Today... Or Yesterday

Today, or by the time I finish this blog post, it'll be yesterday!

~ I worked from home, in my fuzzy pajama pants, listing lots of new items in my shop. This release has a very Rustic Romance / Love theme, since Valentine's Day is coming up and love is always in season. 

~ I boxed up orders to take to the post office.

~ Met a client for a consultation for a big event next week. By this time, I had showered and put on my "town clothes!" Heehee

~ Answered emails and convos from customers, checked Facebook a kazillion times, because all the glamper group was liking and commenting on my pictures. 

~ Stopped to eat a late lunch and use a gift card from my birthday last month. I'm not afraid to eat alone... 

~ I actually had a "business lunch", as I answered more messages, got my flower order ready for the event next week, and posted more pictures from the new items on Instagram and Facebook. 

~ Shipped out a dream catcher and wedding bouquet. 

~ Went shopping and found a dress for the event at a small new boutique in town. #shopsmallbusiness 

~ Went to feed my horses and cows and set in the old barn, answering more messages. 

~ Ordered a vest from a boutique on Instagram, that I can wear with my new dress and ordered more turquoise burlap for upcoming wedding orders.

~ Stopped at the feed store and gas station on the way home. Somewhere around this point, I thought I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my job and the ability to be flexible, to not be tied down to a job in a cubicle, to be able to communicate with customers from wherever I am, thankful for my phone and iPad that go everywhere with me, to be able to work at home or wherever I roam and hope I never have to go back to a regular 8-5 job! 

~ The sunset was pretty as I opened the gate at home. 

~ We fixed supper, watched Duck Dynasty,  boxed up orders to ship out tomorrow / today, checked Facebook a kazillion more times, watched the Blacklist and started making roses for the next wedding and now I blog and Jeff snores. It's been a busy day, but I love it!  

I'm so thankful I am able to have a creative business and you allow me to decorate your homes, events and weddings and be apart of your special days! 

A One Woman Show?

  A Facebook fan posed a question on a bouquet picture today - "Do you do all the work yourself?" 

My response - "I'm a one woman show. I'm the designer, maker, photographer, and computer person." 

Although I should point out, I do occasionally get some help from the mister! You know, the lifting, some building, IT/computer networking (he makes sure the internet connections are working), occasionally shipping and receiving and he's got the brains to figure out how something works or why it's not.

I got a helping hand, twisting the wire,  when I was working on this chandelier. 

He pulls me out of the mud, when I get the feed truck stuck and fixes the tractor when I break something! 

So I guess I should say we are a team, 

although, he doesn't make or design any of the flower bouquets. 

He does help work on the mechanical elements of my sewing machine, 

but he doesn't paint! That's my department for sure! 

He keeps the internet running and printers connected, but I handle all my own social media, email, blog maintenance / design, etsy shop work and the such. So if you ask a question, you get a response from me. 

Customer service, inventory management (shopping), design and production all point my direction.    

I do all of my own photography as well, except for the occasional time I hand Jeff the camera and tell him to snap a picture for me. I see individuals and businesses that take pictures off the internet and post them as their own, without giving credit, misleading viewers to think they did the work. That makes me mad! My pictures may not be the best and honestly, most of these were taken with my phone, but they are my work! Occasional I repost or share customer's pictures or repost inspirational pictures, but credit is given to the source. Simply, "saw this on Pinterest, fb, love this idea,  yada, yada" would be better than claiming someone else's work as your own. Whew, sorry, I got on a rant there! 

So, yes, I do most of the work behind GypsyFarmGirl, but I've got a great guy that helps me out behind the scenes, 

who broke all the rules here! (Don't try this at home!) 

I certainly couldn't do everything I do without him! Sometimes I wonder how I did everything I do now, plus work a 9 hour a day job in town. I really don't know how I did it all! 

 

Pillow Talk!

Can we have a little pillow talk?

I've been busy the last couple of weeks working on some new items for my etsy shop. I have created some new pillow covers in several different styles from rustic country to shabby chic french farmhouse and elegant gold. I had a big photoshoot yesterday and all the items are now available in my shop. All the pillow covers are made to fit an 18 by 18 inch pillow form.

You can also see a glimpse of some of the other new products! I took over 200 pictures yesterday and listed nearly 4o new items in my shop, including the rope wreaths, buntings, bouquets, and ankle boots. 

I live and work in a small home. I see people complain that their second home / weekend house is only 1000 square foot and think to myself how much I could do with 1000 sq ft! Storing lots of pillows is hard for me to do, so I thought I couldn't be the only one. You can easily transform the look of your existing pillows by slipping the covers over them. No need to go hide that pillow in the closet or behind the couch when you want to change them out for a different look. The covers have an envelope style back, like a pillow sham for your 18 inch pillows. They can easily be stored in a closet or drawer if you decide to change them out seasonally and being lightweight, they will ship more economically than bulky boxes. 

I have a couple of the damask print pillows on my couch now and a matching curtain in the living room. I thought of the colors as rustic red and tan until I read the fabric description online. They call it tan, taupe, coral and peach damask. How would you describe it? The damask fabric coordinates will with the elegant gold pillow with fringe and the rag wreath. The wreath has tan, gold, white, and damask print fabric, along with tan burlap and white and ivory vintage lace. Get the wreath and the pillow covers will ship for just 25 cents each! 

(The Kay-Bee seed sack pillow, above, and the camper and angel wing pillows will continue to come with pillow forms.)

 Here's a couple close ups of the french letter and postage stamp pillow and the burlap scrambled alphabet.

 Faux leather and turquoise fringe for your rustic country home! I always pick out fabrics that I like. I could pull off any of these looks in my living room. I guess thats why I like more neutral colors in my house, so that I can change a look by adding pillows or decorations.

Miss Gussie, the glamper,  was excited to get to show off for the photoshoot! Stay tuned to see more new items or head over to my shop to find them now. 

A French Country Bench Makeover

This last weekend, I finally was inspired to paint and makeover this bench. I had visited a few participants in the Funky Junk Interiors link up party and saw graphic transfers on furniture and decided to dive in and do it! I got this bench at a garage sale (over a year ago) and it was waiting for a makeover. I had always envisioned a graphic on it, I just didn't know what to do. 

After spending lots of time on the Graphics Fairy website, I finally decided on a French advertising logo that would look good on my bench. It had a dog and chicken on it - very country and "us". I read a few how to's and got busy. 

This is a before picture. I decided to paint out in the greenhouse, so excuse the background mess. 

I used Ivory Lace by The Plaster Paint Company - its my favorite paint and I just love the color name and that I can by it locally. It's cheaper than some of the name brand chalk paints as well.

 So here came the technical part that made me think! This was the image I decided on. There were a few more images I loved, although they wouldn't fit correctly on my skinny bench. I decided on the wax paper image transfer method, described here. You print on wax paper and then it transfers your image to your project.

 I had to save the image to my computer, reverse the image and then needed to resize it. I read about an option to resize using BlockPoster.com and then tried it out, only problem was it was going to print on three pages and I was going to have to piece it together. With wet ink and wax paper, I didn't think that would work for me and having to line up three separate images sounded like more precision than I cared to get into.

I opened my image in Microsoft Word and figured out how to resize my page setup to 22 x 8.5 and stretched my image to fit the page. I cut my wax paper neatly and tried feeding it through my printer. After it wrinkled up three times, I broke out the spray adhesive! I glued scrap paper to the wax paper and it fed trough the printer fabulously. Now on to getting my image on the bench!

Insert tiny squeal of excitement here! It worked! 

Now on to waxing. I waited until the next day and took the bench back to the greenhouse for better ventilation and fresh air. I get ask about waxing all the time. I use the paste wax from the Plaster Paint Co and tint it to give the piece an aged and distressed look. Scoop out a helping of wax on a paper plate and a squirt of stain. Think lumpy mash potatoes with some BBQ sauce mixed in. Take an old sock and wax the furniture.This was all it took to give it two coats of wax.  One tip when using stain - go with the wood grain or you might get a look you don't like.

The wax can have an odor problem that bothers some (not me), so out of respect for the Mr. and the pets, I left it out in the greenhouse a couple more days before it came back indoors. 

 I had fun rearranging furniture and staging my living room for a photo shoot. I also printed out the French typography sign on a piece of drop cloth and framed it. (Next week, I'll share more about it.)

 Now, I'll admit, our living room is really crowded and our furniture is really close together. I refer to it as layered or #smallhouseproblems.

I was excited how it all turned out and I'll definitely be adding graphics to more furniture pieces. It was so easy, once I figured out the sizing issue and gluing the papers together. I never really thought of our house as French Country, but I'm loving the look!

A Sneak Peek!

Here's a sneak peek of what I've been working on lately -

New Curtains

A French Country Bench Makeover

French Country Signs (its from a florist)

Burlap Wedding Orders

Demolishing lots of dust bunnies for this photo shoot ;)

Up to this point, I would have never considered my decorating style French Country. I've always liked the look in magazines and on Pinterest, but never had a French influence in our home. This past weekend, I browsed the Funky Junk link up party and was inspired to makeover this bench (its been in the shed over a year.) That led me to the Graphics Fairy website and I made use of several French advertisements and graphics.

 I'll  share lots more in the next few days - Stay tuned!