Halloween Handbag Giveaway from Sew Gracious

Pam at Sew Gracious has been featured over at "Simply Sentimental, The Blog", and is giving away this fun Halloween Handbag. Visit Sydnei's blog to find out how you can win it!

By the way, did you know that Sew Gracious is one of our sponsors? And Sydnei, from Simply Sentimental is too! Sydnei is also a co-author here on The Downtown Boutique, and is the one who posts the "Wordless Wednesday" feature every Wednesday.

Buy Two Pillows, Get One Free

"Olive" is a shop on Etsy, and they have a great sale right now. Buy two pillows, get one free! Be sure to read the details about how to get your free pillow.

Friday Feature No. 25 -- Featuring The Sweet Unfolding

Welcome to Friday! I hope that everyone is doing well. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are dealing with the hurricanes right now, especially Hurricane Ike.

Congratulations to Huguette, who was our winner of the necklace from Lula Boutique. Congratulations to the three winners of the FREE month long ad spots: Laura C, who generously gave it to her friend who owns Naptime Cards; Aimee W., who generously gave her spot to her mother-in-law who owns My Bright Pouchette; and Kelly, who owns Pia Tilly's Boutique. Thank you for ALL of your comments!

Today, we are featuring Sarah, from The Sweet Unfolding. Sarah has an Etsy shop, but also has her own website, www.thesweetunfolding.com.

Sarah has a shop full of wonderful goodies that any lady would love to have, from Luxe Vanilla Bath Caviar, to Pistachio Damask Letterpress Notecards, to paper banners for every special occasion.

Let's hear a little more about Sarah and The Sweet Unfolding.

TDB: How did The Sweet Unfolding get its start?
Sarah: I’ve always wanted to work for myself, and I had been mulling over different ideas for several years. When I was planning my wedding a couple of years ago I kept seeing the same products over and over on different wedding web stores. I wanted something unique, so I decided to make almost everything for our wedding—from invitations to favors to the guest book and even the flower arrangements. It was so much fun that I put together a small collection of handmade favors, cards, gifts, and other items to sell on Etsy. In June of this year I officially launched www.thesweetunfolding.com to showcase my designs as well as the work of other designers and offer some unique choices for weddings, parties, and gifts.

TDB: Where else do you sell your products besides Etsy?
Sarah: I also sell my products at www.thesweetunfolding.com. I’m still kind of new to creating my own items for sale, so I’m investigating where else to sell them. I’ve been getting wholesale requests recently, which is exciting, so I’m looking forward to my products being carried in others’ stores as well.

TDB: What is your favorite thing about your business?
Sarah: I love the creative process, especially developing a collection of items. I had so much fun developing the fragrances and products and packaging for The Sweet Unfolding’s signature line of bath salts and other bath products. I enjoyed it so much that I’ve been working on a couple of new lines that I plan to introduce soon.
TDB: What is the best piece of advice you've been given (business or personal)?
Sarah: A good friend and business owner told me that to be successful I need to be true to myself and let what’s important to me shine through in my business. That’s been the basis for a lot of the business decisions I’ve made, especially concerning the socially conscious aspect of our products and our business practices. I want to make sure that The Sweet Unfolding is doing everything as fairly and as positively as possible to make things better for everyone involved.

TDB: What does a typical day look like for you?
Sarah: I usually get going around 8 a.m., although it depends on how late I stayed up working the night before. I have a terrible habit of staying up too late because I’m enjoying my work so much I don’t want to stop. When I worked for other companies it was always easy to stop at the end of the day, but working for myself is so much fun that I have to remind myself often to step away. It always surprises me how much I work each day, and how much I love it. Since I don’t have children yet I still have the luxury of having most of my time to myself, and I do make sure to stop and spend time with my husband each evening so that my work doesn’t become a higher priority than my family.

First thing in the morning I respond to any emails or inquiries that I received the night before. Afterward I typically pack and ship any orders that have been placed. The rest of the workday I divide my time between making products and the administrative side of the business. I try to spend an hour on marketing and an hour on bookkeeping each day, although I’m still developing the discipline for that. In the evenings I spend time with my husband, Mike, usually hanging out at home or grabbing dinner in our neighborhood. We live in Chicago’s Greektown neighborhood, so we take advantage of all the great food. I usually wind up the day by working on projects while we watch TV together.

TDB: Please share 3 random facts about you (yes, you can divulge little secrets if you like!)
Sarah:

- I am a huge fan of the band Indigo Girls, and if I could give up my responsibilities and be a groupie for a year I totally would.
- I adore sugary kids’ cereals. If I would allow myself, I would eat nothing but Cocoa Krispies all day, everyday.
- I love the television show Law and Order so much that I named my car after Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy.

TDB: What are your goals for your business for the next year?
Sarah: I am planning to expand my designs with another line of bath products. I’d also like to work on invitation design, focusing on eco-friendly products. At www.thesweetunfolding.com we are hoping to add more consignment opportunities for independent designers to showcase great designs perfect for unique weddings and events.

Thank you Sarah, for sharing a little glimpse of your life with us.

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Our giveaway today is for this wonderful set of bath and body products from The Sweet Unfolding. You will be able to choose from either the "Petal" fragrance, or the "Flutter" fragrance.

To enter, please check out Sarah's shop or website and then come back here and comment about your favorite item, or a fragrance that you would like to see. One comment per person please.

You MAY earn extra an extra entry by blogging about this giveaway, or by adding us to your blogroll. We also have a button on the right hand side of the blog, that you can pick up and put on your blog. Please leave a separate comment for your extra entry.

PLEASE make sure you have a valid email in your comment or on your blog profile. You do not have to have a Blogger account, as long as you leave an email. If you don't, your comment will be deleted, and you will not be eligible to win.

Deadline to enter is Thursday, September 18th at Midnight PST.

This giveaway is open worldwide.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to enter to win the custom made "Bridget" dress from "Bridget & Co.". Scroll down to find out how.

Angie

Sale on Web and Etsy Banners

A little shameless promotion here. I'm having a sale on all premade banners in my Rio Oso Designs Etsy shop. Through the end of September, you can get any premade banner for $1 off. These can be used for blogs or websites as well. Here are some examples of what is available.

A Hilarious Giveaway from another blog...

Ok, so I posted in the Etsy forums, letting people know that I would blog about their giveaways or sales going on in their shops.

I got a response from one shop: Nothing Like It

Here's their hilarious giveaway for "Hillbilly Homebrew":


PS...You have to go to their blog to enter. You can't enter here. Just click on the pink link above that says "Hillbilly Homebrew".

Scrapblog and a Summer Challenge

Scrapblog is one of my new favorite places to "be" online. It's SO cool, because for now, it's free! You can create all sorts of digital scrapbooks with TONS of backgrounds, stickers, fonts, etc. to choose from. And it's SUPER easy to use. The only drawback for me, is that there is only one size and layout that you can create. But that's ok...it's still loads of fun.

This summer, Scrapblog issued a challenge to create a scrapblog of your summer activities, with great incentive: A Nikon D60 digital camera. No, I didn't win, but it was still a lot of fun to create a scrapblog of our Family Camping Trip. I'd love to hear what you think!

Have You Met Our Latest Sponsor?

We have some really WONDERFUL sponsors, here on The Downtown Boutique. I hope that you check out their shops on a regular basis! There are some very cool products in their shops.

Our newest sponsor is Michele, of Sweet Irie Originals. Her shop is chock full (we're talking EIGHT pages of products!) of these fabulous wristlet keychains. There's one in there that I think I'm going to have to get for hubby. Can you guess which one?

If you're interested in being a sponsor, please email me, and I'll be glad to let you know how you can be one of our sponsors too.

Wordless Wednesday Featuring Go Monkey Design

Newbie Tuesday

This segment features shops who have not yet made a sale. Please give them a visit and check out what they have!

Don't forget about our giveaways that we currently have going. You'll have to scroll down to see what I'm talking about.

G is for Giraffe

Lately, I have really taken a liking to giraffes. I think it's because we got our new little guy a plush giraffe when we first met him. I then got a giraffe from "Cookie Dough" on Etsy, that is a little wooden push/pull toy. Since then, there's just been a fascination there.

Here are some great giraffes I found on Etsy:

"G is for Giraffe" from Artseed

"Giraffe in the Sunshine" from Bean Pickle Sprout

"Three Giraffes" from Art For Kids

"The Undercover Giraffe Handbag" from Simple Stitches 101

"Giraffe Friends" Ladies Tee from Cocoa and Milkweed

Hey! Don't forget to enter our three giveaways that are currently going! Scroll down to the next post down, and you'll find out more!