Shop Small Saturday: Wordsky Designs

        It's time for another round of Shop Small Saturday! This one is extra special because I know Kyle and have been able to watch his company grow through social media. From the get-go I have loved his designs. I mean really, it's a local showing the city and state some love! It's perfection!

         I also love his story. It is like many other successful entrepreneur stories, only they don't all tell you about the failures. It's easy to forget that many of us fail over and over again before finding what works. That perseverance it what makes entrepreneurs! 

Kyle with one of his designs

         Here's a bit of background. Almost a year ago, he got the idea of trying to make some coffee tables to sell.  In order to set himself apart, he put the outline of NC on the table tops. He sold three in total. He then had one table left, but couldn't sell it because the table top on it started to warp.  On that particular table top, he had painted in the NC flag inside the outline.  So, in a bit of ingenuity, he added some rope to the table top and made it a wall hanging instead.  Wall hangings became his new thing! 

           With his newfound inspiration he worked on new designs, eventually creating this Raleigh skyline. As he was waiting on that trademark for t-shirts, Hurricane Matthew flooded the house he was renting. You guys, if my house flooded I would be sorely tempted to call it quits! But Kyle took the need of moving back home and turned it into opportunity! He started messing around his his dad's shop and from there he decided to cut the Raleigh design out of wood and here we are!

The Raleigh Skyline

          How cool is that?! Multiple times when he could have just thrown in the towel and called it a day. But he persevered and now his designs are in local spots all over town! You may have seen his wood cutouts in places like Raleigh Brewing or the home of your best friend. Point is, he and his designs are going places. 

         So what's all the fuss about? Um, these here awesome wood cutouts! It started with the Raleigh skyline but he takes requests and has produced some pretty impressive pieces. What makes his standout is that he does these all BY HAND using a jigsaw. No laser cut outs for Wordsky! They come in two different sizes. That one above my desk (first photo of this post), is 44" x 18". The perfect statement piece! They also come a bit smaller at 22" x 9", which is perfect for a gallery wall! 

California Request Order

          These pieces are surprisingly light, even the larger one above my desk! When I saw the size, I thought it would be a nightmare to hand up. So did Alvin! But you guys, it was probably the easiest piece we have ever hung! Kyle placed the hanging do-hicky (no idea what that thing is called) perfectly so the weight is evenly distributed. We had it up on the wall less than five minutes after I asked Alvin to do it, haha.

         As of right now he is mostly taking orders from clients. However, he just made the plunge and quit his day job to pursue his dream so you can expect the inventory to build! If you're interested in watching Wordsky Designs grow, you can follow him on Instagram here. If you want one of these pieces for yourself (or a custom design just for you), you can check out the website here! 

As always, if you are interested in being featured in a Shop Small Saturday post, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at minttosell@gmail.com. 

Shop Small Saturday: Good JuJu Herbal

         I am so excited to announce the beginning of my blog series, Shop Small Saturday! With this series, I will feature makers and small shops that are either local to the Triangle, NC area or who have online shops such as Etsy that I happen to especially enjoy. It is my hope that through this blog series you will find some cute home items that you just *have* to have and all together we can support small businesses. 

         When thinking who I should start out with, Good JuJu Herbal kept coming to mind. At first I thought I should maybe start with someone else because I have already posted about Good JuJu on my Instagram account a few times. However, I've already posted about this shop a few times because it is SO good. Seriously, I adore the soaps and the owner is just the sweetest! 

         I originally discovered this brand at a pop up event inside a brewery. This is a great way to find local makers in your area! Judith, the owner, was happy to speak with us about why she started making her own soaps and what went into them. She has created a line of soaps which are vegan (I'm mostly vegan so this makes me super happy), made without parabens, sodium lauryl/laureth sulphate or synthetic dyes/pigments. She also notes on her website that all products are tested on human friends only. I would happily volunteer to test out new products! 

         Other wonderful tidbits about Good JuJu is that a portion of the profits are donated to charities on a six month rotation basis. According to their website, they have donated to Conservation International and the Wonders of Wildlife program. Add to this that they are working on making their workshop solar powered and you basically have my dream company! 

          So now that you are absolutely in love with the business, you're about to fall in love with the product! I have always needed to be a bit picky with my soap choices, long before I was a mini hippie. Certain soaps just make my skin break out. Y'all, since using these soaps I haven't had a single issue! And they smell amazing! I wish their was a scratch and sniff feature to their website so you could all see for yourselves! 

         My personal favorite is the felt covered soap because it's not as slippery and I don't end up chasing my soap around the shower. I have also used the exfoliating bar to help get a glowing look. And then the Rose Clay and Geranium bar smells divine. Oh! And I can't forget about their dog soap bar! Yes, my dog is high maintenance and has skin issues as well. This soap is heaven sent! 

        Good JuJu has recently started making gift boxes as well. Spoiler alert! Many of my friends can expect to receive some of these in the future! Who doesn't love giving gifts that give back to the community? If you're now as in love with Good JuJu Herbal as I am, you should click here to check out their website and do a little shopping yourself! You can also find Good JuJu on Instagram to see which local markets they will be at on the weekends. 

If you are interested in being featured in a Shop Small Saturday post, please feel free to reach out to me! I love collaborating with other small businesses! 

First Friday At Gather Goods

Around here, we love First Friday. I'm pretty sure towns all around have similar concepts. A certain night of the month dedicated to celebrating local art and small businesses. Such a great concept! Alvin and I try to make it out to First Friday as often as possible. We had an especially good First Friday this October.

A quaint local shop, Gather Goods Co., had a DIY cotton wreath class to celebrate. It was such a fun, unique date night! I highly recommend following the shop and trying out some of their other classes. They make good date nights as well as girls nights :) Basically who doesn't love some cute crafts? 

Oh, did I mention that they had pastries from the absolutely amazing bakery across the street?? I would be in big trouble if Yellow Dog Bakery was right across the street from me. So. Yummy.

So there we are, making mini cotton wreaths and chowing down on some delicious pastries. Poor Alvin was the only man. I guess not every guy is up for making wreaths on date night. He took it like a champ though! 

It was a pretty quick class, easily done before or after a dinner date. They have many other class options that are longer for bigger DIY arts. They are also offering another quick First Friday craft for November. I highly recommend checking it out! We have our mini wreaths hanging on our gallery wall of love ;) 

Anyone else's gallery wall perpetually crooked??

Fun date night! 

DIY Kitchen Backsplash

Our kitchen reno saga continues. A few weeks ago we finally tackled the backsplash. Let me tell you what. It nearly broke me. Everything I read about DIYing backsplash made it sound fairly easy compared to the other projects we've tackled. Boy was I wrong. But not necessarily because doing the backsplash is difficult. More-so because the previous owners didn't put up the old backsplash properly. It was also a glass mosaic which means a lot of little pieces to peel off. Ugh. Just thinking about it gets me all riled up all over again! 

So, remember how I said they applied it wrong? It means entire sections of the drywall were ruined when we peeled it off. UGH! Long story short, if you currently have a glass mosaic backsplash up, you should seriously consider how much you hate it. I super duper hated this backsplash so all the work was still worth it for me. 

I'm not going to even write up a how-to, because with any luck my experience will not be your experience. I'm going to link you to the blog I followed like it was DIY gospel. I went through the entire process (three posts) with ToolBox Divas. 

So what can I share with you that ToolBox Divas didn't? Well, I got my tile off Wayfair! At just $4 a square foot, I would highly recommend checking them out for tile if you're not finding what you want at traditional stores. I was cautious and ordered a sample first and fell in love. It was exactly what I had been looking for! I'm practically hoarding floor samples from them in search of the perfect shade of black/dark gray. 

Another thing she does not mention much is the tile cutter. We used a basic tile cutter and it does get the job done, just not perfectly for subway tile. This was a choice we made since Alvin can't work if he accidentally chops a finger off and I like my hands the way they are. Basically, we chickened out. And I wasn't patient enough (or good enough at tile setting and planning) to mark each tile and take them into a store to be cut. So in short, we had to get creative around the many outlets in the kitchen. I don't even care though. It's still an improvement to me. But, if you want it done perfectly you will need a wet saw or the patience to mark each tile and take it in to a store to be cut. 

Despite the rough patches, literally, and the funky pieces by the outlets, I would do this all over again. Here are some photos so you can see for yourself! 

And here's a before, just as a reminder. 

We've been keeping a rough tally on our kitchen reno costs, so here it is.

• Kitchen cabinets: ~ $178
• Kitchen Counters: ~ $175
• Kitchen Backsplash: ~ $225
• Rough Total So Far: $578

Not bad! Next up, kitchen flooring! 

September Re-Cap

Holy cow. Where did September go?! So much happened for Mint To Sell in September it felt like one big whirlwind. So instead of writing a bunch of blog posts about each thing I decided to just re-cap the month for you so we can move on to better topics like the DIY backsplash I'm doing :)

So here's what happened since the last time I posted.

One Woman Shop Baton

I held the One Woman Shop Baton! It was so cool to connect with other women entrepreneurs from around the globe! If you are a fempreneur I highly recommend checking them out, and possibly holding the baton yourself. It was so great to see that other women connected to a day in my life. 

The rules were simple, log into the Instagram account on your day then post a few photos of your day. Pretty easy, right?! I was lucky and my day aligned with the first day of the Downtown Raleigh Home Show. So my day was a bit more exciting than a usual day at the office (my guest room) where I send emails and work on inventory. But, I bet many entrepreneurs would have connected with that as well! 

My favorite part was just how many people understood the struggle when it's late and you can't decide if you need wine or coffee. And I absolutely loved how many agreed that wine was the better choice! 

Downtown Raleigh Home Show

I participated in the Downtown Raleigh Home Show. It was exhausting. And I learned a lot. It's still hard to say how it effected business but if anything I think it legitimized this company as one who wants to be full-time and professionally providing home-staging. This is important because there are many in the area who provide staging services on the side or as a hobby. 

I also learned there are way more people flipping houses in this area than I ever imagined. This is great news because I love working with flippers! Woot woot! 

Worked With Two New Flipping Teams

Ok, not new to the area, but new to me. Flipping teams are my ideal client. It helps that both of these teams were really sweet and easy to work with. Highly recommend reaching out to them if you need to sell a house quickly, The Revive Guys and The Inspiring Investment. This by no means implies that I do not enjoy working with other clientele. It's just that when I work on flipped houses it makes me feel like I'm on HGTV :) 

You can see their work (and mine) in the Portfolio area of this site. 

We Hired An Intern

Woot woot! We met Zachary at the home show. He is an interior design student who has an interest in home staging. Perfect, right?! I am so excited that Mint To Sell is in the position to not only need an extra person on the team, but can support one. 

I am hopeful that this is only the beginning and that Mint To Sell will continue to grow at a rapid rate. Can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds for us!