I can only imagine what Julie and her husband went through getting their gorgeous late 19th-century home ready for the Etsy MN Fall boutique last week. It’s a brave thing, inviting tons of strangers into your home to buy and sell – it makes me think old-school merchants were brave people, braver than me, certainly! Julie and family pulled it off beautifully, and the woman never stopped working over the course of the day to make it the best experience possible for everyone. A few of us at the show were jokingly referring to her as “the blur.” One moment, there, the next wooshing by in a flurry of preparatory awesomeness.

I also got a chance to meet some other fantastic sellers, and the walkthrough was nice – given our super simple publicity plan of mailing out postcards and using our personal promotion resources, I have to say this came out very, very well.

Among the many fabulous people present – and please, send me a comment if I left you out! were:
Julie Meyer
Cayenepeppy
TheCozyCorsetCuff
JoyaVerde
ELBfoto.com
Sweet Gracie’s
Magickal Realism
Green Squirrel Creative
Just Another Day Designs
Golden Sage

Share on Facebook

Image via CrunchBase

Why I love it:

I love Twitter. To me it’s the perfect web socialization tool: I don’t have to stop in the middle of whatever I’m writing to respond to a chat (or have that horrible jump when yahoo shrieks “Uh oh!” at me) and it allows me to call attention to my daily work while paying attention to the daily projects of people who interest me for a broad variety of reasons. I can also easily communicate with another person free of excess concern about disrupting them – on Twitter, you expect and accept a delayed response even while you’re enjoying it’s remarkable immediacy.

Why others may object to it:

While some users have already fallen into the trap of the spam can, doing @replies calling attention to all sorts of crap of no interest to the reader, most are easily blocked and thus ignored.  And twitter was not intended for marketing, but social networking which of course makes marketers drool because of direct and legitimate contact. Even so, once the buzzwords are cleared away and it’s down to you and the screen before you, you’re stuck with this: what on earth do you have to say that’s 140 characters or less that someone else has any reason to care about?

The point is, you don’t. Nobody does, really. When you post to Twitter, you are issuing your voice into a giant conversation and sooner or later someone will hear you and what you say, however trivial you may find it, will resonate with that person. That person may even reply back, and now, a conversation has begun!

How I use it:

Twitter, for me, is a work-from-home salvation. It allows me to maintain tenuous social contact without interrupting my work flow. I can also post – just once, not repeatedly usually – single blog posts I’ve written for the day. I can post items listed in my Etsy shop (not more than three per hour because then you run into the annoying zone.) Above all, I can see what other people are talking about. It really does make me feel less lonely. I can ask questions and have them answered. I’ve made real, person-to-person connections with the individuals on my twitter, and sometimes the banality of the lives of others is comforting to me, it reminds me that there are normal people out in the world doing their best to live their lives as I am.

It is not just a marketing tool. Its social networking, because of its abbreviation, connects you in a way that is less spy-like and in some ways more tangible than even private emailing. I am grateful for this quality.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Regressive Expressions (or Please Don’t Use Twitter like a Billboard)
• Building A New Type Of Social Network: How “Glue” Is Using Semantic Technology To Change The Way People Connect On The Web
• How to Grow Your Twitter Following (Even if You’re Not a Marketer)
• Mind Mappers on Twitter
• In Defense of Twitter
• 2 Cool Videos To Get You Started On Twitter
• Microblogging Mania::Twitter Helps with Reporting, Filtering the News

Share on Facebook

Image via Wikipedia

It’s well established I’m a bootstrap/shoestring seller. I have no business debt, and I refuse all business credit. For me, this works: perfuming is a supplement to my life, and while I love doing it, I am facing the ever-present possibility of change. As technology and science advance, I may have to change what I do or how I do it.

Because bath and body is such a densely competitive business, I also have to strive to stand apart from other people who purvey the same goods. Some of this is motif, and because buyers become used to certain looks and approaches in their motifs, my variation sometimes is and sometimes isn’t memorable – it depends on the psyche of the person looking, how well my imagination is working and sometimes purely on hitting zeitgeist, otherwise known as the jackpot. I don’t get the purchases made out of simple practicality and cute-appeal as do other sellers; this is because I am opting to be different, and still learning ways to appeal to people.

I realize people need to be able to smell my goods, and need to know what’s in them. They also need to know why my stuff is different from the last dozen perfumes and bath salts they smelled. After all, when people don’t know what to do with their lives, they either make soap and spa products, write a children’s book or buy a sports car. So I have to make it clear in a visual way that my stuff is not just more of this. Buyers need to have expectations met, and yet, they need to know more about why I deserve their support – and even then, not everyone will or should support me.

While I work out the right balance of being different and being conventional, I have had to adjust my own expectations. I can’t afford to do big craft shows, just the small ones. And those small craft shows are as unpredictable as any other. So rather than going in to make money, I have a slightly different set of expectations.

My goals at a small show are as follows:

1. Recover the booth fee.

2. Get a serious commitment to my email list.

3. Educate my visitors about who I am and what I do.

I do not push for purchases, or offer BOGOs. Instead, I let people get to know me. I consider these shows part of my advertising budget – not part of my income generating activity. I am much more practiced at online marketing, so these adventures are a way of paying my dues. To me, it’s all about being present – I’m not a big corporation, so I don’t need to make continuously more money, and I’m a writer, so I don’t see this as the only thing I do. My business can grow slowly. So a craft fair where I don’t make much? Sure, it’s not great, but it’s OK. I can deal, because I’m still learning and always will be.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Benefits of Bath Salts
• Aromatherapy and Its Benefits
• Effective Massage Therapy With Aromatherapy

Share on Facebook

The Minnesota Etsy Fall Boutique is next week – stop by for goodies made by local artisans.

Magickal Realism will be there, and we will have available the following stock:
2008 MN Etsy Street Team Fall Boutique
See something you like? Contact me privately and I can set one aside for you. See something in my Etsy shop you want? I can have that ready for you to pick up at the show!

Magickal Realism Inventory

Roll-on Fragrances
Autumn $18
Coffee Wonderful $22
Lemon Pop $22
Zombie Repellent $19

Men’s Fragrances
Dragon $24
Eugene’s Unbirthday $28
Geek Boy $24
Woodsman $20

Room Fragrances

Oil Burners
Midnight Oil $5
Room for Possibility $5
Spiked Grandpa $5

Sprays
Blowing Sunshine $10
Den of Sin $10
Crooked Broomstick Smudge Spray $10

Incenses
Incinerates $5

Scrubs
Lavender and Spikenard Olive Oil Scrub $5

Bath Salts
Dip Me in Chocolate $4
Lavender $4
Lurid $4
Patchouli $4

Share on Facebook

The Minnesota Etsy Fall Boutique is next week – stop by for goodies made by local artisans.

Magickal Realism will be there, and we will have available the following stock:
2008 MN Etsy Street Team Fall Boutique
See something you like? Contact me privately and I can set one aside for you. See something in my Etsy shop you want? I can have that ready for you to pick up at the show!

Magickal Realism Inventory

Roll-on Fragrances
Autumn $18
Coffee Wonderful $22
Lemon Pop $22
Zombie Repellent $19

Men’s Fragrances
Dragon $24
Eugene’s Unbirthday $28
Geek Boy $24
Woodsman $20

Room Fragrances

Oil Burners
Midnight Oil $5
Room for Possibility $5
Spiked Grandpa $5

Sprays
Blowing Sunshine $10
Den of Sin $10
Crooked Broomstick Smudge Spray $10

Incenses
Incinerates $5

Scrubs
Lavender and Spikenard Olive Oil Scrub $5

Bath Salts
Dip Me in Chocolate $4
Lavender $4
Lurid $4
Patchouli $4

Share on Facebook

Facin​g North, a revie​w site on occul​t mater​ial,​ has poste​d a revie​w of the Spell​casti​ng Pictu​re book.

Says Lisa McShe​rry about​ this book:
“No nonse​nse,​ no mucki​ng aroun​d,​ no moral​izing​,​ and total​ly direc​t.​ In anoth​er,​ it compl​etely​ belie​s the absol​ute FUN that the reade​r will find herei​n.​ A spell​book,​ fun? Absol​utely​.​”

Share on Facebook

Image via Wikipedia

In the last two weeks, I have to confess, I’ve been getting kind of sick of doing the morning pages. And the posts. And, because I was feeling a bit defeatist about them – not every Artist’s Date works out, because there is a blind dating factor to trying anything new – kind of sick of the artist’s dates. I recognize that this is my own self-sabotage rearing its head.

Since starting this, I’ve released one pdf book that I was genuinely scared about because it was so far out of my comfort zone,  written close to 12,000 words on the Urban Wicca book and thought of a fresh approach to the book on Divorce (the one I started this whole process to get to, which seems to be backburnered for other reasons but at least seems like a fresh and interesting project to me now.) I also have starter seeds down for an essay on mirrors and why I fear them, and a possible horror-fiction novel where the protagonist is the monster. I may possibly also be writing a fair bit of porn to release over on asstr.org under a pseudonym.¹

I’m healthier, I’m eating more consciously, my energy levels are normal to high, it turned out I personally know two competent reiki practitioners, and I’m over my guilt for writing and enjoying writing fanfic.

Also since starting this process, I’ve moved, I’ve gotten back “the feeling” that made Wicca a good practice for me in the first place, Joel is now my full working partner², I have been freed from responsibilities that were onerous and unrewarding and I have become more free and less embarrassed by my bizarre art/glue/cutting schtick and willing to pursue clothing reconstruction and related interests more. I’ve always been a woman of 1000 interests, but now they feel possible.

My business has taken a small hit from my relative neglect, and I suspect that as I keep working over the next 3-6 months I will at last achieve the right balance there, as well. I love designing perfume, and like other perfumers, I have doubts about my work that you just have to choose to set aside to create something amazing, and you also have to accept that not everything will work out as you like. My inner perfume critic is a different beast from my other inner critic.

After reading the bibliography/recommended reading, I also realize that there was a definite Pagan component to the Artist’s Way – there’s a lot of Starhawk in next to the Baghvad Gita. Again, atheists are kind of hosed using this work, but I do feel like a magical companion to the artist’s way might be well within range – I’m making notes as I go, especially after that wild energy clearance last July. I know things about myself now that I didn’t before.

So with that, I do my final check-in, and I will be signing and scanning in my follow-up contract later today – or this week.

1. I did 6 out of 7 Morning pages this last week. On Saturday I skipped out because I got up late and I wanted to get Mike over to the Mill City farmer’s market so he could see what I’ve been on about for weeks.

2. I did a cemetery walk for my artist’s date, and at first, it started as one of those blind dates gone wrong. The cemetery closest to where I live is one of those all flat-in-the-ground budget cemeteries that curiously takes you down a southern route that mysteriously deposits you somewhere to the northwest. Aside from the weird directional vortex, eh. Then I drove over to Lakewood cemetery where the experience was much more satisfying although finding a place to park was odd. Cemeteries are truly peaceful places; they helped me a lot when I was a teenager mourning for a friend, and they help me now because they are the only space where I have a guarantee I won’t be haunted. ((I will write about my haunting experiences later, because for me it’s become an increasingly internal experience that resembles but doesn’t quite match that thing where your cognition leaps to unpredictable places.) I have pictures I need to upload. I got the sense I should leave for the day, but that I wasn’t finished.

3. Most of my synchronicity this week involved a streak of highly convenient parking spaces.

4. I think my resistance to continuing this is the issue significant to my recovery. Clearly, I’m not done – I just want to be. There are other places where this pattern has manifested, and it’s definitely a learned behavior starting in childhood.

I’ll stick with it. I’ve gone too far not to.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How To Get Rid Of Social Phobias And Build Self Confidence
• How to Raise Your Financial Vibration
• Pagan Video Tuesday – Starhawk – Place of Power
• 8 Ways to Green Your Date Night

Share on Facebook

1. I know my sister would like to read my porn, but I think she’s better off not knowing my kinks. I will let her see the vanilla stuff. [↩]
2. that partnership has  been just shy of a decade in the making because I needed to grow up [↩]

Image by Caro Wallis via Flickr

One of the most liberating things in the world is to create something without any concern on your first, second or third try about being good at it. In fact, this is how I can smoke out my crazymakers right away: in a no-stakes creative process a person insisting I do things “right” when it’s clear I’m already having a good time is definitely trouble. I can think of plenty examples, and I don’t need to name them. It’s normal to be bad at something until you’re good at it. It’s a writer’s rule: there’s nothing wrong with writing badly; it’s when you rewrite badly that there’s an issue. On your first draft you get out your fantasies and ya-yas; it’s on the following drafts, when you’re perfecting it, that actual perfection matters – and then, you’re perfecting an already finished product, so your inner critic and well-placed outer critics actually serve a purpose rather than just stopping you from being creative.

Here is my GOD jar. It’s got “Good Orderly Direction” painted in Crayola ™ gel paint and yes, it is a hot mess. I had the best time preparing that hot mess. Much like the spellbook earlier this week, I feel an undercurrent of glee at the horror by which others might receive it – their reaction just furthers my entertainment.

The intent of the jar is to give some storage to my personal demons, who will be neatly written on a piece of that incense paper I make and then burned in a monthly or semi-monthly ritual. The G.O.D jar is a good tool for me – it gives me a physical way to rip my obsessions out of my head and put them somewhere where I can keep their energy while losing their useless aspects.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Preparing Fiction for Publication
• Idea Journal & Coloring Book by Rock Scissor Paper
• Deirdre McCloskey on Writing
• writerly friends
• Creative Writing – Giving Feedback
• 5 Ways to Battle Creative Blocks
• Traits of the creative personality

Share on Facebook

If I had an explanation for why I did this, I might tell you. But ultimately, I really don’t have an explanation. I just went nuts with the Crayola products and the poetry, and this pdf displaying my absence of any drawing or sketching skills is the end result.

The end result is that this book is available in pdf form through my shop on Etsy.

Here’s the Contents listing:
This is a 21 page pdf with 10 spells/concepts included.
Here is the contents guide:
1. Book Dedication
2. Statement of Copyright
3. Acknowledgments
4. Disclaimer
5. Preface
6. Grounding
7. Centering
8. Purification
9. Creativity
10. Home Protection
11. Love
12. Money (not actually a money spell, so buy for a different reason.)
13. Mercury Retrograde
14. Mini-exoricsm
15. Reversal
16. Sources
17. About the Author (yes, that’s me.)

The entire thing is created, the criticisms are expected, and I bring this into the world with my middle finger extended and a great big smile on my face!

Share on Facebook

Image via Wikipedia

This was probably the hardest week for me during this process – I was sick for 4 days, only completed one exercise, and while I did the morning pages while I was sick, the last two days of this weekend I skipped out on morning pages because of the illusory concept of being “behind” in my work.

1. 5 out of 7 morning pages. Do I get a demerit? Mostly, it just seemed laborious. I have that happen – one or two weeks where getting my inner dialog out is a real strain, but then all of a sudden the lid comes off on a memory or opinion I’ve been suppressing and it’s a big energy clean-out.

2. I did do my artist’s date – I went and shot pool. I’m going to make that a regular thing that I do on Friday afternoons, anyway. I was a really decent player at the end of my first year of college, and it gets me a little physical activity. I don’t think I’d ever join a pool league – being sentenced to nine ball on account of my vagina offends me.

3. If I experienced synchronicity, I didn’t notice it because I was blowing my nose too loudly.

4. My biggest issue on recovery is that my inner critic is really, really eager for me to have a big backslide and I also still fall into the trap of putting outside work before my own.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Exercise Your Brain by Exercising Your Body [Mind Hacks]
• What is the Best Time to Exercise?
• No Time to Exercise? Seven Easy Tips for Fitting a Workout into Your Busy Schedule
• Positive Thoughts and Good Energy
• Zen Writing: Finding the Time

Share on Facebook