Make It

A New Must-Read

It's been a while since I looked at my blog statistics to check out what sites you guys are coming from when you visit my blog. This is how I found the blog http://seebedraw.blogspot.com/ and right above her link to Make It is a link to another must-read blog, the Jill Bliss blog, cool! How did I not know she had a blog? I love small business blogs and Blissen is one of my fave small crafty businesses so it's a treat to get a behind-the-scenes peek at her operation.

Check out how crazy a day in Jill Bliss' life is.

Must Read: The Amy Peters Blog

I spent alot of time last night on The Switchboards which is an amazing resource that I can't recommend enough. Amy Peters is a frequent participant on the boards, which is how I found her blog. This blog is quite the hidden gem! Amy has over ten years of experience running her own jewelry business and I find her nuggets of wisdom to be invaluable. I love when successful entrepreneurs share their knowledge so openly (a rare occurence). Frankly all her posts are informative, but here are some highlights:

Create a signature jewelry style

Creating a line sheet

How do I get celebrities to wear my jewelry

Working with larger accounts

Dreams Can Come True

I'm a big fan of Port2Port Press. Maria/Mav, the founder, is committed to living simply but meaningfully and that translates to her design aesthetic in her work. This week she unveiled a big project, her first letterpress calendar. It sold out in a matter of hours after she posted it on her Etsy store and announced it via her blog.

If you want to see the power of how a blog can influence your sales, go to port2portpress.etsy.com, look at her sold items and scroll through and just check out how many items she sold on 11.15.06, the day the calendar was put up for sale. You will be awestruck. The power of the blog is intense!

Here are some of my other favorite port2port blog posts I've been hanging on to, regarding dream jobs:
http://port2port.visualblogging.com/archives/2308_1018582413/129239
http://port2port.visualblogging.com/archives/2308_1018582413/129465

What's happening in Craft Blog Land

Most of you probably read other craft blogs on the web, but in case you've missed out, here are some recent developments in craft blog land:

Studio Craft: Lots of popular craft blogger from Portland participated in this event. Visit each of their blogs to hear about their experiences and see their pics. A full list of participants with links to their sites is on the Studio Craft page.

The Crafters Companion: A book of patterns and projects from craft bloggers. Click on the contributors link and you'll see some very familiar names from blogland. The book is the brainchild of this blogger.

Anything else I'm missing?

Blog Dump - Special Addition

Turns out my mom has posted her second blog post. Two in one week, nice! This one is about the materials needed for linoleum block printing, which is the medium in which she works.

http://driffe.blogspot.com/2006/11/so-little-time-so-much-to-do.html

New Must-Read Blog

Finally, my mom has entered the 21st century and set up her blog! I've been on her case about this for the past 6 months and finally a first post is up. It's still under construction but she's got an image of one of my favorite pieces up already and I'm excited that she's putting her work and her story out on the web to share. Go visit and leave comments to encourage her to keep it up! She's a talented artist who works in needlepoint and linoleum cuts (and she also carved the logo for this blog). Hopefully she'll post more pics of her work as she adds to her blog.

driffe.blogspot.com

Rare Robin Awards Lets You Reward Fave Online Retailers (and yourself!)

If you haven't yet heard, Rare Bird Finds is holding a contest to recognize the best in online stores - the Rare Robin Awards. Log on and vote for your faves in categories like funky jewelry, yummy food, pretty paper, etc. and you'll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a gift basket. I love how lots of blogs are offering contests and giveaways to reward their readers...hmm, maybe I should come up with one. They've got great gift bag goodies and this is a chance to vote for an online store that needs some recognition (maybe your own?). If you scroll to the bottom of their page you'll find banners you can put on your own site to encourage your readers to vote for you. Contest ends 11/30/06.

A movie for crafters

The "Inside a Black Apple" blog, has a little blurb on the new Michael Gondry movie, The Science of Sleep. Emily happily picked up on the most relevant aspect of the film to people like you and me: it's a movie for crafters. I saw this movie last Friday and had the same reaction. The main characters bond over crafty projects and there's lots of handmade props. The story is kind of hard to follow but who cares when there's so much eye candy (hello Gael Garcia Bernal!). I highly recommend, if only for the craftiness and the creativity- it's unlike anything else in the theaters right now.

A New Favorite: Five and a Half

I stumbled across my new favorite blog the other day and it was just too good to save for the Blog Dump.
Five and A Half is a business owned by Judy who produces handmade journals from pages of recollected papers. Judy's had great success with her line of journals since launching the biz this year. I'm loving everything about this business and blog: the web design, the eco-friendliness, the photos and the incredible info that Judy shares. On her blog, she has great information about running a small crafts business.

Everything in her business category is a great read. There's info on packaging, pricing, selling in stores and this ridiculously amazing roundup of online boutiques. Because Judy's interest is journals and stationery, the blog is heavy on paper crafts, but many of the posts are applicable to any type of crafts business. Five and a Half is roughly the amount of hours you'll spend on this site and blog. It's that good.

Craftzine meets CraftMemo

Craftzine.com, the online companion to the brand new Craft magazine, just launched last week and they have so much good stuff! Natalie Zee does a great job of rounding up the coolest crafty finds from the web. I highly encourage you to check it out because there's tons of good content. Great idea to unveil the blog before the official magazine launch, this only makes me more curious to see what the first issue will look like.

I also love it when I find blog posts that I wish I'd written myself. I just discovered Craft Memo yesterday and was thinking about how to post about it on my site, when lo and behold while reading craftzine today I found a comprehensive review of this very site.

Craft Memo is an online record-keeping and management system for craft projects. The free program allows you to keep track of your inventory and calculate the cost of projects (which could be very helpful when thinking about how to price them for sale) among other features. Check out craftzine for a comprehensive review of the craftmemo site, complete with screen grabs (I really should use those more).