Category: Business

Veggie Vag: where make-believe and pratical collide

This post is in praise of the dreamers and creators. The brave ones and silly ones who still play house and superheros and make mud pies when they’re adults. It’s also a little love story to 2 great friends of mine …

(L to R) Christa Couture, Maria Kendal, Susan Kendal, James Kendal and Lindsay Zier-Vogel at Susan's wedding in September 2003. Photo by Rhya Tamasauskas. Christa, Susan and Lindsay are the charter members of their company Veggie Vag. As far as we know this is the only photo of all 3 of us together since we are rarely all in the same place at the same time. What a shame! We'll do a shoot next time we're together. Though we are all very young and foxy in this one ...

I am fortunate to be surrounded by folks who are bursting with imagination, the kindred spirits that Anne of Green Gables was always keeping an eye out for. There are 2 such friends with whom I am having a most excellent, ongoing “practical-make-believe” adventure — Christa Couture and Lindsay Zier-Vogel, wonderful women and artists in their own rights, musician/designer and writer/book-maker respectively ( check them out, they are extraordinary).

And what is our awesome practical-make-believe game? We have a “company” called Veggie Vag. It sounds just rude enough that it makes us giggle, hard.

We even have a logo that Christa, in a fit of procrastination, sass and hilarity, used her graphic design skills wisely (?!) to create a few months ago:

Veggie Vag started about a year ago. You might ask, is it about vegetables? Or, is it about vaginas? Both would be fair questions. Veggie Vag is not really about either, other than the fact that we’re all ladies. And we do like veggies. It’s really mostly about editing. And being friends across miles of space and life. And being hilarious to ourselves.

We were all busy with applications, building websites and so on (the usual) around this time last year and were often editing for each other, enjoying getting the value of 2 perspectives on our work. We started to joke that we were like a collective. Then we decided we were a collective, which meant we needed a wicked acronym. Christa came up with both, she’s the most clever of us, hands down. VEG was first, it stands for “Virtual Editors Group,” which was funny and accurate. But then she said wouldn’t it be more awesome if we were authors — well, Lindsay actually is an author — then we’d be the “Virtual Authors Group,” ahem, VAG, which was infinitely more funny than veg. Put them together and we are really, virtually (as it were) the unstoppable Veggie Vag!

The cool thing is that between the 3 of us we’ve edited grants and “About” pages and difficult emails and cover letters. I got an amazing logo by being a member (thanks Christa!) and we’ve all  had a lot of success with the things we’ve edited for each other. Not only do we have this ah-mazing faux company together, we are quite useful to each other. Keeps us in regular contact too, which is brilliant!

Here’s what my co-founders have to say about Veggie Vag:

Lindsay Zier-Vogel: The Veggie Vag is an editing machine, a sounding board, a safety net and cheerleading squad. It’s a place to daydream and blue-sky and hammer out details. Every grant and proposal and project description that passes through these diligent hands is all the better for it. It’s a thoughtful and hilarious editing collective that keeps three of us closer than I ever could’ve imagined. Whoopi, Cate and Julianne should be so lucky to play us in our biopic …

Christa Couture: What started as occasionally asking friends for editorial advice grew into a collective, not quite formal, but steadfast and dedicated, of three women supporting each other’s work. My own work is better for the input of the Veggie Vag, and I love being up to date with, if not also being helpful to, the work of my co-Vag-ers. The Veggie Vag is friendship and artistry combined — a team of writers, thinkers, brainstormers, schemers, planners and best of all cheerleaders … cheerleaders in yellow pant suits and berets. Or spandex. Depending.

[IMPORTANT ASIDE: With “yellow pant suits and berets” Christa’s referring to Je M’appelle Steve, a brilliant YouTube clip we at Veggie Vag like to watch over and over til we cry with laughter. The more you watch it, the funnier it gets.]

Veggie Vag even has an assistant! His name is Dane. Dane Joseph McKellen. He’s fabulous. He’s shower fresh even at 4pm. He anticipates our needs. Dane shows up with a latte just before you realize you need one. Dane reminds you of impending deadlines and copies all the grants. Dane keeps extra mascara and tampons in his desk drawer. Dane orders Thai when you’re working late. Dane put fresh flowers on your desk and clears the boardroom air with aromatherapy.

I could go on and on about Dane, he’s a gem. Dane even has a twitter page, of course, @daneofalltrades. If you’d like to check him out, drop him a line to tell him he’s doing great or ask for some wardrobe advice, do it! But don’t try and lure him to your company, he’s ours and is as loyal as the day is long.

I got mugs made for our 1st anniversary this month. Dane reminded me that it had been a year since we named ourselves and signed the lease on our excellent, 2,800 square foot downtown Toronto loft offices. He suggested that mugs would be particularly classy. I agreed. And every morning I drink tea and think of my Veggie Vag ladies, standing by should I need some extra eyes and perspectives. Or a laugh. Or commiseration.

I am a dreamer. I love imagining and make-believing and creating — so much so that artist and creator became my profession, it seemed inevitable and obvious to me from a young age. I choreograph and dance, I make and inhabit worlds and ideas of my choosing and construction. I sew and craft, imagining and creating what I hope or suspect might work in fabric or paper.

I also spend a few hours teaching creative dance to wee kids each week, which allows me to gallop as a horse, swirl as a wind storm, dart as a fish. It’s a space to remember the fantastic, immense imaginations we are born with. That we have the capacity to believe the impossible into all-sorts-of-possible at our start, but often squelch or embarrass or forget that faith right out of ourselves.

Cheers to make-believing, even, or perhaps especially when you’re an adult. That’s it for this Veggie-Vagger, over and out.


Man-gifts and tag progress

April has been rife with birthdays among our family and friends. Including my husband Adam’s. We’ve been together for 11 years now, so while he’s easy to buy for in some ways (scotch is a good go-to), the creative lady in me always tries to do or get something crafty and handmade for him, something special and unique, unpredictable. I’ve made flannel pants with a cool basketball print, knitted iPod cases, sewed an amp cover and so on. But honestly, I find man gifts tough. I was stumped and running out of time this year, so I perused Etsy! I found a fantastic blacksmith named Benjamin Westbrook, and his shop hammeronsteel, who forges lovely, simple, rough-hewn bottle openers. Amazing! I was sold! And Adam loves it (hurray, victory!) so I had to share in case anyone else out there is struggling for an awesome man gift.

I got the opener personalized with Adam’s last name and the dates of our boys birth. It’ll be a keeper at the cottage in the summer for long lazy days full of sweaty beer bottles, dirty, content kids and that true far-from-the-city quiet that’s not really quiet at all!  Sigh.

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I continue to work towards opening an Etsy shop of my own with a projected opening date of August this year. I’m waiting to build up some stock, get my tagging and mailing and tracking, etc all organised so I can hit the ground running, and do some fall craft fairs too. Also to spend Gene’s whole first year without a bunch of hard deadlines since I have the grace of a maternity leave.

That said, I got an order for my, ahem, awesome Burp Pads from a friend and I thought I’d take the opportunity to design and make some product tags when I sent her order out. Here they are drying from being stamped. I had to go with a pocket shape of course!

I used clear labels to put the product info on the back of the tag. It’s my first time using them and I am in love, they look so clean and profesh!

And lastly, I made little Lavender Ravioli Sachets to include in my orders as a thank you. Lavender feels like the right choice with baby things, so calming and great for keeping clothes and linens fresh. Even acts as a natural moth repellant!

One thing that I love about receiving orders from Etsy craftspeople is that often they will toss in a memento or small sample of another product. It’s memorable and sweet and I love the neighbourly feel it gives as a recipient. So I’m going to join the ranks, and it’s a great way to use the ends of flannel that I hate to toss!

Sharpie tie dye & quilt progress

Anutie Maria, my lovely sis, came over today and brought Beyblades as a birthday gift for Rudi. I only know about these toys because I have a 7-year-old nephew. If you don’t know and you want to know, check ’em out. I have learned that they are insanely popular among the cool kids these days and Rudi is beside himself to now be counted among the owners of these battling tops.

We decided to try a Martha Stewart craft with Auntie M and in honour of spinning tops and battling Beys, we used spiral designs of course! Who knew you could tie-dye with Sharpies?! And I do love Sharpies, so much so that I have a huge multi-colour set. You just draw with Sharpie and then drop Isopropyl alcohol on it and heat-set the colour. For the full instructions go check out Martha and her minions.

They came out beautifully and are far more hip than I anticipated. I love the intense colours! It was a great craft to do with a 4-year-old, he was able to draw on the shirts with ease and worked the dropper like a charm. At about 15 minutes total, it was good for a shortish attention span. Then Rudi was back to lettin’ ‘er rip. That’s right, that was a Beyblade reference. Boom, dropped it in just like that.

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For myself, I went back to a project I’d set aside a while ago but which calls to me every day, ‘fiiiiinnish me, I’m so looooovely, you waaaaaant to” and so on. It’s a quilt I’m developing for my Etsy shop. Here it is with it’s seams showing!

I’m still building up product stores and not ready for the opening part of the Etsy shop, but I’m getting closer and getting excited to wade in. This lovely piece should be done by the end of the week, along with it’s matching burp pad.

Rearview Fridays: Knitted Easter Eggs

After a long week full of cold days and soul searching, I emerge today to acknowledge my blog for the week. I try to write here 3 times per week and more often accomplish 2 entries, but life got the better of me and my time! And every time I tried to formulate an entry, I had nothing and everything to write about. So I waited.

The weather got really cold again, driving us back under big comforters and I felt the impulse to hibernate — truly. Every moment possible I slept, deeply. Whenever a kid slept, there I was! It was awesome really. Disorienting, plan changing, but so good. I still only get a max of 3 hours at a time with a nursing baby at my side, so I do have big, sexy fantasies of 8 hours of uninterrupted, blissful, needtopee-free sleep, alone in a huge bed of course … sigh … and then I shake myself and wonder if I could even do it if it was possible, honestly I’d probably make a craft instead if I had that kind of time!

My Knitted Easter Eggs in a backyard tree, enjoying the burning-off of spring frost in the morning sun. And a door to ... somewhere?! (We're doing some construction)

As for the soul search part, I formally resigned from my work as a managing editor. I won’t return there after my maternity leave. It was time. There was a lot of consideration and I feel truly solid in my decision. But I’m leaving a secure place to land and a known quantity that’s been a part of my life in various forms for the past 10 years. And I’m walking towards an Autumn of mothering with my (paid)work committed to the development of my independent sewing business. I’m giving this working-from-home thing a shot at last.  And I’m very excited!

And for your Reaview Fridays pleasure I present Knitted Easter Eggs! I made them through the late winter of 2009 as my Rudi approached his first birthday. And, bless my ambitious heart, I made one for everyone who attended his first birthday party! I was left with 9 that I use every year now to make an Easter Tree, a weird but beautiful decoration that I feel attached to from childhood. I used this lovely, easy pattern from Lonie May. I think I added a row or 2 to the middles as I like a nice long-bodied egg, made hanging loops and added colours to create patterns. Here they are with some of their real brothers from an Ontario farm:

Cheers to change and bravery and possibility. And to Fridays! Happy weekend.

Quilting Challenge: March

In the continuation of my 2012 Quilting Challenge to myself I present my March quilting pattern, the acorn! It’s joined here in birth order by leaf and apple, January and February’s offerings respectively.

One more pattern to use on my quilts and burping pads, done.

I love nuts. That sounds a bit wrong but I’ll leave it, cause it’s true! I don’t remember ever seeing a chestnut or an acorn on the ground in Alberta, but they’re everywhere here in Ontario! And while the colour and texture of a chestnut is fantastic, it’s a bit of a blob when it comes to outlining it, not so inspiring. But an acorn, what a charmer! A lovely shape, makes me think of gnomes and chipmunks and quiet, mossy spaces.

I love this acorn in it’s singular context. I might dial the detail down a bit more when using it on a quilt or a burping pad, not sure that the crosshatching is entirely necessary in a different context. Anyways I’m really enjoying this 12-part challenge. Something to look forward to and muse upon. Now I get to cook up April’s quilt …

Springing and travelling and gathering myself

Folks, it’s spring, I smell it. I saw a Robin. I heard a Robin. I saw heaps of Crocuses. Rudi picked one, stopped the stroller of his own volition and worked it into Gene’s sleeping hand today. Is there anything better than dimpled fingers on the first crocus of spring?

My blog was quieter than usual last week because I was away from my desk and my everyday life. I took a trip across the country to Victoria with my wee-man Gene to stay with one of my best friends in the world, commencing a 3-day “vagilogue” as my husband so tactfully put it. My heart and mind got filled up with the true solid, friendship, the kind you can slip into easily, years folding up on one another, marrying now and “the last time.” I feel super buoyed up even if I’m physically exhausted from solo travel with a baby and too many time zones!

At 6-months Gene was a spectacular traveller. He happily boarded 4 planes in 5 days, did a lot of sleeping, nursing, watching airport lights, and peek-a-booing with friendly dudes behind us. He even met his uncle Dave for the first time on a strategically planned layover and he snuggled his Alberta Gran-E (obviously that’s her rapper name. She’s a granny + her name’s Elaine … you see where I’m going with this, my mom is so cool!). I also ran into 3 friends from my teenage life in Alberta 17 years ago — how nice for that to happen in real-alive-life rather than on social media, as much as I truly do love the book of faces and the twits.

And now I’m excited to be getting back into the groove of my life, surrendering happily to this utterly moment-to-moment existence as a full-time mom on maternity leave with 2 wee ones who’s also trying to get ready to hit the ground running with her own work — sewing, editing, choreographing — when the formal mat leave is up. I am working hard and gaining at my practice of simplicity in a moment, being present right where I am, which, to be totally honest, is usually: feeding, doing dishes, thinking about sweeping up the dust bunnies, reading (to clarify: not my own popular novel or work of complex theory but more of a librarian-reading-to-the-poo-joke-loving-masses), cooking, thinking that 5 months is too long to wait for a hair cut, walking to the park, colouring, thinking about blogging, playing, getting vomited and/or pooed on, thinking how long is it since I washed my hair, huh, and so on, you get the picture.

But I’m also keenly aware of the things I want and need to do to keep my adult self and creativity sharp. I keep them tucked in a brain-drawer during most of this extravaganza that is the current norm and at the end of the day, I take time to weigh what’s really necessary for the coming one, and to be reasonable with myself in order to have the personal wherewithal to meet the necessary and leave a little for the desired. Thus not a lot of action on my sewing-work front, but good plans for when the time arrives to make it all happen for reals. I live in hope good people, keep the faith!

Fulcrum Wednesday

Oh Wednesday, tipping point of the week, here we be. Today Gene is 5 months old and I just received news that a dear friend had her baby this morning, so I’m feeling extra gooey and snuggly about wee ones with furry shoulders.

I’m patterning and cutting a new quilt design today, one for the new baby girl who arrived just hours ago and a couple for my forthcoming Etsy shop:

Before January bowed out, I managed to make my quilt square for The Great 2012 Quilt Challenge. This is my little challenge-to-self: create 12 different quilting patterns for my products, 1 in every month of 2012:

I also zipped up my big-girl pants and am getting caught up on budgeting. I’ve always been good with dance project budgets and we’ve had fits and starts of good budget tracking in our family life, but it often falls off when things get busy or complicated, which they inevitably do. Then it becomes complicated and terrifying to think about and I avoid it like the plague. So hubby Adam and I have committed to ourselves that this year, we’re gonna do it, really form a habit of staying on top of it. Thus the big girl pants. we’ve got spreadsheets and envelopes and files, it’s all happening folks!

The envelopes to help manage the incoming receipts, I do love envelopes:

Go Go Gadget week; lots of arms in lots of pies! Cheers til next time.

Quilting challenge to myself

On Friday I talked about how the last week had been an intense, straight-up mothering week and a gong-show as far as anything beyond the needs of the kids went. It’s a new week and I’m hopeful, always hopeful, that I’ll get a bit of my own artist work done.

I’ve given myself a manageable challenge for the year (I think?!), to develop 12 different quilting patterns this year, 1 per month. I’m cheating a bit for January as I designed this one in the fall, but this gets me going! I need a few go-to designs for the quilts and burp pads I’ll be making and think this will be a fun way to tie the projects and the year together. I’m going to make each one on a 6″ x 6″ square and maybe they’ll become a garland for the boys room by December!

Here’s my signature leaf design, gonna try to make the square tomorrow:

If you have a favourite quilt or quilting design, old or new, tell me about it and link an image in the comments, I looooves me quilts and quilting of any kind!

Rain Day

It’s January and yet the Toronto weather has covered almost ALL of the currently available seasons, from relatively balmy to pouring freezing rain to snowing and back around. Rudi (who is 3) is deeply confused about what footwear to use as there is a smorgasbord of shoes and both snow and rain boots. Today it is a rain day, serious enough that we buckled down for a crafty, cozy, thoughtful day in.

I tend towards melancholy and sentimentality (in an Anne of Green Gables sort of a way) so a rainy day really cranks up my dramatic misty-eyed side! Lots of contemplating change and what my work means to me and how I do/will define myself as a crafter and/or business woman with my sewing, what I’ll choose to make for business and what I’ll reserve for simple creative pleasure, and so on. It’s all good thinking inspired by a conversation with a new friend made last week — a friend of a friend who’s a long-time, self-employed creative type.

Alongside the contemplating, there’s some good old fashioned Hotwheels and Cars 2 games going on throughout the house, just to balance things out!

Rudi agreed to help me create my first ever how-to for the blog while we made some rainy day juggling balls! So here we go, for a quick and easy craft, just follow along!

How to Make Balloon Juggling Balls:

THE CRAFT: layered balloon juggling balls
TO START: You'll need: lots of balloons (3 per juggling ball), scissors, lentils (or rice), thin plastic bags (we cut ours from the corners of kitchen garbage bags)
STEP 1: Pour 1/2-3/4 a cup of lentils (or rice) into your plastic bag
STEP 2: Tie a tight knot in the bag (or you can use a tiny elastic)
STEP 3: Cut off the excess bag above your knot
STEP 4: How your bag of lentils should look (pause for dramatic effect) yes, correct, sort of like drugs found in a suspected mule's esophagus or butt on a bad TV show. No need to read this step out to the kids in the house. And now continue on to step 5!
STEP 5: Cut the narrow bits off your balloons
STEP 6: Wrap 2 of the balloons around the bag of "lentils", one over the other, so that there is no plastic bag showing. I used the same colour for a consistent base (but you can get wild and go with 3 or more colours of course!)
STEP 7: Cut some extra holes in your 3rd balloon, 2 or 3 should do the trick
STEP 8: Wrap your 3rd, holey balloon over the first 2 balloons and you're there, 1 lovely, multi-coloured juggling ball done!
FINISHED! Ta-da! A variety of well weighted yet not too dangerous juggling balls.

Cutting, tweeting, pinning

After a lot of days spent reading about business models for crafters while nursing my now 4-month-old and stolen moments with the computer working on my website and familiarizing with wordpress, my challenge to myself this week is to actually get some production started. I need to feel the balance rebalancing — the admin matching the actual making, and admin’s been winning for a while. So I’ve been cutting …

CUTTING: … that’s right, I’ve been cutting out burping pads — next the linings, then the sewing, last the quilting, but due to small boys at home, I’m setting modest goals, and this week it’s to simply cut!

TWEETING: And I’m on Twitter at last at last – I popped my tweet cherry yesterday! It’s sort of wonderful and awful all at the same time to have joined yet another form of social media, but I can see how it’ll be useful and I admit it’s addictively fun — that’s partly why I resisted! Follow me for goodness’ sake! [Truth: I actually caved and joined for Dane Joseph McKellen, but that’s a story for another day …]

PINNING: As for the pinning, my friend, the lovely and stylish Ray Hogg told me about Pinterest, and I’m in love. It’s a bulletin board of things you find online, plus you can follow other cool people’s boards thus increasing your knowledge of awesome on the internet. I’ve said goodbye to sending emails to myself of great url’s that I don’t want to forget. I highly recommend. Here’s one of my pages!