Holiday Notecards Square Small

Holiday Notecards Square Small, originally uploaded by journeyoflovedesigns.

I just listed these on Etsy handmade holiday envelopes with note cards.
Take a look at the listing!

Business Expo

I attended the NY Xpo for Business yesterday. There were free seminars so I attended four but each were only 45 mins long. The information was not anything new but it was good to hear it again to get me motivated. It was also hard to hear the speakers since the seminars were right there in the expo hall with huge ventilators going on above our heads!

One thing I did learn was to pay attention to the price of what I am buying! A tall latte at the Starbucks in the convention center cost more than a dollar outside!

The expo part was nice. I got a lot of great reusable bags for groceries and other stuff!

I'll probably attend again next year with my husband since he started an IT consulting business recently.

New Logo, Banner and Avatar

I spent the past month working on my new logo using a free program called Inkscape. I still have a lot to learn with the program but luckily there were tutorials available for what I needed to know. I was going after the look of a gift box with two hearts as the loops. I realized the box part was taking up a lot of space. Then I looked at the looks and ribbon part and decided to just use that above my business name. I like this a lot. I will keep the gift box as an avatar.

The banner is a bit sparse right now but I plan on either adding pictures of my products on the sides or just other images reflecting the holiday. Or I could do half and half! The possibilities are endless.

Next step: Use Gimp to adjust contracts on photos of products.

Ideas for New Craft Desk

I have been shopping around for a new craft desk as I would like to make some changes to my little craft niche. My husband wants to build me one. We'll see about that.

Here are some inspiration:

I would LOVE to have this but it's way over my budget:


From Target, Madison Trestle Desk

Braxton Trestle Desk

From Ikea
this desktopwith these "legs"

I definitely need as much shelving as I can get! I will get another bookcase to line the wall with my current bookcases and place the table in front of it. I will have to make sure I place things strategically on the shelves where the desk will block it so that I don't get in my own way!

Tomorrow we're off to Home Depot to check out prices of lumber.

Sister Shop

I've opened up my sister shop, Seashell Baby. I felt that my first shop was too cluttered and wanted it to focus on paper crafts only. Seashell Baby will have all the other craft goods like jewelry, knits, and other supplies.

I'm also working on a new logo for Journey of Love Designs. I'm learning to use Inkscape and so far it has been pretty interesting. Hit a snafu in trying to print business cards using the new design though. It looks very fuzzy! not exactly the effect I was going for.

Christmas is creeping up too fast! I've only made some Christmas envelopes and note cards. Will need to photograph them this Sunday.

Etsy Finds

I am one of those Etsy sellers who are guilty of buying more than they sell. I think I'll start a series on Etsy Finds. Here's the latest one.

I recently rediscovered yoga again and when I saw this Om scrabble pendant from HomeStudio I knew I had to have it! The one they listed had a brown background but since I love pink I asked for a pink background instead. It is pictured here with my own chain. I was taking pictures of some scarves to be listed in my second Etsy store, Seashell Baby, so I decided to drape the pendant on them.

I hope to add their pink lotus pendant to my collection soon!