Etsy Update

Ah!

My Etsy shop has been open since 2013. I prided myself on being a 5-star seller, but was recently punished by a recent patron giving me 4 stars because the keychain she bought broke! She was using it as a zipper pull, and while I can argue, “that’s not how that works,” I gave her a coupon and told her I was sorry. It doesn’t fix my rating, which is now a 4-point-something.

For years I went by “Mes Petites Dessins,” which, when spelled correctly in French (it should be “Petits”) means “my little designs”. But as time goes on, I’m trying to really make my personal brand cohesive. While it’s not important my Etsy shop match my design persona, I wanted it to.

I bought myself a new portable lightbox for product photography and I went ham this weekend rephotographing a good amount of my finished goods.

This quick post is just to reintroduce my Etsy site in hopes of garnering more traffic (and sales!). Happy browsing (maybe shopping?)!

The new banner I have up on my Etsy. I chose to keep it extremely neutral to allow my product photos to take the spotlight.

Philadelphia is in the Championship!

Ahhh… for football fans, pre-season is meh. The actual season is full of emotion and then post-season is where only the elite teams get to keep playing in a tapered bracket to determine who reigns supreme to earn the title of “World Champion,” which, as a football fan myself, is kind of a silly title seeing as right now the NFL only consists of 32 American football teams. There are currently no teams outside of the US.

Today is a BIG day for four cities, Philadelphia included. Today is the championship game, the one that determines which two teams get to play in the biggest game of the season—the Super Bowl!

Since I was a little girl, I’ve been an Eagles fan. Today we face the Washington Commanders (the Comedians as my husband calls them), and we are going balls-to-the wall with our excitement today.

I woke up early to work on a few things to bring to our friends’ house, where we’re going to eat good, drink, scream and cheer (and maybe cry) at the TV with them and their other friends with only one goal in mind: Make it BACK to the Super Bowl.

Since the Super Bowl started (1967), the Eagles (established in 1933) have only participated four times: 1981, losing to the Raiders; 2005, losing to the Patriots; 2017 winning against the Patriots (Sorry, not sorry, Tom Brady); and 2023, losing to the Chiefs (Okay, Mahomes is a good player, for real). While we’re not trying to jump the gun here, we’d really, REEEAALLLYY like another shot at this.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time educating myself on how to make stickers with my printer and Cricut working in partnership (Thank you, YouTube creators!). I need to make some custom adjustments to the pressure of the blade, but here’s what we’re working with today. I’m also working on a Saquon Barkley design for one of the host friends—I may post it later.

GO BIRDS!

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Self-Designed graphic applied to a tee celebrating #33 Cooper DeJean. (Front)

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Self-Designed graphic applied to a tee celebrating #33 Cooper DeJean. (Back)

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Philadelphia mayor, Cherelle Parker, misspelled “EAGLES” during a public chant while addressing the city, causing fans—myself included—to run with the misspelling. I chose to make stickers.

EGD: Paradise Beauty Lounge Nail Salon

Last year, Lash Paradise Beauty Lounge began transitioning to a more concise name, Paradise Beauty Lounge, in anticipation of the grand opening for the lash salon side that opened in 2020 and the nail salon which opened in 2022. While the name isn’t finalized due to some further research and needing to be done to make it happen, the name is appearing in different places online and in print.

Recently, Torianna Paradise, the owner/operator of Lash Paradise/Paradise Beauty Lounge, approached me and asked me to revise the signage we did for them to reflect the expansion of the lash salon to include the nail salon.

Below are the install photos from what we did. The nail salon windows had the same treatment as the lash salon side, right next door, and the listing of the main services were included in the building and pylon signs.

If you’re looking to make an appointment to get your lashes, nails, or brows done, visit their website to book an appointment!

Top Secret Design Stuff

Ever since Luis and I got engaged, I’ve been getting asked a variety of wedding-themed questions: did you set a date? Where are you having it? How’s the planning going? Etc.

The answers are:

1. Yes, now we have. We have a date.

2. We don’t know yet. Apparently the venues where we want to have it are already booked as they’re private estates/vacation rentals. The ones that are available are too expensive for us. *coughcastlecough*

3. It’s going. It’s slow, but it’s going.

Then there are the questions about what I’m working on when I say I’m working on wedding stuff and the thing is, I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anyone.

Why?

Because the stuff we’re working on are in preparation of proposing to our wedding party.

Let me tell you, having multiple close girlfriends as well as those I’m obligated to ask makes this part very stressful. There are two women, three even, whom I want to ask and have as a part of my party, but seeing as I already have 11 on my roster…

I am lowkey hoping some of my girls say no. I know that’s the complete opposite of what most people want, but seriously…

Of course I could make this extremely easy on myself and just ask my matron of honor and like 2 bridesmaids and call it a day.

Problem is, I also want my fiancé’s daughters in the party, and he has a good friend he wants in the party, and then I have a great friend from art school, and—

I’m at 11.

So I have been badgering my fiancé to, like, think of more men he’d like in his party. I don’t mind if the numbers are uneven by 1 or 2, which I think we were able to get to.

My mom told me I should only have 2-3 bridesmaids.

Oh man, Mom, oh man….

Regardless, we’re working on these proposal boxes that have cut/applied vinyl on them with a funny statement on the front with the question popped on the inside. We’re filling them with custom curated goodies and waiting for things to come in for the boxes.

I ~promise~ once everything is said and done and our party is finalized, I will do a whole post on everything we did with photos (and maybe some video, not sure yet).

So be patient! You will get the wedding content you’re looking for!