Wedding 101: The New Way to Cake

New trends are always arriving in the world of weddings and I have to share the new trend that my fiance and I are working into our wedding. A friend of ours was at a wedding recently and told us about these cute little cake balls that were around at each table in lieu of having a large cake.

After reaching out to the bride who had these at her wedding only to find out that my fiance had gone to school with the new baker of the cake balls. Christina had changed her career path and was starting her adventure of starting her own business. As a huge supporter of small businesses, this was a no brainer.

These "cake balls" have a much better name: Cake Kisses! They come in a variety of different colors and flavors. We are selecting three flavors, with a plate made for each table in all three flavors. Not only will everyone get a chance to sample the cake but it is less likely for us to have wasted cake.

In putting together our wedding we are striving to keep on budget, be inventive and also to not be wasteful. These fit all three of these categories, plus they taste sooooooo good.

Here are Christina's Links:

Cake Kisses on Facebook
Cake Kisses Website

She also does small parties, events, and holiday themes!

Getting over myself

Lately I have been reading many blogs about starting your own business and how to be successful on Etsy. One of the most common threads throughout is that you are your own worst enemy.


I have realized that I am the one holding my business back. My efforts have been less that desirable to succeed in Etsy endeavor. Instead of sitting in my office working on my marketing, listings etc for my shop, I have my butt planted in front of the television with the distraction of reality TV interrupting my work.


I only get to work on my etsy shop on my days off. I need to start taking advantage of the time that I have to myself. My house is empty most of the day which is a perfect environment to get some blogging etc done.


As an effort to grow my business I am going to "get over myself" and set up shop on my two days off from work. Dedicated and enthusiasm renewed I am ready to work toward my goals!

My Favorite Site for Great Original Acessories

Part of our fashion looks are what covers less than 10% of our bodies; accessories. They can change a t-shirt and jeans into something really special. The right pair of earring can frame a woman’s face, the right shoes  can make the outfit and so on and so on.

The majority of the women on the TGAAD are removing new clothes from their fashion diet. I on the other hand I decided to go on an extreme diet, not purchasing anything new to add to my whole wardrobe head to toe. No jewelry, no shoes, no leggings, etc etc.

I really want to try to learn to use only what I have to put together my day to day looks. I want to lower my impact on the environment as well as help my bank account.

So that brings me to the point of this blog. While I am not going to buy anything new for my wardrobe that doesn’t mean you won’t so I wanted to pass along my fav site for accessories!

Etsy.com

I not only love this site because I am a shop owner ( ANiemanCrochet and AniemanPhotography) but also because it promotes people selling handmade or vintage goods. There are a variety of different artist using various mediums, the majority of which are small business owners.

Please check out this site and help small businesses and some very talented artists and crafters!
Accessories
Vintage

A. Nieman Crochet: Goals for 2009

A. Nieman Crochet

Goals for 2009

1. Get Organized: I would like to have all my yarn organized in a way that I know where any color/ type is located. I would like to have all my tools together and all my shipping supplies together. This will entail me going through all my supplies, from fabric and yarn to tools. They will have to be sorted by categories that are easy for me to remember. I will need to do this early in the year before I start on any new projects.
2. Set up a calendar for finishing projects that I have already started. Some of those projects would include: wash clothes and dish rags, purses, and granny square afghans. This calendar will also include the dates I would like to have my seasonal items done, ie Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July, and Halloween.
3. Write a Business Plan: Now this goal will include a lot of research on how to set up a small business. I do not expect to have a business set up by the end of the year. Because of my financial situation setting up this business will take some time and I am fully aware of that. After my research I hope to be able to set a date.
4. Research ideas for marketing my business. I will look into things such as advertising, craft shows, promotional products, and craft parties. Once I have established a plan for these markets, I will establish a schedule for trial of each.
5. Bookkeeping: I will keep up on all bookkeeping for the entire year of 2009. This will give me an idea of how much I spend and make. It will help me price my products more effectively.

This year A. Nieman Crochet will no longer be just a hobby. It will be a venture that I take seriously and into which I put my full effort and dedication. I am extremely excited about 2009 and hope to make this my best year yet!

Time to be Realistic

This year I would like to do things different than the past couple years. Instead of just talking about making goals for the new year I am actually going to write them down.

After being let go from my last job I have done a lot of think about what makes me happy and what does not. I am happy when I am creating, I am happy when I am selling, I am happy when I am organizing. I am not happy when I am bored, I am not happy being someones work horse and I am not happy in a office all day.

Being aware of these things is helping me learn who I am and what I want to do for a living. As I enter the new year I am unemployed. I am searching for someways to pay the bills. I want to be happy in what I am doing but I do not want to be unemployed forever trying to find that. This is why I have done quite a bit of thinking.

I have come to he conclusion that I would be happiest owning my own business, being my own boss. This is not something that I can do right now. I cannot jump right into this, it will take time for me to get organized and to write a proper business plan.

I think my biggest problem was that I wanted everything right now. I wanted the perfect job, the perfect schedule, the perfect pay. That is not practical, at all. Now I know these things will take time. I know that I have to stick with it and I have to keep confident in what I am doing.

In the next couple of posts I will outline my business goals and my personal goals. I would like to actually make a calendar for the whole year of my sales and promotions so that I can be as organized as possible. The key this year is organization and follow through.

Getting Ready for the New Year

After everything that has happened over the past few days and months I have decided to get serious about my crochet and design business. While I am looking for a new job I am going to be organizing myself in a way that I can pay off my loans and credit cards and start saving money in order to start my own business.

This will take me some time to achieve but with some persistence and a lot of organization I will achieve my goal. In the next week I plan to come up with a list of things that I will need to get done in order to make this vision possible.

I have already started by downloading a free version of Quick Books. I will be using this for all my book keeping now, personal and business. This way I can see everything I am spending and everything I owe. Starting from today I will be as organized as I should be in order to operate a business.

The next step is to do a full inventory of my Etsy Shop. I will be having a sale after Christmas to decrease this inventory and after the sale I will close my shop and have a full count of all items for 2009.

During this process I will have to look for a new job to support myself in the mean time. Quite honestly I am tired of looking for a job and am going to try to find something that may not be the most rewarding, but will pay the bills.

In the next couple days look for more post on my full list of things to complete, my business plan and hopefully my new job!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Forgotten Projects Part 3

Today I went upstairs to my desk and couldn't find it! It was hidden under a pile of papers and ( for lack of a better word) crap. Since I have been out of school I have not spent an extensive amount of time at my desk. I do a great deal of my Etsy work from our laptop on the couch in front of the television after work. The only time I really spend time on my upstairs computer is on my days off, half of which I have other events planned and don't get to clean my office like I should.

As a part of this Forgotten Projects series I want re-organize my projects. Through my initial search of unfinished project I realized that my storage/ closet is a complete mess. I do not take care of it on a daily basis like I should.

So, today's topic will focus in on what is preventing me from keeping my projects, yarn and business organized.

1. I never put things away. I have a real problem of taking a box of yarn out, taking the skein that I need and then not replacing the box to where it belongs. I do the same thing with my clothes, my makeup and a variety of other things. I need to work on taking the time to return things to their rightful place before the clutter gets out of hand.

2. The stack of to be filed. I often do not file my important papers right away like I should. They pile up and up on my desk until I am forced to do something about it. I need to work on filing items as soon as I can. It only takes a couple more seconds to do so in the first place instead of an hour to do so later.

3. Growing tired of a project. Everyone will get tired of certain projects. I get frustrated with projects quite often and I tend to just roll them in a ball and trow them in the corner. I need to figure out a way to label, organize and keep projects so I can easily come back to them.

4. Using my Calendar. I have never been able to use a planner or a calendar to save my life. Every school year I would buy one and start out wonderfully, writing all my assignments an test dates. Then half way through the month I give up. My boyfriend gave me his old palm pilot a couple years back. I used it a lot at first. Now it just sits on my desk. I don't think Ive touched it since I graduated. I just now found Google calendar and I am try to use it as much as I can.

These are my top four reasons for my being so unorganized. I am sure there are more but these are the ones I am going to start working on. By my next post I hope to have my Google project calendar up and running so you can follow my progress on each project.

The Forgotten Projects - Part 2

This Wednesday I started a article series called The Forgotten Projects. To recap the purpose of this series is to help me get organized and sort through all my unfinished projects. Last time I promised to make a list of projects that needed to be finished. As I was making this list I realized I needed to prioritize my projects as well as include the new orders that I was receiving.

Here is my list along with explanations for the ordering:

1. Finish my grandmother's purse. Not only will this be long over due but it will also make her very happy. She has not said anything about it for a while and i think it will surprise her when she gets the package in the mail. Along with making her happy, it will also have the added bonus of her using it and bragging about her granddaughter.

2. Promo Bookmarks. About a week or so ago I answered a Etsy forum post for promos. She needs them by a certain date to get these "thanks for purchasing goody baggies" together. I need to make thirty.

3. My boyfriends belt. My boyfriend asked me me to make him a belt because he could find one to match his new shorts that he received for his b-day.

4. Take pictures of two tractors. About a month or so ago a women contacted me through A.Nieman Photography asking me to take a picture of these two tractors. Her husband was a huge fan of the one, she was a huge fan of the other. She asked that I make a digital image of the two facing each other. She gave me no time frame but i feel i need to get this done because her husband was diagnosed with cancer.

5. Pillow for custom order. I had a request for one of my crocheted pillows. No time frame on this one because she is having problems with her pay pal and doesn't want me to start until she gets it all settled. I have to buy all the materials still.

6. Finish other purses. I have a couple of purses that need their linings sewn in and/or snaps attached.

7. De construct. As I was going through my forgotten projects I realized I stopped most of them because I messed up then I abandoned them without undoing the yarn. I need to undo the yarn to I can use it for something else.


Well thats the list. My next step will be setting a calendar of dates for completion of each project. I will post this on my blog using my Google calendar. Hopefully I will finish this tomorrow since I have the day off of work.