Sadly my friends I have placed both my Etsy & Artfire shops on vacation mode. Canada Post appears to be striking for an unforseen amount of time.
When postal service is back up and running Boutique Karma will be holding a special customer appreciation salewith cool daily deals for a week.
Tara xoxo
I think I can count on one hand how many ‘gorgeous’ days we’ve had since the beginning of Spring. Cold and rainy has been the status quo here in Montreal. I loved this beautiful ‘Rainy Days’ treasury by AbbysAtticNJ and was very flattered that my coffee sleeve was included.
Crossing my fingers that I’ll have some sun soon!
 It’s Raining Love 8×10 A… $18.50
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 Weather Cloud Necklace $58.00
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 Rain Rain Go Away Large Tea … $18.00
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 rainy day $25.00
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 Little City Two-Hoops: Rainy… $85.00
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 Chevron Stripe Rain Drops Pe… $19.50
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 Pair of Grumpy Grey Felt Rai… $11.00
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 Organic Duo of Onesies in Sp… $18.00
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 Black Wellington Boot and Um… $16.00
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 Reusable Coffee Cuff – Sprin… $5.75
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 cloud magnets $
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 STORM WATCHER Signed fine ar… $15.00
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 raining t-shirt $13.00
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 Hold On Mr. Squirrel – Mini … $11.00
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 Cloud Folding Box $6.00
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 SLUGS Fleece Boot Liners Nav… $22.00
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Yesterday when looking at my 'circle' on Etsy I came across this fabulous shop by LennyMud. It has some amazing handmade pottery items including: mugs, cups, vases.
This duo was my favorite:
I love making connections online – recently I came across a jewelry shop located in Quebec through Etsy. I added it to my favorites and even sent out a tweet about one of her lovely bracelets. Unknown to me she had actually sent me a message asking me for a little information, she had originally seen me on Icraft. Small world this crafty community!
Here’s a little bit about Maika – she lives in St. Jerome, Quebec. Do you know where that is? It’s about a half hour North from Montreal depending on traffic, and just a quick jaunt from some of Quebec’s most famous ski hills! What a beautiful, inspiring area to work in. She loves crafting and excited to now be home creating her own designs and working with some of her favorite materials such as: stones, shell and wood. She loves challenging her self with new materials, techniques and loves making one-of-a-kind designs and even better – CUSTOM!
I’d love for you to take a minute to check out this new Etsienne’s shop and some of her beautiful items.
Tara xoxo
The Gypsy Bracelet
Knowledge Tree Necklace
Coral and Shell flower necklace
As a seller on a few different venues I have the wonderful experience of being a part of some excellent teams. Today I want to share with you the Crafting in Color Etsy team. This team boasts of bringing some color to the Etsy world (which is sometimes quite taupe). Monthly we have a theme challenge, we support each other through tweets, Facebook, a google group and other fun ways (last week we had a mini Treasury East challenge). Our blog now has just shy of 300 followers (and that isn’t counting people who regularly stop by). I love this team and enjoy all the connections I’ve made with the members. With this team I feel I’ve found a great supportive base and love promoting all their gorgeous items.
Do you craft in color? Maybe you should stop by and look into becoming a member!
Are you a lover of all things handmade and love a splash of color? Stop by and see what the team has to offer and while you are at it maybe vote in one of our challenges (my stuff is BoutiqueKarma *Wink*)
Here’s a glimpse of what the CIC team (crafting in color) has on their blog:
Crafting in Color Wheel - April 30th 2010
Treasury East Challenge - Voting ends Tuesday May 4th. Winner wins bragging rights!
May Theme Challenge - Pets! All team members are welcome to submit an entry into the contest. Winners win an Etsy mini on the sidebar for the month of June.
Last week I missed my 3rd installment of my Lounge of Commerce 7 days to Awesome weekly feature – did you miss it? Did you notice I was MIA? Well over the past week since I missed my feature I’ve been thinking about it and feeling bad that I dropped the ball. I work on each post for BK on the day it is to be posted, which is not how it should be done – most bloggers are days ahead if not weeks. I’ll be a procrastinator probably to the end.. this is my Achilles heel.
So here we are on determining my core values – Beth of the Lounge warns not to be phony and to be true to. She gave a huge list of different values and asked to circle the ones we hold true to our own values. Here are the one’s that I felt reflected me (in no particular order):
Accessibility, Community, Honesty, Loyalty, Nurturing, Pleasure, Personal Growth, Beauty, Pride, Variety, Earth friendly, Simplicity, Sincerity, Support, Tradition,
Now I’m going to use these words (or some of them) in a series of statements that reflect the intrinsic values of Boutique Karma:
1. I believe in offering a variety or items of beauty, while nurturing a customer base through accessibility, honesty and support.
2. I believe in Personal Growth while continuing in family traditions of sewing and quilting.
3. I believe in taking pleasure and pride in my work.
Words left out: community, earth friendly.
I believe in a sense of community on many levels: I shop local whenever possible, and over the past year my local has grown to a world wide market of some fabulous sellers. My twitter group has also become very much a part of my virtual community. It is very important to me, and I just couldn’t fit it in.
Earth friendly – this is also a very important core value of mine. However, I could have put it in my core values, but I honestly feel that sporting a reusable sleeve may be eco friendly, but purchasing that coffee in a disposable cup daily is not very friendly. It goes against the same value I would be touting. I love them because they are cute, fashionable, eye-catching and as a side note better than the cardboard or double cupping.
I feel that I am running my business in line with these values: I am striving to improve my knowledge of my craft, I push myself personally to better myself, I feel that I communicate and try to cultivate a connection with other artisans and my customers. I offer a simplistic line of items with a huge variety of beautiful fabrics to choose from. I hope my ideal customer would appreciate and identify with my core values.
Are you a small biz? Have you checked out the Lounge of Commerce yet? Head over there and settle in and let me know what you’ve learned!
You have to love Kim of VaBeachQuilter, she is the guild master of the Artfire guild ‘Shops With Less Than (10) Sales,’ she runs a blog of the same name and tirelessly promotes members from this team via twitter, blogging, chatterbox threads, facebook fan page and various other means of promotion. She helps our smaller shops by pointing out ways that we may have overlooked to help get traffic come to our shops.
Aside from guild master and mentor she is also a brilliant quilter and business woman. She has sold a number of quilts for local MLB players and their family and even sold a custom quilt that was mentioned in an article by Seth Livingstone, a reporter for USA Today.
She lives her craft by working and teaching in a local Quilt shop. She’s been machine quilting for 10 years now, predominantly machine piecing, but she does some hand piecing as well. Her items are all gorgeous, and let me tell you, there is NOTHING like snuggling up with a quilt while watching your favorite tv show or even better (if you are lucky enough) to sleep under one at night. As the daughter of a quilter, I can really appreciate all the hard work that goes into one.
Kim a wide assortment of other items: table runners, notekeepers, wallets, gift/business card cases, hand-pieced wool items, baby/toddler items, and so much more. I just love her adorable VeeBee Creatures.
Here’s a selection of some of the goodies you will find in her shop – please stop by and show her some link love!
Crazy Log Cabin Quilt
Plum Centerpiece/Placemat
Olive Floral City Quilted Tote
Vee Bee Creature
Sugaring Off at the Sucrerie de la Montagne in Rigaud Quebec
Yesterday I enjoyed a fabulous time at Sucrerie de la Montagne in Rigaud Quebec. It was a timeless Quebecois experience of traditional yumminess: French Canadian pea soup, fresh baguette, sausage, Canadian back bacon, tortiere pie, omelette, sausage, ham, mashed potatoe, pancakes and a maple sugar pie. Did I mention there was a pitcher of pure maple syrup on the table and tire sur la neige (maple taffy on snow) outside?? Ok, there wasn’t any snow left on the ground and it was on crushed ice, but it’s always a fan favorite! There was a traditional live music, my daughter danced, and there was a horse drawn hay ride around the property. It was so pretty and fun, we have a great time at this location every year when we go.
Today is items that remind me of my maple syrup induced hangover, all the beauty and aroma minus the calories:
Maple Oval Lip Balm - One Tube by longwinterfarm
2 oz - CANADIAN MAPLE - BLACK Flavoured Loose Leaf Tea by IvyKeep
Maple Syrup Tree of Life Necklace by oneSeptember
MAPLE Bowl by Tellicoturnings
VANILLA MAPLE PECAN 20OZ SOY BLEND CANDLE by LLcandlesandgifts
Bumbershoot. Earrings. by clevergirl
april showers may bring flowers by calobee
PLAYING IN THE PUDDLES - Red White Umbrella - Nickel Free Stud Earrings by TheFlibbertigibbet
Reusable Coffee Cuff - Spring Showers by boutiquekarma
Rain Cloud Artisan Sterling Silver Necklace Labradorite Iolite by popnicute
April Showers Letterpress Notes, Set of 5 by paperlovelypress
Puddle Jumping - Guinea Pig with Umbrella and Raincoat Art Print - 8 x 10 by WhenGuineaPigsFly
So my week 2 (or your day 2) of the Lounge of Commerce’s “7 days to Awesome” has me looking inwards to find my ‘ideal’ customer. The people I see myself reaching for with my products. For the sake of this exercise I’m looking mainly at my Cafe brand of the Boutique Karma line, although I’m sure I could stretch most of it to my Spa line as well.
Who is it that I see buying my stuff? Why does it matter? Why not just put myself out there to everyone? Someone has to bite right?? Ummm… not really. If I spread myself to thin I may never be able to make a connection with the people looking for my mug huggers, coasters or reusable coffee cuffs.
So with Beth from the Lounge of Commerce and her fabulous list of questions I ended up with the following notes about my ideal customer:
She is between 20-35 years old, of any marital status. She lives in the suburbs with a 25-45 minute commute she makes a modest income with a little bit of wiggle room for some perks for herself. She probably spends 30 -45 minutes online in the evening checking her email, Facebook, digg and gossip websites. For fun, she enjoys going out with the girls for coffee or dinners – to catch up or escape the kids for some ‘me’ time.
Why would she want my product? She likes having a little slice of personal heaven – Her morning cup of coffee is hers, to sit and enjoy it in the morning with a fun Mug Hugger is another way of showing that there are certain things in life that are still all about her. By stopping through the drive through for her regular double-double she slips her cup through her coffee sleeve, she keeps her fingers cool while driving with that hot, hot coffee and when she gets to the office it serves as a fun accessory setting her apart from others. Yes, there is the eco-friendly issue of the coffee sleeve (she likes to brag about that), but if truth were told it serves more a style thing, let’s be honest, if it were all about saving the earth she would pour her coffee in a thermal tumbler instead of burning the gas in the drive through and wasting paper product daily on the takeout cup.
What excites her? Well, she enjoys taking time to herself, it could be going for a walk, sitting on the balcony with her feet up reading a book, bubble baths, massages.. if she’s a mother these moments are few and far between, so she takes it very seriously. What scares her? She hates how as she gets older her responsibilities change and she finds it much more difficulty to find that time for herself. This is why the moments when sipping her coffee or driving in the car are so precious to her.
Aside for online here are 10 places she may enjoy shopping:
gift shop
at a small coffee shop boutique
health food shop
farmer’s market
small indie shops
chapters indigo
the center kiosks of the mall
garage sales – you never know when you’ll find that gem
consignment shops
oh should I add she may be a compulsive shopper for low ticket items, my cafe line of products falls right into her fun budget of $10 or less (in fact even with the shipping included)
Aqua Reuseable Coffee Cuff in Wishing Flower
I'm a little bit of a fabric addict. Seemingly I can not resist the touch & feel of beautiful fabric. I'm a busy mom of two fun little tots, a wife to a patient loving husband and a avid coffee drinker. You can find me at most moments of the day with a coffee in one hand OR my next cup brewing. Send me a note, leave a message & check out my two stores. Cheers!
Handmade Beautiful at Boutique Karma
Sunshine Blog Award
Boutique Karma 