Thursday, December 15, 2011

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!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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

Thursday, October 6, 2011

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!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

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... :)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

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!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

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!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

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!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Accepted to Langerado....

If you've been reading my blog you know that I've been anxiously awaiting the result of whether or not I've been accepted to Langerado... The verdict is in and I've been accepted!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So excited - everything seems to be smoothly falling into place lately. I'm very excited to do this show. For the past few years (other than the ones it was canceled or didn't come to fruition) Andy and I have been attending this show- way back to when it was in Hollywood Circle. Love it!

Here's some pics of us having fun at past Langerado's:


 


 

Hope you'll make it out on October 8th and 9th to listen to some quality music and see some fab artwork.

Here's the shows site:

http://www.langerado.com/

Big Time!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Julie's Baby Shower - GCD Style....

Heeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.....

So it's been a couple days - but I've been busy around here! Lots and lots of custom orders!

There's one custom order in particular that I want to share with you.....

So back in 2008 when I was just a fledgling little artist, I set up shop at a local art show called Woodstock. This was back before I knew about etsy, before having a website, blog, twitter, etc. (Geez its like caveman days! jk) I shared the booth with my friend Angie who was also testing the waters with her creations. So this was my first show EVER. I had a pretty good response at the show, enough to give me confidence to know that I had something here.

At this show I met Julie.... A fun, spunky, 20 something chick who made my day... I should say made my show. She has a pig, loves DMB and was just the coolest chick. It was 2008 so I had made some Obama recycled paper flowers, that she really liked. We talked, she bought a couple pieces and within a couple days she called me saying she needed some flowers for a friend - I kept thinking "How cool is this?!" She came by and bought a couple more things and my little artist heart was so happy!

A couple years have gone by now and Julie and I have kept touch. She came to Woodstock again the following year and came to see me at Garden Fest in March of this year. Well... My best customer/Miss Julie is preggo! At Garden Fest she told me that she wanted to have my work at her baby shower - Super cool! We brainstormed over a couple ideas until the final decision was made.

Sooooooooo a couple weeks ago she brought over copied sheets of her sonogram, which we cut and made into flowers. She also brought over some clear glass vases that I painted with her shower colors of blue, green and white (It's a boy!) Her shower was over the weekend on Saturday so she picked everything up on Friday - Here's some pics:


 

The first pic is the beginning stages - painting the vases. Second is the flowers in their vases! Bellisima!


 

Close-ups of the flowers, made with her sonogram. Super cool :)


 

Check out the cool shirt she had made too - Mommy! Of course daddy had one too. Love it :)


 


And last, but certainly not lease a close-up of the flower that has her name on it and a pic of the mommy-to-be with the vases and flowers!

Here's to you Julie! Thank you so much for everything - you rock!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Updates for the week...

Hey greenies..... Ok ok so I slacked because I was on vacation... :)

But here I am, BACK - So many fun things happened this week!

Right now I'm working on a couple custom orders - 3 Alice bottles for Katie in Maryland to give as a shower gift AND flowers and vases for my friend Julie's baby shower. The flowers are made from her sonogram pics of the little baby boy - Will post pics soon!

In other highlights of my week, Yoko Ono answered a question for me on her website - I know I know, I'm the ultimate Beatles nerd!


But how cool is that?! It's definitely the little things in life :)

I listed quite a few new items in my etsy shop, as well as did a whole new facelift to the GCD facebook page. I created a welcome/landing page, twitter page, added pics - See I really did read facebook marketing for dummies - HA! It's crazy how easy these services make it for you to do - I used pagemodo which was extremely use friendly.

Let me know what you think:          http://on.fb.me/mOAYum

Langerado was supposed to start notifying artists yesterday that they have been accepted, but so far no email :( Nothing posted on their website either - so my fingers are still crossed.

What's new with you this week?

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hooray I'm All Caught Up!

Phew!!!

I write to you at 2:45pm on Tuesday 7/12 to say that I am officially all caught up on my special orders. Such a feeling of relief and I'm really proud! It's been a little crazy (in a good way!) lately in my GCD shop and I'm officially ready again - bring it on!

I'm on vacation this week (from my 9:00-5:00) so it's been great catching up on etsy stuff, movies, facebook, reading, etc. Love it - it's like playing good housewife with an artist career. I like this game :)

I'm almost done with the Bossypants book - seriously a laugh out loud read. Andy thinks I'm nuts when I just start cracking up! How could I resist when Tina Fey admits that she didn't realize it the first time she got her "monthly friend" because no one had talked to her about it and she assumed it was supposed to be blue like on the TV commercials... LOL Come on!

Guess what!? My flowers are featured today in the Favor the Earth Daily Green blog.

Check it out:

http://ftedailygreen.wordpress.com/

Since I'm all caught up, I'm going to work on my Europe scrapbook I've been putting off. Yay!

So.....What's new by you?

Friday, July 8, 2011

A few of my favorite things....

It's like Oprah's favorite things special, except you have to buy them yourself!

Just thought for fun on Friday I would post some of the latest items I'm obsessing over on etsy...



I found this awesome vintage shop called More to Adore Vintage - most of the dresses in this list are from there. So cute and so reasonably priced.

The shoes featured are both vintage Christian Louboutin - How can a girl resist those?! The white sandals might be a little small for me, but $54.00 for a pair of Louby's? Crazy!

The necklace is made from a Veuve Clicquot champagne cork topper - So cute!

A vintage atlas book - which I may need to purchase for flower making :)

The Kimono Shrug and Bathing Suit bottoms are my new obsession - they are from the etsy shop jmorco - Located out in San Fran they make the cutest workout/bathing suit/fun clothing!

The believe necklace - how cute - a little piggie with wings!

The Our Adventure book - I swear the first time I saw it I teared up. What a sad movie (I'm talking about Up! if you haven't recognized the book) She made it to look like the one from the movie. I have visions of filling it with pics from mine and Andy's travels.

The little mint julep bloomers - couldn't resist!

And last, but not least is a little red dress that is in the running for my halloween costume this year - Veruca Salt! Andy is going to be Willy Wonka, so I've been scouring the internet for a purple velvet jacket. If anyone sees one - let me know!

I hope you have a great weekend - I'm going to get back to finding new fun items to obsess over.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

4th of July fun.... and the week to come!

Happy belated 4th of July everyone! I hope you had a restful and fun holiday filled with fireworks and BBQ's! Spent the 4th at my parents for a BBQ - had a blast all day complete with water gun fights, water balloon fights, frisbee, bouncehouse and whole lot of eating. Felt like a kid again for the day!

I've been so crazy with GCD special orders it's been so much fun. So cool to take a persons favorite book and make it into flowers. Right now I'm working on a bouquet for Elaine in LA for her wedding. It's a vintage themed wedding so I'm taking old pics and clippings from an encyclopedia and making it out of that. So cool.... Looking back I wish I would have been making these bouquets when Andy and I got married. You can keep the bouquet forever!

Here's some of the other newest items in my etsy shop:




The first flowers are made from a vintage Charlotte's Web book that I found thrifting - it even had that hard cover on it from elementary school complete with little kids inappropriate says on the drawings of Wilbur and the farmer LOL - Second is a flower ball made from contrasting pink gift wrap and brown packing paper - Third are flowers made from a vintage The Old Man and the Sea book.

In addition to ripping apart books I'm also making progress on my summer reading. I'm excited I got an email this morning that Bossypants is on hold for me to pick up at the library. Yay - Guess where I'm going today! It's the little things in life that get me excited :)

I have my vacation next week - Insert excited dance! Looking forward to having the time to clean out my second bedroom/studio/storage area. Spring (or Summer) cleaning is ahead - followed by a massive garage sale... Seriously don't know when or how we aquire so much junk!

Have a good Wednesday greenies - Adios!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Happy Birthday Mom!

Just wanted to take the opportunity today to say Happy Birthday to my mom Glorianne Fullone! We call each other every year with either just the standard Happy Birthday singing... or the Beatles Birthday song. This year I chose the standard :)

She's been one of the greatest influences in my life. As an artist herself, she was the first one to encourage me to follow my artistic dreams. Having the cojones to take her work to a gallery, have it sell and be proud in the moment made me realize I could do it too. She has so many layers of talent. My goal for this year is to get her set up with an etsy shop all her own (even if she doesn't know it yet) Ha!

Me, My Mom and Sister Dawn

Thanks mom for being you! Happy Birthday - I love you!

Friday, July 1, 2011

I read it in a day! and other summer reads...

I got through this entire book in just one day....


I'm so proud of myself as it was such a boring read.... I know it's a little cliche, but I really am a fan of the "For Dummies" series! For boring topics or things that you just need to get more info on they really break it down for you (or me in this case). All the talk of insights and analytics is enough to make someone go crosseyed!

Did I learn anything from it? You be the judge over the next few weeks... Feedback and Comments appreciated!

A lot of other bloggers and artists are talking about their business summer reads. Here are the next ones up on my list (some business and others thrown in for pleasure):


 


These along with the unlimited amounts of etsy newsletters and the "Quit Your Day Job" series (which is always inspiring)

So what are you reading this summer?