Tonight at midnight CST I will open up the Princess Lasertron store with free domestic shipping on all items until December 1 at 11pm CST. The first ten customers will also get a free bunch of button flower stems!

felt flower pins, pencil cases, reusable felt notebook covers, headbands, boutonnieres, and even our felt flower bouquet kits will be shipped for free! We have some great affordable gift ideas for the holidays and everything comes packaged with love just for you.

xo
meg

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1. A peek at some of the new inventory we are putting together for Cyber Monday! 2. Silly grandpa (and Alice laughing so hard. 3. My favorite ribbons and trim I’m using right now. 4. A new headband to add to the shop soon.

5. Making monkey bread on the day after Thanksgiving. 6. A Scandinavian/fair isle sweater-inspired felt bangle cuff I made. 7. A wonderfully inspirational message on my mom’s bathroom mirror. 8. We usually write “gobble gobble!” on the chalkboard each Thanksgiving, but this year’s family breakfast brunch celebration called for something else!

9. Hot spiced apple cider is a staple in my parents house when the weather gets cold. We just brew Simply Apple apple juice with mulling spices. 10. A baby bootie craft project from the girls at http://sissylove.etsy.com. Thank you so much, ladies! 11. Alice digging through my luggage. 12. Bright colors in our living room.

Other little moments that made me smile today

♥ Alice sleeping in a crib for the first time ♥ Dave making a spoof of on of my posts–I can’t wait to share that one soon. Such a hilarious man. ♥ Discovering Gala Darling’s Wardrobe Taming Series ♥ The most SEO-unfriendly headline ever on our local paper’s website (thanks to friend Matt! I died laughing!) ♥ Jackass Season 1 ♥ “Hmm. It has a catchy tune, but I don’t agree with the message.” “What, drinking alcohol?” “Oh! No, I thought it was about destroying private property.” -Mr. Lasertron on Trey Songz’s “Bottoms Up” ♥ Introducing my uncle to my child for the first time ♥ Huge heart-shaped pillow ♥ Finding photos from my first birthday ♥ “I’m thankful for a crayon and a tree.” ♥ Christmas-smelling candles ♥ Belting a man’s shirt ♥ “What are you watching? Pregnant Boss? 16 and Getting a Cake?” ♥ The black and white patterns everywhere in my parents house ♥ Seeing an angsty teen and being reminded of how much better it gets ♥ Receiving surprise postcards (Send me something!) ♥ This big, puffy knitted stool ♥ navy and lime ♥ gold, silver, and pink ♥ waterbed ♥ looking through years and years of collected table linens ♥ a long late-night conversation with my husband, after which I felt completely understood and appreciated ♥ this gold glittery Sunny Side Bubble Bar from LUSH ♥ personalized pencils ♥ working on my advent calendar project to share with you Tuesday ♥ working on Cyber Monday products to post up this weekend ♥ how cute johnny knoxville was 10 years ago ♥ “To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of art over trash, the triumph of magic over the brute.” – Vladimir Nabokov ♥

xo
meg

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Happy Thanksgiving (or, happy Thursday!) to you and your family! Today we are loading up The Little Red Car and driving to my parents’ house for a big Thanksgiving Brunch with our big family–that’s kind of our thing every year rather than doing the traditional dinner. Then people are free to break off and go to other dinners, get other things done, or just hang out at home all night, play video games, and read black Friday ads.It works well for us–I love casual!

We always show up in our pajamas and work on our Christmas lists after brunch–this year I will be doing a lot of sewing and lot of photographing for an upcoming sale for you…here’s a hint: Cyber Monday!

Enjoy your day and make it pretty.
xo
meg

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There is a new color scheme that I am in love with for winter.

Gold, yellow-moss (or olive-lime?), navy, and coral.
I think it’s festive, but not too obvious or literally “holiday” or “winter.”

I put this outfit together at Target the other day. I had sort of a bad day and I went there late to do a little retail therapy. (It never works in the long term, but you can’t beat it for a quick band-aid fix after a dumpy day!)

I began by looking for a festive “wow” skirt that I could wear every day, and found a few simpler sweaters (at $20 each) and long-sleeved shirts (at $10 each) to go with it. I also needed to replace some tights that were worn out so I picked up a few new pairs for $5, including this fun patterned pair.

So I love my designer pieces, but holy cow I love Target. Their long-sleeved tees are winter staples for me, and as a nursing mom I am loving their bright patterned cardigans right now. Even though it’s a big-box store, I am always surprised to find something that feels really special.

Gold jacquard skirt: Merona Collection
Sweater: Merona
Tights: Xhilaration
Pin: Lasertron of course!
Necklace: Xhilaration
Shoes: Michael Kors

This entire outfit (minus the shoes, which I had) was $55.

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All of the organizers–Eric Downs, Matt Secoske, me, and Dusty Davidson

We just wrapped up the best weekend I have had all year and put another Barcamp Omaha in the books! If you have never heard of Barcamp before, it’s an “un”-conference format held in cities all over the world. There is no speaker list, no fixed schedule, and no rigid guidelines. Our open format offers attendees the unique opportunity to network, learn, and communicate about what they are passionate about! Barcamp conferences are held all over the world, but at Barcamp Omaha we do something special. Uniting techies, creatives, and entrepreneurs, we are not merely a “tech conference” or a “design conference.” Instead, we strive to include all local innovators and give you a platform to learn, teach, and explore the limits of your creativity. The goals for Barcamp are simple: come with an open mind and share what you are passionate about!

I’m really proud that we completely sold out of tickets this year and had the most diverse crowd we’ve ever had. In past years we were really heavy on the graphic designers and software developers, but this year we had theater people, fine art people, fashion people, media people, TONS of students…I’m so happy with the turnout.

I did a talk called “Make it Pretty: Using branding principles to communicate your value and beauty as a person” in the afternoon session in the Creative track. Here is my presentation (without the cool typefaces) and here is what I said (or meant to say).

One thing I’ve learned as a business owner is that once you get in the game, once you become entrenched in a new industry, you will face competition with more experience and more loyal customers than you. That’s why focusing on creating a whole experience for your customers rather than just a product is so important, and I do that by making it pretty.

For example, one of the things I do in my business is create a really enjoyable “unboxing” process for my customer. I send every package in the same clean white cube-shaped box, I pad each box with the same custom hot pink tissue paper, and I tie each package with the same 4’’ double-faced black satin ribbon. I always include a hand-written personal thank you note. But I also add a few special things into each box, whether it’s an extra thing I made, a little drawing, some little vintage knickknacks or supplies—especially if I get an impression from the customer that they like a certain thing, like deer or owls or glitter or stamps…I try to include something like that. And my goal is just to take three to five extra minutes from my day to show someone that they are worthwhile, they deserve a little extra effort, that they matter, that they are special to me.

These ideas aren’t new, I didn’t think of them, it’s not unique to find a speaker to stand up and say “you need to pay attention to the impression your business leaves on your customers.” Branding experts are a dime-a-dozen now. What I want to do today, however, is inspire you to use these marketing and branding principles in your everyday life and realize how beautiful the world is, and how you have an instrumental role in making it that way.

Make it with Care

Every day we wear clothes, interact with friends and strangers, eat, take transportation, and do all kinds of other things that offer us a secret, fleeting chance to show the world that we care. To show people that they are worthwhile to us. That the world deserves our best try every day.

The best way I’ve found to do this is to make a list of things that you could do easily to beautify your life every day. You’re doing laundry anyway. Why shouldn’t you use a beautiful laundry basket—maybe you’d like to use a stainless steel trash can, or a vintage wicker basket, or a hot pink plastic hamper—and take 15 minutes to fold the laundry when it’s still warm? It feels great to reach into a basket of hot, clean fabric, and folding each piece when it’s fresh from the dryer keeps the creases in the clothes. You’re eating anyway. If you are home for lunch and dinner, why not put your food on a plate and use a cloth napkin? Taking a few moments of extra effort to plate your food and put a napkin over your lap reminds you to slow down, breathe, enjoy your meal, and respect your food. You’re writing checks, signing receipts, and making notes anyway—why not use a pen that you love, that feels really good in your hand, that makes the other person say, “Hey! Nice pen!” Buying and wrapping a gift. Greeting the people who stand by the entrances in stores. Giving a wave to the person who lets you merge into their lane. Recycling junk mail before it has a chance to collect in your home. Stacking a pile of your favorite books next to your bed. Re-buttoning and re-zipping clothes after you try them on. Writing a thank you-note to people who help you.

PICK ONE THING! And do it consistently! Don’t worry about the rest.

Two years ago, I made my list, and afterward I made a resolution to look my best every day. That’s it. It doesn’t mean “Look the best I’ve ever looked every day,” it just means “my” best. Whatever my best is for that day. Sometimes I go out and I haven’t washed my hair. Sometimes I don’t wear my nicest shoes, most days I don’t wear makeup. But I always walk out the door thinking, “Well, world, I did my best.” Ever since I started keeping that promise to myself, to offer my best self to the world every day, people have noticed. People have turned to smile at me. And my confidence has increased because I am communicating to the world that I have value. So that is my hope for all of you—that you can think of one small gift you can give the world every day that says “You matter, and you deserve my best effort.”

Make it Emotional

Creating objects of beauty to contribute to the world creates an emotional experience for those who come in contact with my brand. When someone receives one of my packages in the mail, from the moment they notice it on the porch, they don’t wonder where it came from. And from the moment they open it, each layer they pull out sends them a message that they are valued and cared about, which is really emotional from them. I know this because they tweet about it and send me messages about it and post pictures of them opening their boxes online.

This is one thing that I really love about social media. It’s a place that’s just awash in seemingly frivolous things that have been created because people either found meaning in them or it felt important or funny or special or good to produce them. From cat pictures, to made-up songs on youtube, to doodles on your blog, to photos of your home, look at what people are doing—not to compare, or imitate, or compete, but just because you like what other people make.

Make it Unique

Here are some of my favorite sources that you can use to make things pretty:

papermart.com – packaging, ribbon, and boxes
the gadgeteer-pens, gifts, table linens
thinkgarnish.com – food packaging
plumparty.com – party planning supplies & favors
kioskkiosk.com – unique home and office products from other countries
lemontree77.etsy.com – Korean stationery and office supplies

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Talks from our Technology Track

Thanks so much again to everyone who was able to come out for Barcamp Omaha 2010. I’m so proud of Omaha. Now that we’ve talked, let’s go DO! xo

All photos by Andy Peters

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