SAVE THE COCKS! Charity fund raising! PLUS coupon!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

I am happy to announce this weeks coupon/charity! It has to do with a new charity I found in my area called Save the Cocks! Sounds kind of naughty - but its not, I promise! It's a special charity for roosters! I personally have a big heart for roosters having saved one myself. They are very friendly birds and are often sadly euthanized because they have no where to go. People tend to not want them around because they are quite noisy! But reading up on the Save the Cocks website I am learning that there are ways around that. At this rooster sanctuary their goal is to help raise awareness for these magnificent birds and find a job for them so they aren't looked over and given away or euthanized. For example it is said that they are great for all natural pest control on farms or in orchards, or vineyards! Now that's awesome! Get rid of poisonous pesticide and save lovely rooster lives at the same time! A misconception about roosters is that they will fight with each other when there are more than one around, but that seems to be only when the hens (female chicken) are around, they get "cocky"! But when there are no hens around they will get right down to business cleaning up pests around the grounds.

I am so excited about this charity, and so happy to help them out! Here is where you come in. You can help them out on your own here. Or you can do a little shopping with me and help them out at the same time! I am offering a 25% off coupon this week, PLUS I am giving 25% of profits to Save the Cocks!! But that's not it! If you purchase anything in my shop that has a bird on it (See examples below) you will get 35% off, and I'll donate 35% to the charity!! Lets do this!

To get coupon codes and be a part of this fantastic charity, please subscribe to my email list here. I promise no spam, I don't like that stuff just as much as you!

My 3 shop links are:

Lean Dog Jewelry | Ring Love Jewelry | Unique Jewelry Supply

Oh and another way you can help is by sharing this with anyone you know! Just simply forward a link of this blog to your friends and family! Or go to my Facebook Page and share my post about this with your friends. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

♥ Kelly ♥

CONTEST TIME!

Who wants to win this necklace? To enter all you have to do is join my mailing list here: http://leandogjewelry.com/emailList.html ~~ I will draw a winner using Random.org on Friday Feb 10th!! Good luck everyone! - oh and please share this with your friends/family/on your blog/facebook/twitter. If anyone you know joins you will get another entry into the contest - you just have to let me know the name of the person who joined because of you! Thanks!

Get Organized

Hello, its been a while - again! I seem to always get sidetracked, but I guess thats just a part of running your own business.

Lately I have been looking expanding my business. Wholesale is big on my to do list. I consign in a few shops, but I want to go bigger. It takes a lot of work to get there. I bought the e-book by Megan Auman of Crafting an MBA - Crafting an MBA Guide to Wholesale and Trade Shows. It is a truly helpful book that guides you through the whole process from beginning to end. I highly recommend it if you're interested in expanding your business. She also has a great website talking about running a craft business and offers her services as a consultant. I'm considering doing that next.

Also, today I am about to embark on an adventure in organizing! The studio space in my backyard is a disaster! How does someone work in a place like this?? So, its time. Next up after that is my office space needs some organizing too, since its been cluttered with bathroom remodeling supplies and such for the past couple months. I'm sick of working at the kitchen table!

Hope all is well out there. I'll post again soon, with some pictures of my newly organized studio, perhaps.

Out of Order

This past weekend was so gorgeous. On Sunday me and my hunny decided to take advantage of the weather and go for a bike ride to the beach. We get there and decide to take a walk on the beach. We were just hanging out and I see a wave coming at me and so I am backing up (I don't mind getting a little wet, but this looked bigger than normal) and not paying attention to whats behind me and what was there? A big boulder! I fall over the side of the boulder scraping up my left leg and twisting my right ankle in the process landing in the water falling hard! And yes, I heard that lovely snap/crack sound a sprain can make. Kind of creepy! Anyway. Rode my bike all the way back - it hurt a little, but not as much as it did that night. It's been 48 hours since it happened and I'm feeling a LOT better. The swelling is going down more daily and hope to be walking normal by next week. I can walk a lot better than just yesterday, so I know its healing nicely. It really does work to sit on your lazy bottom and rest when these kinds of things happen! It only makes it worse to walk on it. The only thing that sucks is I feel worthless that I cannot go out to my studio and work. I did go a little bit today and loaded some work into the kiln, but it started to ache. Anyway. Wish me luck on a quick(er) recovery! I need to get out there and create! :)

Heartsy

Last night while withering in my boredom I stumbled upon Heartsy. It's this fabulous site which happened to start up (appropriately) on Valentines Day 2011. They offer buyers 'out of this world' deals on featured Etsy stuff! Basically they sell vouchers towards featured Etsy shops for 50% off and up!! Amazing deals/steals! The way your shop can get featured is you have to submit 5 photos and fill out your name/email/website. They then post your photos up for a vote from anyone in the Heartsy community (thats me and could be you if you want) and if you get 30 votes saying "Yes, I definitely would buy this" then you move on to the next stage where Heartsy reviews your submission. If they pick your shop, you will negotiate a deal and a time and then your deal goes up for everyone to grab! I've noticed they have time limits on these deals as well as a limited amount of deals they offer. From my research of the shops involved I have noticed they sell a KILLING! Sure its at 50% + of their regular prices, but if you sell a lot its kind of similar to wholesaling and if your prices are priced right for wholesaling it shouldn't be a problem for you.

So, I submitted my work this morning and already reached my 30 votes. This does NOT guarantee I'll be featured, but we shall see. And if I do get featured, look out for some major steals people!!!! I'll keep you posted. You can still vote for me here. Thanks!

xo

Kelly

GLAZE - Black vs. White

Been doing experiments in simplifying a tad bit lately.... just in shape and color. Made pieces with a simple 1 colored glass with black or white glaze. Its fun to check out how different a color can look against black or white. See for yourself the differences.

Large green round pendant with black glaze or white glaze. 2" in diameter.
Same goes for the following beauties.... everything is still one of a kind! I've just simplified a glazing strategy - making it black or white or I even offer brown glaze (not shown).

Red/orange glass with black or white glaze. This is a small round pendant - 1 1/2" in diameter. Notice the amount of colored glass varies. That's just how they turn out, you never know. Still one of a kind! Always will be.

Aqua with white or black in oval shape. 2" x 1 1/8".

Yellow with white or black glaze. Oval. 2" x 1 1/8".

Cobalt with white or black glaze. Oval. 2" x 1 1/8".

Many of these have been listed in my Etsy Shop. They come with a 16" chocolate brown cotton cord. I can also sub a chain if you'd like or even lengthen the cord. If you see one that's not listed and you want it, contact me at Kelly (at) leandogpottery.com and I'll set up a special listing for you.

yum

I've been making some real good food lately - not just ordinary food, vegan food. Most people I know misinterpret the word "vegan" as something that has weird or strange ingredients, when in fact its the exact opposite! Look at your box of mac-n-cheese or any other processed food for those kind of ingredients. Something being vegan just means its made without any milk, eggs, meat products - or basically anything that comes from an animal. Substitutions are made in place of those ingredients. For subbing cows milk I use other kinds of milk - soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk, oat milk and almond milk - which is my personal favorite - and I am sure there are others I am forgetting. For butter I use a brand called Earth Balance which is made with vegetable based oils. For eggs you can use many different things - mashed up bananas, applesauce, tofu or there are special egg replacer products available in markets - there are a few other things to sub for eggs too, that I am sure I forgot. For cheese there are many, many different commercial brands that work - my favorite being Daiya! It melts wonderfully and is the tastiest stuff I have ever had in my life - better than real cheese - in my opinion. Below I made a vegan lasagna - I used trader joes soy mozzerella which is very much like mozzerella made with cows milk. I have made meals with this stuff and not told my guests it was soy until afterwards and they said they would have never known. Here is the recipe for the lasagna thats called "Love Potion Lasagna". I got it from vegweb.com which is full of any kind of recipe you could be looking for. I'm always on there looking for what to make next!

Hope this helped clear up any misconceptions you might have had about vegan food (if you had any at all). I leave you with a challenge - go find a recipe on vegweb and give it a try and come back and tell me about it.

Give Back

One thing that makes me feel good, and I think it makes anyone who does it feel good, is giving back - whether its your time or money - its all good! For about a year now I have had a charity of the month (almost every month), where I would give a percentage of my Etsy Shop sales to that charity. No matter how much it is, I know its appreciated, and that feels good.

Giving your time feels even better (in my opinion). It's story time:

I have been a volunteer for Cal Fire (formerly California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection) for 17 years - not fighting fires, but teaching fire prevention to children and adults at schools, fairs, campsites, and many other places. Not only do we quiz kiddo's on not playing with matches and who to call if there is an emergency, but we dress also up as Smokey Bear and do Stop Drop and Roll demonstrations. Fun stuff!

This is me and my best friend Jessica with Smokey at a rodeo! Anyway, all this has been a great experience for me. But the best experience was back in the early 2000's (I am not sure the exact year) on Christmas Eve. I get a call from the volunteer coordinator telling me about a house that caught on fire and it happened to belong to a family with young children. We went to the house as they were putting out the fire and met the family, luckily everyone got out safely. We felt so horrible for them knowing it was Christmas eve and they were homeless. We knew we had to do something - so we immediately decided to organize a food/gift/clothing drive for them at a local fire station and we got more donations than we could handle! It was so amazing how everyone came together for this family. It was Christmas Eve! Last minute, literally! Yet, it was amazing to see how many kind hearts were out there. Seeing the families faces when we showed them what we had for them was the best part. They felt blessed, as they should have.

I still do my Smokey Bear routines and a little bit of Stop, Drop and Roll to help teach children the importance of fire safety. I also am a huge animal activist and that is usually where I donate percentages of my sales to. This month I am donating to the Fresno Bully Rescue. I am originally from Fresno and happened to stumble upon their facebook page when a couple of my friends "liked" it. I immediately knew they were going to be my March charity. I love what they are doing for this breed with a bad rap. As you may know, many people label them as vicious or scary. But I happen to know two who are the sweetest doggies ever. Pit bulls are just like any other dog breed, they are born with love and want to be your best friend, too. Here is a link about the myths of the bully breed.

Thanks to everyone who helps support this charity with me while shopping at Lean Dog. Or you can just donate money directly to the cause on your own here. If you live in Fresno, or nearby, you can also donate your time volunteering by walking the dogs, training, cleaning kennels, cleaning up around the grounds or helping promote an event.

Lather it up

Soap. It's something we all use, everyday! It's a huge big deal in the handmade world, too! There are tons of fantastic soaps you can find on Etsy. Any shape you can think of and all colors of the rainbow! - and don't forget about scents! Holy cow, they come up with some fantastic scents! Today I am going to share with you some picks of mine - focusing on simple shaped soaps with fantastic color and scents.

First we have the colorful Cantaloupe Melon Sugar Soap from sunbasilgarden. Here is a little about the scent: "Bring on summer with this fantastically fresh new sugar soap. Ripe cantaloupe with juicy cucumber and green notes."

Next we have a nice yellow colored bar of soap from Batty's Bath. It's called Lemon Poppyseed Vegan Glycerin Soap. Here is what Batty says about this soaps scent: "This is a zesty citrus delight. This wonderful fresh, light lemon scent is a must have for fresh citrus lovers! This bar also features the added exfoliating benefits of real poppy seeds throughout the entire bar!"

Here we have a very pretty soap made by Blushie. It is called Fresh Cut Grass Soap. This is what Blushie has to say about this scent: "Who can resist the crisp green scent of freshly cut grass? Mellowed with just a touch of cool, soothing aloe vera this soap smells just like running your toes through a damp lawn in summer." - makes me excited for warm weather!

Next we have a lovely blue colored soap from DressGreen - its called Blueberry Patch Soap made with sweet almond oil and shea butter. The scent description goes like this: "Not your typical berry, but is instead a warm and luscious blend of ripened blueberries with a splash of vanilla, topped off with a pinch of spice." --- mmmm sounds nice.

These four soaps have four things in common:

1. They are all colorful and beautiful to the eye!

2. They all have fantastic scents that will brighten up any day, even a rainy day!

3. They are all Vegan Friendly!

.... and last but not least....

4. They will all look great in my neutral colored charcoal grey soap dish!

HAHA! so there you have it... a little diddy on soaps. Hope you enjoyed!

February is LOVE month.

Did you know that in each Etsy shop you can do a search inside that shop for anything you want. You would use the search box up top (make sure "this shop" is in the drop down menu) and type in what you're searching for. For example: specific colors, shapes, item type, dimensions, etc. It all depends on what that artist wrote up in their tags, description and title of the items. Go ahead to my shop and do a search for anything you'd like here: LeanDogPottery If you are a shop owner you should definitely take advantage of this awesome marketing technique. Use all the tags and be sure to add a detailed description of your item including dimensions. The buyer wants to know all they can about an item before purchasing.

Everybody knows Valentines day is February 14th and that is the day to share love with your main squeeze! February has always been a month full of hearts, love, pink, roses, candy, perfume and cuddling! Doing a search in my shop for the word "heart" came up a lot of items! This posting shows just a few examples to get you in the mood for this month full of love! Click here for the 27 items I have in my shop that come up when searching "heart".

Happy love month everyone!

And by the way, I wanted to point out this during the month of February, Lean Dog will be giving away 10% of sales to The Feline Network of San Luis Obispo! So not only will you get your beautiful new jewelry/pottery - but you'll also be helping kitties in need. ♥

Inspired from a Walk

I went on a walk today with my hubby. We go almost everyday.... ahh the joys of both working at home. We went on this little dirt path over by a park near my house and I kept noticing glass shards on the ground, so of course I kept picking them up. It seems that this area is sort of hidden off the regular path so youngsters or the homeless probably go here with beer or liquor and leave after breaking the evidence. HAHA! Anyway, I just couldn't resist picking every piece of glass up off the ground I saw and my husband got in on the action, too! I am addicted to glass shards! So this glass has gone from one persons naughty habit to the next! And now I shall create beauty from them! See my shop for the latest creations - I have over 100 that I'll be adding slowly, so check back everyday! Here is just a snippet of what you'll find:

And the winners are...

Thanks to everyone who participated!

1st place: Solvita of SoleDeVita on Etsy

2nd place: Claudia

3rd place: Julie of Silk N Style on Etsy

Congratulations to you all! :)

Kelly

YAY! It's Contest Time!

In honor of my 3 year Etsy Shop Anniversary (November 15th) I am having a contest! It's been an amazing 3 years. I have sold over 850 items, I have joined some great groups (EtsyVeg, CCCOE, and Cruelty Free Etsy), I have made a lot of new (virtual) friends, and I have learned oh so much! Thanks to all my fans and friends for such wonderful support and encouragement. Much love and peace to all! For this, lets celebrate with an amazing contest!

I am going to be giving away 3 prizes! That means 3 people have a chance at winning!

• 1st place: One $20 gift certificate towards any purchase in the LeanDogPottery Etsy Shop.
• 2nd place: One $15 gift certificate towards any purchase in the LeanDogPottery Etsy Shop.
• 3rd place: One $10 gift certificate towards any purchase in the LeanDogPottery Etsy Shop.

There are a few ways to gain entries, see below for details. For each entry you must leave a comment below telling me what you did. Think of each comment as a single entry into the contest. Also, please be sure to leave me your email in your comments so I will be able to contact you directly if you win. You DO NOT have to do all of the items below. Pick and choose as you please!

See below for the many ways to enter:

1. Go to my Etsy Shop, add the shop to your favorites and tell me in a comment below what your favorite item in my shop is.
2. Go to the Lean Dog Facebook fan page and "Like" the page by clicking the "Like" button at the top. (if you already "like" it, you can still leave a comment below telling me for an extra entry.)
3. Announce this contest on your Facebook personal page and/or Facebook fan page.
4. Share the Lean Dog Facebook fan page with your friends using the "suggest to friends" button under the profile picture.
5. Go to LeanDogPottery's twitter page and follow it. (if you already follow it, you can still leave a comment below telling me for an extra entry.)
6. Tweet this contest to your followers making sure to include "@leandogpottery" in your tweet.
7. Follow this blog. (if you already follow it, you can still leave a comment below telling me for an extra entry.)
8. Announce this contest on your own blog. Please be sure to post a link to your blog in this comment.
9. Purchase an item from my Etsy Shop! Leave a comment below telling me what item you bought. (Items previously bought do not count.)

REMEMBER: For each item you do from the above list you MUST leave a SINGLE comment. Thanks.

Entries will be accepted continuously until midnight PST on Friday, November 12, 2010. On Saturday, November 13th I will be drawing 3 names using random.org and announcing the winners on this blog. I will personally notify the winners through email, so please be sure to leave your email in your comments. Good Luck to all!!!

If you have any questions about any of the above, feel free to send me an email: kelly@leandogpottery.com

Dishes, Dishes, Dishes!!!

I am not talking about the kind that we all hate to do that are in our kitchen sink! I am talking about an abundance of new dishes that are fresh out of my kiln and handmade by me! They are great for candle holders, jewelry holders, ring holders, trinket holders, key holders.... and the list goes on and on. They all have birdies on them - black birds, brown birds, white birds and even owls! Check them out in my Etsy shop!

Traveling Pendant is on the move again...

Back in January I wrote a post all about a good online friend of mine Cher and her traveling pendant. The pendant was created by me, of course, and she takes it on road trips/plane rides/to rugby games, etc. It's a lucky pendant! Below is a photo of it with her at a rugby game in New Zealand!!! Isn't that amazing? I am so jealous! And isn't she just so stinkin' cute wearing it! Love ya Cher!

Charity of the Month!

I love giving. It makes me feel good. I think it makes most people feel good. I have been trying to give a bit of my sales every month to a new charity. I keep coming back to animal welfare charities. It's where my heart is. For the month of August I am giving 15% of sales to the Woods Humane Society in San Luis Obispo, California. Lets give together! ♥

Etsy Front Page!

I am proud to say.... I was on the front page of Etsy today!

Sorry I haven't been around lately, I swear some good stuff is in the works!

Time Flies!

I cannot believe its been a whole month (exactly) that I have written on here. So sorry to my followers! Please forgive me!

I have been pretty busy, and thats good! I have had lots of custom orders as well as getting my work into a few new shops across the US! - which I am very excited about! I was so scared to take that step forward and try out consignment and wholesale - but now that I have, it is so easy! I urge anyone who is struggling with stepping over, to just do it! Check out the Etsy Forums for tips on how to approach a shop, how to set up your wholesale prices, details on consignment do's and don'ts, comparisons between wholesale vs. consignment, etc. And if you can't find an answer you're looking for, I suggest posting a question, and I am sure people will respond. It's a whole new world, but I think its a great opportunity for us small business owners/crafters/creators!

Here is where you can currently find my work:

1. Anna Maria Island, Florida: The Hive Creations 119 Bridge Street

2. Philadelphia, PA: Slingluff Gallery 11 W. Girard Ave

3. Kingston, Rhode Island: The Gift Emporium at URI 99 Fortin Road

4. Lee Vining, California: Mono Lake Gift Shop Hwy 395 at Third Street

5. Philadelphia, PA: VIX Emporium 5009 Baltimore Avenue

And there is more coming soon!!! I am very excited about this and you should definitely check out these awesome shops/galleries if you are anywhere close to these areas! Cool stuff in them, for sure.

Conscious Living

Earth Day is tomorrow!!! Of course, we should be conscious of the earth everyday, but tomorrow is a holiday directed towards spreading awareness everywhere!

As you read in my last post, I am a big tree hugger! I try my hardest to do all I can to not hurt the planet. It's all we have to live on, its our home. We need to be aware of what we are doing and how it is going to affect the planet. I know its a lot to think about, but its very important - mostly for future generations. I hear people say, "ahh, who cares, we won't be here anyway!" - well, I care. It's important to be conscious. It's great to feel that what you are doing is good. My motto is to treat others as you want to be treated... and that counts for future generations that I will never meet, too! Maybe some of you might think I am going a bit far with this. Oh well. At least it makes me feel good, and thats what matters most.

In celebration I am joining in with EtsyVeg with their Earth Day ExtraVEganza to donate 15% of sales to Earth Save International from 4/22 - 4/24. I also wanted to offer my special customers a deal! Buy any item, get the second 40% off! So a sale and a donation, all in a three days time!

I hope you all will learn something, share something, and feel happy about your decisions you make on this wonderful Earth Day 2010!

The 3 R's!!

I have this huge love for rubber stamps these days. I just bought one the other day to help spread the three R's... Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - which is another one of my huge Loves. This stamp was designed by a wonderful Etsy seller Maggie Hallam. I, myself, am a big tree hugger. No joke, I am a NUT about this kind of stuff. Every time I send a package out to a customer, I think to myself that I hope they are either reusing the packaging I send them, or they recycle it, at least! I had always wanted a way to remind them of the importance of the 3 R's. Then I thought, "hey, it would be nice to stamp it onto my packaging." So I did a little search (on Etsy, of course!) and found a variety of stamps for recycling but the one made by Maggie Hallam stood out because it reminds others that there is not just Recycling to help Planet Earth, there is also Reducing, and Reusing!! All three are equally important. And I love how the stamp can be put anywhere to remind others and it makes me feel good that hopefully it saved the packaging from going straight to the landfill without a chance of being reused or recycled.

I always reuse packaging, unless its totally unusable - then it goes in the recycle bin, of course. I also try to reuse older cardboard and other stuff that would otherwise be deemed "trash" to wrap my items up safely and protect them from breaking during shipment.

I hope to spread the word of the 3 R's and hopefully help others learn the importance of Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. I also hope to encourage others to spread the word! It's important for our planet - the amounts of waste in landfills is ginormous! Plus the amount of trees cut down everyday for paper production is unnecessary causing an environmental impact. I could go on and on about the importance of Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. Check out Earth911.com for tons of info on all kinds of recycling and its importance!

If you're interested in your own 3 R's stamp, Maggie Hallam sells them in her Etsy shop, along with other nature-iffic stamps with animals, trees, mushrooms, leaves, etc. She is a wonderful artist! Here is one of the backside of a snowshoe hare!


She also creates handmade boxes to store you pencils, pens or other stuff! Pretty neat and there are many different colors/designs to choose from!


Planet Earth is our home, and its our only one... Please reduce your impact on it, reuse what you can and recycle what you can't. And if you are sending out packages regularly, I highly recommend you getting your own stamp and help spread the word of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!