Here is this weeks free digitized embroidery design of the week. It is a Christmas Tree. Enjoy! Click HERE to download it in emb cnd exp dst hus and pes formats along with the run sheet. Ho Ho Ho.

Unique thinking is critical in todays market. There are ads everywhere that people overlook. Take a little creativity and in some cases a little money and you would be surprised the results you can get from it. Try to think about creating something that surprises the average person and then add your business element into it. Worst case scenario you lose a little money and a little time. Best case scenario? You grow your business!

Years ago when I was mailing out fliers to potential digitizing customers I came up with the idea to draw a funny cartoon about life in embroidery on the front of the trifold. When you looked at the front of the sealed item you were prompted to open it to see if there were any more cartoons (there were). To this day that was the most successful mailing campaign I have ever had.

Below are some very unique ads that I found on www.hemmy.net . Quite amusing but most of all they are unique and fun.

I am always interested in seeing new things and new approaches to art. It feels like it stretches my mind to take in the different. Well this is something I haven’t seen before, Fractal Art! Located at http://www.enchgallery.com/fractals/fractal%20gallery%201.htm is a gallery of these crazy but cool art pieces, like the one below, by Cory Ench.

This is how it is described on Cory’s site:

“Fractal Flames are algorithmically generated images and animations. The software was originally written in 1992 and released as open source, aka free software. Since then it has developed a lot. It has been incorporated into many graphics programs and ported to most operating systems. The shape of each image is specified by a long string of numbers – a genetic code of sorts.”

Check them out!

Ever find yourself at a crossroads on the internet and you are ready to adopt a new username? You know the pseudo identity that is you in cyberspace. Ever pick out a good one only to find that it has been taken on one or more of the more popular sites? Well I just found this site http://usernamecheck.com/ where you can enter in your new username to be and it will check the availability on all the most common sites to see if it is available. In a matter of seconds it checks all kinds of sites like Digg, Delicious, eBay, Flickr, Gmail, Yahoo, Youtube and many more.

Ever think about your icons? You know, those things you see everywhere on your computer. Did you know you can replace most of them with cooler looking ones? Whether it is on your desktop or in a blog or on your website unique icons really adds a touch of personality. The only thing better than finding a bunch of cool icons is finding a bunch of FREE cool icons! Below is just one of the 40 free icons sets available at http://sixrevisions.com/resources/40-beautiful-free-icon-sets/

Okay so I found a little bit of time to get this done. I really hate being late on things like the Free design of the week. This week… a candycane embroidery design. You can download this design in emb dst cnd exp and pes formats by clicking HERE.  Enjoy!

I have a pretty good selection of Christmas designs I am working on so stay tuned. There should be two more freebies before Christmas and of course you can always take a look at some of our very reasonably priced embroidery designs in our store.

Okay this was just too cool for me not to post.I am always struck by people who think outside the box and it is a real treat when I find my brain rocked by a new concept. Check this out.

Looks like a bunch of crazy random letters huh? Well Look below.

Talk about a crazy idea! There is an example of someone looking at a situation taking a leap of faith and turning out something worth talking about! I try to keep stuff like this in mind each day.

You can find more pictures and more about this project here http://de-war.de/eurekacarpark.html

I only have a minute here and there these days to post so I will pass on the cool stuff as I find it. I am really hoping to get a bunch of Christmas designs digitized this weekend and don’t worry that I haven’t posted a free design of the week yet this week. I will post two this weekend to cover this week and next week.

I am not complaining about being too busy for sure. Just doesn’t always leave time for the fun stuff.

Okay, so it has been a few days since my last post. Would you believe I have been busy with work! It’s true! Business is booming right now for us. I have found myself trying desperately to keep up. It truly has been growing each day. Some of it might be the season but I am seeing some trends that surpass that.

Now don’t get me wrong the recession has hit us hard too. Just today I received the news that a large website job we were counting on this month has been cancelled due to economic issues. That was a blow, but more for the company who cancelled the website than for us. I hope they are going to be alright and when they are ready for a website we will be there for them. Until then we have plenty of work to keep us busy. At least for now!

To what do I attribute this work load… go figure …. good ole optimism, fresh marketing ideas and salesmanship. My team is very focused and we are all ready to hit home runs everyday. We have a sales goal for this month and we are committed to making it.

It is really easy to let economic times get you down and feel almost helpless in the middle of the storm. This is the time where a truly focused team supplied with fresh enthusiasm and a fresh marketing campaign can really make a difference!

Here’s a quick idea … Have you visited your neighbors recently to remind them your business is just a couple doors down? I decided this month that I was going to visit every business within walking distance to my shop (thats 100 or so businsses) and just introduce myself and the services I offer. I got four doors down and met some of the nicest people who also turned out to be the owners of a multi national franchise business (who knew!). Well a week later we are doing a lot of business and it looks as thought this will end up being a very long term business relationship that will be very beneficial to both of our companies. Go figure!

As soon as I am done getting that account set up and into a routine I will hit door number five and beyond.

Keep your chin up and think like it is an economic boom! It just might end up that way!

It is only 25 day until Christmas and if you are like most of us you aren’t liking the economy or the idea of spending money on gifts. Well lets see if some of these goodies help.

Fresh from one of the best websites on the web, Lifehacker are some freebies and money saving tidbits below.

(quoted from www.lifehacker.com)

Get your real free credit report.

If you’re looking for the federally-mandated, completely free, no-service-cancellation-needed online credit report you’re entitled to once per year, head to AnnualCreditReport.com. Use it as explanatory ammo when applying for a loan, see what issues are waiting to be settled, and avoid the temptation of a smirking dilettante who wants to sign you up for an easy-to-miss yearly credit protection fee.

Ship online purchases for free.

FreeShipping.org is one of those URLs that you could imagine turning into a veritable spam factory, but it thankfully hosts a roundup of free shipping coupons found for more than 600 stores. If you think you can do better, or your online merchant isn’t covered, also check with Free Shipping On, which sometimes hosts different versions of similar coupons. If you’re buying from Amazon, though, and you’re just a few bucks short of hitting your free shipping target, try the Amazon Filler Item Finder, which takes in a dollar amount and shoots back hopefully useful plug-ins to save money and get you more gear.

Get Microsoft Office at 91% off.

Microsoft wants college students to get familiar with their Office lineup—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, et al.—so they’ll be more apt to use and buy it in their professional futures. College students usually need some kind of official Office product at some point in their studies, and they don’t have a lot of cash. Those major forces meet up at “The Ultimate Steal,” in which the Redmond giant gives away its Office Ultimate 2007 package for $59.95 to anyone with a valid .edu address. The real deal, however, is that it seems any old .edu email—including the alumni accounts usually given away for free—get you through the door. One neat combination of Office tools is used by our own Jason Fitzpatrick, who gets things done with Outlook and OneNote 2007.

Get the rest of the list at www.lifehacker.com.

With the Thanksgiving holiday almost over I find that this year held great food, good company and no family feuds. That is always a good recipe for some time off.

Additionally our Internet was down here for most of the weekend which pretty much forced me to spend time doing things I usually would be ignoring due to my time on the web. Things like: reading, playing guitar, relaxing, playing video games and going for a walk. Amazing when you are deprived of the ability to work how you actually relax. My recommendation … turn off the computers for a weekend every now and then and plug in to life. It is relaxing… whether you like it or not!