I'm late, I'm late ...

for a very important date ...

(ugh)

the dreaded April 15th approaches ...

(which also happens to be David's birthday - coincidence? I think being born on a day that makes 309,000 Americans tremble is probably not a lucky thing)

I just realized (yes, I am opening my tax documents on April 12th - me bad) that some stores that sent me MISC-1099's pay me through Paypal and so are also included in my 1099K - I hope it doesn't make me look fishy when the IRS does their tallying (although I guess they have thought this all through) ...

note to self - do not do anything that will add to the fishiness of this return like the year I only had a red marker handy and used that or the year I left a mocha-scented stain in the shape of Elvis Costello in the upper right hand corner

and hubs and I are going to a customer's (of his that I have never met) house for dinner this weekend which is also stressful. I shook loose some Emily Post-style etiquette from the deeper recesses of my brain today and called his customer's wife to see if we could bring anything and she said

"just bring whatever you would want us to bring if we came to your house"

which is so not something to tell me because now I am thinking either a new Nook cover (which they may or may not need and I may or may not be able to get to take home with me at the end of the night) or George Clooney, lightly drizzled with maple syrup.

Although I wasted some time deciding whether they'd dig a fabric floral or a smaller but more maneuverable magnetic leather cover in the end I decided it best to play the professional wife of man going to customer's house here and bring wine which I have to admit I know next to nothing about -

yes, I know you probably thought I did, but I only know wine corks- as in where they come from, how they are produced and that the red ones have stains that are very, very hard to work with

and since the kinds I tend to purchase have a handle on top of the box so you can more easily lift it onto the sofa beside you to most easily snuggle with it during particularly intense Celebrity Apprentice episodes - not that I do this ...

(Celebrity Apprentice is my reality show obsession this season - I am without a favorite player right now though - maybe Paul, Sr)

and I always ignore anything with a domesticated animal on the label or with the kind of ornate curling fonts you see in funeral programs - this does not leave me many options - if anyone has a suggestion please let me know, with an emphasis on please.

In the middle of this my nephew called and asked me if I had won the internet yet (is everything a game to this under 36" crowd?) -

and actually looking at my estimated (I should say guess-timated at this point) net income figures I am not so much in a winning position as loitering somewhere around St. James Place.

But at least I'm on the board and in the game - I have passed GO and did not go directly to jail ... yet ... which reminds me - I have to get back to my taxes - have an amazing weekend everyone

(yes, I realize it is only Thursday, but tomorrow night I will be delivering George Clooney that bottle of wine).

I hope your tax returns are stamped and sent and you are snuggled on the sofa with a six pack of red watching Celebrity Apprentice - also let me know which player you are most annoyed with .... xo all

* alice print by the amazing Anne-Julie Aubrey of the Nebulous Kingdom and yes she has a locket or two

the giant sequoias need our help ...

The giant sequoia trees are among the largest and oldest living things on the planet and

the Giant Sequoia National Monument is home to half of all the giant sequoia trees living in the world today.

The Department of Agriculture is considering several plans that would allow logging within Giant Sequoia National Monument (while they are not considering logging the sequoias logging the trees near them will make the Sequoias much more vulnerable). Logging makes a forest drier, more flammable and less able to adapt to changing climate.

The Sierra Club, which was founded 120 years ago to protect this area is asking for a protocal to justify why they’d cut a tree. It is too important to be an arbitrary decision. This should be a no-brainer.

The petition to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is HERE if anyone else is interested.

* redwood trees print by immortal pomegranate

Navigating Change for Makers Part I - giving up the myth of certainty for the gift of faith (or why being a security-junky serves no one, especially not ourselves) Part I

We don't get to know what is going to happen.

(yes, even those of us with a magic eight ball that doesn't conjure up - reply hazy, try again - 99% of the time like mine does)

We don't get to have sure-things and job securities and relationships that are guaranteed to never ever evolve away from us.

(and this sounds like it sucks - but only if you don't think it through to the end I promise)

There may have been a time in our planet's history that those things were available - that with a fixed attitude you could create a fixed outcome - but times have changed - we can't go home again and anchoring ourselves with an abundance of comfort and security on the straight and narrow path actually throws the entire planetary system off-course.

(yes, we are, each and every one of us that important!)

Because the irony is that there is nothing certain about certainty anyway

(we need a new definition please Mr. Webster)

and the only guarantee that really comes with doing the thing that seems the most likely to produce that good safe outcome

is that we get to go through life wondering how things could have been if only we weren’t so fixed on the most sure thing, if only we weren't so determined to hold onto what used to work for us (or even worse what used to work for someone else) -

if only we weren't so scared.

(cue the Jaws music here)

Now the opposite of fear is not courage in its modern definition. Since courage is something that can only evolve by facing fear (in a feel the fear and do it anyway, kind of way) and that isn't how other opposing polarities work after all. You don't get cold by facing up to heat or get silence by being very loud.

(although silence can speak very loudly so I may be on the wrong track with this part)

The root of the word courage is cor (the Latin word for heart) though, so we can work with that one.

Courage originally meant to speak one's mind by speaking one's heart.

As makers we have to do this, we can't not do it, it is who we are and why we are here and without an intrinsic "wholeheartedness" to our work we may as well be living in another century because this one - the one our souls have chosen to fully participate in - will pass us by.

And if you are still thinking this is a bus you would rather leave the station without you I ask that we consider that the uncertainty of this exact period of time is a gift -

that without a big picture to guide us we can do ... well, anything actually!

I have been shaky with uncertainty so many times in the past few months -

(yes, spilling coffee and long held beliefs all over the livingroom, life is messy)

and shaky (remember that DeNiro movie and Oliver Sacks book about the illness where people shook themselves to the point of rigidity) can lead to stillness (a good thing) which leads to action (another good thing) - and perhaps most importantly it evolves into a kind of softening

(or rigidity, it is always up to us after all - but if we do not want to end up in a room with people in white coats throwing plastic balls at our heads - you may have to see the movie to know what the hell I am talking about here - softening is probably the way to go)

a less certain way of being in the world that is well ... pretty damn amazing at times.

Up Next - Navigating for Makers Part II - the gift of uncertain times

*have your cake print by DB Artist

(In my quest to finish up any unfinished business - can unfinished business ever be finished?? - I had a past life telephone reading with an amazing intuitive a friend recommended - I don't want to bore everyone with the details but I do want to say that she said hubs had had many lives in the military and was a high up general and me ...

was I Cleopatra, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman?

well, no I wasn't.

But ... I was ... a whirling dervish

yes, you heard me folks, hubs was a general and I was a whirling dervish - which explains why he calls everything a "mission", is very precise and organized, hates the cold and is obsessed with foot care - it also explains why I like to eat wild mushrooms, my propensity to spin myself into delirium and fondness for tall hats - she also said I have access to fairies from many lives as a midwife which explains the sparkly dust in my studio in the morning)

GIVEAWAY - Suck It Up (the holiday is over) CLOSED

WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED 4/17!

A little giveaway this week to get us back into the swing of things after the spring holidays.

I have an extra 50 cotton candy pink and white straws for someone's summer barbecue!

HOW TO WIN:

It's easy, peasy - just leave your contact info in a comment below.

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook this post

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to U.S. mailing addresses only.

DRAWING:

Enter by midnight on 4/15 - good luck to everyone! CLOSED

AND THE WINNER IS: (CHOSEN BY RANDOM.ORG):

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 10 


KATIE!

Happy Easter and Happy Passover everyone - have a magical weekend

* rachelle levingston bunny (and yes, she has a locket or two)

5 Things Makers Can Learn from the Home Shopping Network (and those other late night infomercials that are keeping so many people up all night)

I used to have a big problem falling asleep

(which has turned into a big problem staying asleep - ugh)

and was kind of an expert on those As Seen on TV uber-amazing gadgets and gizmos that are so hard to resist and seem so magical at 2am.

I don't get to see this stuff as much these days, but if we're thinking this is just all cheesy stuff we don't have to pay attention to we may be missing something.

Like millions of dollars in somethings.

Now, I wouldn't suggest we turn our makings into an infomercial about the virtues of cubic zirconia, but I do think there are things we could learn and apply to our own ventures from this uber-successful selling concept.

1. The hosts create trust by really believing in the stuff they are selling

Now, I get that some of this is called acting and I'm not saying I really believe that Cindy Crawford gets her amazing skin from her skincare line (although she does make me believe she uses her products) and not from botox and collagen, but the passion these hosts have for their brands is unmistakable.

sometimes this passion comes through with an evangelical fervor that borders on the insane and it may just be the Jersey in me that isn't bothered by this, but if we don't think our stuff is totally amazing and freakin' awesome and get a little crazy about it now and then no one else will either

2. They reveal product features gradually

With infomercials it's always - wait there's more and then wait, there's more again. Whether the more is another little feature or benefit or freebie - it seems like the goodies never end and we would be a damn fool not to buy this stuff.

how can we get the - "wait, there's more" factor - into our makings? what is our "more"? how can we get our customers thinking - "holy crap this is an unbelievable combination of things and I can't live without it!"

3. They focus on solutions to problems

An example is that closet hanger thingamajig. They show you the messy closets, the frustrated woman, the sloppy kids dragging their wrinkled selves about the house. They get us thinking "Oh my God I so relate to this" - I think it's the wrinkled kids that does it. Then they slowly introduce their amazing closet hanger thingamajig that we start thinking we can't live without. It's not about getting rid of our messy closets - it's the solution to everything that clutters up our lives - it's the answer to life itself

how are our makings creating a solution for our customers - we don't have to be quite so over the top about it, our niche market may not be the 2am shopping crowd that we need to keep awake but by thinking in terms of how our makings make people's lives better we are definitely going to make stronger connections

4. They bring in experts

I am not sure exactly what the dirty carpet guy expert is an expert in - but it's clear he's an expert - who is going to argue with a guy with a three piece suit and clipboard and handful of cow manure - I mean it's clear this guy means business and knows about dirty carpets.

who are our experts - well, if you sell pillows it could be those home magazines that should be featuring you so you can be telling the world what the experts think about your stuff - find yourself an expert

5. They are like us ... only better

The hosts are always relatable to the audience ... they are just a little bit better organized, handy, good-looking, etc - but not so much that we hate them. The hosts are totally relatable to their target market.

how are we making ourselves accessible? do you wear your own makings? do you have a blog or facebook so people can get to know you? the more your customers see you as a person and not a "manufacturer" the more they will be able to relate to you - it is each of us presenting ourselves as a real person, warts and all .. well, hopefully we don't have any warts, but if we do, there's always photoshop - that makes this big old impersonal internet into a very personal place where we can get to know each other

So, the next time you are ordering a Lint Lizard or a Sticky Buddy at 2am - stop and think about what it was that made you pull out your credit card at 2am and how can you get your late night online shopper to do that, too?!

* New Polarity Locket Magnetic Wrap Bracelet because wrists need love and magnets, too
** Erupting with Awesome print by YellowHeartArt

BARK Magazine Subscription Giveaway! CLOSED

The nice folks at BARK have offered up a subscription to their wonderful magazine to some lucky reader!

If you have a magical pup in your life you will love this magazine!

HOW TO WIN:

It's easy, peasy - just leave your contact info in a comment below.

For additional entries:

(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook this post

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to U.S. mailing addresses only.

DRAWING:

Enter by midnight on 4/8- good luck to everyone! CLOSED

AND THE WINNER IS (CHOSEN BY RANDOM.ORG) #5
- SILLYLITTLELADY