It seems like it has been forever since I posted a blog. As a person who posted a new blog nearly every day for over five years, it seems that I have been quite lax lately in keeping up. I apologize about that.
It isn’t that I am not busy. Quite the opposite is true. It seems that the floodgates have been opened and all of a sudden things are really kind of wild. That in itself is wonderful, but it is also kind of scary. While I am thrilled and excited about this recent ‘growth spurt’ of my business, I still need to keep things under control. Otherwise, everything that I worked so hard to achieve will be lost. It can be a slippery slope.
The recent unveiling of Lynne Andrews’ Inspirational Ark series has been an amazing success. As soon as patterns were available, both Lynne and I had tons of orders for surfaces. Even though I had pre-orders available and a small stock of pieces ready, they were quickly purchased and for the past three weeks or so I have been living in a cycle of cutting for two days and packaging and shipping for one. (Repeat, repeat, repeat!) There has been little time to do much else and even though I have been good about sticking to my “6 pm deadline” for closing up my shop, most nights I come down from there so tired that I have little energy to do much else – let alone have the energy to be creative.
But I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Things are leveling off and I am getting caught up. People have been wonderful as well as understanding in that they realize that I am only one person. I haven’t had one bad experience with my customers at all. I am very grateful.
But even though I am busier than ever, what I am doing doesn’t really make good blog material. I am sure you will all get tired quickly of seeing pile after pile of cut wood pieces and boxes. They all look the same after a bit and really there is little creative about it. So I opted to take the time off from posting here until I have something interesting to show you all. (And trust me – there will be some fun and (hopefully) wonderful things in the future! I am certainly not done creating yet! I believe the best is yet to come. This is the ‘calm before the storm’ if you will!)
So thank you all for sticking with me. I think there is much fun to be had in the near future. I am truly excited at the direction of my business as well as my work with other artists. It is going to be quite a fun time!
As I have been cutting wood pieces, Keith has been busy designing. We are planning a site update for later on today so those of you who subscribe to our Mailing List should receive your newsletter later on today or tonight. For those of you who don’t, I want to show you some of the new designs that Keith has created in the past couple of weeks.
His word-in-word style still seems to be popular with our customers. For the upcoming Easter holiday, he created this beautiful “Happy Easter & Bunnies Word Art” plaque. (SLDK711)
It is classic “Keith” style with the addition of some cute little bunny silhouettes. I really like it.
Also for Easter, Keith created a beautiful set of Floral Filigree Bunny Ornaments. (SLDK712)
The beautiful and delicate ornaments can not only be done as free-standing but also placed in some cute, egg-shaped frames:
I love the pretty, bright backgrounds on them and I think it really makes them look lovely.
Keith was also thinking ahead to Mother’s Day and created a nice plaque that would be appropriate for that occasion. (SLDK713 – Moms Like You)
The above plaque also comes in a “Mums Like You” version with the pattern.
He then created this SLDK714 – “No Buddy Like a Brother” plaque pattern for those of you who have a close relationship with your brothers.
And finally for Keith, he created the pattern for this sectional Bible Passage (SLDK412 – John 6:35 Sectional Bible Passage Plaque)
It is a beautiful addition to his sectional Bible passage patterns, I think.
We also decided to have a sale of all of our available pattern sets. We are offering 15% off the SET PRICES, which are an amazing value! This will only be for a limited time, so if you are thinking of getting some of our pattern sets, now would be the time to do so.
And finally, I changed the FREE painting pattern that I am offering. I decided to offer my SLDP252 Mermaid Tears Potion Bottle pattern for free.
I loved creating this pattern and there are lots and lots of step-by-step photos to follow. It is a “typical” SLD painting pattern in that even newer painters are able to follow along and be successful with it. I hope you enjoy it.
Well – that will about bring you up to speed. A couple more sessions of cutting and I should be back on top of things. Then I can get back to creating new and fun things for you all to make and have more to share with you. I appreciate all the wonderful support and encouragement from you all – my friends and customers – and want you to know how appreciative I am.
As the saying goes – “I’ll be back!”
Have a great day and a wonderful Wednesday!
from Tumblr https://davidpires578.tumblr.com/post/158706738099
David Pires 