Thursday, April 26, 2007

Rare Bird Finds


Rare Bird Finds is an amazing blog featuring some of best stuff to buy on the web. She scours the internet to find unique gifts, original creations, and really hip stuff. I check it out all the time because she often mentions Etsy sellers and their work.

The best part of the blog is her compilation of a 100 Cool Goodies for $10 or Less Guide. It's not all handmade stuff but it's a great assortment of intersting things. It'll come in handy for those weird secret santa swaps you have to enter at work around the holidays. It's also good for impulse buying -- like when you need retail therapy but don't have a lot of extra cash.

I really like her taste. She chooses a lot of items with contemporary design, functional objects with a humorous kick, and some things that are just stunningly beautiful.

Her site was also nominated for the blogger's choice award for Best Shopping Blog.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Wish me luck!

So I've been taking lots of baby steps lately to try and get Lemon Cadet out there. After months of listing new items on Etsy, I've decided to take this to the next level. I've contacted an online magazine, sent a couple of emails to baby stuff blog sites, submitted applications to some juried Indie/DIY craft shows for this summer, and returned emails from stores asking for wholesale orders.

One small leap I took this week was entering Fred Flare's Next Big Thing Contest. Each year the peeps at Fred Flare choose some of the coolest items in craft and design. This year the customers will vote on a favorite and the winner gets $1000. The best 27 entries will get featured in their online shop and have their name and item up in the list of winners for a long time. As of today, there are links to all winners from both 2005 and 2006. That's a lot of publicity. The work of the winners is amazing.

It only cost 5$ so I worked up a snazzy blurb about the fabulous Yeti Panties with the assistance of my elves and submitted it along with my website and a photo. I also found a couple of wholesale suppliers online so if the Yeti Panties do get selected, I'll be ready to go to fill their order. I won't hear anything for months though so keep your fingers crossed until mid-Summer.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Crafter in need

Alison Gordon, crafter of WonderlandQ, co-organizer of Bazaar Bizarre and Sampler Contributor Relations superhero, very recently faced a medical emergency. Like so many other independent artists and crafters, Alison is without health insurance.

The Wonderland Retreat etsy shop (named in honor of Alison’s website) was created by her friends to help ease the financial burden of her ordeal, and etsy is waiving all fees. If you would like to help a fellow crafter, please consider purchasing an item from the shop or donating an item of your own. To donate an item, please contact Renee Garner at wonderlandretreat [at] gmail.com for more information. To make a monetary donation of any size, please send paypal to info [at] auroraseven.com.

If you’d like to donate something handmade, please send the following info to Renee:

–name
–1 biographical sentence
–website for more detailed info on the artist/goods (if you have one)
–address/contact email
–a photograph of the product
–a short description of the product
–suggested price
–mailing info: will you mail straight from their location or will you mail to her to ship upon item’s sale. If you mail will you cover shipping or should that be added to the transaction?

Thank you for reading! And Alison, hope you’re feeling much much better after all the craziness.

I just sent along info and pics on this little guy, Drew Bean, from the Lemon Cadet baby line to be added to the Wonderland Retreat shop. He is a size 3 - 6 onesie. Free shipping! As much as my day job takes away from my crafting, I feel very lucky to have health insurance. I hope this little donation helps.

And get well soon, Alison!!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Lemon Cadet's yeti is featured with his sea friends!


Today Lemon Cadet's almost famous yeti panties were featured on the fabulous blog, ilikeseamonsters. This blog is authored by a fellow Etsian, tinaseamonster who makes really cool shirts about zombies. I can't wait to put those on the future cadets.

TinaSeamonster has been blogging for a long time now and has recently started featuring other Etsy sellers. She only picks super great stuff so it is a true honor to be featured.

She also mentioned it on the Craft Mutiny blog.

In other YETI news, four new pairs of yeti panties are on their way to the Etsy shop. One is polka dot, one pink stripes, one blue and one solid pink. I have two pairs of white panties that will get beaned later this week. Don't forget that you can get a yeti on your (new) panties too.

The yeti buttons are also now in the shop. As always, our partner website, YetiPanties.com (a division of Lemon Cadet) is still coming soon.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

In a large marble hallway


The craft show this weekend at CMU was really fun and a great learning experience. I met a few Etsy people and some other cool crafters. My table was stocked with goods. I ended up making some panties at the last minute because I wanted to have a range of items. I've been planning on adding panties to the Lemon Cadet line for a while now and Bring It! gave me a good reason to get on it.

The table looked great! All the yellow stood out well against the darkness of the stone hallway so I got great feedback on my little guys. Several people asked where I was going to be next. I didn't sell much (and I didn't expect to given the crowd) but I feel much more confident about my line and where to take it. I'm hoping to do some larger shows in Pittsburgh this Summer.

For the next show I need to think about how to display the mirrors and the buttons better. I thought they would sell better since they're so cute and inexpensive. The buttons were pinned on the scout dolls and the mirrors were in a basket on the left of the table. Now that I see the photos I can tell it's hard to even see the mirrors at all. With the buttons, maybe people were afraid to take them off or something.

Next time I'll do it differently. What's funny is that I actually got a few requests for the scout dolls so I'll probably add some to the shop in the upcoming weeks. You never know!

So thanks to everyone who showed up to support Lemon Cadet. Special thanks to Dee and Steph, my trusty helper elves who stayed with me during the day. They are way better promoters of my stuff than I am.

On that note, I'll be adding lots of new items to the shop this week. I have several yeti tees just about ready to go (need to add their little fingers!) and a super cute bug shirt (see him in the photo just above the buttons).

Coming Soon: www.YetiPanties.com, a division of Lemon Cadet!