A new website for the new year!
Head on over to astonhandmade.com for all further updates. This blog is now retired.
How do I blog?
Did you know that you are more likely to organize your thoughts and be more creative when you put pen to paper?
I found this out through my own experience and it has directly led to my bookbinding.
Ever since I ended up under the influence of the world fountain pens, I have been handwriting every day. Some days it is little more than mapping my day with lists and notes, but sometimes I get a little more personal. I have noticed that I can focus and get things done much quicker this way. No Youtube, Twitter, Facebook or blogs to take me away from what I am doing.
So I am drafting my blogs by hand in my trusty handmade notebook. Yeah I know I'm lucky, I can just make one to my liking anytime I need a different size or format. The funny thing is that I never used pens before, or never liked them, pencil was always my thing. Ever since I forced myself to switch over to fountain pens, no longer comforted by the trusty eraser to fix what I thought were my mistakes, it has forced me to think about what I am writing before I put it to paper, but more often than not I just go with it, stream of consciousness style.
This process really has helped ignite my creative spark, I find that I can get a lot more done on paper than I can on the keyboard in the same time. You may think that you can type faster than you write, but if you factor in all of the on the spot revising and distractions that are really difficult to avoid, it is really awash, at least for me it is.
I think part of the reason, or most of it, is that handwriting imparts a personal imprint on my writing as much as what I have to say does for my overall message. My handwritten drafts most likely will never see the light of day, but I get to keep them in one place and look back at what I had to say, and see how I have grown as a handwriter as well as a writer.
Take some time today to write something by hand, this should be in something that also says something about you, it could be a love letter that will never see the light of day, a thank you note that you know you need to write, or just something you have on your mind. Your writing medium is an integral component of this process. You may write something profound that you will want to hang on for some time.
Giveaway time. How to get a free book!
Scroll to the bottom to the bottom paragraph for how to win this book!
I promised my Facebook fans I would do a giveaway of one of my handmade books and journals if they helped me get to 30 fans.
Well, we did it. Now it's time to give away a free book! This is a beautiful leather-bound sketchbook with 117 cream colored laid textured pages. This book would sell for about $50 on my Etsy shop. The front flap and the loop are hand stamped and the leather is hand dyed by yours truly.
How do I enter the give-away?
I'm glad you asked. All you have to do is click here to retweet my pre-written tweet. If you follow me, you'll get extra points! I will be picking my winner this Saturday, December 15th, 2012
I promised my Facebook fans I would do a giveaway of one of my handmade books and journals if they helped me get to 30 fans.
Well, we did it. Now it's time to give away a free book! This is a beautiful leather-bound sketchbook with 117 cream colored laid textured pages. This book would sell for about $50 on my Etsy shop. The front flap and the loop are hand stamped and the leather is hand dyed by yours truly.
How do I enter the give-away?
I'm glad you asked. All you have to do is click here to retweet my pre-written tweet. If you follow me, you'll get extra points! I will be picking my winner this Saturday, December 15th, 2012
How do I change my morning to be more productive?
Do you find it hard getting your daily tasks done?
Are you too easily distracted by the fast life you are surrounded with?
Do you want to know how to be more productive and have a more balanced day?
I do, and I will share with you how I am making some changes in my life to make better use of my time.
I have recently implemented easy little tweaks that give me a better sense of direction and purpose. It started with a podcast about social media marketing (which I highly recommend). I exhausted these great but few interviews and one of them led me to another podcast called "Beyond the To-Do List." It is full of interviews with successful people, what their routines are, what habits they have adapted to capitalize on their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. Each interview is inspiring and invigorating and has given me some great ideas.
I found a few common threads in each of these interviews.
1. Starting the day with some sort of exercise.
2. Prioritizing the day.
3. Sticking to the plan.
4. Taking breaks and ending the workday to return to a personal life.
So the questions are: What can I do to take these important things that others have learned and adapt them to my life? and do these concepts apply to my vision? Yes they do. It doesn't matter if you run a business, are retired, or work a 9 to 5 job, these concepts can make a huge positive impact on your life.
How am I becoming more productive and well balanced? I am creating my day, from the moment I wake up, with intention.
If you are like me, you like to start your day with coffee. I am the kind of person who needs motivators, and for this exercise I need something to motivate me from the moment I open my eyes. So how about if I create a routine that uses my java love as a reward? There's a cafe called "Go-Go Coffee" about a mile from my house and they have some amazing coffee, no bitterness, strong, full of flavor with a nuttiness. Yum!
I made a new pact with myself that I can only have coffee if I walk to Go-Go's and order it from there. There's my morning exercise, check. And along the way I listen to some sort of podcast to inspire and motivate me even further, and once I have that coffee in my hands, my blood is flowing and my mind is full of ideas. That's when I pull out my trusty handmade journal and my pen and start scribbling.
The podcast is still going at this point and I start by taking notes, and when the podcast ends I transition to writing about my day and what needs to get done. I make a list and prioritize what is urgent and important, what is not urgent but important, what is neither urgent nor important, and so on. This gives me direction and I stick to it, I start with the most important and the most difficult thing and work my way down the list throughout the day.
Has this made a difference? You bet your booty! I am using my time more wisely and at the end of the day I look at my list and all of the things I have accomplished and it feels great. I can't wait to get up in the morning to do it again.
So what about taking breaks and having a hard cut off time from work? I still struggle with this. I get lost in my work, and when I'm in the groove, I'm in the groove! Folding, cutting, sewing, dyeing, pasting, gluing, I can go on for hours without a break.
But one step at a time right?
If you have any ideas or habits that you find beneficial, please share them in the comments below.
If you found this post helpful, share it with your friends. Check out my Facebook page so you don't miss out on more things that I will be sharing about my life and others' that I hope will serve as an inspiration to you.
Are you too easily distracted by the fast life you are surrounded with?
Do you want to know how to be more productive and have a more balanced day?
I do, and I will share with you how I am making some changes in my life to make better use of my time.
I have recently implemented easy little tweaks that give me a better sense of direction and purpose. It started with a podcast about social media marketing (which I highly recommend). I exhausted these great but few interviews and one of them led me to another podcast called "Beyond the To-Do List." It is full of interviews with successful people, what their routines are, what habits they have adapted to capitalize on their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. Each interview is inspiring and invigorating and has given me some great ideas.
I found a few common threads in each of these interviews.
1. Starting the day with some sort of exercise.
2. Prioritizing the day.
3. Sticking to the plan.
4. Taking breaks and ending the workday to return to a personal life.
So the questions are: What can I do to take these important things that others have learned and adapt them to my life? and do these concepts apply to my vision? Yes they do. It doesn't matter if you run a business, are retired, or work a 9 to 5 job, these concepts can make a huge positive impact on your life.
How am I becoming more productive and well balanced? I am creating my day, from the moment I wake up, with intention.
If you are like me, you like to start your day with coffee. I am the kind of person who needs motivators, and for this exercise I need something to motivate me from the moment I open my eyes. So how about if I create a routine that uses my java love as a reward? There's a cafe called "Go-Go Coffee" about a mile from my house and they have some amazing coffee, no bitterness, strong, full of flavor with a nuttiness. Yum!
I made a new pact with myself that I can only have coffee if I walk to Go-Go's and order it from there. There's my morning exercise, check. And along the way I listen to some sort of podcast to inspire and motivate me even further, and once I have that coffee in my hands, my blood is flowing and my mind is full of ideas. That's when I pull out my trusty handmade journal and my pen and start scribbling.
 |
| Getting things done! |
Has this made a difference? You bet your booty! I am using my time more wisely and at the end of the day I look at my list and all of the things I have accomplished and it feels great. I can't wait to get up in the morning to do it again.
So what about taking breaks and having a hard cut off time from work? I still struggle with this. I get lost in my work, and when I'm in the groove, I'm in the groove! Folding, cutting, sewing, dyeing, pasting, gluing, I can go on for hours without a break.
But one step at a time right?
If you have any ideas or habits that you find beneficial, please share them in the comments below.
If you found this post helpful, share it with your friends. Check out my Facebook page so you don't miss out on more things that I will be sharing about my life and others' that I hope will serve as an inspiration to you.
How to shop Locally from online stores.
How do I justify selling online to buyers from across the country while I emphasize shopping locally?
I had an interesting conversation with a friend on Facebook yesterday that got me thinking. We were discussing the merits of shopping locally versus saving money at a big box store (BBS). My reasoning for shopping locally was similar to what is discussed on the 3/50 Project, in a nutshell, that for every dollar you spend locally, 68¢ stays local in taxes, revenue, further spending etc., compare that to 43¢ at a national or multinational corporate chain. My friend said that they shop at a BBS to save money for their family. Now I, not having extra mouths to feed, cannot judge or pretend to know what it is like. But having family members and friends who work at BBSs I have seen first hand what kind of demeaning conditions under which they work on a daily basis. This, coupled with having made many friends of local business owners has kept me shopping locally for quite a while.
Then our convo took a turn. My friend asked me "Would you not sell one of your homemade books to someone in say Colorado? London?" I had to really think about the implications of my selling online to people across county and state lines. Am I perpetuating a behavior that is undermining brick and mortar stores as badly as the BBS?
I have seen a few stores go through some rough times, citing their inability to compete with online and BBS prices.
So I took an inward look at what I am doing, starting with my shopping habits for my business. I buy all of my materials at locally owned, brick and mortar stores unless there is no local source for what I am looking. So far that hasn't happened. If I can't find it locally, then I probably can do without it. If I absolutely need it, then I can ask a local merchant to special order it for me. If I still can't find a local source, THEN I will look online. This brings me to another interesting conversation that I had with a local art store owner who told me about the 3/50 project. We were talking about shopping locally and how important it is, both of us preaching to the choir. Meanwhile I mentioned to her that I am getting into paper marbling and that I would love to get some into her store. She told me she wasn't interested because she could get handmade paper online so cheaply. She showed me a handmade looking paper sample binder of the company she orders from. I asked where they are located and without skipping a beat she told me "China." China?! I'm not sure what I am trying to get at here, maybe that even those with good intentions get caught up in that bottom line? I don't know, but what I do know is that I am buying locally and only as a last resort do I go to the internet superstore, and I encourage you to do the same. If you can find a handmade journal or book locally, buy it! If you can't, I'll be here holding up the store, my doors are always open and rest assured that I am doing my part to thinking locally in a global marketplace.
I had an interesting conversation with a friend on Facebook yesterday that got me thinking. We were discussing the merits of shopping locally versus saving money at a big box store (BBS). My reasoning for shopping locally was similar to what is discussed on the 3/50 Project, in a nutshell, that for every dollar you spend locally, 68¢ stays local in taxes, revenue, further spending etc., compare that to 43¢ at a national or multinational corporate chain. My friend said that they shop at a BBS to save money for their family. Now I, not having extra mouths to feed, cannot judge or pretend to know what it is like. But having family members and friends who work at BBSs I have seen first hand what kind of demeaning conditions under which they work on a daily basis. This, coupled with having made many friends of local business owners has kept me shopping locally for quite a while.
Then our convo took a turn. My friend asked me "Would you not sell one of your homemade books to someone in say Colorado? London?" I had to really think about the implications of my selling online to people across county and state lines. Am I perpetuating a behavior that is undermining brick and mortar stores as badly as the BBS?I have seen a few stores go through some rough times, citing their inability to compete with online and BBS prices.
So I took an inward look at what I am doing, starting with my shopping habits for my business. I buy all of my materials at locally owned, brick and mortar stores unless there is no local source for what I am looking. So far that hasn't happened. If I can't find it locally, then I probably can do without it. If I absolutely need it, then I can ask a local merchant to special order it for me. If I still can't find a local source, THEN I will look online. This brings me to another interesting conversation that I had with a local art store owner who told me about the 3/50 project. We were talking about shopping locally and how important it is, both of us preaching to the choir. Meanwhile I mentioned to her that I am getting into paper marbling and that I would love to get some into her store. She told me she wasn't interested because she could get handmade paper online so cheaply. She showed me a handmade looking paper sample binder of the company she orders from. I asked where they are located and without skipping a beat she told me "China." China?! I'm not sure what I am trying to get at here, maybe that even those with good intentions get caught up in that bottom line? I don't know, but what I do know is that I am buying locally and only as a last resort do I go to the internet superstore, and I encourage you to do the same. If you can find a handmade journal or book locally, buy it! If you can't, I'll be here holding up the store, my doors are always open and rest assured that I am doing my part to thinking locally in a global marketplace.
Cyber Monday is here!
To find out about my 20% off Etsy Promo and a chance to win a free book, scroll down.
Today I got the chance to spend the day with some local artists and crafters at a locally owned craft/fabric shop here in town for the first annual Small Business Saturday craft fair. I had been frequenting The Cotton Ball lately and while scouring their scrap bins for book materials the owner asked me what I had planned for the random lovely fabrics I had meticulously picked out, or maybe I told her, I don't really keep things close to the chest. When she heard about my books she invited me to take part in a craft fair in front of the shop. I met some other wonderful artists, a painter, a quilter, an embroiderer and a few others. They were all very nice and their made me feel right at home. Sadly I didn't sell any books though I did have quite a few people interested in the process of how I make my books, and where I learned how to make books, so while I was there I actually finished one!
But their loss is your gain. I will be offering all of my books for 20% off through the end of Monday 11/26. Read below.
About the book giveaway: when my fanpage: facebook.com/IArtBooks reaches 30 likes I will be giving away one of my books to a lucky reader.
Cyber Mon Promo
As always, my you can find all of my social media links on the upper left of this blog, follow @iartbooks.
My first public appearance.
In eleven hours I will be sitting at a table selling my books at a craft/art fair at a local business, The Cotton Ball where I get quite a bit of my materials. The address is:
1199 Main Street, Morro Bay, California 93442
I know that it starts at 10am, but I am not sure when it ends. I'll update here when I know.
Seriously though, I'm a little bit nervous. Most of the vendors will probably be artists who have been at it for years, then there will be me, sub 30, 2 months in to this craft. Hope to see someone who found their way there from this post. If you do, mention the blog and I'll give you 10% off of a book.
Cheers!
1199 Main Street, Morro Bay, California 93442
I know that it starts at 10am, but I am not sure when it ends. I'll update here when I know.
Seriously though, I'm a little bit nervous. Most of the vendors will probably be artists who have been at it for years, then there will be me, sub 30, 2 months in to this craft. Hope to see someone who found their way there from this post. If you do, mention the blog and I'll give you 10% off of a book.
Cheers!
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