Cream of the Crop: Sparkle and Charm Boutique

Welcome to this week’s edition of Berries and Cream Blog Design’s Cream of the Crop series. We hope that you will enjoy today’s featured site, Sparkle and Charm Boutique.

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I discovered Sparkle and Charm Boutique when Kathryn contacted me to see if I could help her set up and design a store for her fabulous, handmade creations.  I thoroughly enjoyed having a hand in creating a unique website for her charming business, and I have loved seeing the products she has added.

What does Sparkle and Charm Boutique offer?  I’m glad you asked!  Sparkle and Charm caters mostly to little girls, although the personalized beanbags and Spiderman coloring and activity tote are certain to delight little boys.  Little girls will be enthralled with the beautiful and well-made tutus, hair accessories, flip flops, crowns, and baby doll diapers.  Moms are sure to like the beaded bookmarks and designer burp cloths.

If you are looking for high-quality, well-made, unique products and/or gifts, I highly recommend you take a look at Sparkle and Charm Boutique.

Completed Projects: Career Sync

I enjoy working with other women entrepreneurs, and Career SYNC is owned by Monique Betty, a savvy business woman.

Monique requested me to install, set up, and design a self-hosted WordPress blogsite for her career coaching firm.  She knew the atmosphere she wanted her site to convey: clean, professional, high-quality, simple, and elegant.

In addition to site design and set up, Monique needed her site to include specific functions:

• Additional custom page template for use in promoting her products and special offers
• Inclusion of external site feeds relating to her business niche
• Faux sidebar on some pages; no sidebar on others
• Icons linking to her social media profiles
• Teleseminar registration form linked to her autoresponder account
• Newsletter sign up form insertion
• Newsletter custom design to coordinate with her site design
• Addition of an audio player so that her home page could include an audio greeting
• Custom design for and insertion of a poll on her home page
• Creation of standard business website pages and insertion of her content

In the end, both Monique and I were delighted with the result of our collaboration.  Her site looks very professional and includes all the features and functions that she needs to promote her site and grow her business.

Cream of the Crop: Did You See That?

Welcome to this week’s edition of Berries and Cream Blog Design’s Cream of the Crop series. We hope that you will enjoy today’s featured blog, Did You See That?.

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Did You See That? is a review blog.  I asked Angela (aka CPA Mom), the owner, to tell us a bit more about her blog and herself.

I’d like our readers to get to know you a bit better. Please share some background about yourself, your site/blog, and anything else you’d like others to know about you.

My name is Angela and on my website I review books, movies, toys, websites, and fun products for kids of all ages. I was widowed when I was 28 years old but am now married again with two beautiful children, ages 4 and 6. Between my “real” job as an auditor/CPA and my family and my blog, I’m on the go all the time.

When did you start blogging?

My very first blog post was on 6/1/2006 (on a personal blog that is no longer in existence). I started blogging after seeing myself eviscerated on someone else’s blog and it made me start thinking “why do people blog in the first place??” A friend told me it was for “validation” and I thought “Hey, I could use some validation!” and so it began. I started the review blog in April 2007 so I could post my opinions on a site that wasn’t passcode protected like my personal blog. The ab-fab Nicole at The Opinionated Parent got me started on product reviews and it’s all snowballed from there. I’ve been blessed with great friends who recommend my blog to their own product review sources and with PR firms who have taken a chance on me.

Why do you blog?

I blog on the review site because I’m not one to turn down the opportunity to tell you what I think about something! And I won’t lie – it allows me the chance to give my kids some absolutely fabulous toys and movies (and books for me as well) that I would never in a million years be able to afford on my own. I’ve never gotten any trips to Disney or kitchen appliances like some bloggers have but I’m pretty happy in my little corner of the blogosphere!

What do you normally blog about?

Current movies, books, and products – anything I think my readers would be interested in.

What is your favorite post?

Strawberry Jam 101 because my daughter is just so stinkin’ cute.

What are some of your readers’ favorite posts?

I think the favorite giveaway was the one from Pepsi recently. That got 513 comments which is huge for my little blog.

If you have any upcoming events or posts that you think our readers would like to know about, please tell us about them.

I’ve not been a terribly consistent blogger this month because of summer vacation and work obligations but I’d say be sure to subscribe via email to the blog and you won’t miss any of the giveaways coming up!

As a blogger, what is the best piece of advice you ever received?

Disclose, disclose, disclose. Always be upfront on where you received the product from and if you paid for it or not. The FTC is watching now!

Is there anything else you’d like to highlight or share with our readers?

Through blogging I have meet some of the very best (and the very worst!) people in my life. Be open to all that blogging has to offer you (validation!, friendship, opinions, advice, etc.) but guard yourself too. You can get hurt quite easily.

Thank you, Angela, for sharing more about yourself and your blog.  If you haven’t stopped by Did You See That?, why not check it out today?  There are lots of interesting reviews to read there.