A glorious day on the beach this morning as Jack and I took our morning consitutional. See for yourself.
The tide was out.
Having a little trouble with my new phone - I was trying to take of photo of textures in the rocks...
Jack's shadow portrait.
Mine.
Reflection.
Rainbow - this is what greeted me as I rounded the last headland.
Success is very seductive, isn't it?
We all what to be successful, but exactly what does that mean? What does it entail? What does it look like?
Initially, many of us may subscribe to society's prevailing definition of success: the well-paid job, the big house, the expensive car, the 2.5 kids, the holiday house, the wardrobe full of labels, the holidays overseas... (insert success measure here).
Some of us strive to achieve this ideal of success, only to discover the closer we get to it that its a hollow victory or even an illusion. We exhaust ourselves, getting sick and sometimes almost killing ourselves in the process. We incurr huge amounts of debt, trapping ourselves permantly in the hamster wheel, running around and around, going nowhere. We make ourselves miserable, unable to remember the last time we were happy, or even what makes us happy. And we make those around us miserable too.
If we're lucky we get a wake up call. Life throws us a curve ball from left field or reveals an insight that allows us the time and space to re-evaluate our defitinion of success, to find out what makes us happy. Often we resist these opportunities vigorously. I know that was my experience. We fear change, and we don't want our apple cart upset. And sometimes others don't want us upsetting their apple carts either.
It takes courage to swim against the tide. To take the road less travelled. To declare the emperor has no clothes. To image a life lived on your terms.
That brings me back to the squiggle illustration above. I first saw it at the BHB 2013 Conference last weekend, and it got me thinking. Really thinking. Then it popped up on FB a day later. Now I'm a girl that has learned to recognise the subtle messages and clues the universe sends me. So I sat up and paid attention.
To make my path as smooth as possible I need to be really clear about what success means to me. How do I define it? What does it look like? How does it feel?
In my life, I get to create the rules. I have choices. I get to choose where I want to go, and how I get there. Its taken me a long time to realise that, and really believe that its possible.
So when Pip shared with us her "10 rules to make my life awesome" I sat up and paid attention again.
They went something like this:
1. eat well
2. prioritise you
3. prioritise creativity
4. be mindful of friends and family
5. write your story
6. look for clues
7. be proud
8. do things you don't know how to do
9. improve things
10. look for happy moments.
Pip, I hope I got these right - I was writing as fast as I could while you were talking.
I reckon Pip's list is a damn good place to start as I try to create my own rules, and define success on my terms. No wonder I got so lost almost four years ago - 1, 2, 3 and 5 weren't even on my list! But I do know "learn to let go of stuff" needs to be in there.
How are you travelling? Have you got a road map for your awesome life?
I laughed, I cried, I sang, I meditated, I ate raw, I cried some more, even did a bit of crafting.
And then I did it all again the next day - but with lots more crying.
I spent the weekend attending the Big Hearted Business Conference. It has changed my life. Reaffirmed my belief that I CAN make a living from being creative. That I really am a creative at my core. That the past four years of struggle, doubt, sadness, uncertainity are behind me. I'm BACK. And I have found my voice.
I can't adequately explain or describe the shared experience that was BHB2013. It was about connections, community, love, honesty - nearly everyone who attended has expressed, via facebook and blog posts, the impact those 20 hours had on them. Profound, life changing - reaching into their heart and soul. A community has been created, bound together by connections that time and distance are unlikely to break.
And this experience was created by Clare Bowditch, CB to her friends. (She now has 200 new ones, all of whom can put "Back up singer for Clare Bowditch on their CVs!). She followed her heart, had a BIG dream and made that dream a reality on the weekend. And by doing so she opened our hearts. Two hundred women (and a special man or three) are looking at the rest of their lives through new eyes, believing that anything is possible and that they can write a bigger story for themselves while saving the world. Oh, and make some money along the way.
Some amazing takeaways that will stay with me - wise words from wonderful speakers:
What you want wants you.
You are the sum of the parts of the 5 people you spend most of your time with.
Find your "people".
Let your worlds collide.
Allow yourself to fail as you dare greatly.
Procrastination is a function of narcissim.
Catherine's guide for time management - write 50 words & then you can pee. Write some more & then you can make a coffee. Write a bit more & then you can have a shower.
I'm not a perfectionist, I'm a completionist.
You are making a LIFE, not a living.
If you don't know what to do, do anything.
Be so good they can't ignore you.
Pip's "10 rules to make my life AWESOME".
Hope some of these are meaningful for you.
Pip has a great post with lots of photos of the weekend.
And join the BHB mailing list so you can be there next time.
1970s Brian Wildsmith illustration of an Owl now in the etsy shop.
A very colourful and large-size Noddy illustration from 1958 now in the shop.
While I've been having fun setting up the studio and shop over the last five months, my dear old etsy shop was neglected. Really neglected. Listings had expired. Orders had dried up. I'm sure everyone had forgotten about the shop. I had.
After the hospital stay, I decided to review the whole online selling thing. In the past I'd had two online shops: etsy and big cartel. My thinking was that if you had seen our vintage illustrations at a market, then you were a local and probably wanted to buy in $AUD. Hence the big cartel shop. But etsy has such a great reach, and the Australian audience is growing all the time, that you'd be mad not to be on it. Hence the etsy shop.
While I was lolling around in bed during the eight days in hospital, I had a lot of time to think. Besides sleeping, taking medication, having showers, obliging nurses with arms and ears for blood pressure and temperature checks, and waiting for doctors to turn up, there's a few hours to kill. After some deliberation I decided that two online shops was crazy for several reasons and the solution was to focus on etsy, and make sure my existing local customers knew all about it.
So over the last few weeks I'm been focusing my attention on the etsy shop. Changing the name - did you even notice? Improving the photography, even reshooting products that were already listed. Tweaking the descriptions, both the text and the way its structured. Using American spelling and measurements. Reviewing prices. Trying to get shipping costs to the USA as low as possible. Listing often.
Its a heck of a lot of effort, especially when nearly every listing is for a unique, one-off vintage illustration. Life would be much easier if I was selling soap or glicee prints from original artwork. Products that you can sell by the multiple. Then the effort would be an investment. (Hey, maybe I should think about that...)
However, grumbles asside, the attention on etsy seems to be paying off. More traffic to and through the shop. Seven orders in the last month. Not enough to retire on, but a very good start. One small step and all that stuff.
My focus now is to increase the quantity of listings (big cartel had 300 products in it) and improve the variety of products in the shop. So many of our products haven't been photographed yet, and without photos I can't list them!
While I was resting up, knowing I had some hours to spare, I FINALLY dipped my toes into the world that is Pinterest.
I had read so many blog posts about distraction, addiction, obsession even, that I had delayed my introduction to Pinterest. Deliberetly delayed. By years. I mean if others were needing Pinterest interventions then what hope would I have. (My obsessive-compulsive tendencies have been revealed to you previously. Many times.)
It seems my initial caution was justified. I can spend HOURS on pinterest, looking for images that jump out at me, speak to me. In just a few weeks I have managed to acquire 34 boards, and 1376 pins! I'm in such a pinning frenzy that my right index finger sometimes goes numb from too much pinning. Then I know I have to stop. For awhile.
Of course I had to re-organise my boards (all 34 of them) into the correct order. "Correct" meaning the order in which I wanted my followers to see them. You know, all the designy stuff up front, followed by the frivolous pins at the end.
For a visual person, pinterest is the ultimate inspiration wall or moodboard. No more tearing out pages from magazines and pinning them on a cork board. Pinning on pinterest is much quicker AND less messy. Plus it takes these space.
Gotta LOVE it.
And here are just a few of those images that caught my eye...
Source: thedesignfiles.net via martine on Pinterest
Source: fashionindetails.tumblr.com via martine on Pinterest
Source: sundayinbed.tumblr.com via martine on Pinterest
Source: kathychiu.tumblr.com via martine on Pinterest
Source: zsazsabellagio.blogspot.com via martine on Pinterest
It seems there are so many online magazines out there now, amd I remember when Est magazine was launched it was one of the first of its kind. I love that its Australian, and based here in Melbourne. Its free and its fabulous, why not subscribe?
The latest issue of Est magazine is out - issue 6 - and most of the pages will be pinned to my pinterest boards.
Here are some of my favourites. For all image credits see the digital version of the magazine.
Vintage ABC illustrations are always popular - they make great gifts for baby showers, christenings, first birthdays or any birthday really. Especially good for a unique 21st birthday present!
We can never keep enough in stock, and did you know that M is the most popular letter?
Luckily I found another vintage ABC book while on an Op Shop trawl in Melbourne. I almost didn't find it - it was at op shop number 5, and we weren't going to stop. Thankfully we did and I rummaged through the children's book and found this treasure. Printed in the late 1950s or early 1960s the illustrations are so delighful, and the page layout is perfect for framing. Approx A4 in size you can frame the illustrations with a white, red or black frame, and keep the text at the bottom or hide it with the mount if you prefer.
All of these are now listed in the Etsy shop - snap them up while the last people!
While I've been taking it easy this past week, at least Drew is doing some creative stuff. Or at least as creative as he can be with the materials, inks and screen available to him.
He's turned the old wooden tool shed in our back yard into his own screenprinting studio. The walls have been boarded out and painted - the same soft pale greay as the studio. He's built and L-shaped bench, at the perfect height for him, out of old IKEA desk tops. He's made some shelves for storing inks and stuff. The stereo has been hooked up som he can play the music HE likes, and he's even got curtains to filter the light from the large north-facing window. And to finish it off he's scraped off all the built up soil on the concrete paver at the front door and added a mature succulent in a lovely green planter. If I didn't already have the studio I'd have to claim the screenprinting studio as my own!
While most of the fit-out was done while I was in hospital, this week he's been screenprinting. We've dusted off the urban type screen and re-imagined the design to be right on trend: brights, neon colours, hot pink, yellow and orange.
Starting with a white cotton-blend basecloth, he painted on slabs of colour and then overprinted it with white type. The design gives us the look of a two-colour print but he only printed one colour. I'm calling it the "Fruit Tingle" collection and its available in yellow, orange and hot pink.
Now all that's left to do is sew these pieces into cushions and pop them in the studio.
Image from Uppercase
You probably already know I have a thing for typewriters - that design, the colours, those keys, the sound of the keys striking the paper, the look of the font they produce, ...I have three vintage typewriters in my collection. We even make envelopes from old learn to type manuals for our business.
It seems that the good folk at Uppercase have a thing for typewriters too! They are publishing a book all about typewriters. I'm going to put it on my Christmas wishlist.
The Typewriter: A Graphic History of the Beloved Machine is a beautiful ode to an all-but-obsolete creative companion. That's what their website says. Currently in design and production, I'm sure the book will be as well-designed and written as their magazine, Uppercase. I've got issues eight through twelve and alas, all of the earlier issues are sold out.
Uppercase needs funds to produce the book and the call has gone out for backers. See their webpage for all the details on the book and how to support it. At the time of writing this blog post they had reached 17% of their goal of USD $25,000. Isn't the webby design community lovely?
Spread the word!
Once upon a time there was a lady who had a lot of wool. She had so much wool that she didn't know what to do.
She decided that she would use as much of the wool she could, so every night after dinner she would knit and crochet and knit and crochet.
In her boxes and boxes of wool, she had lots of wool from Iceland. Over twenty balls of cream, coffee and chocolate coloured wool, bought on sale many years before. It was very thick and a bit scratchy, not the best wool for a scarf or jumper.
This lady had a little dog called Jack. Since the weather was turning cold she thought she might make him a blanket to keep him warm at night. As Jack was white and tan, she thought she would make his blanket from the cream and coffee coloured wool from Iceland.
One night after dinner, she sat on her sofa watching TV and started to crochet. First a thick stripe of cream wool. Then a stripe of coffee wool. Another stripe of cream wool. Followed by more coffee wool. Fairly soon she had a cream and coffee blanket big enough to keep Jack warm on winter nights.
However, this Lady also had a husband. And it seemed he too was cold on winter nights. Seeing Jack's blanket, and feeling how warm it was, he told her it was too good for a dog blanket. He asked if she would make it into a blanket to keep him warm instead. The husband was in luck. His wife had lots of wool, more than enough to make a blanket for him. And she was very crafty, so she could easily turn the dog blanket into a man blanket.
The next night after dinner she started to add crochet stripes of chocolate to the stripes of cream and tan. The blanket grew and grew and soon it was large enough to cover her tall husband - from under his chin to the tip of his toes. And it was toasty warm.
Her husband was very happy with his blanket. After dinner he would sit on the sofa, under his blanket, while he watched TV. And Jack would sit on his lap, so he could enjoy the warmth of the blanket.
And the Lady, her husband and Jack the dog were warm all winter long.
