This week Zibbet is pleased to introduce you to  Nicole’s Visions. Nicole has been a member of Zibbet since 2010.

She’s been told she has a way of seeing the world “outside the box.” You have to stop into her shop often as she continually comes up with new ideas.

As we write this introduction we’ve heard she has many new products coming this year. You won’t want to miss her new exciting items.

Please enjoy the interview, leave Nicole a comment, and then use the Share tool so others can read his interview, too. Please Spread the Zibbet Love!

1. Tell us a bit about yourself?

   My name is Nicole & I am a creative idea addict. *laugh* I have been creative as long as I can remember. From playing with my kids to helping with school projects to taking pictures & now to expanding to re-purposing … it’s in my blood I guess!

   I am a wife. I’m married to my soul mate, finally. He’s the most supportive husband a woman could wish for & I am grateful for him every day. We’ve been together for just a couple months less than 14 years & married for just over 12.

   I am a mom. I have 2 grown girls (almost 25 & just turned 29) who have both to one degree or another embraced their creative genes as well. One sells her work here on Zibbet & the other is just beginning to find ways to sell hers, mostly locally to where she lives in FL.

   I have no formal training in photography or any other creative endeavor I follow. I have been told by my peers that I seem to have an eye for things. That encouragement takes me far! I love coming up with new ideas & learning how I can create them. I’m a big dreamer. Sometimes I have the best ideas, but they may take a year or more to materialize! I blame that on having too many ideas & not enough time.

   After growing up in CT & OH, I moved to FL in 94. I found my birth father in 2002 which led to a cross country move in 2005 to WA where we live now. All this, after moving to the US from what was West Germany in 1972, which is where I was born.

2. Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?

   I spend every Tuesday volunteering at our local Women’s Resource Center food bank. Apart from that I take care of the place we call ‘home for now’ & my hubby. I spend a lot of time learning about all aspects of leading a healthier life.

   My hubby & I enjoy spending time together when he is not working doing just about anything indoors or out. We love to go for hikes, walks, and bike rides outdoors but we’re just as easily content with walking our mall talking about anything & everything while we wander around window shopping. We enjoy going to watch & support our local NAHL hockey team when they play home games. We relax (mostly after a game) by playing pool & enjoying a cold micro brewed beer at a locally owned, first of its kind brewery here in town.

   I also spend time just reading at home. Most of the time its something resourceful but sometimes I actually pick up a book just for pleasure. I enjoy watching my ABC soaps too & I’ll be sad to see the last one I watch end here shortly. I’ve watched them on & off since I was in middle school.

3. What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?

   When I began, my inspiration came from my girls. I took so many pictures of them growing up. Capturing all those precious moments in time just stuck with me. I wanted to share them with anyone who could not be there to see them firsthand.

   Now, with my creativity leading me away from photography (just a little) bit & towards recycling, my love for the Earth inspires me. We find it so easy to just toss things away that I am inspired to see what else can be done with them. Everything has so much more than just one life!

4. Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?

   From a creative aspect, I look up to all the other creative artisans here on Zibbet & those I meet in real life.  They inspire me in so many different ways. When I need ideas, I can look around & come up with more than I can ever possibly create just by seeing what others have done. When I am feeling down creatively, I can talk to any one of them & know I am not alone. When I am feeling really good about something or have something new to share, again, I can look to my fellow artisans & get such wonderful feedback! I honestly do look up to all the artistic friends I’ve made thanks to life & the internet.

   I also look up to my parents & family. They are always there to show their love & support for what I do. I admire that, & try to pass that along to my children, by being supportive of what they choose to do.

5. What other passions do you have in your life?

   A few years ago I started down the road of reading food labels, food ingredient articles & the like. I was appalled at what was in the things ‘they’ called food. So, I started reading labels, omitting foods that contained certain ingredients & learned to make more things from scratch. It’s amazing how easy it is to make your own sweet & sour sauce for example, instead of buying the store bought stuff. And believe me, once you make your own anything, you won’t want to go back to its store bought counterpart!

   Today, we eat more whole & organic foods & less processed. And we both feel so much better! We’re learning to not only make more of our own food, but preserve it as well.

   We finally had the space in 2010 to grow a garden again too. It was successful & we enjoyed the harvest. This year we’ll make some crucial changes & expand the seeds we sow!

   I didn’t stop there tho. I read labels on everything & worked to remove not only the chemicals in our diet, but in all the other areas of our lives. It’s challenging, but so rewarding. I have learned how to make my own laundry detergent & how to use lemons, peroxide, vinegar & baking soda to clean just about anything. I have so much more to learn, but I love it. And learning about natural remedies for common ailments has also lessened our reliance on over the counter pills & such.

6. What do you like most about Zibbet?

   Oh I think I have to say the support all the shop keepers give to each other. Unconditionally. There is not the overwhelming feeling of competition here but more a feeling of family. About the store aspect, I like how easy it is to list items.  Very self explanatory. I love the look of the site as a whole. It is so clean & uncluttered. I believe this makes a difference to buyers. I also really like how the focus is more on each individual shop & not on the Zibbet name. When you are in my shop, you see me. Zibbet is there, but in the background. Other venues feel like they focus more on the venue than the artist. I like that Zibbet doesn’t.

7. What ‘new’ things would you like to see added to Zibbet?

   I can’t really answer that until we finally see what the rebuild looks like. Once that has been put in place & we all have a good chance to explore all it will offer, I don’t know what I would like to see. I think we all have different wish lists for what we’d like on here. Right now, mine is to see the rebuild!

8. How do you promote your work?

   Promoting my work in person is not hard, obviously. You just engage in conversation with people whether at a show or just out in public. But figuring out how to successfully promote myself & my work online is much more difficult. Up to this point I have used MySpace (but not anymore), Facebook, Merchant Circle, my blog, ZBox, Pagan Packs & my own website (which now points to my Zibbet shop).

   Unlike those who make things you can wear, I can’t just do that. Now, with some of the new ideas I have for this year that might change a bit, which excites me.

   I also have accounts with Pinterest, Flickr, Google+, LinkedIn, Link Referral, & StumbleUpon which I hope to do more with this year. I also just bit the bullet & joined Twitter. We’ll see how that goes as I have to learn how to work that venue.

   The key to promoting my work tho, I believe, is getting it out to more than just fellow artisans. Getting it out to just people. Not that artisans don’t buy things created by other artisans, but that is a small portion of the market I think we all need to try to reach.

   I also have plans to return to the local Farmer’s Market this season. And of course a few shows scattered hopefully thru out the year.

9. How would you recommend other Zibbeters make the most of Zibbet.com?

   Making the most of Zibbet is an evolving thing, for me. I believe it takes time to learn & realize just how much you can do with not only your shop, but within the community forums.

   Make the most of your shop by filling out your profile so folks can learn more about you & who you are. Don’t forget to give them a name to associate with your business. It’s so much nicer & more personal to be able to contact a seller by addressing them by their first name vs. just a ‘hi’.

   Make the most of your listings by having more than one picture for a listing. Even if you are not the greatest photographer, we all have to use multiple images to show all aspects of whatever we are trying to sell. Also, be descriptive! Our buyers can’t pick our things up so we have to ‘sell’ it to them with our pictures, and our words.

   Make the most of the community by participating. I am guilty of not being as active as I’d like, which is on my list of things to change this year.

10. In the future I’d like to be…

    Forever creating something new & awesome!

    I’d also like for us to be off on our own piece of land with a nice eco friendly & energy efficient home. I see us growing most of our own food & raising some chickens for eggs. Oh, and a few goats!  Not just for lawnmowers but milk! I’d also love for us to travel, but just around the US. There is so much beauty here that we’ve yet to see & my camera still has plenty of pictures to take.

Tags: Featured Zibbeters, Nicoles Visions