I added a new made to order product to my shop a few days ago. It is one of my favorite designs… my tiny brass chair.
I bought this chair while I was in college and became sort of obsessed with drawing it….
And as is my natural progression … after drawing it over and over, I embroidered it… a bunch…
But now I want you to pick your colors and let me make one just for you!! More details here.
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My most favorite crafty wonderland – I mean, shop, is celebrating it’s one year biz birthday this weekend! I was super honored when Virginia – owner of this wonderful place for which we are celebrating called “Gather Here” – invited me to show my hoops in her shop during her biz birthday celebration! If you are in the Boston/Cambridge area come check it out!
I’ve got LOTS of new hoops for the show and even some framed pieces!
Oh and thanks to everyone who suggested short words for stitching – “grr” “ugh” and “umm” all made the cut. But I don’t want to let too much out of the bag so just come see it yourself!
More details about the event can be found here. See you there!?
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Check out this fabulous, full of handmade awesomeness, wedding that my hoops attended! I can’t even believe I got to be part of something so magical.
I get lots of inquiries about wedding related embroidery projects and I have to say, I really love them! So many creative ideas and I am always totally honored when someone asks little old me to be part of their big day!
Thanks to bride Megan for sharing this with me!! Megan told me she will be hanging these in her kitchen now that the wedding is over.
{the rest of the wedding is documented here}
And big thanks to Megan’s photographer, Jonas Peterson, for taking these gorgeous photos and making the hoops look lovely!
If you are getting married or have a special event coming up and want to chat about an embroidered project for it, please contact me! Danielle @ Merriweathercouncil.com
To be blunt, summer in Boston is a little bit … umm…. well, it has never truly felt like “summer” to me. And I’ve spent 5, maybe 6 (gosh darn, time flies) summers here in the Bean. It’s hot, and sticky and the beach isn’t easily accessible. To be clear, I live in Boston, Boston. Not some suburb of Boston. Not Brookline. Not J.P. I live in Boston proper. I love and adore my neighborhood, I love and adore my apartment and I am so lucky to live in this wonderful place. But, the time has come to say farewell to the drunk red sox fans are singing Rhianna at 2 am outside my windows. Not that they don’t exhibit true passion or anything, they do, certainly! But enough is enough. Of course I can’t end any paragraph or statement about Fenway Park and it’s ridiculously close proximity to my apartment without mentioning that there was a day when I really did LOVE living so close … the day that this happened:
But I digress…
Summer is SO. SHORT. We must bask in it’s warm and sunshiny goodness as much as possible.
Okay, yes, Boston-Summer has it’s pros for sure… why else would I have stayed for so many of them? I love walking around the Common and Comm Ave and seeing the gardens in full bloom and walking around and not being freezing. And of course I love SOWA and all the other markets and such that take place… but none of this really feels like a good old fashioned summer to me.
The problem is, I guess, that I know what a summery summer is like… because that is what I was lucky enough to have for the first 18 summers of my life. You know what I am talking about – summers that include luxuries like being able to be barefoot and be outside at the same time, eating things that were barbecued in the backyard… having a backyard…. going to the beach at least weekly, riding my bike with a significantly lesser chance of being killed…. things like that. The truth is a I miss all that stuff when I am in Boston for the summer. I miss my friends, and my parents and my family gatherings and my other summer-of-yesteryear type events.
I’m lucky enough that I can change the summer situation… and I have pretty much decided to do so.
And so, I have decided (almost definitely) to retreat away from my city living lifestyle for the summer. Don’t worry – The Merriweather Council will carry on full force – I’m not going that far away from civilization! (Please, that’s not even a consideration.) As long as there is a post office and an internet connection, I’m good to go with all things Merriweather.
I’m going to go where it really will feel like summer … where I can walk down the block to the beach, ride my bike to town, have a reason to wear sunscreen daily, go swimming, take showers outside, have sand in my hair, be barefoot, and break out the beach towels. I’m going to one of my most favorite places and I’ll be much closer to some of my most favorite people!!
*blue sky, sunshine, white sand by the mile…* (Golden Girls anyone?)
Summer 2012 – going home.
xo
On the eve of the New Year… well, not the actual exact eve, but, the cusp of the new year… I sat down for about an hour and scoured the App store for an application that would help me keep track of money spending and income and such things. This is one thing I really wanted to make sure I improved on in 2012 – book keeping, that is.
And finally, like a beacon of light in the darkness, I found it. I found the most perfect application known to mankind. ExpenseTracker - Spending.
So I made a silent promise to myself to really keep up with updating it and I spent the meager $2.99 to download it to my iPhone.
And let the greatness begin!
All I have to do is “add income” or “add expense” every time I either make or spend money and categorize it (you can personalize the categories, by the way) and the app does the rest.
Lookie:
I added “etsy” as a category and “sale” as a sub category, so any time I make a sale on etsy, I plug it in and done!
Every time I ship something, I plug in the postage cost as “expense” – “shipping” – “label”
Every time I buy supplies… “expense” – “supplies” – (select from list of personalized sub categories)
You can also plug in “vendor” to keep track of where you spend money (Blick, Staples, Etc…)
You can view your history chart style (great for us visual learners) and see how it’s all going. This has truly made me more aware of and dare I say, more accountable for, what I am spending. And that is EXACTLY what I wanted.
Oh and this is my favorite part…
Who doesn’t love pie?!
You can also export all the data to use and see it on your computer. It really is awesome and I really suggest you check it out. it’s so easy to use and can be customized which is perfect. I think this is also an excellent way to woo your accountant come tax time, yeah?
This is going on my list of things to suggest to people when they ask me for advice. If you have any other awesome business related apps you think are great, please share them!
Greetings, Kashoan! For anyone who doesn’t know, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you make the fun pieces you sell in your Etsy shop?
I’m a Mom & a wife, those 2 roles are always the first thing that come to mind when I am asked to describe myself. I love words and I adore vintage. My husband and I joke that we are living in the wrong era. I am drawn to the simplicity of the 1900′s. I enjoy a good cup of coffee, yoga, listening to good music, and being with my family.
Everything that I use is vintage. I do not make copies. No 2 pendants ever look the same. What may look to you like an old worn out dictionary, is beautiful to me.
So cool. You may already know, I am very into one of a kind things so I can definitely appreciate the use of reclaimed and vintage materials to create new, unique things. What kinds of things do you keep around you to keep you inspired and motivated in your work space?
I always have music playing. Right now I am loving the Adele station on Pandora.
For me a good mechanical pencil and my fiskar scissors are a MUST have. I use them all day long.
le sigh, this one’s wicked pretty
A good sharp scissor is super important here in merriweatherland too… now if I could just keep track of the thing for more than a few minutes…. What do you love most about creating your pieces?
My customers tell me stories about why they picked the word or spot on the map. It means so much to me to know how special these are to them. I also love looking through the old Atlas’s. They are just beautiful. It is fun to discover places that are no longer around or new places that are not in the old maps. I am getting good at looking up words and map locations.
I could totally see buying a location pendant in memory of meeting a friend or a special event or something. Such a great gift idea. What is next for you and your small business? Any new additions?
I recently started making pendant out of vintage sheet music. These have been a hit. I am always trying to add more vintage finds as I find them. Skeleton keys and old beads are my new favorites to add on to any necklace.
That must be fun to go pursuing for all those little add ons as well. Thanks for sharing your space and your work with us, Kashoan!
visit Kashoan’s shop on Etsy and say hola (or hello in some other language) to her on Twitter.
If you are interested in doing a studio tour here on le blog leave a comment and I’ll keep you in mind! Thanks!
It’s been just over a month since the feature on the TODAY show and one month exactly since I pulled that epic all day/all night/ all the next morning work extravaganza of life.
And honestly, epic is the only word I can use to describe it. I have never stayed awake that long in my life. Needless to say, it was worth it. The past month has been a whirlwind…
Regular Christmas retail rush, Today Show, EPIC Christmas Retail Rush + Regular Christmas Retail Rush, Traveling for Personal Life Christmas, Christmas Proper, Post Christmas Slow Down/ Eat Leftovers for a Week Relaxing, New Year Party Time, Personal Life Travel Time, BFFF (best female friend forever) Laura Comes to Boston Time and that brings us to … TODAY! (Not the show.) Today is like, the first OFFICIAL work day of 2012. Yippee!!
And now it is time (because Christmas is over and because finally all the orders have been sent) to move on to 2012 things.
Big huge number one thing that needs to get done asap – my .com retail/shopping cart site. If I declare publicly that it WILL get done this week, I’ll feel much more pressure to actually do it. So there is that.
For now, this one thing is all i want to deal with. I can do that because I call the shots around here. I’ll worry about March in February and April in March. That isn’t to say I’m not scheming full-time – because I am.
Lastly, to end today’s ramble, thanks for reading/caring/sharing and supporting the merriment in 2011 and into 2012 – you’re awesome.
From bottom to top, these are the best things about business in 2011.
Mollie Makes is, if you don’t know, a super adorable, really well designed, totally awesome magazine for us crafty pyrex bowl loving types. And in the beginning of 2010 they featured my happy place hoop in one of their first issues. That was pretty great!
Oh sorry, never mind that was neither awesome nor business related.
I treated myself to something sort of awesome at the end of 2010 2011 – a new computer! It was pretty cool to know I had enough money to afford something like that.
You know when you set goals and you don’t really know if you should get too excited about it or get too confident that you will achieve said goal? Yeah, that was me and this goal of 500 sales by Christmas goal that I set in the beginning of 2010. But oh-heck-yeah I got there and then some by Christmas! I was 38 days early on reaching my goal and then went over by more than 200 sales by the end of the year! So psyched,
So awesome and so fun and I so don’t know if all the craft nights book up to max capacity but I was pleased that mine had a wait list. 
It had been a long time since I saw 5:00am, or even 6:30am…. I saw ALLLL the usually unseen AMs… it was awesome though. And I felt so very accomplished when I went to bed at 7am.
Warning: this might make you really jealous.
Every month I get together with a group of local crafty biz owners like myself (also we could call them friends because they are) and “talk shop” so to say. It’s awesome. Everyone there is so talented and so willing to help and/or learn and it’s been such a valuable experience. You know how sometimes you are talking to your friends about your business things and their eyes just sort of glaze over and they have no idea what you are talking about? This is the total opposite of that. I know, I told you you might be jealous. I’m so lucky to have these awesome people to learn from and get together with every month.
I loved it, even though it rained and it was freezing and my feet were cold all day. Such a fun show, tons of traffic, awesome people. So totally applying again next year! Road Tripppp!!
This was so awesome and so much fun!! I am shocked, still, that my little necklaces got so much attention this year! I love making them and I love sending them all over the place!! Thank you to the people at Etsy and BHG who brought my shop to glossy-pages-awesomeness. This was especially awesome because of how it happened and the fact that I know people, lots of people, who actually subscribe to and read this magazine.
This is definitely big old number one. Because… umm… dead? Yeah. Dead. on 12/13/11 my embroidered pendant initial necklaces were featured on the Today Show (yes, really the one with Matt Lauer) thanks to Cool Mom Picks.com. My necklaces were approximately 4 inches away from Ann Curry. WHAT THE WHAT?! This feature brought about such a splendid sales day it was amazing. Best business day yet!!
BUT I HAVE A LOT OF PREMADE NECKLACES!!
I have lots of Js a couple Ns some Cs… Hs… lots more… please see my facebook page for pics of some. If you are looking for a letter let me know I will see if i have it!!
If you pay for one today I SHIP IT TOMORROW
In between filling orders, I’ve been making inventory for my upcoming shows and I wanted to share some of that with you today!
Yup yup yup! I must confess, I ended up keeping this tote for myself, but I have a stack of them waiting to be stitched! Now, some of this may look familiar to you, but it’s slightly different than what you’ve seen me do before.
If you are planning on making a trip to any of the upcoming shows I will be at – you might catch a glimpse of some of these rarities. If you aren’t planning on coming to any of these – WHY NOT?! Just kidding, I will be restocking my shop with fresh-fresh stuff after the holidays. You will see.
Hello hello! Thanks for stopping by! This is where I come to report about the good, the very good and the sometimes strange experiences of being a crafty entrepreneur.
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