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!

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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!  

I Just Love Doing Custom Orders!

Every so often someone will contact me and ask if they can order a completely custom ornament.  I'm always game to give it a try and see if I can use my wood burner to translate what they want onto a little wooden disc.  

Custom Methodist Cross ornament in the making.

Recently a very nice lady contacted me on Etsy to see about ordering a set of Methodist Cross ornaments for her Church.  I loved the idea of having my ornaments hanging in a Church and I was excited to give it a try.  I'm really happy with how they came out and I especially love the texture of the flame on them.  

Even though it's not Christmas-time, if you have an idea for a completely custom ornament please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail or a custom order request on Etsy.  I'm always happy to see what I can do for you.  

Now on Snapchat!

I've finally joined Snapchat, though I must be getting old because I have no idea what I'm doing with it yet. 

Give me a follow so I don't feel so old ;)  Username:  blhome. 

Howdy! A little blog and shop update

It's been awhile since I introduced myself so I thought I'd say Hi to all the new followers!  I'm Sarah - a wife, stay-at-home mom, crafter, and blogger living in rural New England along with our black lab and six chickens.  

I have an Etsy shop known for our hand-etched snowflake ornaments (they had a little feature in Martha Stewart last year), and I love showcasing local products on my blog and Instagram.  My Etsy shop currently is on "semi-vacation" this month while I catch up on some house projects and prepare some totally new items for the shop.  There are a few listings still available right now and custom inquiries are always welcome.  Keep your eye out for some great new products in February and thank you for all the support!   

Thank you all so much for following along, please stay tuned for lots of great things in store for the Etsy shop and blog this year.

Photo by Adrian Pelletier

Cheers to 2016!

Every time the New Year comes around it really gets me motivated.  I want to overhaul everything in the house, with Birch Landing Home, and my fitness goals and this year is no different.  

I've decided to take most of January to focus on our home:  it's time to do our yearly closet purge, deep clean all the carpets, and reorganize the dumping ground that our basement has become.  While I haven't read the book myself yet, I have read a lot of articles on The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and I'd like to try to use these techniques to purge more unused items from our home.  Though I can't make too many promises on this front.. I can be pretty sentimental about little things so we'll see how far I get.

I have big goals for Birch Landing Home too and I want to grow my Etsy shop and blog in many ways.  I'm planning on expanding to more New England-inspired decor in the shop including signs, handmade boxes, and painted sap buckets (don't worry, we'll still have our signature hand-etched ornaments available).  I'd also like to get our products carried at more local retailers too.  
The blog will still be a mix of DIY projects, product reviews, and lessons learned as first-time parents but there will a be a stronger underlying New England vibe to it.  I'd like to blog more about our favorite places to visit in NE as a family as well as showcase more great local products and makers (by the way, if you're a New England-based maker and want to collaborate this year please send me a message).  

And then there's fitness goals.. every year I say I want to get back into running and while I did run a lot more this year than I have in a while, I still didn't get to where I want to be.  So this year I want to make the push to finally run a half-marathon!  For those of you who aren't familiar with my running backstory, I was training for a half-marathon about six years ago when I suffered a couple stress fractures, mostly due to a structural issue with my foot (which I now wear orthotics for).  
We're hoping to expand our family again within the next year or two and so I feel this year will be my last chance to try for a half marathon again before I'm too pregnant or busy with a newborn to seriously run for awhile.  

Whew, so those are my top goals for 2016!  Wishing everyone lots of health, happiness, and success in the New Year - cheers!  

Shipping Update

THANK YOU for all your interest and purchases this Christmas season!  I have constantly been selling out of items and that is a wonderful "problem" to have :)

As of December 15th I cannot guarantee delivery by Christmas but I will do my best to get orders out ASAP.  It will then be up to the US Postal Service to make good time delivering them.

Thank you so much again!