I have so much to say about Hello Etsy PDX!  I don’t even know where to begin.  First and foremost I’m still so honored and grateful to have been asked to co-chair the event along with Rebecca Kerr.  It’s hard to have perspective when you organize an event in some ways because there are so many steps required to see any one aspect through to fruition.   The role of event planner keeps you so busy it can be hard to gauge at times what the response is from the public was.  This was not one of those times.  You could feel the energy in the air.  Ideas were flying all around the room and you could see people lighting up with enthusiasm.  There’s too much to really say, so I thought I’d share the part of the day that I feel was very successful – the keynote address.

I love how things come together.  One person has an idea and then it grows and other people add to the idea, which grows and becomes something else that’s better and bigger than any one person could make.  On the back end this is my perspective of the Hello Etsy PDX conference.  It started like this, I had this idea for the Keynote . . . it was born out of a Facebook post from months ago in which I posted about Stumptown Coffee procuring investors.  I was surprised how many people were coming down on Stumptown and it was Rebecca Pearcy of Queen Bee who said in Facebook thread, “Growth isn’t always a bad thing.  Business people have to weigh out many different scenarios  to sustain their businesses and growth is some times the answer.”  When Rebecca, Isaac and I were in the early planning stages of the event we were looking for a dynamic keynote address and I thought of this Facebook post.  From there we thought it would be incredible if we presented a few different ideas around intentional business growth. One where we profiled a business that chose to grow large and one that felt they could be more viable by staying small.  We really wanted the bigger business to be represented by Stumptown and the smaller  by Queen Bee.  The idea seemed too crazy to happen for real.  How could we get Duane Sorenson from Stumptown to even pay attention to us?  None of us had a connection to him.  And would Rebecca Pearcy want to talk about staying small?  We had a few businesses in mind to represent the big and small businesses and cast our net wide.  Surprisingly we heard back from almost everyone, including Duane Sorenson!  Next we needed to talk with Duane and explain our vision for the conversation.  I have to admit that after doing some reading online I had a sense of a message I was hoping to send.  I felt as though Duane Sorenson was being raked over the coals for bringing in investors to Stumptown Coffee and selling out, but I really didn’t feel he was a sell out after reading how well he was taking care of his employees and the coffee farmers he works with.  I think it was at least part of the reason he decided to do the Keynote, because he could tell we were interested setting aside biases and presenting the whole picture.

Next we needed a moderator for the keynote and we were lucky to have Diane Gilleland who did an amazing job!  I had some insider information on both Duane and Rebecca because I had researched Duane and spoken with him on the phone.  Rebecca and I are friends, so I wrote up questions and sent them to Diane.  Diane did her own research about Duane and came to the same conclusion I’d had.  She felt that Duane was being accused of something that he wasn’t, a sell out.  In her graceful style, Diane tailored the questions, but kept the underlying message:

Bigger local businesses and small local business are a matter
of choice and equally necessary in a local economy.

A small business isn’t doomed to fail if they choose to stay smaller
and a large business isn’t necessarily selling out
if they choose to grow larger by taking on investors.

Just to give you a sense of the amount of work it took to schedule a meeting to review the questions that would be discussed during the keynote between Duane, Rebecca and Diane,  I believe it took 2 phone calls, 5 emails and 2 texts to set up that meeting.  Duane is a really busy guy.  More busy than I knew.  I learned that he has a wife and 4 kids!  Not to mention the 200 employees and all of the coffee shops he has sprinkled around Portland, Seattle and New York.  Phew!  That’s a lot to juggle.

I felt Isaac would do the best job introducing the keynote and in typical Isaac B Watson style he totally exceeded my expectations.  I really enjoyed this part of Hello Etsy PDX so much because it was informative, funny, it shed light on some iconic Portland businesses as well as it helped dispel some myths about bigger businesses by telling a different story.  One of making the best choices for the business and employees, like Stumptown Coffee.  It also reminded all of us about the incredible viability and success possible for small business, like Queen Bee.

The keynote for Hello Etsy  is really a microcosm of the overall event.  It took a lot of people, specifically, it took the I Heart Art Leadership Council members and some pretty amazing volunteers all really pulling together along with Etsy who footed the entire bill.  The fact that Etsy had this vision for this incredible conference alone is HUGE.  People have asked me, “Why do you think Etsy wanted to have this international business conference for makers with such a big picture, educational perspective?”  I know it wasn’t any type of monetary gain, because they spent more than they earned from the conferences.  I think they must have had a vision for international good will and an education revolution for the universal maker community.  The internet adoration was their payment.     I received an email from Kimm Alfonso who works at Etsy in NYC.  She told me that there were over 4,000 tweets with the Hello Etsy hashtag.   I think this conference was truly beneficial for all involved.   Thank you, Etsy for making this day possible!

by: jen

Have you heard about Hello Etsy yet?  It’s a series of conferences that are happening in Berlin, Germany and a number of satellite location across the country including Portland, Oregon.  The Portland Hello Etsy is a one day conference for creative business people that I’m really excited to tell you about.  What’s unique about this event is that it’s tailored to fit the needs of a new business person, while offering useful information for the seasoned pros as well.  It’s also for any creative business person, not just people who sell on Etsy.

On September 17th from 9:00am-6pm we’ll converge on the PNCA campus for a day of learning, sharing and networking.   Best of all the whole shebang only costs $20 to attend!  We’re fortunate to have an amazing list of speakers including our keynote speakers, Duane Sorenson of Stumptown Coffee and Rebecca Pearcy of Queen Bee, who will be discussing their business growth.

Here’s the list of workshops that will be happening at the Hello Etsy.  You can find everything from how to have a toxin free workplace on a micro-business scale, to learning how to make peace with your finances, or learn to make your own website in an hour and so much more.  Not to mention all of the little extras that will be supplied at the event like stab bound journals (with supplied donated by collage) that attendees will get to make during the conference to keep notes in, subsidized lunches, snacks and even free moo cards to attendees who sign up early.  Sign up today!

How do I know about this event you might be wondering?  I am the co-chair with the help of Rebecca Kerr from I Heart Art: Portland.  I am also fortunate to be working on this project with the rest of the I Heart Art Leadership Council and  with the folks from Etsy.

WHEN: Saturday, September 17th, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
WHERE: Pacific Northwest College of Art, Swigert Commons, 1241 NW, Johnson St, PDX 97209
Tickets: $20 RSVP today. Limited space available.

For all of the up-to-the-minute announcements on speakers and workshops, follow us on Twitter and look for the #helloetsy hashtag.

by: jen

Here’s a little flipbook that I put together for I Heart Art: Portland.  All of the photos and audio recordings were taken at the Mixer Match, 2011, which was housed in the Designs Within Reach location in downtown Portland.  This is the second round of Mixer Match, the first round was for crafters and boutiques.  This Mixer Match was the inaugural Mixer Match for artists, galleries and curators.  Check out this video to learn more about Mixer Match and you can learn more at the I Heart Art website.

by: jen

Have you heard the rumors too?  Etsy and I Heart Art are hosting a one-day business conference in Portland called the Hello Etsy PDX Satellite Conference.  This is an affordable, creative business conference happening Saturday, September 17th, 2011, at PNCA.  Some of the workshops will be streamed via Ety’s Livestream channel in conjunction with the larger flag-ship conference Hello Etsy Berlin, happening in Berlin, Germany.

I am co-chairing the PDX portion of this event with Rebecca Kerr, along with tons of help from Isaac Watson.  We are currently opening a call for proposals for instructors to lead 50 minute workshops on the subjects of:

The Big Picture
The Product
The Business
The Market

If you are interesting in leading a workshop check out our request for proposals for more information.  The deadline for proposals is August 5th, 2011.  One quick tip: this is a business conference that will have a broad appeal and will be useful to all creative business people – the focus of this conference is on business, not really arts or crafts.

We’ll have lots of information available about this event in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, tickets are currently available here.  Get your tickets while you can because at the low price of $20 they’ll go quickly!

More on this conference soon!

by: jen

Did you know that June 11th, 2011 was International Yarn Bombing Day?  Well it was. For anyone who doesn’t know what  yarn bombing is, it’s basically attaching knitted or crocheted pieces to outdoor items: trees, signs, bike racks, etc. People tend to  think of it as art and/or graffiti.  I decided to bring along my camera and photograph the “bombing.”

Yarn bombed: street sign

I organized my own yarn bombing posse.   The whole thing came together super last minute, so even though I had invited a lot of people only a few were able to attend so last minute.  Also, there was one minor detail that I got wrong with the yarn bombing; the date.  I had read somewhere about International Yarn Bombing Day online and it had said it was the 18th, but when I went to look  more information after the “bombing” I realized we’d bombed a week late.  We decided we didn’t care and the fact that we did it was pretty cool.  Here are some more photos of our yarn bombing.

Yarn Bombed:  street sign.  Is it just me or is this sign kinda sexy?

It was raining when she showed up to start the yarn bombing, but it stopped raining soon after.  We had such a great time!

Yarn bombed: a series of yarn bombed trees

We’re planning to do another yarn bombing next year and are making pieces especially for the event.

Yarn bombed: knitted patchwork

Yarnia donated small swatches of yarn to the yarn bombing.  I put them together and made the piece above.

Yarn bombed: branchy tree

Yarn bombed: Caught in the act.

Yarn bombed: still caught, but no one cares.

Yarn bombed: finished product.

Yarn bombed: fire hydrant and street sign.

If you’d like to see these yarn bombs for yourself and you’re local to Portland, Oregon you can check them out at Tanner Springs Park.

by: jen

So we’ve been doing Uncamp for about a week now.  For anyone who didn’t read my first post about Uncamp here’s the link.  Basically, Uncamp is my answer to my son not wanting to attend summer camps anymore and my desire to keep him from playing computer games and actually facilitate additional learning, growing and creating for him.

So far my son is thriving and I’m, in typical fashion the rebellious one. I’ll start with myself.  I think part of the problem is that I haven’t set up the Stay Focused Chrome Extension yet.  I started to set up and my whole computer started running really slow, so I uninstalled it.  I need to get a consultation from my husband about what I need to do to install it and make it run properly with my system.  In the meantime I’ve been finding that I’M the sneaky one!  This was shocking to me.  I’m sneakin’ around looking at various online sources or doing other things that it’s not time for me to be working on.  I’ll look at the schedule and think, “hmmm, that’s what I should do.  I wonder what’s going on on Facebook?”

Photo of my son at the graduation ceremony for his elementary school

My son on the other hand, has really impressed me with how well he’s doing with the program.  I think he really likes knowing there is a plan for the day.  He has the schedule on his bulletin board and is referencing it all the time.  Sometimes he’s reminding me when I’m off task!  This is so backwards..  I’ve never seen him work so hard at so many new skills and be so motivated to help or initiate work around the house.

I’ve been amazed to watch  my son developing these skills:

1. Creative motivation: He is so motivated to try new things that ordinarily he would be resistant to.  Like for example, yesterday he spent 15 minutes making a journal/comic.  It’s about his life, but in a comic form.   Creative, right?  And he’s writing!  I can’t tell you how much this makes me happy.  Sure it’s a comic, but he’s writing!  This was his idea to so extra points for creativity.

2. Housework and home improvement motivation: He’s been initiating chores around the house.  It might be time for him to unload the dishwasher and he’s saying to me, “Hey Mom, why don’t I wipe down the counters too?”  What?  How is this happening?  I’m thrilled of course, but wow!  I didn’t expect this.  He’s offering to do many tasks and really staying motivated to complete them without complaining because he knows these tasks will bring him what he wants, computer/game time.  He’s also been helping me hang shelves, level photos and hang them, etc.  I was the type of kid who was doing simple home improvement projects mostly by myself and learning as I went.  I feel great that he’s also learning home improvement skills and from his mother no less!  This makes me really happy!

3. Deep Concentration on skill-based activities: In the past he might have made a small little video with much encouragement from me and once he finished the 30 minutes or 1 hour video he would have complained that he was bored and that he wanted more game time.  Now he knows the schedule.  He’ll have one hour of video making time before lunch each day and then when it’s time for more project time and he can choose  the project, he’s choosing to make more videos.  He’s spending about 3 hours a day working on filming, editing and uploading videos.  He’s loving it!  He’s never seem so engaged in his creative work before!  I’m so excited to see what new skills he’ll develop this summer!

4. Time management and game management:  This has been the most shocking of all the new skills I see my son developing.  He is rationing his game time very responsibly and it’s something I never discussed with him.  He’s saving time each day so that he and his dad can play Minecraft together at the end of each day.  I noticed at the beginning of the week that he wasn’t spending as much time playing games as he was allotted in the afternoon.  I asked him a couple of days ago, “Are you saving up time for evening to play games with your dad?” He said” Yeah, I like to have some game time with dad at the end of the day so, I’m saving it up.”  Holy crap!  Totally impressive, right?

OK, now back to me and my less impressiveness.  I know that part of the issue is that I am a left handed, right brained, head in the clouds creative type who has somehow managed to get enough time management and organization skills to function in the world.  I was raised by a creative person and had basically no schedule ever, in my life, until I grew up.  I think Uncamp might be the most scheduling I’ve ever tried to impose upon myself.  It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.  I also think I need to rework the schedule a bit because I’m finding that there are times of the day that I don’t wanna, wanna.  There are other times when I think now is a good time for that, but it’s not on my schedule, which brings up another issue.  I am very intuitive, so I tend to be motivated by my mood or a moment.  Trying to do things based on when I’m supposed to do them is really challenging for me.  I think part of my problem is that the schedule needs some tweaking to suit my needs better and part of it is that I need to settle into this new style of managing myself.

The other issue is that I guess I’ve never really tracked how often I’m getting distracted in a day.  I am someone who tends to like a lot of things going on.  I’m happiest when I’m doing a few things at the same time or in close succession. I love to have people over, listen to music, cook, maybe business planning, often all at the same time.  I think everyone has their own processing time, mine tends to be very fast.  I think in my normal life, I might check my email, Facebook, etc up to 5-10 times a day.  Maybe more.  It’s almost like a nervous habit, because when I try not to check I’ll think, “BUT I HAVE TO CHECK MY EMAIL” (or facebook or fill in the blank).  Now that I’m tracking how often I’m losing concentration from what I’m working on, I’m seeing that I get distracted regularly and often!  I had no idea.  I think because I’m pretty good at doing a lot of things at once or within close succession, I hadn’t noticed this before.

I’m working hard at observing my behavior around this project and trying not to judge it. My first thought once I realized that although my son is the juvenile, I am the delinquent, was to make myself a really cool glittery dunce cap.  My second thought was to make the dunce cap and burn it.  My third thought was that I’m trying to stay on track with my schedule and making and burning dunce caps is too much of  a distraction.  Also, making a dunce cap has inherent judgement involved and I’m not judging.  To change a behavior you must acknowledge it and I acknowledge that I’m very distracted by the computer.

OK, so I’m working on setting up the Stay Focused Chrome Extension, revamping my schedule and a few tweaks to my son’s as well so we can both participate in our schedules together, not judging my natural rebelliousness and also trying to calm my inner rebel.  I’ll update you next week on how things are going and if I’ve tamed my inner rebel.

Here’s me at 5, sporting my best rebel girl face.

I’m wondering if anyone have any questions for me about Uncamp? I feel like there is so much more I could say about it, but you know, I’ve gotta stay on task with my schedule so no more time at the moment for writing, but if you ask me a question in the comments section, I promise to get back to you at my allotted computer time and respond to your questions, that is if my inner rebel girl doesn’t sneak online and respond earlier.  OK, I’m cracking myself up here.  Hope you’re all doing well with your summer plans!

by: Jen

Last Wednesday night was the Rebel Craft Rumble, hosted by Scrap.  In case you aren’t familiar with what the Rebel Craft Rumble is all about, think Iron Chef with crafts.  Like Iron Chef, competitors have specific items that they must work with and then they compete side by side to see who will become the winner or in this case the “Craft Master.”  Sister Diane was the champion last year so I was excited to see what sort of “craft muscle” the other contestants would bring to this year’s competition.   Alyssa Kail did a great job as “The Ringleader of Reuse.”   Richard and I were asked to be judges along with Julie Sabatier, from Destination DIY and Lindsey Newkirk, from Junk to Funk and oh, what fun we had!  The contestants were amazing!  There was Bridget Benton, Miss Demeanor, Sister Diane, Aurora Owen and Chelsea Badding.  The last two contestants I wasn’t familiar with, but they were great crafters and totally entertaining.

There were a few different bouts: such as detailing and tricking out a chair from a thrift store.  In the next round they made puppets.   Chelsea created superior puppets, but Aurora did voices and named her puppets in an excited 5 year old kinda way so she totally won that leg of the competition.

Photo by Mike Harper

Aurora had a huge fan club at the event.  Even, Isaac B. Watson from I Heart Art was getting in on her fan club by waving a huge sign that said, “show us your cleavage.”  If you know Isaac you know how funny and out of character holding a sign like that is for him.

Photo by Mike Harper

One of the many fun elements of this event were the bribes that contestants brought for the judges.  Here you can see Richard and Julie fighting over who will get the hand altered “Hans Solo” created by Aurora.  I’m pretty sure Richard was screaming something like, “I’ll cut a bitch for Hans Solo!”  But that’s what happens when you go to a rumble.  Things can get pretty ugly.

Photo by mike Harper

Another cool element of the Rebel Craft Rumble  was that contestants could have secret weapons.  Miss Demeanor had caution tape, which she used to weave a chair.  She also did sexy, yet almost threatening dance moves that were totally entertaining.  Check out the picture above and you’ll see what I mean.

Photo by Mike Harper

Here you can see Isaac in “jail” again.  Throughout the night many people spent time in jail.  Sometimes for running around and acting like a nut, as in Isaac’s case, others were jailed for not bringing the craft cop a beer or other acts of “doing nothing,” but no one spent as much time in jail as Isaac.  He was so rowdy.  Screaming and waving signs to Sister Diane that said things like, “Marry me!”  It was pretty awesome!

Photo by Mike Harper

I think this guy was jailed for doing nothing.

Photo by Mike Harper

As the night began we were legit judges as you can see in the photo below.  We were carefully thinking it through and weighing out our options.  But we kept getting drinks from contestants and from the audience, after awhile it became more and more challenging to judge people based on their projects.  The bribes, booze and entertainment of each contestant began to weigh more heavily.

Photo by Mike Harper

Here’s a link to a quick iphone video of a drink that was delivered to me.  Diane didn’t purchase this drink it was purchased by an audience member on Diane’s behalf.  I couldn’t get a good photo of it because it had been written on all the way around the cup, so a video seemed like the best idea.    Notice in the photo below the water has barely been touched but the beer cups are getting stacked up in the middle of the table.  We are also being presented with the whiskey shots at this time.

Photo by Mike Harper

Here are Bridget and Diane competing in the chandelier redux portion of the evening.  Bridget’s hot glue gun died, but Sister D was kind enough to share hers.

Photo by Mike Harper

Crafters came and competed hard!  After a few black eyes and copious amounts of hot glue Sister Diane came out victorious once again.  It’s hard to beat divine crafting.  Even the Chinook Book sign couldn’t handle the intensity of the rumble.  Look at it, trying to fall down for mercy and crying for it’s mama.

Photo by Mike Harper

All in all this is one of the most fun events I’ve been to in some time.  I highly recommend it to anyone who likes crafts, supports reuse, is a fan of friendly competition or really anyone who likes affordable fun!

by: jen

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