Business tips

I just read this article over on LKR by Jenny Shih and I had to share it. 

One of my big fails is putting the less urgent things on the long finger(especially when I have a big deadline approaching) , I've had this article in my bookmarks for ages and I only got around to reading it today. Mistake!

 

I even put the 3 points onto a little card on my notice board to remind me of what I should be doing when I get distracted by making things. 

I think I have a pretty solid foundation, great products and a good website but I definitely need to work on the email list.

Tomorrow, a little bit about that deadline I've been working on! 

xx V

This week...

Well this week I...

#1
 I saw out 2012 and welcomed the new year in a very civilised manner with Jool's Hollanhds Hootenanny. But then, chatting to a friend later on in the week she tells me that ITS NOT LIVE! He had us all fooled. In hindsight it did seem a little unbelievable that he could manage to get all that fame into one room on New Years. There goes that bubble. Pop

#2
Just before Christmas I was contacted by an indie band called Third Smoke. I had mentioned loving Bon Iver's Skinny love in this post and they mentioned doing a cover of a Bon Iver song, which I loved. They sent me on some of their original songs and these boys are talented.  I couldn't decide what one I loved more so here are my top two. Definitely a band to watch this year!



You can catch them in The Grand Social on Sunday the 27th of January in Dublin

#3

 This ties in with No 2. In the same post I talked about discovering another new musician that I loved, Vincent McMorrow and that I ordered his album. Well it arrived in the post and I have been listening to it on repeat ever since. His voice is so hauntingly beautiful. Couldn't recommend it more.

 #4

  I booked a little road trip away for my Birthday next week. Just to Kinsale in Co. Cork, but I am looking forward to sea air and fingers crossed some scrummy sea food. One place I can't wait to grab a bite at is Fishy Fishy Restaurant. I shall report back.

Have a great weekend.

xx V

Blog Resolutions Part 2:

 (apologies in advance for all the words I'm asking your eyes to swallow in this one)

Yesterday I told you all about one of my New Year Resolutions. Namely to shake things up on this yee-old blog of mine. To try and inject some new life and umph into it, more than anything from my own point of view. I made my promise to be more consistent. Next on the list of my little C.O.P mantra is Originality and Personality. 

Consistency

Originality

Personality

One of the best things about blogs is the ability to publish whatever you want, whenever you want from wherever you are in the world. I have looked back at all the posts that I have sent out into cyber space and the most popular posts are my

Craft Tutorials

Quotes/Words to Live by

Artist Profiles

My weekly round-ups/What I'm listening to, watching, reading etc. 

Starting next week I will have a weekly post on Monday morning's with my quote of the week. You can see previous quotes either on the blog here or over on my Pinterest board Words to live by here

I will have a 'Tutorial Tuesday' at least once a month on the first of the month and maybe more often. But again I don't want to promise what I can't deliver. So I will start with a monthly craft tutorial

Each week I will sign off with a 'This Week' post. This will be a mix of news about what I'm working on, music I'm listening to and all that. Basically a peek behind the curtains.

I also want to start up an Artist's Profile posting. Something similar to the Quit your Day job series that Etsy runs, but I would like to concentrate on Irish artists and designers if I can. If you are interested drop me an email at studio@six0sixdesign.com

Have a great day. I'm off for a walk. Part of my 'Get more fresh air' resolution. Now if only Ireland would partake of a 'have less rain' resolution! 

xx V

New Year Resolutions

When it comes to New Year resolutions I like to keep it fairly simple. Realistic goals that I can feasibly achieve. This year I have decided to share one of my resolutions with you.

I have been dreaming up a whole new blog ethos and I am determined to put it into practice, starting today. 

I started this blog in late 2010 without any clear idea of what I wanted to get from the whole experience. I saw others doing it and thought I'd like to try that and I got hooked. I love technology and I love blogging but I have never had a game plan. Over the last few months I have started to feel that this lack of direction has meant that this blog has never reached it's full potential.

So this year, 2013, I have set out a plan. A list of goals for my blog and first on this list is to create; and most importantly maintain, a consistent blog schedule.

There are a whole host of amazing bloggers out there who offer fantastic advice to people like me. Small, oftentimes, one woman bands, trying to make it in this digital age. My top three are:

Laura Roeder

Shelly and Genevieve over at  Lightbox SF they no longer write the blog BUT it has tons of great content

Brittni Melhoff at paprenstitch check out the business tips

One of the key points that they all make is to have a good blog you must have 

Consistency

Originality

Personality

  So first up Consistency

"I hereby solemnly promise to post a minimum of three times per week. Scouts honour."

Sometimes I will be posting everyday, but I wanted to give myself a realistic goal that I know I can stick to. To maintain this I will be setting out a schedule of themed posts (more about that tomorrow) and I will try to set aside a few hours each week and stockpile and schedule posts in advance. In the same way I use hootsuite to schedule tweets. I will treat my blog more as a part of my business, and give it the time it deserves, rather than squeezing a post out at 11 o'clock at night and then wondering why things don't get done!

 

In tomorrow's post I will be telling you a little bit about what I will be posting on a regular basis. 

Until then.

xx V   

How I work

I think that everyone works differently. I love deadlines and I work best under pressure. But this also means that I am very good at procrastination. I need to structure my days otherwise I get nothing done, or at least not what I am meant to be getting done. I've tried lots of different methods, including never ending lists. And I found that trying to do too much was almost as bad as doing too little. Here are the rules that work for me.

Rule No. 1   Be Realistic
don't give yourself an impossible amount to do and then be disappointed when you don't get it all done.

Rule No. 2   Don't start the day on your computer
I love technology and it's an integral part of my business but if I start the day online I find that before I know it it's midday. I always start the day designing or making. I normally leave out a project the night before that I can pick up and get going on first thing in the morning. I have my laptop booted up so if there are any urgent emails I can deal with them but  they are not my priority. 

Rule No. 3 Plan your day the night before
After a bit of work I came up with a 'Planner' that works for me. I have a bunch of them printed out ready to go. Feel free to download and use it here. 

Rule No. 4 Don't waste your time

 When I go on social media sites I set a timer. (This trick I learnt from the awesome Laura Roeder) I give myself 10 minutes and a daily goal. For example reply to or interact with 10 tweets with the aim of getting at least 5 to respond to you. Then when they do keep up the conversation. DO NOT CONSTANTLY SELF PROMOTE! It's boring and one of the main reasons I will stop following someone.

Finally 

Rule No. 5 Just get on with it  

Not everything that is part of your business  will excite you. For example I hate doing accounts, taxes and all that numbers stuff. But you have to do it. So set aside a portion of your week or month and just get it done. And when you do complete it treat yourself.

How do you work? 

xx V

Walks in the Park...

There is a park in London near where my friends live that I walk through every time I'm getting the train home. Sometimes I collect things, leafy things, because that's just what I do.

Some of the books that I've collected (Part 2)

Last week I delved into some of the books in my collection. Now its time for part two. Looking past the pretty covers to what's inside, inside we also like the pretty but the best parts are when the book tells a story like this one...

At the cost of one penny per night J. & A. Cruikshank of Morningside Road in Edinburgh would lend you this volume. The dates start in January 1925, a lovely little piece of history.

The book is Midwinter by John Buchan, best known for his novel The Thirty-Nine Steps.

A 1931 edition of Robert Lynd's work. Part of The Kings Treasuries of Literature series by JM Dent Publishers. Dent rose to prominence by selling cheap editions of the classics to the working classes in the late 1800's. If you're a book geek like me and dig the history of things there's more info on them here

This edition of Pinnochio I hands down picked up for the illustrations on the inside leaf and the front cover embossing work. It also reminded me that although I know the story of Pinnochio like the back of my hand (as an aside why do people say that, I mean I'm not sure I do know the back of my hand all that well) I had no idea who the author was. Charles Collodi for the record. Born Carlo Lorenzini in Collodi Italy in 1826 he wrote under the pen name of Collodi.

Illustrations by AH Watson.

Finally another JM Dent publication of Goethes' Faust. Published 1902. Loved the owl embossed on the cover.

Well that's it for now, hope you enjoyed the post. Any comments, insights, or maybe I missed out on some fabulous piece of random knowledge. Let me know in the comments below (ooh look I rhymed). 

xx V

Some of the books that I've collected (Part 1)

I love old things and I love books so in this my two love's meet. I will choose a book for it's cover artwork, content, inscriptions inside, annotations, flyleaf designs or simply because there is something about it that appeals to me. 

Here are some of my recent acquisitions. 

 

 This 1906 edition of Elizabeth Gaskell's work's I bought for the beautiful detailing on the spine. (centre book above) 

 A lot of the old dictionaries I buy I use when making my hand covered pencils, therefore purchases completely justified!

I love all the old ring marks on this Chambers English Dictionary. I can just imagine it being thumbed through for the crossword or scrabble. Complete with an open fire and required animal companion. 

This People's Edition of Alfred Lord Tenyson's poetry works was once part of a larger collection. 12 books. Unfortunately I only got two, but I loved the embossed initials on the cover. Published by MacMillan and Co in 1895 

Published in 1950 this music score of Haydn's Symphony No. 101 was part of a series Penguin released to

" meet the needs of concertgoers and amateurs of music." They were a pricey two shillings and sixpence each

This book was published in Glasgow, Scotland by Blackie and Son Limited. Fell in love with the illustration on the front cover. Reminiscent of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The publishing companies illustrator, Talwin Morris was friends with Mackintosh so perhaps a connection. More investigating needed.

Next week's post will concentrate more on the interiors because it's not all about pretty covers, sometimes 'the pretty' goes inside too.

xx V

My weekend...

Most weekends I try to actually go out and do something, otherwise I find that I will potter around the place and end up doing work instead. Now I don't always get a full weekend off, I had to work yesterday, so I was determined to do something with my Saturday. This is what I got up to.

A cool, if small, showcase of the Irish designer Sorcha O'Raghallaigh's work in Brown Thomas. Got some ideas from her unusual knitting techniques. Thinking After School Project over at The Craft Corner in the future.

 Delicious food stands and our lunch over at the Food Market in Temple Bar.

normally the food market is in Meeting House Square but it had been squeezed out onto the street because of  this extraveganza...

  McGuigan Wines were 'celebrating their Irish roots' and hosted this living vineyard in Meeting House Square - very very cool and created such a buzz. Unfortunately Saturday was the last day so you'll just have to hope for a repeat.

Ribbons from A.Rubanesque

  and some cool materials from Murphy Sheehy
.

Popped into one of my favourite bookstores. The Secret Book and Record Shop on Wicklow St.

Spotted this Street Art

And caught a Polo Match and some sunshine in Phoenix Park with the rest of the city. Don't think I've ever seen the Park quite so packed. And I still don't understand the rules. 

And next weekend I'm off to London for a quick trip. Cannot wait!

xx V