My Art Basel Experience...

Art Basel.... What an awesome experience!

First of all, after living in South Florida for over 10 years... wait... make it 15 years... and not making the trip down (how embarassing) it was well worth the wait. This will definitely become a staple in our calendar for many years to come. Though tickets to Basel are $40... each... yes, each....I must say it's so worth it for the experience!

From the Convention Center to Wynwood everything was so inspiring... Such a great event, my only regret is that I wish I could have done more!

Here are some pics of my favorite pieces - Let's start with the Convention Center....



The Entrance



It's so very Muppets isn't it?

The Andy Warhol Room.. Awesome!



There is Magic in All Things... Warhol



It Should... Shouldn't It?



This is a Bikini Contest in Fort Lauderdale in March of '83 (My Bday)

They were just plain cool....



You are encouraged to touch and run through.... GO!



Loved this.... I'll take it!

The newspaper from the day John Lennon died,
pictures removed to focus on the words



Me being silly in the mirror box


And now on to Wynwood....


The Wynwood Walls.... Finally got to see them!



Another one of the walls....



Just thought the juxtaposition of the deer being camo was cool



We do!



It took me a couple tries to read it... But it's great!



Random, but cool!


So that's it in a nutshell... An amazing art filled weekend with so many events, exhibitions, gatherings, concerts, food trucks and SO much more. Hope you enjoyed the pics - I can't wait til next year.... actually forget next year - I'll be down in Wynwood again ASAP!

Holy Crap It's Been 2 Months....

Time seriously flies when you're having fun....

This season has been amazing! It's been so filled with personal and professional achievements - As Cher would say in Clueless, "I'm Combelling!"

Heartsy was awesome.. The experience, the sales, the exposure... I would recommend it to any etsy seller. It's a great system with a great organizational tool for managing the sales you make... Just the greatest thing ever. For info on how to apply check out their website - Heartsy

Also since my last post Art in the Park has come and gone. That's always the best show- the weather always works out and is gorgeous, the people are awesome and the food - YUM!

Theeennnnnn we had Art: Sunny Side Up .... Which was a show I did at War Memorial which was awesome as well. The thing that was the most special with Art Sunny Side was that I got to do it with my fave artist peeps - Phairytale & Doopie Moo's - and we all had a fun little section to call home... Also Penelope Lane was there to take some awesome pics... Check 'em Out:

Sara, Elisha and Me

Me and Susie

Lorna, Me and Cari

Soooooo... now it's just on to prepping for 2012. GCD has been steadily growing and I'm definitely looking forward to what next year will bring. No new art shows on the horizon yet (though I'm sure there will be soon) I'm kind of liking just focusing on etsy and improving techniques and getting organized for once!

Thanks for everything to family and friends - you've made this an awesome year and I couldn't do it without your endless love and support!

Love you and all the best - Tara

Everything Happens For a Reason...

In an amazing turn of events, my shop will be featured THIS weekend on Heartsy.... The same weekend that would have been Langerado.... Oh and might I also add that this weekend calls for rain in South Florida.

Someone up there is looking out for me.... :)


So starting tomorrow (or today if you're a Heartsy VIP) you can buy a voucher and spend $10 for $21 worth of GCD products... Become a VIP and you can receive $31 worth of products for $10... Pretty snazzy!

Join and enjoy!


http://www.heartsy.me

If you need me I'll be folding and gluing my little heart out this weekend...

Love!

News and Holiday Craziness.... Already!

It's been a while, so just taking a moment to stop by and catch up.... Hello!

It's been so crazy (in a good way) I can definitely tell the holiday season is upon us and because I'm already feeling the rush.... Such a good problem to have!

This is the year/season that GCD is going to grow grow grow....

So the first in a series of news... and the BIGGEST one... Is that a curator from the website heartsy.me contacted me saying that they want to feature my company. Heartsy has a reach of 150,000 people... that's right folks... 150,000. Think of them as basically Living Social for artists. I offer up vouchers for my store at a discount and they promote me to their followers. Sounds like a good deal no? I offered them a quote and they accepted so we're off and running. I will definitely be sure to let you know the date I'm being featured. Have to write a bio, new shop info and a couple of other logistics.... This is going to be great!

Check out Heartsy here:

http://heartsy.me
The second is that I've been accepted to Art: Sunny Side Up - Holiday Show. It's on 12/3 at War Memorial Auditorium and is sure to be a great time as well. There will be lots of local companies, artists and other fun holiday fare...

More info on the show here:

http://www.artsunnysideup.org 

I'm learning to get out of my comfort zone in a lot of aspects of my company. The familiarity of the same shows, the same products, etc. I'm trying out a lot of new styles, will be trying to get into new stores, etc. So be on the look out for all the new products!

The one product that I'm most happy to have on the horizon for the holiday season are the new small flower ball ornaments I've been making. They are mini-versions of the big kusudama flower balls I have shown before and look great stacked in a clear vase, hung or even to be used as Christmas Ornaments. They can be made custom to whatever book/style/color scheme you're looking for - Here are some examples:

Harry Potter Paper Flower Ornament

Map of South America Paper Flower Ornament

Beatles Sheet Music Paper Flower Ornament

All are $12.50 - The possibilities are endless..... Special Requests Welcomed!

That's all for now - will write more soon with the deets of the Heartsy feature - I'm so excited!

Not too shabby for the week that was supposed to have Langerado at the end of it... :)

It only takes a week to turn around...

So here I sit.... A week, maybe a little bit more and everything has turned around... Everything.

I think I've finally learned how to get out of my own way... After this whole debacle went down with Langerado and the store, I blogged about out which got it out of my system and it's been completely different. I know what I can control and what I can't control...and stressing about the things I can't doesn't get me anywhere it just bleeds into other aspects of life.

The first thing to mention about the turn around is that I was accepted to another art show - Yay! I applied to Indie Craft Bazaar last minute and got in! I had applied once before and didn't, but this time it's fate. The show is October 16th at Cinema Paradiso in downtown Ft. Lauderdale from 1:00-6:00pm. Would love to see you all!

Here are the event info pages:

Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1662217928#!/indiecraftbazaar 
Event: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1662217928#!/event.php?eid=237187406333407

It's a Halloween theme so we will all be dressed up with candy to pass out and lots of other fun themed goodness - I'm so excited!

Here are some pics of the custom orders I received in my etsy shop

that were sent out this week:

Doggie Vases and flowers for Dennis and Maria of Three Bean Bakery in Plantation, FL

18 Custom Beatles Flowers for Janice in NY

Awesome New Orleans Vase for Maren in Plantation, FL

Royal Blue Nautical Bottles for Rejena in TX

These are among many that I have received, will post more pics again soon! I've also been prepping for the holiday season with a couple new ornament options that I'm hoping to have listed this week as well. Check the GCD shop for new items every day!

That's all for now - Have a good week!

Blog Therapy Session...

What a crazy crazy crazy couple of weeks.... High Highs and Low Lows....

Unfortunately the lows have left me in a bit of a funk for the past few days.... You know when you can feel the funk? Like I feel like I could physically stand outside of myself and see it... Yuck!

So if you haven't already heard, Langerado has been canceled. Done, Finito, arrivederci...... Might as well say goodbye to it for good because this is the second time in 3 years that it's been canceled.

I took it really hard... Though I know, and Andy keeps telling me it obviously had nothing to do with me AND it's not like the show is going on and I wasn't chosen. It's still hard. It was something that I built up in my mind for a long time and saw as a major huge thing - My target market, demographic - 20,000 of them all in the same place at the same time... Ok maybe not 20,000 because of the terrible music line-up, but still! We think that was it's demise... The terrible music line-up was the reason I decided to "vend" at the show anyway... I didn't care about missing the music. Oh that and Yom Kippur - Who schedules a music festival in South Florida on a Jewish Holiday? Good Job C3! This has also turned into a fun job of trying to cancel checks, cancel insurance, request insurance refunds... Nightmare!

So on top of dealing with that... Andy and I drove up to WPB last weekend (Same day as Langerado being canceled) Because "so exciting" GCD was going to be picked up by another store. Get all the way there, North Palm Beach - North Lake Blvd with my 10 pieces, through torrential downpour, and guess what? No one is there! No one is answering cell phones, emails.... Awesome - Fab Day! Thank god for Jamie and Ryan and Taverna Opa at City Place! :)

So enough of the bad... Lets get on with the good....

Under the Mango Tree, a shop that carries GCD in South Beach emailed to say that almost everything is sold out and they need a replacement order. Yay! Always a fun Saturday to head down there for a drop-off, dinner and a little trip to the Delano!

While sitting at dinner down there I got an email saying that I was accepted to Art in the Park. Yay!

What a crazy week right?! From Saturday to Saturday it's like WTF?! When things like this happen it's so important to stay positive and always know that things happen because something better is about to happen. Which it did :) Hard to maintain that attitude in the thick of it, but it really really is true.

So on to a new week.... I've already got a crazy amount of orders on the horizon (Again, all good news) Including an entire wedding! Bouquets, Boutoneers, Flower Girl bouquets.. the whole kit and kaboodle! The wedding isn't until next June, but stay posted - I'm sure there will be lots of fun with that.  :)

Oh and Julie - my friend that I wrote about having done her baby shower flowers and vases, she had her baby! So exciting - Congrats!

Hope everything is well by you - Keep Calm and Carry On Greenies!

New website & I've been a bad blogger....

I've been a bad bad blogger and haven't posted in over 3 weeks... OMG it's terrible! Ok Ok I'll look on the bright side - I haven't blogged because it's been so busy! My fingers have been folding crazy amounts of flowers ;)

The first and most important piece of news is that GCD has a new website! Yay finally!

Here it is in all it's beauty:

That's just a screenshot, but to see the whole thing in all its splendor check out:

http://www.greencycledesigns.com/

There are several different pages with a new bio, upcoming shows and links to my GCD facebook and twitter. So exciting!

I want to thank Jodi Logan for all of her awesome design work and going back and forth with me 50 million times - ha! Thank you, you rock! 

AND I also want to thank Sara Oestreich for all of her English/Librarian skills on my bio, you're the best! You helped me remove what Andy classified as "cheese"... LOL :) Oh and thank you for adding a link to my Twilight flowers in your blog. If anyone is a reader or likes book reviews or just wants to follow an awesome blog, check it out:

http://thelibrarianreads.wordpress.com/

On top of the new website, this has been a crazy month for applying and general art show stuff. Art in the Park which is a Plantation show that I do each year is coming up in November. I find out on that one (accepted or not) in the next couple weeks.

And then - BIG NEWS! I applied to be in the St. Stephens art show - You may be like "What is that?" Well..... it's adjacent to the Coconut Grove Art Show... If you've been to the Grove show, then you've been to St. Stephen's - they go hand in hand... The Coconut Grove Art Show is one of the largest in the country. I think I've gone every year for the past 8 years or so. It's always amazing and a great turn-out. That one is in February, but I don't find out until the end of October. Fingers crossed!

Judges if you're reading this... Please accept a little local green girl!