Recently CRAVE bloggers Amanda and Jessica had the opportunity to spend a day at fantastic salon/spa Bowie. Read the detailed accounts of their experience below.

Bowie Salon and Spa is a TRUE urban oasis located in Pike/Pine corridor of Capitol Hill, Seattle. Their decor is chic, minimal, and peppered with well-edited Asian accents. A former practice site of the band Nirvana, the space can’t help but permeate a hip, very Seattle vibe. The employees are gracious, inviting, and passionate about their work.

Jessica:
First, the knowledgeable and fabulous Lindsey Caldwell whisked me into a tranquil treatment room where she promptly provided me with a comfy terry mini-robe and hot green tea. The dim lights, warm (but non-oppressive) temperature, and soothing music playing in the background provided instant stress relief.

Lindsey began with a Brazilian wax. Her lightening quick hands made the experience so pleasant, I nearly feel asleep! Her brow wax was painless perfection, AND she managed to correct the unevenness I had going on. A glorious Express Facial came next. This service definitely provides the most bang for your buck. The 30-minute treatment included extractions, a series of moisturizing masks, and a spine tingling scalp and neck massage.

Next, a fun and enthusiastic Kassy Creighton worked magic with my fine, blah hair. She listened intently to my crazy no-maintenance haircut desires (no product, no blow drying, no curling, no flat ironing) and gave me the sassy short style of my dreams. Kassy was a pleasure to converse with and I was excited to learn that she was also my manicurist. She made my grubby cuticles disappear, hardened my brittle nails, and moisturized my dry hands.

I was so refreshed and impressed with Bowie and the ladies who tended to me, I booked my next appointments in advance!

Amanda:
I started off a chilly, snowy Saturday morning with a cup of hot peppermint tea and and a luxurious European Facial with Lindsey Caldwell. She moisturized my skin from the dryness I had from the harsh weather, and it’s been smooth and glowing ever since. Her magical fingers massaged my face, neck, scalp, and shoulders into a state of euphoria. Lindsey was also able to recommend to me the best products for moisturizing and exfoliating my skin, in a totally comfortable, non-salesy way.

Next, I had the pleasure of meeting the sweet and personable Erin Amundson, who would be responsible for taming my dry, frizzy hair (thank you, winter!). Erin easily transformed my unruly bob into an uber-chic, glossy ‘do which MADE my look for my holiday party that evening.

I was thrilled to have Erin taking care of my Classic Pedicure too. We started off with a soothing foot-soak, and moved into a comfortable pedicure room for the nail polishing. The hardest part was deciding what color to pick! I am going to the Caribbean for a family holiday cruise and need to have a cute color on my tootsies! Erin assisted me in settling on a rosy mauve, and applied it flawlessly.

The staff at Bowie is positively five-star, and I will be returning for more excellent services! Thanks ladies!

This week the conversations in our office have centered around New Year’s resolutions. We found that in the past, each of us has been guilty of setting overly ambitious, unatainable resolutions. We wondered what the trick is to setting reasonable goals, and making them stick. Luckily, we came across this helpful advice from Persephone Zill on WomenAndBiz.com (the original article is here). Read her article below, and get more tips on setting business goals on their website.

As a Career and Business Coach, I’m here to say that committing to goals and creating a framework to work toward them really works. Back in the mid-’90s I created the following goal sheet: I wanted two children, to own a home, to start a business, to teach at a major university, and to be on the Board of a non-profit organization. Now, ten years later, I have achieved all of these and more! I’ve actually taught at three major universities and I am on my second Board and counting.

How could all this happen in just a decade? Well after all, I am a coach! But there really is something quite magical about writing down what you want. It forces you to dream, to aspire, to plan, and—most importantly—to commit. But what’s most interesting to me is that if you believe your goals are possible you often attract the right people and circumstances to help you achieve them with little effort. Take for instance when I wanted to teach at a major university in New York City: I took a course at that school, became friends with the instructor afterwards, and—in what at the time seemed like an incredibly lucky break—it turned out that she happened to be in charge of hiring for the continuing education program there. End of story, she later called me to teach when she was trying to fill a particular course. Now, did I have to take action to get what I desired? Yes—I took the course. Did I have to network? Yes—I tried to connect with the instructor. Self promote? Well, yes again—I told her about my background and future desires. But I liked the course she taught, I liked her, and all in all it was the right landscape for me. She was doing what I aspired to be doing, so ending up among the right people and circumstances to reach this particular goal weren’t hard or stressful. In fact, they felt fun at the time.

Alas, some goals are easier to achieve than others. But I have found that when you start seeing them realized one after another you grow your “courage” or “deservingness muscle” and start setting bigger and bigger goals: Hey—if those happened, why can’t these new ones?

So I’ll walk the walk: My goals for this year are to get my book published, to substantially increase my exercise regime, and to research and apply for a second master’s degree. They all feel big—especially committing them here—but doable all the same. So what are yours? Check out the following websites for resources to help you:
dreambuilderscommunity.com
changingcourse.com
everydayadventure.com
janepollak.com
goalsisters.com
PersephoneZill.com

Here’s to manifesting your dreams!

Happy New Year,
Persephone Zill

This week the conversations in our office have centered around New Year’s resolutions. We found that in the past, each of us has been guilty of setting overly ambitious, unatainable resolutions–notable failures included not buying anything ‘new’ for a year, reading a non-fiction book a week for the next 6 months, only going out to dinner once a month, solely saying ‘positive’ things about our relationships, and vowing never to purchase trashy gossip mags again!

We wondered what the trick is to setting reasonable goals, and making them stick. Luckily, we came across some fantastic and easy to follow guidelines set by myGoals.com. Read excerpts from their sterling advice below or here on their website.

1. Choose the Right Resolution
For all too many resolutions, failure is virtually assured at the offset because the resolutions are not made with serious intent and deliberation. The first trick is to choose the right resolution, for the right reasons.

Give some thought to what you really want and why you want it. What direct benefits do you hope to receive? Is a weight-loss resolution meant to improve your self-esteem? Attractiveness? Vitality? Longevity? Identifying the “why” helps you avoid setting goals for the wrong reasons.

Next, decide how difficult to make your resolution. Aiming high generally makes people try harder. Optimal performance comes from goals that are difficult, but not so difficult that we don’t believe they can be accomplished.

Finally, be specific about your resolution and make it official. Being specific means phrasing the goal in words that make it obvious whether or not the goal has been completed, by a specific date. A resolution
“to lose 15 pounds by April 30th” is much more effective than the ambiguously phrased goal “to lose weight.”

Once you’ve decided on the wording, formally commit. At a minimum, write the goal down on paper. For even more commitment, look yourself in the mirror and state the goal out loud. This may sound corny, but it works. The important thing to remember is that a resolution is fundamentally a commitment to yourself. Make the commitment formal. The more ceremonious, the better.

2. Create a Plan
Most resolutions fail because people stop once they’ve made the resolution. It is crucial to harness New Year’s temporary motivation into something that will carry you through an extended period of required effort.

Upon clarifying the exact goal that you are setting, next create a plan for how you intend to accomplish your goal. With any reasonably good plan, you are fairly likely to make significant progress or actually accomplish your goal. Without a plan, you are very unlikely to succeed.

The key to constructing a good plan is to identify the exact steps that you will take toward accomplishing your goal, and assigning due dates to those steps. Coming up with a comprehensive list of steps is not easy for everyone. If you encounter difficulty, the solution is to get help, such as hiring a personal trainer or using this site, which helps people through the planning process by first asking people to identify all of the obstacles that stand between them and their desired goal. Once the obstacles have been identified, it is fairly easy for anybody to generate a comprehensive to-do list for accomplishing the goal.

3. Stay on Track
With a good plan in hand, making significant progress toward your goal may require very little discipline for those who live strictly by daily planners and love nothing more than checking off items on our to-do lists.

But for those of us who can use a little help with staying on top of details, the answer, once again, is to seek outside help. The idea is to find some external thing that keeps you motivated, such as a personal fitness trainer or email task reminders.

4. Remain Flexible and Keep on Going
A recent realization among goal-setting experts is the need to continually modify our approach–sometimes even changing or abandoning a goal altogether. The reason for this is that circumstances beyond our control frequently crop up at the most unexpected and inconvenient times. We can also expect our short-term and long-term priorities to change. So long as we build flexibility into our expectations, we can simply adjust things as we go.

It’s therefore best to periodically reevaluate our goals and plans, perhaps once per quarter for a year-long goal such as a New Year’s resolution. First, make certain that the goal itself still exactly reflects what you want to do. If it’s not, adjust it. Next, go through your plan and identify any portions that aren’t working well, even if it simply means giving yourself more time to complete a particular task or milestone. Keep in mind that missed due dates do not necessarily indicate a problem with your performance; it might simply mean that your plan was too aggressive, or that your environment has
changed in some unexpected fashion. Either way, simply adjust your plan and continue onward.

Finally, the flip-side of setting difficult resolutions is that you must remember to acknowledge partial success. Losing 15 pounds is cause for celebration, even if your original goal was to lose 20 pounds. If you are just one step closer to your goal, then you are better off than before you began. Pat yourself on the back and keep on going.

What are some notable resolutions that have worked out for you? How did you stay motivated to keep that goal?

Here is part two of our two-part series on building your business’s brand, written by branding expert, designer, and creative consultant Bridget Gailey. Part one in this series can be found here.

Once we define a clear mission and identity for our company, and gain a deeper understanding of our customers, we can move on to the fun stuff—identity design and packaging.

Design and packaging is the vehicle for translating our company’s identity and image into form. Through color, imagery, and graphic design, we can integrate messages and meaning with aesthetic and concept.

How a brand is packaged will determine whether or not our customers understand our business at first glance, feel engaged with us, and want to get to know more about us. It could be the difference between someone throwing our business card in the trash or using it to check out our website.

Keep these things in mind when packaging your brand:

Successful packaging will leave a lasting impression. People make decisions every day based on perception and emotion, particularly buying decisions. When a potential customer is introduced to your brand, it’s just like they are meeting a new person. First impressions are significantly based on appearance, so our packaging needs to succinctly communicate with our audience and get them interested in knowing us better.

A one-sided conversation isn’t going to create a relationship. Our brand is not simply a reflection of our company, but it is also the way in which customers engage, interact, and connect with us. Listening to our customers and understanding THEIR goals, desires, and values will help us determine their expectations and perceptions. This is important information to consider in creating packaging that will be pleasing and relatable to them.

Consistency is key. Just because we have a logo, it doesn’t mean we’ve successfully branded our business. Our brand must be communicated in very interaction, every piece of literature, and in every medium—from our business card to our email signature, and from our website to our signage. Over time, this consistency will create brand recognition and build trust with our customers.

Bridget Gailey is a branding expert, designer, and creative consultant. www.bgcreative.com

Check out part one of a two-part series on building your business’s brand from branding expert, designer and creative consultant Bridget Gailey. Part two of the series will be posted on Monday, December 22.

Building a powerful brand identity involves far more than choosing a font and a piece of clip art. Through branding, we create a clear mission and identity for our company and determine how to effectively communicate and connect with our customers. It’s how we legitimize and differentiate ourselves as a new business, and it’s what potential customers use as a tool to decide if they want to do business with us. So, we shouldn’t be surprised to find out that successfully branding a company is an extensive and comprehensive process. Here’s a quick overview of the steps involved:

1. RESEARCH and ASSESSMENT
Who are you and what makes you different? What are your goals? Who is your competition? Who are your customers?

2. STRATEGY and MESSAGE
Take the data from step one and define yourself. Name your company. Define your mission and message. Create a communication and positioning strategy (how will you reach your customers?)

3. IDENTITY DESIGN and PACKAGING
Create a visual strategy. Design your logo. Develop your personality and voice. Write a tagline. Determine how to communicate your message through graphics, color, images, fonts, and design. What will engage your customer and begin to build a relationship with them?

4. DEVELOP and LAUNCH
Determine all forms of communication and design the look and feel of all materials. Develop a style guide to ensure consistency for future materials.

5. EVALUATE
Be flexible but stay true to your mission. See what’s working and what’s not and adjust accordingly. Continually assess your brand as changes occur within your organization and within the marketplace.

Although it may seem a bit overwhelming, investing in your brand is critical to your company’s success. The good news is the payoff will far outweigh the cost in the end.

Bridget Gailey is a branding expert, designer, and creative consultant. www.bgcreative.com

Does the thought of exercising outside during the winter send shivers up your spine? Do sweaty gyms make you cringe? Don’t make anymore excuses to blow off your training until next spring. Do it now, in the comfort of your home. All you need is a few feet of space and a mat, and these great workout tips from Traci Barnum of Seattle’s Fly Fitness.

Get Creative
Take a look around your house. Do you have a fireplace base or a step? These are ideal for doing push-ups, reverse lunges and dips. Do you have a long hallway? This is great for walking lunges or side squats. Do you have a heavy table? This is a perfect place to wrap an exercise band around to do rows. Think out of the box and you will have your very own gym in no time.

Here is a sample work-out you can do and is equipment-free.

Warm Up
Step up and down on a fireplace base or stair for 20-30 on each foot. Make sure your whole foot comes up on the step. If you don’t have a step of any kind, march in place 20-30 on each leg.

Jumping Jacks
Do 25 jumping jacks, march in place for 8 counts, and then do 25 more. (Beginners do 15 jumping jacks, march in place for 10 counts, then do 15 more).

Reverse Lunges
Do 20 lunges (beginner 10 lunges) on each leg. Stand with your feet about shoulder length. Begin by reaching one of your feet back behind you like you are taking the first step if walking backwards. Really reach back with this stride to get a good stretch. Bring that leg back to the start position and repeat the same movement with your opposite leg. Be sure to keep your back firmly upright and straight throughout this exercise.

High Jogs – 50x – each leg lift is 1 count (beginner 25x)
Stand with feet together and hold arms straight out in front of you at mid-torso level. Jog in place, bringing knees high enough that they hit your hands (don’t lower hands!).

Squats
Stand with feet hip-width apart and squat, (drive hips back) keeping back straight, abs in and knees behind your toes. Let your butt lightly touch chair and squeeze butt to stand up.

Tricep Dips – 15x (beginner 10x with knees bent)
Sit on a bench or sturdy chair, legs extended, feet on the ground, hands at your sides grasping the edge of the bench, palms facing behind you (fingers pointing forward). Slide your butt off the bench and lower your body towards the ground by bending the elbows. Stop lowering your body when your shoulders get just above your elbows, and then bring yourself up again by straightening the arms. Keep your back perpendicular to the ground. The closer you bring your feet in (and the more the knees are bent) the easier the exercise.

Jumps – 8x (beginner 4x)
Take a stance as if you were about to take off for a track race. Crouch down slightly, put both hands behind you, and then, in this “half-squat” position, “dive” forward as far as you can by pushing off on your feet and thrusting your arms forward. Try to land with a soft impact by bending your knees. Then immediately take two small jumps back

Slow Pushups
Begin in pushup position on toes. Beginner do modified version on knees. Perform 4 pushups, abs in and back straight. On the 4th pushup, lower halfway down and hold for 4 counts. Push back up and repeat the series 2 more times.

Ski Jumps – 30x (beginner 15x)
Stand with feet together. Jump to the right 2-3 feet, keeping knees bent and landing in a squat. Jump back to the left and continue jumping from side to side (place a book or pillow on the floor to jump over for added challenge)

Plank – hold 45 seconds (beginner 30 seconds)
Get into pushup position on hands and toes, or on elbows and knees. Keep abs contracted and back straight (don’t collapse in the middle). If back feels tight or strained lift butt higher in air or stop exercise altogether.

To make workout more challenging go through all 13 exercises and then repeat all exercises 1-2 more times. Please exercise carefully. Fly Fitness and CRAVE are not responsible for any injuries.

We had a blast last week at our CRAVEshow! 08. A few days ago we posted a video from the event, and here are the photos! Thanks to Barbie Hull Photography and Liminist Photography. If you took a picture at the CRAVE photo booth, you can find your picture here and order prints!

Above photos credit: Barbie Hull.
Check out the CRAVEshow! photo booth from Liminst Photography.

Yesterday while loading up on stocking stuffer goodies, I overheard women at the cosmetics counter having a conversation about what product they absolutely cannot live without. All women positioned mascara at the top of their list. They talked about the importance of luscious lashes — how they make you feel more confident, and appear bright, awake, and alert looking.

CRAVE agrees! So we asked Shauna Magrath, foundress of The BeautyInk Gallery in Vancouver, BC to recommend her favorite mascara to us, so that we could pass it along to you. She gave us a fab piece of advice — permanent lash extensions! Imagine waking up beautiful with long, sensual lashes your friends will fawn over, sans gunky-goo! You can live your life looking glamorous 24/7. You can play them down by day or dress them up by curling them and adding a little mascara at night.

Shauna told us they look completely natural and only require a fill similar to your nails, every four weeks. Fills take about an hour and cost only $50. She warned us that permanent lash extensions are addicting because your eyes will have never looked BETTER!

Permanent lash extensions feel comfortable and natural just like your own eyelashes. They are weather-proof and waterproof (that’s right — no more clumped mascara!).

For more information or to schedule an appointment contact Shauna at info [at] beautyink.ca.

Ever tried permanent lashes? Tell us about your experience.

The Green Chic Bag Company was started by three friends from Portland, Oregon that joined in a single mission: to make “green” stylish. Their motivation was to reduce the impact of waste on the environment, and their creativity sparked the desire to design something simple yet chic.

Owners Christy, Theresa, and April are all mothers who take a particular interest in fashion and the environment. Each offers a special dynamic to the business.

	Christy is the socialite that enjoys spending time meeting new people and finding new places. She comes from a career of marketing, is a wife, and a mother of two boys.
	Theresa is a great people person and is able to strike up a conversation with anyone. She is also very creative and has chosen many of the bag designs. Theresa came from a career in management, she is a wife, a mother of five, and a grandmother of six.
	April is quite business savvy and actually enjoys doing all the stuff Christy and Theresa would rather not do! She is a wife, mother of three girls, and came from a career in health care administration.

The three women had always wanted to start their own business and some how incorporate their love of fashion with a product that was environmentally friendly. Dreams turned into reality when April had the idea to make reusable bags that were not plain, boring, and flimsy like most other options. From there, they brainstormed ideas for exactly what people want in a reusable bag. At the top of the list were: stylish and chic fabrics, strong and comfortable handles, water resistant liner,, large capacity, and ensuring that all materials were made in the USA and are biodegradable. After the list, the three women went to work designing a bag that met their expectations.

Enter to win a Green Chic Bag of your choice by emailing amanda [at] craveparty [dot] com with your name, address, and phone number. Put “Green Chic Bag” in the subject line. The offer ends December 31st. We’ll contact the winner in January!

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade, with a mission of enabling people to make a living making things, and reconnecting makers with buyers. Many of the sellers on Etsy make items in their spare time while holding a nine-to-five job, but a few of them have been able to sell full-time on the site. Etsy’s blog features a section titled “Quit Your Day Job” with an inspiring series of interviews with sellers who have been fortunate enough to do just that! Read below for excerpts from the August 11th interview with Rachel Austin (username rachelaustin), painter and creative genius of Portland OR, and click here to read the whole article.

How long were you selling on Etsy before taking the plunge into selling full time?
About a year and a half.

Did you do anything to prepare ahead of time before taking the plunge?
By the time I committed to painting full time, I pretty much had all that in place. I did start setting aside more time for promoting myself — most everything before that was word of mouth or people finding me.

What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business and what’s your best marketing tip?
I think being patient when building up the shop/business has been key. I don’t think there is any quick way to make a sale (though being in a Treasury on the front page of Etsy usually brings a couple sales!). Some things I regularly do is post and renew items throughout the day to try and reach new people — often between 4-10 times a day. We also advertise on different design blogs like Modish and sfgirlbybay. I have links all over my website and blog to refer people to my Etsy shop. In addition to Etsy, I have shops and galleries that sell my paintings and usually do a solo or group show once a month. Another little marketing tool we’ve done is to print postcards with my paintings, website and Etsy address shown on the front. I always keep a stack in my purse so when I’m at a coffee shop or traveling I can leave them for people to find. I also try to make lovely packages when I ship and usually include a hand-written note as well as a little freebie (magnets, buttons, etc). We do end up getting a lot of repeat customers, which is so nice to see people return because they like my paintings.

What have you found to be unsuccessful promotion or something that’s just not working for your shop?
When I first started on Etsy I thought it would be a place where I could only sell smaller and cheaper work, but soon found that my larger pieces could sell successfully on Etsy — having the variety made my whole shop more appealing, too. I also found it is really important to put on work that I love, instead of just putting on what I think others would buy.

Another promotion that didn’t work so well for me was when I bought some spendy print ads and didn’t seem to get much of a response. I’ve found internet ads definitely steer more folks to my Etsy shop and are more affordable.

If you could go back in time before you took the plunge, what advice would you give yourself knowing what you know now?
I didn’t really understand the importance of marketing. It would have helped to have a good marketing plan in place when I first took the plunge. And I didn’t have any smaller items when I started out either, but I now complement my paintings with map pendants, note cards and prints, magnets and mirrors. I think it is important to have different items at lower price points for those who like my paintings but can’t afford the originals.

What advice would you give someone else thinking about taking the plunge to sell full time on Etsy?
I wish I would have taken the plunge sooner. If it is a possibility for you, it is worth taking a look at what you need and then working hard to make it happen. I’ve encouraged lots of folks to start Etsy shops and those that stick with it and stay active tend to be successful. Pay attention to the feedback you’re getting from people around you — if that is consistently positive, that’s a great sign!