New to Zibbet this past August is Becca from Atlanta, Georgia with her delightful shop named Rabbittude Buntique.Becca is an active member of the Zibbet Community Hub and we are very happy she has joined Zibbet. You can find her in the Community Hub here.Check out the fun widget she has of Binky the bunny in her shop.She also has another shop on Zibbet, Birdsong Supplies. Becca has written an awesome interview, so without further comment from me, please read on about Becca and Blaine.Please enjoy the interview, leave Becca a comment, and then use the Share Tools so others can read it, too. Please spread the Zibbet Love!
Hi, this is Becca. Blaine said he would give me a hand with the picture and you can see he is a man of his word and provided his hand. I do the creation work. Blaine is an awesome idea contributor, handles getting shipments to and from the post office, and fixes all our computer hardware and email problems. He prefers to be the silent partner. That actually creates a good balance, because I talk way too much.Compared to those around me, I feel like I operate in quirks mode. I am both right and left handed, both analytic and creative. I switch back and forth a lot between left and right brained tasks and thinking. That can confuse people where I am coming from at times. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I so greatly love rabbits, because if you live with them and watch them, you realize they zig and they zag around and are full of unexpected surprises all the time. I read once rabbits are an animal favored by those who love mysteries and I do love mysteries, puzzles and figuring things out. I like looking for the patterns in things and not just those that are visual but also the patterns and strategy that I can see in how things work out in events for businesses and people.
My quirky sense of humor and seeking that in others is a big part of how rabbittude came to be. Rabbits are such a natural fit for me as an animal to love. I grew up loving Bugs Bunny cartoons and enjoyed seeing the movie Bugs Bunny Superstar. The movie showed how the cartoons were created with human actors being filmed or photographed acting out the scenes so that the movements could be properly drawn. It taught me there is a lot of behind the scenes work and thought in doing cartoon comedy really well.My first house rabbit was one my father brought home. Dad was good for showing up with pets with no warning, leaving mom scrambling to find ways to take care of the new arrivals. The bunny was a bit more challenging than others, because none of us had ever had a rabbit as a pet before. Thumper actually showed us that he could be litter box trained by picking out the same place outside his cage to do his business. Mom thought to try putting a litter box there and that was it, he was trained.
Thumper also introduced me to the first taste of rabbittude, although the thought for that term was years away in the future. He had a little bunny rock star routine. Mom hung a bell in his cage thinking he would play with it. Thumper would ring for service, meaning he wanted out or fed, NOW! If he was not answered in what he considered a reasonable amount of time, he began trashing his cage. He would overturn food bowls. Then he would take his little metal bowl and drag it across the bars like the best bunny version of old movie prisoners clanging cups against jail bars. Next Thumper would shred the newspaper that lined his cage. He would bounce his water bottle up and down until he dislodged the holder from the bars and dropped the bottle to the floor beside his cage. At that point, if you came to see him, you would find yourself looking at his bunny behind amidst all the mess. He had officially tuned everyone out in disgust. If we tried to lift him out of his cage, he would spread his legs out so that his paws would catch in the bars making it difficult to get him out. We would need to pamper and pet his outrage down again while we cleaned up the mess.
After Blaine and I married and relocated to Georgia, there came a time we decided to get a pet. Blaine knew Thumper had been my favorite. So we kept our eyes out for a rabbit. We brought Tigger and Shadow home as baby bunnies and spent the first two years constantly saying we had rabbits with attitude. We said it so much, it slurred right into rabbittude. Then those two rascally rabbits got so creative with their rabbittude, we realized we had to share it. We added in Portia bunny after a couple years thinking to help tame or tone down the other two a bit and instead found another layer of rabbittude began. People were laughing themselves silly over our funny bunny stories.The rabbits got in to everything imaginable and were up for anything. Little bunny heads were bouncing around and popping up everywhere. They were so personable and funny that they inspired a bunsiness. First came a website to share some of their stories and photos and gather the stories of other rabbittude rabbits and then came our Rabbittude cartoon designs that we sell online on licensed items through CafePress. Later came handmade items available online and through some wholesale arrangements.
We lost Portia to a heart defect after just a few short years, but had eleven wonderful years with Tigger and Shadow. Through learning how best to care for them, we came to know of rabbit rescue and adoption groups which is how Portia bunny came to us and Petfinder.com, which is how we found our current rabbident, Leo. We have lots of stories and photos of all our bunnies on our Rabbittude website, with many more to come. We also have lots of stored up bunspiration that hasn’t made it to cartoons or products yet.Oh boy, do I go on once I start talking about the bunnies!I do freelance web design and have had a great time working on websites for businesses located coast to coast in the United States. This past year I have been taking some extra time working more with learning WordPress blogging options and solutions. I want to have better choices to offer solopreneurs and small businesses for being able to do a lot themselves.
Over the decade plus that we have had house rabbits, we have assisted a number of rabbit adoption and rescue groups. Rabbits are universally associated with Easter and often bought as pets then. The months after the Easter holiday are especially difficult ones for rabbit groups as many bunnies are abandoned and need to be rescued to be spayed or neutered to settle the crazy teenage bunny hormones down and find them new homes.Getting involved with creating jewelry and beaded accessories had me seeking out better supply sources. This year we set up wholesale accounts with some wonderful companies. We are starting our supply store Birdsong Supplies with some destash craft items and a first taste of what those wholesale companies we work with have to offer. We hope to grow in our buying in bulk ability to bring more choices and better prices to others.
They do say necessity is the mother of invention and need molded my choices and direction for my current work. I’ve always had allergies, but popcorn became my Kryptonite for taking away my ability to function in the regular workforce. I’m allergic to corn and can’t eat it or breathe it. Fortunately the internet was growing at the same time and pace as the corn allergy. I always knew I wanted to be in an entrepreneurial business and took my college training to gain all the basics skills. I have two Associate Degrees, one in Accounting and one in Business Management. I’ve also completed certificate programs in microcomputers, print design and web design and one in web coding languages. I have way more college credits than a four year degree would need, but never sat in one place long enough to actually earn a bachelor’s degree. I’ve always felt the need to just get going and start taking things and putting them in to practice as soon as I could.I wanted to be as well rounded as possible to be able to do things for myself and others via web based businesses. I have been doing free-lance web work for mostly small businesses for almost a decade now as well as having my own online selling businesses. I want to understand the needs of people I work with inside and out.
At the moment, I am in a retraining phase with my web design work to be looking and testing more of what I think might be good solutions now that many are moving from standard computers and laptops over to mobile devices for their internet experiences.I look up to everyone I meet at some point and usually they are quite nice about offering me a hand to help me back up off the floor. I am a klutz. Saying I have two left feet doesn’t adequately cover it. Blaine calls me his boo boo bumble bunny. Thank heavens for those lessons learning how to ski early in life. I never realized how valuable being taught the right way to fall was going to be. Having this tendency started me out very young looking at how others deal with adverse situations, turning negatives around. I learned and continue to learn from so many people the power of humor and ability to laugh to lift myself and others up. If you are on the floor, the only direction to go is up.
I’ve found that really special moments can happen when I am open to letting others reach out to offer a helping hand. There is so much power in extending and receiving a helping hand, learning to graciously give and receive. Using humor can turn situations totally on their head from tragedy to bringing in a lightening of spirit that can return the ability to find hope, optimism and creative thinking and problem solving.Blaine would tell you that my boxes have boxes. I just love plastic storage drawers, rolling carts, bins and organizer dividers. I really get in to tearing apart closets and drawers and reorganizing things. If I am lucky when I’m done, I actually remember what is stored where. So that brings in a supporting passion, my label maker. With that and all kinds of colored label tape, I can label all my boxes so that I don’t have to try to remember what is in them.
Blaine loves to garden and over the years we have had some lovely orchids and pitcher plants as well as colorful gardens. Our home is set in a semi-rural area and we have a regular flow of animals through the yard: birds, bunnies, squirrels, deer and one time a trio of wild turkeys walked through. We are members of the Atlanta Botanical Garden and visit there at least once a season. I love working on my digital photography skills in the garden. There is just so much beauty to be found and enjoyed and it is a great antidote to stress. Being surrounded by nature really brings home a sense of the hand of a grand designer in all things.Blaine and I both love reading or watching mysteries and quirky comedy. We have been said to have the same laugh. I love hearing Blaine’s laugh. It makes me happy if mine is thought to be as pleasant to hear too.There are so many things I love about Zibbet. I love the way that Zibbet is using Pinterest boards for colors, themes, locations, all of which I think is a fantastic use of that social medium to showcase what Zibbet has to offer. Seeing that inspired me to get active again with Pinterest .
I also love that Zibbet allows customization of shops to better reflect their unique brands as part of the Zibbet venue. The geek in me is super crazy about the ability for premier accounts to have widgets. The organized side of me is crazy about having as many sections as I want and being able to put things in more than one sectionI would love to see lots more shops and buyers joining Zibbet. It is exciting to be part of a growing market and community. It is great to be here in a time of growth. I am looking forward to seeing some exciting things coming with Zibbet in the future.As far as added features for Zibbet, I would love anything in shop tools that makes things more streamlined and easier for listing or inventory management. I love getting new tech tools. I’m looking forward to seeing what is in the Zibbet rebuild.
I guess I would say I promote like a rabbit. That means I work fast and furiously when I have the ability and opportunity. Since I am working around my freelance work schedule, it can be a challenge to keep the promotion evenly paced and not be disappearing from sight too much or too often. I am working on finding the best way to have some things built up ahead of time that will aid in keeping to a more evenly paced schedule.Telling stories is the easiest form of writing for me. This month I am working on our Rabbittude blog, trying to share something every weekday: bunny stories, photos, what is going on in the studio here or great bunny rabbit things I have found on the internet.I use Twitter to let followers know about new blogs. When I have time, I look to connect there with people looking for those with funny comments or great rabbit stories they are sharing. I look for people that I can reach out to on a personal level. I do love that I don’t have to feel a need to say a lot if I am pressed for time. The 140 character limit relieves any feelings of guilt about not having much to say at times. I also love getting back on to Pinterest, creating lovely visual boards for people to enjoy and find things they might like too. I also have a Facebook page.
I think joining and connecting with the community is important, because that will always provide a place to go to ask questions or be able to give assistance to others. It is also great fun to connect with people all over the world and learn more about them and the businesses that have all brought us together in the community.I like that Zibbet provides the opportunity with the premium accounts to really personalize shops and would recommend everyone take advantage of that. One of the wonderful things about an online marketplace like Zibbet is the ability to have the feel of being in an online arts and crafts market or in an antique or boutique neighborhood. The individual styles and color choices of shops contribute to making the Zibbet neighborhood unique. Those who like shopping in unique physical locations will recognize and appreciate it when they see the individual personalities and tastes of shopkeepers showing through.
For any venue, it is important to work on keywords, understanding search engine optimization and finding out how people actually search for and find things on the venue.There is a plaque over our front door that says, “Live simply, laugh often, love deeply”. I see life as a journey of learning and experiences. Everything is good along the way and whatever comes up along the way is just another part of the road to either navigate around or celebrate and enjoy. I’m always trying to look forward to new experiences. I am working to keep to a simpler life where I can laugh and be more with those I love both human and furry friends.Tags: Featured Zibbeters, Rabbittude Buntique
