Monday, September 29, 2014

The Unknown Progression

I find it truly amazing how the progression of my ideas have come to this point.

Back in 2010 I had only begun to think of making flower petal faeries. I was doing them to keep myself busy until I could find a full time job in our newly move to the Northwest Territories. Granted I have lived in the north for 14 years already but never in Fort Smith, never married and never for following someone up here (well okay, there was one time but I was only 7 months old, so I don't think that this is a true indication of the point that I am trying to get at).

My wee Enchanted Pathways company was registered in British Columbia and at that time I was just looking to try to make replica doors as shown in the *Hobbit movie. I thought they would be fun to make so there I was with a design in mind, a massive of amount of new tools and even a **Dremel. Alas, this idea never did come to fruition. I did have fun though!

In the process of this whole new experiment I did learn some very valuable information. Shopping, how to get the lowest price and value for the dollar. Shipping, how to get products from the USA without having to pay duty on them. Ideas, how to jot everything and I mean everything. Tools, how not to loose a finger or other appendages. Paperwork, how to document and file. Education, using all that you have learned in the past and trying to adapt it to what you need now. Friendship, the importance of having someone to bounce ideas off. Love, knowing that you are someone believes in you.

I have now gone from the original play of making Hobbit doors and then onto simple flower petal faeries to what my company is today.

1 - Generation 1 Flower Petal Faeries ~~ that have an average of 20 silk flower petals and stand approximately 7.6 cm (3") in height.

2 - Magical Wooden Faerie Doors ~~ these are now actual cutout wooden doors and no longer doll house doors.

3 - Teacup Nurseries ~~ using miniature trees, flowers and dollhouse items that have been made into a small garden area that faeries just might be found.

4 - Seed Pod Babies ~~ using the small roses that I used to take apart for the smallest petals when making the Generation 1 Faeries are now transformed into a full rose head with a curly wired tail and then placed into a tree pod with a bed of moss.

5 - Generation 2 Flower Petal Faeries ~~ using a wooden platform these faeries stand about 12.7 cm (5") and are numbered for collection status. This style is made up into full groups that are meant to be purchased as a full set.

So that is the product end of my company. Now onto the other end of the company!!

I am now quite proficient at the accounting end but still have a hired certified accountant to do the tax filing. I do all of the GST filing on my own currently.

Photography is now done completely be me. I am able to use my ***Photoshop program in order to clean up and adjust the photos as required for website usage. I have a complete shadowbox that allows me to take consistent photos.

Website has now been changed over to a ****Weebly program where I have full control over the pages. I still do have a tons of assistance from Shawn my In-House-Guru that helps me with absolutely everything when it comes to coding.

Extras are now designed by me for all printing purposes this includes cloth bags, sticky notes, magnets, rack cards, tri-fold cards, postcards, business cards, labels and rubber stamps.

Graphics have thankfully been done by both Alyssa and Shona for the icon and main stump photo.

Adverts are now done by myself as well. This is a part of the company that I never thought that I would teach myself to do (with help from Linda). It is amazing how I have been able to create a background and then put all of the company information on it. These adverts are now run in national magazines and local newspapers.

Additions include the new 'Thought of the Day' graphics along with quotes and now Instagram photos that have a wee stories with them.

Wow! Now that is progression!

Here is the advert that will be going into issue #28 of the Faerie Magazine. I am really happy with what I have been able to create and make my own.

On a final note, this all wouldn't have been possible without you!


* The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - WingNut Films
**Dremel Tools - Robert Bosh Tool Corporation
***Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 Editor
****Weebly website and blog site founded by David, Dan and Chris


Friday, September 26, 2014

The Distraction before the Snowflake

So, with absolutely full intentions to get so many things done, it seems that so many more things just happened to skip on up to the top of the list.

How on earth does this happen. Now, it is usually at this time that I start to question how much of this silliness can actually be chalked up to the Faeries playing their games here around the nursery. As with our temperature this morning being a glorious -1C (30F), I'm thinking that to not make my things-to-do less but possibly even more as with this silly weather, the Faeries will definitely be taking their tea and cookies inside today. With that being said, it is that time of year that we will have a few warmer days of autumn before the snowflakes start to fall. So, I think that instead of getting myself all worked up over everything little thing that I will be taking my time to play, play outside, play inside...well just play!


Monday, September 22, 2014

The Weekend

Well, what a weekend this has been!

It was time to start getting the flower nursery ready for the long winter ahead of us and this of course is a sadder time for our wee faeries. As they watch the last of the sweet peas, snap dragons, cosmos and even the smaller of the sunflowers being brought into the nursery to keep them warm over our chillier nights. Don't get me wrong as the nursery smells amazing with 5 vases filled with the sweet peas but I must admit it is sad to start having to prune and weed for the one of the final times.

But on a high note, I found my very first 5 leaf clover!! I know hey. I have been collecting a few 4 leaf clovers in our nursery but this was a very special one for sure!



I have now started the newest tab titled The Photos! This tab will now show all of the postings that I have done through Instagram as I know that some of our readers do not use this program. As I still trying to figure out how to show when changes and/or additions have been made in the tabs on this blog I think that I will just do a quick follow-up on Fridays as a reminder?? Mind you, I did just find out that if you follow our Bloglovin page that it will send you a weekly (or more if you like I think....mine is weekly....I think) e-mail to let you that I have done some kind of changes to this page!!

I will start again as of today with the 'Thought of the Day' program. Mind you it was a good thing that I had a few that were ready to post as this whole running away from the nursery for almost a month has definitely took me off of trying to figure out what a daily schedule is...well except for getting breakfast ready and sitting out on a handmade stone patio overlooking a estuary that leads to the Pacific Ocean. I am missing my wee hummingbirds that came to visit, the birds singing while swaying on the cattails, the frogs croaking on the lily pads and well the sunshine! For myself this was a wonderful routine but being Faerie Amma there is just so much to do here in the nursery that I just feel like I am barely treading water.

As with anything, I will gradually get myself into a regular sort of mind to include everyone in this crazy and definitely noisy nursery. Noisy you ask? Well you try to gather the faeries that are trying to be out in the last few warmer days of autumn. If there was any such thing as reluctance well the faeries definitely have this as the top of the list! Mind you, I feel the same way for sure. It really is hard to have had to say goodbye to the 24 hour daylight before we left on our adventure and now to come back home to our short autumn already drawing to an end.   p.s. it did snow one day here at the nursery but I was on a beach collecting seashells!!

Accomplishments already done this weekend in-between nap times...I have now updated all of the photos on the website as there had been a few sales and bit of switching faeries from one e-commerce site to another. Of course, I have started the Instagram tab and well, unfortunately I still cannot find my work table. Hummmp as she turns around and says....tomorrow. tomorrow sounds like a better idea!!

Well, off to do the 'Thought of the Day'


Friday, September 19, 2014

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??

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

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.