more new product photos

I recently added some more new product photos to my website including the ones above from Carrie Davis, an Atlanta-based portrait photographer and the one below from Deanna Ryan, also a portrait photographer. Product photography can be so tricky - I'm really impressed with what they came up with!
Also, I recently found out that my water bottle supplier is closing her business, and I was thinking about not offering water bottles anymore rather than starting over with a new supplier. But these photos are just too cute not to use!

new product photos - 8x10 prints

I'm so excited about these photos that I received today from Jill Higgins, one of the professional photographers who I recently traded with. I've added them to my homepage, and I created a Photo Credits page on my website to provide links to all of the talented photographers who have contributed to the sarah + abraham website.

There are a few more photographers who I've sent products to... I can't wait to see what they come up with!

any new products you'd like to see?

Last week I announced that I've decided to sell Oh My! Handmade Goodness. Not just because of the number of hours that I was spending on it every week, but it was also consuming way too much of my mental energy. I’ve been so focused on OMHG for the past several months that I haven’t been bringing any of my creativity or mental energy to sarah + abraham.

In Nicole Morell's recent post about working with a sale rep, the rep who she interviewed mentioned that retailers expect a new product at least once a year and seasonally is better. I thought about all the new products and designs that I added last year (canvas prints, water bottles, fabric clutches and calling card cases, custom stamps, and the olliegraphic line). I realized that I haven't added anything new since valentines in January.

I had a great response to my recent call for photographers (I've done several trades and can't wait to share their photos!) So I thought I'd put this question out there, too: What new products would you like to see offered by sarah + abraham? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! And if you're the first one to suggest a new product idea that I begin offering, I'll send you one free as a thank you gift.

Nickelodeon Parents' Picks Awards 2010

sarah + abraham is up for nomination in the category of Best Personalized Gift in the Nickelodeon Parents' Picks Awards... I sure would appreciate your vote! You'll need to sign up for a free account to be able to vote, but it only takes a minute - I promise! (And you can always unsubscribe in the future.)

calling all photographers

How cool are these customer photos?! I love hearing stories about how my customers are using the items they order or who they're giving them to, and seeing pictures like this really makes my day.

I've been thinking that I need some new banner images for my homepage, and now I'm thinking that including people in the photos like these or a child writing a thank you note on sarah + abraham stationery would be so much better than basic product photos.

If you're a professional photographer and you'd be interested in doing a trade for your services... please let me know!

show us your sarah + abraham!

Hello! I'm back! I apologize that it's been so long. First of all I want to say a big thank you to anyone who has continued to check in to see if I'd ever come back - thank you for your patience and continued interest in sarah + abraham!

Oh My! Handmade Goodness has been much more time consuming than I expected - usually about 5-10 hours per week - but also extremely rewarding. I get really excited about every single post, and every time I get one ready to publish, I eagerly anticipate being able to share it and see what feedback we'll get.

I'm continually amazed at the quality of content that all of the contributors have been providing and the generous items that have been offered for giveaways. I'm really happy to see that the number of comments we're receiving and our number of Facebook fans have been steadily increasing... I feel like my vision of a community is really coming together.

But with all that being said, I also miss this blog and the community that we were building here. My plan is to start posting here at least once a week - hopefully more.

I've had several new projects on my mind. The first one that I want to share is something I'm going to call "show us your sarah + abraham". Every once in a while a customer will email me a photo of a sarah + abraham product "in action". I've shared several of them here - for example, invitations that Heather Mattos has embellished or party favor stickers on a bunch of goodies. I've also added some to the product pages on my website, like the framed 8x10 prints below.

But I've never asked for this type of photo or put them all together in one place. So I'm thinking about creating a Flickr account and/or a photo gallery on my website where I can put these photos together in one place. And that's where you come in... if you have any photos (or if you can take any photos) of any sarah + abraham products "in action"... please send them my way!

Above photo courtesy of Sarah Swartzentruber at Jack and Izzy.



Above three photos courtesy of Holly Mathis at Holly Mathis Interiors.

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.

Batman-themed birthday party

When Heather asked me to create some invitations for a Batman-themed birthday party, I knew it would be another one of her amazing parties, but she has truly outdone herself once again! (Starting with the bat wings she added to the invites!)
A menu consisting of Penguin's Party Dip, Catwoman Claws, Mr. Freeze's Fruit, Robin's Raw Veggies, Poison Ivy Pasta, Two-Faced Pizza and Joker Juice.
Party favors were personalized bat capes (glittered and ruffled up for the batgirls).
She filled little Batman buckets (by Haus of Girls) with goodies for game prizes.
There was a "batmobile" at the party, and the games included Pin the Tail on the Bat, The Joker's Hidden Treasure Hunt, and Mr. Freeze Dance. Seriously?! Who knew that a Batman-themed birthday party could be so completely creative, crafty and cute?

Valentine's Day items at sarah + abraham

I've never offered any Valentine's Day items in the past. My kids love the cheap licensed character Valentine's Day cards at the grocery store. Last year they picked out Transformers & Disney Princesses, and almost all their friends passed those out, too.

But I started thinking this year that maybe Meg's olliegraphic illustrations would be cute on valentines. I asked her what she thought, and she sent me a super cute cupcake, a valentine with a heart on it, and some speech bubbles to use on cards and stickers. As soon as I started creating some samples using those accessories, I fell in love with the designs! I doubt my 6.5-year-old son will go for them, but my soon-to-be-5-year-old daughter absolutely loves them!

I've been working like crazy to get everything printed, photographed, and listed on my website before it gets any closer to Valentine's Day. I'm so happy with how everything turned out! Meg's also offering some really cute printable valentines in her Etsy shop.

2009 year-end review

2009 was a really good year for sarah + abraham! Here's a look back at the highlights...
In January my bird note cards were featured in a Real Simple online article, 5 Bridesmaid gifts under $50, and then my calling cards were featured in the May issue of Real Simple. I ended up with over $4,000 in sales from just those two features!
In March I launched a new collection that I was super excited about, but it turned out to not be as popular as I thought it would be. I ended up retiring several of the items pretty quickly, and only a few of the designs have turned out to be consistently good sellers. I learned a great lesson from that experience that I need to stick with the elements that my customers love most about my products and not stray too far from that when adding new products.
In April I updated the look of my website and improved the navigation features, which significantly cut down on the number of questions I receive about options.
In May I started offering canvas prints. They haven't been as well received as I had hoped, but sales are picking up, and I think they're a nice complement to the rest of my products.
In June I began offering water bottles, which have been a big hit! Dacia at Lima Bean Kids has been amazingly helpful, first sharing the vendor who printed water bottles for her, and then when that vendor didn't work out for either of us, sharing the new one she found, who has been absolutely wonderful to work with.
In July I began offering fabric clutches and calling card cases. They haven't sold as well as I had hoped, but again, I feel like they compliment my other products nicely and make a nice gift set with note cards or calling cards.

The biggest event of the year for me was hiring a part-time employee in August. I placed an ad on monster.com hoping for nothing more than someone willing to print/fold/cut/package orders. I was completely overwhelmed by the response I got. I received 380 resumes in 10 days, interviewed six candidates, and wanted to hire all six of them! I couldn't believe how talented they were, each with a slightly different background (photography, illustration, marketing, etc.) but still willing to start out filling orders.

Jen, who has a marketing background, has been a perfect fit! I love handing off the tasks that I don't want to do, but more than that, it's been great to bounce ideas off her and brainstorm together. She has had some really good ideas and helps me stay focused. For the first time ever I have a strategic plan, and we're being proactive about marketing and PR.
In September I made some more changes to the design and navigation features of my website. I love having more product photographs on the homepage and being able to view products by either design collection or product category.

I also started sending out a monthly newsletter, which has been really well received. In 2008 only 15% of my sales came from repeat customers, but during the second half of 2009, 30% of my sales came from repeat customers!
In October I began offering custom stamps from PSA Essentials. I haven't sold a whole lot of them, and they don't have a very big profit margin, but it's nice to be able to offer them, and it's super easy to fill those orders.

I also offered 15% off Christmas items in October in the hopes of spreading out my Christmas sales a little. My sales from November 1 – December 19 (13% of the year) accounted for 28% of my total sales (compared to 31% last year), so I think it helped a little, but not much. I estimate that about 80 customers ordered earlier than they otherwise would have.
In November I launched my new olliegraphic collection, which has done really well. In just the first two months olliegraphic items accounted for 22% of my sales, and Meg has been great to work with. She's such a talented illustrator, and her style fits so nicely with the rest of my products. I also think that using the same color scheme for both my silhouette line and the olliegraphic line really helped to tie everything together visually on my website.

The holiday season was a completely different experience this year with Jen here helping me. In my 2008 year-end review I mentioned that on my busiest day I had 21 sales and that I had 15 days with 13 or more sales. I was completely overwhelmed and exhausted.

This year on my busiest day I had 46 sales and 35 days with 15 or more sales. But it was totally under control, and no big deal at all! It never really got to be too much. There was a day when I had my two biggest sales ever back-to-back, but Jen took a bunch of work home, and came back with it all completed the next day. During our busiest week we worked 82 hours combined, so I definitely couldn't have done it all on my own!

Which brings us to the beginning of 2010. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm planning on launching a new blog in February. I've really thrown myself into the project with a lot of help from Jen and my husband, Mike. We've made a lot of progress that I wouldn't have made on my own, and I'm really excited about the direction the project is heading! (more on that in a future post...)

Project 320

Have you heard of Project 320? If not, you really must check it out this week. A group of six amazing women have teamed up to raise $5,000 in one week, enough to fund a well through charitywater.org. They received 300 donated items which they grouped into 15 prize bundles (one will include a $50 sarah + abraham gift certificate).

Each day this week there will be 3 prize bundles available on the Project 320 blog. Each $10 donation to their campaign = 1 entry. All of the details can be found here.

sarah + abraham on etsy front page

I woke up to such a nice treat this morning - my holiday family flat cards were on the Etsy front page last night. I would have missed it if it weren't for my friend, Julie, sending me this screen capture. Thank you, Julie! And thank you to Wise Idea Studios for featuring me in her treasury!

free gift with purchase from sarah + abraham

I wasn't planning on offering any promotions in December, but it's been such a great year, and I really wanted to figure out a way to say thank you to my customers and blog readers. Here's what I came up with...

Through December 18th, I'll be including a free gift with any purchase over $10. Customers will be able to choose from several styles of note cards (a few of which are pictured above). Each set includes four personalized note cards or eight postcards with envelopes (retail value $10 - $15).

This is an exclusive offer for my newletter subscribers and blog readers and will not be available through my website. You'll need to use this link to view the free gifts and add one to your shopping cart.

Happy shopping!

completely custom illustrations from Meg at olliegraphic

The olliegraphic collection has been really well received, and I've been having so much fun printing the orders!

I mentioned in a previous post how all of the olliegraphic items are customizable (eye color, hair color, hair style, etc.), but I forgot to mention that Meg also creates completely custom illustrations for only about $20 - 50, which you can then purchase as a PDF to print yourself or have printed on any of the products that I offer on my website.

Above are just a few of my favorites that she has created for customers recently.

olliegraphic collection at sarah + abraham

I'm so excited to announce a new collection that I'm launching today called olliegraphic. I came across the artist, Meg, on Etsy a few months ago and fell in love with her whimsical illustrations.

All of her designs are completely customizable - you pick the skin tone, hair style, hair color, eye color, and eye shape. I noticed that she was only selling printable stationery (PDFs) and she lives close by, so I contacted her to see if she'd be interested in a collaboration.
We've spent the past two months working out all of the details, printing and photographing samples, and getting the listings ready (over 60 items!). Today's a really exciting day for me to finally have everything live on my website.

15% off holiday items during October

In my year-end recap last year I mentioned that my sales from November 1 - December 19 (13% of the year) accounted for 31% of my total sales for the year. In an effort to spread out my holiday sales a little this year, I'm hoping to entice customers to order their holiday items and teacher gifts early by offering 15% off of those items during October. I'll report back at the end of December to let you know how successful this strategy was!

PSA Essentials Self-Inking Stamps :: now available at sarah + abraham!

I just finished adding these self-inking stamps from PSA Essentials to my website & I'm so excited about them! I've been thinking about offering them for a little while, and then a few days ago I went into a local stationery store to try one out in person and see how the stamps looked on my envelopes:
This picture really doesn't do the stamps justice, the impression is absolutely gorgeous (even in black ink!), and the stamps are so much fun to use!