all things girls can tell

be mine- new designs!

at long last, here are the brand new, super sweet valentine's designs i've been working on for the past few weeks. without further ado, i present two lovely new diagrams:

i have to admit, i think i had more fun drawing the valentine candy more than i've enjoyed drawing any diagram so far...

(three guesses as to why...)

finally, i have to thank my sweet friend, rachel (who makes makes gorgeous rings), not only great idea for the diamond ring design, but also for her help in researching the bits and coming up with proper terminology for all the pieces and parts. i love it!

i'd wanted to post these sooner, but between bathroom craziness (it's coming along, slowly) and getting my wisdom teeth pulled (yes, january was a fun month to be sure), today was the soonest they could make their debut. better (almost) late than never, right?

and through sunday, all these valentine goodies and more are 20% off at http://shop.girlscantell.com! just use the code "BEMINE" at checkout for 20% off your entire order.

best tip: establishing genuine relationships

 

people often ask what the trick is to supporting yourself through a small creative business (or, we'll pretend that's what they're asking when they gawk "you can make a living doing that?" when i mention what i do for a living...).  while there is, of course, no magic tip or trick to make it easy. there are simple things you can do to make things go as smoothly as possible.

the first would be to establish genuine relationships. this probably applies not only to making a living through your handmade art or what-have-you, but also just to, you know, life in general (but i won't claim to be any expert on the matter of "life in general", so i'll stick to blogging what i know...)

• customers - because without them, cheesy as it might sound, you don't have a business. this might sound obvious, but i think people forget this sometimes. so be real. be relate-able. be honest. give them your best. it'll pay off.
• 'employees' - you might not have people on the payroll (dream as you will), but it probably takes more than you to make your business work. the people who make your venues run, who manage the boutiques or shops that carry your work, the bloggers who feature your products... it's really important to not only communicate well with these people, but being consistently easy to work with, helpful, useful and just plain friendly can be the most important thing you do for your business.
• the 'competition' - the truth is, you don't have 'competition' unless you decide those other sellers are your enemies instead of your friends. which is just silly. be consistently honest, open, original and level-headed and things will fall into place. share something you learned with another seller who asks your advice or when you fall in love with someone's work, let them know - no one gets tired of hearing that people like what they do. these are the seemingly casual relationships that not only make work more fun, they really add up to more than the sum of their pieces.

the wise and witty conan o'brien said it best when he mentioned that if you're kind and work hard,amazing things will happen. truer words couldn't be spoken of succeeding in handmade business.

shopping gets superfun!

 

you know what makes shopping, even at anthropologie, even more fun?

when you spy the work of your friends for sale! i knew a few months ago my friend, allison, of monkeys always look fame, was toiling away on a giant wholesale order for philadelphia-based anthropologie (don't pretend you don't totally want to live in every anthropologie you've set foot in, you know you do). so when i was taking a little window-shopping break a few weeks ago, i went in search of her amazing wares in the super giant location right on the northeast corner of rittenhouse square. and completely squealed, nerded out and probably scared off the sales ladies when i spotted the garden markers she made.

aren't they gorgeous?

  

you can buy some for your own little patch (or pot) of dirt here.

[slightly belated] anniversary giveaway!

 

in honor of girlscantell's etsy shop turning four (if my shop were a child, it would actually be able to comprehend most speech. impressive, eh?) earlier this week (sunday, to be precise), i thought some sort of sale or celebration was in order.

apparently, the traditional gift for a fourth anniversary would be fruits, but that seemed, well, inconvenient. since i already make housewares, i decided to give away some of those instead. sounds useful, fun and amazing, right?

here's how this will work:

the next four people to place an order from the girlscantell etsy shop will receive $40 in free goodies - i'll include a set of placemats or some hand towels, etc - along with their purchase. yay! feel free to repost / retweet / pass the word to your favorite housewares-loving friends!

update: these four lucky orders were all placed super quickly! thanks for your enthusiasm, everyone! xo!

ps. as a little bonus gift for everyone, here is a photo of janie in a hot dog suit. WOOT!

girlscantell super thing holiday sale (part 2)

 

yay! i've introduced the new super thing at the official girlscantell webshop!

for a limited time, you can be the proud owner of a fine set of anatomical brain tea towels (and who wouldn't want that?). for the next few days only, they're handsomely priced at 25% off their normal price - just $15 for the pair! the best thing is, these floursack towels are a slightly different style - they're even softer, more absorbent than the previous style, and they have such a lovely natural look to them. (i'm smitten, can you tell?)

as a special added bonus, there are still just a few sets of the red burger coasters available in the girlscantell shop on etsy - if you like cheeseburgers, or if you know someone who does, be sure to snag a set at 25% off. 

 

happy holidays!
xo!

hero blog: daily ode

i had the lovely fortune of finally meeting el lohse of the totally magical shop elloh at art star craft bazaar this summer. she's smiley and bubbly and every other quaint, sweet adjective that might come to mind upon browsing through her work. 

when i noticed elloh's link to her own daily ode blog on twitter (follow her at twitter.com/elloh, of course!), i was immediately smitten. and thought i'd share this discovery with you, loves. anyone who attempts to do anything daily wins effort points from me (it's a feat i'm not sure i'll ever muster the courage to tackle successfully), but she seems to do it with a smile. so fun!

enjoy!

hero blog: regretsy

"Don’t get us wrong. We like crafts. We just don’t like these crafts. Yes, we know these people put their hearts into it. We know it took hours and hours. We know how mean it is to laugh at their creations. And we regret being the only web site on the internet that makes fun of things." - from the regretsy disclaimer page.

there aren't too many blogs that make me snort with laughter (and you're welcome for that mental image), but regretsy.com is the funniest damn blog i think i've ever read. i was going to say it's the funniest craft-related / etsy off-shoot blog i've ever read, but it's more than that. it's just funny.

the only thing i don't like about regretsy is that i didn't think of it first.

seriously. why are you still reading my blog when you could be browsing amazing gems like these?

 

yeah. that's a baby chicken in a hand-knitted poncho. what of it?

philly etsy spotlight!

photo by laura kicey

a big thank you to the fantastic sarah lockard of aroundmainline.com for compiling a really gorgeous series of photographs of some of my favorite philadelphia-area artists! you can find the article in the storque as part of the shop local series. i'm so incredibly flattered to be included in this lovely group of ladies.

and an even bigger thank you to the fabulous laura kicey, aka helveticaneue, who i had the pleasure of meeting as she shot my photo for the article at terrain (which is the most gorgeous home + garden store in the world!). she takes amazing photos and, as it turns out, is also a total sweetheart. yay!

(yes, this is just a big ol' post full of superlatives. there's nothing wrong with that.)

a little horn tooting

it's the loveliest, most flattering thing in the world when someone chooses to highlight girlscantell wares in their little corner of the internet. lately, i've enjoyed some really sweet (and unexpected!) features from the following publications. many, many thanks! and i completely encourage you, bloggity reader, to poke through, as if you like my stuff (in which case, thanks!), you'll undoubtedly love the other work featured along with mine. that's kind of how these things work, right?

whatdesigners.com design guide (it's under monochrome settings, i promise!)

etsy's weekend deals (woot! unfortunately, the deal is over. but how cute are the towels they chose?)

papernstitch (such a lovely site!)

casasugar (maya sparklybird is the best about telling me when she spots me in blogs like this - thank you!)

pinball clicks (joel came out to crafty bastards and was taken with my pinball diagram - many thanks!)

design-milk (the girlscantell design-milk giveaway runs through oct 16, so you can still win! thanks, jaime!)

have you spotted my work somewhere that i haven't yet listed on the girlscantell press page? send me a link to the feature here in the comments and i'll send you a free print as a thank you. xo!

good news! the tandem is back!

the tandem bicycle diagram was one of my favorites, and so when the screen finally printed its last good diagram at the beginning of the summer, i was pretty darned sad. this weekend, in the midst of like one hundred other projects, i decided it was time to finally make a new screen and bring back the tandem bicycle. yay!

so you can now find super lovely tandem diagram goodies back in the etsy shop (and soon to follow in the official girlscantell shop, supermarket and 1000 markets). it's like having a good friend move out of town and triumphantly return in a year. welcome back, old friend!