About me
BORN IN PITTSBURGH, THE FIRST 18 YEARS OF MY LIFE WERE FILLED WITH VARIOUS CREATIVE PURSUITS.
I was just 12 years old when I had my first foray into the business world. I began creating huge flowers made from brightly colored tissue paper. With some accolades and encouragement from my neighbor, I took my flowers door-to-door and began to take orders. My notebook soon became filled with custom orders! With some seed money I went out and bought all of my supplies, crafted my flowers and delivered my orders. With a slew of dollar bills I declared a huge profit until my dad bought me a ledger book and introduced me to accounting. An entrepreneur was born.
With my daughter Jessica on her wedding day.
The road to creativity has many avenues
I received my degree in Fine Arts from The George Washington University. Throughout college, and beyond, I had a freelance calligraphy business designing wedding invitations, addressing envelopes, and producing diplomas as well as retirement certificates.
I later had a shop in Harbor Place called Arts & Letters where I sold calligraphy supplies, books, unusual pens and the work of about a dozen calligraphers including myself.
Soon after opening my shop I also began designing a children’s clothing line. Bright, repetitive graphic designs were hand screened onto t-shirts, shorts and little tank style dresses. My daughter Jessica was a perfect model for my clothing line Sweetshirts.
The fickle world of fashion was not very rewarding.
The lure of the studio is always present.
I love to paint, anything...everything. I began with furniture for my children and moved to faux finishing the walls of my house. If there was a blank surface available, I would paint it. My brushes found their way to the two dimensional surface and a line of hand painted tiles, floorcloths and placemats eventually emerged. East Lake Designs would take me up and down the coast to the best of the high-end craft shows where I sold my designs. Back home, my studio thrived with custom orders from all over the country.
Hard work. But I was in heaven.
After 10 years I took a hiatus and rehabbed an old row house in Baltimore.
Always an artist, just a new medium.
Gardening is a hobby of mine. Not vegetables, but some herbs and lots of flowers.
With over 100 hydrangea plants and a large cutting garden, I am never at a loss for how to fill my vases. There is not a room in my house that is spared some sort of an arrangement and so it was in the summer of 2010 that a bride-to-be saw the flowers in my home and asked me to create an entire look for her wedding. Using my extensive design experience, I styled her flowers and table decor and soon realized that I had found my new passion.
I enjoy working with brides. I love working with flowers.
