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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

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July 15, 2012

Talking Shop with…Vicki of Curly Willow Collections!



Today we are shining the spotlight on a super talented woman and friend! We have been so honored to have Vicki of the Etsy Shop Curly Willow Collections


and of the blog Vicki Designer Joyful Expressions!

Vicki creates some of the most gorgeous digital items, prints and one of a kind graphics.  Items like these: 

Kitchen, Art Collection, Print, Coffee, Fruit, Stock pot, red, brown, green, yellow
Kitchen Art Collection

and these

Keep Calm and Carry On Art Print Poster Collection
Keep Calm Collection

and gorgeous note cards like this darling one:

Modern Stationery Greeting card Pink Hot Pink Abstract Quotes
Modern Stationary

and our most favorite design of Vicki’s…are gorgeous At The Picket Fence business cards!



We were so thrilled with the design Vicki created for us, and we got so many compliments on them! People actually said, “oooh you all are the ones with the mason jar cards!” So, we know they were getting noticed…and rightly so!  We thought it would be fun to find out a little more about Vicki, the woman behind this fabulous shop! Welcome to the SPOTLIGHT Vicki! 

1. What led to your decision to start your own small business?

I was creating a lot of custom work for bloggers through a blog I shared with my best friend. It was more of a home and garden blog with room re-dos and decorating, but I wasn’t really great at that so I wanted to move my art, card and pattern designs into a more creative arena. So, I decided to open an Etsy shop. After I investigated other Etsy shops I loved, most shop owners had a blog, a facebook and twitter accounts. So, I moved away from the shared blog and opened shop to see what I could do.

2. From where do you draw inspiration for your products?

I love creating. I think I enjoy creating images that speak to people, whether it’s custom work, like when I designed your business cards, or working with someone to design a blog brand that takes their ideas, words, and colors represent them completely. Plus, my bonus creating time is designing for myself. Taking inspiration and making some sort of art print/poster that embellishes someone’s space. And when someone buys that, well that’s just the icing on the cake. I recently sold one of my new kitchen prints to a gal in Germany. This was a very sweet sale for me, because that is where I was born. So, I felt like a little piece of me was going home.


Retro Art Print Poster Coffee Cake Geometric Turquoise

3. What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment as a small business owner? 

My biggest accomplishment is that people like what I do. The heart of every artist is the ability to create. We must be able to do that or a little piece of us dies. The bonus is having someone like what you do. I don’t love everything I create… But, I do love everything I put in my etsy shop and my only hope is that someone else likes it too.

4. What is one of the challenges you face as a small business owner?

For me, since I am working full time now, the time to creative is so minimal. I miss being able to do it daily. 

5. What advice would you give to someone interested in starting their own business?

My biggest advice is just START! As you move forward, you will evolve, your shop will evolve. I try not to worry about making the money. I’m not the best business person. I’d love to improve that, but there’s only so many hours in the day, and it’s not a priority for me yet.

Spring Art Print Poster Ball Jar Floral Robins Egg Blue Bloom

THANK YOU SO MUCH VICKI for sharing this invaluable advise and insight into owning your own shop!
We are honored to have you as a sponsor and a friend! 

We hope you’ll take a moment to pay Vicki a visit at her blog and her shop! We know you’ll find something that catches your eye!
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Comments

  1. Susan (My Place to Yours) says

    July 14, 2012 at 11:23 PM

    So glad you ladies featured Vicki! You may recall that she’s the sweetheart who — unsolicited — created the Bloggers for Hope button I keep on my sidebar … and some printable Valentines, too. She’s such a giving person, and it’s nice to see her creativity well-received.

    Reply
  2. Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions says

    July 15, 2012 at 12:04 AM

    Vicki’s got some great pieces! I won one of her Keep Calm prints and picked the “create” one. I’m actually showing it off in my most recent post about my craft/sewing room! It’s a great piece to have right outside the door.

    Reply
  3. Dawn says

    July 15, 2012 at 8:55 PM

    Vicki does beautiful work! I especially love that last piece “bloom. . .fill up daily for optimal growth”

    Reply
  4. Karena says

    July 16, 2012 at 1:01 AM

    I love to hear about the small business entrepreneur making their dreams come true! yay Vicki!

    I think you will like my new Giveaway from Royal Design Stencils..

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena

    Reply
  5. carol says

    October 19, 2012 at 10:03 AM

    thank you for taking the time to share
    cheers carol

    Reply
  6. philips coffee maker says

    December 14, 2013 at 12:03 PM

    Since the benefit of the single-serve Keurig K-Cup coffee machine, coffee lovers have been appreciating just-brewed coffee one cup at a time.
    Instantly, your counselor instincts begin to shout for you to climb to her and ask her just what the problem is.
    cooking, air treatment, cooling and cleaning products.

    Reply

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I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 y I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 years now and every year I ohhhh and ahhhh over the blossoms like it's the first time I've ever seen them. I gush and I take photos (that look exactly like the ones I took the year before and the year before that) and I make my family come outside and look at them with me which you know they just LOVE to do. 😉 I think that is one of the main reasons why I love spring so much. On the one hand, it's predictable and yet, on the other hand, it still feels like such a surprise after the long months of barren branches.

And yesterday, as I was staring at the gorgeous blossoms for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but think that I hope this is how I feel when our lives return to some semblance of normalcy.

I hope that the predictable feels special and that the typical feels anything but. I hope that I ohhh and ahhh over the simple things I've realized I've taken for granted. And, most of all, I hope that feeling doesn't go away for a very, very long time! 💗
Are you living with great expectation friends? Bec Are you living with great expectation friends? Because He is risen!

Happy Easter from my home to yours!
Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for sure but some things don’t change. Have you been baking and getting ready for tomorrow? What’s one thing on your menu that you have to have every year?
If this is Good Friday, why doesn’t it feel so “good”? It all seems backward doesn’t it?

What could be good about the unspeakable pain he suffered? What could be good about the shame and betrayal?

Easter Sunday is so joyful, bright and cheery. Shouldn’t that be the day we call “good”? It just feels so much better!

But, I don’t know how to rejoice over His resurrection, unless I have felt the pain of His death. I have realized that in life the sweetest victories are the ones which were realized after a pain-filled journey.

And, so it is with Good Friday. I know there will be victory over death, but I can’t skip ahead in the story.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what he would experience. And he knew why he would go through it. He did it for me. He did it for you.

Do you know that? Have you felt it down in the very core of your soul? 
Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit. Why would anyone do that for me?

Well, because, I can’t do it for myself!

There is nothing I can do to earn that kind of love and mercy.

That is why it is called GRACE.

His grace is freely given. We don’t have to pay for it. He paid the price for us already.

Do you remember that movie from years ago called “Ransom”? A couple’s young son was kidnapped and the parents went to hell and back trying to find him and pay the “ransom” demanded by the kidnappers.

Well, Jesus is our “ransom”. (1 Timothy 2:6) His life was the payment.

Why is it called “Good Friday”? Because that wasn’t the end of the story….
.
…It was just the beginning!
Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house that’s become the landing zone for ALL THE THINGS! 🙋🏻‍♀️🤪 I’ve never been more thankful for our rarely used dining room table as it’s become command central for school books and laptops and games.

Where are things collecting in your house right now?
“Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every si “Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every single one of these emotions has made their way through our home in recent days and, my guess is, they have in your home too.

I SO needed this reminder today from the new book ‘Adore’ by @sarahagertywrites.

Adoration isn’t just sitting at His feet gazing longingly with stars in my eyes. It’s bringing my fears and my sorrows and gray roots in my hair that desperately needs to be colored and my messy house and all of the things that threaten to send me over the edge right now and laying them down before Him, soaking up His word and His presence so that when I stand back up, I am changed for having spent the time adoring the ONE who is... Healer, comforter, peace-giver, deliverer, redeemer.

What do you need to bring to Him today? I’ll share mine in the comments and I’d love to hear from you too!
I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole lockdown thing began, I’ve come to appreciate this time of day even more.

It feels the most...normal. Daytime is strange and foreign right now. My husband has taken over our home office, I’m suddenly taking over the responsibility of managing my kids’ distance learning and let me just say that teaching 7th grade algebra to my daughter is hugely ironic since I struggled with math all the way through school. I’m trying to do my own work but it feels utterly futile with the constant interruptions which take precedence right now. In the daytime, I’m constantly reminded of how upside down life feels.

But, in the evening, I cook dinner like I’ve always done and we gather around the table like we’ve always done and we laugh and tell stories and then clean up and play games or go on a walk or watch a show. And that feels SO gloriously normal.

So now I love evenings even more than I ever did before and I’m so grateful for this little chunk of time where the rhythms we established years ago are helping to sustain us now when so much of life feels outside of our control.

What feels ‘normal’ to you right now? Whatever it is, keep doing it. 🌿
When I was in college I would frequently call home When I was in college I would frequently call home and pour my heart out to my mom, sharing with her all that was happening in my life in that completely unfiltered way that you can talk with the person who potty trained you. These phone calls usually took place at night and my mom would patiently listen as I vented frustrations about professors, roommates, boyfriends and the food in the cafeteria. And, inevitably, they would end with my mom saying, “Everything seems worse when you’re tired. Try not to overthink things or make any major decisions tonight, especially when you are feeling emotional.” Dear friends, may I pass along this advice to you today?

If you don’t absolutely HAVE to make a decision right now, I want to encourage you to wait until life gets back to normal. If you are finding yourself over-analyzing relationships and family dynamics, I want to encourage you to remember that everything seems more dramatic when looked at under a microscope. And, let’s face it, being homebound with our loved ones non-stop makes us all feel like lab rats in an experiment.

If you are tempted to quit a job, start a business, start homeschooling permanently, stop homeschooling permanently, move to a new city, buy a farm, quit pursuing your dream, join a commune or make any other major life decision just…wait. Because, if it is in fact the right decision, it will be made even clearer once our lives return to their ‘regularly scheduled programming’. Instead, in this strange season, let’s all just take a deep, collective breath and let it out slowly, releasing the anxiety that threatens to overtake us. Let’s help each other maintain some perspective and not slip into a posture of over-thinking every little thing in our lives. Let’s remember that the enemy of our souls would love nothing more than to use this time when things feel dark to manipulate us into thinking that aspects of our lives are worse than they actually are.

My prayer for you in these days is that you will have the clarity to know what is true and that you will be filled with peace even while we live in this season of so many unknowns.
Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking thes Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking these days! 🙋🏻‍♀️ I’m trying to avoid gaining the #corona15 but my daughter and I LOVE baking together and it does help to pass the time plus it counts as a science lesson right?

If you’re able to find flour in the stores (for the love people please stop overbuying!) and you’re doing more baking at your house too you need to add this apricot bread to your list of new recipes to try!

Normally I’d point you to my blog for the directions but I’m going to do you a solid and leave the full recipe in the comments.

What have you baked so far during this time of social distancing? I’d love some new ideas!
There are a LOT of people out walking in our neigh There are a LOT of people out walking in our neighborhood right now (but still social distancing!) and she decided that she wanted to bring them some joy and put a smile on their face when they pass by our house. Also, the square with ‘say no to coronavirus’ is priceless. 😂 I just love her so much!
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