Thursday, January 11, 2007

January 11, 2007

Happy New Year, Happy New Blog ... that will be updated at least weekly, if not more. It's been a crazy last 8 months. My New Year's resolution was to get back on the blog-writing stick, and although it's 10 days late, here I am. I have even forgotten all the neat tricks for inserting pictures and links, so this is old-fashioned. I'm sure I'll remember by the next time I write. In the meantime, these awesome (and some sucky)things have happened since last time:

1) Erica had another baby, named Roman. That means that I need to quick, fast, in a hurry get the quilt mailed for the first son, Atticus, and whip something up for Roman. I am SO good at planning, cutting and sewing, and SO bad at finishing. Here's the plan for Roman's quilt: http://doggedknits.com/?p=623. Not exactly in terms of fabric and whatnot, but the overall idea is the same. I'm using cashmere (because I'm just that fancy) for the backing fabric. Deadline: Monday, January 15.

2) Oh, yeah, the store is open! Check out www.uptown-hound.com. It's an amateur website right now, but it's about to be fixed right up by one Nicole Kenney (www.nicolekenney.com) who is a genius and brilliant artist. (Hope I can afford her!) We have 34 clients now! It's the best thing I ever did. I'm not making any money, but I'm only losing a little bit right now. If I can just drink my own branding and marketing kool-aid over the next couple of months, we're in for big things! Big things like number 3...

3) Pitching Uptown Hound bedding and accessories to A very Brilliant and Cool store (there's a hint there) on Wednesday! All that knitting and sewing was for more than just stress relief!

4) Work. Um, you told me not to do it, but I did, and I made a HUGE mistake. I'm working it out now. The upside is, there's a book in it -- a follow up to Our Separate Ways. The starting point is a review I got from my supervisor re: I'm too familiar with clients. If he only knew the thought that goes into being non-scary black woman and why that is an important tactic to take in terms of having access. Sometimes the best thing you can be is ignored. Whatever. It's clear that there's no way to make him understand that, but it is worth a chapter or two. So far, we've got four, with a draft due in March. More later.

5) Aimee got her PhD. My sister is a doctor. We're still both broke, but we have lots of letters behind our names, which makes the Ramen that much tastier.

6) (This is sucky). Izzy passed away on the operating table while she was getting spayed. They say that Persians and Himalayans, because of their smushed noses, often have trouble with respiration in general, much less under anesthesia. It was the saddest day, and set off a series of bad events that we're just coming out of now. (See #4 above). I keep her memory close and we dedicated the cat room in the store to Izzy -- It's called The Kit Kat Korner, and is filled with stuff that Izzy would love. We're going to celebrate her birthday every year with a BOGO sale -- the March Madnizz. Good, right?

7) So, after Izzy, I got Eli. If I could remember how to insert a picture, I would. Anyway, Eli (short for Elijah) is a sweet girl. She could never replace Izzy, but she's fun and runs around and sometimes jumps in the shower and bites my ankles. (That, I think, is Izzy possessing her.)

8) (This is sucky). This was the first Christmas of my life, ever, any time that I didn't make it home. See #4.

9) Lastly, resolutions: Bikram is making a big comeback in my life this year. I miss it so much, and a studio opened up not far from my house, so there's no reason I can't go regularly ... except for #4.

- Organization is number 2 on my list. Every non-essential thing in my junky house is going out for the garbage, starting TOMORROW. I'm setting a schedule for weekly life, including Olive Group work, Uptown Hound work, EULA work, and, oh, yeah, work-work, that is reasonable enough for me to keep and won't have me doing ADD-type work everyday.

- Addictions are stopping this year. No more yarn-sprees. No more waiting up for the Sewing Segment on Home Shopping Network. Until I use all the yarn/fabric I have and finish all the projects in process, I'm on crafting lock-down.

- Speaking the truth is about to start up and for real.

- My health is going to be a priority. This shoudl actually be higher up, right behind Bikram. Anyway, no more calls to BBQ Harlem, Ginger XPress, Hunan Balcony, or Rack and Soul. The money I spend in two days will now be groceries for a month.

- Talking to people I like -- Mom, Dad, Aimee, Jana, Erica, Eunice, Sandy, Debra, Gwen, Jason ... I need to be in better/closer/more frequent contact with them.

- Tufte-like work. Lastly, I'm going to find a way to transform what I do all day (see #4 -- basically, putting boxes around text and coloring them in ... PowerPoint is the tool of the dull) into something that might mean something. Maybe packaging the skillset into an offering that I can sell back to Olive Group, or use to get another start-up off the ground.

Best wishes for the happiest year, and thank you for reading and keeping me in your thoughts. By tomorrow, I swear, I'll get the picture/link thing down again so this is more interesting than just text. Plus, I have lots of new links to add and a whole new Flickr set for you to see. As always, best - j

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jen!

Just wanted to say hi! Glad to hear that all is well!! Congrats on Uptown - I knew you'd do it! Much love,

TC

10:36 PM  

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