Thanks for the Treasuries - July 2013

Five different Etsians let me know that they had featured one of my items in a treasury during July. Five July Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. One of my items was featured in two different July treasuries. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during July. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below (in alphabetical order) links to the 5 Etsy sellers that let me know that they featured one of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the shop links of anything that catches your eye.

CorkyCrafts
If you have a wine connoisseur to shop for who happens to appreciate hand made items look no further than this shop's wine-related wine cork wreaths and cork crafts.

JaysTreasures
This shop owner carries a wide array of lovely vintage finds and some of her artwork too.

TheHootinOwl
This shop includes handmade bracelets, greeting cards and photography.

TheYellowRoses
Rag dolls, teddy bears, stuffed animals, & quilts are handmade with great care by this shop owner.

UniqueCreationsBB
Unique, original, one-of-a-kind jewelry made from scratch.

Repeating Tulips for Warmer Climates

If you love the beauty of tulips in the spring garden but you live where the instructions for getting tulips to put on a good show for you include having new tulip bulbs spend a month or more in your refrigerator each year before planting, I have some great news for you. After trying a few different wild tulip species that claimed to be able to handle low winter chilling and hot summers, I have found a species that not only repeats but slowly multiplies in my North Texas garden. (If you want some of the more classic, hybrid tulips you will need to follow the instructions found on the Texas AgriLife Extension Service website and plan to treat them as annuals.)

I have had success with three cultivars of the T. clusiana species, “Cynthia”, “Lady Jane” and “Peppermint”. These tulips are not as large as the hybrids but do have a fairly classic tulip shape when in the bud stage or when they close for the evening. When they are closed, each of these cultivars has alternating petals of red and white or yellow, depending on the cultivar. They open each day to reveal their white or yellow inner petal color. These cultivars range in height from 8 to 14 inches. I purchased my bulbs online from McClure & Zimmerman.

I planted two different areas of my gardens when I first experimented with these tulips and they are thriving in each. One is off the north side of my front porch. The area gets morning sun but is spared the hot afternoon sun during the time the tulips are “up”. The other area off the NW corner of my garage is basically the reverse with regards to the sun. Both areas are mulched with cypress chips and receive no supplemental water.

So if you live where you thought you could only grow tulips as annuals after providing them some chilling time in your refrigerator, give these wild tulips a try.

Artist Spotlight – Metal Motif

My husband and I first saw Denise’s work at a First Fridays pop up market in Downtown Arlington. She makes 3D metal sculptures of all sizes, much of it from sheet stock from her own designs. Her work is so good that she has applied for and received licensing for several college mascot themed pieces. The piece that caught my husband’s eye was a dragon that could be hung from a tree or a ceiling indoors. We were told that it also came in a larger size as a chandelier and were invited to see it in her space at Gracie Lane in Arlington.

I had an opportunity to drop by Gracie Lane a few days later. The large dragon with dangling sconces was most impressive. It holds three sconces in its claws. This is a candle lit chandelier instead of an electrified one. I figured my husband would really like it, however I didn’t think we would have space for this magnificent beast so I checked to see if any of the other sizes that it came in were also available with sconces. I was pleased to find out that the answer was yes, so armed with sizing info I went hunting around the house to see if there would be a perfect spot for a smaller version.

We have an arabesque metal and glass candle holder that hangs from the ceiling by a chain in my husband’s office. I felt that the dragon, with its candle holders, would complement it nicely so I requested a pewter colored dragon with sconces. I surprised my husband with his new “pet” after I picked it up. It now hangs over his desk guarding his things. The first photo in this post shows the actual dragon in its new home. The second image is a photographic art representation that I created.

If you are looking for some metal sculptures for your yard, school spirit items for your college bound kids or other metal decor, check out this talented designer's and sculptor's work at Metal Motif.

Striking New Black Diamond Crape Myrtle

I have now seen one of the new types of Black Diamond crape myrtle in two different nurseries in my area. When I saw it earlier this year for the first time I just had to snap one up. I picked out a multi-trunked plant with three main trunks. I had no clue where I was going to put it but it was just too good to leave behind. I did finally find a place for it where its unique color plays off a nearby large accent rock’s colors perfectly. It has been so exciting to see it bloom for the first time this week.

What is so special about this plant? Its foliage is that really dark purple red that is almost black, hence the name Black Diamond. The type that I have seen in my area is the variety “Blush” which has blush pink tinged white flowers. Its tag says that it will get 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide so it will make a nice small specimen “tree” in the landscape. The tag also indicates that the bloom time and drought tolerance should be similar to other varieties of crape myrtles. After doing a bit of research online I found out that Black Diamond crape myrtles are also available in pure white and a variety of red blossom colors.

The only slight negative, that I’m guessing is because the plant is so new to the nursery trade, was the size of the available plants. Both places where I saw this plant had them available in a five gallon size but they were the smallest five gallon crape myrtles that I have ever seen. The roots did just fill the pot however so I feel that it will have an easy time of getting established in my garden. So far it seems to be adapting well and what a great show of blooms that I have on this small specimen.

If you want one of your own, the grower’s website allows you to put in your zip code and find a location near you that should have some of these striking beauties for you to take home with you.

The other thing I did a bit of research on with regard to this plant was the correct spelling of its name. Is it crape myrtle or crepe myrtle? I’ve used crape myrtle in this article since that is what is on the grower’s tag even though I have thought it was spelled crepe myrtle. It turns out that it is more likely to be spelled crepe myrtle in the south where people liken its blooms to crepe paper with most other people using crape myrtle as is found in the plant’s scientific name. It’s kind of like whether you write “gray” or “grey” depends a lot on where you grew up.

Thanks for the Treasuries - June 2013

Four different Etsians and one Etsy team let me know that they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during June. Seven June Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one or more of my creations. Three of my items were featured in two June treasuries. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during June. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below (in alphabetical order) links to the 4 Etsy sellers that let me know that they featured one of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like in addition to the TexasFriendsTeam that also featured an item of mine.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the shop links of anything that catches your eye.

GirlieGals
"It's a Bling Thing!", says this shop owner who offers you sparkle and shine at affordable prices.

HotdogCrafts
Earrings Rings Necklaces. Gift ideas for girls & woman. Animals, Retro, Sports, Ham Radio, Birds, Bees and more.

PaintedGlassGallery
This shop includes many unique hand painted glass and porcelain items as well as works of art painted directly on glass.

YarnedTogether
Handmade crochet items for a variety of people and a variety of uses.

TXFriendsTeam
Past, present and future Texans are welcome and encouraged to join this team. The only real rules of the group is to promote friendly, The Texas Way and be respectful to all who participate.

Facebook Fan Pages Fail

At least that is what it can seem like, after having spent a lot of time trying to make an engaging and interesting business fan page and growing a fan base to interact with, given all of the changes that Facebook keeps making with regards to visibility of status updates. Have you noticed that fan pages that you have liked for businesses, bands or other organizations seem to never or hardly ever post anymore because you don’t see them like you used to on your news feed? There is a good chance they are still posting but that posting for them now is a little like the sound of one hand clapping.

What can you do about it if you are not seeing the posts from a particular facebook fan page that you want to see on your news feed? It is possible to tell Facebook to send those updates your way again. Go to the Facebook page that you previously liked. Hover over the “liked” button on that page and then click on “settings”. You will now see 3 options: “All Updates”, “Most Updates” and “Only Important”. Click on “All Updates” to start the flow again of information from that page to your news feed. Screen shots of these steps are shown below. So if you liked a fan page because you really want to know when their next gig is, when they are running specials, etc. please follow these instructions so that business, band or organization will actually feel “liked”. (Note: If a business pays Facebook to promote their posts, you will likely see them no matter what settings you choose.)

Design This – Custom Blue Feather Earrings

Late last year, one of my repeat custom customers asked if I was familiar with that blue color that was getting so popular and could I make some earrings in that hue. I did remember a pretty blue on the fall 2012 pantone color report. I found the report and used “Olympian Blue” as a reference and starting point to see if could fill this request. Additional design parameters of length and movement of the feathers for one of the earrings and that matching beads be used for the other earring were included in this request.

While I have occasionally used dyed feathers in my creations, I prefer to use naturally colored feathers either purchased as craft feathers or molted feathers from individuals that collect, clean, disinfect and sell their pet’s molted feathers to help support their birds. While peacock feathers do have some of this color naturally, they also have several other colors and this customer already had a couple of earrings that included peacock feathers that I had made for her, so I kept looking. I did find three macaw feathers in my supplies that I thought had the potential of meeting the color and length criteria. I mocked up both the feather and bead earrings and sent a photo off to my customer. I was given the go ahead to make finished earrings based on the mock up photo.

My original intention was to dangle both feathers from the same point on a bit of chain. I found this to be problematic for two reasons. Adding the chain to the length of the feathers was going to make the earrings too long and dangling from the chain, the feathers tended to flip and show their duller back sides, getting rid of the visual of the blue that was desired. I searched for another solution that stayed true to the original design parameters.

I found some great looking earring posts that would help keep the earrings short enough but still allow me to attach them in such a way as to maintain some movement of the feathers without having them flip over. As we discussed this solution we decided to hang the beads from a length of chain to make the second earring closer in length to the feather earring. Since I was using only one post out of each pair that I had purchased and because I had one feather left that matched the other two feathers that I was using in the first earring, I asked if she would like to have a single feather earring added to the set. This would give her more flexibility to mix and match. I don’t think she hesitated for a second to have me add the third earring to her set.

I later saw of photo of my customer wearing both feather earrings with a blue top of the exact same blue as the feathers paired with a white scarf that really made the feathers stand out. I’m always so thrilled to see my finished creations work out so well for my customers.

Please contact me if you are looking for something special and I will see if I can create it for you.