The website is back online. I’ve taken everything off because I know I won’t be able to take any orders until we are done moving. I’m looking forward to the move and what it means for me as an artist. I’ll have a dedicated studio, which I can fill with art supplies and not have any complaints, not that C complains much now but it will be different.

I hope to also have an area set up where I can paint, in addition to the area dedicated to bookbinding. It will also be nice to have the computer out of the studio. Not that it takes up much space but it’s a definite distraction for me.

Comfortable Shoes Studio will be offline for an undetermined amount of time while I update the site and roll out the new look. Bear with me.

It’s time I posted some pics here about my planner. You could term this a moleskine hack, or a love affair. I’m not sure which it is. All I know is that as my DayJob became more and more stressful I forgot more and more of the stuff I needed to do and complete through the day. It also started to permeate into my studio life and my personal life. Suddenly I was forgetting to pick up eggs, zip lock baggies and milk after work. At work I would forget to place important orders and would screw up simple things.

I started to make lists, it worked until I lost the list or didn’t refer to it. So that helped for a while but it didn’t help with the shambles that my studio was becoming or the important little long term things I had to complete wit my DayJob. It was falling short of my needs. I knew I needed a planner of some sort, but they never worked well for me Plus I hated to turn pages and not use the paper. Being a treehugger at heart it killed me to not use the full page. I have also tried the Palm PDA. It was a heavy and expensive address book, that never had juice when I needed it.

I’m fascinated by the GTD systems. I also like the idea of the Hipster PDA but can’t get into carrying loose card in my pocket. I lose them. (read above) I discovered PigPogPDA.com some time ago. The idea of it worked for me. It wasn’t rigid and didn’t have any particular date tied to it. It us a full page for ideas and working out projects. I decided that I would adapt this system to my needs.

I tie dates to each of my entries, I don’t need to be so specific about time and all that but if some thing is time sensitive than it gets a RED entry and a time written into the entry. I use post-it flags to really draw my attention to something. These tend to go onto things I’m avoiding or putting off, or meetings that I need to remember. I have a stack of post-it bookmarkers in the front so that I flag things like the grocery list, and put it on the front of the notebook. Here’s a pic of front pages:

The set up is such:
The cover holds a PenSlip, and post it notes on the inside page.
The end sheet gets to hold my address, contact info and business cards. I use a fiskars corner photo punch to make the slots for my biz cards.
The backside of the end sheet gets a pasted in calendar, indispensable.
The next page gets a short print out of my most used business contacts for work.
The next page is for personal contacts.
The next page holds interesting websites and other information I don’t want to lose.

The next 2 pages get set up like a PigPog PDA, I draw a line on the fore-edge of each page, about ½ inch in. The left page is for my DayJob and the right for at related and studio items. I tend to go through the Studio page far faster than the DayJob page. So if I find that I’m filling the Studio page fast, I fill it in and then use what’s left of the DayJob page. Only I use a regular opening moleskine (volant in this case), 2 pens, and 2 open pages for doodles and ideas that don’t need a time line.

Here are the planner pages, one finished and one in progress:

The 2 pages after that are what I call IDEA pages. It includes doodles for spine designs, new ideas for penslips, mortgage crap and other odd information that I need to know but doesn’t need a date and time for completion, or will need to be referenced at some point.

After filling the PigPog area, I move to the net 2 pages. I find that I pretty much equally fill the 4 pages and I’m ready for the next 4 pages. I leave the pages blank in the notebook so that if I have an idea that takes up more space have room for it, no need to cramp my style.

I find that thus far it has really helped me think out ideas- mortgage, work and studio, and also to follow through on many ideas. I forget less of the smaller things that are needed for life to run smoothly.

I’ve found it works best if I sit down every morning and think of the things that I think I need to do and write them down. Then at the end of the night I do the same, review everything and then write down what I needed to do that I forgot or that I think I need to do in the next day.

I’m using a moleskine Volant that I happened to find on my last trip to charrette. I love when places clear out old back stock and aren’t sure what something is or isn’t. I’ve tried a few things to make my own and I plan on doing so after finish my Volants. This was just a really faster way for me to try this out and see if it works. I’ve got a tack of paper already cut to make my own. And replicate the waterproofed nature of the Volant cover I have some old ad signs from the store that have a study vinyl coating on them that will make perfect little covers. I can’t wait to try them out.

We’ll we close on the house in about 2 weeks. I’ll post more information about it as I know more. I’ll be off line f a little bit around that time too, probably 2 or 3 days. Every time we move we set things up in a certain way- electrical and other utilities get set up before we move, then the first thing we set up in the house is something to play music and something to chill drinks. That first night the first thing we set up is the bed and then we set up the internet. I’m not sure why we do things in that order, but it has almost always been the case. The music I get, we’re all into music. It makes moving so much better.

The studio is going to be an ongoing project for me. The first thing I’m going to do is get in the basement and paint. At some point, after many ebay and etsy sales I’ll need to level the floor, which I’ll do by putting in a platform with a plywood top. It’ll kick butt. I have some shelving units to put in, and I’m going to need to set up a nice spot to take pictures. I’m also going to need some decent light down there. Currently there are only 2 bar light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. I’ll have to put in some other lights.

I’ll update more as time goes on.

I am a moron sometimes. I have limited tie off from the DayJob these next few precious weeks. So I’m trying to structure the items t I need to do on my time off with the things I WANT to do, my trusty planner has been helpful. I’m a list-maker.

Today on my list was to make some new biz cards. I’ve been 3 or 4 cards from out for a month and a half. (Biz cards are an indispensable resource for arts and craft people. I think we should all have our own. It’s the easiest way to allow a client to recommend me to other people.)

Some how my old card template had disappeared and I was stuck making a new one this morning. Strike one- what the heck happened to my cards? Unknown. I spent a half hour remaking my cards and ended up with something that I liked and had plenty of room on it for all my info. I printed a few copies and tweaked it so it was just so. Then I proceeded to make 200 copies of my card. I hand tear the edge so it looks deckled, and then cut them.

So after about an hour and a half I was done. Or so I thought.

I reviewed my cards as I was flipping through pages on the net, and guess what, while not a typo I totally put in the wrong address for my etsy account. It was a total mind burp on my account. I know my etsy account is comfortableShoes.etsy.com but my mind didn’t think that this morning. So now I have a stack of biz cards with incorrect information and a wasted 15 sheets of expensive cardstock. *&^*&^&^%^%$ I bought some new and I’m going to reprint in a few minutes.

I need 3 volunteers to test my fabric penslips and email me reviews after a week of use. As well as any pics of wear and tear and ponts of failure. I need people who are willing to abuse them.

I switched from my leather slip to a fabric one and after a week of use and abuse I can say that they are pretty sturdy. I’ve been carying them on my volant in my back pocket and in the thigh pocket of my cargoes and they seem to work well. However I’d like to see how they respond to a week of being tossed in a bag with a pen or two shoved in them.

A

Since they are in testing I have only a few made. One is redfabric with purple flowers and green vine, anotehr is a magenta fabric with batik flowers (think colorful daisies). i’ll post pics so people can see them. After the trial period is over you get to keep them.

I’ve had 3 people sign up! Thanks for all the interest! I really appreciate it.

I just loaded another penSlip up onto eBay. It’s here:
Deep Chocolate Brown Deer Hide PenSlip

Here’s a picture of it:

Well I Decided thqat in an attempt to promote my PenSlips, and since I want to buy new things for my new studio that I ld put some up on eBay:
you can find them here:

penslip#1

Penslip#2

Penslip#3

Soon we will find out if the studio will have a new home. The sellers have accepted our offer and Sunday we have the house inspection. Hopefully everything will turn out decently and we’ll be able to go from there.

Tentatively we’ll be closing on August 18th and we’ll be able to move in shortly thereafter. We have a lot of work head of us but it’s all good. So this is also good, it means that instead of being on hiatus for September and October that I’ll be on hiatus for much less time- half of August and part of September.

So my fingers and toes are crossed and I’m hopeful that the inspection comes out good.

I’m going to have a decent amount of ace to work, so I won’t feel cramped. I’ll have plenty of storage.

I’m so excited I can’t even describe it!

I’ve been reading Moleskinerie for what seems like ages now. It’s usually got a great bunch of links and content directed towards my second favorite notebook of choice, the moleskine. It provides me with enough fodder for reading that I enjoy it with out needing to be obsessive, though I do admit that it IS on my daily link list. The creator of that site Armand Frasco is an interesting guy with a vision focused on notebooks and the obsessive love that many of us have for them, a man after my own heart and mind. I, like, many others donated towards the cause of keeping the Moleskinerie open. I hope I have the chance to donate towards the next funding drive Armand has for the site.

Armand has a new site Notebookism.com and I can’t wait to show my support for this site. Though it’s brand new, I think it will be even more obsessively watched and drooled over than moleskinerie. Why? It focus is not only on the moleskine but all notebooks, art journals and sketchbooks. I think it will soon become a web destination for all things notebook related. I’m also proud to say that I’m featured in one of the first articles on this soon to be stellar site.

So head over to Notebookism and take a look and leave a note.