The Jealous Curator - Blog

I stumbled across 'The Jealous Curator' from my favourite place, Pinterest.

I loved the tag line of the blog, "A collection of artwork that inspires and depresses me. I know it's good when I'm left thinking DAMN I WISH I THOUGHT OF THAT".

Ha, how many times have I thought the same thing?

I was particularly drawn to this post about Mel Robson and her beautiful ceramics work. 

Amanda x

Work by Mel Robson (discovered via The Jealous Curator)

30th Birthday - Paris

 The beautiful staircase at our hotel

 sacre coeur

 Yes, it rained a lot

 Rain in the cobbled streets of Montmartre

 View from Montmartre

 Flea market

  

 No trip to Paris would be complete without cake

 An old-fashioned carousel 

 Bead shopping at the flea market

 Keyboard + accordion + lunch + Christmas decorations = amazing

 Who knew that it was so cheap?

Beautiful things from the Paperdolls Boutique

Past few weeks in pictures

 Kittens and paella in Valencia

 Paella rice paddys

 Biopark Valencia

 Rafelguraf

 Bristol balloons in the sky

 Inappropriate crushes 

 Bellinis with mother

 Superhero fancy dress leaving do

 On a boat with the supeheroes

 Jurassic Park at Bristol Zoo

 First trip to Jamie's Italian, Bristol

Olo Worms at Rise Instore, Bristol

Away to Paris

(Image by retro-summer.deviantart.com)

It's my 30th birthday in a few weeks time (eeek!).

I'm off to Paris to celebrate/commiserate.  I intend to drink wine and peruse vintage markets (no doubt picking up bits and pieces I don't need along the way).

Where shall I go and what shall I see? Have you any recommendations?

Amanda x

Christmas Packaging

Tissue paper from Paperchase

It's that time of year, nearly all of the presents have been bought and now it's time to wrap.

I've been getting loads of inspiration for clever wrapping ideas from Pinterest.

Image links from the top:


1. Victorian Lace Tape Deco Sticker from SugarBSupplies
2. Crossword packaging (sorry source unknown, found on Pinterest, can anyone enlighten me?!)
3. Gift wrap ideas from the Blog at Craftzine
4. Christmas Rosette as seen on http://olderandwisor.blogspot.com/
5. Pouss Jewellery packing from Paperchase

Amanda x

Made in Bristol Gift Fair - Sunday 11th December 2011

4 floors of local designer heaven at Made in Bristol, Colston Hall

Busy busy!

Pigeon Illustration

Joanna Rose Ceramics

CRM Ceramics

Amy Hostler Jewellery

View from the balcony

Pretty ceramic tree decorations

Ground floor shoppers & sellers

My purchases (Joanna Rose Cermics - Floral Rabbit brooch & a ceramic reindeer decoration by an unknown designer  -  sorry I didn't pick up a business card!)

I visited the Made in Bristol Gift fair this afternoon. As some of you may know I usually exhibit at this fair, in fact I have done for the last 2 years. This year it was lovely to come as a buyer rather than a seller. I've been involved with the Pop-up Bristol phenomenon in the run up to Christmas, that plus working full time at the moment (wedding to pay for!), has meant that my time to do markets is limited this year.

This year there were lots of new sellers which is always great. My picks of the fair were Joanna Rose Ceramics (email jo_boyd@btinternet.com), Amy Hostler's Jewellery, Pigeon Illustration and Katie Johnston Jewellery. Have a look at their gorgeous work by clicking their names above.

The Made in Bristol fair wil be on again on Saturday 17th December so you have one final chance to support local designers and get some truely unique Christmas presents. I shall be there again (as a shopper) to check out what new sellers are there next week. I love that you never know what you're going to find at this market. I can't wait.

Amanda x

Pinterest Love

(Image : Love Mae - 'Sweet Nothings' $60.00 Shop Love Mae)

<3 Pinterest. I know that you do too.

You can follow me on there by clicking HERE

Amanda x

Etsy Success Symposium

I stumbled, by chance, in the live Etsy Success Symposium on 7th February 2011. What a good mistake that was.

I can in halfway through Vanessa Bertozzi's workshop, "Beyond the Comfort Zone: Presenting Yourself Professionally", I immediately kicked myself for not tuning in sooner.

To be honest I didn't learn anything new, everything that they spoke about I have either learnt the hard way, read about or taught myself. But there's something very empowering about having a stranger reaffirm these things. A lot of is common sense (for instant - sort out your money!), but the power for me comes from having someone other than your boyfriend, family, little voice in your head, being the one telling you this information.

Having a professional speak so succinctly and will such enthusiasm really kick started my excitement again about selling online.

Yes, it's a tough road, yes, it's a lot of hard work for not much reward in the beginning but it's all very exciting again.

I sat myself down for April Bowles workshop, "Attract Your Target market - You're not Walmart", notebook and pen at the ready, I felt like I was back at school.

Here's my summary notes of her workshop (I can never do justice to how GOOD this workshop was, but hopefully my notes will give you an indication of the main themes):

- Market to people the way you want to be marketed to. Generate that good feeling when you purchase an item.

- Getting to know your customers. How do you find blogs that your target markets read?

Start with blogs that you like. Hunt for blogs that you like, discover new ones using http://technorati.com/ (a blog demographic site).

- Choices get in or way and lead to decision paralysis. We waste time deciding what to do first. Figure out how to mak edecisions for your business. When we are confronted with too many choices our willpower goes down.

The solution is to take action over and over again. The key to success is continued action, figuring out what to do next to keep moving forward.

At this point I should note that April recommended a great book called "Switch - How to change things when change is hard" by Chip & Dan Lee. Mine arrived this week and it's great.

Next came the worksheet section. Everyone was asked to write down their creative dream goal (this is actually really hard to pinpoint - give it a try).

Actions to take to reach your creative dream goal

Ask yourself these two questions:

1) How much do you NEED to be making....

2) How much do you WANT to be making.....

April stressed that you NEED to be clear on your money in order to make your creative dream goal a reality. You need to know if your dream goal is realistic. You need to figure out your daily/weekly/monthly money targets and know that you can do it.

A great example she gave was that if you're a knitter and you need to knit for 12 hours a day to turn a profit then it doesn't take a genius to work out that this isn't going to happen everyday. Diversifying into selling some PDF patterns of your knitting patterns, perhaps teaching some knitting classes or creating a monthly newsletter with a paid subscription could be alternatives to knitting all day and another way in helping you reach your creative dream goal.

- Feelings attached to your creative dream goal

What feelings will you have when you achieve your creative dream goal? Have a think about that.

Attaching a feeling makes it clearer in our minds, it gives us that extra push.

- Crap Excuses (this is me all over)

This is why you are not achieving your dream goal, crap excuses get in the way.

April spoke about Chris Carr the author of "Crazy Sexy Cancer", an NY Times Bestselling Author. She was diagnosed with cancer and had so many reasons to make crap excuses. Instead, she became an expert on what made her healthy.

Don't let yourself make crap excuses, get to know what your crap excuses are and take action instead. Some crap excuses for me involve, laziness, too tired, I need a break, need some peace and quiet, I can't find any of my stuff in my workroom.

What are your crap excuses? Get to know them and you'll learn to banish them.

- Help yourself to take action, makes things black and white/crystal clear.

For instance I have now decided that come rain or shine each week I will blog each Monday, Wednesday and Friday and add 5 items each week to my Etsy shop.

Think about what needs to be black and white for you to reach your Etsy goals.

What crap excuses are getting in your way?

Help yourself your to your dream goal.

Take baby steps towards your dream goal. Your goal can seem too big and too frightening and unachievable. Break it down into chunks where you can take small steps of action. If you get stuck imagine your friends has the same dilemma as you, what would you tell your friend to do?

- Your Take Action List

Write down 3 things that you will take action on this week (mine were as follows):

1) Get clear on money to figure out if my creative dream goal is achievable

2) Retake 5 photos from my jewellery shop

3) List 5 new items on Etsy

- High leverage tasks, tasks with good rewards

Only fill your actionable tasks with high leverage tasks - you need to see results to continue to be motivated towards reaching your dream goal.

- Goal Setting

Do you produce outrageously long to-do lists that seem out of control? Yes, me too!

April suggested listing 6 things to do each day, each roughly one hour in length (including exercising!). That way you know that everything is going to get done.

You can waste time making choices from a long to-do list. Eliminate that straight away by limited each task to an hour. If you do not complete a task one day then move it to the following day. This will free you up creatively. Make your to-do lists do-able (sounds so simple doesn't it, yet I am so guilty of making my to-do list so ridiculous).

- High Leverage tasks part 2

High leverage tasks will help you eliminate busy time that gets lost i.e. Facebook/Twitter etc. Focus on:

80% high leverage tasks

20% busy work e.g. twitter/facebook/email

Stop doing the crap that doesn't work! (again so simple, but you need someone yo reinforce this in you).

April suggested another book, "Good to Great" by Jim Collins.

Great business focus on what NOT to do as well as what TO do.

Spend time working on things which will make you more money.

Write down what you do each day and how long you do it for. Don't do the stuff that doesn't work and is not productive.

Work out how many hours each day you can devote to your business. If it's 2 hours then this will equal 2 tasks. You have to find time to make your hours count. If you can only afford to spend one hour a day on your creative business then this equals one tasks, so make it a task that is high leverage, one that you will see rewards from straight away.

Most common crap excuse - I don't have time!

Everyone has 24 hours, make them count.

Productivity or Lack Of..... New Year Resolutions in February

I always have a million things to do, a thousand ideas in my head. It turns out that I don't end up doing even half of them.

One of my new year resolutions was to be more productive, which is easier said than done.

The first step was quitting Facebook. As of early Jan I am no longer on Facebook, and I don't miss it one little bit.

Second step, joining the gym. Still going strong on this one (which is made easier by the fact that the gym is right outside my house).

Productivity so far, pretty good.

I find the day to day productivity pretty difficult to maintain. I am the queen of procrastination with no sense of urgency when it comes to anything. Everything can be done later, however this is slowly changing.

I find that writing everything down really helps. Sounds so simple, but it was something that I never did. A real motivation for this was purchasing some new stationary. Ever noticed how having nice stationary just immediately makes you want to write? (More on my stationary purchases later).

So onwards and upwards, writing is the way forward.

How are your new year resolutions going?

Amanda x

Featured Designer - Taryn Dams

Hello to Taryn Damns, owner of Oh Danger, an Etsy shop full of dangerously cute crochet goods & postcards.

All items in Oh Danger are vegan, and made by a vegan. Taryn also makes monthly donations to various animal causes and donate my time volunteering at my local, no-kill Humane Society.



You can win a FREE Squidie as featured in Oh Danger just by entering Taryn's contest. All you have to do is fill out the survey here for the chance to win a squidie.



We caught up with Taryn to ask her more about her business:

K&B: What's your name and where do you come from?
TD: My name is Taryn and I live in Ontario, Canada. Due to the nature of my job I tend to travel about the southern portion of the province, so I don't really identify with one particular city or town... though I'm hoping to settle somewhere soon!

K&B: How did you get into making and designing?
TD: I've always been crafty. When I was about five years old I remember sitting at the kitchen table and just playing with playdough for hours, making everything I could think of - my Mum said she'd never seen a kid who could sit and play with playdough for six hours straight without getting bored. A few years later my grandma taught me how to crochet, and it's something I kept up with all these years. As a teenager and through University I worked at a craft store, which gave me the time and the access to resources to be able to continue being creative despite time constraints in daily life - not only did it allow it, but it actually encouraged it! I usually stuck to simple crafts - scarves and the like - but a few years ago, I saw picture of a crocheted donut. I thought, wow, that is adorable! And I started to make ones like it. I realized I wasn't half-bad at recreating things I thought were cute, so I kept going.



K&B: Where do you get your inspiration from?
TD: Cute things. That's pretty generic but it's the truth! I love to create based on the things I find visually appealing - cupcakes and squids are my favourite. It's an odd mix, I know.

K&B: What makes your products different?
TD: They're made by me! Ha. There are a lot of people that do what I do; I would be naïve to think there weren't. But whatever I make and sell in my Etsy shop fully reflects my personality - from the style, to the colour, to the purpose, to the careful nature with which it was crafted. I'm vegan, too, so everything in my shop is 100% vegan - I don't, and never will, create or sell any items that contain animal products. I'm part of the Vegan Etsy team which is comprised of many other sellers with values like mine, so I guess it doesn't make me all that different, but I think we're still a minority compared to the whole of Etsy!



K&B: What do you enjoy about running your own business?
TD: I'm still kind of a newbie. I have a full-time job so my Etsy shop is my hobby-turned-side-business. I like being able to have the freedom to create on my own schedule. The freedom of just being able to create! I don't have a ton of sales just yet, so I always feel really popular when I get one - I like the reassurance that people like my stuff.

K&B: What are your favourite websites for inspiration?
TD: I take my inspiration from real life - cute foods, animals, etc - no specific websites come to mind!



K&B: Can you describe your typical day?
TD: I have a full-time job working away from for an environmental remediation company on a military base, and so my days aren't very glamourous. I work almost 11 hours per day and I live in a hotel. My spare time is spent crocheting, reading, and well... sleeping! Thankfully this is contract work and I live by this schedule spring-fall. The winter is when I thrive - volunteering at my local animal shelter, crocheting like crazy, napping with my cats and reading more books than a lot of people read in a lifetime.

K&B: What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?
TD: I generally don't get embarrassed easily - being a complete klutz, I'm used to tripping in public and making a fool of myself so I've gotten used to it. But once, I had a friend that I met online. She had a tattoo of her name, in an obscure kind of script that I obviously read wrong... because I called her by the wrong name for ages. This was years and years ago, though, so I don't remember how I came to be corrected, or why she never corrected me herself... either way, I felt like a complete idiot. But hey, we're still friends to this day!



K&B: Do you have any hints/tips or advice for other creative sellers?
TD: Enjoy what you do and make sure that it reflects you. Trying to copy something else or making something that doesn't fit who you are can't possibly be successful, because you need to believe in your own abilities so that you can properly market it! The internet has done an amazing things for creative sellers - thanks to social networking sites, it's easier than ever to get out there and spread the word about what you're doing. I have Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and even my personal blog to thank for exposing others to the things I make for my shop.

Many thanks to Taryn for being a featured designer.

If you are interested in being interviewed for Kicking & Biting please just drop me a line (use the 'contact' tab above).