Handing Off the Torch...

As many of you already know, I am very sweetly busy with my brand new marketplace, LolliShops...The froufrou friendly marketplace which you are all invited to apply for (if you haven't already and a lot of you have).

So, being as how I am so sweetly busy--I have decided to pass the torch of leading the Cottage Style Street Team, to a VERY responsible and capable member, Popalicious. I wouldn't just give this job to anyone--I really had to stop and think about who would step in with lots of ideas and a willingness to devote attention to the role.
We spoke on the phone the other day and my mind was 100% set at ease.
So from now on, she will be responsible for anything having to do with the Street Team. The best way to contact her would be through her Etsy Shop which I have already linked to.
I wish the team tons of continued success! I will be be keeping an eye on it and rooting for you behind the scenes...
(all blog posts from here on out will be written by Pops too)
...Goodbye,
Love,
Sadie Lou
( It's not really goodbye though--you all know where to find me!)

Today is Christmas!

In July...

Featured Seller: PinkButterCreme

When you look at Tami's creations over at PinkButterCreme two things come to mind:
Tami has the best handwriting ever!
And...
The girl paints a delicious cupcake!
You'll love the pink, glittery goodness over at her BLOG. I stopped in for a visit the other day and was so drawn in by her photographs. I particularly loved this one...


I have one glass cake stand--but I think I need some more. What a cute way to display a collectible!
I suggest finding Tami on Etsy or in Blogland, either way--you'll come away feeling like you've sipped tea in a rose garden with a friend!
~Sadie Lou

Protect Yourself on Flickr

Ladies,
We have had a rash of people stealing your photos on Flickr and making use of them! I have spotted your images being used on Etsy Shop banners, MySpace Backgrounds and uploaded to other Flickr accounts without the proper credit being given back to the artist.
We must protect ourselves!
If you're going to use Flick--here are 2 ways to help protect your photos and images.
You can block any user and you must set the proper license for your photos.

Blocking a user is a must. If someone adds you as a contact and they have no photos available to you, no profile information and they just mark your pictures as favorites--they are probably working on copying you or ripping off your images.
I had a user come through and mark 3 pages of my photos as favorites. I blocked them.

Just move your mouse over the person's icon picture and a drop down menu will appear--click on the last option "block".

A new page will open that says...


Next, set your account to post pictures with "All Rights Reserved"


This will protect your images from being saved as targets to someone's desktop.

I hope this helps!
~Sadie Lou

Christmas in July!

July 25th is coming this Friday!
I will be listing some One of a Kind ornaments as well as a few surprises! Make sure you tag your Christmas creations with the following tags:

cssteam
csst
christmas
july

That we can find your special goodies and promote one another!
Here are some inspiring photos!

Featured Seller: Sunshine and Ravioli

I first heard of this shop when I was reading a blog post from Holiday Jenny. I instantly contacted the shop's owner to become a member of our Cottage Style Street Team! Everything about this shop is so whimsical & delightful!

Shop owner, Stephanie, says...

I'm Stephanie Butler, a self-taught folk artist, and I don't remember a time I didn't like to draw, color, paint, etc . I run my business from home so I can be here when my two great kids get home from school. Painting is my "girl cave" (They will tell you-don't mess with Mom when she's in her studio!) I also write instructional patterns so that other decorative painters can do it themselves. Many of these patterns have been featured in Create and Decorate Magazine,with a country/primitive style. I will occasionally offer patterns here, but my whole line can been seen on my website:
Sunshine-n-Ravioli

You can also visit Stephanie on her blog:
Right Here

You'll love Stephanie's heart shaped, hand painted ornaments and her antiqued tags!
Stop by and say Hi!
Love,
Sadie Lou

CSST Bridal Gift Baskets Featured Here:

Our friend at the Vintage Kitchen on Etsy, recently asked if she could post an article about our Gift Baskets on the Vintage Indie Wedding Guide.
How very thoughtful. The Indie Wedding Blog is also very cool. Take a look around while you're there.
~Sadie Lou

Featured Seller: Little Pink Studio

Nobody packages quite like Cerri of Little Pink Studio. I am one of those consumers that is all about the packaging. An example would be my make up--I will buy anything that BeneFit puts out because of the Retro Packaging. They know who their target audience is and they design their look around it. It's just smart business.
Cerri knows what I'm talking about! Not only is Cerri a great seller of beautifully packaged supplies but she's a talented artist too!
You can visit her Flickr to see photographs of her lovely creations and you can also visit her Blog to see shop updates and posts about Cerri's life.
Cerri just launched her new baby into the World Wide Web and she did an amazing job! Here's the link!
Little Pink Studio
Enjoy!!

Promoting Each Other

Are you looking for ways to get involved with our Cottage Style Street Team?
I have a couple things you could do every day, once a week, once in awhile or whenever the mood suits you!

First, we do a daily promotion thread in Etsy's Forums and you can visit the one for today by clicking HERE
The first page always has an introduction like this:

We have different members running the threads every day. Here's where you come in! It is really easy to come to the daily promotion thread and promote your shop and the shops of other members for a little while. You can donate 2 minutes-5 minutes--10 minutes--whatever!
Posting in this thread helps bump the thread to the first page of the Promotions section. To find the thread each day, go to "Promotions"
and then put "CSSTEAM" or "CSST" in the Forum's search engine and the most current thread with pop up.
It's that simple and like I said, someone is there everyday. The host of the thread tries to keep the thread going all day but lately, the hostess has been doing much of the posting by themselves.
I think if the daily promotions keeps getting any slower, we'll just retire it for the summer. So this is just a friendly reminder to see if we can encourage any helpers!

Another way you can help promote our team is to blog about it once in awhile. Just a small shout out once every so often will generate awareness.

Also, did you all notice that we can use clickable links in our Shop Headers?! Yes! As long as the link goes to another Etsy location, the link will be hot! So you can promote the Cottage Style Street Team by having a hot link to our profile, Flickr Pool or CSST Shop in your Shop Headers!

Thanks for all the hard work many of you do to help spread the word about our humble team!
~Sadie Lou

A Word of Wisdom Concerning Flickr

Hi Ladies!
So as many of you know, we are all blog buddies and Etsy Friends as well as we are Flickr Contacts.
I see many of you on Flickr and it's fun to stay on top of all the lovely creations you photograph and then list on Etsy.
However,
I see some of you in direct conflict with Flickr's community guidelines and Terms of Service.
I want to share this information with you to spare you the heartache of having your account removed from Flickr's website. They have a warning in the guidelines that state very plainly:

Here’s the deal: In most circumstances, we like to give second chances, so we’ll send you a warning if you step across any of the lines listed below. Subsequent violations can result in account termination without warning.

Here are the 2 violations I see most often from The Cottage Style Street Team:

• Don’t use your account to host web graphics like logos and banners.
Your account will be terminated if we find you using it to host graphic elements of web page designs, icons, smilies, buddy icons, forum avatars, badges, and other non-photographic elements on external web sites.
• Don’t use Flickr for commercial purposes.
Flickr is for personal use only. If we find you selling products, services, or yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your account. Any other commercial use of Flickr, Flickr technologies (including APIs, FlickrMail, etc), or Flickr accounts must be approved by Flickr. For more information on leveraging Flickr APIs, please see our Services page. If you have other open questions about commercial usage of Flickr, please feel free to contact us.

So if you feel you might have violated those two guidelines, then I suggest you go back through all your photographs and make the changes. Many people just link to their shops or blogs in their profiles.
I hope this has been useful info for you!
~Sadie Lou

Free Shipping!

Mention you saw this ad and you can receive FREE SHIPPING on a Cottage Style Bride Gift Basket!
Visit our official Street Team Shop to purchase!

~Sadie Lou

Romantic, Elegant Inspiration Treasury

I really love the colors of this treasury--so romantic, soft and elegant. It inspires me to drink a glass of French Chablis in my vintage, silk nightie and put on some gorgeously rich movie like Dangerous Liaisons...

Treasury

Cottage Style Street Team's Christmas in July!

One of our members wrote me an email this morning and it was so funny how we were totally on the same page!
Jenny, otherwise known as Be Cheery aka Lollipop Workshop suggested that the next promotion the CSST does should be a Christmas in July!
It was so weird because I was thinking the same thing!
I have been making Betsy Girls, getting ready for Christmas, and I would love to list some as part of a promotional event!
So there you have it! Now here are the details:

Start making some lovelies for Christmas and then we will all list our goodies on July 25th, 2008!
Tag your Christmas Creations with "CSST" "CSSTeam" and "July Christmas" Then we will be able to find all the wonderful CSST goodies!
I'm so excited!
I will be uploading the picture I used here in this post at the Cottage Style Christmas in July Flickr Pool. Feel free to use it on your blogs!
If you have any questions, contact me directly through Etsy or just ask in the comments.
Have a wonderful week!
~Sadie Lou

Featured Seller: The Pink Tulip

Two words:
Spun Cotton

I never knew I loved spun cotton until I found The Pink Tulip.
This piece is totally amazing:


Maryanne's profile reads:

"I taught myself to knit, crochet, and sew by the time I was eighteen years old. I've been gardening since about eleven years old. Flowers and sewing are my favorite things !!! With sewing I love to mix antique or vintage fabric, buttons, anything old with new. And I enjoy making my own patterns. "

I am so captured by Maryanne's little world; her magical creations. Stop in and see for yourself!
Love,
Sadie Lou

Featured Seller: Faerie Window

Who are we kidding here? We all know Lori of Faerie Window! She is a regular blog Author and blog reader! Her creations are always of perfect quality & imagination.
Lori's blog profile reads...

"welcome to my little world where i am loving my family, cutting up paper, and making whimsies from clay and mache..."

Probably my favorite, signature creations are Lori's ceramic bunny shapes perched on little handcrafted boxes. Lori "sugar coats" those creations with German Glass Glitter...

All of the items in the Faerie Window shop have this magical, timeless feel about them.
It's one of my favorite places to shop!
~Sadie Lou

The Cottage Style Bride Baskets Are HERE!!

The baskets are being listed today! Look at the listing right
HERE
Everyone really put their best foot forward!
Thanks to all the contributing artists!
~Sadie Lou

(Good Luck to Us!)

Featured Seller: Out On a Whim Studio

Kathi Robinaugh's shop Out On a Whim Studio is really inspiring to me. With over 70 items for sale, you instantly get the feeling Kathi *LOVES* what she does.
Kathi's BLOG is so much fun! It's just as full of wonderful things as her Etsy shop! I saw some really great ideas.
Kathi says,

"Welcome to Out on a Whim studio...where the past meets the present! I am an Altered Artist, Junker, Vice President of our private ambulance service, Mom of 4 boys and wife, not necessarily in that order! I began creating as a child, and have done Primitive painting, sewing, and stitchery, and my current obsession, altered art! I've done shows, consignment, mall booths, antique booths and a little wholesale. I am now primarily selling online! After several years of scrapbooking the kids' pictures, I began to do other papercraft type projects! I am currently focusing on primitive and whimsical altered art, such as handmade journals, prim tags, and anything else I can find to alter!"

I love Kathi's attention to detail. The use of small keys, die_cuts, ribbon, flower accents, gems & crystals...she's very good at creating a beautiful arrangement.
Stop by Out on a Whim Studio and welcome her to the team! She's new (and wonderful asset) to the Cottage Style Street Team on Etsy!

A Cottage Style Wedding: Coming Soon!

Chloe Rose made this GORGEOUS Cottage Style TREASURY! It's to tease potential buyers about our Cottage Style Bride gift baskets coming very soon! The baskets may not list exactly on the 1st--due to the holiday-but it will be close so keep watch!
Make sure to visit Chloe's treasury and click, click, click! All the visits and clicking get our lists noticed and MAYBE chose for the Front Page which is awesome exposure for everyone.
Enjoy!

Featured Seller: Raquel Castillo

I saw one of Raquel's necklaces in a treasury. I was hooked instantly! I clicked on the listing and then the shop and each creation was as delicious as the last.
When I look at this SHOP as a whole, each listing compliments the next one and they all have this very vintage-inspired feeling--like someone has gone through the estate of a classy lady, chosen her best pieces and revamped them for the 21st century.
The jewelry has a modern design but crafted with special attention to the vintage elements involved.
Just like many of us, Raquel is a stay at home Mom raising two young boys. Her profile states quite plainly,

"I spend most of my time raising my two boys, Mathew (5) and Luke (1). I love to sew, draw, and make anything possible with my hands...

I think you would agree that this shop ties in nicely with the Cottage Style we all love and cherish--Vintage, Romantic and sweetly composed with a delicate color palate-Raquel's creations are something to admire!
Take some time to welcome Raquel to the team! She doesn't have a blog yet but she aspires to do so in the future!
~Sadie Lou

Gorgeous Cottage Style Treasury!

Click Here to visit this gorgeous treasury. It expires in one day so make sure you 'click' 'click'!!
I don't think one of our Cottage Style treasuries has made the front page--but we'll get there soon enough!!
Here are some quick tips on how to score a treasury:

1) Click on Treasury from the home page
2) Notice the number of lists--count backwards from that number until 333 (that's when the new treasury opens)
3) When the lists tick down to 333-stay on that first page. DO NOT REFRESH!
4) Some lists will start to expire but the number of lists don't change--just be patient! Don't leave that first page. You can click back and forth between pages to watch the minutes tick down on that 333 Treasury
5) Have the title of your list ready to go! Copy and Paste it into the Title Box and hit "CREATE"
Yay! You got one! Make sure you don't put yourself in the treasury--that's considered taboo by Etsy admins and they won't choose your list for the Home Page

Good Luck!
This Treasury was created by Chloe Rose
Thanks Chloe!