Daisy Janie

today | heart-to-heart #44 on scoutie girl is forest green.

 

This is a preview of my 44th heart-to-heart post on Scoutie Girl. Click on over to see who these fabulous makers are and where you can find them. And by all means, take your time perusing all of Scoutie Girl - you will not be disappointed with Tara's posts about mindful spending and creative living as well as the bounty of art and topics covered by her guest posters!

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"What's this 'heart-to-heart' post you speak of, Jan?" Well, I'll tell ya!

Each week, I hop from one etsy shop to another, following the hearted faves of each shop owner as I go. Wherever I leave off one week is where I start the next, which has created a progressive heart trail that is now 44 posts long.

I try to keep the look thematic - kinda seeing what develops as I click through the first 2-3 shops. It can be quite a challenge. Sometimes I get lucky at finding the perfect fit right away - other times, I am very bummed at hitting a dead-end when a shop owner makes their favorites private (esp when they had JUST the right item to feature!). I've learned to check each shop's favorites tab BEFORE getting too excited!

Here is a review of some recent h2h posts. These can all be viewed / read in full at Scoutie Girl. See the themes?

attitude, goals & a sale.

"Good things do come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who hustle."
- Anonymous

"Yes, risk taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking."
- Jim McMahon

(DH gets credit for digging up these quotes.)

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Today you can find some of my thoughts on setting & planning business goals on the Perideau Designs blog by Bridgett Edwards. It's written in a very conversational tone so as to bring the concept down to earth a little bit: "...think of working toward your goal as though you’re planning the party of the year for yourself, except that you’ll end up with money in your pocket and nobody to clean-up after (small talk is optional)!"

If you jumped into your business w/out a plan or even a small goal, it might feel like you did a cannonball into the pool w/out knowing how to swim. And now you find yourself flailing for help. Take a deep breath while your head's above water...you will learn how to tread water PDQ. Get out, take a lesson / make a plan & come back to the water's edge with peace of mind, knowing you have what it takes to turn your cannonball into a swan dive. Maybe my no muss, no fuss post on business goals will help get you started...

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My 2010 ecofriendly wall calendar is now 50% off - originally $25, now only $12.50. (Can you say 'slightly overstocked' ?) 

Are you an upcycler or repurposer? The coverstock pages of the calendar could be a great raw material to work with! I'm brewing up some ideas of my own!

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new heart-to-heart on scoutie girl - up today at 11am! It's a good one!!!!!

H2H at scoutie girl.

My weekly heart-to-heart feature is up on scoutie girl!

This week, my heart hops took me from inklore to ziazia. Find out how I got from one to the other.

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Odd observation of the day:
I cannot drive with barefeet; I must wear shoes.
And I cannot sew while wearing shoes; I must have barefeet.

How about you?

giveaway | win a daisy janie calendar & advertising on scoutie girl

etsy banners via etsy. cake via microsoft clip art.

It's my etsy shop's 2nd Etsyversary today! My main site just celebrated its 5th anniversary in December, but b/c you can't combine Main + Anniversary and cleverly announce, "It's my 5th Mainversary!" - I let it pass without grand pronouncements. But not my etsyversary - I swear I'd celebrate it just for the sake of saying etsyversary once a year. And then I'd scrub my brain clear of it until the next year b/c it is kinda weird.

Anywho....2 years on etsy! So glad I took the leap b/c it has been a wonderful experience in every way, shape & form. It took me awhile to get there tho:

• dec 17, 2004: created mainsite, daisyjanie.com...happy, happy, joy, joy.
• june 5, 2006: approached by etsy PR street team at Artstar to sign-up. in my head, i was all, "pfft, yeah right, i worked my a$$ off to get the #1 spot on google for handmade handbags...i don't need no stinkin' etsy." (was ignorance bliss? or was I just plain dimwitted? who knew, right?)
• jan 8, 2007 (TODAY): founded & created the popular indie/handmade blog scoutiegirl.com.*
• all of 2007: visited etsy daily as i searched for artists to feature on scoutie girl. really began to open my eyes to the incredible opportunities on etsy - enlightenment followed!
• jan 8, 2008: opened etsy shop. converted.

*Did you catch the part about the scoutie girl blog? Yes, scoutie girl is 3 years old today!!! Even tho she's in the very capable and busy hands of Tara Gentile, scoutie girl is still a big piece of my heart & soul - and I am ever-so-thankful that Tara kept it going & expanded SG's reach, content and passionate voice for handmade!

So, what about a giveaway then? Yes! Let's do it!
In celebration of scoutie girl's 3rd blogversary and my 2nd etsyversary, Tara and I are giving away 2 things that might boost your business this year: advertising on scoutie girl and big ole organizational calendars!

Three lucky winners will win 1 Daisy Janie ecofriendly 2010 calendar and 1 month of advertising on scoutie girl (if you can't use the ad spot, you can donate it to your fave shop.)

To enter, visit this anniversary post on scoutie girl and follow the entry instructions! Good luck!

Thank you for reading & commenting on Daisy Janie!!!

behold. flower applique vase.

look at all the pretty flower appliques dancing around the top of this vase. the artist calls it "florapalooza" - and i do believe that name fits like a glove! makes my heart smile.

hand-thrown, smooth white stoneware.

$92.

from red hot pottery.

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new heart-to-heart post is up on scoutie girl! go see where i was hopping!

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with any luck at all, i will have a teaser post later today with a sliver of a sneak peek of my new organic cotton collection! yowsa - teaser, sliver and sneak all in the same sentence!! it's not every tuesday i start off being so foxy and covert! well, foxy yes. covert, no. mwa ha ha ha ha.

** look for a full reveal / unveiling of the collection tomorrow!!!

new guest posting stint on scoutie girl

After a 3-month hiatus, I'm back at Scoutie Girl as a weekly guest poster! (There's so much about that sentence that trips me up...or trips me out. Kinda both actually.)

Scoutie Girl Editor Extraordinaire Tara was gracious enough to lend some of Scoutie Girl's real estate to me for a new weekly feature called "heart-to-heart." I will be leaving a trail of hearts for you to follow as I hop from one etsy seller's favorites to another  - progressively adding to the meandering path each week. I am so excited about this as I tried to work in a progressive 'pay it forward' feature on Scoutie Girl last year - loved the idea, but the details were iffy. No matter - this feature is even better!!

When I described it to Tara, she said it was kinda like 6 degrees of separation - totally!! Hop on over to today's post to see how I got from organic linen napkins by natsumi to a metalsmithed necklace by 3squares.

scoutie girl gifts

Have you seen Tara's (scoutie girl) new brainchild, scoutie girl gifts? I said it once, and I'll say it again: this is the coolest gift guide idea I've ever seen! And I'm not just saying that b/c the Scoutie Girl blog was my baby or b/c I think Tara is doing the most phenomenal job evuh - which she totally is! I'm saying it b/c, in the land of blogging, the ability to present material in a truly unique format is growing evermore challenging, and Tara absolutely succeeded! I applaud her effort and originality *clap, clap, clap*. She had a superb idea, and she learned & did whatever she needed to do to make it happen. [remember my husband's mantra? "Talent my start it, but attitude will finish it." You got it Mrs. Gentile!]

Okay, so what makes scoutie girl gifts so fabulous? First, anyone, anyone, anyone can submit a gift guide! It feels like snagging a sought-after etsy treasury out of nowhere, like it was there waiting all along. No long lines, no hawking or wasting your precious time! You come up with a theme or some of your favorites - and simply add the URLs to the submission page & Tara does the rest. You'll get link credit for it, too. Secondly, it's easy to search by gift givee (bambinos, friends) as well as by more specific keywords (t-shirt, photography). Thirdly, all the guides are image-based with pretty thumbnails, and each thumbnail clicks out to its own page, with a direct link to the shop for purchase. Lastly, you can vote on each gift guide for a fun bit of interaction - and the highest-ranking guides are listing in the sidebar. Cute idea!

I submitted some of my etsy favorites, using the black-capped chickadees painting by karingrow as my jumping off point. See my favorites here and, by all means, click me some vote love if you like what you see!

clever, clever polarity

A little over a month ago, I posted about the marvelous work of Cat Ivens on Scoutie Girl. Amongst her creative jewelry designs are very cool collaborations with other etsy artists, where she uses select works on her unique pendant lockets. When I was searching for images to use in her post, I was flipping out b/c there were just too many that I wanted to use - that's always a sign to me that someone does their work very, very well!

And in Cat's case...very, very cleverly, too! I was totally moved and surprised when Cat sent along a locket set using my fabric designs on each interchangeable "lid." 3 necklaces in one! What a sweet gesture - reminded me that I need to be more thoughtful on a day-to-day basis! Thank you, Cat!

Check out Cat's work on polarity and uncorked.

Aren't these awesome?

Even tho I love my fabrics so very much, Cat's use of the word "leap" on this "defintion locket" was well-chosen and very appreciated - as I had just nervously yet excitedly turned over Scoutie Girl to focus entirely on my fabrics. Clever, clever polarity!

big, big changes are afoot

No, silly, the changes aren't a 'foot' cuz this isn't a Monty Python skit - the big changes are coming...soon...any day now...they'll be here!

I think I'm ready. No, I'm not ready. At all. I lied.

I'm choosing denial and laughter as a defense mechanism - if I think about the big changes too much, I will cry for a long, long, time - ick!

The changes will bring relief and opportunity - but I have a lot to get ready between now and then, and I'd really rather not!

How are you this week?

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In other disconnected news:

• I sent some of my fabrics off to a photographer yesterday. Hopeful that the results will be splendid (or at least better than mine!)
• I think I may have found a thread count construction that will work for my wholesale organic cottons - 10,000 yard minimum! More on that soon...
• Loving the hydrangea. It refuses to grow taller year after year tho. Any tips?

artsyville giveaway on scoutie girl

Remember my mini, mini kitchen art makeover? Ha - of course you don't! Nonetheless, two of the cheerful, fun prints are from Aimee Dolich of artsyville. Aaaaand, she's offering 3 of them in a givaway on Scoutie Girl! Thanks Aimee!!

Why dontcha go over and enter - ends 6.13.09.