Mommy Monday:: Tracy Kavanaugh, The Glass Lily Pad

Tracy Kavanaugh took her love of photography and made it into a business. She started with an etsy shop, Lily pad Prints in 2009, taking her own photographs and making photo note cards and fine art prints. After seeing a photo pendant online Kavanaugh decided to give photo Jewelry a try. She made her first pendant and was hooked. In June 2011 she opened The Glass Lily Pad etsy shop, combining her love of Photography and working with her hands to make artistic and one-of-a-kind products.

The Glass Lily pad offers hand made photo jewelry, key chains, wine bottle  stoppers, bookmarks and more. In addition to her etsy shops, Kavanaugh sells her art work at home parties, craft shows and at The Ladybug boutique in Middletown CT. She markets her  business on facebook, and twitter, sharing the pages with her photography business. She is also a member of The Artesian Group, a juried group of artisans’ that gets to provide products to celebrities and members of the press. The products are distributed at major award gift lounges, or one time special gift bags for certain celebrities. Kavaugh is very excited to be apart of this group adding, “I just recently got the opportunity, through this group, to gift Jordin Sparks (American Idol Winner 2007) and Kiley Cucuo (Penny on the Big Bang Theory) photo necklaces. This is a great opportunity because celebrities have huge followings and if they end up liking your products there is potential for some great exposure.”

Since Kavaugh’s business is primarily online it gives her the freedom to plan around her family. As a full time worker, wife, and mother of a three year old, she spends her time creating and marketing for her business after her daughter goes to sleep. She often uses her lunch time at her job to answer emails, network on facebook and twitter, and uses that time to make trips to the post office to ship orders. It helps to have the support of her husband, she says, “My husband is super supportive and comes with me to craft fairs, we joke that they are our 5+ hour dates.”

Kavanaugh offers this advice to other mom entrepreneurs, “Try not to compare your business to another similar business that appears to be really successful and then get yourself down about yours. You really don’t know their background as far as how long they have been doing their business, how many hours they spend working at it, how much money they have put into it etc. They may have been in business for ten years compared to your one or two, they may work 24 hours a day on it, they may have spent tons of money on it and never even turned a real profit, you just don’t know. Do your business because you love it and it will become a successful!”

You can also have your very own custom Glass Lily Pad piece. I attended a Glass Lily pad house party this spring, I loved everything! One of the beautiful note card prints of a dragon fly caught my eye. I asked if I could have that put that on a pendant to give to my mother for Mother‘s Day, it came out perfect. I also ordered a pendant with picture of my kids; I sent the picture through email, chose a pendant style and requested a sepia tone. Now I have a beautiful custom piece of jewelry!

Be sure to shop The Glass Lily Pad on etsy, pick from the great selection of products or order your own custom piece. Thanks to Tracy for offering our readers 20% off your purchase by using the code MOMCT20!

~Jess