Mind Your Business

"Summer Porch and Garden" at Make Mine Pink

Please join us for shopping with a twist on Friday July 10, 2009 as we present "SUMMER PORCH AND GARDEN"

There’s nothing more inviting than a summer porch and garden. It can be a source of shade when the temperature gets too warm, a place of shelter during a gentle summer rain, or just a place to sit with someone special on a lazy summer day. It can be a welcoming start your day with your favorite antique tea cup in hand or a front row seat to watch the sunset from the weathered oak rocker, that in it’s day sat proudly in your grandmother’s home.

A welcoming porch and garden can create a friendly entryway to your home. A welcome sign hand painted with pink roses perched against the railing or a lilac berry wreath with a scent as inviting as it looks, letting guests know that you're glad they're here before you've said a word. If entertaining guests, perhaps vintage chairs, refinished and made comfortable with dainty floral needlepoint cushions, or a white painted table set with a vintage lace-tablecloth like your mom and before her - grandmother used.

With the right accessories, a porch and garden can even become an extension of your home. For candlelit evenings, a candle inside a topiary lantern casting a romantic glow. For lazy afternoons, a daisy metal basket filled with fresh cut flowers, a knitting project, or even as cliche as this sounds, a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade and a favorite books. Tucked in the corner, a vintage pink metal watering can kept handy to water the flowers in the window boxes while the lace curtains on the windows gently sway in the afternoon breeze. As much comfort as your home, with the right accessories.

You can add a cottage touch to your garden with decorations like ceramic garden mushrooms and inspiring garden plaques sprinkled with just the right amount of glitter. Tea cup bird feeders, handmade birdhouses, and antique iron birdbaths are all welcome sites for feathered friends. Remember to add a touch of whimsy just to make you smile - like a basket of flowers placed on a pink bicycle.

No matter what your summer days hold, a porch and garden can provide the ideal setting for friends, family and even a private retreat. Won’t you join me for a cup of tea as we help you design your summer porch and garden.

Joyce Lucas, Founder
Make Mine Pink

Photo Contribution 1: Camelia Cottage  Photo Contribution 2: Shabby Shan's Cottage

Make Mine Pink Cape Cod Mini Retreat - a Beautiful Remembrance

About a week ago I received a small package in the mail from Kim at RoseblossomCottageDesigns. Kim was one of the attendees of the MMP 2008 retreat.  
To ensure that everyone would have a beautiful reminder of their time at Cape Cod, Kim created these magnificent seas shell charms made from shells gathered on the beach where we stayed. My beatifil shell charm has an additional pink stone with my initials engraved on the back side of it and as if that wasn't enough, have a look at the engraving on the back of the shell!

Thank you dear Kim for Making a memorable trip even more memorable!

If you have a special event and would like Kim to make it special for your attendees, visit http://www.roseblossomcottage.com.

Joyce Lucas, Founder
Make Mine Pink

"The Disney Way" can be your way too!

I read the Disney Way a few months back and this month, the Make Mine Pink book club has chosen The Disney Way as their book to review. For those that joined the book club, you're in for a pleasant surprise. For those that didn't, I hope you'll have the opportunity in the very near future to read this book. It will change the way you view your own business.

A Successful Small Business Doesn't Need Fairy Dust... or a Good Economy

With so many big box businesses closing, this can be an unnerving time for any small business owner. After all, if the big boys can't make it right now, who are you to believe YOU can?

You may even be entertaining thoughts of packing up your dreams and bringing them out again when the economy's a little bit better... or at least when there's not so much media doom and gloom.

The truth is, though, big dreams and small businesses have never needed sunny days or good economies to succeed. Even Walt Disney, the man who created magic for millions of people, didn't factor fairy dust into his plans. Instead, his formula for success was simply: "Dream, believe, dare and do."

Big dreams are a good place to start, but the way we make dreams happen hasn't changed one bit. No matter what everyone else is saying, success is still achieved one small step at a time.

Believe in yourself and your small business. As a small business owner, you have more creativity and flexibility than any big business, which means your business isn't limited by anything except the limits you choose to put in place. Success is yours for the taking and it does not require fairy dust or optimistic media reports.

What you do need is a goal, and a plan for how to reach that goal. What does success in 2009 mean for you? Think big! Don't hold back just because of the media reports. What is it you REALLY want to achieve this year?

With that picture in your mind, you might hear a little voice telling you, "It can't  happen.  Cut your marketing budget and lay low. You'll be lucky to keep the customers you have."

Do you hear it?

Good.

That's the voice you should not be listening to this year. That voice just repeats what it hears everybody else say. If you follow its advice, you'll be heading down the same path as everyone else.

Instead, ask yourself, "What do I need to do each week to reach my goals for 2009?" then do it consistently, regardless of media hype or outward circumstances.

Is big business closing? This is your chance to shine like never before. Take advantage of it, and make this is your time to stand out. 

Are you still planning to cut your marketing budget? Before you do, consider the message that will send to your customers. If they don't see your business in the places they're used to seeing you, they're going to assume that hard times are affecting you as well.

Instead, let your customers see that you believe in yourself and your business. Show them that you have chosen to not participate in this recession. Show them they can feel confident about doing business with you because you're not going anywhere.

There has never been anything magical about making dreams come true. It's time to do things the Disney way,  "Dream, believe, dare and do," and realize your dreams of owning a successful small business:

How about making a little magic of your own?

Joyce Lucas, Founder
Make Mine Pink

"SHADES of RED –WHITE and BLUE!" at Make Mine Pink

Please join us for shopping with a twist on Friday July 3, 2009 as we present "SHADES of RED –WHITE and BLUE!"

 Shades of red, white or blue remind me of 4th of July parties and fireworks and special times with family and friends. Vintage aprons, adorned with red roses against what was once a vivid blue, now slightly worn with time. Blue and white checked linens - once grandmother's finest, still carrying traces of the 4th of July picnics I had as a child. Pale blue Depression glass against the finest white tablecloth, topped with a white milk glass vase and filled with the summer flowers. On the wall, a white French farmhouse shelf displays white china hand painted with red and blue buds Adding a little color to your table, shades of red, white and blue can turn any meal into a celebration.
Blue and white Italian place settings against a red tablecloth.  An angel food cake atop a favorite white cake stand, topped with fresh summer blueberries and strawberries. Red sugar-coated candies in a white candy dish hand painted with blue forget-me-nots. Hanging nearby, white and blue checked kitchen towels decorated with shiny red apples Placed somewhere you didn't expect, red, white and blue can create a burst of color in any corner. Red roses on canvas and hung on a freshly painted blue wall. A piece of broken china jewelry - tiny blue and red roses against pure white china. A white lace sun catcher, with a red and blue design, hanging in the window. In the guest bathroom, a blue tissue box holder painted with white and red flowers. Tucked into a corner of your purse, a blue hanky trimmed with red and embroidered with white daisies. And dangling from your wrist, a bracelet made of cinnabar, turquoise beads and bone.

 
For a special touch of whimsy, plug in 4th of July light bulbs in red, white and blue. Use a white table runner with appliquéd blue rabbits and red rose buds. Display faux strawberries dipped in white chocolate placed in a blue cake box that looks pretty enough to eat. You can wear a soldered charm of red breasted robins against an azure sky, sprinkled with white German glass glitter or write on the white pages of a notebook decorated with red roses and blue ribbons. With shades of red, white and blue surrounding us, celebrations of life can happen any day.

Joyce Lucas, Founder
Make Mine Pink

Photo Contribution 1: The Sassy Beach Photo Contribution 2: Grandma G's Photo Contribution 3: Candy Lights

"A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME" at Make Mine Pink

Please join us for shopping with a twist on Friday June 26, 2009 as we present "A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME"

I've never seen a rose I didn't love. From the first blossom of spring, gently swaying in the breeze, to an intricately stitched needlepoint rich in history, I love them all. Silk roses mixed with a bunch of silk hydrangeas, gracing a vase on the mantle. Cabbage roses on a sugar bowl and creamer, brought out for a grandmother's tea. Colorful rose cupcakes scented as beautifully as they look.

Roses represent so many wonderful things and are often used to celebrate special milestones such as weddings, births and anniversaries. We might write a special announcement on stationery with long-stemmed yellow roses lying against a background of a French poem. Use white satin roses to create wedding memories in a vintage box.

Roses have also been used throughout the centuries in home décor. Like wild pink roses painted on porcelain china plates. A crystal bud vase embellished with a pink silk rose, ready to hold a freshly picked rose bud from the garden. A French ribbon rose attached to a crocheted cushion in the living room. Hand built ceramic roses to use as drawer pulls, or as a magnet to hang up a special photograph.

Milliners used silk roses to embellish the finest hats; perhaps one covered with embroidered lace and handmade millinery roses. Seamstresses stitched the richest brocade drapes adorned with roses.  Grandmothers embroidered the most delicate rose patterns on tablecloths and handkerchiefs. Now we can give silky velvet rose pins a special corsage. For everyday occasions, you might wear a vintage pink rose apron or admire a rose-shaped pillow made of hot pink satin.

Throughout the years, famous artists have studied and painted every aspect of the rose. Antique lithographs and post cards from the 1800s grace our homes today with their everlasting beauty. From a rhapsody of roses printed on canvas and hung over a doorway to garlands of decal roses that make favorite items look hand painted, roses continue to gracefully fit every lifestyle and décor.

Joyce Lucas, Founder
Make Mine Pink

Photo Contribution 1: Katie's Rose Cottage Photo Contribution 2: The Decal Cottage