Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Hi Folks! I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas (or insert other holiday!) as well as a peaceful New Year. Today starts my self-decided Christmas vacation.

See you in 2013! It will kick off with a road trip & a big new addition to K. Batty Design & Stationery. Stay tuned!

PS in case anyone is freaking out too much, the big new addition does not have 4 legs...or legs of any kind. It does not need to be fed. You can calm down now.

High 5 For Friday

This week has been business, business, business. Last minute orders going out. Thoughts turning to the next year. I have been reading like a mad woman. Here are my top 5 resources:

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1. Blacksburg Belle - written by April Olin, a former indie business owner turned indie business coach. She saw a hole in the market when looking for resources to help move her business forward. She bravely shuttered her shop to help other small creative business people build theirs.

2. I will continue to sing the praises of my Etsy street team, EtsyNY. We have such great sellers who are full of resources & always willing to share them. I just found a post on our blog about all the monitoring & analytics tools you can use to track your shop, blog, whatever! Yes! There is more than Google Analytics!  And some of these  - like Hubspot - give you advice on how to improve where you need it.

3. Mayi Carles - of the Heartmade Blog. If you are an indie creative business person, Mayi is a familiar face,  unless you live under a rock. This video from last Friday about social media was both a great reminder of best practices & taught me something new.

4. Rena Tom - I love her newsletter & often find myself combing through her archives for whatever information I need...and finding it. So helpful! She is probably coming to NYC in early May & I hope I get to see her speak.

5. Via Twitter, I found Stephanie Peterson & Fairground Media this week. Already I'm in love. She has a great post about how to talk & not to talk to your customers on social media. After reading her post, it feels like a no brainer approach. Next thing I knew I'd read 5 more of her articles. Several are booked marked for later.

There are more resources to share & plenty more people I follow or read here & there. If you want to know more, let me know in the comments! These are just the top 5 from this week...

Happy weekend!

High 5 for Friday

Woot, woot! It's Friday!

1. Pantone's Color for 2013 is Emerald. YESSSSSSSS!

2. My Sonos system has been the secret behind my sucess this week. I have gotten so much accomplished in the last 5 days thanks to the tunes I have pumped through it.

3. Real Simple Daily Thought - I get so much email junk, but I actually look forward to this every day. There's no telling what it will be & it's a bit scary how often it's something that applies to the day I'm reading it. Sign up on the Real Simple website or check out their Pinterest board full of Daily Thoguhts. Any lover of type & color is going to appreciate it.

4. The Christmas tree is up! Almost all vintage ornaments from my parents & grandparents. It makes me happy to look at it. Think it might need more ornaments though...and ribbon...Hmmm...

5. I called my mom on FaceTime after I finished the tree to show it off...And the dogs wanted to talk :) On the left is Scout, her lab rescue. On the right is Murphy, her terrier mix. Look at those faces...so sweet. Sorry, Cat People, but there is nothing like that look or the kisses that usually follow.

Happy Weekend!

Don't forget! It is not too late to get your holiday cards or personalized stationery in time for Christmas. Hit me up & I will hook you up :)

Like High 5 for Friday? Join the link party over at From My Grey Desk.

Lightening Strikes Twice!

Guys! For the second time this week one of my products is a daily pick on Paper N Stitch! Wahoo!!!

Did I tell you about these? Somehow I think I dropped the ball on the new product announcement. GIFT BAGS! For your holiday "cheer" which is code for booze. Just add your friend's favorite Pinot, bubbly or scotch & voila! You're good to go. It would also lend a great touch to bottles of nice olive oil or vinegar...some kind of marinade...or wine. I already said that.

Check out my wine bags...errr, gift bags...on Paper N Stitch, as well as other great holiday items. Go! Go!!!

PNS Daily Pick!

 Attention!! I'm a daily pick today on the front page of Paper N Stitch today! Yeah!!!

Go see it!!!

Postable :: Usable?

Thank you internet! You bring such interesting things into my life each day. Yesterday, you brought Postable to my attention. Actually, I think it came from Tara Bliven at Ephemera...anyway...

This looks like a great site! At the Handmade Cavalcade, I took an informal pole - Do you send Christmas cards? The answer was yes as often as it was no & the reasons for not sending them often related to a lack of addresses. The marrieds that came by all had them 'cause they got married. But, what is the rest of the world to do?

So! I'm trying out Postable. I have most if not all of the addresses of the people I know (I'm one of those marrieds!) but! As someone who is in the card business, I think it's my duty to check this stuff out.

It looks SUPER easy. You sign up & get your own URL to pass around so that your peeps can give you their digits. Boom! Done.

I'll report back.

PS It also asks for people's birthdays!

MAN DOWN!

I try to be religious about keeping liquids away from my computer. Apparently either myself...or someone else (ah-hem!)...has not been as careful as once thought.

Friday night I updated my MacBook Pro, (brand new as of July) shut it down & mentally started my weekend. On Saturday morning, I started to fire it up for something...only it didn't fire up. Made zero noises, flashes or any signs of life of any kind. Not even the spinning beach ball of death (Mac owners, you know what I'm talking about). Holy. Sh*t.

Today's trip to the Genius bar at the Soho Mac Store revealed the culprit. After I SWORE to the technician that I had NEVER spilled anything on it, he brought back evidence to the contrary. Ugg...What really gets me is that the liquid that got into my computer was a TINY dribble. TINY!!!! Seriously?! So small & seemingly insignificant that it's no wonder I swore liquid never touched it. There was zero evidence on the outside of the machine.

So, my laptop was medi-vaced to wherever the Mac hospital is to be repaired for an enormous fee that is still less than a new laptop (Merry Christmas!) and will hopefully be back in my loving arms by the end of the week. Pretty quick, turn around actually.

Now I'm shaking in my boots because even though I thought I was all backed up...or at least backed up for the most part...I'm realizing how much time goes by between back ups. Usually as soon as I'm done with a project, it's moved to my external hard drive. But my own stuff? Ummm...I'm not as diligent. So - a plea to the people who are working on my laptop -

Please treat it with the utmost kindness & care, returning it fulling functioning with all my work on it. Please. Puuulllleeezzzze!!

When my laptop gets back...safely with all it's contents fully intact... I'm putting up the following in my office:

WARNING! If anyone who is even holding liquids so much as looks in the direction of my laptop, you. are. toast.

Handmade Cavalcade DeBrief...

Holy smokes you guys. Remember the holiday market that I have been shamelessly promoting? The 5th Annual Holiday Handmade Cavalcade? It was last weekend. And it was awesome.

Check out my set up...I don't know about you, but I love it. I've got a bunch of vintage boxes. My table cloth is a big piece of tan linen fabric with white pinstripes. I painted my previously white card rack gun metal gray. It all really came together with my rough brick wall in the back :)

Selling-wise - Obviously, 'tis the season for holiday cards, so those were a hot item. For the market, I ran a offered a special set - any 10 individual holiday cards for the set price. Big hit there! I may add that to my Etsy shop, but not sure how it would work...

Tons of visitors brought their dogs. How cute is this guy? He's just checking out my wares. Over the 2 day market, we had 2,000 people show up. Yeah!!

I started selling holiday banners. Gotta get those up on the web as well. I sold 1 of each of variety - Be Merry, Noel, Merry Christmas. Oh, except poor Happy Holidays. That one didn't get any love, but it's no wonder. I was short on space to display it. Note to self on the outcome. 

Also, I got great feedback on my wine gift bags & holiday cocktail toppers. I was calling them cupcake toppers but I realized during the show that perhaps I should sell them as something you use in your hors d'oeuvres or cocktail olives to broaden the market. If you have a better name for my festive tooth picks, please share it!

The location turned out to be great. I was skeptical, but that probably just speaks to how little I know my way around Williamsburg. Lots of people just walked by & found us. The guys who run The Space. Are. Awesome. Seriously. Mike & his crew at Villain (the actual brand business who runs The Space) were SO helpful throughout the weekend.

It was loads of fun to sell with my teammates! The Etsy NY team is a great group of people. Plus, we had some food vendors this time. The picture above is of delicious pretzels from a vendor...who's name I forgot. Damn. There was also an awesome beef jerky vendor from Vermont, called SlantShack.

Overall, great experience. I got to meet a few people I previously knew only online. Some friends stopped by. Each time I do this type of selling I learn a bit more & I am looking forward to doing more markets next year. I might try to squeeze another one in before the holiday. Even so, there is still time to get your holiday cards! Check out my Etsy shop section for options.

PS Thanks to my buddy Eric Vitale & his girlfriend Saara who came by on Saturday. I am so thankful for your support! Also, he took that top picture of me. It's my new favorite! He's a fabulous photographer & recently started his own Etsy shop. Go Eric!!!

High 5 for Friday :: Ode to Rosepose

High 5 for Friday!! Today is a bittersweet post. First...it's my birthday, which is sweet. But, I've picked a kind of sad topic for my Friday post. Almost a week ago, my sweet almost 18 year old dog, Rose, went to dog heaven. We are all very sad. No matter how long she lived, it would never have been long enough.

However!! This week, I have been remembering all the wonderful, silly things about my dog from her younger years. So, I thought I'd share some for my H54F.

35 Years Young

Yes! Today is...drum roll please...MY BIRTHDAY!! That is all...

Oh, and, please come see me at the Holiday Handmade Cavalcade tomorrow & Sunday.

Hope to see you this weekend in Williamsburg!

Cavalcade & Counting

Just another reminder that this weekend (after my birthday!!) you can find me at the 5th Annual Handmade Cavalcade with my fellow EtsyNY team members. Come one, come all, Saturday, December 1st & Sunday, December 2nd to The Space @ 50 North 3rd Street, Williamsburg (that's in Brooklyn, yoh!) from 11 am to 6pm. It will be a special holiday event for everyone - especially those shoppers looking for unique gifts & treats.

View Larger Map

RSVP on Facebook & follow my tweets from the event. I will be posting lots of pics...well if I can 'cause you know, my cards will be selling like hotcakes, so you may have to just forgive me if I go radio silent...See you this weekend!

K. Batty & PNS - together again

This holiday season, I am partnering with Paper N Stitch again. YEAH!! It's always an honor to be included in Brittni's exhibitions. My shop went live yesterday. It's full of holiday cards & gift ideas for you & yours.

Check it out here! Readers of PNS get a 10% discount.

Don't forget that if you subscribe to MY newsletter, there's an extra holiday reward in it for you...

Newsletter Perks!

Time to start thinking about your holiday cards! Time to grab my early bird offer & save some dough!

Subscribers to my newsletter get 20% off plus free first class shipping until November 20th. Use the form below to sign up, then contact me for the deal!

Subscribe to our mailing list

Words to live by...

Thanks Lily, for lending some perspective to my Wednesday morning. Mr. B & I are headed to Bermuda tomorrow for a wedding. Clients-turned-friends of ours are getting married on Saturday at the Unfinished Church on St. George.

I have been STRESSED getting ready for this trip - my dog is a mess, our dog sitter situation is less than optimal, the weather looks bad for our flight...I have tons of product to make for my holiday shows coming up...

Ok, breathing...deep breaths...

Perspective: I'm going to Bermuda tomorrow...Weeeeeee!!

Happy Halloween!

It is not the Halloween we were expecting here in New York, but nonetheless...Halloween it is! Hope everyone has a safe one...

Illustration credit: Me! Based on some pumpkin photos I took a few years ago.

Arts & Crafts :: Coffee Can Vase

{The inspiration, from Better Homes and Gardens, Feb 2012}

This is a project I've had my eye on for a while. And did a while back, as in this summer. Notice the bright green grass. But! It's taken a while to put together in a post, so here we are...

In my house, we drink coffee every morning, as you know if you've read this post or this one.  So, what to do with all these coffee cans? Of course I've saved them. You know I have ideas... :)

The top picture was my original inspiration. It's from the Feb 2012 issue of Better Homes & Gardens. Great way to use up my coffee cans! Read on for my how-to...

Gowanus Girls Market

Last weekend, my sister-in-law, 2 nieces & myself ventured down to Gowanus Grove to check out the 2nd weekend of Gowanus Girls - a new market put on by Curious Jane - an after-school & summer camp program promoting young girls & creativity.

It was super cool! My seller friends Jackie from LoveJac & Sarah from Love of Pretty were both there. The weather was kind of icky as the first signs of Hurricane Sandy started rolling in, but the spot is adorable. Check it out...

High 5 for Friday

A smattering of goodness from the week! Like...

Alan Davies is hilarious!! No matter your opinion on cats, you will laugh at this. I promise.

I am updating all my Christmas listings on my Etsy shop. I was so wrapped up in creating new cards & going to my first craft fair that I didn't really do that last year. Hence, I have a ton of new things coming to the shop. Very exciting!

It was our niece Molly's birthday yesterday! Isn't she cute? We celebrated with a big chocolate cake that she decorated herself.

I made her this card. It's an idea for kids' cards I've had for a while - simple, with just a number on it. Something they can actually read! I think I'll make some more & test them out with numbers 1 to 5. What do you think?

For the first time ever, I am having a hard time keeping this post to 5 things. Usually I get to the last one & struggle to think of number 5. But number 5 has to be...

Going to see Kermit Ruffins at Brooklyn Bowl last weekend with Mr. B, my brother, plus other assorted characters. Please pardon the less-than-steller pictures. Dark venue + Brooklyn Lager = shoddy camera work.

Happy Friday!

Holidays, Here I Come!

Each year I get a little better at preparing for the holidays. Here I am, in October, updating my Etsy listings. Technically speaking...if I was trying to pick up some press for my holiday products...I would have put these listings up in July. But since I'm not quite organized enough for that, I'm pretty excited to  have new pictures to refresh my listings, etc, before November 1st. This for me is an accomplishment, especially with the market going, VMG in full swing...etc.

So! One set down...several to go. These are my Merry Christmas Tree Card Set. One of my faves! Check my holiday card section later this week for the rest!

Happy Something Birthday Invites

This week in my Paper Source newsletter I saw these (pictured above). Do they look familiar? Last year I designed my Happy Something Birthday cards after I couldn't find a card that said what I wanted. Now there are napkins! Well, sort of. They are are year specific, but they match my design. I digress...

So! I was inspired to create birthday invitations from my design to coordinate with the Paper Source napkins. Voila! This card is the ever popular A6 size - which is 4.5 x 6.25 inches. It will come on white card stock with a matching white envelope (colored envelopes are always available on request!) with a CELEBRATE envelope liner. These are fill in the blank, so you put your party details in the blanks.

Do you likey?? These are currently available on my Etsy shop & I'll have printed versions for purchase at any & all holiday markets I attend this year.

PS The napkins at Paper Source are available in 3 sizes in this design, as well as the other custom napkins they are now offering. Some great choices here!

Dekalb No More...

Today, Sunday, September 30th, is our last day at the Dekalb Market. While my expectations for this market were that it would run until December, I find it's closing to be bittersweet - not a totally sad event. This has been a fabulous experience! I have good friends in the other vendors. It has exceed my expectations for sales & the feedback on my cards has been confidence-building. It has also been quite the education in identifying the types of people I want to work with. I find very few things to be negative about in my time here at Dekalb.

So! Onward & upward! The holiday season will be here soon enough & with it more markets...Stay tuned!

Three Years Ago Today...

Happy Anniversary to my husband Mr. B! Three years today we were married. What a fun day! Thanks to everyone who was there & contributed to it.

Want to see details from our wedding day? They are in a few places:
1. Here on my blog.
2. Here on our photographers blog.
3. Here on The Knot.

High 5 for Friday!

1. My Lifefactory Water bottle. Soooo sleek & I feel good about it being glass instead of plastic.
2. White Collar - my new favorite show. Thank you Netflix!
3. Mail Chimp - that chimp has earned his bananas, as has on of our programmer friends who has been saving my life this week by helping me out with email coding.
4. My grandmother's heating pad - when I'm under the weather & need it, I feel even better knowing that it was hers. Mine is yellow though. Find the one pictured on Etsy here.
5. Knitting - I've been working on a hat for ages. It's looking like I've made a few mistakes, but it's coming along. Loving the yarn I'm working with!

Happy Friday! Plans this weekend? I'll be at the Dekalb Market Saturday & Sunday. If you're in Brooklyn, come see me!

If you'd like to see other High 5 for Friday posts, head over to From My Grey Desk. Read other H54F posts or join the link party with one of your own!

Fall Thank You Notes

I am really excited to present new Thank You notes for fall. These are for sale at An Etsy Artist Assembly at the Dekalb Market. Soon to be listed on my Etsy shop.

This design is the first of a few different cards for fall featuring my new leaf stamp. I am slightly embarrassed to admit this, but I've had this stamp for a whole year. Last year, I knew this was something I wanted to develop & I wanted to do it from my own art work. On a hike at the Wertheim National Forest I took a bunch of pictures of the foliage. From those, I traced some of the leaves in Illustrator & voila - a stamp was born.

Developing the card design from there is a whole other thing. I've used the stamp all over the place - on wrapping paper, scrap cards, etc. I like to try out placements, colors, repetition of the stamp.

Stay tuned for more designs to come!

Wedding Doilies 2.0

Remember the wedding menu doilies I made last summer? I had another order for them! Wahoo!! They arrived safely in the UK last week. Now they have to make it to my client's house. I'm tracking their every move!

And who wouldn't? The picture above was taken during my first trip through the line at the USPS. I had grabbed the wrong Express Mail box. Apparently this was the $78 shipping box & was looking for the $38 box. I was given an IDENTICAL box & told to repack my stuff. Oh USPS...if you could only get your shiz together...

Fingers are crossed for a happy email from my client this week telling me that not only did the doilies arrive, but that she LOVES them. Yeah!

Funny to read my old blog post about these. I said look for them on my Etsy shop soon. Ooops...I finally just figured out how to list them. It's a very custom job, so I didn't really know how to word the listing. But! With this order, I figured it out. So! Now I can really say - look for the listing on my Etsy shop!

Back to School

Uggg...back to school. It still brings butterflies to my stomach - so much so that I've been sitting on this post for WEEKS. But! There are some cute things on Etsy...and practical too...that bring me around the idea. You know...if going back to school was something I was still doing. Ha!

Links row by row, starting at the top, left to right: Vintage Bookplates by Kids At Heart Designs, Washi-wrapped Japanese Pencil Set by maoliosa, School Excuse notes by Fancy Shmancy Notes, Carrots & Dog Applique reusable lunch bags by High Fiber Co, Library Card Notebook by Crab Apple Design, and last but not at all least - Einstein Mini Notebook by Happy Dappy Bits.

Not pictured, but also worth checking out are the bags at Preppy Owl Accessories. Love!

H54Friday

This week's top 5 are...

Pinterest - how do I love thee? Let me count the ways! So much inspiration. So easy to share!

My French Twist. There is a great tutorial on The Beauty Department here. I actually got this on my first try. It's shockingly easy. I'm just learning to do things like this with my hair so if I say it's easy, then you can be sure it's a cinch to do.

High 5 for Friday!

Woooooaaaah...where did the week go? Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! Here's my High 5 for Friday:

World Tour Stories.com - a sailing blog written by a European couple who have simplified their lives by taking to the sea. I love to read about their adventures, especially this week as Labor Day is here & the summer seems to be coming to a close. And then there is the whole I'm-a-sailor-and-want-to-sail-away part. Total lifestyle envy. One day...

Welcome to our new office! Velocity Made Good (or VMG for short) is the company my husband & I recently started. We have moved from our living room to a temporary office space in DUMBO. We love it.

My bike - for the first time since I bought this awesome machine, I have a place & reason to ride regularly. Mr. B & I can bike together to the office...

...through Brooklyn Bridge Park. Not a shabby commute - this is from last night on the way home at the Kayak launch. My legs are aching in a good kind of way.

Last but not least - my handlettering project. Amanda at Wit & Whistle started a group Pinterest board for interested parties to practice & post their hand drawn type. Above is my week one. In preparation for my week two, I treated myself to a mechanical pencil, graph pad & new pilot pen. {squeal!!!}

Happy Weekend everyone! What's on your agenda? I have some wedding menus to finish up tonight. Remember these doily menus? I have another order to complete & ship to the UK! Yeah! Then off to the beach...