New Etsy Listing: Compass Rose Ornaments

New to the Etsy shop for 2016, Compass Rose Hand-Etched Ornaments in Birch.  These are a fun way to add some nautical flair to your home decor or Christmas tree - also a perfect favor for a coastal-inspired wedding!  

As always, wholesale inquiries are welcome - please send me a message for pricing information.  

A little sneak peek

This time of the afternoon all directions point to coffee (duh), but I thought I'd share a sneak peek of a new ornament design for 2016 - the Hand-Etched Birch Compass! 

New England-inspired painted signs will be coming to Birch Landing Home soon too ;)  Stay tuned!

Mission Accomplished: First Half-Marathon

Well, I finally did it!  I ran my first Half Marathon :)  

Finally completing a Half has been about seven years overdue.  I got stress fractures training for one in 2009 and gave up running long distances for awhile after that.  But this time with a great plan by my sister-in-law that focused on interval training over long distance runs I was finally able to accomplish my goal injury-free.  I'm very thankful that I was able to do it, along with all the support I got from family and friends, and especially my husband.  

Before the start of the race, so nervous!  

If any New Englanders are looking for a great Half Marathon to run, I'd highly recommend the Maine Coast Half.  It was great, fun race with beautiful ocean views - and you get Shipyard beers at the end ;)  

Now that I've done this Half, I'm looking forward to focusing more on the blog and my Etsy shop again - so look for more coming soon from Birch Landing Home!  

After the race is done!  Ahhhhh...

Related posts from Birch Landing Home:  

• Getting Back into Running

Feeling a Little Behind Lately..

To do? All the things! 

Feeling really behind lately, I have a million little (good) projects going on and haven't been able to check any off the to-do list in a while.  Between training for a half marathon, working on Etsy/wholesale ornament orders (I get them year-round, wahoo), and trying to work on some projects around the house I've fallen a bit behind on the blog and getting new Etsy stock out there and I apologize.  

Just wanted to let you know that things will be picking up again soon with new Etsy items as well as some great collabs/giveaways with companies like Nuby and We Are Knitters.

If you haven't turned on Post Notifications on Instagram for Birch Landing Home yet, now is the time because you won't want to miss out! 

New Etsy Listing: "Martha" Snowflake Ornament in Birch

Just added to my Etsy Shop, our famous "Martha" Hand-Etched Snowflake Ornament, now available in Birch!  Even though it's not Christmas season, anytime is a good time to get ahead on holiday shopping.  

And don't forget, I'm still planning on expanding my Etsy shop to include painted signs and more decor items - keep an eye out for those soon!  

Support New England Makers on Pinterest

As you probably know already, I love supporting local makers and buisnesses so I thought it was time to make a group board on Pinterest to support New England Made Products.  This board will be a collaboration where New England-based crafters and small buisnesses can share their beautiful goods.  

If you're interested in joining please give me a follow on Pinterest and send a message requesting to join the group board.  

As of right now there's just my items on the board, but I can't wait to get more collaborators and see more beautiful New England-made products on here too!

---

Interviews from New England Makers:

Instagram Feed Changes and How to Preserve Your Following

Instagram just announced that they'll be showing most popular posts first in their feed (read more about it here) - which means everyone will be more likely to miss posts from little guys, like us.  I understand that for the user this may be nice so they don't miss popular posts, but for small businesses this really hurts.  Instagram is how I get most of my traffic and to know that I'll be lost under Kim Kardashian and big retailer posts really stinks.  

How to Preserve Your Following with Instagram's New Feed Changes

For us small businesses that rely on Instagram exposure, this hurts.  But one way to help preserve your following is to ask your followers to "Turn on Post Notifications".  This way they will get a little notification whenever you create a new post and they won't miss seeing your content with this new algorithm.  You can also encourage them to follow you on other social platforms as well (Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', Twitter, etc) so you have more chances to reach your audience. 

I'm sure paying for promoted posts will be the next change coming to Instagram, just like Facebook and Pinterest have done.  I understand it's lucrative for them to make these changes, but as a small business owner it really stinks because I can't afford to pay for consistent advertising.  

I'm hoping that Instagram will eventually give you the option to at least change the filter of your feed like Facebook does (you can toggle between "Top Stories" and "Most Recent" - but it always defaults to "Top Stories"), but who knows.  Like all other small businesses, I'm really hoping that we don't get completely lost in this change.  

Please don't forget to Turn on Post Notifications for me at @birchlandinghome and follow me on the other social platforms linked below.  Thank you so much!

Restock at The Straw Cellar

I've just dropped off another order of our handmade ornaments to The Straw Cellar in Wolfeboro, NH!  Even though it's not Christmas-season, it's always a great time to get ahead on gifts and our ornaments are now again in-stock there.  

While you're at The Straw Cellar, don't forget to check out all the other wonderful New England-made goods they carry!