An Award? For me?? WOW!! February 5, 2010

Sunshine Award

I can’t believe that I’m a recipient of an award.. it shocks me, makes me proud (and blush a little also). I’m so flattered that I almost fell out of my chair when I found out!

The wonderful Kim of VA Beach Quilter awarded me this fabulous Sunshine (blog) Award. She is an amazing woman who sells on many different platforms (Etsy, Artfire, Zibbet), she is the queen bee behind the Artfire Guild for Shops with less than (10) sales, driving all members to help one another achieve. Even though she has gone on run a successful shop she continues to head up this amazing team. Her shop is chalk full of all kinds of wonderful sewn and quilted goodies (bags, wallets, coasters, cozies, quilts, etc..)

In order to accept this award, I have to do the following:

~ Put the logo on your blog or within your post ~ (I have it pictured here and in a permanent spot near the end of my blog with other awards that were given to me.)

– Pass the award onto 12 bloggers. (My list of wonderful blogs, with working links, is listed a little bit past this section)

– Link the nominees within your post.

– Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

– Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award

So, now I have the very difficult task of scouring and picking 12 blogs out of all the wonderful blogs that I follow. So hard to pick, but I’ve taken on the challenge and here are my list of blogs that I’m passing the award on to:

1. http://papercakesfinds.blogspot.com/ I just love this girl! She’s super sweet and has impeccable taste.

2 .http://indienorth.com/ Beth who runs this site is one of the most supportive people out there – her site is dedicated to Canadian Indiepreuneurs

Indie North

3. http://www.rikrakstudio.blogspot.com/ The nicest, friendliest blog out there, once again, fabulous taste.

4. http://www.bleuvanille.com/ My favorite personal fabric advisor packed up her fabric store to enjoy her family, her she tells the story of what she is up to

5. http://mommymaria.wordpress.com/ Bored Mommy is written by a SAHM who tells it like it is..  she’s also a featured blogger on the Yummy Mommy Club

6. http://blog.modernemotive.com/ Beauty at its finest – Adele makes the most beautiful Eco Friendly paper goods on Etsy and shares her picks, her loves, and her photography

7.  http://www.snug-n-luv.blogspot.com/ Fabulous reviews, features and giveaways by one of the sweetest Etsiennes I’ve met

Bored Mommy

8.  http://everydaybeautiful.typepad.com/ hosted by my favorite fabric shoppe, she finds beautiful uses of fabric

9.  http://craftingincolorteam.blogspot.com/ I’m a member of this team, but also – I just love the popping colors of their finds

10. http://shopswithlesssalesartfire.blogspot.com/ One of my Artfire Guild’s – working really hard to promote lesser known Artfire shops

11. http://blogfireguild.blogspot.com/ Another of my Artfire  Guilds – This guild focuses on cross promoting through our blogs

12. http://canartisan.blogspot.com/ Canadian Artisans in the spotlight on this fabulous blog/ressource

Paper*Cake Finds

the rikrak studio

Bleu Vanille - a crafty blog in French - but eye candy in any language

modernemotive

snug n luv

Everyday Beautiful

Crafting in Color Etsy Team

Artfire Shops with Less than 10 Sales Guild

Blogfire Guild

CanArtisan

Thoughts on the passing of another year.. January 7, 2010

Every year that passes makes me think of what (if anything) I accomplished in the past year. Many years this just serves to put me into a depression.

This year however, I feel that I accomplished a bit. I opened my first store (on Etsy), pushed long and hard to get a few sales (somehow I believed that ppl would be buying me out of my product right from the get go). With time, and perseverance I started to have a little sales base. I also did some offline selling and by the years end I felt very confident that this coming year would be even better.

My Etsy & Artfire (new) stores were never intentioned to be huge money makers. They were to be a nice pass time, and to pay for some extra activities for the children. They were a way for me to stay home with the children and still feel as though I was making a contribution to the household.

This coming year my plan is to continue pushing both my Etsy & Artfire stores, to work a little harder on maintaining my blog and to work on a few new product lines. I’d like to also search for more craft sales venues and build up my inventory to really bring in a fabulous end of year (pay for the kiddies Christmas gifts).

I hope to have an extended line of Boutique Karma Cafe products available in both my Etsy & Artfire stores by the end of January. As a coffee addict this could be my future passion for my store.

Best Wishes to all – Happy New year!

Tara

On a personal note – I’m usually an intensely private person who is very shy. I’m going to try to be a little more outgoing this year and work on my self-image. Here’s to showing the world the ‘real’ me…