Keeping Up With The Times

It's not like I'm not doing anything or having anything to blog about or even post....I don't think that I have actually taken more than a day off from being here in the nursery since the New Year.

I have spent most of my time putting on a watermark on all of the photos that I have posted. As well as retaking photos so everyone is done on the same backgrounds. I can't believe how time consuming this project has become. With each faerie having 5 photos that need to either be retaken or they are just fine and all need to be watermarked.

Next is trying to figure out all of this whole marketing idea. As advertising in magazines (to this point anyways) has proved to have zero return on the dollar. So....I am thinking I am going to do the research and take up a few offers that I have been given. It seems that you can advertise with big name newspapers on-line for minimal cost. This will allow me to diversify and have an on-line presence for a longer period of time over putting a bunch of money into a magazine ad that is posted only once!

I have been working on the Clay Potters. Trying to keep up with everyone that wants to be a character, which may I add, I have had a wonderful response from family, friends and complete strangers. I have formulated lots of ideas in my head on what I want on certain pages of the book, the rest will just have to come naturally as I play :)

I am now working with a new graphic designer hoping to revamp all of my printed materials. As this just started this week, I don't really have anything to show you yet but as it comes available I will share.

In other news, I now have an active presence on 5 new e-commerce websites. There seems to have been lots of changes made over in the office of Etsy and they are now charging to have your items showing up on the first couple of pages.

After lots and lots and lots of research, I have opted to try out a few 'new kids' to the e-commerce block along with a few that have been around for a few years but just didn't catch the wave that Etsy did. I am sure with all of the new changes more and more of the little guys will emerge and become successful.

So......with that all being said... you can now find my wee little faeries at:

Etsy
Art Fire
Craft Cafe
Zaybia
Zibbet
Storenvy

Each of these sites will feature different faeries so there is no over lapping as well.

Other new news....Facebook!! It seems that now that they have to actually pay dividends out there has been some very not so good changes done to the rules on how to play on Facebook.

1. You can only use 20% of your banner for words/advertising??
2. You can no longer do a free giveaway of your own products without using a third-party to collect the data and declare a winner.
3. Only 20% of those people who 'follow' you will see a post.

What this means to me....

1. I will have to change my banner...that's an easy change for me...thank goodness.
2. I have had to repost my Valentine's Day free give away of Faerie Prince Conor and sign up to use Rafflecopter. The problem with this, is that unless I want to pay a monthly fee of $7.00 to Rafflecopter, I will never know who enter, how many people entered or if anyone entered at all. As well, this takes away from me being able to hand write all entries only rose petals and make the draw personally. Now all what I will get is an e-mail informing me who to send Prince Conor to. How utterly SAD is that?
3. Even when I make a post on my own Faerie Nursery Facebook page...it doesn't show up in my own personal news feed. I am even subscribed to my own company page and I still don't get to see my own postings? How utterly STUPID is that! Oh...but there is a catch....for $4.00 a posting, I can have my post seen by all 500+ people that have opted to subscribe to follow me!! Yeah, like that is ever going to happen!!

So in the meantime...I will play the game and follow the rules of Facebook and patiently wait for the next best social media site to come along so we can all say...OMG do you remember using FB!!

So...thank you all for reading..this was a wonderful break from doing research and putting watermarks on umpteen photos...and you let me RANT.

I love you all....

Faerie Amma

And Who Doesn't Love SPARKLES???

Tomorrow is Art in the Park and as a last minute decision I decided I would like to do a tree display for the faeries. 

Now normally, well I have only ever done Christmas craft fairs before, I have used pine tree branches with moss at the base. Mind you this display is used for the complete Faerie Suite that includes the magical wooden door, trinket chest and a flower petal faerie. Everything is tucked in nicely to create a wonderful mystical scene with mushrooms and rabbits and faeries in the trees.

But as this is a summer fair, I thought maybe using just branches that are sparkled to hold the faeries. So over the weekend I just happened upon one of those light-up branch Christmas trees. You know the ones, just bare branches, no leaves. Well the picture on the box made it look like it was rounded and filled out and just perfect to hide little faeries in. After taking it out of the box....well lets just say it was silver branches all right, but they were all tied together flatly. There was no dimension, no nothing, just flatness!

Really need creativity here. The craft fair set-up is tomorrow morning. I don't want another Christmas scene and anyways, my table is only going to be about 3 feet long. Not nearly enough room to show a complete Faerie Suite. So what to do. Don't want to show off my Teacup Nurseries just yet. What does that leave me. The Seed Pod Faerie Babies...but but but. Nah. I am only going to take my faeries. 

So, off I went after work...need spray paint and sparkles...oh yeah and branches! 

I was lucky enough to have Georgina come over who really should go into interior design. No, really, she should! Wow. She did a fantastic job of the whole tree. She make little spaces for the faeries to sit in and everything. Plus she seems quite at home wearing sparkles :)

I will take more pictures tomorrow once everything is set up at the venue. As I am unsure if I will have access to an electrical outlet, the tree looks just fine without all the blue shiny lights. 

Wish me luck :)    

And thank you again Georgina :)

Georgina having fun ;)

Sparkles :)

Sparkles, Spray Glue and Rubber Gloves..hmmmm

 Fionn making sure we are doing things right!!

sparkly leaves

with lights

without lights