Beadwork bonanza

When I came across Chris Maj's work on etsy, I at first, said "oooh." And then I said, "whoa." Why? I saw this:

And this:

And this:

And they are made out of beads, by hand, each bead threaded and woven together. Suddenly, I felt a kinship with all those people who look at my quilts and say, "You did all this? Wow, you've been busy. How long did it take you?" When underneath those questions is the unspoken elephant in the room:

How do you have the patience to do this?

The short answer is, we find it fun. Read Chris' long answer in my profile of her in Go Triad. And don't worry about how she does it, just appreciate the artistry, feel the connection to this art form that has been around since antiquity, and get your "oohs" and "aahs" ready.

Big Congrats from The Beehive

A few months back, I listened to a podcast of Christine Kane on "upleveling your business."

What does this mean? She asked, and then she proceeded to lay out the steps. While I enjoyed the lecture, I didn't feel the need to pursue listening to her any further. However, the term "uplevel" was one of those terms that stuck with me.

Today, I can report that I've seen it in action through my work with The Beehive -- one of my clients, Floradora, has expanded her business beyond Etsy to a fully live, beautiful and interactive ecommerce site! I am so proud to work with this home decor company. 

Sarah Reed of Dodeline Design hit this one "out of the park," translating the Floradora aesthetic in an easy-to-navigate site, and then trained Floradora on how to customize and in general keep her items, and site, up to date. 

Custom-designed table linens is a Floradora specialty

Throughout the process, Floradora owner Courtney Scott really put in the work as well, creating wholesale pricing for retailers, organizing her stock by style collections, and in general thinking about her business and how she wants it to grow. 

Congratulations to Floradora on her big debut, and The Beehive wishes her all the best!

When I do my little turn on the catwalk

Well, it's fashion week in Charleston, and although I'm actually in Dallas (researching stories) I did have a chance to recently interview a true emerging designer whose designs will walk the Marion Square runway as part of Eden Boheme's show. Her name: Stephanie Teague. Her background: Charlottean, model, Miami maven, and most recently, hot new designer.

She's one of those people that have always cut up their clothes. You know those girls in high school that took the necks out of their sweatshirts or made a dress into a shirt and then used the leftover fabric to make all of her friends bracelets? Well, that was Stephanie. But she kept doing it after high school, learned more about fashion from wearing some of the best designers in the world on the catwalk, and her stuff just kept getting better and better. And now its good, really good.

As part of getting her designs out there, she started a shop on Etsy. She immediately started selling (sorry to the thousands and thousands that this DOESN'T happen to), and now she can barely keep up with demand. And then there is the fashion week thing, and a solo show at New Orleans Fashion Week ...

You can get the whole story here. And if you *ever* ask me "Who are you wearing?" the answer might just be "Stephanie Teague."