Monday, February 28, 2011

Motivational Monday: Difficulties

Out of difficulties grow miracles.
~Jean de la Bruyere

 A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
~Winston Churchill

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Refelctions

"Reflections" 
From artbybelle.com original photography album Nature's Best

I hope you feel inspired by the calm mirror smooth surface of the water to do some reflecting of your own.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

SpotLight Saturday: Hearthside Teasures


Our feature today is Heathside Treasures. This eclectic shop has surprises like crafting supplies, vinyl clings and earrings that are sugary sweet lollipops.

You may have missed the dog breed earrings in the mix, so I'm spotlighting them for you. Hearthside Treasures stocks these at Our Cozy Cottage here in Springfield, MO as well as adding them to our website store soon!


There are dozens of other designs to choose from as well! If you are a dog lover, breeder or know someone that would love these, you don't want to miss these cute earrings! The picture shown is all the current breeds available. Share with your friends!

I hope you enjoyed this peek into the store that has it all and will make your way over to browse for yourself. Hope to see you there. Tell her Belle sent you!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Friendly Friday: Like!

Your chance to win a customized Hat from Our Cozy Cottage! Just share and follow!! If we make it to 75 followers by the end of the month you can win one of 5 prizes!

Prizes include; hat, tote, t-shirt or mouse pad! They are valued at up to $15.00 and are only available from Our Cozy Cottage or through this contest.

Hat pictured is not the only one available. Winner will be able to choose product.

Thank you! Share and follow so we can reach our first goal!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Win by being a Follower!




Spread the word that we are wanting our followers to grow!

We will be having a drawing for 5 free gifts IF we reach 75 followers by February 29th. Spread the word to your friends...share our blog on your FaceBook page and invite everyone you know! Winners will be able to choose from a custom designed:
  • Mousepad
  • Ball Cap
  • T-shirt
  • Tote Bag 
(Pictures show example, and may or may not be what you receive)

Thankful Thursday: Great Deals!

I love a bargain! And what's not to love about saving money?! So as an Our Cozy Cottage gal, make sure you are plugged into all the great savings. You have insider rates and first notifications on others.

First, make sure you take advantage of your 10% off any online AVON order from our own Candace by registering and shopping at her secure site, http://cmacgill.avonrepresentative.com/ You can sign up to receive emails about hot deals and have your items shipped to her and dropped off at the store!

Second, Did you see that our Jordan Essentials gal is promoting her Spring Face Special? Click, http://www.myjestore.com/hopetrotter/ to order the March Special: three Mineral Eye Colors (White Sand, Petal Pink and Plumtastic) and the NEW Intense Volumizing Mascara. Purchase the look for only $42! One Eye Shadow is FREE! Save $12.00 AND get a new look for Spring!!

Last but not least, sign up to get alerts and trade coupons in Amy's new Springfield Savers group! Click to go to the facebook group and join in the fun!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Wacky Wednesday: Going White

"White Hair"

One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink.
She noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair on her brunette head.
She looked at her mother and asked, Why are some of your hairs white, Momma?"


Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."


The little girl thought about this for a while and then asked, "Momma, how come ALL of Grandma's hairs are white?"

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Technical Tuesday: Banners

Waving the flag, showing your colors, advertising banners... They all bring up the image of a flapping billboard of some type, be it a simple white cloth or a intricate design with lots of bold type.

Banners inspire us to greatness of all types. You can wave them to show your pride, your product, even your sales.

The type of banners I am referring to today are the digital type to connect to your websites. There are stunning and simple examples out there to browse for inspiration, but make sure you are unique and not copying someone's design or wording.

The banners and logos to the right of this post are the creations of our vendors here at Our Cozy Cottage. They are click-able and will take you to the individual store. Hopefully you will have an idea of what you will be seeing once you click, just by reviewing the banner.

Banners can have wording or tag lines, but make sure they can be easily read and are not overwhelming. When in doubt, keep it simple! Post your logo, a few of your best products, a list of your offerings or create intrigue by leaving a bit of mystery.

Take a look at your banner and decide what you like, love or hate about it. Write down notes and what you want to see changed or added. Look around at sites like yours and see what you can learn about what you love about other banners. You can never copy exactly, but you can use the foundations to build your own.

Next week we'll go over how to build your banner. For now, build it in your head and write those ideas down so you don't forget!!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Motivational Monday: Expectations

 
Set your sights high, the higher the better. Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now. Realize that nothing is too good. Allow absolutely nothing to hamper you or hold you up in any way.
~Eileen Caddy
 the sky really IS the limit for you! Get out there and make your passion your reality! Positive attitude and imagery can make all the difference in your personal attitude. the difference will attract success your way and rub off on those around you.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Opportunity Knocks!


Remember the good 'ole days with Mom or Grandma knocking door to door selling Avon? Some of that is still around, but mainly it's a thing of the past.

Here is your chance, as a Cozy Cottage gal to bring back the magic and save money at the same time!

As many of you know, we have an AVON representative at the store. Her products and brochures are at the the front of the store near the entrance.

What you may not know is that if you go right now to http://cmacgill.avonrepresentative.com/ You can sign up to receive 10% off your orders when ordering online! That is ONE more perk you get just by being a Cozy Cottage vendor!



Don't miss this great opportunity! Go to the site know and register, it's very easy and send her a note saying you are a Cozy Cottage vendor. You will start getting emails if you choose alerting you to sales and free shipping events. You can order and have it shipped free to your rep and pick it up at the store! Now that is very neat! So get over there and start shopping to take advantage of your membership benefit.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Friendly Friday: Help





Friendly Friday is my ideas to bring you more friends for your business ventures. Facebook is the inspiration since you get to BE friends and fans of one another. I am trying to come up with as many ways to grow your fan base as possible.

So bravo to all those who have been working the link love and getting those fans returning back! Today I want to show you how to see if your work is producing results.

To see your number of fans look directly below your fan page photo. Below the various apps your page features is a black text saying "23 people like this" or whatever number of fans you have...

To learn more you need insights! You will find "View Insights" on the right hand menu on your fan page. Click on it to view your activity and graphs.

 This first graph shows how many times your page is viewed each day. If you post a new product, you can jot down the date and look back to see how popular it was. Maybe it never got viewed, so try another post and see if that helps... Also on this first graph you will see Post Feedback. This shows you both the likes and comments you get on your page per day. It could be other posts not just yours, but it may help you know what days your fans are most active. Post more on those days!

Users is the first graph you see on the insight page. I'm going over it second here... It shows you your current like count and your lifetime count. Yes people can UNlike your page! They may quit facebook, not like seeing so many posts, or just have signed up accidentally...some people clear out links that they don't know and may have to re-like you later.

The three options show you your 1 day, 1 week and 1 month user history. But above all this you will see a blue "See Details" option next to the title "users". When you click that it gets really interesting! You can see how many likes and unlikes you have and on what days! You may need to review your activity those days! If you are getting to many dislikes, you may need to post less but more quality posts!

Toward the bottom of this page you will see tab views. You can track which tabs are most popular! So if you're wondering why your not getting sales in your shop now tab... see if it's even viewed!

Play around with all the options and acquaint yourself with the details of your page. You'll need to know all this later to grow your business using those simple insights.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Thankful Thursday

We never seem to say it enough, but "Thank you" is always in order! I want to say thanks for all of you that come in to work at Our Cozy Cottage! You do an amazing job. The store has never looked better and we're only going to get better from here.

For all of you who work other jobs but still find the time to make a special trip in to refresh your displays and update your inventory...Thank you! We wouldn't be as appealing to the customer without your labors.

For those of you that put serious thought and effort into your creations and business... Thank you! You make our store brighter and full of an excellence that is contagious. We truly appreciate all the hard work.

A special Thank You to Deb who created and maintains the store! You are an inspiration to us all! Thank you for getting us all together in one place so we could meet one another and grow from the friendships we forge.

Thank you to all the families out there that have to eat take out more often or heat up left overs to support our time away! Thank you for being the backbone to what we do and who we are.

And thank you to everyone for reading these blog posts and throwing out creative ideas and comments! You are much appreciated!!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Recruitment Days!

At Our Cozy Cottage, we are constantly changing and refreshing! We have ladies move, change their product line and get new vendors signing up often. So now that Spring is peeking at us over the melting snow...let's get out the contacts and see who we can add to our group.

We've put out a few ads and are looking for any unique local ladies that want to bring in their creations and work a few days with us at the store. If you know anyone let them know to contact us right away.

While your out there getting back into craft fairs, be sure to tell your fellow booth vendors about our store. Word of mouth is the best vehicle we have for spreading the news and feeding the excitement that keeps customers coming back!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Winners Announced!

Congratulations Livinglikeme & Imjusme1983 Our two winners!

You have each won a 6 oz hand poured soy candle from Krafty Candles. We will be in touch with our lucky winners!

Thank you to all who entered! Be sure to watch for further giveaways from the gals here at Our Cozy Cottage in this blog.

If you want to get your hands on your own Krafty Candle be sure to check out the website or stop in to the Cozy Cottage and pick out your favorite scents.

Coincidentally, Krafty Candles will be hosting a special event on March 27th, details on our facebook post. So if you are still completely pea green with envy you'll blend right in for our March Scentilicious Event! Stop in with all your friends and sign up for even more giveaways and specials from Krafty Candles and other great smelling products.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

SpotLight Saturday: Therapie

This very relaxing spa line is going out of business. You can only find it at Our Cozy Cottage for a limited time and lower than ever.

This line is still made up of the best products and all natural ingredients. The covers are handmade and washable and the flax seed is a homeopathic way to relax those sore muscles.


Bath Teas are now officially discontinued. There are 2 packages left at Our Cozy Cottage and they are marked down to $5.00. I have also taken 1 pound bags of bath salts in, also for $5.00...scents include Baby Powder, Chocolate Berry, Cinnamon Roll, and Vino....and right now I am making a big batch of Creamsicle!



This line has been marked down for over a month, so hurry over to get your before they're all gone. You won't find this level of quality for these prices anywhere else. Take advantage of this sale while it's here!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Friendly Friday: New facebook

Recent changes at facebook affect your fan pages! Make sure you go to THIS EVENT and regesiter, invite your fiends and read all about it!

Basically most of the changes are amazing, but a few simple edits have ERASED YOUR FAN PAGE FROM VIEW!  So go read how you can change this!

The other changes will now allow you to sign in as your fan page. this means when you click on "Use Facebook as Art By Bell" Or whatever YOUR Fan Page title is, you will be liking, commenting, and getting updates from your FAN PAGE! This means that all notifications, new likes, comments, etc that come in on your fan page will be alerted to you while you are online.

When you what to go back just click it again! It will say Use facebook as Crystal, or YOUR NAME.

You get the idea. So go check these changes out and get familiar with them, and don't forget to send that event to your ALL your friends! The more that do that small step, the more will be able to see your posts!

 How This Effects Link Love: Once you sign in as YOUR FAN PAGE you will need to RE - LIKE all your fav pages again!!

First go to your link Love and click those links off again... Then go to Our Cozy Cottage business page and click view all in Our Fav Pages...make sure you like all of those. Then your done! Whew! Hope this update lasts a LONG time!  ;)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Three Marketing Tips

In your products that you choose to sell:
  • Be Unique
  • Get Noticed
  • Have Fun
Always try to represent something that is unique!! If it's handmade that may be easier. You can add you own personality to the design and get some very interesting creations.

If you are representing a company or product line, it can be complicated as there are hundreds out there doing the same thing. But you still need to find a way to make it uniquely yours! Packaging can be the key difference.

Your customer service needs to set you apart from the rest. Offering freebies can't be enough, you need to wow your customers to keep them coming back to you. One way to achieve it is with loyalty cards. After so many purchases they get a free item or percentage off. Try to think of as many ways as possible to make what you do even more unique. Your customers will appreciate the difference!



Getting noticed is extremely hard and yet insanely easy. Think about what you like and dislike about any item you just bought. Why did you choose it? Was it only because it was the cheapest, or did the color catch your eye? Was it a buy one get one deal? Write down as many things that led you to a purchase as possible and then try to incorporate them into your products.

Use bright colors, large banners, or a simply stated tag line. Find what appeals to your customer base and make it bold. Then try to appeal to a new set of customers by refreshing your logo, including new ideas, or changing the colors and patterns.

However you change thing, remember to have fun! If you hate what you do or simply no longer enjoy it, it will reflect in the quality and care you place in the items themselves. Have pride in what you offer, and keep it fun for both you and the customer.

We all enjoy a great idea, and will gladly pay for a unique, quality idea that is packaged fun and makes us feel good buying it! Use these ideas to look at what you have with new eyes and try to make changes that will make you stand uniquely out from the crowd.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Wacky Wednesday: No Shoving!

"No Shoving"

A little girl, dressed in her Sunday best, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Bible class.

As she ran she prayed, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late! Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!"

While she was running and praying, she tripped on a curb and fell, getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress.

She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again.
As she ran she once again began to pray,

"Dear Lord, please don't let me be late...
But!--please don't shove me either!"

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

GiveAway! Day

Krafty Candles, exclusively at Our Cozy Cottage, is offering a very exciting giveaway!  Two lucky subscribers and fans will win a 6 oz size candle from Krafty Candles.


This blog is your ticket to win!!


  • What can I win?
    •  A hand poured 6 oz Soy Candle from Krafty Candles
  • How do I enter?
Follow these Simple Rules:
  • When will the winner be announced?
    • Within 5 days of this posting!
The winner will be posted on the blog and fan page, so start entering now!! Share this post with your friends, good luck!

How to Submit YOUR website on Google & Yahoo!


 To get your site listed on the major search engines, follow the links below. You can see it done step by step by watching the tutorial video. (It will open in a browser window and you just press play)

Go to:
http://www.google.com/addurl/
to register on Google and


 
http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
to register with Yahoo!

To see step by step instructions on how I did this wit Our Cozy Cottage, click to view the tutorial video.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Sunday Scavenger Hunt Day

This week's hunt will be a bit different, guesses can be made at the fan page on facebook or here, BUT all clues will be added to THIS post. So check back HERE for more clues and the answer!


If you missed the answer to last week's clue see http://cottagegals.blogspot.com/2011/02/scavenger-hunt-answer.html

Ok, here we go!

The first clue for this week's hunt is:

#1) I am hidden in plain sight.

#2) I sit in the front in case you forgot.

#3) I can fold away when not in use.

#4) There is only one of me, and I'm bending over backwards here to get you to pick me up!

YES! We Do have a winner again!! The folding glasses in the front of the store complete with small case.



Saturday, February 5, 2011

SpotLight Saturday: Krafty Candles


Krafty Candles is a hand poured all Soy line of candles. They burn clean and efficiently and fill a room with your favorite scents very quickly! If you've never tried a soy candle, you don't know what you've been missing!! I don't burn anything else around my kids!

Part of the unique burn quality comes from the wick used. At Krafty Candles Eco-wicks are used in every candle to ensure that each candle burns evenly without the mushrooming of other candles, and with way less soot and smoke!



Scents are varied and seasonal 'flavors' are available. Butterscotch is one of my favorites, and Apple Jack is one the best selling. It's a wonderfully blended apple cinnamon and spice mix that is sure to please any palate.

There are many specialties available which include tarts and hearts! Some of these items are seasonal, but they are all made with the same hand poured quality of the original.

Gift baskets are available and these scents can be previewed at Our Cozy Cottage store! Browse the website the store or contact then for a special deal an arrange to have it picked up at the store!


KraftyCandles.com