Lemongrass Boutique!

So my vision is to have these two businesses that every so often intersect-- Agape Events being my "love this/do it for fun" business that I hope will make money, and Lemongrass Boutique will be the money making venture. I'll sell some bridal/high end jewelry designs, planning binders, and wedding emergency kits on the Wedding Belles ATL site that's linked to Agape, but most of my jewelry and gift sales will go on the Lemongrass site. 

At least, that's the idea... 

I put a bunch of stuff up on the Lemongrass site today and got the ball rolling on that-- my goal is to make at least one item a day and do all of my photography on the weekends. Our dining room makes a fantastic jimmied up studio!

Branch Out Necklace

Opera Necklace

Ballerina Ring

Erin Ring

Janet Ring

There are also several bracelets, but I don't like the pictures for those quite as much ;)

Things have been going pretty well so far in 2012, which pleases me infinitely! My car is broken, but easily fixable, and the internet has sucked a little more than usual, but I've been hired to coordinate at least one wedding and my hair stylist has handed out a billion of my business cards! I'm stoked! Also, an hour after I put some of my stuff up on Etsy, one of my sorority sisters saw a bracelet and it was something she'd been trying to find for years and she's buying one! What a blessing social networking can be!

I'm hoping to really beef up the offerings on the Lemongrass site once I've had a chance to get to the fabric store-- I'd like to offer some makeup bags, travel bags, fabric covered cuff bracelets (some with embellishments), small card sets, fleece and felt pocket warmers for winter, and eventually some tops and skirts.

It's ambitious, but mom's boyfriend was telling us the other day how one of his co-workers at Home Depot was able to quit her job last week because she was doing so well with Etsy sales! I'm also hoping to be able to sell at the numerous craft fairs and arts festivals in the area. So, the point of all this is... keep your fingers crossed and your prayers and positive vibes coming my way! I'm really hoping to be at minimum down to part time in a "real" job and subsisting mainly on my own stuff by the end of 2012!!

That, too

Friday I also managed to almost literally bang out a collection of blog posts-- the joys of scheduling on blogger!! I've tried to be really on top of things with the web content since that's all I really have going these days *sigh* One day someone will hire me for a party, any party, and I'll be good to go!

Check them all out at Agape Events!

Birthday Bliss!

New post on Agape about Birthday Parties! If you're not following that one already, please do so-- I can use all the support I can get!

Baby Showers!

A little cross promotion here-- Baby Showers by Agape Events!

Agape Update!

I promise I'll update this with "life" stuff soon, but until then you should enjoy another update on my biz blog over at Agape Events!

Doin' It!

Just updated the biz blog with a post about bridesmaids dresses! I am getting things done (albeit not around the house) this weekend and I'm going to be pushing hard to promote Agape Events! Now if only I could figure out how to get a Cutest Blog on The Block background up with the new Blogger template...

Yes!

I'm starting my own business, I have potential clients and everything! I'm having a little trouble getting blogger to cooperate for some reason, but that's OK because soon enough Holly will have my website up and going! Agape Events is a real thing!

Tasteful Weddings and Parties by Agape Events-- agapeeventsatl.blogspot.com

Etsified!

I've got a shop on Etsy now! Not much up yet, but I'm trying to get at least one thing up every day, even though that's a little difficult when you're working on a limited startup budget!

M's Boutique Chic-- tell your friends ;)

The world is getting smaller my Foot!

So last night I'm foolin' around on Borders and Amazon and even Build-a-Bear to find presents from Jeremy and I to Valerie, Matt, and Ana. I had wanted to get a few books or a movie or something, things that might last a while since they don't have much space for frivolous things living in an apartment in Singapore. I know that DVDs have different regions, so I'm trying to find the region that will play in Singapore or (thank you, Joe!) region-free DVDs and funny thing-- nobody sells the Asian region DVDs! And, none of the movies I had on my list for them are available region-free! Talk about a scam!

I see that Amazon has a China site, which would be great to buy and ship from there because the shipping would be less, but of course the site is in Chinese so when the Amazon support desk gets back to me and tells me to just use that site, I get a little irritated because they're either ignorant or working under the assumption that I can speak/read Chinese. Maybe I can call Dustin...

Borders has stores in Singapore, and I'd rather buy from Borders anyway, so I'm like, "Awesome, I can get them a gift card and they can just pop over and pick up whatever they want which is equally as good as my generally on the nose guesses." (yes, I actually said that, because I'm usually great at picking out books and movies for people) I ask the Borders help desk, and... you can't use Borders gift certificates anywhere but the US, which is the same problem with Amazon.

Do we really have such a poor relationship with Asia that we can't make it easy to get things to loved ones over there? I mean, geez! I'll have to get everything together and shipped to Memphis so that Marc and Jan can put it in their big box to Singapore and hope that my gift for Ana doesn't get crushed (not that I don't trust them to pack it on top, but I'm paranoid about things breaking). So, Jeremy probably won't get to sign the card. But, on the upside, I'll probably get Marc and Jan's presents at the same time, so maybe I'll get enough for free shipping ;)

Anyway, that was my adventure in Christmas shopping... I need to e-mail Jan and check on when they're sending that thing anyway. Blargh. People make things entirely too complicated in a world that's supposed to be simple!