So happy that it is 2011 and we are into the energy of a New Year. It’s Gift Show Season Time and with that comes new product to showcase. I’m very pleased to introduce 31 New Card Designs!! WooHoo!!
Sarah and I have been busy creating an entirely new line called “Anytime”. These are cards that can be sent for any occasion. You decide what it might be as they are blank cards. No words but plenty of image to view. Sarah’s creative talent inspired this one day as she was playing around with a “detail” of one of my flowers. She made the image larger, then played around with how it might fit on a card. I was thrilled with the different look. They really are unique as the image wraps round the back and a strip of the image anchors the inside. Check them out in the NEW section of the website. Many of the other cards added are NOT images of flowers! I’ve made a concerted effort to add more trees, landscapes and even my favorite little bird and an angel girl flying in the clouds. My focus for 7 years was creating the “In the Garden” calendar with Brush Dance. That meant I was always painting flowers because for most of those years that was secondary to my “real job” of Corporate Sales Queen. Now that the Corporate world no longer holds me hostage, I’m making an effort to break out of the “floral” look and add a lot more “Nature” to my repertoire!
It was the first day of the SF Gift Show and I must say it felt like an overwhelming success to me compared to my first day’s at the trade shows this past summer! My confidence in my line and my Artist persona has been growing, evident in 4 orders today, people to follow up with for orders (they took catalogs and I got their business cards) and many compliments on my work! To top it off, at the end of the day, a woman admired cards and asked if I ever had my work printed on canvas. I answered No but had considered it. The salesperson in me swings into full gear as I ask more questions. Turns out, she is looking for a “San Francisco Watercolor Artist” to showcase in a new store that her company is opening at SFO (the San Francisco Airport!). They have stores in the Santa Fe, Denver and Albuquerque Airports each with a local watercolor artist work! She promised to bring the CEO of her company by tomorrow. Can’t wait!
I texted Sarah quite a few times during the show with various updates…most included the “WooHoo” then felt like a little kid as I jumped into Mark’s car (he picked me up after the show) with great excitement I reviewed my entire day in a few minutes…talking fast and furious I gave him the overview. He was happy to see me so happy! You gotta love husbands like that!!
3 more days in SF then onto LA the following week for their show then up to Seattle (though I won’t have a booth there, just will hang out in my reps showroom briefly and see if I can drum up any other kind of business).