New Feature! Weekly Recipe From My Recipe Book!

Many of my readers already know that I love to cook. It makes sense, since I love making things, that I would love making things in the kitchen!

I come from a family who loves to cook too. In fact, when the time allows, a bunch of us plan on putting together a cook book to publish based on all of our combined family traditions and our respective regional immediate family recipes.

Pictured below is a little taste (pun intended) of what I have whipped up in the kitchen and added to my recipe book.

 

The photo is of the cake I made in 2010 for my husband's birthday. It is a peanut butter cake with peanut butter cream icing topped with crushed peanut butter cups and Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips. 

Follow my blog and follow me on facebook for announcements about my Weekly Recipe! 

Bon Apetit!

Wedding Suite -- Bringing A Theme to the Wedding

Keep reading to learn about the photo above!

Monday was my second wedding anniversary. I married Mike Machowski on a sunny Saturday in June of 2009. The "sunny" part was a small miracle, as New England was steeped in a solid month of rain at the time and I had prepared myself for a rainy outdoor wedding...sheltered by a gazebo, and our guests sheltered under a large tent. Alas, the clouds parted and the day was all sunshine!

Celebrating our anniversary brought back all of the memories of that beautiful day, along with the images in our wedding album and a lovely gift of a whole armful of blue hydrangea blooms sent to our door by my ever-generous parents. Hydrangeas are the favorite flower of my Mom and my Mother In-Law...which influenced my decision to make them our wedding flower.

When Mike proposed, he drew a ring on my finger, explaining that he wanted my friend Angi (Tiny Armour Jewelry) to design my ring with me. Wait for it....the ring features a hydrangea four-petal flower.

All that explained, I thought it would be a good idea to show how the hydrangea theme plays out throughout our wedding decor and a favorite wedding gift that continues to develop as we travel through our marriage.

This highlights the items in M Design Boutique that can be customized to fit your wedding colors, flowers, decor or theme. Enjoy!

The Votive Candles, in Hydrangea colors, adorned the tables at our reception.

The White Votives in Frosted Cups and Dark Chocolate scented adorned the dessert table that was set up in the gazebo where we said our vows. Email info@mdesignboutique.com for a custom quote for votives, pillars or hand-dipped tapers for your event!

This is a "Bridal Survival Kit" that comes with anything a Bride might need (bobby pins, stain remover, calming candle, sewing kit, etc) at the last minute. This makes a great Bridal Shower Gift or something the Bridesmaids can show up with!

Hydrangea Fragrance Soy Travel Candle Favor Gifts. The labels and fragrance can be customized and the more you order, the bigger the discounts!

This is an amazing wedding gift from my Mom. The idea is that throughout our marriage we can collect things and label them with locations and dates to display our adventures together. I love this idea so much, I created custom labels and am now offering this in M Design Boutique with custom or stock labels! 

Now that we have been married for two years, I have been able to enjoy a little taste of the memories from our wedding day when I look at the photos, my ring, burn a candle or look up at the mantle where "Our Adventures in Marriage" bottles are on display.

Here is the instruction sheet that comes with your custom gift:

If you would like a custom "suite" for your wedding, email me and we can customize a package of any of these ideas for you. I can even put you in touch with my ring designer!

The Power of Tags

As promised, I have a seller tip for those of you selling in online shops such as Etsy, Artfire and so on:

Use every tag. It takes a little extra time and thought, but it works. So...if you want more traffic getting to your listings, TAG TAG TAG!

Did you know that each tag can be multiple words? That means if you are allowed 14 tags you will get a lot more out of something like "chocolate brown wool" than "yarn".

Good Example:
"Gold Plated Chain"

Wasted Opportunity:
"Necklace"

So...even if you simply use every tag with one word, you're ahead of the game. But if you spend a little extra time taking your tags seriously, you will climb the ladder in search rankings and get those clicks.

I was just looking at my stats for the past 30 days and while much of my traffic is manually driven by my social networking, I can see that google search results are responsible for just under a thousand clicks into my Etsy shop. That is no coincidence. That is the power of tags.

Happy Selling!

Newsletter Announcement

This is a quick announcement to let you know that M Design Boutique now has a newsletter. You can sign up by clicking the button on the left side of this post!

Don't worry, I won't send one every day! My newsletter will announce new blog posts, shop specials, how-to articles and new products.

I will also announce specials in my favorite Etsy shops when I come across something good to pass along to my readers. Handmade and DIY fans will want to subscribe to learn tips for making and selling....and of course where to buy great unique handmade gifts, favors, apparel, decor and accessories!

Take a moment and sign up for the newsletter! I look forward to connecting with my readers to offer great information!