Addiction, for me, is a four letter word

BOOK (s) !!!

Ever since I was a little girl, I've had an obsession with books. I love them, I need them, I crave them. Weird? Perhaps. But I cannot stop. At any given moment, someone can ask me how many books I am reading and my usual answer will be something like "Um, 6, BUT..." followed by some supposed reason why reading that many books is totally normal (ie, "BUT 3 of them are business books, 1 is a collection of short stories, 1 is a quick-read-chick-lit type book, and I'm sure I'll fly through the novel quickly, so really 6 isn't that many!"). The strangest thing about my obsession is that I'm not just obsessed with the act of reading itself - I am addicted to the act of purchasing and owning books. I literally cannot walk into a bookstore and walk out without purchasing a book. It's a sickness. I can't get rid of it, even if I tried, but to be honest I would never try! I love the feeling of holding a new book in my hand, cracking it open and knowing that I'm the first person to devour its contents (and most likely the last, since I don't often lend out my books. I'm too afraid that I won't get them back!). I can dog ear all the pages if I want, I can make notes in the margin if I want, I can highlight entire paragraphs if I want...oh man I could go on forever. The point is, my name is Lara and I am a bibliomaniac.

Currently occupying my bedside table:
1) Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
2) The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson
3) When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
4) Free Prize Inside!, by Seth Godin
5) Meatball Sundae, by Seth Godin
6) Fourth Comings, by Megan McCafferty

Will let you know how each of these books play into my "list of all time of favourite books" once I get through all of them!

P.S. Isn't the library in the picture just to die for? That baby is going on my vision board, pronto!

Have a happy Handmade Christmas!

Last year around this time, I decided that I wanted to buy local for all of my Christmas shopping. I figured it would be easy enough, with all of the wonderful local shops and markets that showcase Vancouver designers and artists. But I left it all to the last minute and wasn't able to find something for everyone on my list, simply because I only gave myself a few good shopping days. In the end, I was not successful in my quest to give all locally handmade gifts; I am ashamed to say that I even ended up giving some very NON local gifts such as Future Shop gift certificates and mass produced clothing items from stores that will remain nameless. But this year will be different. This year, I will succeed in my quest to buy local. This year, I am armed with a much larger arsenal of markets, websites and resources for handmade, locally crafted items and I am going to share them with you in the hopes that you will take the same vow that I have, the vow to buy handmade.

I know what some of you may be thinking - "why the heck is she blogging about Christmas right now?? It's only October!" Well, yes it may be a tad early to be thinking about Christmas shopping, but again since I went through the whole ordeal last year and wasn't able to achieve my goal, I am starting now to ensure that it will not happen again. Also, since I will be sharing my resources with you all in the hopes that you'll also have a happy handmade Christmas, now is as good a time as any to start with

Tip #1: Check out etsy, "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade."
I have found and earmarked dozens of amazing items/sellers on there already, and I haven't even spent a lot of time on the site yet. In order to make sure that you are truly buying local, use the shop local option by plunking in your location to view the etsy sellers in your area.

I'll admit, the reason I originally checked out etsy was to sell my bags on there at a discount off of regular retail price (gotta get rid of some of my inventory to make room for the new line which will be coming out any day now=P), but I ended up finding a wonderful resource for my own shopping needs. I hope you'll do the same!

Flock this!

So I've heard several people mention Flock so today I tried it for the first time. And OH MY GOD does it make my life a lot easier!! If you've never heard of Flock, it's a social media browser, perfect for those of us who are tired of logging into facebook, twitter, gmail, blogger, digg, del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube, etc, etc separately and having to update each individual account/service one at a time. Read: no more wondering if you've missed a million tweets while you were on Facebook commenting on so-and-so's latest video. With Flock, you can see the realtime updates on all of your fave social media accounts on the sidebar while you are doing whatever it is you're doing on your main browser tab (see screen shot for example). Now, admittedly I am new to the Flock thing, hell I'm new to all social media/web2.0, but I can tell that it's going to be a timesaver for me as well as a necessity in the long run. So far, during my tenure (read: 30 mins) as a bonafide Flock enthusiast, I've managed to check my gmail account, tweet a few times, update my FB profile, bookmark a few new pages on del.icio.us and update my blog all from this browser, all the while still witnessing the exact moment that "Mr.X" updated his profile and a dozen different tweeple tweeted "good night" to the rest of us here on the west coast.

The only problem right now is that I'm tired, the caffeine from my 3 cups of coffee today have worn off and now I'll either have to go to bed super early or have another cup (but then I won't be able to sleep in a few hours when I actually want to), so I'll just end this blog entry with an apology: to anyone reading this, and especially to anyone working for/related to/using Flock, I'm sorry for my (basically incoherent) description of what it can do. Once again, I'm tired and probably shouldn't have tried to blog in this state of mind=P I promise I will blog about Flock again at a later date when I can speak eloquently of its many wonderful uses, and do Flock some justice!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Ignorance is(n't) bliss

"Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education." - Stephen Covey, Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living the Seven Habits

Current mood: Reflective
Currently listening to: Erykah Badu - Baduizm
Currently reading: A Beginner's Guide to Starting a Shop on Etsy

I'm ignorant. There, I said it. And as business guru Stephen Covey states, this is the first step in my education. This is not really a revelation for me, I've always known that I don't know enough (ha!). Today, though, I am speaking specifically about the various aspects of social media marketing/web2.0. I don't know enough and in realizing that I don't know enough I have now embarked on my social media education. A while back, I attended a seminar about social media marketing/web 2.0 and was fascinated by all of the marketing opportunities out there, but I didn't actually make a move to implement any of the strategies at that time. Of course, I've had a facebook page for personal use for ages now, but I didn't use it for any business reasons. I wasn't on Twitter, I didn't know what StumbleUpon was, I knew nothing about RSS feeds/readers, I didn't know about social bookmarking, I didn't know what a mashup was; gosh I could go on and on about what I didn't know!

Anyways, the point is now I know what I didn't know. And I am having a blast right now learning about all of the amazingly effective social media marketing tools out there. I'll be sure to regularly update you on anything I find, since I'm sure I can't be the only social media marketing newbie out there! I'm starting with focusing on how to utilize facebook as an effective, no-cost/low-cost way to market Fave Handbags, since I'm already on Facebook. Right now, my favourite resource for facebook strategy is http://whyfacebook.com/. A lot of people don't realize the opportunities that are available on Facebook, and Mari has tons of great articles about the profit generating side of things.

Now, I'm off to work on my Etsy store and work on increasing my interaction with my Facebook and Twitter network. Here's wishing everyone a productive and educational week!

I Heart New York

So, last month Karlo and I took a trip to NYC. I would have written about it sooner, except that as soon as we got back (like, days after returning home), I was rushed to the hospital with stomach pains and ended up having to have emergency surgery to remove some large tumours from my ovaries. Don't worry, I'm all healed now and back to normal. Anyways, the point is, the last 6 weeks of my life have been pretty much exclusively concerned with post-op dealings. But now I'm ready to get back in to the swing of things and dwell on the fun stuff, such as our amazing trip.

I have to say, I absolutely LOVE New York. Corny as it sounds, while we were there, I actually had feelings of "I get it now, I know why everyone wants to 'be a part of it, New York, New York!'" Ha ha. There's nothing that I didn't love while we were there. Everything is bigger and better and more exciting there. Now, don't get me wrong, being born and raised in Vancouver, BC, Canada has definitely contributed to my love of a laidback, easygoing lifestyle. But there's just something in the air over there, something that makes you want to be out and about all the time. Here at home, everyone pretty much knows I'm a homebody; my idea of a good night is hunkering down at home with my boyfriend, a good movie and some popcorn. Simple. Enjoyable. Easy. But when we were in New York, I didn't want to sit still for a minute. I wanted to be out on the streets of NYC doing/seeing/experiencing something exciting at all times. I think the most sleep we got the entire time we were there was like 3 hours one night. It was exhausting, but it was absolutely worth it. We will definitely go again soon, and if I had my way, we'd even live there for a year or two. But that's all for another post. For now, I'll leave you with just a few of my favourite pics from our trip, and let me say, it was hard to narrow them down since we took over 500 pictures!

Some thoughts on working from home

I've read tons of books/articles about the traps and potential setbacks of working from home, and I've noticed that they all pretty much say the same thing. There's lots about "to do" lists, time management tricks, setting boundaries etc and that's all well and good, except I think there's something missing. We focus so much on what we have to get done, rather than celebrate what we've already accomplished! I've always got a "to do" list a mile long, and while crossing off items once I've finished them is satisfying, I like to actually write a list at the end of the day of all the things I accomplished. Whether it's something small like "responded to so-and-so's email" to something bigger like "finished fabric inventory," I think it's important to note all the things that I've done and be thankful for it! It's just my way of putting a positive spin on the drudgery of daily life.

Here is my list of "off the beaten path" tips for working from home:

1) Wake up at the same time every day, as though you have to run out the door to get to work. I know this one sounds weird, but I'm sure other people who work from home (those of us that don't have children, anyways) can agree that sometimes the temptation of sleeping in an extra hour just because we can is hard to resist!

2) Do things for yourself that you'd normally do if you were going to an actual office. For me, I know that I'd be stopping at Starbucks for a peppermint mocha in the morning to get my daily caffeine kick. So I actually purchased a bottle of peppermint syrup from Starbucks (it only costs $6 for a whole bottle, FYI) and now I make my own peppermint mocha at home by adding the syrup to my cuppa joe in the morning. This makes it easier to get up in the morning, saves me at least $4 a day and helps me get through my usual morning tasks.

3) Create a motivational playlist to listen to while you work. One of the great perks of working from home is the privacy, right? So why not capitalize on that by compiling a playlist of all your favourite songs that you can actually sing along to at the top of your lungs? I know that helps me keep my energy up and well, it just makes me happier=)

4) Take a break to do something fun every day. For me, it's giving myself time to watch an episode of my favourite show while I eat lunch. I have to eat lunch anyways, and giving myself the treat of watching my show while I eat gives me the fun break I need in the middle of my day. The anticipation makes the morning go quicker, and the afternoon seem less daunting afterwards.

5) Share your daily accomplishments with someone. Whether it's in person (my boyfriend gets to hear about all of the wonderful, exciting things I get done in a day whenever he gets home from work), by phone, email, forum post or blog, tell someone what you've accomplished and it'll get easier to stay productive.

Well, I'm sure I'll remember other things to add to the list, but for now that's it. For anyone else who works from home, are there any tips you have that aren't normally found in the "work from home" guidelines?

OOPS! I did it again=P

Ok Ok Ok I know I've spent have my time on this blog talking about how I'm going to make a concerted effort to blog regularly and then I don't. It's been months and months since my last post and honestly, I have no real excuse for that except that I was busy with, you know, life and stuff! ha!

Anyways, to catch up on the last, what has it been, 7 months?!, here is the coles notes version:

-sadly, I attended 3 funerals between October to February. Tina Barretto, Koyo Hara and Janine Lieu were all taken from us much too early. I know people always say live life to your fullest because you never know when your time is up, and mourning the loss of these 3 beautiful, young people certainly gave me some perspective on that. R.I.P Tina, Koyo and Janine ~ you are loved and you are missed.

-I've had the luxury of going to some absolutely amazing concerts over the last few months - Jill Scott, Mos Def, De La Soul, Kanye West/Lupe Fiasco/Pharrell - all put on freakin fantastic shows! In the next few months I'm also looking forward to (FINALLY!) getting to see the amazing miss Erykah Badu in concert, as well as the reunion of Pharcyde at Rock the Bells (also featuring Mos, A Tribe Called Quest and some of Wu Tang) in Vancouver for the first time! Musically speaking, this year gods have answered all my concert prayers. The only other prayer that remains unanswered at this point is a Fugees reunion tour with a stop in Vancouver...that's not too much to ask for, right?!

-business wise, it's been an amazing time. We recently got accepted to Portobello West (www.portobellowest.com) and will be exhibiting there in June, July and August! I absolutely adore shopping at Portobello, so the chance to have a table there is so exciting for me!

-I recently auditioned for the Dragons' Den, on the CBC. Truthfully, the audition jitters were mostly due to the anticipation and just not knowing what to expect at the actual audition (how many producers would there be? how many questions will they ask me? how many other people will be there auditioning? yikes!). Once I actually got there and got pitching I felt much better. Unfortunately, it looks like Fave Handbags isn't ready for the show just yet, as the producers told me that I wasn't asking for enough money. The Dragons are looking for more large scale ventures, and I guess right now we're small potatoes to them. Oh well, it was an amazing experience and I'll feel a lot less nervous when I audition again next year!

-finally, our duffel bag was recently featured in the April issue of Envy Magazine. I'm sorry I don't have a better image of the article, but my scanner is kind of whack. In any case, here it is.

So that's it for now. Karlo and I are planning a trip to NY this summer, so I'm sure I'll have more pics to put up soon. I promise it will not be 7 months before the next post...seriously, I'll write again in like 5 months this time! Oh I'm only kidding.

Ciao for now!