The Check List!

My Check List for this weekend seems to have gone POOF. And not POOF in a necessarily good way!!

Besides the basic household chores that need to be done on the weekend (might I add here, that I got all of them finished) but the company ones that you just really don't want to start on a week night when you only have those few precious hours.

1. paint trinket chest....hmmmm well, I now 12 lined up on the painting table :) That's a start right?? And hey, two of those actually have the hardware taken off of them ;)

2. hang new flowers/vines from the rafters.....hmmmm well, after fighting and almost stabbing myself in the eye by numerous wayward flying staples from the staple gun, I am happy to announce that this chore got DONE. So while standing tip top on top of the chair, I also hung the rest of the second order of crocheted humming birds that I ordered from Stefanie at Fayard Hand-made Crafts on Etsy. These little critters are so cute.....she puts wire in their wings so they look like they are in flight. I have them hanging everywhere from the flowers and green vines. I have another 20 on order somewhere on their way here in the mail.

3. put new mini's away.....DONE. Took another trip to the local Field's store to buy more little snap lid containers but my work table is once again cleaned off and ready for production to start.

4. other stuff.....

a) set up the new iMac....I think this stage now completed for the most part. My son is still tweaking        with the little things.

b) hang the birthday card I got from my boss...DONE This has got to be one of the most beautiful cards I have ever seen. Made by Reuben McHugh and titled: Dusty Blue Delphinium. This is a French Joyeux Anniversaire card that has a purple faerie kneeling on a pedestal covered in sparkly purple/blue delphiniums. And with the nursery being done in purples....how perfect could this card be. I was able to find his personal website but unfortunately he does not have my little card listed under his portfolio. If you care to do a search though, you can find her under images and looking for Fairies of Venice (I do not want to infringe on his copyright, so I will leave the search to you). His website is: The Fairies of Venice

c. finished off another good portion of the graphics that I needed Alyssa to complete. Now just to get them all printed.

d. brag about the new ad in the Faerie World Magazine :)  I was able to be chosen for a full page portfolio as well and they have been showing my ad through their Facebook page. Pretty cool to see you name live!


And that's about it for this weekend. Sure wanted to get a whole lot more done but oh well :)

Advertising....

Well this list should round out what is in the works over the next month or so for advertising.

Faery World Magazine – inside front page, page listing and biography with photos. This magazine hit the news stands today and might I ad, it is a bit scary seeing yourself in print! Faery World Magazine

Faerie Magazine – ½ page advertisement. Will be out the beginning of October. Faerie Magazine

The Magical Times – Crafters’ Corner. Will be out next week. The Magical Times

Northern Journal – 1/8 page and service directory ads. Starting mid October. The Northern Journal

Etsy - I have started running the blitz of internal adversing here as well. Faerie Nursery Shop Front Etsy

My oh my, now I guess it is just a waiting game to see if what I have to offer is what YOU, yes YOU, are interested in :)

The In-between List of Things To Do!!

Flower Petal Faeries.....I need to make, lets see....minus the ones that I already listed on Etsy and the few I have sitting here waiting to be named...that leaves me....a mere 237 left to make!!

Teacup Nurseries....there are about 15 that need to be made with their matching faeries. As well, Alyssa is working on the 'how to' instructions for those that are sold as DIY kits. 

Faerie Seed Pod Babies....with all of the wonderful new coloured rose flower heads that came in the mail a week or so ago....need to get making a few of those as well.

What else could there be....

What?? Isn't that enough to do?? I'm sure lots of little things will sneak up on me that I will be saying, Oh Yeah, I have to do that too!!  

Next Project - Trinket Chests

Trinket Chests....approximately 70 of them need to now be taken apart and painted. Hubby has already branded them with the logo so that part is done!

Once all finished this project then it will be time to fill them with all of the wee little miniatures. 

Website - Updated for Purchasing

Shawn has completed the 'updated' website. Everything is now completely linked with Etsy for purchasing. And for those items already sold, the links take you to Flickr for more information. We pondered putting our own shopping cart on but for now, and this is just being honest, for now it is more economical to use Etsy. Maybe in time I will put my cart on the website and just use Etsy as a secondary way to purchase my items. I have had great feedback on the new look and how items are now listed. Thank you Shawn for all of the hard work :)

Faerie Nursery

Magical Wooden Doors

As well, as mentioned on my Facebook page, all of my little magical wooden doors have now been completed. Just finished putting on the wee door knobs and the brass finishing nail for hanging decorations off of. My goal was to have 80 doors done but I ended up with only 78 completed. Thinking on it though, that's still a WHOLE lot of doors!! And I love the fact that they are all now branded with the company logo (Thank You Alyssa for the design). 

Mail Day .... Limited Editions Goodies :)

Mail day today at the nursery....and what fun goodies I received :)

I have been busy trying to finish up my ordering products for this year and so what comes in the mail is either last little bits that I need to finish off the trinkets chest (mainly due to being just the few items shy to complete all 80 of them).

I have also been having fun getting a few extra things for the 'Limited Editions' of the Faerie Suites. By the way... I LOVE that title. Don't ask me why I was awake at 4:00 a.m. the other morning but that is when the name came to me...and I LOVE IT! As each of these little doors truly are limited since I may never be able to get the products again. Guess that makes them pretty special too! Back on topic here, so...as I was saying, ordering just the miniatures that I think will fit with the themes I already have created on Etsy and on the website.

For example....

The Teacher, I love the little stems on the apples :)

The Connoisseur, empty wine glasses and filled glasses of champagne :)

And Coffee Time! You will have your choice of glazed, glazed with sprinkles or an old fashioned.

Summer Time

I have had a difficult time coming up with different ideas for my 'summer' item in the larger Faerie Suites.

Each trinket chest currently has a pair of flip flops, an envelope, a parcel and three packages of seeds but I have always added a decoration of some type. This has ranged all the way from a single flower, a bird house, a watering can ... well you get the idea, something summery.

I have seen so many different things on Etsy but unfortunately when you start to multiply the costs and how many I would need, it just makes it too expensive.

I have always loved those wee little door signs that you can get. They come in all different sizes and shapes and colours and themes....

So, I figured I was just going to play today to see if I could come up with something myself with products I already have in the nursery.

These aren't perfect by any means but I think they actually ended up quite cute. They will fit nicely in the trinket chest and look wonderful hanging on the doors.

New Babies Have Arrived, Well Kinda...

After finally putting my Faerie Seed Pod Babies listing up on my Etsy store front I decided that I really didn't have that much of section to chose from.

So, I went back to main supplier of rose flower heads and was trying to decide what colours to order. They have such a wonderful selection of multicoloured and single toned flowers to choose from it's amazing.

In the end after almost placing my order for 4 packages of 25 each, I found after scrolling to the VERY bottom of the page, that they offered 2 types of mixed packages. Woo Hoo!! Mind you, each package came with 100 rose heads and that's a whole lot of babies that would have to be made and SOLD. The two types that they offered were of course the single toned and then the multicoloured ones. After thinking about it for what...maybe a whole 2 minutes, I purchased both.

I ended up with only 1 of the original 4 kinds that I was going to order but I love my selection now.

Burning Up the Nursery?

I was trying to figure out how to make sure that my wee little doors and the trinket chests could be recognized as being done by me.

The Flower Petal Faeries were easy, on the very bottom petticoat layer, I have hand written in the nurseries initials, the year and the faerie's name.

All of the packaging was easy as I just ordered rubber stamps with the company full name and the logo. So everything paper gets stamped.

Now back to the wood products! My husband suggested looking into some type of branding iron?? Off to the good ole internet I went. I made contact with Brand New Industries Inc. and with the help of Alyssa, I approved a branding plate. It took a bit to figure out exactly which branding iron would suit my purposes the best (in case I ever wanted to get a plate made with the company name on it).

But here is the final product. A big thank you goes out to my husband who was kind enough to do all of the branding for me....that is 80 faerie doors and 60 trinket chests (yes, more on their way in the mail).