5 Ways to Get Inspiration - Featuring by Samantha Veltri (designer of Bella Vetro by Samantha)

We love to INSPIRE! So we're devoting this blog to INSPIRE you!
Who doesn't enjoy success stories. This week we asked one of our favorite local artisans to write about what inspires her most. Samantha Veltri is the owner and designer of Bella Vetro by Samantha. After leaving her full-time career, she took the support of her family and friends and started began her dream. So a special thank you to Samantha for sharing a bit about inspiration.

Inspiring Art

5 ways to inspire your creativity

-Samantha Veltri of Bella Vetro by Samantha

1. See the beauty around you.

One of the easiest ways to inspire your creativity is to open your eyes! See the world around you. My favorite way to make the everyday world extraordinary is through my Blooms collection. I may not be able to rattle off different flower names but when I see one I love, name or not, I’m going to paint it. Wine glasses are a perfect fit mocking the natural shape of a flower so through that I can bring art to the plan glass.

 

2. Listen to your favorite music

There are millions of songs out there but when you hear your style you know it. That one song comes on and you can feel it in your heart. Something changes. Use that force to bring out your inner artist. Whether it is Rock, New Age, Classical or Pop crank up the volume and let the music guide your creativity.

3. Use Your Personality

Sometimes I look around at my glasses and notice that I always go back to the same vibrant pinks, popping purples, and bold blues. I am drawn to bright and exciting colors which I realized was a very direct reflection of my personality. Let your personality be heard through your creativity. Your vision will thrive when you draw from who you are and how you feel.

4. Keep it simple.

You don’t have to paint a Picasso or write a 3-part novel to express your creativity. Sometimes I will paint with a simple series of dots or lines and as a whole it is complete. Focus on one aspect of what you can do to begin. Once you get going the inspiration can build bringing in new ideas!

5. Let Your Experiences Tell the Story.

My love of foreign travel has taken me to remote locations. Those life experiences left a stamp in my passport as well as on my heart. I share those adventures through my art. Think of experiences, good and bad, that have made you who you are today. Art can be a way to relate to others while expressing your unique life story. 

Enter to Win a set of 2 Wine Glasses designed and hand painted by Samantha.

Tell us what inspires you!

Top 4 Lessons Learned Over A Year ~ (Win A FREE Novo Bead)

We get asked several times to share our lessons learned and experiences on being a small business owner. Questions like 'What would we do differently, what steps did we take, how did we know this was the business to invest our lives into?' So, we thought we'd share our Top 4 Lessons Learned. 

1. Marketing - While writing our business plan, we had included a budget specifically for marketing our business. Commonsense right? Well let me just reiterate this, "You cannot over advertise your business." Be smart, clear and consistent, be everywhere!

2. Bigger is Sometimes Better - When searching for our retail space, we thought with a mindset of "start small then go bigger." Looking back, yeah, we should have went bigger. If you go into something with a small mindset you'll get small results. Either way your still taking the risk.

3. Do Your Research - Beware when using social media platforms to promote, engage and build your business. Always have your facts. Hard lesson: The Chick-fil-a controversy. Innocently we thought it was truly a National Chick-fil-a Day. We posted a comment to show support to the local Chick-fil-a's; since we do lots of promoting for other local businesses and participate in several business groups where we strive to support each other, this was a mistake. Aw Else Boutique's culture and service tradition is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect - regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. 

4. It's Not MY Closet! - As the purchaser of the boutique, I find it challenging at times to select product based off what I would wear. Several times we have carried items that my partner thought would never sell, but then turns out to be a top seller. When heading to the trade shows, it can become very overwhelming. Keeping the styles of our customers at the forefront and not what I personally want. Laughing~ I do get first dibs on wearing the product though, which can be fun! 

There truly are a ton of lessons learned just like anyone starting a new career, after a year you look back and think "did I learn a lot." Bottom line, it's still as fun, creative and a thrill as the first day we thought of the idea. 

We'd love to hear some of your lessons learned from your career, job or life in general. Sharing is believing. 

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It's Our Very First Anniversary!

With today being our very first anniversary, we wanted to take this post to tell our story and introduce you to the people behind the scenes. 


Prior to owning the boutique, I worked for UPS for 10 years travelling the country to help open franchise locations. After having my daughter, Ella, I resigned and pursued a local career at Kennametal where I worked in marketing until laid off in 2009. Being an alumni from Seton Hill University, I began the MBA program in the winter of 2010. This is where the passion for being an entrepreneur was established. During this time one of my professors taught a class on Entrepreneurship. Little did I know this would open the box to several ideas of owning a business. 


My partner, Mark, worked for Kennametal for 12 years beginning his career in Engineering, then onto Marketing. Mark was, also laid off in 2010. A few months later, Mark and I met with E-Magnify to start our new ventures. We determined our passion and desire in helping others feel good about themselves, along with having a business who could participate in our community. So the wheels started turning...


One evening while working on our business plan we needed a name for our store, but we wanted to incorporate the names of our children - since this is who we are ultimately doing this for. So if you were not aware by now how we got our name, here it is. One of our favorite questions - 'Aw Else' Boutique came from Mark's girls initials Ashley, Amanda and Ally White for "Aw" and "Else" is my daughter's initials Ella Louise Shaffer. It meant a lot to us keeping our family values at the forefront of our business. 

So with that being said, I dedicate this blog to all those who have supported us and our dream throughout this year. Also to our vendors, the new relationships we have built within our community and customers whom we love to serve. 


We promise to continue our support of local businesses, made in the USA products and local artists. 


Thank you for one incredible year! 
I have to add a plugin to visit awelseboutique.com to view all our upcoming events for this month! Too much you won't want to miss.