Buy 1 Get 1 Free

Well I hinted at his a while back

It wasn't that I forgot about it, I just couldn't figure out how to do it in the store to get the discount to automatically come off!

Jane worked tirelessly today and came to my rescue. So the Buy 1 Get 1 Free sale is on!!!

Here is how it workes

You go to my store and you put a camera strap cover in your cart, add another to the cart, and then when you get to the checkout, the price of one of the camera straps will be deducted from your total!

There are terms and conditions.... well of course there are!

1. You cannot purchase a CD Visor and get a free Camera Strap .. This sale is only for the straps! But you CAN purchase a CD Visor and a Camera Strap and get another Camera Strap absolutly free:)

2. This sale will end April 5th

3. Custom orders are not included

Goodbye Granny...

This past weekend my Granny passed away. She lived a full life, just the way she wanted. Some of the happiest memories of my childhood were at my Granny's house. My Granny taught me many things that still stay true to this day...White Gravy taste best made in a cast iron skillet made from sausage grease.

If you pan fry a steak in butter and worshisire sauce, before a night of drinking, you won't puke

A fly swatter hurts the ass as much as the fly

Frozen burritos and ketchup is a meal replacement

Bread should always be soft, if you cant afford Wonder don't bother

Sarcasm only sharpens as you get older

Slippers are acceptable footwear for ALL occasions

Keep a nice pair of PJ's as backup, you never know who you will meet in Reno

Yahtzee is timeless, and anyone who sits at your kitchen table will enjoy a game

Laughter cures most everything. If you cant laugh at them, smack em!

Really? Seriously?

There are many tools out there to get the word out about your business. Honestly you can get lost in the blogs, forums, sites. Online networking is a must for anyone to get the word out about your business. Beware, people won't follow you if you only say "come buy my crap"!

You can tweet, facebook, do giveaways, list your products on multiple selling sites (ie ebay, etsy, big cartel) It is all what works for you.

I do some giveaways mostly, and buy some ad space. I do twitter and try and not sound like a twit. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

When you do a giveaway usually there are chances for multiple entry's. Follow on facebook, follow on twitter, RT about the giveaway, Go to said shop and tell about your favorite thing etc. I like to opt for the most exposure so I always encourage the blog that is holding the giveaway to give extra entry's to following my blog, and me on twitter.

This helps in several ways. I can put on my twitter about a new product and people who follow me will get that in their stream. It also means that ... *shock* ... potential or actual customers are reading about what I write on twitter! You can follow people to see what they are doing, or they can follow you. I have been known to tweet about a great bottle of wine, a fantastic giveaway, or how my dog will sit around and fart. It all depends.

The one thing that gets my back up is when other small business tweet about their customers. About problems, payment, emails etc. Do you not get that your customers are reading your tweets? Don't call them names, don't tweet about how "difficult" they are. And please don't tweet about how stressed you are about customer demands when you spend all day tweeting. They see this, and wonder if you have so much time to spend your day on twitter, how come you don't have time to process my purchase. Twitter is a valuable tool for networking, but not used correctly can come back and bite you in the butt. Just saying!

Recently I have been asked to sponsor a few giveaways. Sponsor meaning I donate the Item versus Host meaning I will hold it on my blog. So yes I have sponsored a few.

Right now there is a Giveaway going on the Make Me a Blessing Blog. Courtney the owner is awesome, and did a great job with organizing this. She is so great to work with! The Giveaway is for a 20$ Gift certificate to my store. You can find the post here. This Giveaway is running until March 13th.

The Second Giveaway is on Loving my life reviews blog. Sarah was actually a winner of a giveaway that I did. She won multiple camera strap covers and decided to give one of them away on her blog. You can find the entry here. This entry ends today March 10th at 9pm.
On to some new products..

I have some new products listed in the shop.

Some New CD Visors

I also brought the Iphone Ipod covers back. Was having way to many emails about whether or not I was still carrying them. Before Christmas I couldn't give them away, now they are moving!!!

Remember all New Products are marked down 15% until the Monday after they are listed! All camera strap covers are on sale 30% off until they are gone!

Woulda Coulda Shoulda

There are so many things that I Shouda Couda Wouda done differently. Starting a business is full of pitfalls, many wrong turns, and several sharp corners. How much is my own fault?

Today I was talking to Jane, Jane does my website for me, she is an HTML guru. She is also my friend. We have known each other 4+ years. She is the one that I discuss all my big ideas with. My cohort in crime if you will say.

Today Jane and I were discussing all the things that we shouda couda wouda did differently if only we had known better. I know you have alot of those.

Its been a year now since I have decided to sell my one of kind hand crafted items to the mass market, and to be honest there are alot of things that I would have done differently, so many balls that I let fall, and just so much that I should have followed through on.

One of the things is Marketing. Gosh I HATE marketing. I hate going from place to place telling people to come buy my one of a kind hand crafted items. I despise talking about myself, promoting myself etc. Sure I have no problem telling my husband how brilliant I am, or my sister, but telling the world? Its pretty hard.

You can find yourself in a endless blog/site circle trying to promote, looking for new ways to promote, and just generally getting the word out there about yourself. I have easily spent full days going from blog to blog to site to forum.. hoping that possibly I might get a view or two.

*note to self.. People won't come and buy your crap .. handmade genuine one of a kind item.. if they CANT FIND IT*

Its an easy enough thing to say, but its another thing to fully understand. Its a dilemma I struggle with most days. Yes just because someone has bought my crap.. handcrafted one of a kind item.. doesn't mean the populace of the world is going to know about it.

Camera straps, were my bread and butter for a long time. I started making them for various reasons, but lets be honest.. I get email updates.. I'm not a fool .. there are 101 tutorials out there on how to make them now, and about 40 different people selling them on etsy.

So a year ago I was selling 6 to 7 of these a day, now maybe Im lucky if Im selling 5 or 6 of these a month. Part of that is its becoming a pretty over saturated market, but part of it is my own lack of marketing. Others are beating me out because they are more visible!

So I have made a few decisions. I am going to stop making these. I have a shelf full of precut fabric, and when its gone, its gone. I don't enjoy making them anymore, and if its not fun, well then its time to move on.

I have these in my store on sale, for 30% off right now. Maybe next week they will be buy one get one free. Once the fabric is gone, its gone. If you order you might just get an extra one to boot. I am getting out of the camera strap cover making business.

This camera strap is done in a cute Amy Butler print, with coordinating dotty back. There are 3 with lens pockets and 4 without.

I also have some new CD visors in the shop. I am loving these. I know you have tons of cd's laying around your car! I have one of these on my visor, for my music CD's, and another one on the other visor for the kids movies. All at my fingertips.