Peridot beaded flower

This peridot beaded flower has always been one of my favorites.  I made it back in 2009, pre-R days, and I loved it immediately.  Photos no matter how many I take can really show how much this flower glows and sparkles. 

 

Initially at the beginning of the year I had no intentions of selling my pre-R flowers.  Especially this one.  I was going to keep it b/c I love it.  Then after selling as well as I did at my June show I was digging out my flowers and brought this one to my July and August shows.  It's a person stopper.  The beads are a combination of transparent lime green, matte light yellow, and a three cut lime bead w/ pink lining.  A strange combination that works together to make a Peridot flower.  The 3 cut beads add the depth and sparkle. 

Then I started thinking about how I really love this flower but it's just sitting in a box in my guest room.  Nobody is admiring it or enjoying it.  So I decided to list it.  There will always be another flower that I love.  This was one my firsts but if it goes that will inspire me to make more.  So I hope someone falls in love with it as much as I did. 

click here for purchase information

refocusing on flowers

This week and for the extended future I plan to focus more on the flowers and slightly less on the wine accessories.  I do enjoy making them and have just recently realized a bunch of them and my early flowers have expired on Crymson Flower.  I'll be batch listing anything wine related instead of drawing it out for a week.  And those early flowers that went up before Valentines will get some revamped photos and bouquets and anything else I can think of to show them off over the next couple of weeks.

All this while I prep for my next two shows.  Coming up starting on Friday June 28 is the June edition of Artists on the Boardwalk in Junction City Peoria.  I'll spend the evening showing off flowers and talking to the patrons of the local pub.  I'm assuming we'll have the same space, so look for me right behind the food, patio, next to the barber shop and pub.  Then Saturday and Sunday June 29 and 30 is Rhapsody in Bloom at the Botanic Gardens here in Peoria.  This is my big event of the summer.  Setting up the canopy, displays, and having enough stock for this two day event.  I both nervous and not.  Being w/ Mom last week has calmed my setting up nerves.  Now I'm focused on more flowers.  Specifically for this show more wreaths.  I have two new wreaths in the works...mostly done even.  This week I hope to complete a third. 

click here for purchase info

 

Today's shades of purple and lime rose is not a quiet flower.  This flower can and will be seen.  It's a very nontraditional rose.  I used three different purples and highlighted them all with a stripe of lime green in the outer petals and center.  Later this week, some new pink flowers.

Date Night with Wine

vine wine charm purchase info

 

Have you been to Crymson Flower this week?  I introduced a new style of wine charm this week, Vine Wine Charms.  The brightly colored flowers and wire climb up the wine glass stems.  I love these wine charms.  They are cute and fun.  Most of the flowers are made with tiny size 15 seed beads.  And while I haven't made any yet, I'm planning to makes sets of these wine charms.

vine wine charm purchase info

Last night was date night.  We took a break from our creative endeavors and sat on the deck together with a glass of wine and talked.  The temps were perfect, warm summer night, the night before the summer heat comes flooding into our world.  Everything was green.  Neighbors were working in their gardens.  Birds and bugs were singing.  And we just sat there and watched, like it was our own tv.

Cold white wine, that was actually kinda eh, relaxed us.  We chit chatted about life, plans, summer, heat, and how we're excited to set up the pool tomorrow after work.

 I hope summer is visiting everyone soon.  I don't think I've ever looked forward to some heat before and I'll probably be sick of it by the end of the week.  Right now though I crave the feeling of the sun on me. 

calm before the storm

Prep for last week's show left Crymson Flower on etsy a little lacking.  The good news is that now that that show is over I have lots of new stock to share and list.  Wednesday was sorta sunny for an hour or two so I was able to take pictures of a bunch of new stuff.  Now it's just me editing and organizing. 

click here for Golden Dahlia purchase information

The month of June will be just as busy as the month of May was.  I'll have new inventory, but I also need to be making new inventory for the Botanic Garden show on June 29 and 30.  I have to make sure the canopy and canopy walls work and set up one if not two more tables to fill the space.  I started my to do list and I might even put dates next to items to that I don't start to fall behind.  Despite the fact that the wreaths didn't get much attention at the last show, I'm going to make some more wreaths.  I'm thinking themed wreaths.  Maybe a sunflower wreath, one or two fall inspired wreaths, and definitely a Christmas wreath. 

I've been inspired to turn some flower and petals into bracelets recently.  I'm very much still in prototype mode.  But I'll share what I have in the very near future.

 click here for Rose purchase information

Next week is R's birthday.  We've been busy with party prep and gift buying.  We also head to Chicago for an extended weekend.  I'll have to close up shop for the weekend, but it's sort of a working trip.  We'll take R to the Brookfield zoo on Thursday.  Friday Mom and I are going to head up to Milwaukee for the Bead and Button show.  I'm so super excited about this.  I'll be stocking up on lots of seed beads, checking out wire vendors, and just try not to get completely overloaded or overwhelmed by the shear about of inspiration and bead love.  I hope to come home with lots of goodies.  Then over the weekend is Mom's first art show of the season.  She'll be selling her paintings at the Hinsdale Fine Art Festival Saturday and Sunday June 8 and 9th from 10-5.  If you are in the area stop by.  Her paints are amazing.  And if it's on Saturday I'll be there helping her out. 

After next weekend I'll be back in art show prep mode.  It's a full month.  But lots will get done and I'll learn a ton for future shows and selling in general. 

 click here for Orange and Teal wreath purchase information

Today I'm listing this wonderfully summery wreath.  Bright oranges and teals truly pop against the natural brown grapevine wreath and green beaded leaves.  Orange and teal is one of my favorite summer color combos and this wreath is an example of how well they can play on each other. 

I hope you have a fabulous weekend.  Hopefully the sun will come out and we can do some outdoor adventures. 

Artists on the Boardwalk, May date

Today is the first day in the 4th Friday series of Artist on the Boardwalk at Junction City, in Peoria IL.  I'll be exhibiting all 4 months at this show but today is the exciting first day.  My first real show.  It's a short time frame, from 4-8 but a great way to kick off the Memorial Day weekend. 

I'm a bit nervous but I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be.  I have new inventory that will make it's debut tonight.  I hope locals stop by to check out the new stuff and say hello. 

parts of a mock booth

 Ok, I knew I was going to be busy but this is seriously never ending stuff.  Lots of details and the only way I can think of to try and get as many of the details as I can right, is to practice.  Soooo, I'm sharing with you my trial and error process of creating my art fair booth display.  The last two nights my wonderful hubby and I have been painting wooden boxes well past dark.  Yesterday before the second coat was applied I pulled out a table and my table clothes and quickly set up a mini display. 

 I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.  The colors are a little off with the table cloth being an off white and the boxes are a very light grey.  I pulled out random scraps of violet and purple fabric to act as pops of color.  The wine bottle are displaying my wine bottle pendants.  And inside the boxes I'll have wine glasses with wine charms on them.  I'm really happy with this set up.  What I'm more worried about is inventory.  At least in the wine accessory area here.

 The next part of my display will have one of those folding sectional walls.  I don't have it set up yet but the mason jars these bouquets are in will hang on the wall along with my wreaths.  The above bouquet has blue dyed wheat grass.  And the pictures below is a bit on the wild side.  The accent are ostrich feathers dyed lime green. I think it could work as an individual bouquet something wild and crazy.  But it is definitely the craziest thing in my display and could be distracting. 

This final image is my large bouquet and I'm still in the "I think I like it" stage. I'm not really sure I'll know if it fits or not until I have the wall set up next to the table.  I plan to do that mock set up Saturday.  Then I can really see what I need for my display and inventory.  I also need to somehow price everything.  I'll worry about that on Sunday maybe.

And I'm back and I'm open

I'm back from the frigid Door County Wisconsin, where it snowed the last two days we were there.  Ugh, the weather was not on our side.  But we had fun and lousy weather allowed us to not feel bad about being pent up in our hotel room watching tv and beading. 

What did I work on up there?  A little bit of everything.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures since I forgot my camera at home.  I feel like I started lots of projects/flowers and finished none of them.  I made petals to two single flowers, and enough additional flowers for another wreath.  Plus I made the beginnings of a pile of wine charms.  I went out in the snow and browsed a bunch of lovely art galleries full of color.  And I came out of them inspired by brand new color combos.  They might be a little out there but I'm excited to try them out.  And I found a little local bead shop up there and picked up a few new goodies for my stash.  I'm glad to be home.  I'm in major list mode.  I have less than two weeks until the first Artist on the Boardwalk show and I'm barely keeping my nerves in check. 

This week will be all about booth design and making a mock booth this weekend to figure out where my holes are in my inventory.  Then next week will be about filling in the holes.  That's the game plan right now. 

 French Beaded Copper and Lapis flower purchase info

 

And now for the even more exciting news.  Crymson Flower is back open and I've already listed a fresh new beaded flower.  Ok actually I made this one a few years back.  But it's always been one of my favorite flowers that I've done.  I have three all time faves from back then.  This is one.  It's the first flower that I started experimenting with copper wire accents.  It's the oxidized dark copper next to the peach and light peach petals that creates a rich look but the blue lapis lazuli center is what makes the flower pop.  It makes it memorable.  The leaf is attached to the flower. 

a girl needs a plan

Have I given you the rundown on the show's I'll be exhibiting in this summer?  I'm made a page to display up at the top so if you forget check it out there.

Artists on the Boardwalk at Junction City: from 4-8 on May 24, June 28, July 26, Aug 23
Rhapsody in Bloom at the Luthy Botanic Garden in Peoria IL: June 29 and 30
Art and Wine Festival at the Mackinaw Valley Vineyard in Mackinaw IL: July 21

Be prepared to hear me talk a lot about booth design and inventory and attempts at organization.  But before I go into all those nitty gritty posts I'm going on a mini vacation.  A mini work vacation.  A few weeks ago on "one of those days" C and I decided we needed a break.  We wanted to get away from the house and away from some stress and let our creativity flow.  He's just finished his mini album and already has 17 songs in his head waiting to be written on paper.  I had just applied to shows and wanted to go somewhere and take my beads and work.  We envision a trip of creative fun for a few hours in the morning then off to go for a walk in the warm sun looking in art galleries and eating and drinking good food.

I'm so excited for this little trip.  We head up next Wednesday.  I will have Crymson Flower on vacation mode during this long weekend. I will have my computer with me but my focus is on beading and creating.  So no promises for any blog posts, but I hope to do some FaceBook updates and sneak peeks.  Make sure you like my facebook page for those updates.

I've been trying to figure out what to work on while up there.  Flowers, wreaths, wine accessories, and then which ones.  In reality I need more of all of them, but I need a little focus.  So I need help... What would you like to seem more of?  A certain color or combination of colors?  A flower? A bouquet? I love suggestions, that's how my brains starts to focus. 

The pictures above is a quick sneak peek of what's on my work table right now.  Are you excited about another wreath?  It's still in progress...it needs more leaves for sure.  Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

a case of the blues with some yellow

ahhhhh...fresh flowers!!!

While I took the weekend off I did work my butt off to get you fresh flowers this week.  I was feeling the blues and the teals when I was beading.  It's funny how sometimes the colors just flow and the flowers tend to make themselves.  That was definitely the case with these two new lilies. 

 Beaded Teal Lily purchase info

The first teal lily is really a play on texture and depth within one color.  I used transparent, silverlined, and stain finish beads to get the rich shading in the petals. 

 

Beaded Blue and Lime Lily

Whereas with the blue and lime lily, contrast is really what makes this lily pop. Both have faceted fire polished glass beads on their stamens.

 



Beaded Yellow flower purchase info

 

I think these three flowers would look amazing together.  It didn't really occur to me until I started typing up this post.  I put the yellow flower in because I've decided to join/follow along with Leslie Saeta's blog challenge, 30 Marketing Ideas in 30 days.  She's an amazing painter that Mom has followed for a while.  Her challenge is more geared toward painters, in fact I think I'm the only nonpainter among them.  But marketing is something all artists trying to sell their work need to do.  And a challenge sounds like an excellent way for me to improve my marketing skills.  So here we go! 

Today's challenge was to post an older piece and give it some new light.  Well thanks to this post I'm loving this yellow flower again.  It's bright and sunny, and summer.  Which pairs perfect with tropical water colored lilies above.  Tonight I'll snap a picture of the three flowers together.  Stop by my FaceBook page to see. 

It's going to be a busy summer

oh my gosh...it's the first warm days of spring.  I'm so excited that it's warm outside.  Usually we have warm days in March, and occasionally in Feb.  This year is already another wacky weather year. 

So what's been going on during this lovely weather?  We have the outdoor work bug.  Last fall we cut down some pear trees that attracted so many bees it made the spring and fall almost impossible to be outside without being stung.  So with those gone we were missing our trees.  This weekend we bought an October Glory Maple tree for our yard and planted it with lots of love.  R found as many worms as he could and put them in the dirt by the tree to help it grow. 

I also sent off my applications for two local art shows.  I've already heard back from the Mackinaw Valley Vineyard, where I'll be selling my flowers and wine charms on July 21.  The other is at our local botanic gardens and that is a juried show.  Not sure when I'll find out about that....but I'll let you know.  Then today I received the application information for an art Fridays event which is also local.  Every 4th Friday from May to August there is an Art on the Boardwalk event.  It's a small boardwalk area next to some lovely local shops.  It draws quite a crowd and I actually think I'd do really well here.  So I plan to apply for all 4 Fridays!  It's a juried show, so if I get in I'll be super busy.  And that means my first show would be in less than two months.  ACK!

I'm super excited, and the creative fire is glowing.  Tonight I set up my little table and get to work.  My to-do list is pages long, but first I need to make stuff.  I'm thinking more wreaths for sure.  Any other suggestions?  I know I need more of everything but what's your favorite thing to see? 

For this week I have new wine charms in the shop.  I had a blast with colors this time around.  I went bright and fun and summery.  We're starting with bright pink then onto an amazing blue. The blue one has those satin beads that make glass look like, well satin. It's too delicious to get the full affect in a photograph.

 Bright Pink wine charm purchase information

Fun Blue wine charm purchase information

what's in a name?

So I've been over my head in behind the scenes business decisions the last two weeks.  I have a to do list and deadlines that are fast approaching which forced me to sit down and get stressed out.  I figure I'll share some of that thought process, as cyclical as it is, with you.

I plan to apply to sell in art shows this summer.  I have two local shows that I have applications ready to be sent in, and was thinking about doing a show up in the Chicago area.  The show up north is near home and I've seen the kinds of crowds it draws.  It's an extremely intimidating show to think about but I've always thought that it is a place that I'd do well at.  I still do.  It would be an excellent opportunity to force myself to really work and get up to speed by August.  The other two local shows are in June and July so by the August I would have my booth down. 

Unfortunately this show requires by business license number in the application.  I plan to get this license and have only been going slowly on it because on it I need to decide if I want to file for a "Doing Business As" certificate.  The DBA is would allow me to open a checking account as Crymson Flower instead of just my legal name.  A DBA takes 3-4 weeks to get. 

This was a harder decision for me to make than I was anticipating. I love the idea of having Crymson Flower be me, even though for practical reasons I probably don't really  need it.  It would really only be valuable if someone were to write a check to Crymson Flower I could then cash that check.  But in reality if someone is writing me a check I would be there to tell them to write it out to me.  I also have a stronger Internet presence as Crymson verses my legal name, Amy McGovern.  This stems from my  natural tendencies to try to be kinda anonymous on the Internet.  But now that I am a business owner I think I need to have my name associated with my business.  I'm proud that I'm working on this business.  It's been a dream for a really long time and I want people to know that Amy McGovern is the person behind Crymson Flower. That there is in fact a person behind this business.  That is also important to me. 

So right now my decision is this.  I'm going to go by Amy McGovern as my business name legally for the paperwork.  I'll still use Crymson Flower as my banner and my Internet presence as I always have but I plan to also have my name more prominently visible.  My banner above now has Amy McGovern on it.  If next year I'm missing or feel the need to use Crymson Flower on the paperwork then I can add it on then.  I've also made the decision to wait on this particular Chicago area art fair.  I sill think I'll do well at this one but I think it's adding too much stress on my already large to do list.  I felt better when I admitted that to myself this morning.  I am looking for a Christmas show in the Chicago area to sell at.  That would give me more time and I'd be able to set up a Christmas tree full of flowers and beaded ornaments.  It would be amazing! 

That is my business plan as of right now.  Today I feel good about it.  Now onto more flowery goodnesses.  Here's my newest lily.  Off white petals tipped with dark purple seed beads.  The center is a small pop of red and blue faceted glass beads.  I wasn't sure about this flower.  When I put the beads together I thought it would be an ok flower, but when the petals came together I got very excited.  I think this one looks best paired with other flowers both beaded and fresh.

click here for purchase information

sneak peak friday

It was a bit of a slow week on the blog this week.  I've been hemming and hawing about some behind the scenes business decisions.  Nothing big, well kinda, but I like to make them bigger than they really are.  Things like whether or not I should make Crymson Flower my official business name, and if not should I change up my internet presence name.  I'm looking into shows and how to legally be a business in different cities and counties other than my own.  I also added pages to my blog.  If you want to know about how to take care of your flowers, or a little bit about me, or how to contact me check out the pages at the top.

But really what would affect you is what I'm thinking about with my shop.  I've decided to take the plunge into my higher priced items.  Right now the most expensive piece in my shop is $30.  Yep you can get an amazing flower for only $30.  I know I'm capable of more though.  I have plans to make a line of wedding flowers, I'm still in the designing process for these.  What's happening more quickly and what I've really been excited about the last couple weeks are wreaths.  They take a bit longer to make so I won't have a ton of them in the shop all at once.  But boy oh boy do I have ideas for different wreaths.  Here's the first sneak peak of what this wreath looked like a week ago.  Today it looks just about done.  Expect it in the shop next week.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.  Enjoy warmer weather and the feeling of spring in the air.

daffodils daffodils daffodils

I think of two things when I think of daffodils, spring and the movie Big Fish.  I'm a sucker for that movie and one of my favorite parts is the proposal in a field of daffodils.  I'm not normally that sappy of a person, but seriously who wouldn't want to be proposed to in a field of daffodils.  They aren't your normal go to flower, especially  not when romance is involved.  But they are lovely and happy and very inspiring when grouped all together.

I tried to recreate this affect, I wanted to take pictures of my beaded daffodils in a bouquet of fresh ones.  I think it would make an amazing bouquet.  Unfortunately, stores don't sell fresh bouquets of daffodils down here in Peoria like they do up in Chicago area.  I stopped by a local florist to see if they had any and was told they could order them for me but they don't carry them in stock because you can't pair a daffodil with other flowers.  I guess they don't combine as well.  I do see her point but then decided to break that rule. 
The following photos are me pairing my beaded daffodils with some orchids, daisies, and then daffodils solo.  How do you like to combine your daffodils?  Is it true, do they only go with other daffodils? 

purchase information on this golden daffodil

 

purchase information on orange daffodil

taking care of business

Today was a busy day.  I started the day with a list of goals, register for my EIN, call the county clerks office to figure out what I need, call my phone company, and brainstorm website ideas.  That's a pretty good list considering I also had to play several games of dinosaurs vs trucks and dinosaurs in the tent...and go grocery shopping.

I joined a team on Etsy, actually I joined a couple of them in my attempts at socializing in social media.  But the one team I'm actually participating in is a marketing team filled with very helpful people.  Basically a team on Etsy is a private forum, you apply to get in, some take everyone some are more specific.  Anyway there is a thread in there called, what are you doing to build your business today?  I posted my goals which gave me the kick in the butt to actually accomplish more than I thought possible today.

I now have my official EIN!  Step one check!  I called the county clerks office and figured out the process of getting my DBA certificate.  I decided to go all out and officially name my business Crymson Flower instead of just going by my name. Now I need to get down the the office fill out a form then advertise in the local newspaper for a couple weeks.  Then I'm good to go!!!  I didn't get to calling the phone company, instead I took advantage of the first sunny day in ages.  I snapped all new pics of several flowers and a sneak peak of a new project.  So it's not just this week that there are new flowers in the shop...next week too!

Speaking of new flowers here's some close up pretty pictures of the new red's in Crymson Flower.  A lily and rose.  I must have made them around Valentine's based on the color.  What's nice about them is that they aren't just valentine flowers, they can be Christmas flowers, or even everyday flowers.

 French beaded Red Lily purchase information

French beaded Red and Pink rose purchase information

Happy Almost Spring

I can't wait for the two days until Spring is here.  And unfortunately Mother Nature really isn't having much of spring yet anyway.  This morning I had to scrape ice off the car.  Oh well, spring is starting to show up in smaller ways.  I saw some daffodil and iris greens poking up from the ground.  We went for a hike this weekend and the robins are in full worm searching mode.  The red belly woodpeckers were setting up nesting territories, and the cardinals were singing nonstop. 

To help spring a long a little bit I have a sneak preview of what's to come this week to Crymson Flower.  Two new french beaded flowers will show up and a new commission. 

 

Two of these flowers are already in the shop.  The pink lily on the bottom right can be found here. And the larger red rose on the upper right can be found here.  The smaller rose and red lily will be added as the week goes on.