Oh My! Handmade Goodness

I couldn't wait until Monday (the official launch date)... Oh My! Handmade Goodness is live!

Facebook fan page & Twitter

There are two days until the official launch date for my new blog, Oh My! Handmade Goodness. I created a Facebook fan page for it, and then while I was at it, I finally created a Facebook fan page for sarah + abraham, too. I've also been on Twitter for a little while now, but not very active so far.

So all of this got me thinking... between the new blog, both Facebook fan pages, and both Twitter accounts, I'm not sure how much I'll be posting here. I'm not sure how often I'll be updating the new accounts, either, but I'd like to make it worthwhile to become a Facebook fan by at least offering some occasional promotions and giveaways available exclusively to Facebook fans. Hope to see you there!

new blog coming in 5 days!

I mentioned at the end of December that I won a Wordpress blog package from Susie at Zee Studios. I've become pretty consumed by the project in recent weeks, but I just realized that I haven't said much about it here since December. If all goes well, it should be going live in just five days!

I'm so excited about how it's all coming together and all of the great content that I already have lined up for the first few weeks. I've asked 17 women to contribute content, either as monthly columnists or guest contributors, and so far I've been blown away by everything that they've submitted and the work that Susie has done. Stay tuned for a link on Monday... I think that anyone who's been a regular follower of this blog is really going to love what we're going to do at Oh My! Handmade Goodness.

relentless self-improvement

I love the line from Austin Powers International Man of Mystery that starts out, "My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium..." When my husband and I heard it for the first time, we both laughed out loud and commented to each other on what a great phrase that was, "relentlessly self-improving".

At the time we hadn't had children yet and spent a lot of time browsing in bookstores and buying all kinds of how-to and self-improvement books... health & nutrition, fitness, home improvement, career advice, and on and on.

I was always trying to figure out what I should be doing, and I was all over the place... open a bakery? learn how to build websites? become an architect? a lawyer? a psychologist? a nutritionist?

A few months after starting sarah + abraham I realized that I was finally doing exactly what I should be doing. Now all of that relentless self-improvement is focused on sarah + abraham (well, most of it!)

Last week I realized that I've been spending more and more time emailing proofs to customers, and it sure would be nice for that process to be more automated. Also, a lot of times when I send emails with attachments they go straight to spam folders. So I emailed Arianne at Aeolidia asking if she could help me out.

She created the perfect form for me where I can upload the image, enter the order # and customer name, and an email is automatically sent to the customer with a link for them to view their proof.
When they click on the link, this is the screen that it takes them to:
Then I receive an email with their approval or comments. I love it! Little improvements like these make such a difference when it's something that you're doing over and over again, day after day.