last week, i was eating cereal one morning, mindlessly flipping through local supermarket circulars and came across the flyer above for the new grocery section in my local target, my little heart went all aflutter. why? well, frankly, it's fun. it makes actually really terrible food (that's a whole other blog post, really) look aesthetically appealing and thoughtful. they could have easily used that template that every other supermarket seems to use (ie, the one below) and called it a day. ... Read Full Story

sometimes it's easy to get distracted by all of the side effects - i accidentally get caught up in why views are down or there haven't been as many followers or why is this selling and that just sits there. and that's when i try to stand up, pay less attention and get back to work. it's so easy to let all the little "measures of success" totally cripple you. or at least me. i forget one of my favorite things to remember: work makes work. the best thing i can do is to make myself hop away fr... Read Full Story

"Don’t get us wrong. We like crafts. We just don’t like these crafts. Yes, we know these people put their hearts into it. We know it took hours and hours. We know how mean it is to laugh at their creations. And we regret being the only web site on the internet that makes fun of things." - from the regretsy disclaimer page. there aren't too many blogs that make me snort with laughter (and you're welcome for that mental image), but regretsy.com is the funniest damn blog i think i've ever r... Read Full Story

photo by laura kicey a big thank you to the fantastic sarah lockard of aroundmainline.com for compiling a really gorgeous series of photographs of some of my favorite philadelphia-area artists! you can find the article in the storque as part of the shop local series. i'm so incredibly flattered to be included in this lovely group of ladies. and an even bigger thank you to the fabulous laura kicey, aka helveticaneue, who i had the pleasure of meeting as she shot my photo for the article at te... Read Full Story

one of the most important things i've done this year for my business is treating like a business. and it really seems like the more seriously i take showing up and getting things done, and done well, the more rewards there have been. it's lead me to a couple realizations: if you believe you're running a real business, other people will, too.you can only be as successful as you'll believe that you can be. now, you should know by now that i'm not some fancy-talking, blowing-sunshine-up-your p... Read Full Story

i'll admit i was never much of a sports fan. i didn't grow up rooting for one team or another, or watch any sport with any regularity as a child. (of course, this could be because i grew up in central new jersey, smack dab between philadelphia and new york, so i didn't have any real allegiance to a set of teams, really).but last year, the phillies totally won my heart. they turned me not only into a phillies fan, but into a (novice) baseball fan. erik and i lucked into tickets for the last h... Read Full Story

i got a new little toy tool for girlscantell! it's a tiny 10.1" asus ee netbook (hereby known as the baby computer). i'm excited because it's so little and lightweight that i actually forgot it was in my purse on the way to work this morning. amazing! i have to admit, i think so far i'm as in love with the super simple, cushy, and ultra striped case i snagged for it from built nyc (and yes, we admittedly have way too many of their wine / beer holders) as i am with the actual machine, but i'm... Read Full Story

while it may seem easy to people who don't have the pleasure of running their own creative business to say "how hard can it be to just stop working for xyz number of hours a week?". honestly, setting things down and taking a little time off can be incredibly difficult. in their recent interview on poppytalk (a fantastically curated marketplace which i'm super flattered to be part of for the next month!) lucy of berkley illustration really hit the nail on the head in articulating what makes i... Read Full Story

doing craft shows alone sucks, so when kelly and i realized our stuff worked really well together at shows, we were pretty psyched. a couple weeks ago when kelly and i were doing a mock set up for crafty bastards in my studio a few weeks ago, we were trying to figure out what we could do for a banner for each of our little brands. kelly had the brilliant idea of using online fabric printing company spoonflower.com (which i had always thought just did smaller scale, more repetitive patterned f... Read Full Story

since i like you (yes, you) i'll let you in on a little secret: i use postling.comto manage just about all my online accounts, especially girlscantell related-ness. and if you're running a business, especially a small business, in particular a business that has (or wants!) an online presence (which, really, is just about every small business), then here's an invaluable tip: you should be using postling. what is this postling? well, it's a website whose aim is to make keeping all those newfan... Read Full Story