I was really looking forward to meeting her and checking out the shop. I’ve been reading her blog Parcel Post for quite some time now, and I’m always looking forward to seeing what’s new in the shop. She has a great eye for great design and cute products. It sure is my dream shop!. If you haven’t stopped by, it’s a must!.

I bought a couple of cute note books from SUKIE

Here is Richie (one of the panelists) at the Urbanic Store and Dariela in the back

From left to right:

Rebecca of Loving Living Small, Karla Stevens of Patioculture, (she wasn’t a panelist but she ask very interesting questions) Audry of Parcel Post, Johnathan of  Happy Mundane, Richie of Richie Design, Megan of Beach Bungalow8

crowd behind us

3 main things I retained (there was so much more!) and hope to incorporate in our blogging practice:

Be consistent: Blogging should be consistent (if you care about readers of course). It is very hard to attract more readers if you are not being consistent with your posting. If you can only blog once a week be there that day of the week, so people know when to read you. If your blog is very very personal and you don’t care at all whether people read it or not then you should blog when ever you feel like it, even if that means leaving 5 months in between posts.

Be supportive: Comment to other blogs you like. The blogsphere is a very friendly and supportive community. As much as you like receiving comments and knowing people are reading you, so do others like hearing from you. Feedback is VERY important for everyone. When scheduling time for blogging make sure you schedule for commenting as well. It’s easy when you love what you see!

Be personal: Your blog is about you!. Readers want to learn about you, they want to know who you are in a personal level. There are no rules, no wrong or right!. If you want to blog about how you feel, or a picture you saw, or a pair of shows you remember or a book you are reading or simply post your favorite quote, it’s all ok. Your blog will have your personality as long as you keep it very genuine.

Dariela, looking at the panelists

We had some more fun right after the event…

to be continued

I like to collect cards from the places that most captured my attention and here they are for you to check them out, they are really nice!

1. Tyler Bender Book Amazing Blank books made from old or not so old books, they are completely recycled! Go check them out, they are wonderful!
2. Anemone Letterpress Beautiful letterpressed cards and invitations, I really like their business card (psst, it’s made with the same thick stock we used for ours, great choice!!)
3. Creative Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting Marisa in person that day after following her blog and on twitter, she has beautiful art that is now implementing on many different type of media, love that! She’s also having a solo gallery show starting this Saturday 5/9, if you are in L.A. don’t miss it!!
4. Stacey Winters Stacey makes amazing jewelry and is an even more amazing photographer, all her pieces have her pictures and she’s really nice in person too. She has an etsy store you can check out.
5. Chocolate and Steel Cute handcrafted silver jewelry, very simple and original pieces!
6. oh, hello friend I remembered grabbing the business card just because it was pretty and it grabbed my attention but I had spent quite some time looking at her cute jewelry, she has even much more stuff than what her etsy shop shows!
7. Naja Tea I love tea and this one I tried and it was delicious, they are even making cocktail recipe ideas with teas, how yummy. If you have the opportunity to try it, I recommend it!!
8. Ecobooma (Jenkin Jellies) This card doesn’t reflect at all what the company is, I tell you this booth was always full, they have quite a range of products, what I loved was the Jenkin Jelly line, homemade natural jellies! More than delicious and really affordable plus it comes from an eco-friendly company!
9. Tree by Kerri Lee This store has great nursery decor at affordable prices plus the products make great original gifts. As a designer I have to point out that the webpage doesn’t reflect the nice designs they do have though but if you’re looking for a baby gift, this is a must place!

Imagine, this was like 2% of all the sellers there! We will be there during the Holidays this year selling our jewelry, yay!!

Earth Day brings a great opportunity to review my green resolutions I wrote down at the beginning of the year

Green actions I already take:

I use “save energy households” and bulbs

I recycle all my trash

I use reusable bags at most stores

I buy used cloth, shoes, bags, books and more

Green actions to accomplish this year:

Have  a recycle bin in my bathroom (done)

Start a compost system in my backyard

Print on recycle paper ALWAYS

Green actions to accomplish in the future years:

Purchase a hybrid car, or use the metro at least 2 days a week

Plant fruit and vegetablesin my backyard for a more sustainable living

Actively participate more in educational and green awareness events

As I mentioned before. We visited Go Green Expo last month and we loved it, we are very into being green and for our new business plan/product we are thinking in something that has to do with being green!

Here are more of the products that captured my attention:

Bamboo Hugs

I am in love with this company. Not just the products they sell, but what they are about. It just gave me hope when I read their story and got to know more about them. Also, in these not-so-great times, there are still lots of us entrepreneurs (I still feel weird calling myself by this name, between the 2 of us, my sis is the one that should be called like this!) that can launch products!!

This company launched a Bath Blanket for children made out of Bamboo! Being a mom I feel this is a very needed product since the ones out there in the stores are so thin and little, there are no options! So, these are cute, thick and green!! Look at some of their characteristics:

• naturally UV protective
• naturally anti-bacterial
• 60% more absorbent than cotton
• thermal regulating (1-2 degrees)
• hypo-allergenic
• pesticide free
• AND MUCH MORE!! Read more in their website: Bamboo Hugs

J.R. Watkins

This product has been around for years and we didn’t know about them! They have now a huge line for cosmetics and for household cleaning. They say they sell them at selected Targets. I tried a sample packet of the body cream and it’s great! Plus, of course we love the design, dont you?

Printing responsibly / Eco friendly printer

We haven’t used them yet but the samples there where excellent! And if we can print projects with them it would be great, cause they are completely green, from the lightbulbs they use in their shop to the inks in the paper. Check them out!

Those are the companies that stood out for us, The expo will be still going on for a while in the next couple of months in other cities so if you are going to be close by, GO, it’s worth it!!

So when I heard about this expo I was thrilled to be able to go and I wasn’t expecting SOOO many exciting products and companies that are out there being green!

I want to post about the ones that captured my attention the most and today I opened my bag of goodies from the expo and the first thing I grabbed was a leftover chocolate bar that we bought called Theo. Soooo yummy, it was hard to decide which one to get cause we tried them all and they are are excellent, and now I’m looking at the packaging and realizing they are also Fair Trade!! One of the discussions my sister and me are having for creating new product is if we want to go into Fair Trade, it’s a great system. And this chocolate just proves that it CAN be done in a a classy way, with magnificent product and beautiful packaging and branding… And you know, after all, I’m always paying attention to those features: Design, design and more design!!

We got the Hazelnut Crunch but take a look at the others, aren’t the illustrations nice and well arranged in the package? Great work all around!!

~This last one makes me proud!! …Did you know that Venezuela

is one of the worlds best cacao producers?~

In the back of our minds we’ve always been wanting to create “visible” goods and not only work on “service”, so we want to make our products and have them out there in retail and not only depend on designing one custom job at a time. This year we will be immersed on starting this process, whatever we need to do so we can work it well and big.

We are moving out of our studio space by the end of this month. The last couple of months have been difficult to handle in terms of expenses and we can’t afford that space anymore, we will be working temporary out of our homes until we are able to get another much better and BRIGHTER space (our studio is a basement and we do miss the natural light!).

To be able to cover our expenses we will be getting part-time jobs, this decision wasn’t easy but it’s the most basic of all to be able to survive. We don’t know yet what or where but hopefully something where we can give our creative talent, adapt and learn too.

I have to say I feel a little scared but I know this is the way to go. And I have heard a lot that if you do that thing that makes you feel on the edge and makes you have that wiggly feeling in your stomach, that’s the thing you should be doing cause if you don’t go there you will stay the same and nothing will change, and I want change!! I think we both feel pretty lucky that we can do this together, we’ve always dreamed to be doing business together, and we still are!

We still plan to blog about our happenings during this journey, we’re excited to start over and create great success!! See you soon!

I leave you with some pictures of our vending in December:

~Our necklaces and matching earrings~

~Me organizing the booth~

We will be selling our products this year at the SAJE Holiday Market in Downtown LA, if you’re around, please come by and let’s meet! We would love to meet you! We are not able to sell in any other fair this year because we will be out of town traveling to our home country, renewing energy with lots of family, friends and inspirations that travel brings, just in time to start the next year in FULL!!!

Here is the flyer for the fair and some pictures of our products!

We might still come in and blog this month, so see you soon!

Last Friday we went to an event organized by the LBWA (National Latina Business Women Association in Los Angeles… fiiiuuuuhhh, what a name!)

We had a great time and we always love to participate in these events in any way we can, this time we went as guests. This is our 2nd event this year and we love this association, we love to meet other latinas in business and be inspired by what they do and network with them, make friends, lots of opportunities here! If you are in LA we really recommend getting involved in this organization.

This event in particular was an award event celebrating the success of many latina business women. Here are some pictures of the reception after the ceremony, where we met our friends Vanessa and Chantal from Mi Casa, finantial services and we also met new friends!

Chantal Camarillo, Elizabeth Espinoza, Vanessa Montanez