Featured Etsy Designer -- Ashley, The Vntage Queen -- Plus a giveaway!

Coming across this Etsy shop changed our life. Okay, maybe it didn't really change our life but it certainly made it just a little bit more amazing! Ashley, the super-sweet Queen of Vintage is one of the nicest people we have ever worked with and we just can't stress that enough. She adores her customers and wants everyone to be happy when they shop at the Vntage Queen. We are so excited to share this shop with you and the beyond FABulous lady behind it! Read on to get all the details on the shop we have fallen in love with -- plus, win $50 to get your shop on! 

{1} Tell us a little about yourself, the true Vntage Queen. 

My name is Ashley!  I am a mother, full time college student, girlfriend and Etsian. I am a US Navy Veteran!  I served 4 years and was aboard two Destroyers, USS Stout and USS Gonzalez.  And yes did the whole 6-month out to sea bit! I am back in school for a second time!  It is quite a bit different being older (and yes wiser) and being a mother!  I originally planned to become an Earth Science teacher.  With all of the nation wide cuts lately, I have decided to follow my dream and become an Interior Designer.  Thanks to my Etsy shop, I now have the confidence to know I can do it and be great! 

I have always loved Interior Design.  I used to play Sims just so I could create and decorate the house!

I am a mother to Brianna (who I call Boopy), a cute and sassy little 4 year old!  She is amazing and a genius, literally.  My favorite part of the day is taking her with me on errands and she asks the most random person if they want to talk about dinosaurs.  She then will go on about every detail she knows (which is quite a bit).  She amazes me!

I am a girlfriend to my soul mate, Jeffrey.  He is so amazing!  He too is a veteran, Marine Corp.  Which I think helps us click better. We just get one another!  He is also a full-time college student and is Civil Service for the Air Force.

Jeffrey is super supportive and expects nothing from me.  He puts no pressure overhead just gives me room to grow.  I couldn’t ask for a better partner! 

{2} Where do you find the items in your shop? Flea markets, yard sales? We are dying to know where you score such awesome vintage treasures? 

I travel all over the state to find my goodies (as I call them).  I have three favorite places that I frequent each week.  Two are thrift stores and another is an antique shop.  The key to finding great vintage is staying away from big name and over browsed thrift stores.   It’s the hole in the wall, maybe in a not so great part of town places that have the treasures! 

I also love flea markets.  The flea markets in the country are the best!  You usually have the sweetest little lady that call you sugah, or honey! 

{Ashley's own wall of art collection}

{3} What made you decide to start a vintage shop on Etsy? 

I stumbled upon Etsy one day when I was researching an item I purchased.  Checked out a few stores and said, wow I can do this!  I have a collection of vintage items at home that all of friends have asked, “where in the world did you find this?” So I knew I could find great vintage pieces for a shop.  It was perfect timing too with being in school.  I didn’t want to work, but wanted a little extra spending money and voila, there you have Vntage Queen. 

{4} Do you have any personal faves in the shop currently? We do! All of them! 

Oh goodness, where do I begin?  Hold on, let me browse….

I absolutely love my goddess cocktail glasses.  I just think they are so different and amazing!  And my Moschino Cheap and Chic velvet skirt!  The pictures just do not do that piece justice.  It is amazing!

My two all time favorite pieces have sold though, the Lucite Pyramids and the Mid Century Horse lamp. Those are the two that I second-guess myself about selling. 

{cupcakeMAG fave: Fabulously Ornate Brass Candle Sticks, $38}

{5} What are your favorite Etsy shops?

I just recently ordered a bracelet from monpetitchouboutique.  It is super cute, nicely made and was packaged in the cutest box.  I also have a dinosaur necklace (thanks to my daughter and boyfriend) from ANORIGINALJEWELRY.  It is super cute!

My favorite vintage shops would be AMradio, fabulousmess, experimentalvintage, shavingkitsuppplies, and littlebyrdvintage.  And many more!  There are some really great Vintage shops on Etsy. 

{You may notice this Milk Glass Vase from our Birthday Feature on Pizzazzerie.com, $12}

{6} How would you describe your own personal decorating style at home? 

I like a neutral background with pops of uniqueness.  I want to be able to change with the seasons, with my mood or if I find a piece that is so amazing I need to redecorate to build around it. And I love pops of color!  I lean more towards Hollywood Regency and Oriental pieces for myself.

{All Things Vntage Queen}

Etsy Shop

Twitter

Now, it is your lucky day! cupcakeMAG readers have a chance to win $50 to the Vntage Queen. Read on to enter and start marking your favorites now! 

Giveaway: Enter to win a $50 Gift Certificate to the Vntage Queen!

Enter now! Head over to Vntage Queen on Etsy and tell us what would fill your cart. This comment is mandatory. You also MUST be a follower of cupcakeMAG and cupcakeMAG for Littles! 

For extra entries you can do the following below and leave us a separate comment for each letting us know. The more you comment the better chance you have to win!

1. Follow cupcakeMAG on Twitter.

2. Follow Vntage Queen on Twitter. 

3. Make sure you "Like" us on our Facebook page.

4. Subscribe to our updates (top right corner above) - just sign up with your email!

5. Tweet about this giveaway and include @cupcakemag -- you must tweet, not just follow.

6. Tweet about this giveaway and include @vntagequeen -- you must tweet, not just follow. 

7. Write a blog post about this giveaway on your blog and send us the link.

We will select a winner via random.org on Friday., April 29th at 11pm. Please make sure you enter the mandatory comment first before doing the extra entries.

Featured Blogger: Melissa of The Inspired Room

The Inspired Room is a place for you to do just that - get inspired. If you aren't already reading this site daily -well, you need to be. With post like "Just Start Your Day with a 5 Minute Routine" to "DIY Cozy Winter Felt Wreath"  -- we get so excited to see the post each day as Melissa inspires us everyday. We can thank her for showing us it is about the simple things in life. 

{Melissa of The Inspired Room}

We were beyond thrilled to chat with Melissa - the brilliant mind behind The Inspired Room and just couldn't wait to share this amazing blog with our readers! 

{1} What inspired you to begin your site, The Inspired Room?

I began my blog as a part of The Inspired Room, my decorating business. I started my business because I wanted women to find contentment in their home and give them encouragement to make what they already had more beautiful. I had no idea the blog would turn out to be such a big part of my business -- it kind of took on a life of its own! It has been really fun connecting with thousands of other like-minded women around the world.

{2} When you aren't writing what else can we find you doing?

You would probably find me puttering around the house, which is one of my favorite hobbies. I have three kids and a husband -- they are my biggest priority. My family moved to Washington two years ago to start a new church so that also takes up a huge part of my week, I try to juggle life online and off as best I can!

{3} Do you have a favorite post you have shared? 

My favorite posts are the ones where I can tell I shared something that changed how readers thought about their own home and circumstances. You see so many beautiful homes online and in magazines. They are fun to look at, but they can sometimes make you feel less than content about what you have. I love to be able to redefine for women what a beautiful home really is. It is fun to inspire readers to take inspiration from a photo or an idea and turn it into something they can actually do at their own home, no matter what their budget or home is like.

{Melissa's "office" - The Blogging Area!}

{4} What is your favorite room in your house and why?

Right now my favorite room is my family room, because it is really the only room I've completely finished painting so far! Having a room that is fully painted in a color I chose really makes me happy. 

In my old house, my favorite room was my kitchen. We remodeled it several years before we moved, using many of my favorite ideas and finishes. I miss that room tremendously, it was so personal and so ME! Maybe someday my new house will get a kitchen makeover. 

{From The Inspired Room, Simple 5 Minute Routinue}

{5} What is your #1 tip for Moms trying to manage keeping their home in tip-top shapre, minus a maid?

Daily routines are extremely important. I like my home to be "clean enough" Not perfect, but relatively tidy and clean. I share my four basic daily routines on this post. Without daily routines, my housework would pile up and it would be a disaster zone most of the time. 

From The Inspired Room, Keeping Things Simple: Real Life Accessories}

{6} What are some of your personal home decoarting tips you can share?

I share a lot of tips each week on my blog (here is a link to some of my decorating tips from my favorite posts). I think the tip I resonate with the most is to incorporate things in your home that hold a lot of meaning to you. The goal I want to achieve is to have a home that is completely authentic and personal to me. You can gather up a bunch of trendy items you find in every magazine, paint your walls the most up to date color and your room might look end up looking very pretty. But when you give your home a unique personality, you give it a soul. Those are the rooms I fall in love with!

{7} What is up next for you?

So far this blogging journey has been full of unexpected surprises, so I am curious what this year will hold! My main goal is to paint more rooms in my house! 

Inspired yet? Head over to The Inspired Room where you will be inspired for weeks! Melissa has made a beautiful empire of inspiration and we just adore her and the site! 

{All Things The Inspired Room}

{blog}

{facebook}

{twitter}

Featured cupcakeMAG Approved Site -- Project Nursery!

PROJECT NURSERY 

dream | discover | design

www.projectnursery.com

We just recently launched our Site | Love where we feature the cupcakeMAG approved bloggers and sites we are daily checking and just loving. Our latest obsession is Project Nursery & we have just been dying to share our chat with Founder and Contributing Editor, Pam! Oh, how we love them and their beautiful filled-with-eye-candy site. 

{The site is so successful! We love it! How was Project Nursery born?}

Melisa and I have always had a passion for design. When we both lived in NYC we loved sharing ideas and inspiration and when we began to start families we started focusing on the nursery. we were surprised that there was really no place online to search for good design ideas for the nursery. Project Nursery started as a way for Melisa and I to keep all the resources and ideas we were collecting and then share it with others that were as obsessed as we are. 

{Do you have a favorite room featured on the site?}

There are so many fantastic rooms in our photo gallery its hard to pick just one. I've been very drawn to white, black and yellow these days. One of our readers uploaded pictures of their son's nursery, Max's Nursery, that has really caught my eye. The bold yellow and white stripes on the ceiling and black accent wall are so chic and fresh to me. I also like what Melisa has done in her son Chase's Nursery. 

{Max's Nursery}

{chase's nursery}

{Where do you shop for your own home?}

I love to mix it up. High end to vintage to inexpensive. You can find great things in all price ranges.  I have my go to sources like West Elm and Jonathan Adler and a few online favorites like ballarddesigns.com, insideavenue.com and of course good ole ebay! I also love to support small local shops. A favorite is Period George on Clement Street in San Francisco. 

{What is your personal favorite design tip?}

Start with a significant design element in the room as your source of inspiration and work from it to design the rest of the space. It can be the rug, an accent wall or a great piece of furniture. When you have a plan and a budget in mind you can get things done faster because you are more focused. 

{You both have children - as mothers how do you balance family and work? What tips do you have for other mommas trying to balance it all?}

Balance? What is that? No, in all seriousness we both juggle a lot in one day. We have been known to take conference calls en route to school pick ups and are never without our blackberries. Wi-fi and late nights are what keep Project Nursery rockin'. BUT, we love it and are truly motivated by the support of our readers. They share fantastic design ideas and photos and we are really proud of how far Project Nursery has come.

{check out their FABulous contributors, Annette Tatum and Kim of The TomKat Studio} 

{What is up next for Project Nursery?}

2011 is going to be an exciting year for PN. We are launching a new photo gallery with a lot more bells and whistles. Also look out for some amazing giveaways, product reviews and design tips. 

{What are your favorite sites, blogs, must-read stops?}

I try not to read too many other design sites that focus on kids rooms so i can maintain my own originality. some of my current favorite sites are Brooklylimestone.com, pinkwallpaper.blogspot.com, perezhilton (guilty pleasure), nymag.com. 

{awesome giveaways! currently they are giving away a design consult & crib set, check it out here}

1. I'm always striving to be more organized. It's yet to happen but I love the idea of everything having its place.

2. Current favorite color - Kelly Green

3. I love coffee. It's my one true vice.

4. I make really good chicken enchiladas and they are actually healthy!

5. I've been wanting the Crisp Console table from Conran Shop for 3 years but just can't pull the trigger.

6. Melisa and I both went to UCLA.

7. I'm a GLEEK.

8. Favorite food besides chocolate is Chinese Chicken Salad.

9. I wish I had invented Silly Banz.

10. I really like interior design but my first love has to be fashion.

We are so thankful that Pam took the time to chat with us and 
we are beyond thrilled to share with you one of our favorite sites! 

like (even though we LOVE) them: facebook.com/projectnursery I  
tweet them: twitter.com/projectnursery