Happy New Year 2017

  I know it has been almost five years now since I have been able to offer fuchsia starts for sale.  It has been a rocky road ever since I moved the nursery and it froze and then the deer ate everything that tried to come up.
  This fall, right when I was finished making the lavender wands which have been getting me through the winters, I fell twice and hurt my tail bone so badly that I could barely walk.  And since it was necessary to work anyways, I just didn't have anything left over in me to be able to also make cuttings.  The next thing I knew, it was too cold to make cuttings.  Since I do not use a heated greenhouse, it is vital that cuttings be made when the weather is warm enough for them to grow.
  I never used heated greenhouses because the whole point of growing upright fuchsia varieties and species, was to grow vigorous and strong starts that will not go into shock when they are planted out in the elements.
  I haven't even made any attempts to cover any of the fuchsias to protect them from freezing, so I haven't even been looking at them much.  I didn't want to see damage from not having the time to protect them.  
  Etsy has become a world wide flea market and I have only sold half of my lavender wand inventory instead of running out before the end of the year.  They have not only included everything from everywhere, they have disabled our abilities to help each other be noticed.  And since few people even know lavender wands exist, let alone search for them, I was very dependent on the various ways we who have Etsy stores used to feature each other.
  So I have been spending every waking moment trying to sell lavender!
  This Christmas, I happened to look up at the Fuchsia boliviana growing next to my front door and was shocked to see it blooming!!  This bush is almost 8 feet tall right now and I was expecting to look up and see frost damage, not flowers!  
  Bottom line is, even if I have lost many of my original stock plants, I am going to at least try to get species starts going as soon as the weather and working to make ends meet allows.  I have also decided that since so many of the cultivars I was trying to save from being lost, the heirloom varieties, may now be impossible to find, I am going to finally try my hand at hybridizing with what I have.  That should be very exciting!  My goal will be big, strong, fast growing, upright bushes! 
  Even if you are not interested in purchasing lavender items, you can help make a difference by visiting the new ArtistsOfAmerica website and increasing traffic to it by sharing.  Selling the lavender is vital to being able to start fuchsias again this coming February in order to have new starts available by April.
  Thanks!!

Introducing: Artisans Of America!

I am creating a new website to offer as a resource for those of us who find ourselves buried under a mountain of competing items from all over the world.  Although a worldwide marketplace is a wonderful thing to have, if it includes everything from everywhere, there is little hope of being noticed or found.

http://www.artisansofamerica.info/

So this new website will be a list, sorted into categories on various pages, of links to websites which offer handmade, handcrafted, hand created works from artists and artisans.  Fine art and functional art.

There will be no vintage items, no mass produced items, no supply sources, no services, etc.  you know what I mean.  And a limited amount of jewelry to honor those who have been such a great source of mutual support for my internet stores.

I will be looking for quality craftsmenship from all sources.  From art to hang on the wall to art to hold in your hand.  From fine art to functional art in all medias.

If you know of someones website I should include, please let me know.

This will be a work in progress, as I do need to work myself.  And this will require me to relearn my website building skills even though I will be using Blogger for the basics.  One of my primary goals will be to totally rebuild my own website, PedricksCorner.com

Unfortunately, these last five years have not been easy and the ability to spend the time and resources to restart my fuchsia nursery continue to allude me.  Over and over again, I am able to get started and then have to put in down in the face of needing an immediate income.  There are still several hundred stock plants and I am going to keep trying.  But I have no time frame in clear view.

The massive changes at Etsy.com have so undermined the ability of small craftspeople like myself to sell our wares, that at a time of the year when I should be running out of my inventory of lavender, I have almost all of it still available.  Etsy has told us that it is up to us to bring traffic to them.  Well, if that is the case, then maybe we should just bring the traffic to ourselves and leave them out of the loop!!

Getting Ready To Inventory Stock

I am finally going to be able to take an inventory of the surviving fuchsia stock plants soon.  This time of year, the lavender has to take priority because the lavender wands selling on Etsy.com are what have kept me going since the big freeze wiped out all of my fuchias five years ago.  Have been thrilled to see some of my favorites in bloom again!  At this monent, I am figuring out how to post to this blog from the field so I can share photos of each survivor blooming as I find them while I am watering them.  Buy some lavender wands!  I would LOVE to be able to afford the time to make fuchsia cuttings!

A New Year and The Beat Goes On!

 My newest effort to continue to raise funds so I can restart the fuchsia nursery is sock dolls stuffed with lavender!  Each one is a bit different.  I am surprised by how different each ones face turns out to be every time I finish one.  Please visit my Etsy.com store named Pedricks to see them all!

I have been blessed with the means to continue working on my ceramic skills and now have a nice selection of pieces for sale in my second Etsy.com store name CatDancingArtStudio.  This winter has been very productive and I will be adding new pieces every day, so check back to see what is new!

If all goes well, once I get the lavender field expanded before they come out of their winter slumber, I will finally be able to not only begin making fuchsia cuttings again, but more important, I will be able to give them the attention and monitoring they require to get started.  Several times in the last couple of years, I have been able to get cuttings made, but then had to work elsewhere and could not take good care of them.

This is a new year and I am very hopeful!