Happy Birthday Grandmas and then some.

Well Myron's Grandma birthday was fast approaching and so I quickly made this card to send to her.  Then I remembered that my Grandma's birthday was approaching.  So I wanted to do a card for her.  Then I had a moment and realized that both of my kids' birthday's were around the corner.  Then another thought struck and I realized Mother's day was not too far away either.  SO  here's a round of the cards I made.

 For Grandma Dorothy.

 For my Grandma

 For my Mom

 For my Mom In Law,

 For my son,

 and finally for my daughter.

It was card frenzy!  =)

My latest obsession

I don't know why and it's been building for some time but lately I love the Asian style art of Cherry Blossoms.  So much so that I have found ways to bring it into my home and I am planning on incorporating it into more of my scrapbooking.

This first is my attempt to paint my own design.  I don't think it turned out too bad - I'm saving it and may try to put it on one of my scrap pages.

One day I took Tamara & her friend Rebecca to a ceramics store, The Clayground where you get to paint your own object.  They have so many things to choose from plates to animals to teapots to vases, etc.  I had difficulty choosing just one until I finally decided on this bud vase.  And then you can see my second attempt at some Asian Art.

I had been coveting this teapot I saw in Teaopia before Christmas mainly because it came with a strainer and you can steep loose leaf tea easily in it but also because of the design painted on it and thought it would look great on our counter, so I finally bought last week. 

It looks good doesn't it?  =)

Then when I was looking for some scrapbooking supplies ( I really was interested into learning how to use mists) I came across this template and knew I had to have it!

I can hardly wait to play with the template. (I also bought some glimmer mist to experiment with - you may have noticed I tried the mist on some of the Mom Day cards I made in the previous post).

So I'm off to enjoy my latest obsessions!  Have a great weekend!  =) Lisa

Mom's Day Cards

Well, I was approached by my boss Parvaneh at Gypsy Rose to make and sell cards (and having some ready for Mother's Day) as I had given her a thankyou card for a couple of plants she gave me.  Now my style is fairly simple but if people like them and buy them, why not?  So I came up with 12.  Parvaneh wanted simple & elegant.  Hopefully I came through.

And if not, then I have a bunch of cards to give to family & friends. Now if only I can find a neat way to display them in the store!  =) Lisa

Tough day

Well I guess not every day can go smoothly.  My day started off well but ended not so well.  Nothing disastrous or anything but maybe disappointing.  First off my head starting aching with what I now would say is a HUGE headache.  Then I was given a chance to make an arrangement.  I could have chosen to make a vase arrangement or one in a basket with oasis.  I thought, oasis, I used it in class, should be easier than just a vase.  (Mistake #1)  Then I cut myself.  (Me & knives - what was I thinking when I wanted to go into this business?) Then I didn't do so well on making the arrangement.  One side was a little heavy and I ended up bruising one of the lilies as I was adding flowers and the basket wasn't greened enough.  (Mistakes 2 & 3.  I really seem to have a tough time with greening.)  So anyways, that was the disappointing part.  Then I answered the phone as my boss asked me and then I struggled with helping the customer (as I wasn't sure of all to ask etc.).  So finally my boss told me to take the person's name & phone number and so she could call them back (and once she called the customer back - it all worked out.)  Fortunately my boss didn't seemed too fazed (really generous with me).  She told me that she would try to save the arrangement.  Said that it was a good time to practice when it was slow but next time with old flowers.  And she said don't worry about taking orders now - to just take contact info and she or the other designer will call the customers back.  Whew!  Very understanding boss.  So I guess in the end, it didn't end too badly.  Now if I only could get rid of this headache!!  =) Lisa

My first few attempts

Well, I've been a busy bee at my new job and I got to make a couple of small arrangements in the last couple days.  Nothing too big and very simple.  I was excited and happy to do it. 

The reason why I find it so exciting even though it's just a simple arrangement is that in class we are given our flowers and our vases and given a demo of an arrangement and then we get to re-create the arrangement the instructor made with a little of our own interpretation.  In the shop, I get to pick the flowers and the vase and then decide what to do.  So it's a lot more freedom - more room to be creative - more room to screw up - yet exciting and happy when it works out. (Somewhat  =)

Being a newbie, I don't think I did too bad. I did take a couple pictures but I only had my camera phone, so they came out a little grainy.  As I didn't want to lift the hand-tie out of the container, the angle didn't do the picture any justice but you can get an idea of colour.

In doing the hand-tie, I learned that the was string to bind the hand tie easily cuts soft stems like Gerbera stems, so that I ended up breaking two stems off.

 With the two broken stems, I made a small arrangement with them so hopefully I'll make up the loss of the broken flowers with selling the smaller arrangement.

Then today, I made a hand-tie with just tulips.  Simple but I was pleased as I was able to bind the tulips using wax paper tape and I succeeded in binding the tulips without breaking any stems!  Yeah!

The last picture is not of flowers but the last scrapbook page I completed.  It was Colt's (where Myron worked) Family BBQ. The kids had a lot of fun that day.  We did too.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of this beautiful weekend.  =) Lisa