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2 Year Wedding Anniversary – Gifts of Cotton

By Danielle on May 8, 2013 in business, true story

In the US, the tradition dictates gifts of cotton for a two year wedding anniversary

How sweet is that? Gifts of paper for the first anniversary and gifts of cotton for the second. (The actual sweet tasting stuff comes in later!)

Cotton is a beautiful, durable and versatile fabric and I love making gifts for couples celebrating their two year with it.

As you likely know, I simply adore customizing things. Personalization is my middle name. Not really, my middle name is Christina, but you get my drift.

Yup. Second anniversary celebration appropriate gifts all up in the shop.

While I am happy stitching just about anything, especially gifts, I have to say I am partial to the tie square. I like to think that they are being sewn onto hubby-ties as surprise anniversary morning gifts. You know, before he heads off to work! So cute!

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The Greatest Fiber Project You Probably Never Noticed

By Danielle on April 1, 2013 in favorite, just for fun, true story

As a long time fiber-lover (the non-dietary kind, mind you) I am always spotting things that make me say “HOLY CRAP THAT IS AWESOME” that are both fibery and also, sadly, overlooked.

This one here is my all time favorite. I spent a lot of time looking for an image of this and then I was watching Reba on Hulu (that’s a serious statement, not an april fools) and this commercial came on and I was like “OMG GET THE SCREEN CAP!”

Are you ready?

It’s so good.

I really can’t even tell you how great this is….

I screen captured these from the Hulu commercial, from the mr. clean magic erasure extra power commercial.

Let me explain what’s going on here just in case it isn’t obvious…. and so that hopefully we can all come together and appreciate this AWESOME fiber project.

This is a commercial for the Mister Clean Magic Erasure – and these spray bottles (other cleaners) are COMMENTATORS – this commercial is in a sports style broadcast and the spray bottles are all like, “omg look at him go, he can clean all the things…” etc. and if you notice, they are wearing suits.

The spray bottles are wearing suits.

WEARING. SUITS.

Mind blown.

This is someone’s job. Someone was hired to create little suits for these spray bottles to wear. THIS. IS. AWESOME. Look at the tiny ties! I can’t even stand how awesome this is. You’ve probably seen this commercial at least a few times, did you notice the suits? This would be my other dream job, if I wasn’t doing my merriweathering, I would want to be making tiny suits for spray bottles… or equally awesome fiber related projects. SO GOOD.

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Makeover Time

By Danielle on March 18, 2013 in business, true story

During January, while I was doing a whole lot of nothing really, I briefly considered/ had the urge to rebrand Merriweather Council.

If you don’t know, that usually is a lot of work. And to be honest, while I had this inclination, I truly had no idea how I wanted it to look or how I thought it should be different. I think I was just bored and needed something to worry about. That makes sense right?

The one sort of look-and-feel I liked, didn’t match my product line or overall aesthetic at all. And I thought it gave the wrong impression about my work, so that just wasn’t going to work. I decided to just freshen up what I already knew and liked and that would hold me over until I made better, more concrete decisions, if ever.

So if you take a look to your left, you will see I have updated the graphics on my sidebar. And if you take a trip over to my Facebook page, you will see I’ve added some tabs over there and freshened that up. Twitter also got a makeover.

It’s not major. It’s probably not even very exciting but I felt accomplished upon completion of these tweaks.

Also, you may have noticed you didn’t hear much from me recently. This is because, while I was doing a whole lot of nothing in January, I was resting my weary hands, which I actually think IS an effective use of time. And then February was chock full. SO here we are.

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The Year in Review

By Danielle on December 30, 2012 in business, danielle, favorite, feature, goals, handmade community, true story

2012 was pretty excellent. Here are the top ten moments of the year for Merriweather!

10. Taking this photo

Pretty sure taking this photo was the smartest thing I did all year…. I am not actually certain I took this photo in the year of 2012, but I do know that I photoshopped the new chains into it in 2012 and that counts as far as I am concerned.

merriweather council

09. Going to texas

Merriweather made her outside-of-new-england debut this year when we went on the road to Austin, TX to participate in Renegade Craft Fair. While it was not a blockbuster show experience, it was SO fun to hang out with my mom and put my feet in the Colorado River and be warm.

08. Meeting or exceeding my sales goals!

At the beginning of the year, I set a monthly sales goal for my Etsy shop, in April I upped it a little for the extra challenge. I met or exceeded the upped sales goal 9/12 months! And I was especially pleased when I met my yearly sales goal 4 months early!

07. Exceeding my long standing Best-Sales-Month-Ever!

November 2012 was my best month on Etsy. I exceeded my previous best-month by more than two times! I was very tired in November.

06. Being invited to Martha Stewart’s first American Made event in NYC.

It’s always fun to meet up with fellow etsians and this event was no exception. I traveled down to NYC in October to sit on the Etsy Panel at Martha Stewart’s American Made event in Grand Central Station.

via

05. My website finally turned a profit!

This is something I have been working on for a bit. My website has been around since last september (2011) but of course right after it launched, I was getting busy with Christmas already. So it kinda got neglected. I admit it. I completely neglected it for about 8 months. I would make a sale here or there – and basically, I was happy it just paid for itself. At the end of this summer I started getting serious about it. The biggest challenge was getting over the learning curve of navigating and using the back end/ admin area. Once I got comfortable with that, I was all set to go. And now I know how to use it to my advantage rather than let it sit and maybe it does me some good sometimes. Quite pleased.

04. Mother’s Day.

Mother’s day 2012 was by far far my best Etsy-holiday! Well, up until that point at least. I spent most of April and May thinking “Mother’s Day is the New Christmas.”

03. Being featured in Country Living

Over the summer I sent a bunch-load of necklace samples out to various publications that has requested them. So I put about 15-20 samples in the mail, did my good-luck dance (no, I don’t have one of those, I made it up…) and waited. And I was thrilled out of my face when Country Living confirmed they’d be featuring my initial necklaces in their holiday issue!!!

02. Being featured in People Style Watch

Full disclosure, I have never heard of People Style Watch before this year. I am not much of a magazine person and for anyone who has ever met me/ knows me, it is not a shock that I am not reading up on the latest/ greatest fashions and trends. However, I can certainly appreciate a solid hour’s worth of fashion mag browsing whilst getting a pedicure, so I was QUITE pleased when PSW ALSO confirmed they’d be featuring my necklace in their December/ January issue as well. And when it came out and I saw that T. Swift was on the cover, I was even more excited… I don’t really love T. Swift the way the majority of the population does – although I do find her to be cute and even interesting at times- but I know lots of people in my target demographic do. I also know that lots of people who love celebrities will buy stuff just because they are in/ on it… because I am one of these people. Anyways, this was spectacular and I went to bed every night in December thinking “is this real life?! T Swift may have seen my necklace. I want cheese.”

photo-1

01. Being Etsy’s Featured Seller!!!

Holy guacamole batman!! HOW? WHAT?! OMG!!!

AHH I was so excited!!! I know it’s really called “featured shop” now, but I’m playing it old school and calling it Featured Seller.

Being featured seller is like … dreams. This is sort of my Mount Everest. And it was awesome. I am so so grateful to the folks at Etsy who put this whole bit together! It really was such an honor!! I had some help making it all happen/ holding it all together from a few good friends who know who they are and should know they have my eternal thanks and appreciation and apologies for any insanity I spoke out of stress.

etsy featured seller

While 2013 looms on the not so distant horizon, I am still making and shipping necklaces and pendants and hoops and quietly plotting for Valentine’s Day, trying to remain organized and getting excited about a year of working smarter not harder and setting some new goals.

Thank you to everyone who has helped make this a very exciting and awesome year!!

Cheers!!

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Put Your Hoops in Groups

By Danielle on October 15, 2012 in business, studio, true story

Hoops are fun on their own but they are even better in groups!

I wrote you a poem to help you remember.

Tiny bongo roll please….

One is fun and so is two

Three is super and four is “WOO!”

Five is nice and six is great

Seven is fab and eight is “EIGHT!”

Nine is fine, and ten is a bunch

You’ll want even more, I have a hunch!

{please, please, no autographs.}

{this set for sale}

See? It all makes sense now right?

Shop hoops now.

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BIG NEWS!: We’re Moving!

By Danielle on August 20, 2012 in danielle, studio, true story

It is true! In less than two short weeks I’ll be living and crafting and blogging and playing in a new city! Not too far from Boston though… We are moving to Providence, Rhode Island!

I’ll be sad to leave my little apartment in the sky where I’ve lived for the past 4 years and where lots of memorable things have happened including the time a bat flew in through my window, and of course it was merriweather’s first home! I’m sure no one is surprised to hear my say I will NOT miss living directly next to Fenway Park though. And of course I’ll be sad to leave the city that introduced me to so many awesome people and places but I know that I’ll be there a ton so I am not super worried about it…

My beloved BF is starting the second year of his graduate program at RISD so we are relocating to a charming triple decker which is conveniently located to all my favorite sorts of things: coffee and the post office. I’ve also scoped a froyo place not far from us. That is always reassuring, to know that you are never too far from froyo.

( via )

I’m excited to set up a new working space and to explore a new city! I have spent some time there but not all that much. I know one place to love is Craftland (where you can actually find some merriweathers!) but if anyone knows of any other super awesome things/ places I should better acquaint myself with please make them known!!

I’ve also been scheming a new personal project that will be unveiled shortly and will certainly highlight the wonders of “the new place” so stay tuned if you are into reading about organizational mayhem and other topics related to relocating.

(Leave your Providence insight in the comments for me?! Thanks!)

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Officially Etsy Educated to Teach Etsy

By Danielle on July 10, 2012 in business, handmade community, tips, true story

Greetings friends! Big news!!

A couple of weeks ago I went on a super top secret mission… to Brooklyn… to the Etsy HQ.

I was invited to be part of the Etsy Educator Pilot Program and spent the weekend with some of the coolest people ever. We learned so much and had a lot of fun… like, a ton of fun!

And when my mission was completed I was a Certified Etsy Educator!

What does this mean? Well, it means I am trained by Etsy to teach Etsy! And my very first class is happening TONIGHT at Gather Here in Cambridge!

I will hopefully be doing some more workshops and classes in the Boston/Providence area and if you would like to suggest any venues or some such thing please do!

Also, I will be doing one-on-ones by request until I work out a firm schedule.

Contact me for more info or with any questions!!

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Some New Features!

By Danielle on June 28, 2012 in business, feature, true story

Mentioned on Love My Dress!

I was getting some traffic from this blog so I went exploring and I found this beautiful feature on Sara and Dave’s wedding! Sara had ordered necklaces from me for her bridesmaids! Check it out here!

Also, please note there is a Barbie cake which is awesome. That is all.

Interview on BlogCastFM

Yes, it’s true. Here it is.

Featured on OneWed via The Brooklyn Bride

Yay!

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Next Stop: Texas

By Danielle on May 13, 2012 in shows, true story

Austin, I’m coming!

next weekend, be there or be nowhere amiright??

Here’s all the info.

I’ll be truckin’ my hoops in my carry-on (just in case my checked luggage and I get separated, because, you know, that would happen to me) so I’ll be ready for you to come and get ‘em!

No, really, come and get them, so I don’t have to bring them back to boston with me.

Yay!

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This week is brought to you by the letter E

By Danielle on March 22, 2012 in business, preview, true story

Last week, a customer asked if I could do an edwardian script E rather than the E I usually offer for her necklace. I said, heck yeah I can do that. And then, something strange happened, and I became obsessed with the letter E.

Photographic evidence:

I looked at the other letters in the Edwardian script but E was the most interesting. So I stuck with that.

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