Wicked Plum Weekly Update – Lots of Stuff!
Technical Bits
Thanks to Diana and Karen for finding two little bugs for us this week! Item images are now appearing properly in RSS feeds, and thumbnail display images are no longer being cut off on the left. Thanks, ladies!
A New Feature – Collapsing Navigation!
By popular demand, we’ve added a collapsing navigation widget. This is an advanced, completely customizable widget that allows you to add multiple levels of navigation that will expand on hover, remain expanded when you’re on a related page, and collapse when you’re not. Nifty, huh? Check out this feature in action on our demo shop and at Venezie Designs. We’re running a bit behind this week, but will get the tutorial up this weekend! :)
New Shop Launches
We have two shop launches to announce this week!
Blue Calla Creations offers a collection of handmade bags, purses, totes and clutches, as well as a few items for children and home decor items such as pillow covers and quilts. This shop uses a semi-custom version of the “Chocolate Dreams” template.
Venezie Designs is a designer fabrics and patterns store in Bellingham, MA. They feature original boutique patterns and fabrics from your favorite designers. This shop uses a semi-custom version of the “Malted Mint” template.
Themes
Round about last Saturday Dani got overwhelmed with work and server moves not feeling well, and decided to relax in her inimitable manner (which apparently involves designing stuff that isn’t actually on the schedule).
And so, this week we’re excited to announce three new Wicked Plum themes!
Naturescape — greens and greys, cute little cartoon plants, and a simple, clean layout.
Muffin Shop — pastel candystriper stripes set the backdrop for this shop, with broad, bold lettering.
Bamboo — like Naturescape, only with more bamboo and a scratchy, fun font.
Remember we have about a bazillion other themes to choose from, too — and if none of them is quite right, we offer theme customization starting at just $20. Pick one and make it yours!
Kate made this mess on May 6th, 2011 | Comments Off
Featured Client: Buffalo Women Entrepreneurs Rock!
Buffalo Women Entrepreneurs Rock is a group of women entrepreneurs in Buffalo and Western New York who come together to support one another, share ideas and resources, and have some fun along the way.
We were members of a similar organization in Pennsylvania, and so I was jazzed to find BWER *and* be given the opportunity to create their new website!
Creative Spirit. Extraordinary Women.
Buffalo Women Entrepreneurs Rock! is a group of women who have come together with one common thread: A passion for creative living, expressed through the businesses that they run. They have a number of fantastic events and speakers in the works, with topics like the Law of Attraction, mentors and mentoring, keeping the spark in your business, and more.
Sign up for their newsletter to learn how BWER’s speakers and events can help you and your business grow and thrive.
Get Involved
If you’re a female entrepreneur or business owner in the Buffalo-Niagara area, please come out and join us at one of our open meetings!
Your Name in Lights
Have an idea for an upcoming event, or something you’d like to share with the local women’s business community? Is there someone you’d like to hear speak? Are you interested in leading a discussion, or presenting to the group? Send us your ideas today!
Learn More:
Website | Twitter | Facebook
Dani made this mess on May 5th, 2011 | Comments Off
Free Nook Wallpaper
Hot Glue Media is swarming with Nooks these days — Kate got one for Christmas and I just picked one up a few weeks ago. On first blush, I LOVE it. So very, very much. Convenient, sturdy, easy to hold and to read, simply, well, awesome.
Being me, though, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. The pre-packaged backgrounds and screensavers are…well, they’re okay, I suppose, but they’re exactly what one would expect, inoffensive, simple, designed to please anyone and thus not pleasing anyone very much. So, designer that I am (and if you’re surprised by this, you haven’t been paying attention), I decided I’d make my own.
Just to make this an even more tempting task there’s a lot of gorgeous pre-Raphaelite art out there available in the public domain. And I love me some pre-Raphaelite art. The romance, the medieval influences, the drapey, flowing clothing, the hot babes…ahem, pardon me, got distracted there.
Anyway, so I made wallpaper — a stylized, cropped “Golden Head by Golden Head” by Dante Rosetti, which is not only pretty, but fitting, ‘cos it was art designed to pair with the written word (the cover for his sister Christina Rosetti’s poetry book “Goblin Market and Other Poems”).
And I made twelve screensavers from a variety of public domain pre-Raphaelite painting, greyscaled and adjusted so they’ll make your Nook all purty.
And because I’m a generous soul (and because I figured why the heck not), I’m making them available to you too! Just click here to download the zipped file with the whole shebang. Installation instructions are in the readme.txt file, and it’s pretty easy to install.
Disclaimer: I’ve only tested this on the B&W Wifi Nook (cos that’s the one both Kate and I have), use at your own risk (I don’t know how you’d brick your Nook with this, but if you manage it, that’s all on you), your mileage may vary, offer void in Shambhala and the western suburbs of Atlantis, etc., etc.
Enjoy!
Dani made this mess on May 3rd, 2011 | Comments Off
Free Desktop Wallpaper: May Calendar
An ancient tome, a sketch in sepia ink…May flowers, but subtle.
Available as 1680×1050, 1600×900, and 1280×1024. (Left-click to preview; right-click to download.)
Kate made this mess on May 1st, 2011 | Comments Off
Wicked Plum Weekly Update
Fresh from taking a week off from the update for the holidays — we hope you ate as much candy as we did, though hopefully not all at the same time (like we did).
Wicked Plum has a couple more brand new shops in the works — and we’ll share them when they’re ready, but right now they’re Top Sekrit until they’re ready for a Grand Unveiling, and with that I’m done with the random capitalization.
In the meantime, we at Wicked Plum believe strongly in encouraging everyone to buy from our Wicked Plum shops. Every one of them sells something beautiful, something unique, something you can’t live without. (Plus, the more you buy from them, the more lovely little customizations they can pay us to put in their shops.) And with Mother’s Day coming up soon, that’s all the more reason to go shopping.
For the crafty Mom, we have a couple of selections. Does she sew? Set her up with some beautiful fabric from Venezie Designs one of our newer Wicked Plum shops. Karen of Venezie Designs carries a wide and comprehensive selection of fabrics, and patterns for everything from aprons to quilts, tote bags to trench coats.
Does she knit or crochet? Off to Southern Purls for everything she might need. Southern Purls is one of the first Wicked Plum shops, from back in our beta days, and you can tell — she’s got a shop bursting full of everything a crocheter or knitter might want. Beautiful yarns, notions, instruction books, shawl pins, and more kinds of knitting needles than I knew there were.
What if she’s a snappy dresser? Nothing like dolling yourself up for a night on the town. Well, we’ve got that buttoned up, too. Check out these sexy vintage boots from Jaunty Dapple — just because she’s a mom doesn’t mean she has to be all June Cleaver!
Pair them with a beautiful necklace from A Beaded Affair. Chalcedony, pearls and black spinel — simple, but by no means plain. And if that one’s not to her taste, Lois has more necklaces … and earrings .. .and bracelets … and more beautiful jewelry than you can shake a stick at. (Okay, I’m not sure why you’d shake a stick at it anyway, but whatever.)
And if she’s that crafty Mom we talked about above? Lois has beads, wire, chain, findings, and more, plenty enough to start making jewelry instead of buying it.
Back to your fashionista Mom, though, and we’ve got this beautiful crinoline from PrettyCoolShops. Hypothetically crinolines are supposed to be worn under another skirt, but I’d just wander around in this, it’s so pretty. “Excuse me miss, your slip is showing.” “Why yes, yes it is.”
Put that with those boots and that necklace? Yeah, she’s looking fine.
Lastly, the Mom who needs a little pampering in her life. And what Mom doesn’t? Let’s be honest here. She put up with you. She deserves something nice. (And by ‘you’ I mean ‘me’, and by ‘she’, I mean ‘my mom’.) We’ve got a couple of options for that.
Betula’s Botanica makes some really, really lovely and creatively-scented soaps — this Woodland Fir and Lavender is an example, but only one example. You want earthy? She’s got Patchouli and Rosewood. You want to wake up in the morning? Basil and Citrus, or Lemongrass and Cedarwood. You want it, she’s got it.
Not into soap at all? She’s got moisturizing cream, sugar scrubs, and lip balms, too.
And speaking of pampering, there’s Om Shanti Handcrafts’ gift sets, too. Is she a gardener? Here’s a gift set for her — bug spray, sunburn spray, a salve to heal those little scratches and dents she’ll get digging in the dirt, and for cleaning up afterwards, your choice of soap.
Not a gardener? Check out gift sets with lip balms, bath salts, body scrubs, and soaps, too.
Here at Wicked Plum we’ve got something for just about every Mom you’ve got.So go forth and get with the shopping!
Kate made this mess on April 29th, 2011 | Comments Off
