Kevin's Birthday Adventures

Kevin's birthday wish was to have his closest friends compete in a variety of games & challenges, from relay races, a quiz bowl to a photo scavenger hunt. Last Saturday in the Silverlake meadow, his wish came true.

 

Activities included taking a picture of a stranger who had appeared to have low self-esteem but actually had a lot going for him/her, balancing a water balloon on one friend while the rest of the team carried him/her, and looooots of charades.

Claudia & John testing out the tank top method for carrying water balloons.

My favorite picture of the day. Matt & Tyler = bro love.

Oh update!! After posting, I remembered Germain took this picture of the game master & me. Tada!

Clink Tattoo. Say whaaaaaaat??!

I'm so excited and flattered I had to share this:

Hi Genevieve, 

I wanted you to know that I absolutely ADORE this sketch. It reminds me so much of my eldest boy and my youngest girl. Some may see a boy/girl crush, but I see a little sister in sibling-love with her older brother. I love it so very much that I altered it a bit to make it look more sibling-esque and had it tattooed on my arm! I wanted to share this with you.

 

Yippeeee!

Pop-Up Shop at Leanna Lin's Wonderland Preview

I just painted these two for my Pop-Up shop in April in Los Angeles. Hint: there's a monster theme! :)

Celebration!!

I can stop holding my breath & return to a state of normalcy again.

The Art of Putting Out Fires

Putting out fires... a term my old boss at New Line frequently used in moments of stress. This may be one of the most stressful weeks ever, aside from craft fair hell week and the holidays. But those are expected. Second week of February... raaaaandom!! Anyway, sitting in my car, heart racing from stress, I thought about all the things I do to counter anxiety, and I thought I'd share how I put out the fierce blazing fires in my business. In no particular order:
  
1. Write Everything Down
To do lists, weekly goals, conversations with clients, who to email, etc. Not only does it free your mind (and the ressssst will folloowwww), but it's a nice way of repeating things back to yourself. In arguments, I've found repeating back what the other person has said helps calm the situation. Why not use it on yourself! :)

2. Delegate Tasks
Whether you have a whole staff of helpers, an intern, or in my case a very savvy younger sissy face, learn to share the load. This can be as simple as asking your boyfriend to mail your day's Etsy orders on his way to work (heyyy thaaaaanks, Kevin!). Be honest with yourself and spot the items on your to do list that never get checked off. That's a sign someone else needs to do it for you.

3. TREAT YO SELF!

This one's my favorite! Oh such wise words from Tom & Donna of Parks & Recreation. Remember to give yourself a break! Mentally and with some mimosas! Treat Yo Self!

4. Learn to Say NO
Being an entrepreneur, your impulse is to take every project. Especially when you're starting out. Truth is you deeefinitely don't have to, especially if they're projects you don't like or with clients you don't enjoy collaborating with. Money ideally shouldn't be the driving force for choosing your projects. I usually ask myself two questions when picking projects: Will this project make me happy? And will this project help me grow?

5. Don't Falter Under the Pressure
What I mean by that is don't lose sight of your style, core values, sensibilities, etc. Stress makes you vulnerable and I've found it's in those moments I want to do something a little safe, trendy, and/or similar to something previously done. Don't! Not only is it terribly irreverent, you're not being true to the voice that made you successful in the first place. Never. Forget. NEVER! hehe

6. Let it OUT!
Go for a run, do some yoga, scream into a pillow, vent to a close friend, or have a cathartic cry (my favorite). It's no good bottling all that energy so release it. And do so in a way that you won't regret.

7. Clean
I totally published the post before I remembered this one. CLEANING!! It does wonders. I love cleaning my room and office when I'm stressed. For whatever reason, it translates to my state of mind. Try it. Fo serious.

Phew! Well, I actually do feel better writing all that out. I'm curious how other people deal with stress. Feel free to share!

Okay, time to do work :)

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

Earlier this week, I had the (un)fortunate experience of dealing with copyright infringement mumbo jumbo. (Fortunate & unfortunate because while it did happen [booo!!], I definitely learned a great deal [yaaay!]).

Clink!

One of my wonderful customers brought it to my attention: "Someone shared your clink pic on Facebook and wrote their fb link on the pic... It was a blog by someone called ___. I couldn't comment on it but heaps and heaps of people shared it!! Just thought I'd let you know."

 At first I didn't really get it. I just read the "heaps of people shared it" part and thought it was great! Noooo... not good. She later added, "If I did not know you were the artist I would've thought she drew it!! There was no mention of the artist at all. The people that I saw share it said it was so beautiful etc etc and I just thought it was wrong!!" OK. Whoa. Not cool.

I didn't have the url at the time, but she did give me a first name and the clue that it was on Facebook. I got my sister to help me with the detective work. She had the brilliant idea of google-image-searching the Etsy jpg url of Clink. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Literally hundreds of results came up, and after going through 60+ websites, I realized to my dismay that a small fraction actually attributed the art to me. Tumblr was actually the woooorst because it was such a crazy web of sharing and very difficult to find the original post. Also, I suppose once it's shared, the deed is done.

I felt rather conflicted--I wanted to smile from flattery and frown from feeling cheated. I messaged one blog to credit me. They replied within a couple hours with the change and apologized. They apparently found it on Google without mention of the artist (dang it!).

Back to Facebook!! My customer gave me the url and whoa! The person had pasted their blog url on nearly every photo posted, from personal self-portraits to a scene from My Neighbor Totoro. Perhaps she didn't realize her error but I was mortified to see that there were over 600+ shares, 400+ likes, and I forget how many comments. Anyway! It was a lot!

What I did to fix this:
I clicked the gear button next to the post and flagged it. At the bottom of the pop up window was an option to report it as my intellectual property. It took me to this form:

With the help, moral support, and empathetic scoffs of frustration from Polly (of Pollyannacowgirl), I filled out the form. I immediately received a copy of the report via email, and within a day, Facebook had taken it down: Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We have removed or disabled access to the third-party or user-generated content you have reported to us for violating our Statement of Rights & Responsibilities.  VICTORY!!

Lessons learned:
I haven't always been consistent with crediting links, photos, etc. but I definitely will from now on. Now that I know how infuriating it is. It's also a little depressing because you work so hard to make something, and you share it trusting that your viewers will see & share with respect. I, like other artists, photographers, bloggers, and designers, make a living from our intellectual property so when someone doesn't acknowledge or give us proper credit, it's quite negatively impacting.

Anyway! Artist, protect & watermark you images. Folks, share with love & respect for the creator! Especially on Tumblr & Pinterest! :)

Finishing up Valentine's Day goodies

 

Let's Spoon - print & card

 

Mini Valentines

And my perforated valentines are already in the shop!