you don't want to miss this.

if there are any top three blogs that I read daily, it would be these:

-The Shine Project

-Casey Wiegand

-Little Miss Momma

These three ladies are FILLED full of inspiration. From blogging about family, their children, their projects, their aspirations and their life goals all the way to their downfalls, and struggles.

People, these women are REAL.

They make me want to be a better person.

They must be in kahoots with each other because each one of them are hosting AWESOME giveaways on their blogs...RIGHT NOW.

Over at

Ashley

 is hosting a giveaway from Little Miss Momma!

One lucky ready will receive a beautiful SHINE pillow!

And in case you didn't know, with each shine pillow sold $5 of the proceeds go to The Shine Project Scholarship Fund.

And since we are on the subject of Little Miss Momma,

who is ALSO named Ashley- just FYI,

let me introduce the Barn Owl Primitive giveaway going on over at her place!

Have you seen these signs around etsy?

I posted one on my FB wall just the other day.

It was this one to be exact.

{it's never too early to start dropping Christmas hints, now is it?}

These signs pictured above are all 'standard' size.

The giveaway is for a JUMBO sign of your choice OR you can work with the creator of these beauties and design one of your own!

It measures 2' x 4'.

WOW.

Take a look..

Valued at $250-$350!

Last but not least, my super cute friend Casey over at The Wiegand's is hosting a giveaway from Soleil Selene.

Enter here for your chance to win all three of these lovelies:

one rosette necklace

one triple rosette necklace

one double rosette headband

Now, as if this isn't enough, Soleil Selene is hosting a Blogiversary Giveaway Event from now until September 16th!

I don't know about you, but I find myself in dire need of ALL of the above mentioned giveaways.

I've actually already entered myself into each of them.

And because each of the ladies are giving away, I figured I might as well join in on the fun!

Next week, I'm going to host a giveaway from my Etsy shop!

Take a look around and leave a comment below letting me know of an item you would like to see in the giveaway!

In the meantime, I'm offering a 15% off discount code to all of my readers!

Just enter 'embellish' in the discount code box!

Cheers!

xoxo

advertisement & blog giveaway!

Advertisement plays a major role in the retail business.

Unaware of the amount of advertisement blogs had available, I stumbled upon a few sites that inspired me to move forward in showcasing my business online.

I joined etsy & added a majority of our products months ago.

Before long, I began to broaden our products and handmake more & more of our items.

Being from a small town, your clientele is only so big.

In order to make my business a successful career, I needed to move forward taking some big steps.

We currently own a website domain: TheEmbellishBoutique.com, where I've worked endless hours on taking pictures, resizing images, adding attributes, descriptions, prices, inventory amounts & customization options. It's more work than you think. It's actually pretty hard to keep up with an etsy shop, a blog, an e-commerce website, a facebook page, and a physical storefront on a weekly basis. But, don't get me wrong. I love every second of it. I like to see the expressions on our customers faces when we hand over their personalized item. It's priceless. They love them! And we love creating them.

Two weeks ago, I contacted a few ladies that I follow on Blogger.

They have successful blogs, in which numerous people flow in and out daily.

Advertisement links are posted on the right side & giveaways are hosted frequently.

Normally, when I used to see a blog that was hosting a 'giveaway', I would immediately skip right over it. Then after seeing some of the cute stuff being 'gave away', I opted to enter into a few of them. I even won a super cute monogrammed acrylic drink dispenser!

Now that I own a business, I completely understand the advertisement perspective of these generous shop owners. It's a must. In order to show people your products, to get your name out there, one must advertise. How else are people going to know about you and your fabulous products?

These three or four ladies have agreed to let us sponser their blog by placing our 'button' on their page & by hosting a giveaway (for a small fee, of course). This way, they have more traffic increased to their blogs, while I get new advertisement & traffic into my shop during the process. It's a two for two.

I'm excited to see the results.

As of today so far, our etsy shop had 92 visitors.

In the last 7 days, we've had 688 hits & 2 orders.

In the last 30, we had 2,229 visitors & 13 orders.

This blog has had 34,784 hits thus far.

As of today, I have 120 followers.

I'm not out to get increased traffic to my personal blog or to just gain followers by any means.

This blogger world does have great opportunity for me to advertise my business, however.

I will use this blog to post my weekly ramblings, findings, thoughts, and special memories, just like before. Nothing is changing here. These are just stats for me to look back on one day & remember where I first began.

Tomorrow is the first day.

Hannah over at Young & Crafty is hosting my very first giveaway.

Make sure to visit her & enter to win!

Here's to the first day of making my business a successful one!

fun giveaways

Taylor over at The Undomestic Momma is giving away an apron of your choice from Flirty Aprons.

Head on over to her blog to enter this giveaway!

&

Kimberly over at Kimberly's Korner is posting a giveaway today as well!

Not sure exactly what it consists of at the moment, but here is a hint:

is an American cook, 

restaurateur, 

author, 

actress,

and Emmy Award-winning television personality!

Click here for more details!

& 

Kassie over at Raindrops on Roses is giving away a 

$35 gift certificate from CSN Stores!

Check it out here!