Oh my! How neglectful I've been. I've been back for almost 2 weeks already and tomorrow I fly out to Ontario for a family visit. It's a whirlwind of activity and travel here, apparently. It's been a grind getting my mind back to work and out of vacation time (as you can see, our holiday was wonderful!), however, my body still seems to be on eastern time which makes for some troublesome sleeping. At least I'll be set for tomorrow's flight out.
I just started contributing to Poppytalk, the beautiful Canadian design blog, where I'll be posting every Wednesday with food talk and recipes. My first post went up today, so please be sure to pop by and comment. Also, in the next couple of weeks, I'll be adding new cards and maybe some other goodies to my etsy shop, so stop by for a peek!
A Handmade Nation review & a commitment to community
Last Thursday, I saw the Vancouver showing of Handmade Nation, the documentary that documents the modern craft movement directed by Faythe Levine. I was really taken by The Little Friends of Printmaking, a couple who talked not just about their craft (silkscreening posters) but about the politics involved in the art vs craft movement (plus, I've loved their posters for years). The Buy Olympia guys were fun to watch and I loved how they started their business by the seat of their pants. Jenine Bressner, a glass bead maker, was also a highlight since she was awesomely wacky and she was really great at narrating what she was doing while holding a blow-torch. I found it super inspiring and it reminded me so much of my 20s when I was making zines, making movies, reading Bust magazine, playing bass guitar in a punk rock band, and volunteering at a local underground cinema. The documentary brought up all kinds of nostalgic feelings which is kind of strange since it's a film completed this year.
While I'm definitely a part of the new modern craft movement with my 2 etsy shops & recently participating in craft fairs around town, somehow I feel a bit more removed now than when I was in the thick of it back in my 20s. I guess it's because I do most of my creative outlets by computer now. I work from home running my own business with my husband, I have my popular food blog, I use Illustrator to work over my sketches, I sellonline, I respond to people's questions via email and I Twitter.
While I do feel a connection with others online, I'm much more removed from the camaraderie and person-to-person contact that I used to have daily. As a response to that feeling, I recently I made a commitment with myself to meet up with new people - food bloggers, crafters, web designers - and step outside the cushy online comfort zone that I've created for myself in the past few years. And so far, it's been good. I've attended social events, crafty gatherings, and met a host of wonderful people in person. I even got to attend a small but totally rad party to welcome Faythe Levine the night before the film showing. Want to know Faythe's favorite food at the party? My lemony goat cheese stuffed dates! The internet is a great place to bring people from all over the world together and create community, but it's just as important to create those ties in real life as well.
Yesterday I picked up a bunch of new cards from the local print shop. You look beautiful today is now available at my etsy shop and I have a bunch of new cards that will make their debut in the coming week or so. I also will have my very first giveaway! True. So stay tuned next week.
In other news, I've finally got into Twitter. I had an account but didn't really use it. Then I installed TwitterFox (for Firefox) and, oh boy, I'm tweeting! I also have a Tumbler account too. I have to say I love Tumbler. So much easier than blogging and who doesn't love looking at pretty pictures? Follow me on Twitter or Tumbler or both! If you guessed I spent way too much time online, you are correct.
I woke up this morning to some good news in my email. I was nominated for a 2009 Weblog Award for Best Canadian Blog for my other blog, Everybody Likes Sandwiches! Holy Smokers!! I was pretty excited and I'm not above begging...please, please, please vote for me. I really want to win.
I started this blog as an experiment. I wanted a way to keep track of the little things that caught my eye either online or in the real world. And I also wanted a separate space to write about things that weren't about food and recipes. When I started my food blog I decided to forgo advertising altogether but then I started this blog and decided I'd give it a try. It was out of curiosity at first but then I simply forgot about them and grew a severe case of ad blindness. Sure, I had dreams of quitting my day job and just living off the riches that Google advertising would ply me with, but of course, that didn't happen. This morning when I saw an ad for hutches on the side of my blog, it totally put me off. It's funny because I used to work as a web designer for Adbusters magazine and have always been pretty critical of the way advertising and media shapes our world, so when I clued back in to those ubiquitous Google text ads, it totally put me off. I always try to live responsibly and make a conscious effort to choose the better option, so having ads on my blog was something I felt was a wrong choice for me. I immediately deleted that AdSense code from my sidebar and I felt a whole lot better.
Getting money from advertising is something that I just didn't feel good about. I guess it's the same reason why I'm always turning down free product from companies wanting me to blog about their products. I want to choose what I'm writing about and being obligated to write about a product I could care less about doesn't interest me in the least. I want the people who read my blog to know that anything I write about is endorsed by me and me alone. But of course, if someone wants to pay me to write about something that I want to write about — say local events or my own personal stories, well, that's just perfect! And so I've just started to write for the Food Network Canada blog, Food for Thought and my first post about my trip to the local farmer's market was published this morning. Stop by and say hi if you like as it would be nice to know your thoughts about what I wrote there.
I'm also curious about your own ideas/experiences about advertising on blogs. How do you feel about placing ads on blogs or bloggers accepting products?
