Featured Artist - Pink Princess Designs

What could be sweeter over the holidays than this adorable headband on your little cutie. Made with high quality grosgrain ribbon and pink tulle it's perfect for those holiday photos or get-togethers with family and friends.

Suitable for babies, toddlers or big girls, this makes the perfect holiday gift.

http://www.pinkprincessdesigns.etsy.com/

The Knitter's Heart

When I'm not making soap or working I love to knit. I knit socks, hats, scarves, you name it, and truthfully can't get enough of it. So imagine how pleased I was to find this soap! If you're a knitter, or lucky enough to know someone who knits for you, this is the perfect gift. A generous 5.25 ounces, sure to delight any knitter's heart.

Featured Artist - YellowViolet

For your armchair quarterback these unique boxers make the perfect gift. Embelished with footballs, jerseys and helmets these machine-washable cotton boxers would delight any fan.

With the holiday season soon upon us why not surprise the football fanatic in your life with this fun, unique gift idea.

www.yellowviolet.esty.com

Featured Halloween Artist - Mostly Sundays

Karen makes the most adorable cards and tags, and with Halloween rapidly approaching, this card is the perfect choice. What little ghost or goblin wouldn't love to get this card on Halloween!

Generously sized at 4.25" x 6" this card sets the tone for a spooky, fun-filled Halloween.

To view more of Karen's unique designs visit her at www.mostlysundays.etsy.com

Featured Artist - bstudio

Now that summer is winding down, I can't think of a nicer way to capture the season than with this lovely embroidered picture of daffodils by bstudio. If you're redecorating or just want to refresh a room, this three-dimensional, handcrafted piece on silk dupioni is the perfect choice. For more exquisite designs check out www.bstudio.etsy.com.

The Bazaar of the Bizarre 2009

Come out and join me on Sunday, October 25th at 6 Noble Street (Queen west of Dufferin) in Toronto. The Bazaar of the Bizarre will feature independent makers of all things exotic, whimsical and macabre. neatTreats will showcase a large selection of some of my most popular soaps.

Hearts Content

I'm adding a line of handcrafted soaps using embellishments to my store and this is my first piece, Hearts Content. I've taken great care in creating each soap that I've chosen to sell in the store, and as a result will be gradually introducing new pieces. I want neatTreats to be the place where you come for something special! Hope you like it.

Take care

Pam

Introducing Harry

Meet Harry, my freestanding hedgehog. I've just added him to my store.

Hope you like him.

Pam

I'm loving Sellers' Bootcamp

Well, I'm into my third day of Sellers' Bootcamp on icraft and loving every minute of it. There are several things I can do quite well on the computer, but there are an equal number of things that can completely confound me, so I wasn't sure how well I'd handle the daily assignments. For the most part I'm managing pretty well.

I'm on Twitter and even belong to the icraft twibe. I've successfully posted an ad on Klipper Classifieds and that seems to have gone well. The only area that I'm still trying to tweek is my Facebook page. I have my personal name on there and can't seem to change it to neatTreats. I'm going to keep trying as hopefully there's a way.

Thanks to On The Dot Creations for posting their wonderful e-book, "Secrets of Savvy Etsy Sellers." Lots of good advice; can't wait to start implementing their suggestions. Their site is www.onthedotcreations.com, where you can download the book. I would strongly suggest you check out their site. Well, I still have assignments to do for day 3, so I'll sign off for tonight.

Take care.

Pam

A Few New Designs

These are pictures of a few new designs I'm going to be adding to my icraft store over the next couple of weeks. Hope you like them.

Sellers Bootcamp - Thank you Christine!

For those of you who haven't heard, Seller's Bootcamp will be starting up again on July 1st. I signed up for the first one but the timing was all wrong for me as I had just contacted Emily at Polkadot Pixels about setting up my storefront. This time I feel more prepared and hope to benefit from bootcamp.

I have to remind myself that "if you build it they will come" is not necessarily true and that my focus should be on directing traffic to my store - easier said than done. I'm hoping bootcamp will give me some solid ideas on how to make this happen. We have access to such a hugh global market that with some guidance we should all be able to start generating sales.

I plan on taking all the advice offered in bootcamp, and if something generates a sale for me I'll be more than happy to talk about it on this blog. As I mentioned, I signed up for the first bootcamp but didn't participate. I did, however, get a glimpse at the assignments, and if you haven't already signed up, definitely consider it.

Hopefully I'll see you all in bootcamp.

Take care.

Pam

I'd like to give a huge thank you to Emily at Polkadot Pixels for the wonderful design she created for neatTreats. I contacted Emily and had her create my storefont, blog, business card design, avatar and some extras for the store. Emily was a delight to work with, so professional, and because she installed everything she created for me, she saved me no end of frustration. In the process I discovered why I'm not a graphic artist! It was a struggle for me to even come up with a design that Emily could run with. To Emily's credit, her patience seemed to be boundless, and she persevered with me until I came up with an idea she could work with. If anyone is looking to get their on-line store off to a great start, I would highly recommend Emily.



In the meantime, I've spent the last couple of weeks formulating and sourcing out the best possible ingredients for my new body butter. This weekend I'm going to produce some sample jars which my focus group (5 wonderful friends) will try out for me. Hopefully they'll love it! I'm also going to try and fit some time in to get my Etsy store up and running. Boy with Father's Day and all, this is going to be a busy weekend!

Talk soon.

Pam