I started a new venture this week that I am so incredibly excited about. I have for the last couple years focused on rustic type signs such as barn wood signs and reclaimed wood signs. I love to paint so much and I love a challenge even more. I have decided to start to make hand lettered signs. Which is pretty much what I already do but these have a totally different feel and are much more complex.
Here are a few examples of the signs I am talking about:

I have already started making some signs in this style so stay tuned for the unveiling of them.

We have been working hard making some beautifully rustic business signs.These signs where made for a business called hitchhikers in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. I am also excited to announce we will be starting a strictly signs business called Fresh Custom signs. This business will offer custom made signs of any size. We also will be offering custom hanging methods and even installation and delivery in our tri-state area.

Today is valentines day and love is in the air!! My Facebook is filled with pics of people receiving beautiful gifts from the ones they love and my kids and I made cards for people today. ( If you would like to read more about my homeschooling go here)
So I was inspired to to do a post on easiest DIY gifts. If you are in a pinch or are low on funds you can still make something that they will love:)


#1 SUGAR SCRUB
I did a post a while back on my easy to make sugar scrub you can find the link here.
#2 WOODEN PICTURE ART
This is a great idea, use a piece of wood, either stain (or paint it if you don't have stain) add your picture and cute saying....WAHHH-LAA! If you don't have a graphics program like photoshop, you there are free graphic editors you can get like:
~gimp
~Pixlr
~paint



 



























#3FORK BRACLET
These are beautiful and most of have a spare fork lying around:) This is a video tutorial on how to make it.

 #4  CUTTING BOARD
Who would have thought it but the cutting board has become one of the most popular gift items of the year....and the best part is they are SUPER easy to make:) Click here for tutorial



 #5 CANDLE HOLDERS

Simple to make the most beautiful candle holders of the year!!

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TIP #1: WEB PRESENCE: 
Obviously to run an online business you must have a website to start. Wheter you running from your own site, Etsy, Storenvy or even a blog. There are always ways to maximize your web presence. This is key with a website the more sites you have the easier you get found. Things to consider: Opening social media accounts, Facebook, twitter, Pinterest are huge and even Google+. You may already have these accounts but are using them? Are you engaging the customers? If you want social media to work for you, you have to give a little. Yes you can make friends pretty easily on these sites but if you want to make an impression you need to get involved. One of the biggest ways to gain followers and to get people to share your content is by sharing and following them. People appreciate that you share their content and they return the favor. Sharing is caring!
TIP#2 NETWORKING:
Take time each week to read through some blogs and social media sites and sincerely comment, subscribe and read. Look for people who share interests with you and that engage you.. This tiny fun effort can pay off BIG TIME. People appreciate when you take time to read there posts and they will return the favor most of the time. Do this as an effort to make friends not to just get more readers and comments. That is the key sincerity....
TIP#3PINTEREST:
Pinterest is one of the most used social media sites. Make boards based off of keywords for your business so when people are searching in google your boards show up. Make one for each catagory. Also pin and re-pin other people boards and pics. Follow people and comment and they will also return the favor.
TIP#4 KEYWORDS: 
Make sure your keywords are working for you. Are you using keywords that are relevant that people are even searching? I will be doing a more in-depth keywords post in the next couple days if you are all interested. Keywords should help target your customers, you want keywords that attract customers not just people passing through. For our business we sell mason jar chandeliers that we custom make. For the first few months I was stumped on how to advertise or use keywords. After we sold a few I relized we were selling to people who where mainly remodeling there kitchens. I used that info to make some awesome keywords and it worked!
 TIP#5 SUCCESS IS AN ATTITUDE:
Are you confident in your business? Do you expect to be a success? If you don't then you need to back track and find your mojo. If you are expecting your business to fail then it will, if you fear the worst and it happens you are going to abandon ship. Do you know the reason why most businesses fail??? They give-up to quickly because there hearts are not in it. If you are in business to succeed you will find a way to do so. Be all in and expect your business to succeed and nothing will stop you.
TIPS#6 NEGATIVE NANCI'S:
You are going to run into a customer or someone who is negative trust me, the key is not to let this person define you. Let me tell you story....I make signs and I was extremely busy in October shipping signs. When I finish a sign I put the packing label on it so I know where it goes. Somehow, this was a one and only thing 2 signs got switched and they went out to the wrong customers. They had received the other person's sign. The first customers said "no big deal" and she returned the sign and I sent her sign. The other customer was not so happy, she wrote me a very long email on how unprofessional that was and how my business is going to fail. I agreed with her it was unprofessional but it had never happened before and I it will never happen again. Her nasty email hurt me at first, no one wants to hear that there business sucks! But I wrote her back and apologized, I explained to her that it had never happened before and I would do anything to make it up to her. She never wrote back....The point is she has no idea who I am and how I run my business, she was judging off what she knew and that wasn't much. In turn I don't know what is going on in her life, and for me to get upset with her would be useless. You can't make everyone happy, but you can try and when you have at least have tried you feel better about yourself. Don't let anyone ever define who you are, only you can do that and if you do mess up you can change in a instant. So never ever get down on yourself it does nothing. No what you need to do is feel the best you can about yourself it will in turn reflect out and others will see that in you.
TIPS#7 TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG??
I recommend to have a blog, I don't care if you only post once a month it is an important thing to have on the net. I use my other business blog to display my items and showcase them. I talk about how we make things and what we are doing. My blog generates more traffic to my website than anything else. The older and more relevant your blog becomes the better. For online business it is important to blog!
Tips#8 ENGAGE:
No matter what account you are on, facebook, blogger, pinterest, twitter... etc. You gotta think like the reader or the customer. Do you really want to see ads of what you have on sale all the time? I know I don't. I made this mistake in the beginning and posted only info about my store, but I noticed no one cared. Well of course they don't. It takes people at least 3 times of seeing something before they will even notice it. This is because we are always going and running mainly on auto-pilot(or our subconscious). It is like the tree in the yard you just noticed that has been there the whole time. When you engage you are asking people to step out of the ordinary making them use there brains and come out of that auto pilot mode. Think of thought provoking questions that are related to your business. Post things that people are interested in. You can't deny a funny video, people love a funny video!

TIPS#9 FIND YOUR ANGLE:
Ok so you are almost done with this article, what you can do next is sit down and find out what makes you unique and use it. There are so many online stores out there how do you get recognized?? First off you need to be yourself find out what makes you unique. Ask questions, ask why you sell, what you sell and why you opened a store. You need to do some leg work for yourself, don't just copy other peoples ideas create your own. We all spend countless hours reading other peoples materials ( which is fine) but if you can come up with your own unique angle, it is worth more than gold! It is like a picture, you can take 100 decent pictures and get people to share them a few times or you can take one a amazing photo and it is shared millions of times! Be unique, be yourself, find your angle
TIPS#10 NEVER QUIT!:
keep learning, keep growing and keep pushing never give up if this is your dream. The person who succeeds is the one that never gives up. I know that seems a little crazy, but I a telling you read about peoples success stories. Most of them started out broke, they pushed through all the negativity and keep going until they made it. Most people are to afraid to fail so they never even try but this is what causes people to never succeed either. My favorite thing to tell people, Edison failed almost 10,000 times when trying to invent the light bulb, and he said he learned 10,000 ways to not make a light bulb. But the one way he did learn has changed history. You may not think what you are doing is that important, but it should be. This is your life and anything that makes your life better should be your top priority!

This post was one from my other blog:thiscolorfulllife.blogspot.com but I thought it may be of some interest to my rubbish crows as well!

I hope these tips where helpful! Please comment and share if you liked. I would love to hear from you!!

Here are few lighting favorites we have made in the last year!

Hello Friends! I have been pumped up about remodels, so I have decided to dedicate a month to only doing posts about remodels in each room I will take a room a week and give insight, trends, tips and on how you can remodel your home for LESS. You know me I will figure out how to do it on my own and all my craft friends I am inviting you to join me!! Please let me know if you have something you would like to share as well, I will be highlighting other vendors so please sit back and relax and lets REMODEL!! Please if you like share the love, post, pin and tweet:)

This week it is all about KITCHENS!! today I want to talk colors!! 


New trends for 2014 show that accented colors are in and the brighter the better, I am in I love a pop of color with some beautiful neutrals.



Ok so these colors are for a rustic cottage kitchen. I believe in white walls, white floors even white cabinets ( too much?) and using accents to color the room. Flower, plants, tiles rustic furniture pieces, colored mis-matched china and even a chalkboard wall. White washing is so easy and can be done on so many mediums.

Here is a DIY for white washing 



Chalkboard wall


 Growing your own indoor plants




 Mis-matched china can be found at your local thrift store:) easy

Stay up to date and follow my pinterest!

and stay tuned for more remodels!! If there is anything you would like to see please let me know!!

THE BIG DAY! It is the day no one will ever forget...well at least you won't. Wedding have evolved so much in the last 10 years and have turned into a statement of your personality. They are like a big beautiful ultimate themed party directly from your own brain. I wanted to help find those ultimate beautiful wedding must have items along with some DIY to help you save on your big day. So I put together a curated pinboard on pinterest, showing the best and most beautiful wedding day must have's in my opinion.
Also watch the pin board grow, I will be adding items as I find more. If you have an item you would like to put on it please contact me! rubbishlove22@gmail.com