Budding Goods (A Shameless Plug)

Hey guys, this past week has been crazy. Lots of house news came and went (which I will save for another post) as well as our first Crafter's Fair!

Russ and I attended a fairly small Crafter's Fair hosted at Laguna Hills Mall this Memorial Day Weekend. It took place over three days and we learned a lot from it. As we prepared for the show, we swung between strong emotions of feeling super unprepared and overly prepared. We had no idea what to expect.

It ended up going great. We sold about half the things we brought which is not too shabby. Our proceeds are going to my little brother's missions trip this summer.

Here are a few of the things we made and sold:

Hanging Macrame Planters

I made a few more other macrame planter versions but didn't take pictures of them, because I wasn't sure they would sell. I'm so glad they did though - they have just the right amount of funk to them. I love them because their form almost look like wall tapestries.

Mini Zen Planters

Russell designed and built these and I planted the cactus and succulents. They're so pretty. I think this was the product we got the most compliments on. They're interesting to look at and so sleek. And the wood! The textures really pop out.

Magnetic Mini Flower Arrangements

Okay, so these were kind of a fluke. We had 1" cubes which I painted and/or stained. Russ drilled holes in them. We intended to buy air plants and stick them in there and sell them as little planters. However, since air plants are becoming quite popular, it was impossible to find mini air plants at an affordable price. I came home a little discouraged about having all these wooden cubes and no plants to put in them.

I was in my parents' backyard and noticed all the dried flowers I had hanging around. I hate throwing out flowers that Russell buys me so I usually end up drying them before they wilt. I ended up using these dried flowers and creating mini flower arrangements by gluing them into the cube and adding a magnet on the back. People loved them. I sold out of them on the second day and had to go home to make more. I already received another order for 20 more of these (woo!). They're so cute and affordable. I love them because it's a little way people can take home our creative work with them.

Our signature framed succulents

Colorful wood with hanging succulents

Here's a picture of our booth that Russ built:

A week before the show, we were still trying to figure out how to display our items. Russ did amazing though at conjuring this up. The only drawback was that little kids loved running through the middle of the booth and a few would pull on the hanging macrame planters. But it was endearing to watch.

I think that's all for now. I can go on and on about this show and about our items. I enjoyed the Crafter's Fair because there were so many people who came up to us just to encourage us and to compliment our work. After a crazy week dealing with escrow and house paperwork, this became a nice break for me and Russ.

Feel free to visit our Etsy shop: Budding Goods

We also have an Instagram page I update on whims: Budding Goods on Instagram

Knitting

It's been a whirlwind of crocheting and knitting. I've started packing a few of our belongings which of course means finding old toys I've forgotten about for the past year. I finally got around to my giant box of yarn and there are so many fun colors and textures!

I was also lucky enough to go to a crocheting/knitting night with some of the ladies from my bible study. One of them even taught me how to crochet a flower. I'm still not super good at it but I'm practicing. Also, I learned how to make bows. There will be lots of knitted bows and crocheted flowers around our apartment.

Russell gets around to his woodworking when we have downtime. One of his coworkers even inquired about getting two planters. And we also have another friend who is interested in the wooden rings he makes. Very exciting. It's enough to keep us giddy.

Planters and Painting

Here's the planter Russell made with the plant we purchased:

Looks simple and elegant enough. We also like it with the other plant we bought. I have better pictures/angles loaded onto the Etsy shop: Wall Planter w/ Mirror

We had fun thinking up this idea and putting it together. Also, Russell has been obsessed with making planters lately...

Anyways, we're all set with sending that off as a birthday present. I painted the card (the green stripy one next to the plant). I'm telling you, watercolors is fun but the most I can do are the most basic design.

Painting is messy but the end result is pretty. Of course, it made me think that painting is like life. We're all messy and all over the place, but in the end, everything is made beautiful in its time.

What's Cooking?

Russ let the cat out of the bag and posted about our Etsy store on his social media this weekend. I feel bad for not sharing it on here right away. So even though we don't have many products on there yet, here it is: www.etsy.com/shop/BuddingGoods

Also, we got our first Etsy order last week! Someone wanted a ring and Russell and I spent the whole day thrilled. We couldn't stop talking about the order. It's one thing setting up the store and another thing to actually get an order. We still feel like amateurs but we're getting the hang of it. I think I read up on anything that has to do with USPS priority mail. I just hope the product reaches the customer.

That's not all we have cooking up. While I'm at it, let me share another link: Livingmoonstudios.com

Russell has been working on the site since last year, and I wrote the web copy. Our ultimate goal is to be able to work together on various projects. Now we have Etsy where we can creatively make things together and Living Moon Studios is our portfolio site where we can market together business-wise for other companies. There's still a ton we have to do on Living Moon Studios. For example, register the name. Yup, still have to do that. We decided not to worry about that until we move in the spring.

For now, we will keep making things, taking pictures of them, giving them away to friends and family, then excitedly screaming and dancing when someone (whom we don't know) orders them from Etsy while we scramble around getting new materials to remake the products again. Being married to Russell is a swirl of creativity, adventure, and excitement.