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

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

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!)

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!

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!

Etsy's New Search Hurts!

In case you didn't know, Etsy changed their search.
Etsy Article

I quote...

Today, we launched some exciting changes to Etsy's search engine. These changes were requested by the community and we think they help improve the shopping experience on Etsy.

We've separated item search into three new searches: Handmade, Vintage, and Supplies. The default is Handmade, with Vintage and Supplies available in the drop-down. You can also select "All items" to search Handmade, Supplies, and Vintage all at once.

Hmmm...
I'm thinking buyers are not going to realize there is a drop down menu. In fact. my own supply shop Nickel Candy has already felt the after burn of the new search.
I recently took all my listings out and I will be listing supplies in my handmade shop. I have spoken to a few supply sellers and the feedback is the same--this new search hurts!
Popalicious Too
Caramelos

Here are some tips on tagging that might help:

Tag every, single item with your shop name. Buyers can sometimes remember the name of the shop they bought something but they can't always remember to use the drop down menu in the search to choose "username". If you tag all your listings with your shop name, people can put that name in any of Etsy's search functions and find you.

Tag all your handmade items with the word "handmade" so they are sure to show up in the default search.

Remember to use the "All Items" when searching for CSSTeam listings. This searches everything: Supplies, Handmade & Vintage.

I hope all of this helps! Buy handmade and support our fellow members by buying supplies on Etsy?!!
~Sadie Lou

Featured Shop: Cape Cod Cupboard

Visiting the shop Cape Cod Cupboard is like a trip through time. If you're like me, you sometimes feel sad about all the wonderful treasures of the past being lost on a dusty shelf somewhere. Fear not! Artists like the owner of Cape Cod Cupboard, take these antique findings and recreate their original importance by adding them into new creations!
I was looking at her blog and I read this in the profile:
"My dream as a little girl on the South Shore of Boston was to someday get married and live on Cape Cod, in a Cape Cod style house with weathered shingles, and have lots of kids. I may have forgotten about that dream, but it didn't forget me... I live on Cape Cod... in a Cape Cod style home with weathered shingles... with my hubby and kids... and I'm very happy!"

Happiness is like a magic glue--it holds all the elements together and I can see happiness and hard work in all of Cape Cod Cupboard's finer details...
...stop by and visit!
~Sadie Lou

"A Cottage Style Bride" Gift Basket

Here's the idea Girls,
I would like for the team to generate some funds so that we can start buying some prime real estate in some popular magazines! In order to do this, I have hatched a two-fold marketing plan. This idea will both generate funds and exposure. I need volunteers!
We will be putting together some promotional packs with a theme.
Our first theme (since June is right around the corner) will be "A Cottage Style Bride". I need CSST members to sign up to make 10 items for the gift basket.
The 10 items must be Cottage Style.
They must all be the same thing.
They should be "for the bride"-- Think: jewelry, soap, lotions, stationary, thank you cards, decorations, candles, things for the home...whatever! We are a creative bunch so I know we'll be able to make an irresistable gift basket!
If you sign up to contribute, you will be sending me 10 items for 10 baskets--all the same.
You will also include 10 business cards with a description of the item you made for the basket, written on the back.
The business cards will be put in a pretty envelope and will be included in each gift basket.
My contribution (besides what I make) will be the gift basket and wrapping. If someone wants to volunteer to make a decoration for the gift basket--like a banner that says "For the Bride" or a ribbon & Flower accent--sign up to do that.
These baskets will go on Sale starting June 1st.
All contributions must be mailed to me by Monday, May 26th so that I can get the baskets together, photographed and listed by June 1st.
This is a great opportunity for your shop to get noticed and for our Team, as a whole, to generate some money for advertising!
Sign up soon so you have plenty of time to create!
Love,
Sadie Lou

Congrats Autumn to May!

This listing from Autumn to May was on the front page this Sunday Morning.
Congratulations and Thank you for having a shout out to the Cottage Style Street Team in your shop's announcement!
~Sadie Lou

A Big, Important Post About Tagging

So in case you haven't seen the announcement on Flickr or the promo thread on Friday, we need to change our team's tag.
We are all so used to tagging with "CSST" and some of us have a lot of listings in our shops so this is going to be a small chore.
However, according to this Etsy article, it's pretty important that we change our team tag to "CSSTeam".

So let's get the change rolling this weekend. Alert your friends too because there is a limit to how many conversations I can send out before the spambot shuts me down.
*smile*
Good Luck & Thanks!
~Sadie Lou

Featured Shop: Birds of a Feather

Heidi Wallingford has a beautiful shop called Birds of a Feather
I have been especially impressed with Heidi's use of color. She has the most fabulous, ready to use, crepe paper garlands in yummy, yummy *COTTAGE STYLE* colors.
Be sure to visit Heidi's shop and see her delicious sense of Cottage Style...
~Sadie Lou

Cottage Style Treasury- April 29th, 08

I got a Treasury titled,
"Pink Butter"
You can visit the list and click on all the listings to support our fellow members!
CLICK HERE

Love,
Sadie Lou

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