July's Featured Shop: Sweetbeets

"I am a minimalist at heart and love the idea of owning just what we need and love."


This month's featured EtsyMom shop is Sweetbeets. Owner, Lisa, designs a line of cards that feature her own illustrations of babies and kids. Sweetbeets pieces are letterpress printed on eco-friendly paper (made of either 100% post consumer recycled fibers or 100% recycled cotton fibers). New releases to the shop include an alphabet print and a counting print that can be framed for a baby's nursery. Also new to the shop is a small collection of print-at-home PDFs designed for baby shower invitations and children's birthday parties; this collection is to be expanded in the coming months.
After the birth of her first child, Lisa decided to leave her position in the field of medical research to stay home and care for her son. Craving an outlet for her creativity, she began designing cards using rubber stamps and craft punches. Self-taught in Adobe Illustrator, Lisa began working on her own illustrations. Sweetbeets was launched in the summer of 2007 with the intention of focusing on selling wholesale. Lisa first learned of Etsy through various design blogs and in October of 2007 she joined the fun and had her shop up and running within a month. Early 2009, she finished a complete overhaul of her primary website, http://sweetbeets.com, and added a retail shop.
"Sweetbeets is my day job, though I almost always work at night, too!" Lisa's primary job is being a mom. With her oldest son in grade 1 and away full days and her youngest son in Kindergarten just three mornings a week, she has those mornings alone to focus on Sweetbeets (although they go by so fast!). Admittedly, she has yet to nail down a system that "works", although she is constantly trying new ways to stay organized. At one point, she had assigned different types of tasks (e.g. marketing, blog, packing cards) to different days of the week so each week she had everything covered; she has since mostly abandoned that system and now relies on her new MomME Weekly Planner by Lobotome to keep her organized.
Lisa lives near Toronto with her husband of 12 years and their two sons, ages 7 and 4 years old. The family is TV-free at home (not having TV shows to themp her has freed up time to focus on Sweetbeets) though she enjoys watching movies with her husband on their laptop. Lisa also maintains a blog at www.modecokids.com.

July Birthdays

1. Tinkerella Creations 2. Sea Sprite Soaps 3. Mary Had a Little Party

Sending big birthday wishes to the talented Etsy Moms celebrating this month!
1st: mommy24cs
4th: AlexiaJean
5th: rhonda
6th: pandys, maryhadalittleparty
7th: princesspretties
8th: seaspritesoaps, poofycheeks
14th: khamm75
15th: bijouxdellostregatto
16th: zoewoods, jaimesews
17th: geeta75
18th: MaPetiteChou
19th: Kokomele
20th: char
21st: piccalillitoo
22nd: tinkerellacreations, SistersSisters, honeybunbakery
26th: twochickstoo, Vaeyn
27th: CaffeinatedCrafts, ArtfulMommy
28th: simag
29th: YappsCottageDecor
30th: opiebaby
31st: sumikoshop

June's Featured Shop: SewFierce

This month's EtsyMom Street Team featured shop is SewFierce.etsy.com SewFierce offers fun and affordable creations for your little one. Sewing began as a hobby for Steph, but since opening her online shop, www.sewfierce.com, about a year ago, she has been doing it full time. She opened her Etsy shop, www.sewfierce.etsy.com, this spring and has been having fun meeting other Etsians, joining groups and networking, and chatting in the forums. Steph is a stay at home mom to two amazing little girls. She has been fortunate to be able to develop give and take schedule with her girls that allows her to work from home. During the day they let mommy work a few hours and then they all go do something fun and then daddy comes home and takes over so mommy can "go to work".
Steph finds the most challenging aspect of her craft would be when she is so tired that she makes simple mistakes again and again. But she is rewarded when someone sends pictures of "their little princess in one of" the outfits she has made. Steph's goal has been to offer "well made, adorable boutique-style clothing and infant accessories any mommy on any budget could afford." She is working hard to get the Sew Fierce name out there and let people see what she is all about.
Steph is military wife, with a Marine Corp family living in sunny San Diego, California. Her daughters are 4 and 2 years old and are Daddy's little girls. She maintains a blog where she offers frequent giveaways of her products and general posts about what interests her. Steph was an Equestrian in her young years. "I have tattoos and love them, I adore peanut butter and fluff sandwiches and am a Dallas Cowboys fan."

June Birthdays

1. WylesStyle 2. Flandersfield 3. Purplesmurple 4. Yellowfinchdesigns

Here are the Etsymoms celebrating their birthday this month (with me!). Stop by, check out their shops, and send birthday greetings!

4^th: nightowlstudios, buzzylittlebeads, apricotsandlollipops, yellowfinchdesigns

6^th: sewfunbymonique

7^th: lilfancies

10^th: BusyMomCreations, bfbeads, princessdoodlebeans

11^th: craftyjuicebroker, purplesmurple

12^th: creationsbycorina, nellys

13^th: jezzabell13

16^th: KLSreflections

17^th: novelthreads

18^th: OriginalsByLynnette

19^th: Sugarplumdreams, flandersfield, Beautymark

20^th: fringies

21^st: littleladyboutique, divamommydesigns

22^nd: SunshineMountain

23^rd: bellaninas, craftyaddictions

24^th: myboyscustomcards

26^th: WylesStyle, Project31, handknithugs

27^th: sweetdreamsboutique

28^th: myjennybunny

29^th: LaneesCrochet

30^th: purseonalitybags

May's Featured EtsyMom Shop

The EtsyMom shop being featured this May is SeaSpriteSoaps. SeaSpriteSoaps.etsy.com specializes in handmade cold process soaps from food grade vegetable oils and butters. SeaSpriteSoaps came to being about ten years ago...shop owner, Stephanie, had written several books and advertised them online. A woman who made herbal soaps and lotions offered to trade one of her books for one of Stephanie's, and so it began. Stephanie loved the "kitchen alchemy" of "creating something that's both useful and beautiful and smells great from scratch." She was hooked. After Stephanie and her family began using her soaps. they swore off store bought soaps. She made so much soap she started giving it away to family and friends.
When she closed her private practice in psychology, she decided to start selling her handmade soaps online at her domain shop, seaspritesoaps.com. Stephanie noticed many of her blogging friends mentioned Etsy so she decided to check out their links. SeaSpriteSoaps.etsy.com went live in July of 2007.

"My favorite part of making soap is the satisfaction of creating what I view as a necessity, soap, from distilled water, lye and oils. I like tweaking my soap formulas to get a good balance of conditioning, cleansing and bubbles."

"My least favorite aspect of soap making is cleaning up!"

All tools, utensils and molds have to be wiped clean and washed by hand in hot water before being placed in the dishwasher in order to ensure that no residual fragrance or oils are left that might effect the next batch. Admittedly, though, Stephanie says that one of the hardest parts is having to wait to use her new soaps; it takes at least a month to cure most of her soaps to achieve a hardness and mildness that is usable.


Since retiring from psychology, Stephanie no longer leaves the home to work, but stays busy at home...writing books, maintaining an online tutorial on PhotoImpact, teaching image editing classes online, creating characters for a 3D modeling program called Poser. Soap-making has gradually become her main focus made possible by a wonderfully supportive family that take an active interest in the business, often suggesting new fragrances or marketing ideas. Her children also help out with wrapping soaps and packaging them when time is short and orders are large. Stephanie is really happy with the positive feedback she has received and works hard to provide the best possible customer service she can by responding to questions and convos right away, shipping promptly and including samples or other goodies with each package she sends out.

Stephanie has been married 28 years and lives with her family in Naples, Florida near a wonderful beach. After earning an MS and PhD in clinical psychology from Virginia Tech, she began her career as a mom at the age of 41. She has two children, one daughter and one son. "They are great kids and it's such an adventure watching them grow up and become the people they are meant to be." The family also has several beloved pets: two Welsh Terriers, two cats, a zebra finch, a Ball python, lots of fish in the backyard lily pond. Her latest "quirk" is that she has become a devotee of the Food Network. "I think it's really improved my cooking! For Christmas last year my husband got me a set of beautiful Cuisinart pots and pans. What's funny is that as an unrepentant feminist, this did not offend me at all. I've been using old hand-me-down, dinged up pots and pans for so long, it's a pleasure to have beautiful new stuff to cook with."

Happy Mother's Day