Whatever Wednesday: Fresh Produce

Maybe this is more like a tip, but either way I love this! I'm one of those people who loves to garden, but lives in an apartment where the only growing done is in small containers. Not exactly ideal for peas, strawberries, apples, etc.

So I found this great company called Click-2-Pick Produce which is a cooperative of family and small farms across California, Nevada, Utah and a few other states. Since they work together, you get super fresh produce at roadstand prices which can be up to 40% off what you'd pay at the grocery store.

They have small baskets if you have 2-3 people in your family, or larger baskets for 4-5 member families. I've gotten grapefruit, avacados, tomatoes, strawberries, baby zuccini, broccoli and even beets. The beets were new to me, but that's another great thing. You get to try new things you might not have bought yourself.

So check it out, they've got pick up spots across several states and you don't have to committ to a plan or anything.

Thursday Treat:4th of July Sparklers

Like most sparklers, these are extinguished after a short while -- with several large bites. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but it came from the fine folks at marthastewart.com. If you're looking for more great 4th of July ideas, i would definitely recommend checking it out!

To make two dozen, place 4 ounces chopped semisweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.

Stir occasionally until melted; remove from heat.

Using a pastry brush, coat the upper third of each pretzel rod in chocolate. Cover with sprinkles; stand pretzels upright in a glass.

Place in the refrigerator until firm, about 5 minutes.

Whatever Wednesday : Can I get a woot Woot!

I love woot.com because you never know what's going to be on sale each day. Woot.com offers 1 product each day of the week and sells it until it's gone. I've seen everything from squid power strips, toy cars, micro secure digital cards, memory albums and even cedar planks for grilling!

Prices are great and satisfaction is guaranteed!

Occasionally there will be a woot off where any remainder items are sold at even better prices and since there are low quantities, the site can go through several listings that day.

Woot.com also has a few fun spin off sites, of which my favorite is shirt.woot.com. Independent artists create the designs and enter them into a derby to see which lucky art work will grace a limited run of shirts. The best designs are gone before 11am, so if you want to get in on the fun, do it first thing in the morning :)

Even if you don't plan to make a purchase, i recommend checking it out because a lot of the fun comes just from seeing what kind of item is up for grabs today!

Tuesday Tip: Join a Group!

Are you looking for a way to promote your shop and make friends? It's easy to do when you join a group based on any of a variety of similar interests or circumstances.

Love to knit? Are you a mom with young children? Like to scrapbook? Love to make found objects into something new? Love to cook? Whatever it is there is a group you can join to discuss you passion and get advice not only on the group topic, but other things as well.

Etsy has loads of groups, or you can try flikr, facebook, as well as your email provider. Google and yahoo both have groups you can search to find the right one for you.

A word of advice though. Before jumping right in, take some time to read the posts from the last few days or weeks so you can get a feel for what the group is talking about, points they may have already covered and a general sense of the rules of posting. Then when you join you'll be less likely to be treated as a noobie and more likely to be welcomed.

Thursday Treat: Fresh Lime

Here's a super easy and tasty drink recipe for those hot summer days. You can make it as sweet or tart as you like. I learned the secrets when I worked for a popular local caterer and I love to make it whenever i can.

Fresh Lime

Ingredients:

2 Liters 7-Up - not Sprite!

1 can frozen Limeade concentrate

6 limes

Ice

Start by emptying the limeade into a large pitcher. Then add as much 7-Up to the pitcher as you would water as listed on the limeade mixing instructions. Squeeze the juice from 5 of the limes and add to pitcher. Also add the squeezed limes themselves. Stir all together and take a small taste. It will probably be too tart, so slowly add more 7-Up until it is the right balance of sweet and sour for your palate. Pour over ice in glasses and add lime wedges as a garnish.

It's best if you mix this drink right before you're ready to serve so the soda doesn't loose all it's fizziness.

Whatever Wednesday:Newsies go GaGa

Remember that movie Newsies with super cute Christian Bale before his Batman days? Well here's the classic sieze the day number but remixed to Lady GaGa - this made me smile from ear to ear!

Tuesday Tip: Optimizing Your Shop for Search Engines

A while back the fine people at Etsy came out with a set of VERY helpful hints on how to optimize your shop titles, listings and descriptions to be more attractive to search engines. I tried this on my shop and I saw a lot more hits in the following weeks.

To gage the difference in before and after, you should totally be using Google analytics to see who and where your shop visitors are coming from. To do this, log into your shop and on the left hand side there's the menu of shop areas. Under "shop setup" there's a listing for web analytics and there are directions for what you need to do.

These SEO(search engine optimization) principles can also be applied to blogs or other social media sites to help people on the big wide interwebs find you and what you're trying to say, sell, show - whatever!

Here's a link to the step by step process along with handy photos to help you understand what all that crazy technical jargon means. The techies in your life will be very impressed with what you've learned :)