COME SEE Gracefully Inspired Sept. 5-7

Gracefully Inspired will be at Swappers Day in New Albany the weekend of September 5th-7th, 2009. Ever wanted to try one of our tantalizing scrubs? Did you see something online that you like and want to see it in person? Come on out! Will be posting directions shortly! For now, mark it in your calender and spread the word!
Will have a drawing for a free hand scrub!

Yesterday's Party!

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Gracefully Inspired Party yesterday! It was a success! All together we raised $30.00 for the Walk for Life! Thank you so much!

We Are Putting Together A Craft Show!

That's right! We had so much fun and so much success at the Craft show we were a part of in Plain City, we've decided to put one together of our own! We are currently looking for vendors and going through a selction process. As of yet, we are unsure how many will be involved and therefore are unsure where it will be held. We will know more by mid-April when we make our selections. We do have a set date: Saturday, June 13th. We will keep you updated on our progress...Please pray for our sanity and that everything works out and that we are not getting in over our heads! Thank you!

~Annie

Craft Show!

We have been throwing around the idea of what Craft Shows to try and get into, how much it would cost for a booth, etc...Most of the booth prices are out of our range right now...so we decided to take applications for our own Craft Show! Currently, including ourselves, we have four prospective sellers! This is exciting! The date is currently set for Saturday June 13th, 2009. The location is currently unknown and will depend on the number of sellers we have in the end. So spread the word! At the end of April is the cut off date for accepting applications, after that we will begin advertising on a large scale. We will keep this updated!

We've Lowered our Prices!

Due to tough economic times, we have lowered our prices. Everyone should be able to afford something nice for a loved one or friend...but sometimes, the money just isn't there. At Gracefully Inspired, we strive to make our prices affordable for everyone. We are in the process of updating the website, so if you see something you like, feel free to email us for the price. Basically, bracelets will be between $6-$10 and Necklaces will be between $10 and $20. We hope this helps!

~Annie

How does a new small business survive the problems with our economy? That is a question we have been wondering lately. The good news is that this is only side work for us. We all work full-time together at a helpline. But, despite the fact that we don't necessarily need the income from Gracefully Inspired, it can still be discourging to see our business move along so slowly.

The thing we need to focus on is the reason we started Gracefully Inspired in the first place, which was basically to be able to create with friends. And for a moment there in the fall when the business was a little more successful, we were working hard to meet our quotas, but I feel a lot of what I worked on lacked any real creativity. This is the perfect time for us to focus on the artistic side of Gracefully Inspired. We have time to design things that are really from the heart.

We have really come together this week and have worked hard. And that means that our online store is finally coming together. Of course I feel like I have moved at a snail's pace because websites don't always get along with me, but I can at least say that we now have some of our photography posted and some earrings and bracelets. It has been a long week, but it feels good to see some decent progress.

It is March, which means we are starting to seriously look for some fun art/craft shows that we can participate in over the summer. If you know of any, feel free to let us know. As always, I will update again when more progress is made with our website.

~Angie

The jewelry section of our website is currently under construction. One too many people have come to me a little confused about where to go to buy things. So, that is a pretty good sign that the area could be a little easier to navigate. Soon, the shop will hopefully look more symmetrical and easier to browse and buy, and once we start to move on to posting our photography and artwork, the process should be a lot easier and faster for us. Look for updates over the next few days.

I must say this has been quite the learning experience for me. I have had to learn to meet people's needs with the website design even if it means straying from some of the original ideas, and that is not always easy, but it almost always gains better results. Listening to people's concerns or critiques is the key.

~Angie

March Mid-Ohio Food Bank Donations!!

At Gracefully Inspired we know times are tough, and we want to help! We are going to take 20% of all our profit earned online for the month of March and donate it to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank! So while you are buying affordable gifts for yourself or loved ones, you are also helping those who are less fortunate! For every $10 of merchandise bought on our website in March, that is $2.00 we will donate to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank! Please feel free to contact us with any questions you might have!

~Annie

Monica asked her photographer friend what the difference is between a professional and an amateur. The photographer's answer was lots and lots of photos. I am going to keep this in mind as Gracefully Inspired moves forward with our photography section. Right now we do not currently have a lot of photographs displayed, and that is partly because it takes time to make the website page. But here shortly, the photography section will be up, and we are building our photo inventory. Any updates about the photography section will be added here.

~Angie

One of the positive things about working with your friends is that so called "business meetings" can actually be loads of fun. We are meeting on Sunday to discuss upcoming parties, craft/art shows and "business trips." Trying to decide whether or not to visit the same haunted hotel that we did last year or visit a new haunted town is not exactly hard work. :) These "business trips" are actually beneficial because we normally spend time doing photography, but I have a feeling they are a lot more fun that the typical business trip or meeting.

I think I am also going to discuss the idea of donating a percentage of the profit made at upcoming parties to sponser a few people that may participate in a marthon for breast cancer research that takes place in May. With the economy going down the toliet, people don't want to spend money. But, if they know that a portion of their money can be used for something good, then it may be an incentive. It also will more than likely inspire us to bust our butts with our work so that we can sponser more people. Heck, I may even try to do this marathon (walking of course!) My aunt is a breast cancer survivor so some family members will be walking for her.

~Angie

Finding Time

One of the most frustrating issues we seem to be dealing with at the moment is actually finding time to work. It is not so much that we don't have the time, it is our lack of ability to sucessfully manage our time as a group. Life just gets in the way.

We all have full-time jobs. Gracefully Inspired is a side job that we hope to see grow in the coming years. So, because we don't depend on the profit from Gracefully Inspired to pay our bills and buy our groceries, it is easy to put it at the end of the list of priorities. Obviously a business cannot be successful if time is not invested. Time at the moment is probably our biggest enemy.

Thankfully, I think we are all pretty determined to see this work, so our time management is simply a road block that we will need to learn to get past. For me personally, good time management has never been one of my strong characteristics. I realize that I need to set some strict timelines for my personal schedule in order to make time for my Gracefully Inspired work, which includes art/photography, jewelry making and dealing with the website. Of course realizing and doing are totally different things, and that is what my downfall will be if I don't find the discipline I need.

~Angie

Gracefully Inspired is born

I guess for our first post I should explain a little bit about Gracefully Inspired. It all started 28 years ago when I was born . . . okay okay, I guess I don't have to go back that far. About a year ago two of my friends and I all realized that we have something in common. We all like to create. We all use different mediums to reach our goals, some are writers, some are artists, some are jewelry designers, but we all have that desire to create and to share with other people. Naturally we just seemed to fit like peas in a pod whenever we came together with new ideas.

It finally occurred to us that we should try to form some type of group. Originally, we formed a group called TwiztedSisters Ink, and we focused on writing. But, that just didn't seem to be enough. There was so much more that we wanted to do. So, we decided to start a small business that sells artwork/photography, jewelry and bath and spa items. And that is the very quick and basic story of the birth of Gracefully Inspired.

It has been an interesting journey so far. This blog will be used to share our thoughts, ideas, frustrations, fun times etc, and we hope that you will share this journey with us.

~Angie