This post isn’t about the best camps to enroll your child into.  It might not work for all families, but I think it’s a great solution for mine.  If you have your child’s summer full of activities and camps, you don’t need this post.  If you don’t have a plan or you have a limited, part time plan then read on because I’ve been working on this plan for a few days and I’m pretty excited about it.

If you’ve known DIY Lounge for awhile you know that we used to organize a kids camp called No School Art School, which was tons of fun to run, but at some pointed I decided I needed to focus in on other things and I couldn’t do that while I had so many different plates in the air, so we stopped running these camps.  This post is not about the traditional camp plan it’s about the uncamp.  I made this concept up after attending the World Domination Summit, which was pretty much a life changing experience and is now influencing many things I do, including my plans this summer with my son.

Photo of an attendee’s notebook to the World Domination Summit

My son is 11 now and told me that he isn’t that in to going to camps anymore.  His exact words were that they are sorta baby-ish and he wasn’t into it.  He is signed up for one film camp, per his approval, where he’ll be making a mockumentary.  Other than that we’re on our own.  I know that my son is a video game junkie.  He will sneak off and I’ll find him on a game in some far corner of the house.  He’s smart; he knows that I’m busy and if he can be quiet and sneaky about it, it will take me awhile to find out what he’s up to.  One day I tried to loosely track how often he was sneaking off to play games and it was something like between 5-10 times a day and if I’m not paying attention that can mean many extra hours of game time.

I have many levels of concern with my son playing too many hours of games as most parents do, but most of all he’s an angry little pain in the butt when he plays for too long on computer games.  The other thing is that I don’t want him to grow up with some idea that 4-6 hours of computer game playing per day is normal.  OK, maybe I just confessed my horrible parenting, that sometimes my kid plays too many hours of games, but it’s the truth, sometimes he has played too many hours of computer games, but not this summer.

The Theory Behind the Summer Uncamp:

If you want to change a habit, you must put a new plan in it’s place.  You cannot just take something away, you must add a replacement behavior for real change.  I learned this over the weekend from Leo Babauta of Zen Habits who spoke at the World Domination Summit a.k.a. WDS.

For my son, I decided that I would set up a schedule for him for this summer.  He’s an only child and I think he gets bored at times and lacks a certain amount of structure so I’ve set up a system for him for this summer that rewards him for following the rules with extra computer time.  He can earn extra time by doing activities that I feel are good for him.  More on this in a minute.  Honestly, I need to change some habits for myself too.  I have been getting really distracted by many online sources: Facebook, Pinterest and many bright and shiny blogs with cool imagery and tutorials.  I need to break some habits too so I’m ‘enrolling’ myself in the uncamp as well.

The original uncamper

I believe that my son is an artist who hasn’t found his medium yet.  As most of you know, I am an artist too.  I am working on finding consistent ways of increasing my own productivity.  I also want set my son on the best path possible for his own creative future, so this plan will help both of us. I learned from Jonathan Fields at the WDS that a great way to increase your productivity is to routinize as much of your schedule as possible.  This allows you to have more time for creativity and if you are following a fairly consistent routine it doesn’t allow for some of the common distractions that you typically face.

OK, OK, so what did I do to create the uncamp for myself and my son?  Here it is.

The Formula for the Uncamp:

I set up a schedule for my son that rewards the behavior that I want (chores, new skills, reading, writing) with the treats that he wants (game time).  I give him 1 “free hour” of game time and the rest of his game time he can earn.  In theory, if my son does all of the things that are possible in the uncamp system he could be earning hours of extra game time.  Some parents won’t go for this because they feel that their child should only have 1 or 2 hours of game time per day.  My husband is a web developer who began learning the skills for his future career when he was a kid himself.  He was building math game programs when he was my son’s age, so I feel that if my son has a little extra computer time that’s fine with me as I feel his future career will probably be enhanced by his developed computer skills.

My Son’s Summer Uncamp Schedule:

8-9am Breakfast and reading
9-10am Computer games
10-10:30am Chores – clean room or unload dishwasher or vacuum living room and dining room
10:30-11am Snack time
11am-12pm Project time – Make movies, take photos, make lists of ideas, journal, build something, draw, other?
12-1pm Lunch time and free time
1-3pm Project time
3-4pm Exercise, stretching and relaxing
4-5pm Talk on phone,play outside, write, day dream, other?
5-6pm Books on tape (my son loves books on tape so I thought I’d build it into his schedule)
6-7pm Dinner and relaxing
7-8pm Free time
8-9pm Free time and reading time
9pm Bedtime

My Summer Uncamp Schedule:

7-8am Coffee, reading, computer time, email, lists and make breakfast
8-9am Eat breakfast and writing time
9-10am Video editing
10-10:30am Chores
10:30-11am brain storming and researching new projects, ideas, concepts (no more than 1 per day)
11am-12pm Project time – Ck in with son about his project for the day first and/or work beside him
12-1pm Lunch time and free time
1-3pm project time – videos, new projects, bargain hunting, knot ugly, diy lounge, etc
3-4pm Exercise, stretching and relaxing
4-5pm Errands, return phone calls, catch up on email
5-6pm Prep dinner or at least clean the kitchen so hubby can cook
6-7pm Dinner and relaxing
7-8pm Free time, reading time and wrapping up projects if necessary
8-9pm Computer catch up
9pm off duty!

*********************************************************************************************************

With my son’s schedule, I have built in some rewards.  I plan to do this with myself too although I haven’t gotten to my reward system yet.  Here’s how my son can earn extra game time (this will only work if the reward is highly desirable to the individual).

Extras that can earn extra game time:

1. Walk and feed the dog = 30 minutes extra game time
2. Sweep/vacuum all floor space, including under chairs, rugs corners for all common area rooms: the living room, dining room and kitchen = 1 hour of game time
3. Sweep back patio, wipe down outdoor table and water plants = 1 hour extra game time
4. Journaling – words and pictures = 30 minutes extra game time
5. Making and recording music – up to 1 hour per day = journal time is equal to game time ie. 1 hour extra of journaling = 1 hour extra of game time.
6. Making videos 1 hour of video = 30 minutes of game time (this is something he already enjoys so It’s weighted less than other activities, but I believe it is a valuable skill for him to build)
7. Extra exercise done independently = unlimited, exercise time is equal to game time ie. 1 hour extra of exercise = 1 hour extra of game time.

Between the two lists you can see that there is some overlap which was intentional so that I can monitor my son during the day.  I know he won’t exercise without me at his side encouraging him so I plan to work with him on this all summer long.  Jonathan Fields discussed at the WDS that most people can really only work in 45 minute up to 90 minute blocks at one time so I anticipate that we will need more breaks than is accounted for on this schedule and I have a plan for how to make this work.  Any time either of us feels burnt out by the activities we’re supposed to be doing we can walk on the treadmill or go outside and take a walk for 5-15 minutes and then get back to the schedule.

I know there will be days that we won’t stick to this schedule because life can be unpredictable, but as much as we possibly can we are going to stick to this schedule for the entire summer. If we find something isn’t working then we will change it so that we can be more successful.  Another thing I now know, thanks to Leo Babauta is that it takes 30 days to establish a new habit so I plan to stick as strictly to this routine as I possibly can and I also plan to shadow my son during the first 30 days to help keep him on track.  Additionally, I should say that I didn’t make this plan and tell my son how things were going to be.  I created a rough list and then sat down with him and explained that I had a cool plan for how he could earn extra game time and learn some new skills at the same time.  He totally bought in and is excited to test out this new plan.  He even had ideas of things he could do to earn extra game time.

For me, this gives me uninterrupted work time.  If my phone rings during my work hours, I won’t pick up the phone.  I have turned off the notification on my computer so I won’t hear any pings if I get an email.  To make sure that both of us aren’t cheating during our working/project hours, I am going to set up the Stay Focused Chrome Extension that allows me to block certain sites during certain times of the day so that if I try to get on facebook, say and it’s a time when I should be working it will ask me “Aren’t you supposed to be working?” and block me from the site.  I am doing this because I know that my willpower isn’t perfect and neither is my son’s so the computer he uses will also be blocked during certain hours.  You can read more about the reasons to use and how to use this application here.

The other way that I will monitor this schedule is I will set up an hourly chime on my phone to remind me when it’s time to change to the next activity.  I’ll have copies of the schedules upstairs and downstairs so that we can refer to them as needed.  I really feel that these additional safeguards will assure that we can stay on task with our new system.

Other useful ideas for the uncamped summer is to look into cool free activities going on in your town.  In Portland, where I live there are free concerts in the park, movies in the park, great local libraries and more.  Here are some great summer bucket lists that I found on Pinterest to peak your excitement for summer activities: Little Wonders’ Days, Positively Splendid and Embellishing Life.

I’m going to try and give updates about the uncamp and how it’s going.  I plan to be really honest too if things aren’t going well and what aspects are working.  Wish me luck and I wish you lots of luck, happiness and productivity this summer as well.

xo,
Jen

I thought it might be interesting if I posted a week in the life of Jen Neitzel.  When people say to me, what are you working on right now?  Most of the time I want to answer, “What am I not working on?”  I have a tendency to jump head on into projects and worry with details like time later when I’m knee deep in a project.  I always get the job done if it’s within my power, but I can really struggle at times because I have too many plates in the air at one time.  Sometimes I think that I shouldn’t commit to as many projects as I do, but ultimately I really like to be working on new and challenging projects and I don’t think I have as much of a need for down-time as the average person does.  I came out of the womb with an insatiable curiosity.  Learning and growing is way more interesting to me than down-time.  Not to say I don’t get any down-time, just maybe not as others require.

The biggest thing I’m spending my time doing at the moment is sewing and sewing and sewing.  I am a sewing machine.  Good thing I love to sew.  It’s very relaxing to me generally, but recently I’ve been so busy that it’s hard to feel that relaxing, meditative feeling that sewing usually brings me.  I thought it would be interesting or perhaps maddening to list the things I’m working on right now so it’s more obvious what I spend my time doing.

1. Sewing: I have been sewing tons of skirts with my friend Jocelyn.  We’ve started a line of skirts that are now available online on our Etsy shop.  If you want to see photos or learn more about us check out our blog on Tumblr.

2. Branding: Jocelyn and I have been working on branding for the new skirt line.  We order 3×5 postcards which we are using as hangtags on our skirts and as business cards/flyers at the moment.  We are making a sign for our booth and having a logo designed so we can incorporate it into business cards, letter heads and more.

3. Production Schedule: Jocelyn and I put together a production schedule for our sale so that we would be able to produce skirts in a timely fashion for our next sale at First Thursday happening June 2nd  from 5pm-10pm.

Jocelyn laying out our tree skirt design

4. Sponsors: I’ve been working on creating a sponsorship form for Bargain Hunting, so that we can offer businesses sponsorship packages in exchange for great online and print material marketing.  The form is really a collaborative project I’m working on with Angie Heiney and Julz Nally the other two organizers of Bargain Hunting.

5. Bargain Hunting Systems Management: I put together a graphics standard for us to use so that we’d all know the font, color, etc to use when creating graphic for Bargain Hunting.  I gathered all have the information and put it into a Google Doc. {Google docs are magical.  I don’t know how I ever worked with a team before them.}  We also created a Flickr page for Bargain Hunting.  I’ll be adding photos soon.

6.  Marketing: I’ve been working on stepping up my marketing knowledge for my various businesses and projects.  It has occurred to me recently that although I know a lot about marketing there is more that I could learn and should learn so that I can be as knowledgeable as possible.  The other reason I’m stepping up my knowledge around marketing is that there is always a new format, new information, new tricks out there, so staying up to date on what the new trends are is really important.   I’m working on adding a section to my website so that people could receive support from me around marketing or event planning, which are areas I have a lot of experience in.  Also, I really like helping people.  It’s sorta my thing.

7. World Domination Summit: I’ve been helping Chris Guillebeau, who writes for the blog The Art of Non Conformity with various aspects of his event, the World Domination Summit.  It looks incredibly amazingly cool and I can’t wait to attend!  Just recently I helped Chris line up a venue for the after party and next I’ll work on the Alberta Craft Crawl.

8. Video Editing: I’ll admit I haven’t had enough time to really work all that much on the encaustic video.  I am hoping to get back to work on it this week, but I have been working on some fun editing projects for friends and family to continue growing my editing skills.

9. Competitive Craft TV Show:  As if I wasn’t already busy enough, I was contacted by a company, I’m not going to mention them yet, because it might be a little early, but they are working on a competitive craft TV show and asked me to be involved.   I’ll just say I’ve been doing some things to help them out.   More on this soon, but I’m pretty excited about it.

10. I Heart Art – Mixer Match: I am in charge of all the food for the I Heart Art Mixer Match this Wednesday.  Mixer Match is basically like speed dating for artist/crafters and galleries/boutiques.  I’ll be prepping the food tomorrow and setting it up in the evening.  As if that weren’t enough I am also planning to make a digital flipbook for the Mixer Match, which involves me taking tons of photos at the event and this time I’ll bring an audio recorder too.  I’ll add some of the audio tracks and music and other sound effects to the photos (I will be shooting continuously/rapid fire) so that the video captures the event in a sort of artistic, moody way.

Kirsten Moore of Piper Ewan who is a member of the I Heart Art Leadership Counsel.

11. Fashion Show? I’m applying to have some of my work in an awesome fashion show that’s happening this summer and is hosted by 33rd Alley.  I can’t say for sure if the Jen and Jocelyn line of skirts will be a good fit for this fashion show, but I was encouraged to send in photos by one of the board members so what the heck.  Why not?

There are about a million other things I could mention that I’m working on, but they are to do with my son, house, husband, friends, dog and actually there are probably a few other business related things that I forgot to mention.  There are so many other projects that I’d love to start, like taking more photos, learning more about my camera, taking a woodworking class, reupholstering my couch and making some cushions for my basement benches and wow, I could really go on, but I’ll stop here.  OK, just one more, I’ve been thinking about piano lessons recently, but I know this isn’t realistic right now. (Do you see how my brain works?  Stopping is hard for me.)

DIY baby, gotta keep learnin’ and growing my skills. So this is a quick snapshot of what I’m up to professionally.  What are you working on?  I think it’s interesting to know what other people are working on as well.  What do you want to learn?  What do you hope to fit into your schedule soon?  Give me a moment of your time and tell me what you are learning, working on or want to learn.  Talk soon!

by: jen

Saturday, the 7th of May was the Crafty Wonderland Spring Sale and it was great!  I was working the I Heart Art booth, because I am one of the members of the I Heart Art Leadership Counsel.  All of the members take turns volunteering for this program.

If you’re not familiar with I Heart Art let me tell you a little about it.  I Heart Art is a collaborative project between PNCA, the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Etsy and the PDX Etsy Team.  This program is all about offering professional development in the form of workshops and events for Portland’s artists and makers.  These workshops and events are very affordable, as in $10 or free, which makes them accessible for everyone.  I helped set up the booth at Crafty Wonderland and also worked the first hour of the sale from 11-12.  We offered a coloring contest at the I Heart Art booth as well as information about the program.   I was surprised by how many people didn’t know about this amazing program.  All were really excited about I Heart Art once I filled them in on the program.

If you’re a maker and you’re anywhere near Portland
you should really consider getting involved with I Heart Art.

OK, back to Crafty Wonderland . . . usually I sell at Crafty, but this time I didn’t have enough time to build my inventory so I decided I’d wait and do the next sale (that is, if I’m juried into it).    After I finished my shift at the I Heart Art booth I was able to walk around and talk to people – vendors, customers and friends, which was wonderful! I got to see  Susan Beal and check out her new book, World of Geekcraft, which are available online or you can find them locally at collage.  I chatted with my friend Kirsten Moore of Piper Ewan and Cynthia Lucas of Bella Sisters.

The community of makers in Portland are a special breed of awesome!

Here’s a picture of the I Heart Art booth.  One of Portland’s special breeds of awesome is my friend Shawn Collins, who makes Fuzzy Lamps.  He agreed to help me with my volunteer shift at the I Heart Art booth.

Cathy and Torie do a great job organizing Crafty Wonderland sales.  The Convention Center was packed with cool art and crafts and tons of shoppers!  When I think of community, cool and creativity I think of Crafty Wonderland.  Hooray for Cathy Pitters and Torie Nguyen and the hard work they do putting on such a great sale!

After Crafty Wonderland  I went to a Kentucky Derby Party.  Overall it was a wonderful day!

by: jen

Maybe you’ve heard me talking about the line of skirts that I started with my friend Jocelyn or maybe you haven’t and so I’m telling you now.  I am making a new line of skirts that I am really proud of.  Super wearable and stylish.

photo by Little Paper Cities

This is the skirt you can feel hot in one night, eat and drink too much in and feel fat in the next day, but you’ll still look awesome! It’s cut to flatter, with simple, stylish designs all on the same gray, a line skirt.  We have 4 different designs right now that you can view currently on Etsy.  All skirts have machine stitching and felt detailing.

We had friends road test these skirts and give us feedback on the cut, fabric, design, construction integrity and they passed the test with flying colors!  The verdict was that these are skirts that are built to last with plenty of comfort and stylish designs that works on many different body types.

We had our first craft sale last week at the Lewis Garden Fair.  Here’s a glimpse of our booth.

If you’re interested in learning more about these skirts you can check out our Etsy stop and join our Facebook page.  You can also keep up with us and learn about our upcoming sales on Twitter.

by jen

What’s Bargain Hunting? It’s a sale that happens at the Crystal Ballroom and offers tons
of amazing discounted merchandise that is made by indie artists
or sold in a locally owned boutiques.
The next Bargain Hunting sale is happening August 28th from 12-5pm.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
If you’re interested in becoming a vendor and you’ve never done the sale before
applications are available here.
Returning vendors, your fast track applications were emailed to you over the weekend.
Questions?  Contact us.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

If you’re not already a fan of the sale then you’ll have to come to the next Bargain Hunting.
It’s the perfect shopping experience if you’re looking for fashion, jewelry, art, wares for baby, purses,
bags and more at ROCK BOTTOM PRICES!
Bargain Hunting is the mother of all clearance sales and I am proud to be
one of the three organizers of this event.  The other two ladies who run the sale with me are
Angie Heiney of Frock and Julz Nally of Handmade Julz.

In true Bargain Hunting fashion we had a cocktail at our meeting, just like at the sale.
One of the many things we love about the venue is the staff at the Crystal Ballroom always have the bar fully stocked for you linger while you shop drinking pleasure!

To receive more info about Bargain Hunting you can sign up for our mailing list,
located on our homepage.
Or you can become a fan of Bargain Hunting on Facebook and Twitter.

Many of you know I am editing video tutorials for DIY Lounge these days and  I’ve decided that editing film is like complex math.  In math, you must learn all the basic math and be pretty good at it to be able to execute complex math problems.  Video editing is the same.  I took a Final Cut class at PCM last year.  The class covered all the basics in terms of the editing software itself, but we never imported film or cataloged the videos, so as I’ve been editing videos, I keep running into the brick wall of how to capture and manage the video in the first place.  Last week I got a lesson in how to do this.  It was so obvious once I was shown, but totally impossible prior to the lesson.  Math used to have this same affect on me.

When I was younger obstacles like not understanding how to import and manage video content would have been a deal breaker.  I would have given up and thrown in the towel, but as I’ve grown older I have become aware of my own impatience with myself and the act of learning something new.  I hate to be a beginner, yet as I am growing older I see that if you are going to continue to learn you must be a novice, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

“Man arrives as a novice at each age of his life.”  Chamfort

This quote is a good reminder to me that we’re all novices throughout our lives. I just recently turned 40, which I’m liking so far.  As you age you get less focused on what others think and live your life for yourself.  I was always my own person.  Meaning, I really always knew who I was on many levels.  I always wanted to be a mom, craft business person and a witch.  OK, I’m not a witch, but I do wear a lot of black with wild black hair and pale skin, which is sorta witchy.  It’s pretty awesome to be able to go after what you want and not care who is looking and judging, that is, if anyone is a all.  Confidence and self-assuredness comes with age . . . now back to video editing.

This cake was made for my husband and me for our 40th Birthdays by our friend Jocelyn of Bakery Bar.

by: jen

I decided to send my husband an e-card for valentine’s day and started looking at all the different  free online cards available.  There were so many and so many great ones that I thought I should make a post about my finds to spread the love and share them with others.  I have loosely categorized the cards as well.  All of the cards I’m listing are free and quick ways to tell someone you love them or maybe maybe just make someone laugh.

Here are some cool pulp fiction cards.

If you like something a little more sweet and vintage, here are  Victorian valentines.

I liked these hipster cards mostly because they have some gay valentines and I haven’t seen these very often, but they have plenty of other types of cards too.

If you’re more into humor here’s a site with great, funny e-cards, someecards.  Some really walk the line and could land you in the dog house if you’re not careful.

Let’s say you are the romantic type.  Here are the perfect snarky e-cards for you from Blunt Cards. PS. These cards are better for those of you who aren’t in a relationship and want to send something funny to a friend.  If you do send these to your partner, your partner better have a pretty good sense of humor.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

Last month we filmed a beeswax collage and an encaustic video with the brilliant Bridget Benton of Eyes a Flame.  I can’t wait to show you how cool this technique is and how fun Bridget is on camera, but until then here’s a picture of some of Bridget’s encaustic work:

I’m so excited to be working with independent filmmaker Jackie Weissman of Rock Mama Films LLC on this video.  Her expertise is most welcome and will really take our videos to the next level.  Here’s a picture of Jackie working the camera:

We also have Jenni Brand working with us doing a little bit of everything: camera, grip, etc.  I wish I had a great picture of Jenni, but when you’re in front of the camera most of the time it’s hard to be the photographer too. I’ll begin editing these video this week and will have more updates as we move along in the editing process.

by: jen

Crafty Wonderland’s Super Colossal Sale was amazing to Richard and I this year.  We took a lot of time to set up our booth to make it really eye catching, which if you are a vendor is a pretty critical element to a good sale.  Another necessity for a good sale is choosing your shows wisely.  Participating in a show that is well run and marketed, which Cathy Pitters and Torie Nguyen have in spades can make your sale experience incredible.  No matter where you live, Crafty Wonderland is a show that is worth traveling to and selling at. 

Our booth was hoppin’ almost the entire time of this 2 day event.  Richard and I both loved meeting shoppers, new shop owners interested in carrying our work and the sheer joy of selling our art. We hung the DIY Lounge sign on the front of our booth even though we were selling for our other businesses, Knot Ugly Designs and Sinister Concept.

We had so much fun and we are truly grateful to all of the folks who came out and shopped, which was somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 people I think I heard.  It was an honor to sell next to all the amazing handmade artists who’s work was represented at Crafty Wonderland and the biggest thank you of all to the show organizers.

Learn more about Crafty Wonderland from this video that DIY Lounge produced and directed about Crafty Wonderland.

I am re-reminded again and again that this is a great community and I am so fortunate to be part of this amazing artistic scene!

by: Jen

Phew, this is a busy time of year!  Richard and I have both been selling our art at art and craft fairs all over Portland, Oregon.  I create my work under the label Knot Ugly Designs and Richard has been selling his work under the business name Sinister Concept.  Our art and  sales have really been the focal point for both of us for the last few months, which has left less time for DIY Lounge.

You might be wondering, what’s happening with DIY Lounge? Well, we’re working on a number of different projects, such as emceeing at the Scrap fundraiser, speaking on a panel about DIY culture and getting a new HD video camera.  Recently, we’ve decided to shift our focus away from the TV show concept and back in the direction of crafty videos.   We will definitely continue making craft videos featuring Richard and I, as well as online video tutorials.  We’ll still offering Birthday parties and other art parties at both collage locations in Portland Oregon, too.

This Saturday and Sunday Richard and I will be selling our work at Crafty Wonderland.  The sale hours are 11am – 5pm at the Convention Center in Portland Oregon.  We hope to see you there!