One Year Ago Today.... My, How Life Has Changed!

It's hard to believe that one year ago today, I was on the Martha Stewart Show, demonstrating to Martha's studio audience and national/international viewers how to make hydrangeas! To be able to say that I was the "featured artist" on the Martha Stewart Show is an absolute honor and something that I hold very dear to me. No one can take that experience or prestige away from me. I think many of the DECO Clay Craft Academy family have benefited from my experience on the show and I'm glad that the art has really taken off and received international recognition! It was a long time coming.
People often ask why the show didn't pay for my travel expenses and I look back now and their stance on why they don't is smart business. The exposure from that 7 minutes of fame MORE than paid for itself. It was a small price to pay. I think of it as $1200 well spent! :)

My life has changed in so many ways it's pretty darn crazy, so many wonderful opportunities, new business ventures and learning how to grow my business. It's been an amazing ride and I'm looking forward to what 2009 has in store for me. I know it's going to be good. I'm working on some new things for 2009-2010 and with the help of family members, I hope to make all of those things happen. The first item on the long list of things to do is to create my in-house studio! This is going to evolve over time, but to be able to have one large room to showcase my work, meet with prospective clients, have the capacity to teach 12-18 students, and have ample space to work on invitations and my floral designs is my dream. I often thought I wanted to have a studio outside of the home, but for now, this is my interim dream. :) I'm really excited and my husband is really motivated to help me make that happen.

Hopefully with the help of my family we will also be growing the invitation business as well as my clay floral designs. There are a lot of things I've been meaning to get to, but there are only so many hours in the day. The goal is to revamp my photo galleries, create some sub sites and focus more on new designs! Stay tuned. I will definitely keep you posted on the progress. So as I reflect on last year and look towards the future, everything is very bright and I'm so excited to see how my company has evolved over the last year. :) Thank you to Martha Stewart, her producers, and Etsy for giving me the opportunity to share this wonderful art that I learned from the DECO Clay Craft Academy!

Bella's Favors

All of you are probably wondering why I haven't been blogging as fanatically as I normally do. LOL! Well, this week, I had 3 students from Ontario, Canada, Indiana and New Jersey come to take the CII curriculum of the DECO Clay Craft Academy. Monday through Thursday we had class from 8:30 - 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. and Friday we went from 8:30-2:00 p.m. In between classes my students had to do lots of homework. We managed to get 8 of the 10 classes completed and they all did really well. The bad habits they came with were replaced with the right techniques and skills and I hope that they will all be practicing on a daily basis to improve on their skills they learned this week.
Unfortunately I didn't get around to taking pics of my students making their flowers. It was a busy week and not much time to do anything else. Between all the classes I worked on fulfilling orders. This is one that I just finished today. You probably remember this from a previous post, but this is the completed order. Bella ordered 6 white orchids with fuchsia pink centers for her girlfriends & bridal party. She's so excited to get her order this week!

My items on Etsy have been selling like hotcakes. Literally probably in less than a month's time, I've sold over 40 items. CRAZY! So much for thinking I had a fully stocked storefront that would allow me a break from making more inventory. LOL. It's a great problem to have. Back to work...