Having a room of my own

I've recently started entering my receipts from this year's expenses into excel- it's a long, boring process, but the procrastinator/organizer side of me kind of loves it. It made me think about how I seem to be pretty lax with my business spending budget. I think I've been in 'setup' mode for a long while, and am getting to the point where I'm finding it difficult to distinguish between my needs and wants- for example: "Oh, I found this ink everyone's talking about on instagram, I should get it (because you never know when a client might ask for a cardinal red ink)".

"And here are those nibs I've never tried- what if they make my calligraphy amazing. I should try them out. But since I have to ship from the US, I should order a dozen, just in case"

"The brush pens I was experimenting with weren't the ones on the recommended list for the class I'm taking, so I obviously have to buy the supply list! Oooh but look, they come in 12 different colours!"

One day I will learn-- I hope! I guess this company is like my baby, and I want to give it all the tools and opportunities possible for it to succeed. So money's no object, right?! Sigh. I started reigning in some of the purchasing, atleast until my excel sheets tell me I'm in the green (oh man, when will that be!?!)

I just finished up A Room of One's Own recently. I've been wanting to read this iconic essay for a long time, and it was so great. Besides all the fantastic insights on the patriarchal world we lived (and live) in, it also made me appreciate and realise how much I have, and that many other (more) creative people haven't had (or will not have) access to. I have a room of my own, a space to be creative. I have the emotional and financial support to pursue this dream I've had for a long time, which previously lurked in the far corners of my mind. Who knows what this will turn into, but I have the ability to see it through, which is so....unreal.

I forgot to post a picture last week of my re-printed business cards! I bought some lovely Stonehenge paper from Aboveground Art Supplies, and it feels just amazing!

This week was busy enough- got some invitations designs done, and lots of signs and other wedding stuff for my friends' wedding in just over a week! Can't wait to share pictures of it soon! I'm also buried in the process of creating new cards- for everyday use and christmas! And here's another Flourish Forum exchange I'm just mailing out today- on deadline date - eek!

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend!

xo

Pri

Organizing, Listing, Planning

August has been a busybusy month! Between wedding invitations, envelope addressing, custom Etsy orders, and getting out in the hot sun, there aren't enough hours in the day. I'm also working on getting more product created, calligraphed, printed before the end of the month. phew! I've never needed to plan and organize my days as much as these past few months. There's just so many things to keep on top of- the jumble of work orders, appointments, tasks. Since I have spent a good amount of time thinking about and working through this, I thought I would share the ways I (try to) stay organized.

My moleskine planner is my WORLD. Many who know me can attest to my inability to retain stuff (anything) if I haven't written it down. Which is why I need a good old fashioned planner. I'm usually making my weekly plans on a Sunday or early Monday morning, and then check out my planner everyday to see what I want to tackle that day. I also add more notes and appointments in the daily section.

It's not just a planner to me; it's where I keep track of books I want to read, birthdays, and awesome quotes I've come across. It's my treasure chest!

My only complaint about this planner is that it can't handle any ink much thicker than a ball point pen. Major bummer for a calligrapher! But I found these amazing pens in Japan that have been making me so happy everytime I use them. They are Pilot Frixion pens, and they are ERASABLE with the little plastic ball on the end. It's the coolest thing ever, and of course, I bought it in every colour.

I manually 'sync' (ha-ha) my planner with my google calendar. I use this online calendar for when I'm out and about and need to keep track of something, add a meeting or appointment, or add a note. It works pretty great, and bonus! I can add cute emoticons to events and meetings.

I've tried using some online applications previously but haven't been successful at updating it (how many organization methods can one use??). Trello is a really great online tool which I've tried to use in the past; I might give this one another try because I love the idea of having all the updates from one project in one place (rather than rummaging through a file or emails, which is my current, super inefficient, method).

This week I am re-printing my business cards on some nice stock I found at Aboveground, and printing some linocuts that have been sitting around for ages. Excited to get that done and up on my Etsy shop soon! Also got a lot of custom invitation stuff going on, I'm looking forward to sharing some of that work soon! I've started keeping a little journal by my bed- with the crazy busy days, it's hard for me to shut off my brain immediately at the end of the day (it's been a shocker to my typical asleepin30seconds self!). The stuff's pretty illegible because of my half closed eyes operating in bad lighting, but it's so great to get it out of my head! And who knows, maybe there's something there!

I'd love to hear about other organization methods- please feel free to drop in a comment below on your favourite way to make sense of crazy busy days!

Have a lovely, productive week!

xo

Pri

Taking Breaks and Procrastinating

I was 'off the grid' this past weekend on a canoe trip. The trip was awesome, challenging, relaxing, and so so beautiful. The days leading up to the trip was kind of terrifying. Going off the grid?! But what if someone orders something, or I get an email from a current client that needs to be addressed asap?? I might lose business, or affect my response times! Of course, none of that happened- I had emails and orders waiting for me patiently when I got back, and I didn't piss anyone off by not responding this weekend.

Having my own business feels like I have to be around twentyfourseven, and for the most part, I am. There's just so much backofhouse stuff to figure out, so many emails and notes to be on top of, there really aren't enough hours in a day! I really need to realise that I can take a weekend off without my new world coming crashing down around me!

This week I'm moving between taking actual breaks and procrastination, as I try to pace through the heavy workload I have set up for myself. I have SO much to catch up on. I still don't have business cards forgoodnesssake!!

But why have I been procrastinating so much on this and so many other projects? Some other calligraphers and artists seem to work so much faster than me, but I seem to get overwhelmed so easily. Maybe I'm just wasting time doing non-productive things. Like the continuous drive to organize my studio (majorly successful procrastination technique). I've been indirectly putting off producing art and creating more cards - it's become such a daunting task (what if it's ugly, what if it takes too much time, what if I run out of ideas?), and time has only made it worse! I was thinking about it lots this week, and am telling myself to just take it one step at a time. Just pick up a pencil/paintbrush and have some fun. It's on the docket for today!

The thing with procrastination is you don't know where the time goes- allofasudden it's the end of the day/week. And then you meet friends for lunch or dinner and don't know what to say about the progress of your business! I laughed when I read this article about how to get out of your head and interact with the outside world. A really good read for those who work from home, have been working a lot, or for anyone who feels unsocial at times (everyone). I was amused to find that I practice half of these 'techniques', as I often am in a situation where I'm interacting with people that have VERY different days than me. I think I've gotten better at talking about my world, but I'm still not totally comfortable with it.

By the way, I've updated my portfolio to reflect some of the things I've been working on these past few months- check it out!

Anyway, I'm going to get to it now! (After a quick run..... )

xo

Pri

5 calligraphy classes, 4 long days, 3 pen holders, 2 dozen nibs...and a flourished bird on a quill

Hi all! Two weeks ago I was in Tennessee, attending IAMPETH's calligraphy convention. I think it's taken me about a week to recover! I had such a good time, met a ton of very talented, friendly calligraphers, and learned a LOT! Oh, and bought MANY supplies back home with me!

I learned Spencerian and Italian scripts, the basics of flourishing (which I SO needed), arm movement writing (take some of that pressure off my wrist!!), and brush lettering (portable calligraphy! what!). I bought three pen holders and lots of nibs and inks- which I have been so excited to use the moment I got back home!

In my flourishing basics class, we drew this flourished bird on a quill (hence the title of this post!):

I also promised that I would share my pangram that we exchanged at the convention- so hereit is. Note that this was before my flourishing class!! For those who don't know, a pangram is a sentence that uses up all the letters of the alphabet ("the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is the most common one).

Honestly, I'm so grateful that I gathered the courage to put myself out there and go to this convention. I thought I would feel left out, or too amateur- but the incredible hospitality of this organization and the attendees made me feel welcome and involved right away.

So now that I'm back and somewhat settled in, I've been working on a couple of invitation designs. Also, I've got Christmas on the brain (title says it all, doesn't it?)- I have to get started on new batches of cards- all occassion ones and Christmas. I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by...not enough hours in the day!

For the rest of the week, I've got some calligraphy projects to work on, cards to start sketching out, business card designs to finalize (omg, still!!), and a print day for my linocut, which has been sitting around for months! phewww Oh, and we're off camping on the weekend- 2 day portage trip! Eek!

Have a happy week,

xo

Pri

ps. Can't remember if I've posted this previously, but here's the link to the IAMPETH website, which has amazing free tutorials, notes, and tips for a beginner in calligraphy! It's one of the ways I got started- give it a try!