Lots of washi tape. If I'm honest here, I'll say these prints aren't my most favorite, but the craft store collection was quite limited.  Jack thought they were just "delightful" though. His new word of the week. Next time though, I'm scoring a few of the bright colors from Omiyage. 

The extent of our supplies. Oh, and scissors. 

I've got tons of tape left. What else needs a dose of transparent dotty goodness?!

Let's Talk Business - Offering Supplementary Products

Hello! Happy Wednesday, so glad to have you here to chat about some business goodness! 

The last couple weeks we've discussed a few things related to growth; increasing revenue streams and adjusting your business model. From these discussions, questions developed about offering supplementary products like ebooks, patterns, guides, printables, etc. Like this one: 

Is it a concern at all that by selling your pattern you take sales away from the items you make and sell yourself? 

In short, yes. And no. 

First and foremost, I think that developing and offering patterns or other supplementary products need to be part of a bigger strategy. We should look at it through the lens of building our brand.  In what way can we offer supplementary products that:  a) stay true to our core concept  b) widens our audience  c) expands, rather than detracts from what we make. 

Here's a few ways to approach that strategy:  

• Make it complimentary. Rather than competing with what you make, perhaps you offer an easy compliment to your items. 

• If you offer something like patterns, create them so that they still require the little something special from you. Maybe it's a kit with your graphic design as embroidery template.
• Do it purposefully.  Avoid offering additional products just because you can.  Just like any aspect of business, passion + authenticity make the difference. 

• Guard your secret sauce.  No need to share everything you make. But perhaps share more of your common goods or restrict usage to personal use only (a toughie to enforce, but a viable option). 
• Keep them cohesive with your brand.  Unless you're planning a major switch into a new category, stay consistent. This will help build your brand's identity without detracting from what you've already built. 
• It's not right for everyone. Offering something like patterns, kits, or add-on may not fit into your business model. That's ok. Recognize this and make other things happen! 

I really would love to hear all your thoughts on this? Did I miss something? Disagree? Let's chat in the comments. xo

More in this series:
Week One: Passion Driven Business
Week Two: Establishing Your Brand
Week Three: To Wholesale or Not
Week Four: Getting It Done - Scheduling Tips with Meagan Visser

Week Five: The Art of Being Different with Tracey Selingo

Week Six: Identifying Your Target Market with Noisette Academy

Week Seven: Building Revenue Streams

Week Eight: Adjusting Your Business Model

Color Me Happy: Citron + Gray

Happy Monday! Scouting for color combos this morning and found this lovely of citron yellow + slate gray from Design Seeds.  Isn't it cheerful yet calm?


Cheers to a very happy + productive week! xo

Certainty

thoughts for the weekend....

{print from the ever awesome Love Sugar}

Let's Talk Business - Adjusting Your Business Model - Week 8

{ from 52 home @ home }

Hello! Glad to have you hear to chat about all things business. Today, I'm building upon my post with Oh My Handmade on how to position ourselves for growth, and I thought we could talk a bit about assessing our business models. It's an underlying theme that came up in nearly all of your questions. I know, I know, it's maybe not as exciting as discussing such sparkly topics like branding and marketing, but it's important nonetheless. In fact, it might just be the difference between a shining success and a fizzling fadeout for our shops. 


We can get all technical with business models. But for today's purposes let's just think about how we do what we do. 


Let me start with a little example. 


Do you have those little frozen yogurt shops in your area? You know, the ones where you choose and serve your yogurt and add all the treats you like from a crazy long toppings bar - creating a super delicious, just-the-way-you want it dessert?  I'm speaking from experience.  Here in rainy Portland, when we are graced with a bit of warm weather my four year-old unfailingly proclaims, "Let's celebrate the sunshine! Let's get some ice-cream."  And last year, while pregnant, I was never one to turn down a celebration. Clever child that boy is. 


Anyhow, we'd go to our local do-it-yourself yogurt shop and I remember thinking, 'these people are genius.'  I bet you know why.  


Because at some point, in frozen yogurt brilliance, someone adjusted their business model. 


Instead of hiring a half dozen employees to offer items from a menu- they decided to let the customer basically run the show.  They completely scaled down their offerings to just yogurt + toppings (hence, narrowing their niche. wink, wink) and completely cut cost by allowing the customer to do all the work.  And buyers are enthusiastically happy about all this! 


So, what does this mean for us? 


It means we need to rethink how we run our business. We need to find our areas of weakness and flip it. 


Maybe we're making & listing & selling one item at a time. How can we do this differently? 
Perhaps we are creating only custom orders. Is this working? 
Maybe we've got too much inventory and buyers are only interested in one item at a time. How can we encourage larger sales? 
We might be approaching each day by trying to do a little bit of everything. How can we be more efficient? 
Are we in the non-stop cycle of making + selling? What can be tweaked so something is selling itself (eg. patterns, ebooks, pdfs, wholesale accounts, etc.) 


Ok, now you tell me- What have you taken away from this post? Other than probably craving frozen yogurt goodness, how can *you* adjust your model to increase your success? 

More in this series:
Week One: Passion Driven Business
Week Two: Establishing Your Brand
Week Three: To Wholesale or Not
Week Four: Getting It Done - Scheduling Tips with Meagan Visser

Week Five: The Art of Being Different with Tracey Selingo

Week Six: Identifying Your Target Market with Noisette Academy

Week Seven: Building Revenue Streams

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen!

All of you looking for a Vanilla Ice post, sorry to disappoint. 

But, I am over at Noisette Academy today talking about connecting & collaborating as a means to boost creativity and grow your business. Pop over & say hello! 

{Beehive print by Angela Vandenbogaard :: jellybeans on Etsy}

Color Me Happy; Marigold + Teal

Another dose of color goodness;  Marigold + Teal. 

dress: from Ruche

fabric: Braemore via Tonic Living

flowers:  Style Me Pretty

necklace: Venecia Creations

bag:  me.  I just couldn't help it! 

next week? tell me what you love to see with slate gray. cheers to a happy week! 

Oh, Happy Day!

Wishes for a very happy Easter! 

xo, allisa

{photography from the amazing Yes and Amen}

Easter Lovelies

Possibly the most beautiful Easter eggs I've ever seen! Found these lovelies on By Wilma- great way to avoid dye and let fabric scraps really shine. 


Looking for more fun, last minute Easter projects? I made a little tutorial round-up, charming eggs in the grass cupcakes, and tutorial I found for Peeps bunting (<- pure cuteness). 


In the past, I've created fabric buckets for Jack's Easter basket...this year, I'm decoupaging tin pails with bright chevron fabric for the boys! 


Happy wishes for a very lovely weekend! 
xo

Let's Talk Business - Building Revenue Streams - Week 7

{crafterall}

Hello! So happy to be back to chat up our business concerns. We last left off with Isa from Noisette Academy who shared a detailed guide on how to identify your target market. She really provided an insight on how to find out who we are selling to, clearing the way for more growth.  And speaking of growth, yesterday I shared my post with Oh My Handmade on how to position your business for scalability - meaning that we can't just make & do more to grow, there are other important aspects to consider. One of the suggestions I touched on in the article is increasing your revenue streams. What's this all about? Well, we'll be discussing ways to add profit to your business by building other areas of income. 


Before we jump into the juicy how to's of increasing revenue streams, let's talk about why it's important for growing our business.  When we think about building businesses, creative entrepreneurs often think of just doing more. Well, if we apply that approach then we're completely limited by the hours in the day (and as far as I know, we all have 24- so that's pretty much settled).  Sure we can delegate tasks, hire assistants, and outsource some of our production -but it's still a game of doing more. So instead, how about do it differently? 


Now, here's the thing about building revenue streams--you want to make sure they're consistent with your core concept. If you're just adding different stuff or offering something contradictory to your business values then we've got some bigger problems to address. So, take some time to really reflect on what is the core of your business (eg. offering distinctive logo design for business, custom wedding accessories, organic skin care, etc...) and then consider ways to build additional revenue. 


Ways to Build Your Revenue Stream

• Create printables.  Examples includes prints of original art, general stationery, calendars, photographs of your work, organizational material, worksheets
• Develop patterns & tutorials.  Perhaps you design the patterns for your work, selling them as pdfs or kits, opens you up to a whole new market
• Teach classes.  You're likely an expert in your own right on something...or at least getting close to it! Share what you know through online classes, community sponsored classes (like through parks & recreation), or small group/individual lessons. 
• Create digital guides. Building upon sharing what you know, developing eguides are a fantastic way to connect and build your brand...and offer what you've learned to others (I did this with my ebook, it's been successful & rewarding in so many ways!) 
• Collaborate.  Connect with another creative to start something new, offer work in different outlets, and pair up products (like the collaboration between me and Perideau Designs on our notepad organizers)  
• Plan an event.  Perhaps its a trunk show just for your brand or something larger incorporating others, organizing an event can be a powerful way to expand!

Whew. That's a lot of opportunities for expanding our sources of revenue. What do you think? What else would you add to this list? Do any of these raises concerns or anxiety for you? Tell me, let's talk about it!  I'll be around throughout the day to chat about your thoughts and perspectives.  See you in the comments! 

More in this series:
Week One: Passion Driven Business
Week Two: Establishing Your Brand
Week Three: To Wholesale or Not
Week Four: Getting It Done - Scheduling Tips with Meagan Visser

Week Five: The Art of Being Different with Tracey Selingo

Week Six: Identifying Your Target Market with Noisette Academy

How Does Your Business Grow?

{Oh Dier Living}

So, last week I was waist high in boxes, paint chips, and crawling babies (ok, just one baby but I'm still out-numbered...) and I *completely* spaced on the Let's Talk Business post! Eeeks! (thanks to all of you who oh-so-kindly mentioned my oversight :)  Anyhow, hopefully I made up for it a bit with my post on small business growth at Oh My Handmade yesterday.  I shared my insights on how to position yourself for growth (hint: it's not about just doing more). I'd love for you to pop over and weigh in!  I think it touches on a lot of concerns us creative entrepreneurs have. 

As for tomorrow? I'll be building upon this post to chat about ways to increase your revenue stream. See you then! 

xoxo  

Color Me Happy! Coral + Turquoise

Hello and happy Monday! So much chatting about color as of late, I'm starting a new weekly series, Color Me Happy - bursts of color combinations, points of inspiration, and lovely finds. 

Today I'm celebrating coral + turquoise.  I love how it's happy and down home all at once. Makes me feel spirited and lively.  What do you think? 

Flowers - Decor 8

Dress - Anthropologie

Home decor - House of Turquoise

Wild & Free print - Hairbrained Schemes

Earrings - Nest Pretty Things

{next week combo is MARIGOLD + _______________, you tell me!}