Etta + Billie Featured on Bright Side Project

My products were featured on the Bright Side Project last Friday!!! I am absolutely ecstatic!!!

What is The Bright Side Project you ask?? Well it is an ingenious project created by Miss B (aka Tristan) to bring a daily ray of sunshine into everyone's life through product giveaways (win by answering sweet questions like "What is you favorite memory from your childhood?") - which in turn helps her publicize emerging artists, designers and other product creators. I received an email from the lovely Tristan last week asking if I wanted to participate (she found me on Etsy) - after checking out her website I was ready to jump right in (sadly I had no idea about this wonderful project before last week!). One of my favorite parts, is that I was able to create the question and I get to pick the winner. The question is:

What is your favorite scent and why? What memory does this scent evoke?

Scent has always fascinated me (good thing I work with it all the time) - it has the most incredible way of transporting you back in time to specific memories...every time I smell Aqua Di Gio I think of being in behind the stage of my 6th grade class play trying to get the attention of my crush who was too busy being mischievous to notice me...sigh. Ok, enough reminiscing. There is still a chance to win four of my soaps until Friday April 24, so get your butts on over to the site and answer the question!! Link is here and check out the rest of the site here.

Perfectionist letting go = Etsy shop opening!!!

It's official Etta + Billie is finally online!! It has taken far longer than I ever thought it would - mostly because my a perfectionism. During any job interview I have ever been to - when they ask what my greatest weakness is - I always say "I am a perfectionist" - their response "How is that a weakness?". I used to BS the answer a bit so it sounded like a weakness but still sounded good (that is what you are supposed to do in an interview). And in some ways being a perfectionist is good - when it comes to things like attention to detail and thorough research. But over the course of the last few months, what I have realized is that my perfectionism can be a big liability at times. It keeps me from taking action because I have a fear that if things aren't perfect then it will screw up the whole thing - which is completely silly I know, but a bit hard to overcome. I always want everything to be "just right" and that simply wont happen most of the time - and that is OK.

I am trying to overcome that aspect of my perfectionist tendencies - thankfully I have had a lot of amazing supportive people in my life who help me out (and by supportive I mean people who will kick me in the ass when I need it). I really must pay special tribute to two of my best ass kicking peps - Miss Molly Della and my Mister. My pics went up on Etsy this week because Molly Della basically told me to put them up even though they weren't perfect. And I did, and now my Etsy site is up...YIPPEEE!!! Mister has of course supported me and kicked me into gear countless times when I have been discouraged. He is the best Mister a girl could ever ask for. I have also been getting a lot of positive ass kicking from some great entrepreneurs, who post some amazing pieces on their blog's and websites - a few of my favorites have been The Art of Nonconformity (Chris Guillebeau), Essential U (Kayla Fioravanti), and Indie Business Blog (Donna Maria Coles Johnson).

For anyone is suffers from something similar, I highly recommend checking out these online resources (and following these people on twitter) and finding some people who will kick you in the ass once in a while ; ).

Honey honey

Over the last few weeks I have been noticing that my skin has really not been happy. I am having a minor bought with 'adult' acne and dry skin (sounds pretty right?). I decided to attack my skin issues with a bit of honey!

Honey is great for the skin. It moisturizes, it exfoliates (natural enzymes) and it is anti-microbial. The best part is that is does all these great things but is super gentle. I like to add herbs to my honey for the added benefits (and the scent!). Lavender is always a good choice because of its wonderful scent and ability to heal, soothe and calm redness (its better for acne than Tea Tree). Other great herbs/plants to add would be dried powdered Lemon or Orange peel (vitamin c, exfoliant), Rose Hips (antioxidants), Chamomile (soothing), Calendula (very healing for skin) - you can actually even eat these if you really wanted to!

I mixed up a batch of Herbal Honey mask. It has been macerating for a few weeks so it smells absolutely divine!!! I applied last night and although I am not completely free and clear of skin issues but my skin looks and feels a whole lot better than it did.

Herbal Honey Mask
1 tbsp finely ground dried lavender flowers
1 tbsp finely ground dried chamomile flowers
2 1/2 tbsp local honey

I used a coffee grinder to grind my herbs, so the particles weren't as small as I would have wanted but it works. Mix ingredients together and store in a clean glass jar. I let my mixture sit for about 2 weeks before I used it but it can be used immediately (no need to refridgerate).

I also like to use Honey as part of my daily cleansing routine (I actually ran out a couple of weeks ago...maybe that is why my skin has been looking so crap).

My Honey Cleanser recipe is super simple (for those who like soap here is another recipe from Supernatural Botanicals blog).

1 1/2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp Hydrosol (I used Rosemary - other good options are Lavender and Rose)

I actually made this hydrosol (that will be another post)

Mix honey and hydrosol together with a whisk until completely incorporated (will be a bit watery) then put into a clean glass container.

Ta-da--- you now have a gentle cleanser!

Small batches work best - honey is anti-microbial and wont spoil, hydrosols are pretty stable but can be negatively effected by temperature changes (i.e. steamy bathrooms). My cleanser lasted about a month and was totally fine. I like to use this cleanser in the morning and another cleanser at night to get off makeup.

Let me know how these work for you and have fun whipping up your own honey skin treats!

Cravings = eating dinner at 9pm

I got home at 6:20pm and really didnt want what I had planned for dinner tonight (warm shrimp and eggplant salad over brown rice) - what I really wanted was spinach/kale lasagna (Note: I didnt have all the ingredients). Not listening to reason, I prepped everything that I could (white sauce, sauteed spinach and kale, cooked lasgna noodles) and then waited for Mister to get home with the rest of the ingredients. I just put the lasagna in the oven about 10 minutes ago...sigh

If I had made the sensible choice I would have already finished eating, instead I will be eating at 9 (but I will love every bite of that lasagna damnit!).

Peace out debt!

I am sooo thrilled right now cause I just paid off my credit card debt....YIPPEEEE!!!!


A year of school and working part time definitely added to the accumulating credit card bill and it feels amazing to finally have a 0 balance. It took longer than I had anticipated, but I tried to stick to my plan to put money toward the credit card every month and it worked... although it didn't hurt that I sensibly put some of my tax return money toward finishing off the debt. Now I can put all my "extra" cash into the biz!

Perhaps I will also reward myself with a purchase from yesterday's post....JK (sort of).

Some things I want....

Etsy is a dangerous dangerous place - especially when you aren't supposed to be spending any money unless it's on stuff for the biz. Here is a little list of some things I am coveting right now.

Inner mantra - I will not buy anything. I will not buy anything. I will not buy anything.

Eco Friendly Organic Wool Pillow from Felted Style Fabric Collection

Lovely print from Naomi Murrell

I have been eyeing this for a while - Bird Necklace from Imogeen and Annie

And last but not least one of these lovely bags from Valhalla Brooklyn . I have been wanting one of these bags for over a year....sigh. She also has bags made from recycled leather - so cool.

V Day Every Day Project

This post is a bit belated for a few reasons - 1. I have been really lazy about posting 2. Cause I really don't think that this project is solely for V Day. WARNING - V DAY mini rant - I think we should all try to show our appreciation and love for our significant other everyday not just on V Day. I am a bit cynical when it comes to V Day for a few reasons but the main one is that I really dislike the fact that people feel "forced" to show love - especially via spending money which is kinda beat. OK moving on...

In past years Mister and I have made each other cards (Mister once made me the cutest pop up card ever - I still have it somewhere) and made special date plans for nights other than V Day. This year I was inspired by this post on Design*Sponge and decided I would make Mister a present.

I spent V Day morning running around getting groceries for our dinner and scouring our house for nick nacks - I even went through the top drawer of Mister's dresser (which is extremely scary but I thought would contain lots of goodies - I couldn't find anything and I got scared by all the crap in there so I stopped my search early). I then decided to buy a couple of odds and ends at the local craft store plus I needed to buy a glue gun and paper.

1. Get bits and bobs together and place them in the desired design. Take a picture!


2. Spray bits and bobs with chosen paint (I used flat white spray paint - I got a bit over zealous though and almost got paint all over the kitchen floor - woops).


3. After waiting what felt like ages for the stuff to dry (it was only an hour but I was behind schedule) - I arranged items on paper (I used heavy duty card stock) using the photo from earlier.

4. One by one glue each item to paper. Watch out for the stringing hot glue - I didn't notice it on my piece until it framed it! According to the D*S site you can use a hair dryer to get them off - I STILL need to try that out.


5. I wrote a little note on the back for Mister and framed that beezy.

TA DA!!!!

I think it looks great (besides the glue strings which luckily you can see in this photo) and Mister really appreciated it.