Finding the Customer of your Dreams

When I think about working with my ideal client, I have to decide which hat to wear. There are 30 hours each week when I wear the fiber artist and entrepreneur's hat. This flamboyant chapeau is a favorite of mine and one that I have worn for more than 2 decades. You can bet there is always a romantic bird feather and lots of frilly silk on this hat, as the creative part of me always comes out when I pop it on my head!

There is another part of my entrepreneurial brain that needs to be adorned as I work with the ideal nutrition and wellness client. As a budding Integrative Health Coach, I wear a curious sort of hat that helps me to ask important questions and amplifies my client's answers. I truly want to understand the needs and goals of each of my wellness clients...I want to be the perfect match for them.

Do you have the need to seek out and serve the ideal client? Have you ever caught yourself trying to be All to Everyone? What kind of language do you share with the folks that are your ideal customer or client, and how can you be involved in a conversation using this language?

Top Tips for Meeting the Customer of Your Dreams

Focus on your strengths. Do you have clarity about what it is that you have to offer as skills, resources, finished products, or counsel? If you have clarity about what it is you have to offer and the niche that you serve, the right kind of customers will more easily relate to you.

Practice saying "No". When I first began doing private commissions as a fiber artist, I thought it was important to say "Yes" to each and every request. I have learned that when I say "No Thanks" to the wrong kind of project, I open myself up to many opportunities to allow the right kind of work to come into my space.

Choose your playground wisely. Have you been intoxicated by the Internet? It is easy for me to feel the desire to participate on all the channels of social media and marketing that being an online boutique affords me. This intoxication literally diluted my success, and I have learned to limit myself to only those platforms I can consistently and sincerely manage. How about you?

Nurture your team. As a follow-up to narrowing my focus, I have also had to get real about those important business and creative tasks I am better off delegating to talented others. As I work with my health coaching clients, my time needs to be spent speaking directly to individuals, so I hire the help I need to do things like publish newsletters and create marketing documents. As I have created my own process and procedures, with the help of talented others, I have learned to understand how to nurture my team and myself. I feel good about counting on experts and their guidance, and I do my best to make sure they know how much I appreciate them!

You are outstanding in your field!

There are efficiencies in small business management that help me be better available to my ideal clients. Sharing these ideas is a practical matter that may help you in your enterprise. You, too, have wonderful ideas that would surely help me, and I invite you to share as well!

Beyond the practical, I know that there are millions of people in the world who, like me, and perhaps like you, love fiber art, natural and ecochic home decor, and birds. There are also many millions who seek to improve their wellness and happiness quotient. I have proven to myself that finding the perfect people to serve with my passionate skills and voice is not really a matter of connecting with ALL those millions of like others.

It is more, I believe, about sharing my unique vision about natural beauty and beautiful wellness. The clarity of purpose I have about my offerings is the best way I have found to connect with the clients of my dreams. Take a moment every day to connect with your own inner purpose, as you, too, may find that this simple focus shines a light that enables your perfect customers to find you and embrace you.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

International Bird Rescue -- Every Bird Matters

Perhaps you have seen the images from ocean-side communities where people work to clean up a bird that has been damaged by an oil spill? This kind of human intervention due to humankind's mess-making around the world is often covered in the news these days.

My love of birds has been celebrated in my fiber art studio for many years now, so when the folks at International Bird Rescue, an organization dedicated to rescuing birds that have been injured due to a natural disaster or human cruelty, asked me to sponsor a membership drive for their non-profit organization, I was happy to participate! I hope you will enjoy learning more about their fine work.

If you decide to become a member of Bird Rescue this week, with a $25 donation, you will be eligible to win one of the many lovely sponsor-donated items perfect for every bird lover! Learn more here.

Tattoo Sparrow Pillow at Nestle And Soar

The Tattoo Sparrow Pillow from my eco-chic collection, shown at left, has been donated to Bird Rescue (IBR) as a give-away item! Other companies who also love birds, as well as the fans of birds around the world, are joining in to help raise awareness about the work of the Bird Rescue team.

In addition to becoming a IBR member, there are many ways to participate with bird-loving organizations, and often, you can participate from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy spending time on Facebook, there are many hard-working groups represented there you could follow and help to support. I like to keep up with the I Love Birds page!

Another bird-loving spot I like to visit from home is the blog of the popular 10,000 Birds. Here you will find great information on birding, nature, and conservation as well as fabulous bird photography from around the world. Do you love learning about birds and where they live?

It is tremendous fun to fill my home with art and images that celebrate my love of nature! This is the passion behind my artistic practice and my small business efforts. If you also love to celebrate your love of nature this way, I hope you will join me in helping organizations like International Bird Rescue who work to preserve the health and legacy of birds in their natural environments for everyone's benefit.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

English Garden Fiber Folk Art Pillow is Pure Romance

Simply Elegant Home Decor

Romantic home decor is a comfortable style that is sweet, but never saccharine. Romantics celebrate the idealistic side of life, and like their home environment to be softly welcoming. All of the senses are addressed when romantic decorating is honored, with luxurious textiles, a creamy color palette, light filtering through draped windows, and lovely flower arrangements. In my most successful romantically decorated room, feminine energy may reign, but my husband also feels comfortable.

English Garden Fiber Folk Art Pillow, 18"x18"

The romantic in me was fully present on the day I designed and created the English Garden Pillow for Nestle And Soar! A mother bird is feeding her chick inside a swirly, gentle tree. A slight sparkle from the hand-applied seed beads adds a touch of glitz, and the organic linen I used is creamy and super soft.

Have you experimented with the romantic decorating style in your own home? Many of the textiles that I have inherited over the years come to me from the women in my family who lived in beautifully simple, Victorian-era lives. The fancy manor house living with rose gardens dappled around the English countryside is not my background, yet I like to pretend that it could have been! A lot of the romantic women I know enjoy incorporating a soft English-country style into their modern family homes. Do you? I'd love to hear about it.

Handmade Eco-Chic Pillow Giveaway!

Bright Peace Pillow

Giving away my fiber folk art to an enthusiastic fan of handmade is exciting to me! I am pleased to announce that YOU have a chance to win one of two fan-favorite designs from my pillow collection at Nestle And Soar. It is as easy as 1-2-3 to enter this fun giveaway. Here is a handy link for you to use!

Blue Jay Needle Felt Pillow

I will be collecting entries until midnight on July 29, 2013. The winner will be notified by email and their choice of one design from the two pillows shown will be sent to a lucky address in the 48 contiguous United States. Which pillow would look great in your stylish home?

The Bright Peace pillow is made with hand-applied wool felt circles onto organic linen. The Bluebird pillow is hand needle-felted and embroidered onto organic linen.

Hand-stitching is a fine craft technique that I just love! The wool circles in this statement Peace Pillow were appliqued using the classic blanket stitch. Decorating with colorful and luxurious pillows is one of my favorite home decor tricks. On a neutral sofa, you can pull in bright colors from elsewhere in the room. On a darker sofa, this creamy linen is a lovely contrast. All of my handmade pillow designs are made one-by-one in my Colorado fiber art studio, and I hope they will find a special spot in your one-of-a-kind space!


Thanks for stopping by and good luck,
Georgianne

Creating a Bird Haven at Home

If you are a bird lover, chances are good that your personality is drawn toward bright colors, cheerful flowers, and a wide range of garden and landscape styles. I am the kind of bird lover who is always looking out her windows, at home and in the car, scanning for the flicker of colorful birds! I plant a lot of yellow in my flowerbeds, and I love the counterpoint of purples like hydrangea or climbing clematis. Have you taken the time to create a bird-friendly backyard?

Here are three tips I have found useful for making sure more birds visit my home! In my way of thinking, a landscape filled with beauty is not complete without a bird haven. Do you agree?

Two Major Bird Concerns The two biggest concerns for birds are finding food and being safe. I offer lots of vegetation like trees, shrubs, flowerbeds and vines, and this gives birds choices for safe landing spots. The foods that are most popular in my yard are insects, berries, and fruit. Seeds like no-mess blends are always offered, too, but alone, they are not ideal for attracting birds. 

Watch and Learn My large dining room window is my favorite perch for bird watching, and from there I realized that the neighborhood cat who is left to roam at will has been ruining my bird haven efforts! A friendly call to my neighbor has helped with that issue. The cover of sheltering tree limbs and ornamental grasses has helped birds feel safe in my yard. We often see hawks gliding in the thermals above our home, and a sheltering landscape helps small backyard birds rest easy about predators in the air.  

Stop Tidying Up By nature, I like to put things back into place at the end of each day. I'm a bit of a neat-freak. In my bird-friendly yard, a natural, more wild approach brings better results! Trimming back hedges and flowerbeds every week removes some of the insect-rich oasis for birds. It is good for me to be more casual in my yard work, as it lets me just relax in the lush, colorful space.

I would love to hear about your bird-friendly spaces!

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

P.S. If you would like to see my latest colorful, handmade bird pillows, here is a quick link. Birds look great inside the home, too!

Bright Colors and Soft Textures in Home Decor Fiber Art

Wool circles staged for my new line of pillows!

Lots of embroidery will need to happen next!

Bright colors and silky textures are the inspiration I count on as I spend hot June days in my fiber art studio.  This new batch of 100% wool felt is now cut into circles, waiting patiently for me to sort out new fiber art designs! The popular Folk Art Flowers pillows I've had in my collection for a few years need to have some fresh design touches. I am planning to add flags and other bold circle-centric designs in the upcoming months.

Some of the soft and colorful wool from the Wool Festival in Estes Park.

Do you have a favorite color scheme in your home that you can share with me? I'd love to have your input.






This small folk art flag design is similar to a large wall fiber art piece I've been attending to this year. This smaller version is being made for a 12"x15" pillow design, and I am enjoying the process. Iconic flags are a fun addition to many home decor styles, and the layout of this flag is straight- forward. Perhaps this design is too traditional?

Do you think I should be more contemporary and angle the flag or give it some wave-like motion?








I visited the Wool Festival in Estes Park, Colorado, last weekend with some of my fun knitting friends! This picture shows some of the lovely colors and soft textures I purchased from the vendors at this terrific annual event. I always enjoy visiting with vendors at the market and catching up with their news and exciting products. Some of these friendly people are my year-long source of hand-dyed, eco-friendly wools for my fiber art. I have to admit, it is taking a lot of self-restraint to create this blog post today instead of getting elbow deep in this luscious pile of bright and silky wool! I wanted to share before I start pulling these fibers apart in the creative process.

I hope you will keep an eye out for new creations from Nestle And Soar in the coming weeks, and I also hope you will let me know if there is anything special I could Customize especially for you!

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

P.S. Thank you for following this blog. I do appreciate it! Today through June 15, 2013, I invite you to use a special coupon code "BlogFriend" at checkout on my Nestle And Soar website, and receive 20% off your purchase of any one regular-priced item. If you aren't a follower of this blog, sign up today! Great coupons and fun specials are a part of the fun here. Georgianne

New Work in the Studio

Here's what's happening at Nestle And Soar this week...

A huge shipment of celadon green wool roving arrived and my hands could not stop until I played with this elegant color! I read a reference to the word celadon, commonly used to describe a delicate green, earlier, used to describe a tender lover, after Celadon, the hero in a romance by d'Urfe. I believe that there is a romantic quality to this green, and hopefully, to these three pieces on my worktable. Oh, my sweet Celadon.

English Garden, hand needle felt, embroidery, beading on linen

Love Birds, hand needle felt on linen

Piece 4 in series of 6, patchwork with needle felting

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne

Colorful Creatures in the Air

Watching colorful creatures is one of my favorite past times. I am intrigued by the way that birds, butterflies, and insects flash color changes, sparkle and move through space. I have also enjoyed watching out for the art of others who make colorful creatures out of various mediums. I hope you enjoy these colorful creature images from my studio folder...they are inspirational to me!

Hand and machine sewn Moths with beaded details.

Origami birds on a tree branch.

Colorful insect...love the patterning on the body.

The determined look on this bird's face is great.

Thanks for stopping by,
Georgianne