Busy Springtime

I can´t believe it´s three weeks ago I published my last post!! But it´s so much to do right now -my parents are coming next weekend, so I had to tidy up the guest room and I even moved some furniture around and re-arranged some of my still lives. Here you see a collection of ceramics made by a friend of mine (and my cat eye glasses from the 60ies - I love them!!).


I also gave my beloved collection of vintage jewellery a good clean up and picked some flowers in the garden - the result turned out nicely I think.


There is still a lot of work in the garden, although I have to say the garden really looks great this year, espacially my vegetable patch. Took this picture in the greenhouse today, lots of flowers waiting to be planted in my flower tubs.


I have been a bit frustrated lately because I can´t exactly say that I sell massively well on etsy... I really make a big effort to network, take good pictures and upload new items regularly, which is quite time consuming, because I both have to supply my Fleur de Boheme shop with my own work and my Extravaganzza shop where I sell vintage clothes and jewellery. I sold my first handcrafted pieces a couple of days ago to Canada, the lace scarf and matching brooch shown below.


Of course that was nice, and the vintage shop is doing slightly better, but still....
I find two things difficult, the first one is to get enough traffic on the sites and the second one is the fact that I live in the most expensive country in Europe (probably one of the most expensive countries in the world) and I feel I just can´t compete with American prices at all!! We pay 49% taxes in Denmark, the prices for food are hideous and supplies are expensive too! I like where I´m living, but I find the fact that everything is so expensive really hard to accept!

Anyway, I reduced the prices on most of my items on etsy a while ago to see if that would make a difference, and I want to ask you a little favour: Would you take a look at my shops and give me feedback concerning my pricing?
I booked a few showcase spots to increase shop awareness, and the storque and accessories showcases were quite successful and gave me new followers, whilst the vintage showcase was a flop I would say. I also tried two snatch a treasury many times now because I think that´s a good way of networking, but it just seems impossible!

My newest item in my shop are these whimsical flowerbrooches - they´re almost like butterflies and I really like the picture ;-)


Well, to finish the etsy talk - if anyone out there has more tips concerning how to become a successful etsy seller, I would be grateful!

Talking about my work - I didn´t get done too much but I finished another brooch and I am now working on a bracelet, both for my summer exhibition - that´s the reason why they´re not in my etsy shop yet ;-)


Last year I started an education in creative embroidery, it´s a mixture of short courses and distance learning and it takes three years. I did the second module a couple of weeks ago, and now I have lots of projects to finish before the next module in september. The topic of the last module was nature, and one of the pieces I did was this embroidery inspired by birchbark. It includes printing, different layers of fabric, machine and handembroidery. I´m not sure if it´s finished yet, I might embellish it with beads in some places.

I even saw a fascinating exhibition while I was away for the embroidery course. It featured the work of the Danish artist Marie-Louise Otte who creates the most scrumptious ballet costumes made of paper, gold leaf, svarowski stones and other vintage materials. I hope to be able to write more about her next time and to show you some pictures of her amazing sculptures - I´m waiting to get her permission to show pictures of her work here on my blog.

I can´t give you any update about the article in "Isabellas" yet. I bought the newest magazine and was sooo disappointed because there wasn´t any article featuring interesting craft and vintage shops in Denmark - until I found out that the article is first due in the next issue which doesn´t come out before july ;-)

So, enjoy this lovely springtime - see you soon!