It’s time for another giveaway, this time from Melvita’s organic skin care products line. They’ve offered up one of their Ultra-Nourishing Fondant Body Balms and their Naturalift Anti-wrinkle Cream to one lucky reader! (That’s a $70 retail value!)

Melvita specializes in natural cosmetics and organic skin care products that meet the strict standards of ECOCERT, the organic certification organization founded in France in 1991. Melvita uses the finest ingredients from organically farmed and responsibly harvested sources, and is committed to keeping harmful chemicals such as parabens and phthalates out of their products. (No nasty stuff here!)

I love that the company founder, Bernard Chevilliat, is both a beekeeper and biologist. (If you’ve been a long-time reader, you might remember that I’m slightly obsessed with the plight of the bees — the idea of bees dying, and scientists being unable to figure out why, totally freaks me out.) Bernard felt the same way when he founded Melvita in 1983, and says of his concern for the bees: “This was why, from the outset, I wanted to place ‘nature at heart’ of our approach and of our ecological and humanistic concerns.”

Melvita offers a variety of organic and natural products for skin and body, including floral waters to naturally help cleanse skin and remove makeup, and plant oils, which offer time honored benefits for your skin, hair, nails and eyelashes. The Naturalift Anti-wrinkle Cream is made from the moisturizing extract of wild beech buds, hibiscus seeds, which help reduce the appearance of fine lines, and buddleia, which works to eliminate free radicals in your skin. Melvita’s Ultra-Nourishing Fondant Body Balm hydrates skin with cocoa and shea butters, while the oils of safflower and sunflower add additional moisturizing. One user noted that it’s “the most decadent body balm I have ever tried”. A pretty stellar review, don’t you think?

This giveaway is open to residents of the continental U.S. only. (Sorry to Alaska, Hawaii, and international readers, I’ll try to have something for you soon…) To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post by midnight on Friday, April 2, 2010 (Central Standard Time – go here to figure out what time that is where you are). Limit 1 entry per person. Please use a valid email address, as that’s how I’ll be contacting the winner. If you are chosen as the winner, you must respond to my email within 1 week from the date I send it to let me know your mailing address, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Let me know – is natural and organic important to you in skin care and cosmetics? I know I definitely try to avoid the harmful chemicals wherever possible and always try to take the time to read ingredient labels before I buy body care and cosmetics products.

I’ve noticed a similar theme with a couple of submissions I’ve received from two artists recently: they’re both using handbags and tote bags as the canvas for their art. I think this is a great approach, as I’ve always loved art that is both beautiful and functional.

Rebecca Sherman is a 28 year old Brooklyn based artist and designer with a BFA in Studio Art from NYU. She recently launched her new line of eco-friendly totes, dubbed BHEKI bags to incorporate her art in a functional and accessible format. Her classic tote designs feature digitally printed images from her ‘Bodies of Water’ series of paintings and digital drawings. She also creates one of a kind totes featuring interpretations of her paintings using embroidery, metallic fabric paint and other embellishments. You can find more of Rebecca’s tote bag creations, plus her original artwork in her Etsy shop.

Julianne Fuchs-Musgrave creates handbags that double as wearable art by hand painting her work onto cotton canvas and twill handbags as well as on purses crafted from recycled leather and suede. She also paints onto other clothing and accessories, but personally, I find the bags to be the most accessible and beautiful pieces. A great handbag is something most people use on a daily basis, and I love this idea of keeping a beautiful work of art with you on the go. You can check out more of her bags at her website, Jolly Juli.

I’ve seen a lot of neat things done with old vinyl records, but these jewelry storage & display stands made from old 45s really caught my eye. I couldn’t help thinking how great they would be for display in a retail shop or at a craft show.

The base of the stand is made from sewing machine bobbins – so clever! There are so many other cool recycled products in the artist’s shop, Make Shop Live. Plus, there is a great tutorial on their blog about dying buttons! I’d never even thought to try dying buttons, but I think it’s a very clever idea and I love the tutorial on how to do it!

We went to Surfside Beach, Texas last weekend to see our friend Adam, who runs a restaurant there on the beach called Pirate’s Alley Cafe. My boyfriend, Dave, shot some web commercials for Adam’s restaurant & beach rentals, plus another hotel out there and he even did a commercial for the city itself! We got to stay in one of those amazing beach houses. This quaint little beach town is what I imagine much of the Florida panhandle must have been like 50 years ago…

My RSS feed is fixed now! In case you missed it, something happened and it was out for a few weeks, but hopefully everything should be working now. Thanks to everyone who commented with suggestions on my post about it, and to the lovely folks at Dreamhost for all your help!

Today is the last day to enter the L’Occitane Shower Gel & Body Lotion Giveaway.

My friend Jene just tipped me off to this thing called Groupon. They’re about to launch a New Orleans program, and they already have programs in place for most major U.S. cities. It’s basically what the name implies – a group coupon. Here’s what Jene had to say about the program: “I highly recommend it. Basically you subscribe, every day you get ONE e-mail of an offer. You decide if you want it, if you do you sign up for it and if enough people request it then it is valid.” She used it when she lived in NYC and says that often the coupons are for restaurants, but that she once got a $75 massage for $40 and a deal on $35 worth of groceries for only $20 at a local natural grocery store. It sounded like a pretty sweet deal, so I’m waiting to see what deals are in place for New Orleans! This sounds like it could also be a great way for local businesses to get new customers in their doors. If you want to sign up, please feel free to use my referral link to do so! (Once you do, you’ll get your own referral link to send to your friends!)

Awhile back, I wrote an article on Southern artists who use recycled materials in their work for the 1st issue of a new magazine called Southern Flourish. The premiere issue, Spring 2010, is scheduled to launch next week, but there are a few teaser images already on Flickr, including one shot from the article I wrote. (That’s the image above.) This magazine is going to be sort of like Southern Living meets Domino with a modern upbeat flair. I can’t wait to see how the whole thing turns out!

Here are a few great recent crafty business links from around the web:

Focus Your Energy @ Handmade Spark
Asking for It @ BAKERY
from in-house production to outsourcing, why you should offer microwave classes, designing sticky products, part 1 @ crafting an MBA
a short rant about business cards @ White Hot Truth
Code for Crafters :: Images 101 @ Tara Gentile
The Keys to the Store: Selling Handmade to Retailers and Wholesalers, Inventory Management for the Creative Entrepreneur @ Meylah
Understanding Merchant Services @ Retail Minded Blog
Thinking about selling your hand made craft and design online? @ Pure Design Blog

BizCamp is this new “UnConference” coming up here in New Orleans on Saturday, March 27th for entrepreneurs. It will be held at The IP Building (643 Magazine) and will include complimentary lunch and a DJ set from DJ Soul Sister. I’ve signed up to go, and if you’re interested you can check out more information and register at their website. It’s totally free to attend and it sounds like a great networking & learning opportunity.

If you’re in Philly, be sure to check out the Philadelphia Designer’s Market for Independent Fashion Designers on Saturday, April 17th, from 11am til 6pm at 123 South 17th Street. Admission is free and there will be free totes for early shoppers!

April 17th is also the day of the Alternative Media Expo here in New Orleans. The New Orleans Craft Mafia will be putting together free goodie bags for the first 100 shoppers as well, so be sure to check it out if you’re in the area, and no matter where you’re located, you are welcome to contribute to the goodie bags and get the word out about your business or organization! More details on how to participate are here.

I just heard about the fiercegrrl fund on Modish. It was formed to raise money to help Nicole Puzan, a 26 year old artist and crafter who was diagnosed with Stage IIIc ovarian cancer. She is uninsured, like so many artists & self-employed folks in this country, and can use all the help she can get right now. Check out the post on Modish or go to the fiercegrrl fund for more info and to donate.

I just discovered Londi Creations via Felt Plum.  She creates these GORGEOUS jewelry pieces using zippers and felt. I’ve seen a lot of different zipper jewelry, but I think this is a unique take, and I love the splash of color that the felt pieces add! If you’re a fan of the felt, you should also check out a few other posts by Felt Plum. She links to Felt Kits Galore on Etsy and shows off some super cute felted animals by Bossy’s Feltworks.

The Green Project, one of my favorite local organizations, was recently named one of the winners of the 2010 Social Innovators Institute. This means they’ll be able to expand their paint recycling department into Second Line Recycled Paint. Lately the demand for their recycled paint product has far exceeded what they can supply, so now they’ll be able to keep up with demand and create revenue to fund their environmental education programming. Congrats to The Green Project!

One of The Green Project’s annual fundraisers is also coming up in a couple of weeks. Their Salvations 2010 Furniture Competition takes place at The Shops at Canal Place, 333 Canal Street, New Orleans on March 19, 2010 from 7pm to 10pm. Local artists took the challenge to create great furniture and lighting installations out of recycled materials for this competition. You can check out their Flickr photostream to see some of this year’s entries or check out their blog for more details and ticket information.

I’ve seen a whole bunch of great tips for crafty businesses & Etsy sellers being posted around the web in recent days. Here are a few of my favorite posts:

• 10 Ways to Maximize Your Facebook Fan Page
• Building Social Proof on Facebook
• SECRET Etsy Tips From Etsy Sellers
• are you giving your customers enough product information?
• Smooth Sailing: 15 Tips For Shipping Handmade Products
• Free Download: Weekly Blog Planner
• Littleput Books’ adventures in wholesale land
• POOL trade show

Chrissy from Indie Biz Chicks is offering a free sneak peek of her new e-book, The Yearly Marketing And Blogging Plan. You can see 5 marketing ideas and 10 blogging ideas from the e-book in the sneak peek version. The full-length e-book contains 52 marketing ideas and 156 blogging ideas, ie enough topics for 3 blog posts per week for an entire year. Pretty handy if you’re always struggling to come up with fresh ideas on topics to write about and ways to market yourself.

If you’re looking for more ways to refocus and reinvigorate your blogging, a lot of folks are looking to Scoutie Girl’s 52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion as well. I’ve been hearing rave review’s of Tara’s e-book, and The Blooming Wildflowers Project gives it a thumbs up! I just discovered this fab blog which features plenty of handmade goods and indie design. The gal behind The Blooming Wildflowers Project blog also has a sweet Etsy shop, Pineapple Sugar, which features the earrings show above.

These last earrings are by Drops of Sun on Never Ender. The artist makes her jewelry from recycled paper findings which she collects during her travels around the world. Pretty cute, no? You can check out more of what else is new at Never Ender here.