Getting the word out

I have teamed up with a great shop called FaceBodyFeet which sells soaps, bubble bath, lip balm, body butters and scrubs... and much more!

With each other that I send out my customers will be supplied with a sample of one of these fabulous products for them to try out.  In exchange FaceBodyFeet will be sending with their orders a cool sample of my Two-tone Thank You Cards to give out to someone special!

We believe that our shops will be able to enhance the customer experience for all, as well generating more traffic for our shops!

Do you have a great idea for generating traffic to your shop?  If so, please leave me a comment on how.  Or if you would be interested in joining us with this sampling experiment...please speak up! :)

Start off February with a beat...

January was a good month with $14 being donated to Feeding America!  Thank you to those wonderful customers that helped us donate to such a wonderful cause.

February is a new month and with it brings us a new charity!  10% of all purchases in February will be donated to Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation.  Both my spouse and I have a love for music and the movie by the same name.  Michael Kamen, musical composer for the movie, started this foundation with a commitment for the future of music education.  New and refurbished instruments are donated to programs that are not able to have the resources due to equipment loss.  If you wish to read more, please click on the link above.

Please join us in supporting this great program!

February is coming!

We are proud of our successful January charity to Feeding America and are looking for a charity to support in February. Looking for something that at least supports nationally, possibly worldwide?

Please let us know your thoughts on what charity we should pick for 10% of our sales to go to next month!

RED for AIDS www.redcampaign.org or Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation www.mhopus.org/ which helps students get musical instruments or ??

Feeding America in January

After the holidays a lot of people lose the "giving" attitude. The visibility of charities declines--their bells don't ring outside the grocery stores, and people stop thinking about digging into their wallets for spare change. 

We at Leave Your Mark want to make sure that the "giving" attitude didn't end for us at the end of December.  Because of that, we started January off with a pledge to donate 10% of all purchases to Feeding America and we think it has gone over pretty well.  The total donation thus far is 14 dollars, which might seem small but when you multiple that by the 8 people that will be fed by each dollar ... we are able to help fill 112 bellies!  To us, that's awesome . . . let us know if you agree. =)

 

Friday Finds

It's September! Figured we'd let you all in on that little secret. Sometimes it feels as though fall should be the start of the year. Everything--school, football--seems to start in the fall, and fall brings a new energy to life (at least it does to ours). We even got our first September sale yesterday! Now, we get to make a $4 donation to Feeding America--that feeds 32 people! Our donations to Feeding America will last through the end of the month, then we will select a new charity to donate to (your suggestions are welcome)!

This week's finds are inspired by the nearing start of my (it's Misty talking) graduate education.

This "nerds have more fun" treasury curated by tohold has some awesome geek gear. We're big fans of the Library Card Notebooks and the Antique Brick Bookend.



In addition to this geeky treasury, we found two other nerdy finds. The first is this cute Old School Microscope Bodysuit made by happyfamily.

The final find for the week is this awesome laptop decal by MacBookDecalPro. If Snow White looked like this when I was a kid, I might have taken a little more pride in my nerdiness.

Hope you all enjoyed getting in touch with your inner geek. We'll be back next week with more tips, tricks, and finds. In the meantime, check out our Etsy store. And remember, 10% of all sales in the month of September will go to Feeding America.

Tuesday Tip--Grilled Cheese and Black Grape Sandwiches (Great with Corn Chowder)

Let's face it, everyone needs to take a break from work every now and then, and there really isn't a better reason to take a break than to eat lunch.

We've been meaning to make Athena's mom's corn chowder recipe for the past week and a half, and this morning we started the soup early so it would be ready whenever we wanted it. Originally, we were going to have corn bread with the chowder, but, on a whim, we opted to split a grilled cheese instead.

Two weeks ago we stopped by this cheese store in Belmont Shore and I ordered a Honey and Gruyere Panini. It was pretty good--I'd never though of honey and cheese, although I often top my grilled cheeses with honey mustard--but it needed something more.

Today, I was craving a similar flavor, but I didn't have many choices for the needed filler. After ruling out carrots, tomatoes, and broccoli, I opted for black grapes. (we'd served grapes and a gruyere cheddar blend at a shindig over the weekend and the combo was a hit). I also added some crushed red pepper to liven things up a bit and tie the sandwich in with the soup.

The results were pretty tasty!

Grilled Cheese and Black Grape Sandwiches


Ingredients

-Sourdough bread (it's our fav, but I suppose you could use whatever you like)
-Honey
-Gruyere cheese (or Trader Joe's Cheddar and Gruyere combo--that's what we used)
-Black, seedless grapes cut in half (we quartered them, but in hindsight, I'd halve them or cut them into slices like canned olives)
-Crushed red pepper
-Butter or Olive Oil (to coat the pan)

Directions

1. Cover the bread with a generous layer of honey--just avoid oozing.
2. Cover each side of the bread with thinly sliced cheese.
3. Add the desired amount of halved or sliced grapes.
4. Sprinkle on the red pepper to taste.
5. Melt the butter or warm the oil in a large frying pan.
6. Cook the sandwich on each side over medium heat until cheese melts and bread browns (increase the heat if you like charred bread).
7. Enjoy your delicious sandwich.
8. Check out our Etsy shop.

Make Art, Save Lives

When we started our Etsy shop, we were so overwhelmed by all that there was to do, that we didn't commit nearly enough time to establishing our brand or finding our niche. Now, after several evolutionary changes, we can say that we are at least on our way to doing both. Sure, we've cycled through a variety of products, logos, and themes and have yet to find the "right" fit. But, we've also taken a lot from each of these changes. We've learned what we like to do and what we don't like to do. We've learned a little bit about what sells and a lot about what doesn't.

We are still trying to figure out how to run a successful Etsy business, but we are certain we will eventually get the hang of it. That being said, we don't feel that businesses should wait until they are big and successful to do good things. This is why we have decided to donate 10% of every sale to charity. In short, we want to make art, and we want to save lives.

We will begin making donations for every item purchased on or after September 1st.  Each month, we will select a different charity to donate to. September's charity is Feeding America, an organization working to raise awareness about and eradicate hunger in America.

Feel free to leave us suggestions of charities to donate to in the future. We will probably set up some type of voting in the near future so that our customers and followers can help choose the charities. Stay tuned for more!

Peace. Love. Leave Your Mark.