The Next Big Giveaway is on Sunday at Jaybird Quilts!

I'm sure a lot of you probably know Julie because (aside from being one of the most friendly people on the planet) she's also a famous pattern designer.

Julie has volunteered to put up a post about Shelf this Sunday for us. We've made a ton of updates to the site since our first release and it would be great to get another round of users trying out the site. So if you all want to participate again, we'll be giving away more gift certificates! This time, we'll let you specify if you want a Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate... OR a gift certificate to your favorite clothing store. (Hopefully this will prompt non-quilters to give it a go too... So tell your friends and family!!)

All you need to do is head over to Julie's blog this Sunday, September 30, and then post a comment (after trying out the site) with any feedback you have. You can let us know what you like, what you dislike, if anything was confusing, etc.

Now, a little more about Julie.

Julie is the brains/creativity behind Jaybird Quilts, where she does a little bit of everything... she's made a slew of awesome patterns... she's just come out with a new book... and she posts kick-butt-tutorials with instructions that make quilting a cinch.

BTW, the Fat Quarter Shop and Pink Chalk both carry her entire line of patterns if you want to load up!

I've shown a few of my favorites below.

I met Julie at Quilt Market a few years back. My mom and I had just come out with our very first line, Botany... and being total newbies to the scene, we quickly latched onto Julie because of her contagiously friendly personality. And she showed us the ropes.

As it turned out, I lived about 10 minutes away from her. Which was a completely amazing coincidence, because at the time, I was living in the tiny town of Hatboro, PA. (If you google "HATBORO", you'll find that its the only Hatboro in the entire United States. Can you believe that? No one else in America felt like that was a good enough name for their town.)

Anyway, I was also new to the North... and so Julie continued showing me the ropes after we got back from Market... but this time, she was showing me around to the hippest quilt shops in the area.

So, with her being such a good friend over the years, she was the first person that I thought of for announcing my new project! Definitely check her out! She's a wonderful person to keep up with!

And make sure to check out her blog this Sunday to win gift certificates! And tell your friends!

Six Awesome Winners

First I want to go over the big news from last week...
which is...
I've co-founded a startup called Shelf.
And it's going to be the coolest thing since Facebook! :)

Last week, for the very first time, we released this project to all of you blog-hoppers... Yay!

And for everyone who participated, let me just say, that we couldn't have asked for a nicer group of testers! Even those of you who had issues getting the site to work... you all still provided feedback that was upbeat, constructive, and friendly. So thank you very much for helping us out... and for telling your friends!!!

For those of you who missed that blog entry (and the 3 giveaways that went along with it), no big deal... we've got a 3 month long plan for getting this website up to par before doing a big public launch. And during that time, we plan on doing A LOT more giveaways!

Essentially, Shelf is a better way to shop! And you can watch a demo video here.

As we scale up, we'll be doing huge chunks of improvements, like... adding stores, incorporating kids clothes, expanding into home goods, putting together a phone version, adding in "gift shelves", implementing a Pinterest Plugin, etc. And while we're doing all that, we want to make sure that we keep getting feedback.

You all did such a GREAT job with this first mini-release, that we've decided to do mini-releases every week, at which time, we'll be giving away a few $50 Visa Gift Cards. (These are a little more generic than quilt store gift certificates... so please, invite anyone you know to participate (preferably people who do a lot of online shopping.)) Oh, and for all the quilters that decide to follow along, we'll be putting up free patterns from time to time! Which should be fun! (Because they're 9 bucks in stores. :))

Anyway, to stay involved, you can check back here on our blog every Monday morning. We'll keep you posted about what the next giveaways are... and how to get involved. If you "Like Us" on Facebook, you can also check there for updates on the next giveaway. We'll make sure to put up a post a few days in advance.

So here's an overview of how Shelf did on it's first week...

Thank you Sandy, you were our very first user ever! And Katie Y, you are our most active user! :) And we love you! Total unique visitors : 360 Total pages viewed : 2456 Total participating countries : 13 Total participating cities : 253

As far as the feedback goes,
we've incorporated almost all of it! Yay!
It's been a VERY busy week... :)
Our biggest feat being: iPad compatibility!!!

We've: 1. added ANTHROPOLOGIE to our list of supported stores 2. fixed login issues 3. completely redesigned the login experience (hopefully it's not still confusing) 4. fixed a whole BUNCH of bugs that you guys helped us find! (Thank you for that!) 5. added the ability to filter deals by store on the Promo Dashboard 6. iPad compatibility

If you all could check it out again, that would be awesome, and let us know if things are working better! And for those of you who requested iPad compatibility, it would be great if you could try it out now, and then let us know what you think. (Installing the bookmarklet on an iPad is a little bit of a pain because apple doesn't support "dragging-and-dropping"... but we've given pretty concise instructions. They're a little ugly at the moment though because we're tired. :))

Lastly, I want to mention two super big chores that Shelf takes care of.
The first is email clutter.
Every single day, people receive an average of THIRTY-THREE retail emails!
Which is too darn much in our opinion!

We provide users with the promo dashboard. An aggregate view of ALL running promotions (that you would usually have to search for in your inbox). Now, they're all in one place. They have a uniform format for easy scanning. AND you can now filter them based off of the stores that you care about.

Wouldn't it be fun to unsubscribe from all of those daily emails. And then, just come here whenever you want to see current deals. We'll have them all, and within the next week, we'll be adding ALL of the stores that you guys suggested during the blog hop! So keep the suggestions coming!

Secondly, you can set up price alerts. So if you like a pair of boots that cost $200. But you only want to pay $125. You can set up a notification, and we'll watch the price for you!

And now for the giveaways!
We had three fabric giveaways that are going to the following people...

Great story! Your dad sounds like a character! Thanks for the pattern! (1 Birds & Berries jelly roll)

I love the story about your Father, so sorry he spent the night in Jail. Love your fabrics. (1 Birds & Berries layer cake)

I love these bow ties! Thanks for the chance to win!! (1 Birds & Berries layer cake)

And we have three FAT QUARTER SHOP gift certificates (each for $75) for three of our new Shelf users!

Sweet I am totally looking up shelf! I do the same thing about deal shopping… and it is a HUGE pain, but worth the savings in the end.

I loved your idea of Shelf.. My daughter is the real shopper.. she just moved to Denver in May. I will turn her on to the idea… I know she will love it and try it and join… I bet. I will also give the info to my grand daughter. Love your story! best of Luck in San Francisco! Thanks for the pattern… Sherry

I love the concept and the site tutorial was fabulous... I’m sure smart and thrifty shoppers are going to love this tool. I agree that Anthropologie, and department stores like Macy’s and Nordstroms would be great additions.

Thank you to everyone who participated, and please keep up with us and our new project, Shelf!

My new adventure...

4 months ago I quit my job.
2 months after that,
I put all of my stuff into a storage unit in New Jersey.

and then last month,
I drove 3,100 miles across the country (camping along the way).

(I was with my significant-other, Atul... and truth be told, he did most of the driving.) And we've set up shop in beautiful San Francisco.

And this was all because of an idea that we had 8 months prior...

The idea has been in the back of my head for quite some time now. Because, over the years I've evolved into quite the thrifty shopper ...Mostly because I wind up ruining (and/or) losing everything of mine that’s expensive. (Like when I nicked my white leather Coach purse with a blue ballpoint pen... or when I lost my Ralph Lauren sunglasses in the ocean at Myrtle Beach... or even YESTERDAY when I melted my brand new silk-ish blouse with an iron that was turned up too high... the fate of expensive purchases is generally pretty bleak when they are in my hands.) And it's this inability of mine (to take care of the stuff that I love) that has lead to the development of my “super-hero-esque” ability to bargain-shop.

Buying things on sale is mostly a waiting game. For example, that cool RETRO-JADE winter coat (see below) that I like from J.Crew is $325 right now ...But if I wait until February, that sucker will most likely be mine for the low price of around 150 bucks.

I've found the key to successful deal-hunting... is keeping my options open. I generally try to watch three different versions of the same type of item... (In the example below, I'm watching 3 cool trench coats.)

And as soon as one of them drops within my price range,>
I’ll pounce on it.
Because if I wait too long (after it goes on sale)...
my size will be long since gone.
AND/OR
the remaining colors will be something gross:
(see example below)

Over the years I’ve refined my DEAL-HUNTING technique.
And it is as follows:

But in all seriousness...
The entire process is a super big pain in the butt.

So, as the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention...

Let me give you the back-story to all of this... It began about 8 months ago when Atul, was starting to get bored with his day job. He was a computer scientist at NEC labs working on data center networks & cloud computing (whatever the heck that is)... so it’s easy to see how the boredom set in. :) Anyway, after he came to terms with the fact that he needed to move on to something more interesting, he quit his job and began brainstorming about the next big idea that would change the world.

Right around the time that Atul began his quest for an epiphany... I was embarking on a quest of my own. And that was to buy a new watch. I had my sites set on a Nooka watch that was originally $300. Well... after a few diligent weeks of watching this item... the prices dropped and I bought that puppy for 75 bucks!

Can you believe it??

Yeah, neither could I. It was some of my best work yet.

These three events happened to coincide.

1. My annoyance with the roundabout, multi-step, time-consuming “deal-hunting-process”
2. My excitement over my brand new watch (that I saved a whopping 225 bucks on) and
3. Atul’s quest for the answer to life, the universe, and everything... *42*

And it was this combination of events... that led to our big idea.

Essentially, we’ve built an online service
that will simplify all of the chores of online shopping...
And here's what we're doing.

Imagine using this for Christmas shopping... you can bookmark all of your gift ideas in one place! You can also set up price notifications for these gifts (at the prices you're wanting to pay for them), If the price drops to the level you want, we'll let you know right when it happens! It's also a great place for you to compare items ACROSS stores.
There are LOTS of possibilities... and we can guarantee that you'll save both money AND time with your holiday shopping this year.

So... where are we in our quest for better shopping? We've built Shelf, and we support 12 stores (Express, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, J.Crew, Abercrombie, New York and Company, Ann Taylor, The Loft... just to name a few). We're adding 2-3 stores every week, so not to worry if you don't see your store.

Today, is the first day that we're opening up the doors to Shelf and I would like to personally invite you all to try it! You'll be the very first set of users on a product that will hopefully go down in shopping history. :)
And, as promised... there's a pretty hefty give-away here... There are two ways that you can win one of the THREE $75 gift certificates to the Fat Quarter Shop...

1. We would like for you all to try out the site, beta-getshelf.herokuapp.com/... If Shelf sounds like something you'd like to use, now is your chance to help us shape it into a product you'd love. Tell us the stores that you want us to add next... send us a list of features that you want to see added. Tell us what confused you... and what parts you loved. We want to hear everything! So, go over to the site and sign up as a new user, then, just play around with it. When you get done, stop back here and drop us a quick comment about what you think!

2. IF YOU'RE NOT A SHOPPER, don't worry, you can still win one of the gift certificates! I'm sure that you know some people who like to shop online... Please tell them about Shelf and try your hardest to get them to sign up. You could also post about it on your Facebook wall maybe? :) When you're done, just drop us a quick comment to say that you've done your best to help out the shoppers of the world.

And... you never know... this little website app might get passed around... from quilter to quilter... and take off like the next Facebook! Ha! Well, I can dream, right?

We'll announce the winners on the 15th! And we'll be taking comments up through the 14th. So tell your friends!

This entry is already WAY too long, sorry about that, but let me finish by thanking you for stopping by! My mission is to make Shelf an amazingly useful product, and I sincerely feel that if you try it out, you're going to love it!!

If you missed the link to Shelf... Click here. You can also "Like" Shelf on Facebook here (because we'll be offering MANY more free-fabric-incentives in the weeks to come!)

P.S. Shelf doesn't work on iPad yet. This is next on our to-do list.

P.P.S. Some of you have said that when you sign up through Facebook, it pops up a message about logging you into "Simple-Journey-2558". We're not sure how to change this! Ha! But that is in fact Shelf.

P.P.P.S. You'll need to click on the Sign Up button no matter what, if its your first time on Shelf. If you've already signed up, then click on Login.

I Quit My Job

It's something that I've been wanting to do for a really long time and as of one month ago, I am FINALLY self-employed.

As you can see from the photos below, I've really really been trying to keep up my appearance… Haha. I think my boyfriend (who also happens to be self-employed) is starting to get sick of my non-stop-PJs-habit that's rapidly becoming a problem.

This post isn't actually about fabric. It's more about me… and where I am in my career… and my super big plans and aspirations… plus my pledge to keep up with my blog and fabric site.

I graduated from Furman University about 5 years ago with a degree in fine art. After that, I completed a graduate program in graphic design at the Portfolio Center in Atlanta, which was awesome! I can't really say enough about the Portfolio Center... maybe I'll do an entry on that sometime later, because for anyone interested in graphic design, it's the place to be. (Some of my projects are below.)

This was from a perfume branding class...

So was this...

This was done for a city branding class...

A currency-design class...

After I graduated, I didn't find a job right away, which led to me and my mom starting our fabric-design gig.

And then about 5 months after finishing school… I was offered a job at G2 Interactive as a junior web designer, which I immediately accepted! I was incredibly lucky to work under a fantastic creative-director, Jayson, who quickly brought me up to speed in the terms of designing for the web. It was his guidance that helped my own neurotic obsession for pixel-perfection to develop.

The web is an entirely different ball game (compared to print design). In school we were always taught about the value of negative space and clean-open-designs… but with the web, while negative-space is important. You also have to cram a lot of stuff into very small areas. Essentially, fitting the content together like little puzzle pieces. It took a few months for me to get used to these new concepts… but I got there and love it!

While at G2 I worked on a number of different brands… Smuckers, Pillsbury, IE Games, Campbells Soup, Heineken, Chunky, Merck Pharmaceuticals, and a bunch of others. I feel like I was able to try out a number of styles across these extremely varied clients, and it was great as far as gaining experience.

After a while though, I got tired of working off of other people's designs (because of my lowly position). I wasn't ever able to design something from scratch, start to finish.

So when an opportunity to work at Infragistics (a software component company) came up, I jumped at the chance.

I started there as a Web Designer and was working under a super fun guy named Hope, as well as a fantastic design-director, Ambrose. Hope left soon after I started, and I was promoted to his old position as art director within the first year. I took on the company's rebranding as well as their website redesign.

Blah blah, a lot happened during those next few years… I was transferred to a new team… worked on the a lot of website stuff, print ads, booth design, etc…. and about 2 years in, I became disgruntled with my salary.

Being proactive about this got me nowhere… So I began doing freelance to make up the difference.

…And much to my surprise, I started to double my income by just doing freelance on the weekends.

Which caused this whole full-time-freelancer idea to hatch. :)

About 3 months after I started doing freelance, I had enough clients lined up to quit.

And so I did.

Yay!

Since quitting, I've been doing some Facebook applications for the Max Plank Institute… I've worked with FOUR startup companies to create their websites / web applications… I've also been designing fabric, building booths, working on a cupcake website, and doing menus for a deli in New York City.

I probably should have made the jump a long time ago… but you know how things go. You never really know if your plans are going to work out…

I have one super big project going on right now that I'm not allowed to talk about quite yet, but I've just returned from a very successful trip to California, and I'm hoping within a month or so, I'll be able do a really wonderful post about the outcome of the Cali Trip.

Anyway, that's my story… and now that my schedule is finally under my own control… I plan to start blogging again. I have been so ridiculously slack with this!!

Oh, you can see my portfolio here… jung-graphicdesigner.com

Some of my more recent projects haven't launched yet, so those aren't up. But I've redesigned my site recently... so that it gives off a much more stream-of-consciousness vibe. Which is how I think I probably come across to most people, when I'm speaking or writing… maybe. :)