Radical Move!

Greetings to anyone who still stops by this blog!
Obviously it's been a light-year since I last posted here. I simply got tired. Tired. Of. Life. In. General. But there's a funny thing about "ennui": after awhile you can't stand it anymore and crazy things start happening.

For starters, I quit smoking. Yep, after 25 years of puffing my life away I got some sense and dragged my stinky nicotine smelling self off to a hypnotist and took care of the problem once and for all. It's been 6 months since I quit and I haven't had any urge at all to smoke. Yippeeeeee!!!!
And good riddance to it!!!!!

Then, as my GI cousin so adeptly put it, I gave my job at the bank the "one-fingered salute." Yes indeed, I quit. After 15 years I left a good paying job with great benefits to open my own retail shop!!!!! Wow. Am I nuts? Probably. In this economy? Yep. Go figure! Anyway, I've been wanting to do just that for ages and I finally followed my dream and opened my shop on Nov 22nd. It is called 'Twas Brillig. I make customized floral designs, handcrafted jewelry and many other nifty things. I know I'm biased but my shop is really stinkin' cute!!!!

In the meantime, I am going to deep six "Imaginary Fronds." Look for a new blog very soon showcasing my adventures in small business ownership and all matters handcrafted!

Until then.....beware the Jub-jub bird and the frumious bandersnatch!!!!

Orchids for Christmas

Orchids for Christmas??? Absolutely!
The client asked for traditional Christmas colors. She didn't specify traditional Christmas flowers!

I just love it when the client gives me leeway and lets me come up with my own vision. It's very confining when the customer dictates the style, flowers, colors and size of the arrangement when I have something completely different in mind. In fact, if I have a pre-conceived idea of what the design should be, the more difficult it is for me to execute the design. I really prefer to just go where the floral muse takes me at any moment in time.

This arrangement went to a repeat customer who has been super supportive not only in commissioning pieces from me (...and she wants another piece after the holiday bustle is over!!) but also in promoting me to her friends in the area. Ah, yes...the joy of word of mouth advertising!

On a different note....if you enjoy completely irreverant humor, check out the Lego Advent escapades over at No Appropriate Behavior. It's "Lego City Advent Calendar" vs. "Lego Belville Advent Calendar." Very funny stuff! I've been waiting all year for this!!! :)

A Fool for Orchids

It's been another productive weekend all around...even if I only did half of the "housekeeping" items on my list. At least the big jobs are done. We've got company coming to visit in a week and a half so I'm just scurrying all around the house in preparation.

That's not to say that I haven't taken a few moments to be creative! I sat down to play with my very favorite flowers...orchids! I never paid much attention to orchids until about a year or so ago. Didn't care about them. Heard they were a pain to grow. Blew them off. Totally. And then my Mom bought me one. And I can't get enough of them. I now have nine. And they're fussy. And fantastic!

Obviously, it was a real hardship for me to work with silk orchids today. Here's my wee little orchid arrangement in a thrifted lotus bowl. Okay, maybe it's not so little. It stands about a foot tall!

A Hint of Autumn

Is it me or is time zooming by this summer? Autumn is just around the bend...and already my floral designs are learning toward harvest colors. I just can't believe how quickly the summer has passed...or how long it's been since my last post. Where have I been? LOL

I did manage to take a long break from work and during the week & a half I was out, I only managed this one creation. I did, however, clear out and reorganize the disaster area known as the garage so that yours truly, Mizfixit, could actually find a tool or two in order to fix something... anything!!! The upside to the Great Garage Clean-up of 2007 is that I discovered I did not own a working jigsaw or router. This, of course, necessitated a trip to buy a new jigsaw. I can't exist without a jigsaw...they are SOOOOO useful! And yes, I was gleeful (in the store) because I was buying a power tool. I'm such a dweeb. Soon, I'll be going back to buy a new router and a compound miter saw. On the same day. OMG. I promise I won't drool! Much. Once all those toys are in place, the woodcrafting will begin! :) Yep, I'm all over the crafty map, aren't I?

And..................I got another commission!!!!! I'll be doing 2 matching pieces--a tall container arrangement for an entry porch corner with a matching piece for the door. Yippee!!! Word is slowly getting out!

Summertime...and a New Creative Obsession!

Hmmmm....orange & yellow. Now where might I have found the inspiration for this color scheme in a floral arrangement? The wise swap mavens over at Sweet Goodness Swaps had the right idea...seems that orange & yellow ARE the hot colors for this summer. Although I'm sitting out this time during their Summer swap, I'll be eagerly watching from the sidelines to see all the lovely creations and goodies!



And...I had another sale!!! Yippee!!!! You might remember the Morning Glory Madness arrangement that I made during my floral classes in February. All these sales...well, all 3 of them anyway... are encouraging. I'm thrilled that people like my arrangements enough to buy them. At the very least, it helps motivate me to create and keeps the dream of my own little shop, "Imaginary Fronds", alive and well. I've been looking around for other things to create, other than florals, to add to the appeal and allure of that future shop. Which brings me to my next creative obsession..............


Jewelry making! My Mom pointed out a beading magazine in the store a few weeks back and the next thing you know, I am HOOKED. Lucy even caught me red-handed at Michael's stuffing my shopping basket with beads and all kinds of supplies to start myself down the path of jewelry making. Here's a picture of my first creation which is not entirely finished. I wasn't smart enough to buy 2 of the same toggle (and it was sold out when I went back) so the necklace remains unfinished until the store restocks the toggle.


So far, I have learned 4 things about making jewelry. First off, don't string your beads too tight. I wound up having to re-string the bracelet.

Secondly, Michael's charges way too much for their beading supplies (duh!) and I now have several catalogs with far more economical prices on their way to me.

Third...as I mentioned earlier....make sure you buy enough stuff to finish a project unless you want to be disappointed.

And last, but not least, be sure to lay out your jewelry perfectly before photographing it! You can't see all the danglies in this picture but you get the idea :)

It is my own design, crafted from turquoise beads, 2 different colors of Swarovski bicone crystals and sterling silver beads and findings. Please, please, please give me feedback on this set!

Determination

It is entirely possible that my bout of "crafter's block" is over. I've had every excuse in the book as to why I haven't created a single thing in over a month...you know, the usual litany of too tired, too stressed, too busy, too whatever ad nauseum! Well, I took a 5 day weekend and was determined to have something to show for it. I wound up with 6 somethings!!!


The first 5 are actually hanging basket houseplants that I whipped up for our sunroom (3 more to go but need to get more pots first). You see, Mom & I have potted up live plants for that sunroom about 20 times, no exaggeration! We only walk right past the sunroom umpteen times a day and do you think we could manage to water the poor plants? Nope. I hate to think about how many plants we've killed this way. Anyway, a while back I suggested to Mom that silks might be the answer and she finally said "do it." Well, let me tell you they look great and there's no watering and therefore, no guilt. :)

Then I managed to make this green & burgundy creation which is a bit wild. It will be off to the salon in the near future where I hope someone will like it enough to give it a good home. I'm pleased to report that two of my previously posted creations were sold...the Bird Cage & Then there were Fronds.

I've just got to keep the momentum going....

The Bird Cage

I really need to post more often...I've been meaning to share this creation from my last floral design class for almost 2 weeks. The class is over now :( It was an enormous amount of fun and more inspiring than I imagined it would be!

I have had this birdcage hanging about for over a year and figured if I was going to make an arrangement in it that I'd better do it while I still had an instructor to pester should it all go horribly wrong! And yes, it's a crazy mish-mash of many elements. Again, I wish my pictures were better.

In other news, I delivered 2 commissioned arrangements this week which was very exciting for me! Both customers seemed very pleased and one asked for business cards to give to her friends who she was sure would want new arrangements of their own!!!

I probably worry too much when making commissioned pieces...there's always the fear that the customer will hate the arrangement. It hasn't happened yet, thankfully, probably because I ask A LOT of questions up front to make sure I understand what they are looking for. Still, you never know....

I joined the Spring Fling Swap hosted by Rebecca & Lucy at Sweet Goodness Swaps and just found out that my swap friend is Heidi. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, you should!
I confess that I have lurked on her blog many times in the past and am delighted she is my swap buddy! Lucy has a sense of humor to pair a knitiot (that would be me) with the Spiritual Knitter herself...oh, the irony! Heidi, rest assured that I won't knit anything for you...at this juncture whatever I attempt to make turns out looking like mangled kitty toys :) But, I'm learning!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May your blessings outnumber

the shamrocks that grow,

And may trouble avoid you

wherever you go!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Ah, St. Paddy's Day....I look forward to it every year because my Mom corns her own brisket and it is delish!!!

Anyway...I've been avoiding posting my latest floral class creation because I was missing one flower and it wasn't complete without it. I even managed to go into Michael's and buy just one stem in order to finish it up. (Okay, I fibbed-2 stems-I couldn't decide which one would match, so I bought them both.) So, here you have it...my grapevine wreath, now gracing our front door! Mostly I'm proud of myself for using pink stems. Pink and I do not get along very well. I find it hard to incorporate into my creations.

And finally I can share with you the commissioned piece I mentioned in a post way back in early February. I finally managed to find a block of time to just sit down and create it. At one point, about 3 weeks ago, I had started working on it from a sketch I had made of what I thought it should look like. Bad idea. I hated it so much that I ripped it apart. Today, I just went with the creative muse that was wafting around the room and created the design shown here. The future owner had asked for a new Spring centerpiece for her dining room table, done in blues & mauves, with oriental accents. I used mauve & blue hydrangeas, deep mauve flowers (no idea what those are but the color was perfect), lotus blossoms, willow twigs, white cherry blossoms and bamboo leaves. I wish the picture had turned out better because you can't see the depth and dimension in this piece at all. :(

In other crafty news, I'm working on a painted pillar candle holder that is made from a 6-inch terra cotta rose pot and a 4-inch matching saucer. I saw the design on the cover of Quick & Easy Painting magazine and of course said, "I can make that!" Stay tuned for the finished product.... I'm about half way finished already!

And then there were FRONDS!

Tuesdays are fast becoming my favorite day of the week! Unfortunately, there are only 2 more of my floral design classes left to go....waaaaaaaaaah!!!! Going forward, I guess I'll just have to set aside Tuesday nights strictly for frondy fun. Hey! That's not a bad idea at all!

Tonight was foliage night and I came up with this kooky arrangement. It's hard to tell what's going on from the picture, but I used 3 kinds of ferns (I adore ferns!), poppy pods, grape leaves and some marvelous bendy grapevine (if you look closely, you'll see the dark coils meandering around). Since my approach last week worked so well, I went zipping through my craft room quickly again and made quick stem selections. I mentioned this approach to the teacher and he said it's really the best way to do it because the designs flow better and are not so cookie cutter-ish or constructed. The trick is to make it all look like it grew that way naturally! Did I mention that I'm having entirely too much fun??? Is it next Tuesday yet?? LOL

Morning Glory Madness

Tonight I had entirely too much fun putting together this arrangement in my floral class! Last week, I had pre-selected the flowers and had a good idea what it would look like before I even started. Today, I was running behind and had nothing picked out ahead of time. Sometimes you gotta go with the flow! And sometimes the flow leads to really cool, kooky things like this Morning Glory Madness! I ran through my craft room 15 minutes before I left for class, grabbing stuff left and right. I must try that method again....I'm way happier with this arrangement than the one I did last week :)

Crappy Day Becomes Happy Day

There are days when I really wonder about myself. Today, of course, was one of them. I'll spare you the details but I did not cope very well with how my work day developed at the office. It started when I got a LOT of ink all over the sleeve of one of my best sweaters. One of my co-workers came to the rescue...hairspray removes ink. I never would have guessed that. Anyway, it got worse from there......

(leaving this part to your imagination, mostly because I don't want to revisit it)

.....until I left for the day and headed off to my floral design class at the local community college. I have the privilege of learning from a well-known local freelance floral designer named Carl Klabbatz who has worked with a whole slew of designers over his 34 year career. His work stands out and is fantastic! Every so often he teaches this class. In the past, I've not been able to enroll due to time issues. But finally, I'm there and I've already learned a TON of things from him. The photo in this post is from the arrangement I created tonight. Carl said I did "very, very well." I'm thrilled!!! There's hope for me yet!

This arrangement is a little more formal than I intended and it won't work in my house, so this one is off to the salon where I sell my stuff this Saturday!

Winter Reverie

I've been given a nudge to update my blog...and to snap out of my winter reverie! I haven't been completely idle...been plugging away at my Pink & Brown crafty items for Claire :) I have to confess that the materials I chose also include blue and a little orange. The pink is not as prevalent as I had hoped when I started the project but there's no turning back now!

Lucy tagged me to go blog-surfing and find 5 blogs of interest by starting with the 5th blog on my list, going to the 5th blog on her list and so on.....I had to bend the rules a teensy bit and start with the 4th blog on my list. Here are all the fun places I visited!!!

Bitter Betty
Mommy Mosh Pit
Punk Rawk Purl
A Fistful of Stitches
Fresh Peth

I've also been out & about gathering up a variety of silk flowers for the commissioned piece I am making. Blues, mauves, creams, bamboo, orchids....I can't wait to get started on this one!

Time to get a Wiggle on!

It's high time I snapped out of my post-holiday daze....or as Mom used to tell me when I was a wee bairn, "Time's a-wastin', time to get a wiggle on!" (that still makes me giggle to myself when I think of it)

The Pink & Brown Swap is on! I've been out hunting goodies & visiting my swap partner's blog--Claire at Little Lovelies. What a cute blog! She describes herself as an equal opportunity crafter! Love it...sounds like me, I will try any craft if I think it looks interesting :)

This swap is exactly the kind of nudge I needed to get back to crafting. I have far too many WIPs and planned projects that I have yet to start! (and I know I'm not alone in that area...thanks to all of you confessed procrastinators for assuaging my guilt!) And it also looks like I have a floral arrangement customer as a result of the 2 Christmas floral raffles I did for my Mom's club! One of the ladies has asked that I come to her home to talk about a large Spring arrangement for her dining room! YAY! I've really been looking forward to creating Spring arrangements.

Okay, enough blogging...I must go get a wiggle on!

Christmas is Coming!

Whipped up these Sculpey Christmas ornaments this afternoon... well, it took ALL afternoon because Sculpey is not my friend! They came in kits with most of the clay colors and instructions to make all the ornaments. While they turned out better than I thought they would, they don't look anything like the packaging showed. I had to take some liberties with the directions. Oh, wait! That's right, I have artistic license! COOL. In that case, they're perfect, oui? LOL

Anyway, they're finished & about to get gift bagged for the gals at work. (Lucy, if you see this tonight, act surprised tomorrow, okay? LOL) Other than wrapping gifts, this was my last project to complete for the holidays. Boy, am I relieved :)


More importantly, my cousin, Christopher, will be arriving on Christmas Eve and will be here for Christmas Day. He's a Staff Sergeant (Army) and has been a drill instructor for the last 2 years. He's also the little brother I never had. We're 4 years apart in age and got to know each other during vacations that we spent at our grandparents' house in Florida each summer when we were kids. Usually he only stops in for a few hours, so an overnight stay is a "real" visit and a chance to trade "war stories!" And we've got plenty of stories, that's for sure! It's been years since he's been here for Christmas...I can hardly stand the wait!

Hercules, in his Christmas finery, wants to take you on a tour to see some of the Christmas decorations! (I still can't believe he actually wears this collar and doesn't object. The other 2 kitties freak out.)

This wreath is one of my designs from about 6 years ago. It was based off of a floral centerpiece that Mom bought and which is displayed inside our living room fireplace (non-working) each year. I also made up some garland for the mantle which matches both the wreath & the floral centerpiece. For some reasons, all the pictures I took of the garland & centerpiece came out blurry & unusable. Sorry!

Our Christmas tree is a big mixture of handmade ornaments & Hallmark collectible ornaments. We favor anything that depicts animals! (Go figure!) The only problem we have with the tree is decorating the bottom set of branches...a definite no-no with the Divine Felines. We've learned to put some soft "sacrificial" ornaments on the bottom branches for them to pull off & play with. I think you can see a heart-shaped one in the picture. It really does save the tree from certain disaster!


Our stocking are hung (patriotically!) by the chimney with care... I saw these a few years back at a local old-timey hardware store and couldn't pass them up.


And our carved carolers have been with us for years. We found them in a "country primitives" shop in Hudson, Ohio at least 20 years ago. They are my favorite pieces to put out each year. Even the dog and cat are caroling! How cute is that?? :)

Well, it's off to fight with the Divine Felines over the wrapping paper...I'll let you know who wins!

Photographic Phumble

There are some things I shouldn't do at 6:00 in the morning.

Brilliant me, who procrastinated making Christmas centerpiece #2 until 10:00 last night, decided to take its picture this morning...before my required cuppa Joe, before my shower and before feeding the Divine Felines. Result? Lousy pictures.

No amount of photo editing or cropping could save these two images. Lousy angle, lousy background, lousy light. Also please note the kitten in the lower left who insisted she was starving and continued to insert herself into just about every photo I took, only to turn her nose up at kitty banquet offered mere minutes later.

At any rate, Mom took the centerpiece to her luncheon meeting and raffled it off. More success! More people made positive comments and more people took my card!

As for me, as they say around here, I am wore slap out! Happens to me every year just before Christmas... too many things to do, not enough hours in the day. Anyone else who feels the way I do, raise your hand and say "Dagnabbit, I need SLEEP!"

Luckily, I am counting the hours until my vacation begins....only about 18 hours or so until I can relax! Well, at least a little bit! I still have some Christmas shopping to do but all next week to finish it. Oh, and the tree isn't up... and all the decorations aren't out....and I haven't started my Christmas cards...and....and....uh, oh.....I think I'm in trouble already! :)

Christmas Centerpiece

Just wanted to share a picture of my latest creation, a Christmas arrangement that was raffled off last night. Mom commissioned me to make it for the Christmas party for her ladies' social club. I was sad to see this one go because I really liked it! However, the arrangement attracted a bunch of attention and very positive comments from the 50 folks at the party. Quite a few took my business card! Mom's club is also having their annual Christmas luncheon next week and there will be another arrangement raffled off then. Hopefully, I'll get some calls in the near future!

Kitty Alarm Clocks

"The best laid plans of mice & men, often go awry."
(Adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men , Gang aft a-gley.”)

So much for sleeping in this weekend. The Kitty Alarm Clocks went off at 6:45 on Saturday, and 7:00 today. Yesterday, I would have ignored them but I did need to drop Katie (my dog) off at the groomer by 8:00. For making sure I didn't oversleep, they were warmly praised! What good kitties they were!

This morning........I could have killed them. At 7:00 precisely, I was awakened by the sound of Hercules & Isis knocking over my bedroom lamp and breaking the light bulb inside of it. Ugh. Glass everywhere. Of course, they looked at me with big, round, innocent eyes when I loudly announced, "I am NOT amused." What bad kitties they are!

At least I made use of the extra time so lovingly granted to me by the Divine Felines. After I dropped off Katie yesterday, I indulged myself with a bit of photography. The morning light was too perfect to ignore! Here's a sampling of what I saw:

The Southern Pines train station.....renovated by the town about a year ago. Lovely to look at, hard to photograph! The train track runs right through the middle of town. Broad Street, the main thoroughfare and home to many eclectic boutiques, runs parallel to the tracks (on both sides - one way in each direction).




The Christmas display in the window of A Wild Hare, one of my favorite gift shops in the downtown area.






Our new Christmas wreaths that decorate the lamp posts up & down Broad Street. The lamp posts, also new this year, have an old-timey gaslight look to them and really complement the atmosphere of downtown Southern Pines. And the new wreaths are a HUGE improvement over the old ones which were too ugly to describe!





I liked the way the light played on the branches of this towering old sycamore tree. I'm always fascinated by how quickly the light changes when taking photographs. I took 9 or 10 pictures of this tree, mostly from this very same angle, over a period of 2 to 3 minutes and no two of them are exactly alike. This was the very last one I shot and it turned out to be the best. Also, this scaled down image does not do this picture justice....it really looks much better as an 8x10!






Two more shots of Broad Street....it is so peaceful downtown when no one else is around!





This morning, after the great broken light bulb caper, I decided to put together 2 floral creations. I had a special dispensation from Lucy to purchase silk poinsettias and other sundries to make Christmas arrangements for work. I even came in under budget, although not by much! ;)

I hope everyone at work likes our 2 new reindeer friends....

It's hard to see but the baskets are grapevines twisted into the shape of reindeer, spray painted gold and then given a dusting of snowy glitter. The antlers are really the best part...all those twigs jutting up. Very cute effect!

Imaginary Fronds?

Imaginary Fronds is my dream of opening a Silk Floral/Gift store in my current hometown in North Carolina. I am very much in the planning stage at the moment as my day job (which pays the bills) interferes with the time I need to create items for sale. Also, the price to lease retail space in this town is a bit high. Okay, so I want to be downtown...window shoppers and tourists need to be able to see me from the main thoroughfare! Obviously, that costs more. In the meantime, my basement rec room is jammed full of silk stems and sundry other craft materials to the point of being ridiculous. The item to the left is just one sample of my floral design & is probably my favorite one I've created so far. On the right is my cornucopeia...for some reason, I enjoy making the Autumn pieces the most. It's almost painful to me to switch over to Christmas creations because my favorite season is Fall. I love October, falling leaves, harvest themes and just about anything to do with Halloween!

For now, my hair stylist lets me display and sell my wares in his salon at no cost. I've sold a half dozen pieces this year and am starting to get calls for custom pieces from women who have seen and like my work. Yippee!

I also enjoy painting decorative woodcrafts. My current work in progress is a 14" Harvest Plate (actually 2... 1 to keep & 1 to sell). The design is not my own but is still very cute...harvest fruits & veggies with a gray tabby cat in the middle. I'll put up pictures soon!