Back to the blogosphere. I don't know what time zone that's in though.

After quite a bit of time of being away from the blogging stuff, I'm back.  Truth is, I never really have anything particularly profound to say, so I tend to be hesitant about putting my thoughts out there into the world.  The advice I got from some blogger friends is to be myself and I suppose if the world likes me, then fantastic! If not, I shall retreat into a hole I will dig in my backyard.  I will call it a hole of shame. Or perhaps just shame hole.  I don't know.  I haven't quite worked out those details yet.  I suppose I'll work out the itinerary for what to do if the world rejects me when I cross that bridge. :)

First of all, for anyone that doesn't know me personally, I use emoticons to convey tone.  If you don't know me, you might assume that I'm truly considering digging a hole in my yard to cry in.  So, I put the smiley face to indicate I'm joking.  It's a bad habit, as I've found myself using it in many electronic communications.  I haven't quite figured out when it's appropriate to use them.  I've got to grow up. :)

Okay, so serious business now.  Why am I making paper hydrangea balls and selling them.  The answer is simple...people seem to think I make pretty awesome hydrangea balls.  I was asked to make some for my brother's wedding back in January.  (I'll post some photos of that later). My daughter's teacher loved them and now that she's engaged to be married in March of next year, she's asked me to make several, several of them.  I started making them as I usually would, but I wasn't really feeling it. I felt like I needed to work on the styling and try to add my own special twist.  After lots of experimenting and poked fingers, I finally found several ways to add some pizzazz and personalize them even more.

I opened my shop on Etsy last week and still need  to stock the shop because right now I've only got 2 listed for custom-made requests, so that's no good.  But I've got other wedding favor projects going on and working on how to market those as well.

The goal obviously, is to make a little bit of a living off of making handmade items for special occasions.  I'm a people pleaser, so seeing the look on someone's face when they love what I've made for their event really make's all the work worth it.  I realized after my brother and sister-in-laws wedding that this is what I am meant to do.  Starting up a business is scary though - as is putting yourself out there and wondering if the world is going to like what you have to offer.  I hope so. I love what I do and I hope other's do, too.