New temple paintings in the shop!

I'm so excited to finally share what I've been working on! New temple paintings are up in the shop today!

The text is customizable with a family name or wedding date.

I'd love to take requests for favorite temples and paint as many different ones as I can!

White to Bright Style Challenge with Chairish

I was invited by Chairish to take part in their White to Bright Style Challenge! If you haven't checked out their site before, you totally should. It's a curated collection of awesome vintage finds and it's a veritable treasure trove!  The White to Bright Style Challenge involves choosing a vintage accent chair and then designing a styleboard around it that takes the room from 'white to bright.'  

When I'm designing a room, I always need to have an idea of who would live there... even if they're completely fictional. So my imaginary occupants of this living room are a young couple who live in the city in their first adult apartment. Because it's a rental, the walls have to stay white, so it's essential to bring in color through accessories.  The couple purchased curtains from Target and a couch from IKEA that are neutral and affordable and will allow them to focus on bringing in personality with accessory choices. 

Curtains from Target, couch from IKEA, fiddleleaf fig tree from Amazon, floor from Lowe's, all other accessories from Chairish

I love this gold accent chair from Chairish that is vintage but also has a totally modern look. I anchored the room with a bright, contrasting overdyed rug, also from Chairish. All of the accessories are from Chairish! I brought in more color with unique vintage pillows and bright art. And to me, all rooms must have the natural color of a potted plant... I love the life it gives to a room and this one gets to live in a unique vintage planter. The little rattan footstool serves multiple purposes in this small apartment; it can be a foot rest or a little side table... whatever is needed at the moment.  This is the kind of room and accessories that will evolve with the couple as they grow.

Kaberi's Red and White Seattle Wedding

At my shop, Fuzzy Rose, I love custom orders, so I was super excited when Kaberi contacted me to make her custom silk bridal bouquet, as well as some boutonnieres and corsages.  Kaberi was having a small March wedding with a cheerful red and white color scheme and an awesome short white wedding dress!  Their wedding took place on a beautiful warm Seattle day at the Volunteer Park Conservatory on Capitol Hill.

Heather Brincko Photography

Heather Brincko Photography

Red shoes! I love how they go with her color scheme. Image by Heather Brincko Photography.

Boutonniere for the wedding party. Image by Heather Brincko Photography.

I love how her custom bouquet looks with her sweet wedding dress. Image by Heather Brincko Photography.

Mother's wrist corsage. Image by Heather Brincko Photography.

I love how the wrist corsages turned out! Image by Heather Brincko Photography.

Conveying a Clear Brand Message

I'm currently finishing up my last course for my Marketing Strategy Certificate through Cornell. This particular courses stresses the importance of brand message.  I've been taking this opportunity to update my Etsy shop and make sure that with the new formatting of the site, all of my information contributes to continually promoting a clear brand promise and successfully establishes my positioning in the market. 

My shop's announcement

My shop's about page

I've included the two images above to illustrate my attempts to give similar information and communicate a clear brand message across my Etsy shop.

As small business owners and makers, we don't have huge marketing and advertising teams to maintain this consistency for us, so it's important to keep up with it ourselves. For many of us, we ARE our brand and it can be a challenge to make sure that we are not just putting everything that we love out there. Tied to this concept is the need to keep our image consistent across all of social media. I've been using this opportunity to do that! Little things like using the same profile picture(s) and repeatedly using the same key words and phrases can really make all the difference.

Below is an example from my Instagram. I use the same profile picture as my shop (I also use this one on Pinterest), which is a picture that clearly conveys what I make. The pictures that I post on Instagram further back up my brand promises, for example, showing custom items that I have made.

My business Instagram

The Crafting Bonanza and Other Updates

A lot has happened in the last few weeks since I've posted! It's crazy how quickly time flies. One of my best friends from college got married this weekend to a super nice guy at this beautiful venue near Orlando. Now they're honeymooning at Disneyland and not gonna lie, B and I are a little jealous about that part.

Pavilion on the Lake in Tavares, Florida, where my friend got married. It was beautiful! Image via venues.puffnstuff.com

I've been busy working on lots of orders and projects! I really need to get better at learning to balance my crafting/production time and my blogging time.

I LOVE paper flowers and I know I want to do them for my wedding, so when my bride Stacey asked me to experiment with making giant paper roses, I figured it was as good a time as any to jump in to that. I love how my first one came out and I love the medium! I used the Green Wedding Shoes tutorial and the Martha Stewart flower template.

My first attempt at a paper rose! Via my Instagram.

It really has been a crafting marathon bonanza at my house these past few weeks. In addition to paper flowers, I made boutonnières for a groom in Canada. I love how they turned out!

Happy Bastille Day!

Bastille Day always brings me happy memories of summer travels in France and sitting on the banks of La Maine River to watch the amazing fireworks display at the Chateau d'Angers.

Mini Travel Tuesday!

I'm so close to being done with my marketing certificate... I'm on the 6th course out of 7! It's been fascinating and I've learned a lot, but I can't wait to have more time to focus on blogging again! In our course discussions this week, we've been talking about introducing products to the international market. It made me think of when I was in the UK (exactly 6 years ago!!!) and without my Mountain Dew, I had to switch to Fanta Orange. I bought a bottle from a street vendor and got a Russian version instead! I wanted to bring it home, but alas, there was absolutely no room in my luggage!

Fun memories!

-Robin

Creative, Personalized Cake Topper Options

I am so, so excited for this post. I've got some fun things in the works and I can't wait to share them with you all.

Up until recently, cake toppers weren't something that I'd thought about a whole lot. But after painting an adorable pair of peg people cake toppers for my own someday wedding, I thought, "hey, this is really fun, I'd like to make more of these." So the wheels in my head started turning on how to start making this a potential product for my shop. Around the same time, Patience Brewster contacted me about collaborating to show you all some awesome options for cake toppers. So now my head is full of all things cake topper-related (haha) and I can't wait to show my readers some creative options!

Not so long ago, it was really hard to find any kind of cake topper that reflected who you are as a couple, especially if you're a person/people of color, a same-sex couple, or even just wanting something a little different. Thankfully, that's changing and there are so many more options these days. Instead of a traditional one piece cake topper, I love "cake toppers" that are separate pieces, allowing couples to chose different figures representing their personalities, physical features, and gender.

Hand-painted Peg People Cake Toppers

I'm so excited to debut this new item for my shop! These adorable peg people are completely customizable: hair color, skin tone, eye color, clothing, veils, and gender.

You can also go with tall and short, like I've done here or both tall/both short. Or if you've got children you want to include, the parents can be tall and the kids short. All kinds of families and couples should be able to have cake toppers that reflect themselves!

These are the cake toppers that I made for my wedding, using blank peg people from Dandelionland. She makes some of the most adorable personalized wooden cake toppers.

I'll give them clothes when we get a closer to an actual wedding date and know what we're wearing!

Ornaments as Cake Toppers

I don't know that I would have thought of this right off the bat on my own, but after talking with the folks at Patience Brewster, it got me thinking about what awesome cake toppers ornaments can make. It's the same general idea, choose two separate pieces that represent you individually as a couple and bring them together as one awesome cake topper!

Patience Brewster makes whimsical ornaments based on her drawings. So cute and playful!

Here are some of my favorite combinations of ornaments for cake toppers...

Boy/Girl of the same kind of animal (or Girl/Girl, Boy/Boy)

Two different kinds of animals that represent you each individually.

How about some cute little elves?!