by MissMalaprop on December 27, 2011
A little belated shout-out goes to my friends at InvadeNOLA for including my Skeleton Cameo Necklace in their holiday shopping guide in the 2nd issue of the InvadeNOLA Guide to New Orleans. THANK YOU!!!!
If you haven’t seen it already, you should head over and check it out. They also featured a lot of my favorite NOLA brands, including Shultzilla, Dirty Coast, Branch Out, Defend New Orleans, Brandi Couvillion and some fellow New Orleans Craft Mafia members: BongaChopShop and Flambeaux Design Company.
Another one of my favorite free online fashion magazines, VivaLaModa, is back with a new issue. VivaLaModa focuses on handmade & vintage fashion themes, as well as new and emerging designers. To celebrate their newest issue, VivaLaModa is doing a giveaway of a $50 gift certificate for an Etsy shop (the winner will choose their favorite Etsy shop, since site-wide gift certificates do not exist yet for Etsy). To participate, people just have to subscribe to email updates, letting them know when the newest issue comes out: http://www.vivalamoda.net/mailing.html
The winner will be chosen from the mailing list emails a week before the new issue (March 2012) is out. The giveaway is explained in the first pages of the magazine. Check it out here.
by MissMalaprop on June 7, 2011
A couple of interesting projects of note by some New Orleans friends:
First off, my friend Karina Nathan is currently raising money via Kickstarter to take her papier-mâché tricycle-powered unicorn across NYC for a month, spreading joy and attention for New Orleans’ cultural economy.
Karina is pretty awesome – I first met her not long after Hurricane Katrina when she put together a regular market for New Orleans fashion & jewelry designers at the Maple Leaf Bar. Karina is also the founder of the Bearded Oysters Dance Troupe, which marches during the Muses parade at Mardi Gras, among others. She has a super fun Etsy shop featuring her recycled clothing and costume creations, including her infamous merkins. (As seen on Regretsy! Actually – I know a lot of New Orleans artists who have been featured on Regretsy – I think maybe we’re just too eccentric for the rest of the world sometimes down here!)
If you want to help Karina make her dream of spreading magic and joy across NYC come true, help her out over at Kickstarter!
Meanwhile, my friend Justin Shiels of InvadeNOLA just announced the release of their first ever book: InvadeNOLA No. 01: Once Upon an Ever After. A little about the book:
In this book, you will read one writer’s search for a “Playgirl” magazine featuring famous Blaxploitation actor Fred Williamson; you will learn the Muslim roots of an Urban Outfitters trend; and experience one writer’s near breakup with New Orleans.
It’s our personal testament of sex, music, and culture from the perspective of some pretty awesome coolhunters. But the real magic is that we did it ourselves for ourselves, funded by people who genuinely believe in the power of independent media.
You can purchase it for just $12 in the InvadeNOLA store, or check out the rest that the free weekly lifestyle zine has to offer over at InvadeNOLA.
by MissMalaprop on January 10, 2011
Longtime readers may remember when I wrote a book review of the 1st edition of Fashion Unraveled. Well, author Jennifer Lynne Matthews contacted me when she started working on her second edition of the book, and I’m in it!
Jennifer is a teacher at the Los Angeles campus of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. For her 2nd edition of Fashion Unraveled, she listened to feedback and expanded the scope of the book. (The 2nd edition is almost twice the size of the 1st edition!) You’ll also notice that the title of the second book is Fashion Unraveled – Second Edition: How to Start and Manage Your Own Fashion (or Craft) Design Business. She’s added more information that pertains to craft related businesses as well as fashion specific ones. There are chapters dedicated to sustainable fashion and t-shirt businesses, and the sections on marketing, starting your business, and day to day operations have been greatly expanded.
You’ll notice from my previous review that I was already a fan of this book in its first edition, and I was thrilled to be asked to participate in a designer profile interview for the second edition. (My boss, Candice Gwinn from Trashy Diva was also interviewed for the book as well!)
If you’ve ever thought about starting your own fashion related business, I highly recommend checking this book out. Jennifer has experience as both a designer and teacher in the fashion industry and shares her wealth of knowledge in an easy to understand format in this book. You can find more information about Jennifer and the book at her website, Fashion Unraveled, and you can purchase the book via Amazon.com.
by MissMalaprop on August 27, 2010
Handmade Knit Stuffed Sheep by Sara Sacks
I received some awesome bits of press this past week: Clueless Fashionista and One Income Dollar both did writeups on me & my shop! Plus the wonderful Sara Sacks (who has some amazing work in my shop) mentioned me on her blog. Thanks y’all!
Remember those customized one-of-a-kind fleur de lis guitar straps (pictured above) I mentioned a few weeks ago, that I made exclusively for my friend Aaron’s new French Quarter shop, The Guitar Bar? Well, I’m teaming up with him for a little trunk show next week to celebrate our collaboration! If you’re in the area, come and visit us on Saturday, September 4, from 12pm-9pm at his shop at 1205 Decatur Street. You can RSVP or share the Facebook event link with your friends!
One of the other sites I write for, Flight Path Studio, recently combined forces with Handmade Spark, which is one of my favorite handmade websites! Some of the articles I’ve written previously for Flight Path Studio are now up on Handmade Spark, including my interview with my artist friend Marrus.
twisted fleur de lis pendant by John Doherty
One of the artists featured in my shop, John Doherty, has a statue being unveiled today in Slidell, Louisiana, to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. He was recently featured in the Times-Picayune! Congrats John!
Make Your Own Toys: Sew Soft Bears, Bunnies, Monkeys, Puppies, and More!
Want to find out how to make that cute little critter pictured above? Check out the new book by Sue Havens called Make Your Own Toys: Sew Soft Bears, Bunnies, Monkeys, Puppies, and More! In her new book, just released this week, Sue demonstrate how to make over 20 soft animals from recycled fabrics. They’re all so cute!
And I also have a winner to announce: the winner of the UPrinting.com Rolled Canvas Print Giveaway is…. #3 – Lacey! Congrats to Lacey and thanks to everyone who participated! I’ve got some other giveaways in the works, so stay tuned!
by MissMalaprop on July 26, 2010
Meredith Keller from Smaller Box recently sent me an advance copy of her very first e-book for review. I’m a big fan of Meredith’s blog, which is chock full of great advice for indie business entrepreneurs. Meredith’s new e-book is called 45 Contests: Real World Examples of Contests That Worked & Everything You Need To Know To Make Yours A Success.
45 Contests is a 52 page e-book that talks about using promotional contests to grow your business, and Meredith provides 45 real world examples of successful promotional contests. She clearly outlines the basic principles of running a contest or giveaway and what you need to consider when choosing which concept is right for your business. The examples break down what is unique & interesting for each contest, giving you some great food for thought to create a unique new contest for your own brand or biz.
The contest ideas in 45 Contests range from simple and easy for everyone to participate giveaways to grander contest ideas that help generate new customer created content and ideas for your brand. (Meredith has had personal success with this type of contest with her own company, Ex-Boyfriend, where they had fans suggest concepts for new t-shirt designs. She says it helped to build rapport with customers in addition to providing new designs that fans would like.)
There were some examples I was familiar with, such as Duck Tape’s “Stuck At The Prom” contest, but most of the examples she cites were ones I hadn’t heard of before, and I found many of these ideas absolutely ingenious. The contests listed here will inspire you with ideas that are applicable for both in person retail and service industry businesses as well as online only business. Meredith’s book actually inspired me to run my very first Twitter contest to coincide with my birthday this Wednesday, July 28. Look for more details on that in a couple of days. (Be sure to follow me on Twitter to get the latest!)
Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll find in Meredith’s new e-book:
* 11 factors you must consider before launching a contest
* 8 different ways to promote a contest
* A master list of 40 places you can easily get links and traffic for your contest
* Tactics for encouraging people to become fans on Facebook without breaking Facebook’s promotional rules
* Top notch examples of how you can use contests to:
o increase brand awareness
o improve customer engagement
o improve your SEO
o drive social media connections
o score media placements
o encourage customer loyalty and brand affinity
o increase your website traffic
o develop better products
o grow your mailing list
o drive sales
o reinforce your branding
All this week, Meredith will be sharing special contest-related tools and resources and offering up a chance to win a copy of 45 Contests. Pop over to Smaller Box for more information and your chance to win.
by MissMalaprop on March 19, 2010
RHINO Contemporary Crafts Company in The Shops at Canal Place
I’m currently working on compiling the ultimate list of all the ongoing craft events, crafty supply stores, craft groups, etc. around New Orleans and the greater metro area. I recently posted about the idea on the New Orleans Craft Mafia blog. I was working on a crafty city guide for New Orleans for getcrafty.com right before Katrina, but obviously I never had much of a chance to share it with anyone! It’s hard to find a current comprehensive resource on crafting for this city, so I’d like to put one together… I’m thinking I might put it together in the form of a free e-book. Please let me know if you have ideas for public crafting meet-ups, art markets, craft supply stores or other stuff I should include!
I recently answered a query about unique ideas for marketing your crafts that was posted to the Help A Reporter Out listserv and my answer will be featured in the June issue of The Crafts Report magazine! If you haven’t already, you should check out their website, there are some great articles there, like this one: How to Get Customers 4x More Likely to Buy.
The new online lifestyle & design magazine that I recently wrote a column for is out now! It’s called Southern Flourish, and the column is on artists based in the South who work with recycled materials. Check it out!
I recently listed to one of the Rick Steves travel podcasts where he spoke with Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission To Promote Peace… One School At A Time and Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I really want to pick up these books to read now… The whole thing is really inspiring: basically he and the organizations he works with have been working with communities in Afghanistan for years now to promote peace by building schools, and particularly, by helping educate women. One reason behind this is that in that culture, mothers have a lot of influence… and if they are educated, they are less likely to allow their sons to join the Taliban. You can check out his website, Stones into Schools, to learn more and find out how you can help.
chandeliers made out of clothing hangers @ paper n stitch
decoylab clocks @ poppytalk
Here are some links from around the web that I found interesting this past week:
chandeliers made out of clothing hangers @ paper n stitch
naomilingerie @ Mixed Plate
Decoylab & Summer Tin @ Poppytalk
How to provide relief to rural Americans, create jobs, and lower emissions … all at once! @ Grist
Reduce Multitasking…Mass Fail @ Indie Fixx
How Do You Use Your Fan Page? @ Tara Gentile
Handmade How-To – Pennant Rubber Stamp Roller & Tips From a Buyer to Sellers @ Handmade Spark
Trade Show Survival 101 @ BAKERY
Getting Paid Partially in Time @ Make + Meaning
A New Map of the Two-Way Street: Why Giving Back to the Blogosphere is Key to Growth @ Independent Fashion Bloggers
March is National Craft Month! & TrendCentral clues us in on the latest “IT” terms Gen Y is dropping @ KIZER and BENDER’s Retail Adventures in the REAL World™ BLOG
Favorite Things of Retail Minded @ Retail Minded Blog
Creations by Heather Heffken @ Try Handmade
Eco-Friendly Find: EveldasNEVERLAND @ Modish
When Customers Complain, How Do You Respond? & Three Things That Could Make a Difference @ Smaller Box
