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

happy weekend

Maybe if we post enough pictures of pretty flowers of spring flowers mother nature will get jealous and start producing her own.  Or maybe if we think enough warm thoughts, the winds will take a cue and simmer down.  Maybe we can even make the snow they are calling for on Sunday go away. 

If not at least we can dream in photos, and have as many pretty flowers, that don't care what the weather is, around the house as possible.  The purple flower on the left is a sneak peak to what will be listed next week.  The yellow flower on the right can be found here.  Stay tuned b/c there will some other spring flowers posted next week as well.

I'm wishing everyone a lovely weekend.  We're headed up to Chicago area to see families and C is playing in his yearly gig with his buds. 

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. 

NOLA police Flower

A month ago I received my first commission piece.  I was super excited to hear that she wanted a flower for her boyfriend for their 3 year anniversary.  Her boyfriend works for the New Orleans Police Department and she requested that the flower have matching colors as their patch. 

I was grateful that she gave me some direction with what she was looking for.  She suggested orange outer petals with a touch of blue.  And green inner petals.  My biggest concern was getting the colors close.  One because every one's monitors are slightly different and two because any color w/ a bit of red in it can be hard to replicate in glass.  There are a million and one different shades of blue and green seed beads, but orange, red, purples, and pinks are harder to do. 
Once I got the colors figured out I had fun designing the flower.  I added heavy metal brass seed beads to the tips of the outer petals to keep the theme masculine.  At one point I had some pearl star beads in the center but decided it was too literal, and made the flower too busy.  Simple is smart, and simple is what I found out that works with this flower. 

 

 

I used primarily matte seed beads.  The blue is a transparent blue with a pearly finish that makes it almost opaque.  The metal brass beads accent the outer petals.  I chose a simple orange bead for the center.  The more sparkly brown and yellow beads I had originally picked out just didn't work.  At this stage I sent the customer an email to see what her thoughts were.  She loved it.  So I put on the finishing touches and laced up the petals for stability.  And had it in the mail within a day or two.

Here's the picture I received to show how closely I'd gotten the colors.  I'm really happy with it.  And from what I hear the customer and the boyfriend (now fiancé) are happy too.   Congrats!!!

New Wine Charms all week

Starting tomorrow I will be listing one of these new wine charms a day for the entire week.  They are bright, and cheery.  A perfect dose of color for the late winter blues.  These wine charms have petals all around the base of the wine glass, letting the glass itself become apart of the flower. 

are you feeling lucky?

Back in January when I started up Crymson Flower, one the first suggestions C had for me was to make four leaf clovers for St. Patrick's Day.  St. Patrick's day is kind of a big deal in our house.  Granted I married into the Irish name, I still love a parade, green beer, and corn beef.  So I really couldn't deny that it would be a fabulous idea to make some shamrocks.

I came up with these three Four Leaf Clover wine bottle pendants.  But they can be used for some much more.  C has his hanging from his rear view mirror.  The sunlight coming through the beads is very striking.  They would look amazing hanging in any window.  Or string it on a set of those left over Mardi Gras beads and use it as a festive pendant.

Anyway you use them they are certain to bring good luck.

 Emerald Four Leaf Clover Wine Bottle Pendant

 

Mint Four Leaf Clover Wine Bottle Pendant

 

Green Four Leaf Clover Wine Bottle Pendant

I took this shot at dusk so there was little to no light.  Driving around midday you can totally see the copper lining in the green glass beads.  It's pretty amazing.

it's a plan

Apparently writing business plans are all the rage now a days.  Ok they always were the thing to do, I just always ignored that little part of what I would need to do if I ever started up my business.  I've been doing some reading up on said business plan and decided to give it a go.  I ended up with 5 pages of handwritten scribble detailing the beginning parts  of what will be my business plan for 2013.

Here's how I went about it.  I wrote down 4-5 major goals I want accomplished by the end of the calendar year.  Big ones, but not unattainable ones.  I didn't write that I wanted to quit my day job or to have made enough bucks to buy a small island.  I did write that I wanted my site to be getting about 50 hits daily.  That doesn't seem like a lot but right now I'm struggling for 10.  So it's a good goal.  I also wrote that I'd like to make some money, not that I expect to be in the black this year, but I want to have at least sold some pieces.   I also added in some smaller goals, mostly regarding inventory.  What I want in my shop by the end of the year type stuff.  The important part about this list was that the goals needed to be measurable.  I need a number of flowers I want in the store by a certain date.  OR a product line in the store by a certain time.  Daily hits can be measured in my Stats page. 

Ok great I have goals.  Phew, that was tough.  The tougher part was brainstorming how to attain these goals.  The biggest one is getting out there and finding people, finding my audience.  It's possible and like C says I need to figure out who would buy a flower and where they hang out on Internet and go there.  So I have ideas, lists of places to try.  I have lists of art shows to apply to.  And that's as far as I've gotten after 5 pages of scribble.  I still have ideas and deadlines to make for products and smaller things that need to get done.  Then I should type it up so that I can read it again in a couple weeks when I need to reassess what needs to be worked on right now. 

It feels good to have it all written down.  More doable and less scary.  Because really its this business side of business that I find intimidating.  But that's ok because I read a quote that said If it doesn't scare you a little it's not worth doing.

flower and a movie

This weekend was very productive and yet I still don't feel like I accomplished enough.  It started off wonderful though.  I received a gift from M.... Pride and Prejudice.  Sigh. I love this movie.  I love this story.  I'm a complete sucker for it.  Every time C takes R up north I would rent it, unfortunately the video store only has one copy and it's completely scratched up. 

So I kicked off the weekend staying up late and watching the movie and making the new flower in the picture.  This is sorta of an amazing flower that I can't wait to share.  Total accomplishments for the weekend include, 3 new flowers, 2 half flowers, and 4 new wine charms. I lost a pair of wire clippers, bought a new pair that were horrible, and then found my wire clippers.  I updated my shop anoucment, policy, and about pages.  I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out.

If the sun is out at all this week I'll be taking lots of new pictures.  Until then I'm in production mode.  It'd be great to finish up the two half flowers and then whip up a 6th flower that is in my head.

honesty

I'm struggling with what this blog should be.  Actually if I'm honest with myself I know what I want this blog to be, but I'm struggling with whether or not it is the professional thing to do.  I want a business and I have a business.  This is my blog that goes with that business.  And hence only business related things should be on the blog.  And I should come off as I know everything about business and where I'm going with everything. 

But really....

The blogs I like most and read most are about people.  The people behind the business, their struggles and their success's.  That is honest and that is what is natural for me to blog about.  If I try and do anything different that what I feel naturally to blog about I just won't blog.  So here we go.

I've spent this week in a bit of a funk.  That's ok...I realize funk's happen.  The important part is getting out of the funk.  The last two night's I've surrounded myself with tons of color and beads.  And I found myself drawn to making flowers.  As much as I really tried to focus on wine charms flowers are what I was coming up with.  I can't wait for the next sunny day to show off these new creations.  I've also spent a lot of time reading up on etsy shop marketing and tips and tricks of etsy.  It's completely overwhelming.  But I've made a list and I'm mentally writing up my about page and thinking of key words to add into different places around the shop.  It is forward progress and that feels good.

There are a couple new wine pendants in the shop and they are incredible.  The violet copper one let me go back to weaving with wire and has opened up some doors that I didn't think would ever open back up.  I LOVE wire.  I loved weaving it.  And I hope ot explore more with this discovery.

The second wine bottle pendant is subtle in color, but elegant on that wine bottle.  The faceted glass beads amongst the wire really sparkle.  I mean really sparkle.  It's really very pretty. 

she loved it

This weekend we were in Chicago for my mother in law's 60th birthday party.  Two nights and two parties later we are home and unpacked.  It's good to be home in a quiet house.  Hopefully this nap R is taking will help put him back on his schedule so that he's not too grouchy this evening.

In a few hours we'll be in yet another party with my friends coming over to watch the Oscars.  I'm looking forward to it but I'm also looking forward to working on Crymson Flower.  When things got quiet this afternoon I took out my notebook and made a giant to do list for the month of March.  I'm really excited about the things on this list.  It includes everything from buying a binder to keep my paperwork organized to what I want to make to add to the shop.  More wine charms, and flowers mostly....but different styles and colors.  Let's bring spring the to Crymson Flower!  at least that's what's in my head right now.  This coming week will bring more wine bottle pendants to the shop.  I have some awesome shamrocks to show you for St. Patrick's day that is right around the corner.

An amazing miracle happened this month.  Somehow between all the time I've spent on here and on etsy I also managed to finish the quilt for my mother in law's party.  I think she loved it.  There was a big smile on her face from what I saw.  Of course R had to go potty right at that moment and insisted I take him.  I had taken an personal day and turned the dining and living rooms into a quilting studio.  I am very proud of how this quilt turned out.  It was the best job I've done with both basting and quilting.  And it was kinda fun to quilt it.  I have made the final decision that I will not cross lines while quilting.  Bad things happen when I attempt that.  It was a small issue and I was able to easily fix it.  For as much as I really disliked sewing this quilt, I really love how it turned out.  And she does too.  I was proud to be able to give it as a good gift.  No more big quilts for me for a while.  At least nothing with a two month deadline. 

wine bottle love

Have I told you how much I'm loving making these wine bottle pendants.  I have so many ideas and not enough hands.  I have design ideas.  I want to explore the leaf idea and expand on it.  I have a leaf pendant pictured below and how cool would it be to go different colors.  Rain drops dangling, or pink petals falling, or even play on a bunch of grapes.  There's room to grow.

I want to expand on the wire accents.  I love wire wrapping right now, and using it to enhance a simple tear drop shape makes me happy.  I want to work on these skills and get more complex in the techniques.  I want to bring more wire into actual flowers.  And see where that takes me. 

So many ideas and not enough hands, eyes, and brains to get everything done.  But that seems to be a common complaint among the creative at heart.  It feels good to be brimming with ideas.  I hope you are as excited to see what comes next as I am.  For now there will be plenty of wine bottle pendants.  Get ready for some wine bottle love.

 Beaded Teal Wine Bottle Pendant

 Beaded Black Wine Bottle Pendant

 Beaded Leaf Wine Bottle Pendant

less than a week till the Academy Awards

Have you ever hosted an Oscars party?  ok let me back up...did you realize that the Academy Awards is this Sunday!  It sort of snuck up on me this year.  I don't usually do anything big for the Oscars.  For the past three years I've Skyped with my bestie, M during the show.  It gives us an excuse to drink wine together and catch up in between awards.  This year she'll be in town and I'm super excited. 

This means the party's at my place this year.  We'll start early to catch the red carpet.  We'll order out from local eateries and drink lots of wine.  She suggested we place bets on who will win each category and whoever gets the most right wins a prize.  We haven't hammered out all the details of what that prize might be.  Probaby just the left over food.  It's still going to be a lot of fun.

I'm going to take the opportunity to do some new product testing that night.  I have a few new items I'm wanting to add to the Crymson Flower's inventory.  This will be the perfect opportunity to test them out.  See how other wine lovers like them.  And really it's just fun to bring some color to the party.  Here's a sneak peak of some of what I plan to bring out.  And I'll post party pic's next week. 

What are you up to for the Academy Awards?  See anything above you're excited to see in the shop?  Who do you think is going to wear the best dress?  or you know win the big awards? 

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!

 

 

It's that holiday.  The one we all know about, and celebrated every year for the first 10 years of our life or until the 6th grade when the class room finally gave up the V-day parties.  Some people love it, others dispise it.  It really is what it is. 

 

To me I think it's kinda fun.  An excuse to buy lobster and steak and cook a surf and turf meal for the hubby.  But this was the first year in ages that we actually did something.  And really the meal was yesterday.  In a little bit I'll celebrate w/ my son at his daycare with all his sugar high buddies.  To me Valentine's is just an excuse, a little nudge to tell your someone that  you love them.  Maybe a little nudge to tell yourself how much you love you.  There's nothing wrong with treating yourself.  In fact that might be more fun b/c at least you know you're going to love what you get. 

 

Here's a few of my most Valentiney gift ideas. 

 

Teal Wine Bottle Pendant

 



 Red Red Rose

 

 Speckled Pink Lily

 

 Fuchsia Lily

 





Red Wine Glass charms

Introducing Wine Bottle Pendants

Lately I've been brainstorming ideas for fun new wine accessories. Yes, I love my wine and I love it even more when it's blinged up with some beads.
That's when I came up with this idea for a wine bottle pendant.  A fun hand beaded, wire wrapped, pendant hung around the bottle of wine you choose to bring to that fancy dinner party or housewarming party.  It's a little piece of art that doesn't take away from the wonderful wine but will still be there after the wine is long gone.
What do you think?  Would you use it to decorate your next bottle at your dinner party?  Or give it away with a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon?

Click here for purchase information

spring in flower form

What's there really to say about this flower other than it's bright, and happy, and very spring like. It looks fabulous with a bouquet of roses or baby's breath but imagine how wondrous this flower would look in a bouquet of daffodils.
I'm loving this listing something every day thing.  It's fun to just make it happen.  Exciting things are going on.  I just received my box of boxes so now I can list some more delicate wine charms in the shop soon.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so that will be a photography day.  I have my first commission I'm super excited about and I'll work on that this weekend.  And somewhere in the next week I need to sew the binding on that quilt.  Lots to do and I'm loving all of it.  Hope everyone else out there is enjoying their weeks.  

Golden Beauty

It's going to be a big week here at Crymson Flower.  I made a list this weekend...a to do list.  Which means I've put all my ducks in a row for the moment and am full steam ahead.  Step one on my list is to get everything I have completed and ready to go in the shop.  I will be listing a new item every day this week, so check back daily to see what's new.
Today's listing is this golden beauty.  Something about the combination of gold seed beads and brass outlining beads really makes this flower glow.  It's a rather simple flower so it can be dressed up a bit with some fresh flowers, but really it looks great solo too.  The center is a vintage glass faceted button surrounded by three red glass beads.  Simple and gorgeous.  
Click here for purchase information

pink flowers sparkle

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and I've sort of dropped the ball in what I planned to be a bombardment of posts on why beaded flowers make excellent Valentine gifts. Beaded flowers can make a normal bouquet of flowers really special. Where fresh flowers wither and fade beaded flowers will literally last a life time. I use quality seed beads so colors will not fade. I accent flowers with gemstones, crystals, or glass beads to ensure that each flower is truly a unique piece of art.

The following flower is special.  It's the first flower I made when I returned to beads a couple months ago.  It's also the reason I started beading again and putting an emphasis in wire work.  I really loved wrapping the wire and combining it with the flowers.  The green petals are a mix of greens, mostly a silver lined mint green.  The pink petals have brass wire wrapping accented with Swarovski crystals.  And the center is made from fire polished glass beads and a mother of pearl bead.

Click here for purchase information.

new dryer anyone?

Ok I must confess when my dryer quit working this Sunday I secretly wanted it to be kaput.  Well it's looking like I'm getting my secret wish and now we're going to spend the day today shopping for dryers and possibly a washer to go with it.  I'm kinda excited and hesitant at the same time.  Appliance shopping is exhausting.

It's way more fun to go shopping on Etsy.  Since I've joined I started following them on Twitter and they are always tweeting awesome finds from people's shops.  There are some really cool things on Etsy.  I'm finding lots of new favorite shops.  Like I LOVE Whit and Whistles unique cards.  And I've already had some invitations designed by RoCo.  And this morning the Etsy homepage has a wonderful display of Sunshine and yellow themed products.  The bright yellow really lifted me up today.

So I uploaded a bunch of new wine charms to Crymson Flower this morning, to add some color and spread some winey cheer.

 

 

This weekend I was busy making some wine bottle pendants.  Waiting for the sun to shine again to take some picutes so I can share with all you.  More flowers to come this week too.