Survey Results Are In:
December 17, 2008 by Emily · 2 Comments
In a nutshell: You LOVE the Featured Shoppes and want even more Crafts and Recipes. Sounds good to us!
Thank you, Thank you to everyone who helped us out by taking our survey! It really gave us a better idea about what you want to see more of at LWS.
We are learning so many things and know it’s going to make Little Window Shoppe even better, so here’s what we found (based on the results from a couple hundred participants):
Our Bloggy Demographics
- 98% of the readers are women (I think my husband was one of the few guys who took it)
- 70% of you have children under 10.
- Over 90% of you read blogs regularly, have your own blog, have a Facebook account and like to shop online.
- Only 30% of you have a Twitter account or have joined a Ning site.
- Most of you stop in daily, every other day or weekly to visit. (Thank you so much for stopping by so often!)
- Almost 100% of you prefer the images and graphics (we’ll definitely keep ’em comin’ for ya) and you think the site navigation is easy to follow. (Fwew).
Your Top Favorites - we’re actually so glad about these results, because these are our favorites too!
- #1. Plain and simple, you want more crafts and do-it-yourself projects. In fact, some of you mentioned (in the comments) that because of the economy you like to make things rather than buy things and you even prefer handmade craft ideas and DIY projects over the discounts. (Good to know).
- #2. You are still loving the featured shoppes each week (and are happy about an occasional shoppe discount).
- #3. And of course, you like the contests (which will be coming your way each week).
From the Comments, (in addition to your favorites), you also want to see:
- More Recipes, fun recipes, recipes for kids & holiday recipes! So, we may just have to include a recipe section…we do feature them from time to time, but I think we may step it up a notch.
- More green/eco-friendly shoppes (we’re happy about this too - we think it’s a great direction for some of our shoppe posts).
This is good stuff all around. Thank you so much again for your help and for all of your sweet comments! We’re so happy that you are finding Little Window Shoppe to be a helpful resource when you’re on the web.
P.S. I especially want to thank Stephanie at Metropolitan Mama for giving us question inspiration for part of our survey. And if you’re thinking about offering a survey on your site, I would definitely recommend Survey Monkey. It was easy, fast and free to set up.
Help Save Handmade Toys (and Toy Shoppes!)
December 17, 2008 by Emily · 4 Comments
Have you heard of the new Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act? If not, read this post!
THE ISSUE
Do you remember the issue in 2007 when there were frequent reports about toy manufacturers selling toys with dangerously high lead content and toys that had small unsafe parts? I remember hearing about it on the news all the time and often heard from friends that they were throwing away toys that they were concerned about. Ultimately, this series of events violated the public’s trust caused the United States Congress to recognize that more needed to be done.
Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)
So, the US passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008 with good intentions. In order to strengthen the safety standards of mass-produced toys, clothes, and accessories made in China, the CPSIA is banning lead and phthalates in toys and is mandating third-party testing and certification for all toys.
THE CONCERN
Unfortunately, this process is expensive ($4,000 fee per toy) and while all of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with, the costs of mandatory testing for small toymakers, however, may likely drive them out of business. 
(You can read even more details of this issue here: Handmade Toy Alliance)
HOW THIS AFFECTS US
With this act going into effect February 10, 2009 (just two months away) many of our favorite shoppes making handmade items for children will be affected: Shoppes who make beautiful handmade hair accessories, dolls, dresses, stuffed animals, blankets, diaper cases will no longer be able to sell their goods, unless they can cover the costs of third-party testing and labeling to prove that their items are not toxic.
IMPROVEMENTS
The Handmade Toy Alliance (and all of us too!) value the quality and diversity of toys and believe that our country’s children deserve hand crafted toys, and as such, they have made worthy proposals that will help to improve the CPSIA. They sound perfectly reasonable and make a lot of sense. You can check out their proposals here: Proposal to Improve the CPSIA
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
To help to keep the handmade community alive, you can help by writing to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.
MORE HELPFUL RESOURCES
Cool Mom Picks has dedicated a page to this issue as well, and since they have a plethora of fantastic resources, related press links and the latest breaking news updates already set up, I’m going to refer you to their awesome link: Save Handmade
You can also see a blog gallery of handmade products endangered by the CPSIA and submit yours too at Endangered Whimsy.
And if you’re looking for a few clips about it, here are two motivating videos that you can watch on YouTube regarding the CPSIA: Wood Toymaker Video and Mr. Sun Video.
Little Window Shoppe Wants to Know…
December 10, 2008 by Emily · 3 Comments
Hi all, we need your help. We want to know, what do you think about Little Window Shoppe? If you have a chance, we would love your help with taking our QUICK 10 question SURVEY. We want to know your thoughts (completely anonymous) about how we can make Little Window Shoppe a better online resource for you.
As a little incentive, we are giving out extra contest entries for any of our current contests!! If you do take this survey, please leave an extra comment for an additional entry in any (or all) of our current giveaways (just let us know you that you took the survey in each additional comment). (We also have seriously awesome contests coming up starting tomorrow and throughout next week - so keep checking back for more)!! Thank you so much ahead of time for your help.
Mrs. Goodbee Dollhouse Donation Experience
November 3, 2008 by Emily · 7 Comments
About the Contest:
A few weeks ago, Little Window Shoppe held a giveaway called “Win It and Give It” where we teamed up with Rookie Moms and Learning Curve to bring the Caring Corners Mrs. Goodbee Dollhouse to one lucky LWS reader. In addition, we also invited you to join us as we donated one to Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah and today we wanted to recap our experience.
Thank You:
First of all, we just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! Thank you to everyone who blogged about this giveaway and/or submitted your signature for the card that we gave to Primary Children’s Medical Center. There were 125 signatures sent in by you that were included in the card! It sincerely means a lot and you are very appreciated.
This was definitely the best contest Little Window Shoppe has ever had (we had well over 500 different entries between comments and emails and over 1200 names entered into the drawing with all of the extra entries)!
The Response:
I was personally touched by the many thoughtful responses from you and happy to receive so many names and well wishes for the donation card. During this process, some of you mentioned hospital experiences of your own and as I read through your emails and websites, I was truly amazed at your strength and dedication through your difficult times.
I was also in awe of a large portion of you who mentioned who you would give the dollhouse to if you won! I must say, I wasn’t expecting that kind of response and realized through it all that the spirit of giving is very special and really does make a difference!
The Donation:
This was the perfect place to donate Mrs. Goodbee. When I delivered it to Primary Children’s Medical Center, they said that they were going to have a hard time trying to decide which department needed it most as there had been a couple requests for a dollhouse.
{The Polaroid Pic taken at the Children’s Hospital}
Most of all, this experience had a profound impact on me as a blogger and I can’t wait to do something like this again at LWS. I was so grateful to be a part of this giveaway and am very glad that you were able to join me in this donation.
Bloggers Give Back:
I’m happy to say that there are even more bloggers who are giving items to charity! To read donation experiences from other bloggers and get in on the action too, keep tabs on this new site started by Rookie Moms called Bloggers Give Back. This blog is a place where you can document your experience with donating an item that you received as a “free product review” on your blog.
It was started simply because they wanted to encourage bloggers to donate some of the excess items that are received to people who really do need them.
Hope you have a great week!
New Shoppe Contributor!
October 30, 2008 by Emily · 2 Comments
We have a new contributor at Little Window Shoppe. Our Sweet Shoppes and Boutiques Guide is growing! With the current shoppes we have listed and the ones we have waiting, we will be up to about 200 shoppes in our guide. So, to continue to make it even more awesome and to keep up with the requests, I have invited Ashley to help me add to the Guide each week with her amazing graphic design talents.
Ashley is the owner Hippo Scraps where she creates cute digital designs to dress up your blog, Twitter or Etsy page. Her designs are fun, flirty, simple and elegant. You can read a bio about her and all of our super cool Window Shoppe Girls here.
See more of Ashley’s work at her shoppe: Hippo Scraps and her blog: Hippo Scraps Blog
P.S. If you are interested in promoting your shoppe or boutique, you can submit your own shoppe for FREE to be added to our Sweet Shoppes and Boutiques Guide ~ this will give you a chic spot to tell us and our of visitors all about it.
A Little “Subscribing” Situation
October 22, 2008 by Emily · 2 Comments
Just before I jump into the daily posts, I want to mention that I decided to go back to “full picture” RSS updates, yea! I know many of you are excited about this…but in the process I kind of accidentally changed my Feedburner address…so sorry to some of my Feedburner RSS subscribers!
It looks like only a few readers are not able to get our feed updates, if you are subscribed by daily email, Google Reader or Bloglines, everything should be working still and you should still be able to receive our daily updates. However, if you haven’t received anything in a few days and were an RSS subscriber through Feedburner, you may have to subscribe again. If you are reading this right now on your favorite RSS reader or email account, your account is working great.
Thanks for understanding, and so sorry for the inconvenience. P.S. If you aren’t subscribed, but are thinking about it…check out our 10 reasons to subscribe!
Twisted Silver Jewelry Giveaway
October 14, 2008 by Vanessa · 74 Comments
I don’t know about you but if it has been a crazy day and I have to go out of the house, I feel a little more put together and cute if I throw on a fun chunky bracelet, a beautiful necklace or a funky pair of earnings.
I am a huge fan of Twisted Silver Jewelry which I just recently discovered. They have an amazing collection and their jewelry is funky, modern, beautiful, unique, and the company has fantastic customer service.
Twisted Silver is leading the pack in their “convertible jewelry” which means YOU define how to wear the jewelry. A belt becomes a necklace that can become a choker that can become multi-wrap bracelet.
Here is a sneak peak of the earnings from their newest collection Hope that just launched this weekend and a glimpse of the Tangle Bangle.
Hope Earnings 30.00 ~ Tangle Bangle 40.00
Vanessa’s blog www.inevergrewup.net - Ideas and Reviews to Help Parents Entertain, Care for and Educate their Children.
Discount: Hope special introductory offer of 50% off with coupon code HOPE at checkout.
Win It:
One lucky Window Shoppe reader will win a free pair of Hope Earings! To win, all you have to do is check out Twisted Silver and leave a quick comment or send an email to contest@littlewindowshoppe.com (with “silver” as the subject of your email) letting us know your favorite item. The winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday October 22nd and will be announced here, so be sure to check back to see if you’re the winner.
Contest Closed *CONGRATULATIONS TO ”Design by Vanessa” ~ SHE IS THE RANDOMLY CHOSEN WINNER FOR THIS CONTEST! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED - PLEASE STOP BY AGAIN AS THERE ARE NEW CONTESTS EACH WEEK!*
Win it: Scribble It
September 26, 2008 by Emily · 92 Comments
It think it’s adorable to see vinyl lettering descriptively outline family names, mottos or quotes on the wall of a kitchen or family room. To me, this family signature adds just the right touch of art to a wall and creates a welcoming atmosphere.
Scribble It creates darling ”original scribbles”, wall art and decals to adorn your walls, your car or to give as gifts. With a beautiful variety of fonts and quotes, you can customize a decal that is just right for you. Do you have vinyl lettering in your home? Do you want to?
Win It:
One lucky Window Shoppe reader will win a $20 gift certificate to Scribble It! To win, all you have to do is check out their website and leave a quick comment or send an email to contest@littlewindowshoppe.com telling us what your favorite product is. The winner will be chosen at random on Monday October 6th and will be announced here, so be sure to check back to see if you’re the winner.
Contest Closed *CONGRATULATIONS TO Sara Elizabeth. SHE IS THE RANDOMLY CHOSEN WINNER FOR THIS CONTEST! CONGRATS Sara! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED - PLEASE STOP BY AGAIN AS THERE ARE NEW CONTESTS EACH WEEK!*
Brush Up for Fall Giveaway!
September 23, 2008 by Emily · 169 Comments
Creating the “flawless” makeup look can be achieved with just the right brush and A Design Brushes are helping to bring that “flawless look” to the world of makeup artistry.
Do you use a make up brush? I didn’t used to, but since having a few helpful tips from the experts, I have added a few of them to my daily routine and really am happy with the results! For me, they really do add just the right touch, without “over-doing” it.
Win It:
One lucky Window Shoppe reader will win this brush travel set by A Design Brushes, which includes 6 essential mini handle brushes with full size brushes. The set includes the following brush styles: Powder, Foundation, Baby Buki, Shadow, Angled Liner and Brow brush. ($45 value).
To win, leave a quick comment or send an email to contest@littlewindowshoppe.com. The winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday October 1st and will be announced here, so be sure to check back to see if you’re the winner.
Two extra entries for each option:
1. Blog about and link back to this giveaway.
And/Or
2. Subscribe to LWS (see our 8 reasons to subscribe ~ just in case you’re trying to decide).
Contest Closed *CONGRATULATIONS TO Pamela V. SHE IS THE RANDOMLY CHOSEN WINNER FOR THIS CONTEST! CONGRATS Pamela! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED - PLEASE STOP BY AGAIN AS THERE ARE NEW CONTESTS EACH WEEK!*
New Contributors!
September 15, 2008 by Emily · Leave a Comment
I am very happy to let you know that Little Window Shoppe is going to have new featured contributors! These ladies are talented, original and each week (and every other week) you will be able to read about their new ideas right here. So, if you have a moment, stop by their sites to check them out!
{Cassie} {Lauren}
{Vanessa}
P.S. We also will have additional guest bloggers adding their own DIY Projects and Snack Ideas each month too, and you won’t want to miss what they are going to share.
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While I’m writing about guest bloggers, have you heard about Guest Blogger Finder? It’s a free service that matches bloggers with guest bloggers. I just found out about it, so I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like a great place to start if you want to be a regular guest blogger on the net or want to find bloggers to feature on your site.
