I’ve always been a fan of a great at-home bar. I strongly believe it’s a must-learn life skill to mix up classic cocktails, and as an avid host, it’s important to provide an array...
Looking back on Easter as a child, I remember how excited I was to dig through my Easter basket. Full of chocolate bunnies, malt ball Easter eggs, Peeps, golden coins, and my favorite Cadbury...
Lets be honest, salads can be boring. So I’m always trying to think outside of the box to come up with salad recipes that I’ll thoroughly enjoy, but are beyond easy to make. Enter...
Lets be honest, salads can be boring. So I’m always trying to think outside of the box to come up with salad recipes that I’ll thoroughly enjoy, but are beyond easy to make. Enter...
1 // We’re slashing prices (items are 25-80% off!) for the big Country Club Prep + Waiting on Martha Warehouse Sale in Atlanta this weekend. Get all the details HERE and hurry and swing by before we sell out! And for our friends that can’t make it, we’re offering FREE SHIPPING to celebrate Tax-Free Weekend for online orders with code TAXFREE.
8 //Charleston’s Hampden Clothing, one of our favorite clothing boutiques, is running a Final Cut Sale (all items up to 75% off!) right now online, and both MKR and I snagged some KILLER deals (like right here and here). #Dangerous
Don’t you think discovering a new favorite artist is a lot like finding a great new song? It’s those kind of new discoveries that I always want to sit back and simply revel in, while also containing the urge to share them with everyone I know. I’ve been introduced to several amazing, new-to-me artists while working for Waiting on Martha over the past few years…and it’s pretty cool realizing that the majority of them can call the South home. (I may be a bit biased since moving nearly a decade ago, but I say the region’s beautiful surroundings have a lot to do with the great art that comes out of the place!)
From Atlanta to Austin to Charleston and beyond, I’ve rounded up a few of our favorite southern talents worth noting in the slideshow above. But like any list, this list is made to grow, and I’d love to add some of your favorites to our list of top southern artists. Leave your recommendations in the comments below, and if you’re ready to bring a few of these beauties home (this one is calling my name), be sure to read these 5 things to consider before starting an art collection of your own. Cheers, Kat
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Sally King Benedict
Oh man, Sally King Benedict is a big team favorite. Her bright, fresh pieces always seem to steal the show in some of the most beautiful spaces we've pinned. While I'll forever lust after a piece from her "Faces" collection, her landscapes are almost too cute to handle!
Sally has also teamed up on several amazing collabs...we especially love the partnership with Lizzie Fortunato and Marysia Swim.
SHOP THE LOOK:
VIA DOMINO, PHOTO BY ROBERT PETERSON, DESIGN BY BRIAN PATRICK FLYNN
Dorothy Shain
Another artist who calls Charleston home, Dorothy Shain has our hearts. Her adorable and bright bikinis, part of the "Tropics Collection", instantly take us to a happier place...with a Mai Tai in hand. Stay tuned for a few of her beauties here on the blog soon!
If you've been following WOM for awhile, you'll know Atlanta artist Britt Bass Turner pretty well by now. She's our go-to for bold, fun abstract paintings that always can stand out in a crowd AND tell a story on their own. Check out our interview with her as part of The Create Series here.
I first discovered Atlanta artist Brynn Casey's dreamy work thanks to our pop-up shop. Her ability to capture the ocean's infinite blues will never cease to amaze me.
My first original piece was a big purchase for me, and it was from none other than Spartansburg, SC., artist Jane Marie Edwards. We first discovered her thanks to her beautiful abstracts, but quickly snatched up prints of these pretty flamingos to sell in the shop.
Charleston artist Raven Roxanne got our attention when MKR visited the Gregg Irby Gallery. Her beautiful "Girls with Flowers" series as well as her draw-dropping abstracts are at the top of our Want List.
A Hayley Mitchell Art original speaks for itself; the colorful ladies with rosy cheeks are true show-stoppers in the home and (office!). We've gushed all about our love for this artist living in Austin, TX, as part of The Create Series on the blog.
Maybe you first spotted Hannah Betzel in our pop-up shop last year. Since then, we've fallen head over heels with this Athens, GA, artist's new pieces, and we're counting down until the next release in September.
I discovered Nashville artist Blaire Wheeler at a studio open house with a close friend of mine and owner of the local jewelry brand Ever Alice Studio. I was immediately drawn to Blaire's raw, textural abstracts in the prettiest of palettes, and I almost went home with one of her ladies all lined up!
It's safe to say that Charleston artist Teil Duncan captures the sunny joy of being beachside...even for those of us who are far from Charleston's sandy shores. Teil's beaches and "nudies" are crazy-popular in the design world as well as the blogosphere...and for good reason.
Running a small business isn’t a walk in the park, and as I shared last week, there are many things I wish I had known before becoming an entrepreneur. Luckily, a team of fantastic people who like to #GSD just as much as I do, and a handful of apps and tools help me pull it off when all is said and done. Today, I’m sharing our most-used small business tools that keep all the moving parts in motion. I’d love to know if you, too, use any of these tools, and if you’re a fan of any others! Truly, MKR
No. 1…Ahalogy. Pinterest is a big part of our business; it’s our primary traffic driver to the blog and shop. In order to keep the Pinterest mill churning, we use Ahalogy to schedule pins from our site. While you have to apply for membership, it’s well worth it when you’re in. We’re able to push out original content to the Pinterest masses at optimal hours over time, and in turn get noticed by new followers and for more brand collaborations.
No. 2…CoSchedule.Running an editorial calendar with fresh daily content requires a few moving parts, and CoSchedule comes in handy. This easy-to-use tool makes it simple to plan and schedule content (it’s linked directly to your WordPress account), and at the snap of your fingers you can schedule social amplification of the post through Twitter and Facebook. Kat, our editorial director, has this dashboard open at all times to monitor the editorial calendar and archive old content on social media. Our favorite part about CoSchedule? It offers an updated at-a-glance look at what’s coming up on the blog, and allows quick tweaking and shuffling when need be.
No. 3…Dropbox.I don’t know where we’d be without Dropbox. It’s nothing glamorous, and I’m sure you’ve heard of this file-saving storage system, if not used it yourself already. We house all of our graphic files and high-res photography here, and we use it to share bundles or large files with partners when needed. Everyone on the team also has access, which allows quick replies to any requests and projects that need assets (we all wear many hats, like any small business).
No. 4…Evernote.Evernote is perhaps one of my favorite tools, now that I finally feel like I have the hang of it. We use this tool to save must-read and must-share articles, to store important files (read: invoices, receipts and resumes!), along with any inspiration we want to share with the entire team. It makes bookmarking articles and posts THAT much easier, and it allows you to file content via notes and notebooks. Our favorite part about Evernote: articles and links are no longer lost in the abyss of our inboxes.
No. 5…FreshBooks. Though I work with an accountant now, FreshBooks was my go-to small business accounting software that I leaned on before. Creating and sending invoices is very straight-forward, as well as simply keeping up with all of them. That’s half the battle!
No. 6…FreeConferenceCall.com. Just as it sounds, this site allows us to schedule free conference calls for our weekly team meeting.
No. 7…Google Calendar. We have three Google Calendars as a team: our Blog Calendar, Marketing and WOM-All. On our Blog Calendar, Kat and I manage the upcoming ideas for content. While Kat uses CoSchedule (listed above) for the actual editorial content management, Google Calendar is the place for me to see our content flow as I schedule the photoshoots and projects. It’s also where Kat notes ready-for-review-and-approve blog posts, so I know when I can hop in and finalize posts for publishing. Our second Google Calendar is for all things marketing: email campaigns, paid advertising, shop promotions, etc. Lastly, our WOM-All calendar is a separate, general team calendar keeps track of our busy schedules, and gives us all notice for upcoming team events, out-of-office updates and important projects.
No. 8…Hootsuite. Since not all of the content we share on social media is directly linked to the blog, we need another tool besides CoSchedule to share content for any shop promotions. Hootsuite makes it easy to do so, and we’re able to have important information practically run on auto-pilot after scheduling.
No. 9…LegalZoom. LegalZoom helps you start a business (literally, as an LLC, incorporation, LLP, LP…you name it), register trademarks, create legal forms and copyrights, and so much more.
No. 10…Mailchimp. We send out a daily newsletter for the blog, as well as 3x week emails to our shop list to keep our customers up to date with sales, new arrivals, back in stock updates and exclusive offers. Mailchimp‘s email platform is incredibly easy to navigate, with simple drag-and-drop templates for your graphics and links. A fun feature of Mailchimp: its automation, as well as A/B subject line testing. We could geek out over the analytics for days!
No. 11…Planoly. We recently started using Planoly to help plan our Instagram content. I always preach about the importance of a strong “quilt” on your Instagram account; the 9 photos that you first see on your account. Planoly helps you see that overall look and feel before posting…#game changer.
No. 12…Shopify. We use Shopify for our shop, and it makes running a retail business truly 10x easier. The Shopify Blog has also proven to be an excellent resource for many questions, and we reference it regularly with all of our shop-related marketing questions.
No. 13…Tiny Scanner. This easy-to-use app quickly converts an iPhone picture into a PDF. This especially comes in handy whenever I have to send in signed contracts.
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