Gifts under $25

It's that time of year again! Was it just me, or did 2011 fly by? I'm often told that I'm hard to shop for, and while I wouldn't say this is my Holiday wish list, I certainly wouldn't be disappointed if I found any of these under my tree Christmas morning:

Gifts under $25 by eecummings 

LULU wrap scarve, $18
Bare Escentuals?? 'Big, Bright & Bold Eyes' Collection (Online..., $19
Set of 6 Travel Plates | Crate&Barrel, $25
Capri Blue Mercury Glass Candle, $25
With A Twist Teacup, $12
Semi-Opaque Taper, $24
"I Love Bacon" in Gifts Under $25 | Crate&Barrel, $20
Amazon.com: Belkin 3-Pack TuneTie for iPod/MP3 Player Earbuds (Green,..., $9.95
F. Scott Fitzgerald : CB-SMITH BOOKS
Clothbound Series 1 : CB-SMITH BOOKS


I have to say, the Coralie Bickford Smith books are gorgeous and a great gift for anyone who is into books, decor or fashion. They will certainly add punch to any bookcase, or end table. The F.Scott Fitzgerald series just screams Fitzgerald-flapper chic, and anyone who loves The Great Gatsby, could appreciate this collection. 

Anthropologie is another great store for unique holiday gifts for the hard-to-shop for. I often buy Yankee Swap (aka White Elephant, depending on where you're from) gifts from Anthro because I know they'll be useful and not a typical run of the mill swap gift. One of those mugs, a box of tea, and you're in under $20!

The Belkin Tune-tie for iPod, would make a great stocking stuffer, $10 for a set of 3, you could easily break it up and distribute as needed. I know I for one am constantly fighting and un-knotting my earbuds.

Do you have a go-to store for gifts? I'd love to hear!

New years reso-what?

So here I posted a list of goals for petal & pink in 2011.

Lets see.

• So far, I'm out of chain, ear hooks, and closed jump rings. Stay on top of order supplies. FAIL.
• I just bought this from Etsy. Pay myself, don't buy for myself. FAIL. (But it's elephants, I love elephants!)
• I've changed my blog layout/design, and my twitter picture. But I'm still incomplete with the Etsy side of this all. C for effort.

The REAL part that I'm excited about is "Launch new line". As of right now, I've got a soft launch date of February 1st! That's right folks, Tuesday! What you should do is like me over on Facebook. That's where you'll get the most up-to-date sneak peeks into what it is I've been working on. I had originally felt that my ideas in my head would end up being two lines, but two contrasting ideas have come together better than I could have ever imagined, and I'm so excited about it. I'm hoping that with this line coming out soon, I'll be able to streamline the process for that line, and start working on another line (I know, crazy right?) for the summer, and also take those new streamlining skills into other parts of my little shop.

I'm trying to not be hard on myself. It is after all, still January. I am just really driven and I'd like to keep that drive to meet the other, bigger goals I've set for myself. (Like more than doubling my sales! yipes!)

MMXI

Happy New Year!!!

I've seen lots of posts about resolutions and the like, and while I feel like I laid out what I'd like to accomplish in my bucket list to my 20's, I figured I might as well lay out some foundation, and some goals for petal & pink.

First and foremost: BLOG MORE. This blog will continue to be a hybrid of DIY, Fashion, Etsy, Creativity, raves, and probably a few rants. I already have a few posts in mind, and I know I sound like a broken record, but putting pen to paper (or in this case, finger to keyboard) is really therapeutic.

Other goals:

• Hit 150 sales in my Etsy shop
• Mini blog/shop makeover
• More features/giveaways, both here and on other blogs
• Do 2-3 shows this year, more if possible
• Track my expenses and start paying myself, and not by buying myself stuff!
• Launch new line
• Customer service
• More Bridal/Custom orders
• Look into and potentially start offering Gift Cards for Holiday 2011.

These are ambitious, but they are attainable. 150 sales means I need to more than double what I've done since I started selling on Etsy in 2007. (Wow, has it really been that long?!) Granted, I know so much more than I did back then, and have seen a steady uptick, I tend to lose momentum, and then essentially undo everything I've worked so hard to accomplish. I had been featured on the Etsy Finds email back in 2008, had been on several front pages between 2008-09 and had pieces featured in the Etsy blog. I had a good momentum going, and then stopped...which then caused it all to come crashing down. No more.

Doing more shows/giveaways will only help me gain exposure, even if it does take a slight hit to my budget at first. I'm working on launching a new line, and will look into hosting a giveaway somewhere for that when it's ready. (If you follow me on twitter, I've been giving sneak peeks into what I've been working on...well that was, until I ran out of supplies.)

Additional goal: STAY ON TOP OF SUPPLY ORDERS!

Customer service is always a strong point of mine, and while it doesn't need improvement per se, it should always be in focus. I think after Thanksgiving I had a sale, and ended up forgetting to send a Thank you email, but there was (and is always) one included in the package, but my biggest pet peeve is buying something and having the sale go unacknowledged. None of that any more. If I have time to email my friends, tweet, facebook, anything, then I have time to type a quick thank you email.

Bridal orders and custom orders are always so fun, adding more of these will only add more creativity into my life. And I love being a part of someones special day.

I've got much bigger goals further down the line, but on my immediate, these will be done this year radar are those big ones.

I hope you all have a happy, healthy and fashionable 2011!

~erin~