Dear Readers/Viewers,

Show number 100 is on the way…(my computer has had a nasty case of the hiccups and the video footage needs to be re-edited). But never fear it will be up very soon, that’s the life of a podcaster.

While you are waiting we have some other BIG news! Boutique Cafe is celebrating our 3rd Birthday this month! I can’t believe that we’ve been around that long, and I know it’s because of each and every one of you that we’re able to say that. Thank you all for supporting Boutique Cafe through these past years, I know many of you have listened to each episode, visited daily and still hang out with us around the site since day one. There are so many of you that contribute your ideas, comments, suggestions, time & friendship here. We honor you, and thank you for choosing Boutique Cafe as a place to spend your time and grab your cup of couture and so much more!

To our new visitors, we welcome you and invite you to join our community of moms, momprenuers and women who have so much passion, creativity and energy. We want each person who visits the site to feel inspired by what they see, a vast collection of talented designers, outstanding products, business women, moms, celebrities, indie musicians from all over the globe - but sharing our common interests as women.

Thank you for making our Third Birthday a memorable benchmark for our show, we look forward to many more celebrations and laughter with you. Keep Tuning In!

- Daria and the Boutique Cafe Staff

Our dreams are coming true, Boutique Cafe is heading to California!! We’re going to be taping a Video podcast for Boutique Cafe at Disneyland next week!

I’ll be at the park next Tues, Wed, Thursday. If you’re going to be there with your kids, dress them in Boutique, we’ll be watching for you - I’d love to get them into the segment! If you’re a designer this would be a great way to showcase your designs in the happiest place on earth!

We hope to meet several of our Boutique Moms there, and your Disney-kids too!! If you’re going to be in the area, please leave me a comment below and I’ll email you my cell number so we can hook up at the Disneyland park.

See you there! - Daria

***Shhh!!! Don’t tell my kids, they don’t know we’re going there yet!! hee hee

We’re in need of a few good listeners to write up some reviews on iTunes for Boutique Cafe podcast. If you’re a kind-hearted lover of BC podcast please scoot on over to iTunes and write up a review for us today. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Click to post a Review for Boutique Cafe on iTunes

Thank you!!

In our continuing coverage of Quilt Market Daria interviews designer Jan Lutz from The Apron Lady Designs. Boutique Cafe was honored to be given special media access to the recent International Quilt Market in Portland. While at Market we had a chance to rub elbows and get to know so many talented fabric, pattern and quilting designers (we even got to cheer on some of our very own friends in our community!!). It was a “dream-come-true kind” of weekend. Over the coming days and weeks we’ll be sharing our video coverage with you on Boutique Cafe.

**Giveaway! - The Apron Lady Designs is giving away a tremendous prize for a few of our Boutique Cafe listeners. First prize: An 8-pack of all of their beautiful patterns, as well as a finished apron in the style of their choice!!. Second prize: Two winners will receive the 8-pack of apron patterns. To enter simply watch our coverage and comment telling us the name of the first apron Jan Lutz shows us OR visit The Apron Lady site and mention which pattern is your personal fave!

Please include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: June, 5 2008 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

**Boutique Cafe is brought to you by Aveeno Baby.

UPDATE!! It’s Time to announce our Winners!! Congratulations to each of you, and thanks to everyone for your GREAT comments for Jan Lutz. I know that she was very touched by all of the attention.

Two Second Prize winners are:
Val of The South
mannequin
*you have won an 8 pack of all The Apron Lady Patterns

First Place Winner is:
Jennifer Bogart
*you have won your choice of apron, made up just for you! Plus, an 8-pack of all The Apron Lady patterns!!

For the past few days I’ve been immersed in the creative kingdom of International Quilt Market (in Portland). Boutique Cafe was given special access within the show to videotape and interview a plethora of our fabric and designer heroine’s and (heros). Taking along my amazing team of Megan from Brassy Apple and Amelia from Intimate Photography we worked the showroom floor interviewing, capturing and photographing, drool worthy textiles and admirable creative geniuses. We also had the opportunity to meet up with several members of the boutique designer community, it’s been the most spectacular meet and greet!

We’re on our way home tomorrow, and can’t wait to share it all with you! Now the fun begins as we edit video tape and photos to share on Boutique Cafe. Watch for our video coverage of 2008 Portland Quilt Market…coming very soon!!

Pictured in this photo (L to R): Amelia, Amy Butler, Daria, Megan

Are you a long time listener of Boutique Cafe? Perhaps you’ve advertised your momprenuer business or boutique on our website, or journeyed to our Boutique Cafe Girls Getaway Conference last year? Do you just HAVE to listen to each and every show? Do you long to be featured on the site? Whatever your interaction with Boutique Cafe we’d love to hear from you!

What do you love? How have we changed your podcasting experience? Have any of our shows inspired you with new ideas for your home and business? Are your children wearing boutique handmade clothing now? Are you blogging along with our Fashion Forward Challenges, or trying out products we recommend on the Daily Dish? Please let us know.

Here’s how to get involved… simply send in a Testimonial about your own personal experience with Boutique Cafe over the past three years. We’ll be sharing your messages and feedback on our site so other Moms like you can see exactly what Boutique Cafe has to offer.

Please send your testimonial directly, with subject “Fan Feedback” email us by clicking here. (*please include your name and url so we can link to you and give you credit for participating).

We thank you so very much for taking a moment out to share your thoughts and feelings about Boutique Cafe with us. Your participation is what makes this show and website so worthwhile. Once we have several testimonials we’ll make a page available for everyone to view and enjoy.

Fabulous fabric designer and textile artist Sandi Henderson joins Daria to talk about her wildly popular Ginger Blossom fabric, and to dish about her top secret upcoming fabric line (hint hint…we’ve got pictures in the show!!). Boutique Cafe has the exclusive announcement on Sandi’s new fabric line name as well as news of her new pattern line, and we couldn’t be more honored! Sandi recently hosted “Flat Betty” at her home - find out more. Tune in for an inspiring chat with one of our own, who’s making it big and taking us all along with her. To view the group launch currently running with Sandi Henderson’s fabric click here >

Click here for the Farmer’s Market Sneak Peek >>

We’re proud members of the Mommycast and Friends Family Channel. Check out some of the other podcasts, like Runaway Design and many more!

**GIVEAWAY - Are you feeling lucky?!! You can win a Surprise Collection of Sandi Henderson’s Ginger Blossom Fabric this week on Boutique Cafe! To be eligible please listen to the show and post a comment in our show notes (**don’t forget to share news of this show on your own blogs so we can come visit your site). We’ll draw the winner on March 12th at midnight. Leave a comment with a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

UPDATE WINNER ANNOUNCED….SUE CAHILL!!! Congratulations to you! You were drawn as our Winner from the Boutique Cafe interview with fabric designer Sandi Henderson. You have won a surprise collection of Ginger Blossom fabric directly from Sandi herself!

Thank you so much to everyone who listened to our show, and entered our contest. We love Sandi Henderson’s Fabric lines and look forward to sharing more of them with you in the coming months.

This week we are going to be talking about the office. This can be a trouble spot for many people, as things tend to pile up and having 10 spare hours to deal with it at once never seems to come… The solution is to work at it for 30 minutes a day until you have it all caught up. Once it is caught up (and this is the ultimate trick), spend a few minutes a day filing receipts, bills, info from the kids school… just dealing with all that paper mess that comes into your house everyday.

It hardly takes any time and is very important in keeping things tidy, and your sanity intact!! If you would like more information on this, check out show #10 - Dealing with Paper. Good luck!

Check out The Savvy Organizer today >>

Hello and happy Wednesday! This past week I have had several emails sent in to me, asking if we would be doing another Valentine “Love Note” type of show. Our Valentine’s shows are always very popular and fun. How could I deny you? My sweet listeners!

Here’s how it’s going to work:

-If you would like to leave a brief message for the one you adore, simply call our Boutique Cafe Voicemail line at 815-550-2434 and leave a brief 10-20 second message for your darling. (message must be received by dinner time Wednesday (that’s today) in order to be included)

-This will be a FREE service, I will include your message in my Valentines Day podcast. Be sure to have your sweetheart listen in.

**when recording speak clearly and identify yourself. Have fun and thanks for sharing your loving thoughts on Boutique Cafe this holiday. (once our voicemail box is full we won’t be accepting more messages, so record yours right away!)

2008 marks a new chapter in the life of Boutique Cafe. Our goal is to involve our listenership even further in producing great content and building a strong BC community. We have quite an interesting demographic of listeners including momprenuers, designers, SAHMs, working women, dads with great taste in podcasts and much much more!

If you have show suggestions, comments or would be interested in guest writing articles for Boutique Cafe in 2008 we welcome your input.

Announcement!! ** We will soon be hosting Boutique Cafe videocasts, and invite you to tape a quick segment for inclusion in our shows and email it to me at daria@boutiquecafe.com (inclusion in our shows isn’t guaranteed and will be based on the discretion of BC staff). Perhaps you’re a great seamstress and would like to share a quick tip, or maybe you’re a mom with a great idea to get your kids to sleep at night. We’re thrilled to include YOU this year in Boutique Cafe’s videopodcasts, and feel that this will bond our community further as we get to know each other even better! More on this will be coming soon so keep listening (AND WATCHING).

HO HO HO! It’s our favorite time of the year, and Boutique Cafe’s 12 Days of Christmas is back for our third season of shows. This year we’re recruiting our guests a bit differently, due to the time crunch and increased schedule for Daria, we won’t be running auctions for interested designers/groups/shops to bid on a feature. INSTEAD… we ask that you email us directly as to availability, we will then invoice you for your purchase through Paypal so you can instantly purchase your interview with Daria, in our popular holiday shows that run at the end of November. That’s right - you’ll instantly know that you can prepare and plan for an interview on Boutique Cafe’s biggest shows of the year. Once the 12 spaces are sold that’s it, so don’t delay in grabbing your “Day of Christmas” feature on our podcast.

Our Buy it Now price is $100 per “Day of Christmas” and will feature you, your group, or your boutique related website during a podcast interview. You will have your clickable link and a few photos embedded in our enhanced feed, as well as your url in our shownotes for that show. Boutique Cafe also will be doing a press release during the holiday shopping frenzy to give attention to our 12 Days of Christmas guests. Read the rest of this entry »

Boutique Cafe teams with MommyCast and Podango as one of the Inaugural podcasts involved with the new MommyCast & Friends Family Channel.

Read the Press Release here »