Blog Category Ideas

If you are reading my blog please tell me what categories you would like me to write about. I would like for Camellia Cottage to focus on flowers and gardening but gardening is such a vast topic that I couldn't possible begin to cover it all.

We could just do a blog about how to create flower arrangements, but I would like to also include some gardening topics. I'm wondering if we should stick with just growing cut flowers or if it makes my blog to random if we include vegetable gardening also? One other idea that has crossed my mind is to have a blog about cottage gardens, like how to create them and how to maintain them.

I've been reading all kinds of books on how to have a successful blog, how to choose a blog topic, how to get more readers, and how to make an income with a blog. My head is spinning! I thought all a person did to blog was write about their topic. I'm considering deleting my other blogs and focusing only on Camellia Cottage because to be a successful blog I've got to update it more often.

One last thought...the whole word press verses blogger topic is about to drive me crazy. I'm going to leave Camellia Cottage here instead of moving it to a self hosted word press.

2012 Our first Veggie Garden

Today I'm going to start keeping my garden notebook online. Instead of buying a new notebook, I'm going to blog about my garden! I found last year's seed packets (2013) from our fist veggie garden so I'm going to start off with a list of last year's seeds any notes I have about them.

All of our zinnias bloomed beautifully. I loved the Candy Cane mix with the stripes. The Cut and Come Again Mix bloomed and bloomed. The more I cut the more they bloomed.

Zinnia Giant Flowered Mix

Zinnia Peppermint Stick Mix

Zinnia Cut and Come Again Mix

Zinnia Candy Cane Red on White

Zinnia Green Envy

Marigold French Dwarf Double Mix -lots of flowers

Sunflower Summer Cutting Mix -planted too late. Didn't bloom.

Sunflower Mamoth Russian -large beautiful blooms and seeds for the birds.

Genovese Basil -The best tasting basil plant.

Pumpkin Small Sugar -planted too late.

Large Bottle Gourd - takes 130 days till harvest. Plant earlier than July next year.

Sugar Daddy Pea- cool weather crop. Next year plant in fall instead of July.

Carrot Kaleidoscope Mix- Next year don't plant so deep. That's why they didn't germinate.

Squash Waltham Butternut -it runs instead of bushing so don't so close. It needs more room.

Clemson Spineless Okra -great. Need to plant again next year.

Blue Lake Green Beans-my favorite of all the veggies.

Zucchini- not sure what variety, package wasn't labeled. Next year find a more disease resistant variety.

Straight Neck Squash- next year find a more disease resistant variety.

Jubilee Watermelon- grow great until the deer ate it.

Ornamental gourds- so cute and perfect thanksgiving centerpiece. Plant again next year.

Hales Best Cantaloupe- didn't grow well, need to research why.

Early Italian Garlic- planted in the fall. Will harvest this spring.

Elegant Camellia Blossoms

Hello Sweethearts,

Ive been floating around etsy this morning. My first treasury was created yesterday. I featured Camellia blossoms as my theme. I mean, what else would Camellia Cottage create? If you love the elegant blossoms as much as me, take a moment and visit our favorite etsy items: (click below)

Elegant Camellia Blossoms Treasury

Photo Credits: 

Camellia Photo: GeorgiannaLane

Camellia Dress Pin: GBILOBA

Camellia Pendant: ThePrettyPendant

Caring For Your Flower Arrangement

Flowers do a lot to brighten up a home. They look great sitting on your table for a while, but eventually silk flowers do collect dust. And real flowers start to fade. All flower arrangements do need a little bit of care. Have you ever wondered how to care for a flower arrangement once you bring it home? In this article you will learn the basics of caring for silk flowers, fresh flowers, and dried flowers. With a few simple tricks you're flower arrangements will be looking brighter and happier.

Silk flower arrangements are the easiest flowers, and require almost no maintenance. Collecting dust seems to be the largest concern. We recommend buying a silk floral cleaner, which can be purchased at most craft stores. It should be sprayed onto the arrangement following the directions on the package. For silk plants, try dusting leaves with a slightly damp cloth.

To keep real flower arrangements looking their best the longest, change the water often (every other day, if possible) and re-cut the stems at an angle. Add a little bit of a commercial floral food/preservative. Some of my clients seem to swear by a half an aspirin, some sun drop or a little bit of sugar. This is not recommended. I have found that flowers in commercial preservatives last longer. Distilled water works better than tape water. Never allow leaves or any foliage under the water, because this helps harmful bacteria grow.

Dried arrangements allow real flowers to be dried and keep for many years. Although they will eventually dry out to the point of becoming crumbly, there are a few ways to prolong their life. As the flowers continue to dry out, they often become brittle, which leads to breaking or crumbling. To avoid this, never leave your arrangement in direct sunlight. You can place them in a bathroom, where steam from your hot showers will keep them from becoming too dry.

Try these tips on your own flower arrangements and watch as your silk flowers look cleaner and your real flowers stay fresher. These tips are a simple way to care for your flowers and improve their lifespan of brightening up your house.

Cherry Blossom Boutonniere

This is the matching boutonniere to last week's bouquet. Isnt it just too cute? Its made out of lovely pink cherry blossoms.

Pink Cherry Blossom Wedding

Here are some images of my latest project, a cherry blossom bouquet complete with feathers. The stem was wrapped in a lovely ivory ribbon with pink overlay and pearl pins. Enjoy!

Vintage Wedding Dresses

Looking for a lovely Vintage style Wedding Dress? Here are some great links to check out:
(The beautiful dress pictured above is from Recapture Vintage Bridal.)

Recycled Bride
Recapture Designs
Wedding Dress Fantasy
The Frock
Ellana Couture
Vintage Vixen

Know of any other great Vintage style wedding sites? Leave us a comment to be added to our list.

Share Your Pinterest Link

Hello lovelies,

Do you pin? Are you on pinterest? If so please do share your link. I would love to follow your pins. Here's something I pinned this morning on my very first board. This is such fun...I just might get addicted. haha!

Source: etsy.com via Shannon on Pinterest

New Etsy Items

Happy January!

I've added some new items to our online etsy shop! Isn't this exciting? We have several new grapevine wreaths, just waiting for you to embellish them with flowers and ribbons. We also have several new flower arrangements! Here is a small sample:

Visit our shop to order or view more:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/shopcamelliacottage

White Elephant Sale

Good Morning Lovelies,

Its time to sale the white elephant!!! (That's what everyone has nicknamed my latest huge white arrangement). The arrangement in the photo above is for sale in my booth at the Depot. If you're interested, shoot me an email and I'll make you a very good deal on it! ;) Or if you prefer I could always rent it out as an altar arrangement.

Camellia Cottage's brand new website is up and running now. I'm super excited about this! I just know you'll love it. As for our blog, the "blog makeover" has begun. I deleted some older posts, and added both facebook and twitter to our side bar. This blog got a new background. I'm telling you, getting new graphics for your blog is almost as much fun as buying a new dress! I do have one complaint...the header image isn't quite right and I think one more dress fitting is in order to tweak that.

I started back to school yesterday. On my way to a real degree this time and not just a certificate. I'm pretty excited about the horticulture classes.

Happy 2012

Good morning lovelies,

Here's to wonderful new year, filled with promise and hope. I wish each one of my blog readers a very safe and wonderful 2012. I have a feeling something wonderful is going to happen this year. I know, I know... I say that every year. But this year it really is true!

In case you haven't noticed a lot of exciting things are happening around Camellia Cottage. To start with we are getting a brand new website layout and design. Then our fabulous blog gets a makeover too. I've decided to open a second etsy shop and split up my merchandise. The Camellia Cottage etsy will only feature flower arrangements, and wedding goodies. While our newest venture shall be filled with all of my favorite vintage finds...like teapots, linens, dishes, shabby roses, and antiques. Are you excited? I know I am!

Life as a webdesigner

Hello sweethearts,

Did you have a happy valentine's day? I did...I'm grateful for every valentine's day that rolls around and I'm not up to my eyeballs in flowers. haha! This year I didn't do any arrangements.

I've spent the past month tossing around ideas for our website. The new layout and graphics are finished. Now I'm working on creating our pages (like: about us, contact, ect.) Some days I feel like banging my head against the desk; but I have now learned HTML. I've spent most of my time painting and working on the house, which leaves little time for the website and even less time for creating my florals.

Hopefully by the beginning of March our website will be up and running, then we can get on with the crafting! :)

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Re-opening of our site

I've been thinking for a while about this. As you know, I hit a rough patch last year and thought seriously about closing Camellia Cottage. Instead I closed our booth in Salisbury, our lollishop, and our website.

Now that I've got my good sense back, I realize I need a website! So I'm going to work this week on getting us temporary page, so shopcamelliacottage.com won't say the domain dosen't exist.

Camellia Cottage's business plan still needs a little bit of work. I'll be working on that this week, and trying to figure out where I plan to go from here. Keep watching the blog for our exiting plans for 2011!

Have a blessed day, and enjoy whats left of this weekend. :)

Welcome to a New Year!

Hello sweetpeas,

Welcome to 2011! I can't believe it is already a brand new year. I'm so excited about the opening of our new etsy shop. Please take a moment and come visit. :)

I have big plans for this wonderful new year. For a while, last year things looked pretty bad for Camellia Cottage. We were spending than we were making, and eventually I was forced to pull out of both my website and the space I had leased. I even thought about closing the business. So I have been thinking and I've decided to start off smaller this time. Not bite off more than I can chew! haha

Camellia Cottage is starting with the etsy shop. Then maybe...or maybe I'll keep the rest of our year's plan and surprise ya'll as we go along. :)

Creative Spaces

Hello Sweet-peas,

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer, because we are! Its been hot, but the rain has cooled us off and made the garden greener.

Tonight, I've added some photos of our studio to facebook. Read the book Where Women Create by Jo Packman inspired me to work on our little room and share some photos. If you haven't read that book, its about the workrooms of creative women. The photos are simply breathtaking. I never imagined paint brushes could look so pretty in a container. After looking at that book, I couldn't resist painting the walls and putting my own pencils in a vintage cat planter.

Most people seem under the impression that our floral arrangements are created inside Camellia Cottage. The inside of the cottage is filled with fine china, linens, tables, and party guests. There simply wasn't enough room inside for all our parties and the florals. Our studio is actually located in the basement. The room is as large as a bedroom, painted a color called "cozy cottage", and has black and white tile floor. You can check out some of our new photos on our facebook album.

Change is in the air!

Hello Sweets,

I know it has been a long time and there really isn’t any excuse. Things have not been going good for my shop. I thought about giving up; but then I decided change is what we need. I must follow my true passion which is not antiques at all but flowers.

Right now, I’m working on getting the new layout up and all the new site pages. I’ve decided to scrap everything but the domain name itself, shopcamelliacottage.com Everything else will be totally different.

I’m still working on my product line. However the site comes first, then that will give me time to get a plan of what I’ll soon be selling.

This is so exciting! I’m thrilled, and can’t wait to till time to unveil our new products!

Our Photo Shoot

My first show and tell Monday...I'm excited!

As mentioned before, I'm making larger pics of our merchandise. Thursday was my photo shoot, first of all the camera died; but after a trip for batteries it was resurrected. Ya'll should have seen me out there, somewhere between the tree's shade and the dancing sunbeams, dragging the large patio table around trying to get the lighting right. I'm sure the neighbor's think I've lost what's left of my sanity. That table was large and round, with a huge floral; plus all my props because the background must look simply perfect. As the shade moved, I'd pick up the whole kit and caboodle and move to. My traveling studio...larger than me, and to make things worse I still wore my favorite garden hat which tied under the chin. Oh, and did I mention the dog? Yes, you heard right. A strange large dog, I've never seen before wandered through the azalea bushes and tried to get in the photographs. There were several blurry one of a spotted pooch. What a day! But I'm more than pleased with my photos, check them out!

Camellia Cottage now has a flicker account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shopcamelliacottage

The teacup cuties are here!

Yes, you heard right. Our newest line of florals, are made with antique teacups. These miniatures are so cute, hence their name "the teacup cuties".
These usual florals, make wonderful Mother's Day gifts or use them at tea parties. They are perfect for a hostess gift or order in bulk and use them as party favors.

They come in tiny demitasse cups, as well as the larger tea cups. These can be customized, simply drop me an email: shannon@shopcamelliacottage.com

I love these florals, and can see them in bookcases, on tables, or even tucked away in kitchen nooks.

Myspace and Plumdrop

Good Morning Ladies,

Camellia Cottage is now on myspace! Yes, I know, it's time I got with this century. Please do come visit and add us as a friend: http://www.myspace.com/shopcamelliacottage

We are also on Plumdrop as well! Isn't this exciting?

Well, I'm off to ship an order. Maybe later, I'll get some more things done to the website. Mom and I spent yesterday going over some marketing ideas. One by one, you'll here about them. :)

Facebook

Guess what? Camellia Cottage is now on Facebook! Come check us out. I'm new to the whole facebook thing and am slowly trying to figure it out as I go. Ha ha!
I've added some new photos. I love the little cherub vase, so much I've set it as Camellia Cottage's userpic. Well, I'm going to go write on our wall.
Hope ya'll have a great afternoon and I'll see you on facebook! :)