Instagram

INSTAGRAM BUSINESS ACCOUNT

The Nursery has created a second account where you can enjoy all posts directly related to our Etsy page...

www.instagram.com/enchantedpathwaysfaerienursery


The Nursery's original account will continue to post just as it has with quotes, videos and random photo shoots...

www.instagram.com/faerienurserygarden


i look forward to seeing you on both accounts and don't forget... a follow for a follow

Peeking Around the Corner

so, here we are...many many (too many) moons gone by since i have had a chance to chat with you.

to me, when starting a new line, i kinda forget that there is an actual outside, an outside of the nursery. i know that I get comments from hubby (almost daily) did you read about this? have you taken the time to take a look at the photos i sent on Facebook? what do you think about going to the town bar-b-que this Friday? are you all packed to go and meet your 5th grand baby (Jolene Julie)? did you feed the dogs (Fionn & Ciaran) their night time snacks? .... i'm thinking that you just might be getting the picture here.

i have figured out that i really do need to keep in contact but it seems though that when i do get distracted it takes me even longer to complete the project of the day that i had been busy doing in the first place. but i know, my mother told me that getting that bit of fresh air will actually clear my head for a clearer picture of what next needs to be done.  

but.. 

i have convinced myself that .. here it comes .. another excuse ..

on the company's FaceBook page i created a photo album that i feel tells a bit (probably way more than what my intention was) of the up-coming result from my heart-felt journey of this newest line. A line that i can't wait to share with you. Oh, and plus, it just might prove that, yes, i have genuinely been working here in the nursery. 

hush  hush hush out of you .. now the cat-is-out-of-the-bag so to speak so please i ask you to remember that this posting was all just a mirage and that you will patiently wait a bit longer for the big reveal. 

great! now i have to go back and erase my Facebook album so they to can wait too (hopefully before any one sees or comments on the album)!

in case you end up missing it, i figure it would be best to share it with you now  ...

the sneak peek ..

On frilly note paper..

This is the message that the nursery received from one of the Mistress Sanna's that found a forever home away from the cold cold ocean. We always love to have updated and shared notes and even photos too...

"Hello My sweet caretaker,

Thank you so much for helping me come into this world of 2014. I find these fancy letter writers very interesting!! Michelle types for me, But I picked out everything, I wanted your letter to be extra special.

Michelle says you would like to see my room, and know if I am happy. Yes, my sweet friend, I am very happy here. They let me stay up as late as I want. I have my own t.v. And I have made new animal friends that play with me and sleep with me, and we even go on adventures together!!

I have a tray to help keep my furniture in place. A wonderful magic pool that my fish friend takes me on rides in. Sometimes we dive deep in the pool! You should see duckies face! When we dive deep, sometimes we come up in other places too. Saturday, we ended up in France! They place special rocks and shells around my pool, so I can sit by the waters edge, and brush my hair out. I even have a seashell seat! They also gave me special bottle of grooming lotion. It helps me clean myself, and softens my fair. They called it 'essence of water dragon' And boy is it a big bottle!!! I think it may last me a lifetime! In my pictures, you can see my bed, it is a paua shell, lined with hand embroidered sheets and pillow, and beside me, a little table made from a flower, with a bell on it, that I rend if I need anything! And of course my TV! I never saw anything like it, but it is fun watching people do silly things on it. Thank you again for my new family. They pamper me, and make me feel special. As time goes on, we may go places together, and send you pictures if you like. That way you can see how things are going. Would you like that? I miss you my friend, and all the sweet babies in the nursery too. Before I left, they gave me a small sac of fairy dust so I could have something of them with me no matter where I go. Tell them that I sprinkled my whole room with it, so that every where I look I remember them, could you please? Oh goodness, I am going to get , what did Michelle call it? Homesick again if I am not careful!  :) No matter how much I love them, I love you just as much. Be good to yourself! E-hugs!!!!
-- Mistress Sanna"

Finally..well kinda finally

I will admit that it has taken me almost 2 months (bad on me) to post the remaining 4 faeries from the Northern Line.

Now granted, I could make a thousand and one excuses...but technically...I really should have done this a wee bit a go but just haven't (bad on me again).

Right now they can be viewed on the website but they are not listed or linked to one of our e-commerce pages but hey, they are up for viewing.

Oooooohhhh but before I forget (and this one isn't a bad on me)....I have taken all NEW photos of The Northern Line Faeries....perhaps that is one of the reasons it has taken me this long for them to be  displayed.

Now, the next step...well, after I have these faeries listed/linked...next will come posting The Calendar Line.

You would think that with the craft fairs, the Christmas rush (guaranteed mailing dates) and well just most (some) of the general stuff being over for the year that I would be way more organized. But I am proud to admit...there are still 5 boxes that need to be dismantled from the craft fairs, all accounting (I haven't even found my sales book yet), posting of new faeries and the whole just keeping up with all of my sites (blog, website, e-commerce pages, Facebook etc.) I am pooped!

This is when I start to think that it is time that my wee faeries come out of hibernation and help me out...but everything that I have done so far has been unsuccessful. I have made tea (the really pretty pink coloured kind), sugar cookies (with extra icing), ringing sweet sounding jingle bells (even my ears are starting to pound), purposely leaving beads laying around the nursery (and yes, I have almost fallen on my keister once or twice), unlocking the cabinet that holds all of the wee jars of faerie dust (man, I know that I am just asking for trouble now)...and well....not too sure what there is left for me to do....any suggestions?

Well off I go to do something...not sure what this something will be...but I'm sure I will end up doing some of it anyways.

The Disappearing Tan Lines

Sigh....well with every holiday to the land of sunshine eventually the tan starts to fade away but thankfully the memories are and will be still fresh in your mind.

I had a wonderful time on the sunshine coast and was able to take some pretty fabulous photos that I posted through Instagram, well I thought that they were pretty fabulous photos!

As promised, I will start back this week with the 'Thought of the Day' postings.

And, as promised, I will go back and create a new tab for the 'Photo of the ??'. I have no clue exactly what to call this new idea.

I do notice though that unless I post something through this regular front blog page that no one really knows when I update the other tabs. I find this very frustrating and I am quite disappointed in this part of the Blogger program. I am still trying to research how to either get around this dilemma or how to let you, the reader know that I am posting. If anyone out there knows how to do this...please, please, please either comment on this post or send me an email. Any help at this stage is much appreciated.

I also apologize for the lateness of the posting as I had hoped to do it as soon as we had arrived home, okay, well after I unpacked from a three week vacation, well after I had a nap that lasted almost 24 hours, and well after I finally made it the grocery store to get some food the house!

As well, there are so many things that I need to get accomplished kind of ASAP.

• I am trying to make sure that the website has all of the correct links to each faerie that is available for sale. 
• I need to post all 13 members of the Northern Line of Faeries. 
• I would really like to figure out how to zoom when I am using the Instagram program on my iPhone. 
• I have everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that I need to start the new Line of Faeries. 
• I need to clean up the nursery after putting every general box and bag that landed on my worktable that had anything to do with the nursery.
• I took over 200 photos on my camera that I need to upload and figure out what I want to share.
• I was able to purchase another wee cabinet that currently holds all of Sapphire the Pixie's Faerie Dust jars. Now I need to know what to store in the new one and then to remember to give Sapphire the key!!
• I have a new butterfly diary that I would like to start using in the nursery...but again, what do I put in it...and no, this one doesn't have a key that I need to give to Sapphire.
• Photos, photos, photos. I took all new shots of the Northern Line of Faeries and I will need to see if that will be perfect to put on the website or not.
• I received a phone call from late July for one of our most favourites' visitors to the nursery and I just haven't either felt well enough or silly enough to not be ready for them to drop in.
• Speaking of those 'faerie minded' visitors, I received through an email a beautiful photo that I need to print off in colour and hang. It is always a humbling feeling when someone thinks of you.
• I guess I could go on and on and on...but I just realized that instead of writing all of this down here, that I guess that there were a few things that I could actually be doing to cross off of on my list...sigh...
• Ummm...anyone care to come for a visit to help me out?

Oh, and I have asked our website guru to see if it would be possible to change out the font that I am currently using on Blogger as if I can't read it, I really don't know how you can??

The Instant Photo

I have had such a great time continuing my wee stories through the nursery's Instagram account that just like the 'Thought of the Day' postings I would like to share them with you as well.

I will add yet another tab at the top so you can see the photos and story that was written to go with them.

In that same breath, again, this same idea will be carried over to the website as well.

I can't wait to start sharing even more of my silly antidotes, musings and even sometimes inspirational short stories. Mind you with all this being said, it seems that I might have started giving 'mankind' in general a hard time? But, this I will let you decide for yourself...mind you if you are a troll, a whale, a faerie or even a snail....you just might not actually have this same perspective!

I will start this new addition to the blog once I am back in the nursery.

Can it be? Can it be? Can it be!!

Now as some of you know and some of you don't know this tad bit of information and please do keep it to yourself as the faeries for their own protection do not want this to get out, especially to other faeries but my goodness never, never, never, ever, to a human!

I am not quite sure what transpired so long ago as I have not heard many of the stories, the whispers or even been able to eavesdrop while the faeries are sleepy eyed and singing themselves to sleep with dreams of days gone by. But for sure, for sure...something did happen those many moons ago that brought us and the faeries to such a quiet and shussssh type of relationship. It does seem though that there really are very few of us that can see faeries. Actually be able to listen to the faeries as they sing their songs. And most of all to be able to dance away with them while they play in the flower garden.

So with that all be told....we now hope to remember, to dream, to hope that we may be one of those lucky few....that get to know the faeries.

As we all know there is a whole lot more to that realm that has the thinnest, shimmery and magical veil to it that has all kinds of wonderful things happen on the side that we cannot see. But once in awhile, not very often, but sometimes they like to just peek their toes through and their noses so they can see what all the noise is about on our side.

So if the mystery of the faeries is somewhat known to others, who just might know a wee bit more of the puzzle, who know just a wee bit more of the secret than to the best of my knowledge...and as you can tell...well...all in all...I really don't know too much at all!

Back to the original few sentences that this wee story relates to...I seem to be able to get easily distracted from the thought at hand...but then again....I think I am allowed to deviate a bit as with living in a nursery filled with faeries...well who wouldn't be absentminded, bewildered and well be completely stumped, perplexed and well be completely befuddled!

I have learnt (remember to shhhhhhussshhh this part of the story) that the faeries can actually wear the tiniest, of the weeniest, of the whittliest, of the teensy-weensiest, of the itty-bittiness, of the...well okay, you figured out that I was just trying to say that these aren't huge by any means. They wear cameras! Well, actually, I really don't know what they wear or if they are wearing anything at all for that matter. I just know that they are able to somehow share little glimpse of what they see and transfer it to an image that a human can see. Now, I don't know if that means that I am someone special, someone that is lucky, or just someone who stumbled upon, or just someone that yearns so much to be able to see these images or whatever it is called and known throughout the world of Fae!

Now these images can somehow (please do not ask me how, why or what as I truly do not know) be put onto a film that I can transfer into a picture that we, humans, can see them, view them and in most times just be in awe as you can now see what the faeries see!

Today, as the sun was still a wee bit warm in the early afternoon and there was no breeze to be had, mind you there were lots of Boreal Chickadees and the sometimes very pushy Grosbeaks swinging from the seed filled feeders and then on top of all of those birds chirping away that sometimes love to the start to dip and dive while trying to catch one of the faeries, just to play with them or so they say...there was a squirrel hiding in amongst the sunflowers that needed to be watched, and watched very carefully.

So instead of letting them hide within the tall grasses in the bushes where the squirrel could quickly spring to, so I decided I would just let them out to tip toe through the flower garden instead.

Now, all of a sudden I heard a full out flutter of wings and high pitched squeals and giggles...so off I run outside to see what all the commotion was about...but the faeries were just talking way too fast for me to even to try to figure out what on earth they were trying to tell me.

With all of this excitement going on...this is how I learned of their secret...(the one that I mentioned way up close the beginning of this story...but remember you have to shhhhhussssshhhh and not to breathe a word about this)...that they decided it was important enough that I needed to see what they had seen.

I, myself, am at a loss for words, I have no clue how to even process what they showed me, or if I am even allowed to share with even you. After much discussion and trust me...with faeries...it may seem to you and me that this whole conversation was only a few seconds long, but this bit of chatter to a faeries took all afternoon, through tea time, through supper time and then all the way to the darkness of the evening... that they had finally decided that they could/should share what they knew with me!

What they told me, well the best way to describe it....is well just through the pictures that they shared with me...

I could see something but I wasn't quite sure what exactly it was that I was seeing. 

To me, this looked like perhaps we had a visiting stunning and beautiful wee pony.  

Even with this front view, I was still wondering if I should give my head a shake! 

 Things are a bit clearer but was I really seeing what I thought I was seeing?

And here she is! In all of her loveliness, grandeur and exquisiteness...

I do believe we have a unicorn here in amongst our nursery!

It's the Little Things that Count

I so fell in love with the little tree that I had added as an extra to Faerie Boreal of the Northern Line of Faeries that I just had to do the same for all of the other Faeries.

Now I haven't gotten around to taking photos of the Faeries with their extras yet but here are the items that they will have.

Faerie Aurora with her dreamcatcher....

Faerie Boreal with her pine tree....

Faerie Midnight Sun with her sun charm....

Faerie Raven with her raven....

Faerie Snowflake with her snowflake....

Faerie Agua with her water drop....

For those of you that have already purchased a Northern Faerie and you would like to have her accompanying extra, please let me know and I will send you one from the Nursery at no charge. 

January 2, 2012? Did I Put Up the Wrong Calendar?

What on earth? Have I put up the wrong calendar? Has my computer all of a sudden gotten a glitch and forgotten how to keep time? What is happening?

January 2, 2012 ~ This exact date means a lot to me and my little nursery.  It is a day that I have just let slip under the keyboard as one that needs to be remembered one day, but not now.

But today, December 27, 2013 ~ This exact date means a lot to me and my little nursery. It is a day that I will now mark on all of my calendars, paper and digital, a day that honestly, I didn't think I would ever see!

On January 2, 2012, I opened my business page on Facebook for Enchanted Pathways Faerie Nursery. I have learned so much in these short two years. I have met some wonderful people, some of whom I now call great friends, some of whom I have actually met in person.

There are always little things that as a shop owner you watch for as your own check list to see if you are doing things the right way.

As we all know, Facebook itself these past few years has gone through some major transformations, the number one being going public with its shares. Now as a business person, if I want you, as a follower, as a reader, as a potential purchaser of my products, I now have to put Facebook into my Marketing Budget Line which was never an issue before. On average, I have under 200 views for a posting that has no photo attachments and no links. If I do attach photos or a forwarding link, I'm lucky if I get 50 views for that posting. Now I know that through Google Analytics, there is a better day to post, even a better time of day to be posting....but doesn't that take away the....I have something I want to tell you now effect?? And, I'm sorry, I'm just not one that is going to be told when it is the best time to be posting...when I want to tell you something, I'm going to tell you as it us taking place, not at the optimal time of day.

So back to why today, December 27, 2013 is so important to me, both as Faerie Amma and as Emmanuelle.....I reached a milestone of 1000 followers/viewers to my Facebook page today.

As promised, Ms. Cheryl Nixon will have her choice of any one of my Faeries from the Northern Line. The Faerie will be carefully packaged and sent off on behalf of the Faerie Nursery to say Thank You!

I wished I could give something to each and everyone of you for following me, commenting on my postings and liking my photos. Please know, that I appreciate each like and each comment. It is nice to know that I'm not alone out there in the massive World Wide Web!

So here's looking to the next milestone of 1500....where another giveaway will be done to celebrate that follower.

Thank You again.

It's all about the little things!

Never to be stagnant...isn't that the trick to keeping people interested in what you do?

Somedays I really feel that I have a love/hate relationship with Blogger but only when it comes to positioning photos!! I have tried my best to make sure that everything lines up, why, because that's the way I like to view a page. Now Blogger seems to always have something else in mind for me.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So, with that in mind...I have updated a few of the tabs. Well, mainly added and deleted photos as Blogger would allow me to.

So for all newcomers to my blog...please snoop around, get to know the place. I always welcome suggestions and ideas of what you would like to see.

I have noticed that a lot of the bloggers that I follow have started to take on advertisers. In fact, I am even paying to advertise on their blogs!! Wait a minute here...something doesn't seem to add up, I am paying to advertise my own products on someone else's blog?? Okay, in my own defence to my accountant...they do happen to have a LOT of followers. My blog has mainly been, well, for me. Maybe one day it will get to the point that I will have enough interest in what I do here in the nursery to warrant me asking others to pay to advertise here but until then...this rant is for me (and Blogger, if they are listening!!).

I'm Still Here......

It seems like forever since I last wrote a blog posting. It is not like I haven't been either here in the nursery working or out of the nursery shopping while out of town. It is just that I haven't had the time to sit still long enough to write down what I have been up to.

There has been some major and some not so major changes to the company and to me personally as Faerie Amma (and the me, the alter ego of Faerie Amma).

Some of the major changes to the company includes a new direction....

I have hired a wonderful writer by the name of Michelle E. J. Knowles who has been listening to the faeries and it seems that the wee ones might not be here for much longer but I will let her tell their story.

The website has been updated by added new 'pink sparkles' to the banners on each page; the amalgamation of the faeries and princes page and the renaming of the Northern Faeries.

A new table top photo shoot box was purchased to give a more professional look to our photos. A massive thank you goes out to hubby who took the time to take the photos of the Northern Line of Faeries. I think they look fantastic on the new blue backdrop :)

The naming of our dragon mascot took place back in August but it looks like I forgot to mention it here on my blog! Her name is Roisin which is an Irish name meaning little Rose. For now she is our only dragon here at the nursery but perhaps in the future we will find more of her kind.

I am pleased to announce that the Faerie Magazine has a new partner and they are back in publication. My half page ad that ran in issue #24 looks fantastic and issue #25 will be out in December. I have applied to the Government of the Northwest Territories - Industry, Tourism and Investment Division for further funding so I can continue advertising with Kim for the 2014 subscription year. I hope to hear next week if my submission was accepted (keeping fingers crossed).

Other than that...it is business as usual....the nursery is in shambles as the faeries and locked insides as we have a light dusting of snow. As more product continues to arrive the faeries love to dive right in and well, let's just say that I have no clue at all what I have and what I don't have anymore. There are flower petals and sparkles to be found everywhere. But that is what makes working in a faerie nursery everything that when you close your eyes and you just even try to imagine what it must be like....it is ten thousand times better.

And with that thought....here they are....the Northern Line of Faeries introducing...

Boreal

Snowflake

Aurora

Raven

Agua

Midnight Sun

Camouflaging in the Flowers

The Nursery received an update on Lucilleadelle today....doesn't she just look splendid in amongst these pretty flowers :)

I just love it when the faeries that flown off to new homes write back and say 'hello'

The Goodies

I will be attending my very first Fort Smith Trade Show as an actual vendor and not a shopper this weekend.

The Government of the Northwest Territories - Industry, Tourism & Investment (GNWT - ITI) department kindly nominated my little faerie nursery as a potential crafter to be sponsored for a booth. At first, I was all woo hoo and I can't wait but I will be honest...I had NO clue how much work has had to go into Saturday's event.

My massive shopping spree from VistaPrint will certainly come in handy from the 6' banners all way down to all of my printed materials including sticky notes, magnets, rack cards, tri-fold brochures and business cards.

This will be the first time that I get to use my tablecloth that I had specially printed with my company colours and logo.

All of the new products lines will be making their debut ~ jewelry, Bubble Faeries and the Northern Faeries - Midnight Sun and Aurora. I will be bringing along samples of my little Faeries, Princes, Seed Pod Babies, Teacup Nurseries, Wooden Doors and the Trinket Chests.

So far....without adding any product yet...I am up to 4 rubber maids...oh and I will have to carry in the banners and their stands as well...oh and there are also two wooden shelving units that I am bringing along. Still hoping that they will be able to find an extra table so that the ladies have somewhere to do their sparkle tattoos from!!

I worked hand-in-hand with my daughter to come up with a gift basket to give away. We decided to title it The Flower Basket. It is plum full of faerie stuff and flower scented Avon goodies. This basket is also featuring a Bubble Faerie, hence the bubble bath :)

And yes, the ladies and I will be in full make-up and I have arranged to have a photographer available to a photo op!!

If you happen to live in the area, please stop by the booth to say 'hi' and introduce yourself.

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

A Sneak Preview

As I have mentioned before, my teacup nurseries are coming along quite well. I am very happy with them and enjoying experimenting with all of the new and interesting shapes.

Each teacup nursery will come of course with a flower petal faerie. I have decided to make each of these faeries match the colours of the teacups. Thought that it would be quite complementary and tie in nicely.

As my graphic designer is waiting NOT so patiently for the photos of the teacup nurseries for the magazine ad, I figured it was about time I actually get some faeries made.

Here is a sneak peak at what I managed to do this evening. Now just remember, this is only a peak!

And yes, the faeries are tipped upside down drying in their respective teacups :)

26 'Sunshine Girls'

The 'Sunshine Girls' have blessed us with being completed today. Each one very unique and full of life.

Next will be the naming ceremony along with photos. Stay tuned :)