The Kim Archer Blog

come on over

Hey, I'm now blogging over on the Etzcetera website.

Etzcetera is a fresh, fun lifestyle website for creative people who love family life, home decorating, food, craft, ideas + pretty pictures. It's also the home of Etzcetera magazine and Etzcetera creative ebooks. Come on over and check us out.

a little bit of a catch up

It's been a bit of a hectic time around here.

Issue 2 of Etzcetera is looming. We've had Brandt's 21st party. Visitors. School holidays. Parent/Teacher interviews. Ken's golfing trip to the Gold Coast (sore point. I was incredibly envious. Not the golfing bit. Just the holiday part!)

AND I have been redecorating over on the Etzcetera website.

I am loving the new look! It's much fresher, more vibrant, easy to navigate and it is much more workable for me in regard to my plans for Etzcetera down the track.

Blogging.

After much dithering and deliberation which is very typical of me - I do like to think everything through, process and then make a decision - I have decided to have a separate blog just for Etzcetera.

Initially I was going to keep everything here on Typepad BUT I do think it's important to build Etzcetera as a separate enterprise so I will be blogging on the Etzcetera blog linked to the Etzcetera website.

You can visit the Etzcetera blog here.

There's not all that much there yet as I didn't want to add too many posts while I was still working on the site and getting everything to function ok but now that the site is more or less revamped, its time to start blogging!!

I want to add lots of things. Crafty stories. Pinterest finds. Sneak peeks at the magazine. People. Craft. Product and project ideas. I have lots of plans.

OH I will still be blogging here though - family stuff, crafty things, @Home updates etc..I do still want to add in what's happening in our home!

I would love for you to pop on over to Etzcetera and say hello.

a few thank yous

My head is spinning.

The reaction to Etzcetera has been amazing. When you put yourself out there and launch something YOU really love and are totally passionate about, it doesn't always mean that other people will embrace it and love it too.

So while I THOUGHT crafty people might enjoy a crafty magazine with tutorials, stories about creative people and other tidbits, I didn't really know for sure.

But it seems you do! Which is a relief.

And it's time for a few thank yous..

Firstly a thank you to Ken who has been incredibly supportive of my decision to do this. In fact it was Ken who listened to my continual dithering about whether to do this or not and finally said to me, "Just do it!" It was Ken who covered all my @Home business expenses and things that my income usually covers, while I took time out from the @Home site to work on the magazine. And it's Ken who has proudly told everyone he meets about what I'm doing!

And thank you to my mum who has been with me every step of the way. She has read and re-read over and over, every last word written in that magazine as she worked hard as my proof reader and she has now come on board to help me look after sales, advertising and the accounts. She has always been so supportive of anything and everything I have ever done my entire life and never, ever doubted for a second that I couldn't do this!

THANK YOU to my three kids. This last fortnight before the launch has been crazy and I am sure they were totally sick of seeing me glued to the computer screen when they arrived home from school each afternoon! Thank you to Capri for helping me in the photo shoots for some of our projects and for taking my profile photos too! She did a great job! And thank you to Jamison who came on board and made and styled and prepared the recipe for the individual delicious trifles for the food section of the magazine. He was excited to be involved and I was thrilled to be able to include him! And thanks to Brandt who took the time to actually look at the magazine even though he hasn't one crafty bone in his body and to his credit, his eyes didn't glaze over and he was genuinely interested!

THANK YOU to my business coach Julie. Who said something to me that made me make that final decision to do this. She said, "This is something you really want to do and you're going to do it sooner or later so it may as well be sooner!" And I realised she was right. She kept me on track, helped me hugely with the website and helped me set goals at our meetings so I could keep going forward with the project.

Thank you to my wonderful friend Lisa who checked on me all the time, right from the start, to make sure I was eating properly, drinking my water and exercising! She made sure I was taking time out and not getting too stressed. She picked up the slack with emailing for permission for various projects nd products we used and wrote a few of the articles.

Thank you to my wonderful support network - my sister, other family members, my friends, the @Home Support Team girls, the wonderfully talented contributors, those I interviewed and who shared their stories, projects and talents with us, and our beautiful Issue One advertisers who cheered and supported this venture all the way along and believed in me that this could be a reality.

And it is a reality, thanks to our readers. And that's YOU. Thank you for the support and enthusiasm and excitement. It's been wonderful.

Here comes Issue 2.

Today's the Day

Big day.

Launching day for Issue One of Etzcetera Magazine.

 

It's been a mammoth few months and somehow I launched a magazine. Which is quite surreal to me and I am still checking that it really did happen. It was one of those projects that just felt right and evolved and took on a life of itself and all of a sudden it was all happening and no longer just this thought in my head.

It was a reality.

Usually, when a deadline is looming or I'm in the middle of a major project, I get stressed out and just want the thing finished. But this time, that didn't happen. I genuinely loved every minute of pulling this together and I've already started on Issue 2.

Oh there was one fleeting moment where it was late, my eyes were sore from staring at the computer screen and there were a couple of little issues happening and I felt fed up with the magazine but that was a teeny moment and passed quickly.

I feel excited about this new direction and have so many ideas and plans and things!

I'll be back later today with some thank yous because there are some people who really need some public thanking from me who have supported and helped me enormously over the past few months.

Popping in

I'm still here.

Two weeks 'til the launch of Etzcetera and time is flying by fast. The magazine is all consuming at the moment. I am living and breathing this project! BUT unlike anything else I have ever done, I'm enjoying the entire process. I'm not particularly stressed out or overwhelmed or wondering what on earth I am doing. I'm enjoying the whole thing!!!

Today I interviewed a lovely "mumpreneur" duo for an upcoming article. I felt very professional with my notebook, armed with my questions and my iPhone on record and during the interview I had that excited little feeling, that joyful feeling of "I love this!"

I truly enjoyed chatting face to face with the girls, listening to their stories of how they got started, their challenges, their triumphs, their motivation and their goals.

I also showed them a peek at some of the finished pages and their reactions were so heart warming. I was thrilled that they were thrilled and enthusiastic about the magazine.

Except for mum and Ken, I haven't shared any of the finished pages with anyone just yet BUT I did allow a teeny, little sneak peek in today's newsletter. If you missed it, here's the image..

Ooops, thats a small image..but you get the idea..told you it was a LITTLE sneak peek!

yesterday my very first Etzcetera newsletter went out

..and that made me so very happy.

The Etzcetera newsletter will come out every second Friday and will have a few crafty tidbits, a tutorial here and there, some behind the scenes Etzcetera news and the all important news of when each issue is ready for viewing. It's just a little way for me to stay in touch with all our lovely readers in between magazine issues.

I know we had a flurry of newsletter signups AFTER the first newsletter went out yesterday. And you guys will start getting the newsletter from Friday 17 June UNLESS you would like me to forward yesterday's little newsletter to you. Email me if you do want a forwarded copy.

Well it's now JUNE which means that the 1 July is looming fast which means theres SO MUCH going on behind the scenes to get Etzcetera ready to go. I'm so happy with how it's all shaping up. To see an idea go from this little seed of "can I actually do this?" to becoming a reality is well, pretty cool really.

Over this coming week I will introduce you to a couple of lovely people who have come on board regularly to write or curate lovely collections to share or create projects for Etzcetera. They're all wonderfully creative, enthusiastic people and it's been a pleasure to work with them on this first issue and to know they're sticking around for subsequent issues too.

Have a crafty weekend everyone.

The first Eztcetera newsletter hits inboxes tomorrow (Friday!)

Thanks again for signing up to the Etzcetera Magazine mailing list. I had a little goal in my head to reach a certain number of sign ups in the first day and I doubled my expectations so that was pretty cool. And each morning I dive onto the computer and check how many more subscribers have joined us. I love seeing the numbers climb!

What is the mailing list for?

Well firstly it's for me to be able to let you know when the magazine is ready for viewing. Newsletter subscribers will be the FIRST to know before I announce it on my blog or facebook etc.

But it's also a chance for me to share a mini newsletter every fortnight that is filled with some creative and crafty things. I am planning on releasing a little Etzcetera eNews every second Friday - starting tomorrow. I aim to have some mini tutorials, crafty tidbits and behind the scenes news and photos here at Etzcetera Magazine.

Sooooo, if you haven't signed up..please come and join us...you're all most welcome. And of course you can opt out (and we would understand but be sad to see you go) any time you choose.

Our first newsletter features a quick and easy little button project!!

You can sign up for our newsletter here..

yesterday I made a paperclip

Yesterday I started working on designing a couple of ads for a few of our lovely advertisers who have booked ad space with us in Etzcetera.

And I learnt how to make a little digital paperclip from scratch in Photoshop..which I thought was so cool and so easy and so worth sharing.

You can make them any colour, thick, thin, big or little. Find the tutorial here.

Etzcetera Update

A whirlwind week.

And I thought it was time for an update.

Initially I was going to keep a separate blog just for Etzcetera news BUT I've decided that Etzcetera is an extension of what I already do. SO I've decided to keep this blog rolling along but it will now contain a mix of everything I do - all in the one place.

Some things will stay the same over here and some things will slowly change and evolve as the magazine evolves but I hope to post about

• @Home workshops, sneak peeks and Support Team news
• snippets of our family and home life.
• crafty projects or tutorials I've found online that I want to share with you
• Etzcetera Magazine news, updates, upcoming articles, behind the scenes and tidbits.
• projects I'm working on
• My Pinterest finds. I do LOVE that site and it is loaded with inspiration.
• interesting creative people I stumble across on the net or crafty friends who are doing crafty things!
• and anything else that fits within my little tag line of Craft. Lifestyle. Home. Family. You.

So, I think this blog needs a bit of a facelift and a spruce up to bring it more in line with where I'm headed with everything. If there's anything you would like to see more of on my little blog - let me know:)

I love to read your comments..just click "comments" at the bottom of this post and type in your hello.

Have a great Saturday.

and now we have a facebook page

Etzcetera Magazine now has a Facebook page. Yippppeee. Head on over and "like" us if you want to (pretty please!)