Friday Faves

Friday oh Friday, I welcome you with open arms!

It's been a busy busy week over here! Between working on editing wedding videos and working on the new website for the shop, I've been glued to my computer like an algae eater and it's not cute! The new inventory started arriving at the house this week and I'm getting it all prepped and ready. Steaming everything and starting to photograph it, ekk so exciting! I'm already planning out what will be new arrivals for the winter as well since it will be here sooner than we know! There will be videos and other blog posts showing the items, explaining the fits and the style of everything, so subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep an eye open for that!

The new shop will have it's own website but I will still be keeping Etsy open and have the T-shirts available at both shops. This is solely because the traffic I get from Etsy is astounding. I have options to pay for marketing and advertising on Etsy and I have and its brought me a ton of traffic and orders from it. The last few months I've been doing some experimenting with the paid advertising and turning it on and off on certain days and now I've stopped it all together. I was trying to gauge if it's worth the money or not. What I've noticed is that because my sales have gone up (from paid advertising) my shirts have moved up in the rank on Etsy search pages that I no longer need to pay for the advertising because they are already on the first page! #majorwin

If you follow me on Snap you would have seen me post this last night already so sorry if this is repetitive, it just makes me incredibly happy! If you type in the search bar on Etsy "boy mom shirt" "wife shirt" or "wedding shirt" I'm on the first page for all of these! It's been a lot of work, money and time but it's so worth it! You can follow the shop's Instagram page to see more customer photos, coupon codes and the new items coming to the shop next month.

I'm filming another wedding tomorrow so I'm charging batteries and getting SD cards all ready for that. I also like to watch a lot of other wedding videos online to get my creative mind going ahead of time. It helps me think of different shots I want to get or how to capture something I may not have thought of.

Since I'll be gone all day tomorrow away from the boys we are having our usual pizza party Friday night but this time a picnic in our backyard. Really what that means is Jerek and I will be taking chainsaws and literally cutting down anything in our way! We have SO.MANY.WEEDS and just crap growing everywhere that it has got to go! We realize this is the end of the summer and most people do this in the Spring. We've been so busy this summer that we've let the outside of the house go and it's about to get wild tonight! We got this pool at the beginning of summer on a crazy "Amazon lightening deal" so I will fill that bad boy up for the boys, grab some pizza and beer and make a night out of it while we tackle the weeds!

I've been on the hunt for some new boots for the fall because I had to toss a couple of mine last year as they had seen much better days. I've been looking at these cute brown ones from Nordstrom, these ones for a little color or possibly these ones for a little help in the height department. 

If you follow me on Snapchat (@eastwillowgrove) or have seen my nails in real life lately you will know that I have been doing at home gel nails for some time now. I've always done my own nails and rarely get manicures and gel nails at home have made my life SO much easier! I will usually do them at 1030pm and go to bed right after! There's no fear I will mess them up either, it's amazing! The set I got a while ago is the Sensational Starter kit but I've heard great things about the Red Carpet kit too. I usually pick up polishes at Sallys when they are buy 2 get 1 free because they are more expensive than normal nail polish's. I just bought a couple OPI ones off Amazon that I use a ton as regular nail polish; Lincoln Park After Dark, Funny Bunny and You Don't Know Jacques. These three are my all time favorite colors, I will even wear Funny Bunny in the winter because I love it so much.

With Labor day weekend coming up we're trying to think of something fun to do before school starts and life gets even more chaotic! I'm thinking a trip to Grand Haven is in order next weekend because my toes are dying to be submerged into some sand!

Hope you all have a great weekend! Do something fun, get outside and soak up that sun!

The Garden Theater- Detroit Wedding

On July 23rd I loaded up my camera gear, kissed the boys bye for the day and headed to Detroit to the Ren Cen to start my day. Ryan and Sydney were getting married and it was a full day of shooting! I met Sydney way back when I worked with her sister at a tanning salon. I remember one day she walked in to tan and she was so bubbly and full of life and didn't stop talking, she was my kind of girl! Ryan and I went to high school together and had a lot of friends in common so it was so cute to see them together as I knew them through totally separate walks of life!

Etsy Shop Story + Giveaway

In December of 2012 I was newly pregnant with Skylor and I jumped on Etsy to sell jewelry I was already making for myself.  It was something I did before starting my blog that I enjoyed. Shortly after I started blogging and recording our lives here and on YouTube and I scaled back on Etsy and threw myself into learning everything about video editing, shooting and writing.

In 2015 I didn't enjoy making jewelry anymore and I made a growth chart to track the boys heights. I started selling these to local moms and families all over the US. I quickly realized how much I hated USPS as they ruined 5 of my orders, upset my customers and myself, so I stopped making them all together.

One day I was on Instagram and came across the cliche #boymom t-shirts. I had been looking for boymom shirts for a while but HATED the design and price of these ones. It was basic Hanes T-shirt with an ugly font. I think she was charging like $52 or something ridiculous.

Hell to the no!

In true Chelsea form I said I can totally make something better.

So I did.

Clothing is something I've loved since I was little so creating my own shirts wasn't that strange of an idea for me. I originally went to school in Chicago for Fashion Merchandising when I was 18 before I transferring to GVSU. This wasn't a new passion of mine, maybe just one that was pushed aside when I had kids.

So just like that the first 'house of boys' shirt was created, followed by 'house of girls' and 'house of twins' which are sold out currently. The house of boys shirts started flying off the shelf, I literally couldn't keep up with the demand sometimes. Apparently boy moms want everyone to know they are a boy mom. I get it though, because living in a houseful of boys is like living in a frat house!

Speaking of frat houses...

As the months went by I started keeping a list in my phone of funny or clever things I wanted to print on shirts, not just for adults, but for kids too. The next boy mom shirt I created was "I run a frat house shirt." Just like the house of boys shirts the orders were coming in left and right, sometimes people were buying both at the same time, it was awesome to see those notifications on my phone! A cash register noise would ding and sometimes Jerek would yell from the other room" you got another sale!" It's very exciting feeling.

Today these are my two best selling shirts, it makes me even more proud to be a boy mom.

I started to make a couple more shirts that were geared toward motherhood and not just for families that had kids of the same gender like the house of boys were designed for. In came the "Eat Sleep Mom Repeat" and the "Embrace the chaos-mommyhood" shirts.

Next up was the wedding related shirts, after all, I was planning my own wedding! I kept seeing the normal "Mrs." or "married!" tee's and I just didn't like them, I wanted something different.  So I had created the 'girlfriend fiancée' shirts and then a week later the Wifed Up shirt was then born.

The funny thing is, I get more orders of women ordering the wifed up shirts for their soon to be husbands to wear on their honeymoon! I love it! A design that most people buy to wear the day after they get married they tell me.

On June 5, 2015 I sold my first shirt. It's been a little over a year and I'm 3 sales away from 500 sales! It's exciting and hard work, all while I work in corporate full time, run my videography business and blog/vlog! I'm starting to look into trade marking, expanding in both kids and adult items and possibly selling in local shops!

One of the frustrating things I've stumbled across is a big Instagram account that started making house of boy shirts way after I did. While the designs aren't the same, I can't help but get a little butt hurt that I created them long before they did. Such is life though ya know! I realize that these things happen all the time and I'm starting to see how I can trade mark certain ones, be better about marketing and also open my own website so I'm not just tied to Etsy.

This has been my goal for a while now; a online store that is more than just Etsy. I've been working insanely hard on new logo, a new website and working with wholesalers to bring in other clothing then just my t-shirts! You guys, this is the stuff I learned in college and dreamed about doing, working for a company, buying clothes that you would see in shops. The reality is, I don't have to work for someone else to do this, I just had to do the research on how I could work for myself!

You guys know that I've been rocking the capsule wardrobe life for over 6 months now. So the pieces that will be added into the shop will be perfect additions to any wardrobe! They will be based around neutrals, simple patterns, and great for moms that want to spice up their yoga pant wardrobe! I'm so excited about whats to come, it's going to be a real online store and maybe one day I'll have a little shop, a brick and mortar store! A girl can dream, err wait, no no, a girl can WORK TOWARDS IT! I don't dream here, I just do!

With that being said, keep your eyes open for more announcement's regarding the shop! You can also follow along on the new/separate Instagram for the shop; East + Willow. There will be sneak peaks of new shirts, new clothing, accessories, coupon codes and big announcements so make sure to follow along!

To celebrate almost being at my 500th sale I'm doing a giveaway of 2 Eat Sleep Mom Repeat in the exclusive muscle tanks! It's crazy to think there are hundreds of people all over the world wearing something I created. As a thank you to all past and future customers, I'm also offering 10% off all orders for till August 19th with the code THANKYOUSALE.

Love you guys and cheers to East + Willow!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Favorite Podcasts

You've all heard me complain before about how much I loathe my commute to work before right?

And if you haven't HOW, HOW HAVE YOU NOT?!

I'm really rather annoying on Snap (@eastwillowgrove) about it the most. I'm always complaining and never really saying anything positive about it because honestly, who can be when you live 17 miles from work but it takes you almost an hour or more a day to get TO and then from work...

No one Susan, no one!

So lets get to the point here shall we!

Over the last few years I've discovered Podcasts and Podcasts have CHANGED.MY.LIFE. okay.

Not only have I gotten a TON of great business advice from them but I laugh and smile SO much on my way to and from work because of them! Laughing, smiling and driving to work never are usually in the same sentence for me so this shit is awesome.

Sometimes I wish I had my own Podcast but I have about a bajillion other projects going on right now I do not need to tickle my pickle with that too...right now that is...;)

With that being said I wanted to round up my 5 favorite Podcasts and hopefully you check them out, because I know you will laugh, learn something or be inspired by some if not all of them!

One of my favorite fellow bloggers, Lauryn Evarts from The Skinny Confidential, and her soon to be husband, Michael Bosstick recently started a Podcast that airs every Tuesday. The podcast was started as a place to get answers from both a guy and girl on branding, blogging, entrepreneurship, travel and social media. However I find myself laughing so fucking much because they banter back and forth just like Jerek and I do, have been together almost as long as we have and are getting married in Mexico as well. While I've learned a ton of tips and tricks from them I honestly love the fact that I feel like I'm driving with friends to work on Tuesdays!

I recently discovered Jackie Schimmel from Lauryn having her on her Podcast and just like Lauryn, I was dying of laughter listening to Jackie! I then went on a binge listening spree and this girl is FUNNY! She use to work on The Chelsea Handler show so her sense of humor is right up my alley. She is a Real Housewives fanatic and knows just about everything there is to know about all the seasons. She interviews tons of celebs, comedians and "socialites" and tells it like it is. She's raw and blunt, just how I like it! You may not learn how to make a homemade apple pie, but you will laugh for an entire 45 minutes wanting more more MORE!

Guys, if you are currently watching The Night Of on Netflix the Serial Podcast reminds me SOOO much of this Podcast! Serial is a Podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig, also a great podcast! It unfolds a true story over the course of the whole season as it follows the plot, characters and real thoughts that she processes as she unfolds the story. I loved listening to this while working out or on the way to work. Some days I was late getting into work because I would sit in my car to finish it, it was just SO good!

Jess Lively is a Michigander and Ann Arbor resident. She moved to Chicago when she started her own Jewelry line, then off to Austin where she use to blog and ultimately where she started her Podcast, The Lively Show. TLS is a weekly podcast that is designed to uplift, inspire and add a little extra intention to your everyday life. Literally, this is her mantra that she says before each episode and I always leave each episode feeling just that! It's a really nice and easy podcast to listen to, a feel good one and one where you can see she tries so hard every day to live life with intention and meaning.

The Podcaster of Podcasts, Pat Flynn is amazing! It's like a Ted Talks Podcast but he's crazy relatable! He has a wife and two kids and is a awesome business man and serial entrepreneur! A lot of my business knowledge, advice and tips and tricks I've learned from him! He has an killer blog called The Smart Passive Income, which is where the podcast stemed from. On his blog he gives you business advice and how to get ahead of the curve with your online business or blog. On the Podcast though, he brings in tons of other entrepreneurs (men and women!) and they together discuss an array of topics on how they got started, secrets to making money and how to be a better entrepreneur, its amazing! There are hundreds of episodes so you will never be bored! In fact I go back and listen to some of my favorite ones time and time again and continue to learn something new every time!

There are a ton of other Podcasts that I bop around listening too from time to time but these 5 are my absolute favorite! They really get me through my commutes to work, through the boring ass days in the office and through my cardio at the gym.

So I hope you have discovered a new Podcast, or five to start listening too! What Podcasts do you love? Leave a comment below on any not mentioned, I'd love to find more and check them out!

xx Chel

Wedding Videography

Wedding planning ended months ago for us and while I can say that I'm happy the planning aspect is over I realize how much I kinda sorta maybe enjoyed it. Perhaps it was just the whole week in Mexico I enjoyed, or seeing our plans and ideas come all together or spending it with family and friends, regardless, it was amazing!

If you've been following along here for some time you will know that I've been recording our everyday life for a little over two years now! When I first started vlogging Jerek definitely didn't understand it, he was annoyed that I had a camera out all the time, that I was editing on the couch while we watched TV and that I was always trying to document things.

He quickly grew out of it after he realized how awesome it was to look back on the memories at any given day. I often catch him re-watching videos from weeks, months or even years ago, it's real cute! Jer even vlogged during his birthday scavenger hunt last year if you haven't seen it! The idea behind the vlogs were to not just capture the traveling we do or the big events but to also capture the everyday moments, the things you easily forget about. I didn't want that to happen.

Aside from capturing our everyday life I love just as much capturing other peoples special moments. This summer has been full of filming weddings and it's not slowing down! I've had a ton of inquiries and I've been working on a new website so today I wanted to share it with you now since it's up and running!

Come peak around East Willow Media and tell me what you think! I'm still in the process of editing and uploading more weddings, travel videos and more so stay tuned!

I have a few spots left open in 2016 and have started booking for 2017! I've been editing away on the couch at night while watching Netflix with Jerek, it's been a crazy, fun and exciting summer to say the least! Feel free to look around the site and if you have any questions, ask away!