Best of 2012

It's that time of year...TAX TIME!  Yuck!  So I settled in yesterday with my pile of receipts and began the sorting.  However, it wasn't long until I was sidetracked.  Each receipt was a sale from my little "crazy as a loon ~ start a business in the worst economy ever" business!  Certainly Donald Trump has nothing to fear from North Country Rustics but I am definitely more proud of my sales that he is of his.  Each of my sales is designed and created by me or my talented hubby.  Each piece is crafted with our client's wishes in mind.  I was so overwhelmed by all the amazing clients we've had the privledge of working with last year that I've decided to do a photo journal of all of our 2012 projects.   Each project was special, some were so unexpected, some were really challenging, but all of them were so much fun.  Thank you my Rustic Friends!

 

 



 

Common Sense Advice for Facebook Success

Success in Facebook is easy, right?  Sure if you have a large company and marketing department.  But small businesses are often 1 person operations and no single person is an expert at everything.  We all need help.  I've had a few people ask me to give them advice on how to be a Facebook Success.  I've also offered advice to those who haven't asked ~ but it comes from a place of best wishes.  I just want to share the things I didn't know when I started.  Help others to avoid some common missteps.  I don't know if everyone would consider my Facebook page to be successful but I have acquired a group of friends who actually like and care about my little business.  To me, that is success!  

 

So here are 10 of my Common Sense Advice Tips and Tricks:

• Spelling!  People will actually unlike your page if you have misspelled words often.  It makes you seem uneducated and unprofessional.  We all do our fair share but are easily forgiven if it’s an obvious typo.  Too many misspelled or incorrectly used words are noticeable.  If in doubt Google the word it’ll ask you…do you mean? Then you’ll have the right spelling.
• Welcome!  Yes, it does get repetitive but they took the time to like your page so appreciate it.  And their friends might see that you welcomed her/him and they might join too.
• Like!  You probably have favorite pages that you’ve followed for years ~ Like that page through your business page.  And post on their timeline that you have.  Don’t get carried away and do 100 in a day.  My rule of thumb: 1 a day.  It keeps you looking sincere and not like a spammer.
• Comment!  Chances are you’ve got something to say about posts from your favorite pages so “Like” the post and “Comment” using your page.  It’s an easy way to get Facebook links and to get noticed by people with similar interests to yours!  But remember; if you can’t say something nice…don’t comment at all!  You don’t want to become known as negative! 
• Link! Link! Link!  Facebook has a great shortcut for links ~ when you type your business name you want it to turn blue so type @yourbusinesspage  ~ A box will appear offering you choices of different pages…choose yours and voila ~ the blue link you’ve been waiting for will appear in the post.  You can also do this when you welcome new pages to yours.  BUT you can only link once per page, per post.
• Link with preview!  If you are leaving a comment and you want to link back to your page copy the entire web address of your page and paste it into the link.  It looks ugly but after you post it will display a nice sized page preview.
• Post!  Why have a page if you’re not going to post?  3 times a day ~ that is the magic number.  Too many more than that and people will hide you from their newsfeed.  Also, they liked your page!  They want to see your product or service!  Not your Pinterest or re-posts of other posts/status updates.
• Post about??? So what should you post about?  You and your products/services with PICTURES!  Post a picture or a link with every post.  It makes your posts much more likely to be seen.  Post Welcomes once or (if you’ve had a very busy day) twice a day.  Post about any events your attending, new products, sales or promotions, location hours, blog pages you host, etc.  It can sometimes be a challenge to find new things to say but remember you have new likes that didn’t see it before!
• Albums!  Organize your photos in easy to search albums.  Use broad categories that you can add photos to later.  This was one area where I did it SO WRONG and then had to fix my mistakes!  I make custom rustic screen doors.  So I made a new album for every door.  This made it incredibly hard to find all the designs that I had to offer.  To fix the mistake I made one album titled Rustic Screen Doors.  Now all my designs are in one easy to browse location.
• Patience!  You can rack up huge amounts of followers/fans/friends on Facebook but it probably won’t happen overnight.  More importantly are they really interested in your product or are they empty likes?  An “empty like” gives you nothing in return ~ no sales, no interaction, no feedback.  The whole goal of Facebook pages is to be a part of their “social networking”.  Remember, be social.

Good luck!  And be sure to let me know if this was helpful in anyway.

Rustic Life

Have you ever made a comment to someone else and realized you've never said anything so true before.  I have.  The other day on Facebook I said ~ "Reminds me Why I love this Rustic Life!" ~ Suddenly I realized that I DO love my Rustic Life.  But how does one become Rustic?  For me it started when Baby #2 forced us to change our living arrangements.  We decided if we were going to build we wanted to build a log cabin.  After much planning and the birth of  Baby #2 we finally started building our Cabin on the Hill.



The Very Beginning

This was our first set of delivered logs.  As you can see they arrived flat on top and bottom but unpeeled.  My father-in-law (who was logging the Adirondacks at the tender age of 12) taught us all how to peel the bark off the logs.  A simple but time consuming task in warm weather...a nearly impossible task once the winter cold sets in.



Freshly Peeled Hemlock





We were so happy when we saw how pretty the Hemlock was once it was peeled.  And we felt so proud of what we had accomplished...Litte did we know that we'd have to repeat the process for a dozen more times!  And then log stacking began!

 

 

So what happens to a partially completed cabin when you run out of sunny summer days?  You Tarp it to protect it from the Northern NY Snow...

 

 

And then you spend the winter cleaning off the snow before it rips the "temporary" roof!

 

The Sunny Days returned with a Vengence in April!  Bringing temps in the 90+ range!  So Hubby took his vacation time and work resumed!  I was amazed by how much the skeleton crew got done in such a short time.

 

It wasn't long before they were ready to put up the 2nd floor joists...at least that's how it feels now.  Back then every accomplishment seemed to take forever.  But handcrafting every log is a time consuming process and it goes without saying... a ton of hardwork!

 

Of course, the ladies worked hard too!  Here's what we liked to refer to as "Another Peeling Party". 

 

I got to be quite handy with the boom truck!  And I have to say...I loved every minute!

 

Of course the log delivery is the easy part of the job... Not long after this picture was taken Hubby's chain on his chainsaw broke.  It flew up past his face parting his beard as it flew by.  After his brush with death Hubby called a lunch break, and then put a new chain on and went back to work. 

 

There are so many things wrong with this construction photo...safety violations everywhere but with my brother on one ladder and Hubby clinging like Spiderman the last of the logs were put in place.

 

Rafters made our log pile finally look like a home.

 

For those of you who don't know my Dad he is notoriously afraid of heights.  So this photo below is what Love looks like.  My Dad and My Hubby hard at work 32 feet in the air!

 

Add Windows, Doors, and a Metal Roof and Voila! You have a Cabin!  (By Voila I mean it took us 18 months of constant hardwork in every spare moment and tons of help from our family and our friends.  And Voila!!!)

 

That was the beginning of our "Rustic Life".

Falling in Love!

What is your favorite holiday tradition?  I have so many that it's hard to choose...Cookies, Christmas Get-Togethers, Mainstreet Christmas with my hubby and kiddies.  But the one thing I cannot imagine going without is my Christmas Tree!

Growing up we always had a real tree.  Hubby always had an artificial tree.  So after we were first married he convinced me that our house was too small for a real one.  Eventually our family expanded and we outgrew our starter home.  That's when we started building our log cabin.  It was a long process that I may share with you soon.  But today's story is about how I designed the whole cabin so that I could get giant Christmas trees!

Like most cabins we have a great room/kitchen/dining/livingroom. All open! With an open loft over the kitchen. That leaves us with a ceiling height of nearly 20 feet! Which means I should get at least an 18 foot Christmas tree right? Well, 2 years ago I did manage to get a 16 foot tree and my hubby complained about back pain for a week! It was terribly heavy (I think it's because it was a blue spruce ~ Frasier Firs seem so much lighter) so this year I scaled back to a 13 foot Frasier Fir (nearly 15 feet in the stand - heehee) and I was all prepared to hate the "little" tree but... when I got it home, decorated, and lit... I fell in LOVE!

Christmas 2012

Happy Holly Days!

It's been like Santa's Workshop here at North Country Rustics!  Every order has been something new and exciting...and I am positively giddy when I think about how many Christmas trees will have a gift from my workshop underneath their decorated branches!  No wonder Santa loves his job so much!

And I have to say that I love mine!  There are days with disappointments and worry but they are greatly outnumbered by days of unexpected joy!  Like all of the support I got yesterday about the controversy surrounding my "Happy Holly Days" greeting.  I was so worried that I had offended EVERY ONE of my customers, fans, and friends with my silly little greeting.  I was so relieved to find out that I hadn't offended everyone and that some of my loyal peeps were glad to hear the season's greetings!

Our motto here at North Country Rustics is: Inspired by Nature, Wildlife and Country Living.  "Happy Holly Days" was my way of wishing everyone a little piece of nature in whatever their celebrations may be.  I know most people don't get to spend as much time as I do in Nature but without it's beauty our celebrations would be all tinsel and very little heart.

Speaking of nature...I was stomping around the woods yesterday finding the perfect piece of birch for one of these holiday gifts.  And it was a beautiful day with temps in the upper 60's!  It hardly felt like December at all!  How can I get into the spirit if there isn't any snow?  Especially when only a week ago North Country Rustics had this for a view...

Holiday Shipping ~ Easy Peasy!

Is "Custom" a scary word?  I often think it is because most people think of Custom as Expensive.  I really try to dispel that myth.  Our doors are almost always custom doors and they cost exactly the same as our "ready to sell" doors.  With no extra charges EVER!

But if "Custom" is scary then "Shipping" is TERRIFYING!  I can't tell you how many times someone has asked me for a shipping quote only to say, "Is that all???? I thought it'd be twice that!" 

I don't know why people think it will be expensive ~ other than gas prices being what they are.  Screen doors (even custom carved wooden doors) are fairly lightweight.  The package is large but flat.  UPS hasn't complained yet about the Ground Delivery Service on our doors and with Ground Shipping starting at $75 for most of the US neither have our customers!

Because our doors are normally custom I don't usually keep any in stock but... this Lodge Style Buck Shot Door is Avaiable for Immediate Holiday Shipping.  He will fit any 36 x 80 standard door and is perfect for that hard to buy for hunter, nature lover, or cabin owner.  Inbox me today if interested!  Or stop by the North Country Rustics Facebook page and leave a message.

Happy Holly Days

I am a very bad blogger!  But I'm really trying! Honest, I am.

I have had a lot of fun projects lately.  Which have kept me in the workshop and covered in sawdust...just the way I like it!  The projects have been so varied!  Big and Small and Adorable All!

A Custom ordered headboard featuring Mama Bear...

and a matching Custom ordered Mirror featuring a Bear Cub.

Another Custom Order...Love the Welcome Center Rail!

These Rustic Reindeer were so adorable...

Why Not have a whole Herd?

I'm not a fan of Snow...but I LOVE my Snowman!

What a fun Rustic Garland!

Wishing you Happy Holly Days!