Song of the Week: "The Kids Were Wrong"- Memoryhouse

I've been listening to a lot of Memoryhouse lately, especially their latest album The Slideshow Effect. There's something very soothing about Denise Nouvion's voice…it's kinda a mix between Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura and Verity Susman of Electrelane. I've been thinking a lot about my career path and just doing the things that I want (and like) to do. I recently completed some freelance work that's allowing me to continue to be self-employed. It was a great experience, but it was even more proof that a day job just isn't for me.

Yesterday, I met up with the ever-lovely Satsuki Shibuya over tea to talk about life and work. We talked about just following our dreams and keep working hard towards it. We also shared what we love most about not having day jobs and what we love about being able to run our own show. She recently started a consultancy service called DREAMCOÖP to help creatives find balance between work & life and just follow their dreams. And I can definitely say, Satsuki is one of the best people to talk to when you're in a rut. Everything about her is very soothing and comforting.

It's been almost a year since I graduated from college and for once, in a long time, I'm starting to feel like myself again. And I feel like I'm getting a lot closer to the life & career I've always wanted.

Late Night Sketch Session: 02.15.13

I did a bit of sketching to try to loosen up and get myself back into the groove. Above are some random things and a girl from The Sartorialist who looks kinda like Margot Tenenbaum.

The Weekly Wind Down: 02.10.13

Stracciatella from Pazzo Gelato

I just finished a little over a week's worth of freelancing for Knock Knock. And now I'm trying to decide what to do with myself. I'm probably going to go back to concentrating on the store and working on new products. Speaking of which, I've opened up a new store! And I'm offering 15% Off all orders from now til the end of the month with code: HELLONEWSHOP. My Etsy shop will continue to stay open. I'm going through a process of restructuring my brands and deciding which products will go where. But what this really means is: there's officially a Becausemaybe shop.

What I learned this week is that just because I haven't been able to land a salary job, that doesn't mean that I'm not talented. I just need to find a good fit. I still prefer the "freelance/self-employed" life over the "day job" life. Although I like driving, I don't like having to drive in over an hour's worth of traffic to get to work and then also taking just as long to get home afterwards. All I could think of this past week is how much I haven't been able to concentrate on my shop. I noticed that when I have time to tend to it, sales just somehow come in. I'm still going to keep doing the job hunt, but I'm not going to desperately apply to random jobs that I don't think I'll even like.

I have a few projects I've been thinking about…mostly zines. I'll finally get a chance to photograph the new notebooks this week and add them to the shop soon. Here they are (shot under bad lighting) before they got their rounded corners. So keep an eye out for that this week!

Other things (and thoughts) that are going on right now are debates about the difference between the Quiet Tiger blog and this blog. I do feel that a lot of the content here tends to be more personal. I'm trying to decide if there's a big enough difference between the two for them to live as two separate blogs or if they should just be consolidated into one blog. That's something I'm going to be tinkering with this week and you'll hear all about it next week. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!