village appreciation day!

holy smokes you guys...thank you so much for all the orders and for all the positive feedback about the new shop. i'm loving how fast and organized it is! we sold out of a few things but we'll have more of those items super soon.

i would like to give a HUGE shout out of thanks to my new programmer, leah of leahcreates.com who rebuilt the shop on an entirely new platform (more info on that below). having had not so wonderful experiences before with programmers, i was soooooo delighted (and relieved) to have found her (via a connection on twitter, no less!). totally professional, patient, speedy, and sweet - she's stuck with me for programming/coding/website life. love her!

just like i'm learning with parenting, it takes a village to run a creative biz. they are they people who help live our dreams + visions into actual and functional websites, ebooks, customer service and so on. i have a strict rule with myself to only work with people i actually like, people who are nice and kind. they can be super knowledgeable but if i don't like them or if they're not someone i would hang out with then i don't work with them. i learned that lesson the hard way. here are a list of the people in my village that i LOVE. they make my biz life that much more enjoyable, efficient, and joyful. i absolutely could not do what i do without them.

- shopify. oh lordy, i'm in love, love, love. i've had my online shop hosted by etsy and then on eshop (wordpress plugin) and now it's on shopify. i suppose third time is the charm because let me tell you, it's 100% worth the small monthly fee for this e-commerce platform. leah was able to customize my shopify account to look like it's integrated with the rest of my website. benefits? super fast. completely customizable. awesome customer service (they even celebrated my 100th order by footing the bill). extremely easy check out process for customers with confirmation emails, shipping emails, etc etc. they also have a super easy interface for order fulfillment, keeping track of customers, inventory, etc etc. dani, leah, and i all agree: this e-commerce program is the best.

- christine of darling design studio. she designed my website in 2009 and i still love it (it's built on wordpress which means i can easily update the content). she was delightful to work with while also being professional + creative. she's a great example of a mama running a successful creative biz. sometimes i wished she lived on my street. we could have playdates and talk creative biz all at once.

- wired tree. having tried several hosting/server providers, these guys are the best. they have the best customer service (i'm a stickler for great customer service) and go above and beyond. love them.

- my village of friends + family. they talk me off the ledge. they celebrate big. they show up and invite me to play big, never small. they understand when i disappear for a bit when working on a creative project. and most importantly, they are my witness, my collective memories of my beginnings, my hard work, my struggles, my triumphs. i could never never have created my biz without their support. we must must must surround ourselves with people who will support our dreams, no matter how wacky (the dream and the friends!) they may be.

- laurie of daydream designs. she's the expert who designed and created the ebooks. this girl knows what she's doing, making the ebooks incredibly interactive and highly functional. she goes above and beyond while being super responsive, detail oriented, + incredibly kind. loved working with her for that massive, massive project. and she loves oreos as much as i do!

- my kick ass licensing agency. it was quite a long process, but i'm so glad i ended up with this agency. i owe all of the new and recent opportunities (card line! home decor line! stationery line!) to their team. i am so so grateful.

- ejunkie. they do all sorts of stuff but i use them for selling my ebooks + affliliate program management. as soon as someone purchases an ebook, ejunkie sends them the ebook as an instant download. pretty awesome. ejunkie also manages my affiliate payments and such. super easy. love this program.

- dani. she's my studio assistant that i can't live without. she puts up with me and all of my detail oriented ways while totally rocking all the ins and outs of fulfilling orders, emails, inventory, sponsorships, and all sorts of other stuff. she's giggly, spiritually grounded in all that matters, and just a lovely lovely soul. i am so lucky to have her!

- the incredible demdaco team. i have so much to say about the folks at demdaco. i have loved working with them and am so inspired by their company culture. i've got a whole "demdaco appreciation week" coming up on the blog in june. i'll share stories of how the process works (making products), stories of our trip to china (we designed an artisan jewelry line while there!), interviews with key people i work with on their team, and much more. stay tuned!

- paypal. have i told you lately how much i love and rely on paypal's multi-shipping program? it's how we ship all of our orders. a must have and super duper easy.

- john. my creative biz would simply be impossible without john. i spoke about all of this in this post and every word is true. without love, i wouldn't have lasted this long. i wouldn't have been able to fuel the commitment and the passion it takes to make it all work. and i wouldn't be enjoying it as much as i do without him to share it with. and now we've got baby true. the love in my life is big and i feel wrapped, totally wrapped, in its abundance.