The Art of Doing Stuff

This is my new favorite blog! Karen writes a blog called The Art of Doing Stuff. She put a pond in he backyard, made several styles of bird bathes, redesigned the interior of her home and on and on and on. I'm pretty sure you will love her sense of humor, too!

The Switchboards

As a small business owner, it's really great to find free resources and reach out to other small business owners.

A couple of years ago I stumbled onto a site called The Switchboards. It's a great site with a forum where you can connect with women form all over. They have topics like "Swap It" where you can exchange promo material, "Barter is better" where you can exchange a purse for a necklace if you like and a "Link Exchange" where you can trade links on your web site for links on someone elses web site.

For me it's been a wonderful way to introduce some new people to Boutique of the Week.

Do you have a favorite boutique in your city? I'd love to here about it. Leave me a comment!

For the Love of Calligraphy!

I came across some beautiful calligraphy today while I should have been working. It's done by Cathie Hong. She's a self proclaimed "artsy-craftsy" girl with an amazing design aesthetic! Check out more of her thoughts, photos and inspirations on her blog Ampersandity.

Photo: http://www.ampersandity.wordpress.com

Spoonflower

Everyone can create their own fabric thanks to Spoonflower. You can use doodles or something your 18 month daughter drew. How much fun would it be to wear something your created with fabric you created? They also have contests. This week's contest is called Tessellations. To vote, click here. Here is one of my favorites. It's called Blue bird & morning glories by zeppomarks.

Photo: http://www.spoonflower.com

Johnny Cupcakes in Omaha!

As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of Johnny Cupcakes. I love the "I started this as a joke from the trunk of my beat up '89 Toyota Camry" rags to riches story.

We featured Johnny Cupcakes on Boutique of the Week a while back.

Well it turns out, Mr. Johnny Cupcakes himself is doing a college lecture series and is coming to Creighton University in Omaha next Thursday, Feb. 18th. His lecture focuses on starting a brand and business (both web based and retail) with little or no start up money, entrepreneurship, the importance of branding, small business management, product development and marketing as well as communication and graphic design.

If you can't make it to a lecture, check out the web site. They sell pretty nice stuff!