Feature Monday- Big Top Fun!

Welcome to our first edition of Feature Monday!

To most of us Monday's mean back to work, traffic, long school drop off and pick up lines, and more stuff we don't like to do. So to battle those Monday blues how about ending your day or beginning it here with us at Lane34 to look at some of our favorite things on etsy. 

I am going to keep this weeks blog posts to a theme! This may not be a permanent thing but we shall see how it goes. This week's theme? Why don't you keep reading and find out. 

This week we introduced a great new line of products called the Big Top Circus!

I thought it would be fun to find some cute things that would go along with this party, either as gifts, or party supplies!

This beautiful little lion, made of edible fondant, cake topper would be great for a birthday or baby shower! It is just too perfect and I could never eat it! You can find this and much more at Edible Designs By Letty.

Elephants are an undeniable part of every circus... Elephant stink and all! But you won't get anything smelly with this cute pattern by Ginger Melon. Ginger Melon patterns have been some of my favorites for a long time. I do not own this cute little elephant yet but I am sure as soon as I get the money I will be buying it too!

Every circus needs a ring master! And every ring master needs a cute birthday outfit! This adorable vest on a onesie with the bow tie made me go AAWWWWW. I can't get over how cute it is (and it doesn't hurt that it is on the most adorable child ever). You can find this at Little Gray and Co. in sizes newborn -3t!

When it is birthday time that also means that your little one is growing up fast! By now they are probably walking or just starting to walk. So to help keep up with your ever growing little girl or boy you can snag one of these growth charts over at Buzy Lil Bee.

Well that wraps up our first Feature Monday! Did it help with your monday blues? 

-Megan

A new road to a new life...

As some of you may have saw, I announced on our facebook page that I will be dropping the logo portion of my business. I am a single mom, working from home, and I am going back to school. I was afraid I may be spreading myself a little bit thin. 

What does this mean for Lane34? Well it means that my primary focus will be on parties! 

I am getting lots of new things in the shop and have a few scheduled blog posts coming up. Are you guys ready for party ideas? Because I am ! I even have a little DIY for your little ones birthday that I did for my son's upcoming party. 

More to come soon! 

Wedding Love

It's almost that time of year... The time where everyone gets married, photographers are running around with countless appointments, and honeymooners are to be seen everywhere. 

I love this time of year.

I have seen a lot of wedding stuff pop up on etsy. Everything from vintage wedding dresses like this beautiful one from Fab Gabs.

To quirky cute wedding decorations/fun like this from A Banner Affair.

With all that inspiration hanging around I could not help but catch the wedding bug. 

This adorable elegant wedding set is just one of many to come...and will be in the shop later this week.

Edit: It is not available in the shop here 

What do you guys think? 

Valentines card freebie

Valentines day is upon us folks. In just a few short weeks we will be trying last minute to get all those cheesy little cards ready for our kids classes. You will get the list and think WHUCK?! 46 kids?! 

Don't let that be you! Get started sooner!

How would you like some cute cheesy free valentine card that you can print at home on card stock? 

Punch some holes in these babies and you have a lolipop holder. Or staple a little bag of Hershey kisses to it! The possibilities are endless. 

Just click on the link below the picture right click and save, print, punch or staple, and ta-da! Your finished! 

Have fun, and good luck!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

These all print on one 8x10 sheet.

Pinterest for Your Etsy Business

I am a self proclaimed Pinterest addict.

So when while browsing Facebook, I ran across a post mentioning Pinterest for business I was immediately intrigued. My first thought was that I had just found paradise. My second was, I need to know more. 

I am betting you want to know more too huh? 

In the past Pinterest has had a rule about pinning your own items. I am not 100% sure that it is still the same way but I tended to avoid pinning my own business items. First of all I did not want that to be something that people saw all the time from me. And secondly I knew that I would get in trouble with the powers that be. I avoid trouble at all costs! 

Pinterest  for business seems to help with that little problem among others! I am excited to tell you about some of the features. 

It is relatively simple to convert from a personal account to a business account. At first I considered having a separate account, but I am already linked and verified using the Lane34 blog, and really who has the time to keep up with two pinterest accounts? Pinterest  is a major time suck as it is (and I say that with affection). 

Simply go to http://business.pinterest.com/ and click "Convert your existing account". 

Choose your business type (which can be changed later) and fill out all other pertinent information.

Agree and click convert account. Ta-da! Painless.

Now you get to the fun part. You can add a Pin it button, just like before, to your website, a follow me button, and even verify your website, just by adding a quick tidbit of html to your blog/website so that people know you really are you! 

You can even add a little widget that allows people to see your latest pins! I added one to our side bar over there -------> 

One of the things that interested me the most is making a board for specials. More often than not business's run weekly specials on certain items. A great way to advertise and get it out there is to make a pinterest board and have it pinned over and over again. Therefore reaching a whole new clientele you might not have reached otherwise. 

Descriptions, descriptions! While it is super quick when your pinning not to write anything at all and to just get that pin out there, I like to write what I think of the pin. When I used to sew I would pin all kinds of sewing patterns or neat items I have seen somewhere and in the pin description I would outline what I would change what the pin was etc... You get found on search engines this way! So while "Cute dress" is good for now, "Adorable dress with inner lining and pink butterflies by so and so seamstress. Would make a great spring dress for such and such" will get more hits. 

Other useful ways to use pinterest:

Giveaways - Pin it to win it

Advertising

Showing off what inspires you as an artist or as a brand.

Keep up to date on trends, and what is being re-pinned from you store. 

I upgraded to a business page today! Will you upgrade? What do you use pinterest for? 

More next week on how to find out what is being re-pinned from your website or Pinterest  account!

-Megan

( I am in no way affiliated with pinterest other than I am an avid pinner... The information above is my interpretation of the new pinterest for business function )

Moving up in the world

Last night my son and I adventured into the world of big boy beds after 3 years of co-sleeping. 

I am so proud of him I feel like I have to tell the world his story.

You see Ry was born at 10lbs 1 oz with severe acid reflux. 

He would go un-diagnosed for months with this problem among others. I must have taken him to hundreds of pediatric appointments trying to tell them something was wrong with my precious new baby. I even self diagnosed him a month and a half before an official diagnosis was made. After he was finally diagnosed with reflux he started having other problems. He would stop breathing and turn blue while sleeping, he would be in his car seat and turn bright red and start screaming at the top of his lungs. And to top it all off he started having seizure like activity while he was sleeping. I did what any scared momma would do, I took him to the hospital, doctors, and googled. 

While in Florida on a vacation to visit my mom he did the car seat scream. We immediately took him to a great hospital where my mom worked and knew all the pediatric doctors on staff. That was when he was diagnosed with what I had been telling the doctors he had all along. Not only did my precious new baby have reflux, he had severe reflux that was causing Sandifers Syndrome, a form of seizures. He was also diagnosed with myoclonic astatic sleep seizure disorder, and given stronger reflux medicine to get it all under control. 

Fast forward through tubes in the ears and adenoids being taken out, followed by tonsils being taken out 7 months after that and we have now arrived at big boy land.

(tonsilectomy March 2012)

He is no longer on reflux medicine, has steadily outgrew all of his problems, and mommy can finally feel comfortable with him in his own bed. 

We put together his big boy bed yesterday together and picked out sheets. He was very excited until it came to bed time. Once the tv was turned off he was not a happy camper but eventually fell asleep on his own and slept there until 5 am! 

He even did his "scited" face!

Success! 

It wasn't easy getting here but I can say that our life has just gotten quite a bit easier. 

Pricing your items on Etsy and other online venues...

One of the most common questions I get from friends, family, and other artists, is

How much should I sell this for on Etsy?

In the past I have sent them to wherever they are going to sell (usually etsy) and tell them to research the categories or search for like items and see what they are selling for. Find like items, and check sales, etc... 

This is very time consuming and most people get discouraged and either under price or over price their items. As I have been preparing to open my new store for my logos I hit a roadblock. I realized that since I have never sold my designs before to the public I had no idea how to price my items. 

I am a relatively new self taught designer. I am also like most beginner, and even some experienced, etsy artisans a single mother on a low income diet with big dreams. Or as I like to say about my previous sewing business, "I opened my store with $50 and a dream." 

I wanted to keep my prices for both my stores low, while still making a profit, and not devaluing mine and the work of my fellow designers. This is a fine line to walk and I am sure I have stepped on either side of the line at one time or another. Your constantly tweaking and trying to keep up with the times. 

So I set out to do the old song and dance or trying to price items by searching on etsy. Imagine my amazement when I tried to change the gallery view to a list view and I discovered something called the "research view". Etsy in an amazing moment of epiphany added a handy tool for us sellers called the Research View that gives you a handy graph with prices of what items are selling for similar to your search keywords. 

The research view is really rather easy. You search for products like yours. Don't limit yourself to one search though! If you sell crochet hats for example, search for "crochet hats" "crochet baby hats" "crochet adult hats" etc... Each one will have a slightly different research view. 

The purpose of this research is not to show you what is trending but rather what price range is popular. While most people will buy premade logos at $10-$14 dollars the runner up is $25-29. I know for my area that staying withing this range of $10-$29 I will be about average market. Now I can make some more elaborate more expensive and it should not cut into sales. And a good thing to keep in mind is people are going to think they are getting what they pay for. So you don't want to be way below or on the lower end of the average market because odds are folks are going to think that your product is inferior. 

Now there are sometimes when you will get research that says your item you should charge $30 for is being sold a lot for only $10. Your probably looking at the research thinking WHUCK?! Yeah that is what I thought. But another thing to consider and look at is underneath those little research graphs are words like "pre-made business" and "Photography graphic watermark" so it may not be exactly what your selling. Click on the graph bar and it will give you examples of the work being sold.

If it is what your selling than it may be one of two things. People undervaluing their product and time, or you may need to re-evaluate where your getting supplies and the cost to make your product. Usually it is the first problem. 

While etsy has created a market place for handmade to make a popular comeback, it has also quickly become a place to find cheap crafts from the hobbyist that is selling at cost or just a few bucks above cost. This is a problem for those of us that are trying to quit our day job. But don't worry ! Most people know that you get what you pay for. 

While the research view is a great tool it is still not a complete replacement for shopping your competitors and comparing prices and sales. But it is a great start off point! 

Hats off to etsy for helping all of us sellers out! 

-Megan 

Birthday Madness and a freebie

My handsome boy is going to be turning 3 in a month now! 

I realized in a panic that I had only a month to pull a homemade birthday out of my back pocket yesterday and let's just say I am a planner when it comes to parties. Yes you will receive a birthday invitation a month before hand. Yes I will go order his cake a month before hand. I will also probably have all the non-perishable snacks ready by next week. 

Better to be prepared.

My son LOVES monsters. We progressed last September out of his "I am a dog or cat" all the time phase into his "I am a monster" all the time phase. He loves being a monster so much that I had to sit for hours cutting out duct tape stripes and polka dots (not an easy feat) to make him a monster costume for halloween. 

He informed me then that he wanted a monster birthday. So I whipped up (translated sat there for an hour glued to the monitor trying to make this invite perfect) a monster invitation for his approval. 

"Mommy I LOVE IT" (thank you! THANK YOU THANK YOU!)

The invitation will be available in our Lane34 Greetings and Party supplies etsy store later this week. 

I also made him some monster smiles that we are going to add to Popsicle sticks for some cute photo moments for all the kids, and in all honesty probably most of the adults. 

Click Here to download a printable version of the monster mouths for your own monster. Just add to popsicle sticks and have some photo fun!

Time for this momma to get back to birthday planning! I hope everyone has a great new year! 

-Megan 

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