Sharing from the Heart

I am someone who loves to help people out. I find it highly satisfying to help others out without asking for recognition or something in return.
 So normally I wouldn't post to "brag" about donating an item to help someone else.

BUT I was at work yesterday and got delivered this ADORABLE thank you card. I Love thank you cards. I love to receive them and I love sending them. I wanted to share and let you know about this awesome little boy.

 

That is Silas in the pictures! Here is a little bit about Silas from his facebook page:

 

"I am two and a half years old and have already been through more than the average kiddo! When I was born I faced some very large complications during my Mamas labor, which have led me to my diagnosis. Spastic Quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy along with Secondary Microcephaly, Plagiocephaly, Epilepsy, Severe Developmental Delay, and Tracheal Malay...sia, Non-Verbal and Non-Ambulatory. I am tube fed a Ketogenic Diet 24/7 through my J Tube and given all of my medicine three times a day through my G Tube. Despite the complications that all of these things bring I am a feisty little fighter, determined to prove all my doctors wrong who have told me that I will never walk or talk."

 

I was contact by Melly (Silas' mom) about possibly donating an item to a silent auction event they were throwing for Silas called "Sharing from the Heart" (It's an annual event) I immediately knew I wanted to help out. We donated a Maine slate clock for the silent auction!

 

Melly also used to work at the bakery I work at so my boss agreed to donate a cake for the event as well. Since I decorate most of the cakes I also got to make a cake for this event!

 

 

All the money raised from the event goes toward the cost of medical bills, alternative thearapies and other things Silas needs!

 

 

If you would like to learn more or follow along on Silas' journey OR help out visit his website www.silassaga.com  and like his facebook page www.facebook.com/SilasSaga

Picture Dump!

Pictures from my phone that I felt like sharing!

I obviously love rocks/stone/tiles... I REALLY love this flooring from Home Depot that is made to look like wood flooring but it's a tile..

a VERY Large State of Maine made of Blue Stone. It's going to be a coffee table

Postcard of some of our products

Awesome custom made stamp we got from Stamp Couture on Etsy!

If you ask for a note to be including in with your order we also print it on one of our hand made cards! With pictures I took at my favorite beaches!

A&E! Evan and I on my birthday in North Conway, NH.

No big deal. On a roof, in the snow. (Checking out the chimney for my Dad to make sure it's ok to start the wood stove!)

Special Project Evan has been working on! Someday it will be an awesome coffee table

Bradstreet Maple Farm in Searsmont, Maine. We visited on Maine Maple Sunday - it was awesome!

BeachStone Cabinet Knobs!

My personal keychain!

This is what I do at my full time job! LOVE CAKES!

My sister and I have been playing with paracord.... so fun!




That's all for today! Happy Almost April!! & Happy Spring!
 -A

Failure? Moving on!

Soooo.... in my last post I told you all about my goals for the year. That included blogging 2 times a month. Well it's March. February is gone and I only posted one blog post in February.
    Failureeee....... I'm not too heart broken over this because part of life is not always reaching your goals. You have to be able to move forward. So although I have technically failed my number 6 goal for the year I will keep trying. I'm still going to strive for 2 or more blog posts a month. At the end of the year if I only missed that second one for February it will still be a success in my book!

In other news we got accepted into Arks in the Park in Belfast, Maine!!! It is the very first craft/art show we wanted to do and we are super excited that we got in! It will take place July 12th & 13th 2014. We are beginning to plan how we want our booth set up. We also got a Great deal on shelves made of shutters that we can use in our booth set up! I think we may paint them so I will update you on that when it happens with before and after pictures. They are a really pretty green color right now I just don't think it is the direction we are going in for our display. Right now they are hibernating in our garage, when things start to warm up I will start working on them!

that's it for it!
     -A

2014 Year Goals

When 2014 started I wasn't sure if I wanted to make goals for the year. I'm always striving to do better and more forward. The thought of writing down things I wanted to have happen this year just didn't seem like it fit for me... I didn't want to be bummed out at the end of the year if I didn't make all of my goals.
 But I went for it anyway. Here are the goals I set at the beginning of January for our business!

 1. 200 sales on Etsy for the year - we started the year at 144 sales so by the end of the year I'm hoping to be at 344. we are currently at 162 sales

 2. 250 total likes on Facebook - Started at 128 likes. currently at 173 likes. This isn't a very high goal, I probably could have strived a Bit higher on this one but oh well!

 3. 100 total followers on Pinterest - Started at 16 with a brand new pinterest business account. currently at 32 followers.

 4. Participate in a craft fair - we are shooting for Arts in the Park in Belfast, Maine (our home town) We applied for it last month. It is a juried show and we will find out by the end of the month if we got in or not. If we don't make it in we will search for a different one to participate in.

  5. Get up to 100 listings on Etsy - Evan thought I was a little crazy for this one, I think we can do it. We started the year at 40 listings and I'm up to 53 right now!

 6. Blog 2 times a month - Honestly this is probably going to be my hardest goal to achieve. I am NOT a writer and I never think "hey, I'm gonna write a blog post about this" I'm hoping the more I force myself to do this to easier it with get and hopefully the posts will get better! I was just balancing our bank accounts and looked at the calendar and said "oh no, it's already the 11th and I haven't even done one blog post this month!" BUT I did post 2 times in January! and now I'm halfway there for February!



So there they are. 6 Goals. There are other things I could have added but I decided to keep it simple with the basics. I keep all the goals written down in my "current sales to work on" folder so when I open it to start a new order I see them and get reminded of what I'm working toward this year.

 If you want to help with our goals like us on facebook! - www.facebook.com/AandEStoneworks
  and follow us on pinterest! - http://www.pinterest.com/aandestoneworks/



Thanks!
       -A

Food & Wine!?

Our latest feature came out last week! and I'm super excited to share the news that we were featured on Foodandwine.com aka Food and Wine Magazines website! I was BEYOND excited when Abby contacted me about wanting to include our cheeseboard in a feature on the best state shaped items! I have a degree in culinary arts which pretty much means I'm a huge foodie so it was double excitement for me.

I sent in 6 or 7 pictures for them to select from and they picked Mississippi to feature!
 

Here is a screen shot of our slide in the feature.

 

"10 Awesome Things That Are Shaped Like States - State Pride Home Design"
Food & Wine Feature - follow that link to see our cheeseboard - picture number 4 of 10!

We are among some really amazing items! be sure to check them all out!


      That's all for now!
                          -A

Goals & Excitement!

Hi again.... Worst blogger ever award of 2013 goes to me! We had something really exciting happen in December and I didn't even blog about it. Maybe because it is so much easier to do a quick share on Facebook. Maybe because things got pretty crazy around here.. From the day before Thanksgiving (Nov 27th) until December 28th we had at Least one sale a day - Most days had 3-5 sales. There was one Sunday that we had 12 sales! 98% of those sales were for items that we make to order. So on top of our full time jobs things got crazy busy fun and there was no time for anything extra.

When we started 2013 I made one business goal. And it was to sell a certain dollar amount by the end of the year. I am VERY happy to say that we made the goal.... TIMES THREE!

One of my goals for our shop for 2014 is to blog at least 2 times a month. Since it's already the 17th of January.... I best be gettin' a move on with my 2 for January :)

So I'm going to go back and share our December excitment that helped get our name out there.

We got featured in Down East Magazines "133 Maine Made Gifts" guide!!  WHAT!? One of OUR products that WE made is in a printed magazine?

This is the cover of the magazine and the page that our product is on!

Down East Magazine December 2013 issue.

 

 

This is our Maine Slate Cheeseboard that was featured in Down East Magazine. It is made from Maine Slate! yay for keeping things local!

 

 

 

If you click here you can see all of the items feature in the gift guide!

 

Click Here too!!! and you can see all the items that came from Etsy Maine Team Members!! 19 members were featured. yay MaineTeam! You can also see all the pages of the gift guide there!

 

 

Okay, that is all for now. We have another exciting feature coming out sometime soon... and I CAN NOT WAIT to share it! :) Not sure on the date yet but I will be sure to blog it the second I see it!

 

-A

 

Etsy Maine Team Cash Mob Goodies

Back in early February I joined the most amazing team on Etsy - The Etsy Maine Team (EMT)! I've learned a lot for this great team of ALL Mainers! What could be more fun?

This past Friday the team held their 2nd annual Cash Mob. Pretty much you go to Etsy.com and in the search bar type in "maineteam" and GO SHOPPING! Lots of shops had one day sales, I had a 10% off sale and ended up with 2 sales from the cash mob!  (you can type in "maineteam" any day of the year and find Great things that are made in Maine)

The really exciting part is that I went shopping too! :)

I "cash mobbed" eight of my fellow team members. Most everything I got are intended for Christmas present for my family/friends... so I can't show you almost anything.....

BUT I did get something for ME! :)

I am a huge Christmas person so naturally I have A LOT of Christmas ornaments.. I love them.. so I try to limit the number of them that I buy because our tree gets full quick. Since Evan and I have been married I have decided that we will only buy one ornament a year. (okay.. one SPECIAL one.. and maybe a few for good luck?)

This year while I was "researching" everything the Maine Team had to offer and trying to decide who I was going to Mob I kept coming back to this same shop because I desperately want their Mason Jar Chalkboard. I had it in my shopping cart for 2 days before the cash mob with every intention of buying it. The morning of I had a change of heart and decided I really should only be doing Christmas shopping. But then I saw the cutest Christmas ornament in the same shop and you could have it personalized. so I compromised with myself and decided it was a Christmas gift for Evan and I. That meant I could buy it, right?

Anyway, I did! and I got it in the mail yesterday and I LOVE it!
 

 Ta-da! (the cute little tags attached to the business card were a little freebie! how cute!)

 

 

 

This super cute ornament is made by 163DesignCompany, they are out of Pittsfield, Maine. It is a family run business and they are super nice!

 
You should take a look at their shop they have amazing things. I also just found out that they have things for sale at the LL Bean Home Store in Freeport. If you know Evan and I at all... you'd know we LOVE LLBean so I think that is pretty darn cool!

I still plan on getting myself that mason jar chalkboard in the future :)


That's all for now, I can't show you my other amazing treasures but if you want to shop local without leaving your house head over to Etsy and type "maineteam" in the search bar.


see ya!
-Alana