I have had a lot of inquiries about the new planner I ordered from Moleskin. It's called the Moleskin Weekly Notebook and love it! I ordered the small size which is 3.5" x 5.5" and it fits in my purse. Of course I ordered the teal colored one. The reason I like the daily planner is because it has lots of space to write appointments for the seven days of the week on the left side and a place for to-do's on the right side. I absolutely love it. ( uploaded a photo of the inside of the Moleskin but I am sorry if it's hard to see the details.)
I finally figured out that I needed a physical notebook to organize all of my to-do lists. And it's important to me that I get to cross out my completed tasks! I use my phone and computer for all of my appointments but this planner is what really keeps me organized! I bought my Moleskin on Amazon. The one I ordered is here:
They also have an extra large one that measures 7.5" x 10" and you can find it on Amazon here:
It's hard to believe it is almost time for the holidays and a new year! I am just happy I am now very organized.
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On average I would guess that Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts/Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf/Peet's/Tulley's customers spend about $3.50 a day on a cup of coffee. If you just happen to be one of these folks then you need to start making your own coffee at home. And I mean today. Like right now.
Advertising on Facebook and Instagram costs about the same amount as your cup of coffee. Per day. And did you know when you advertise on Facebook you can fine tune your audience not only by age, gender and state but you can find "women who are engaged, people who like wine, people who travel a lot, especially to France?" You can also fine tune your audience by job title, industry, associations they belong to and a gazillion other things. That's right. If you know your audience (i.e., who buys your art), then you can advertise on Facebook or Instagram and target your audience. And it could cost you less than what you spend on a cup of coffee. Seriously. "Floating Colors" 36" x 36", Available here. I am amazed how many of you have emailed and texted me looking for my 2017 Workshop Schedule. I have been looking for it too. Hmmm.
I am sorry it is late but I have been trying to create a more manageable travel schedule next year and not cut my workshops in half! I love teaching and cannot believe how many wonderful artists I have met at my workshops. I met most of my closest art friends at my workshops! But my travel schedule this fall has been insane. I am almost done with the 2017 schedule. I have added some new things and I have deleted some others. I also wanted to wait until after the Marketing Boot Camp so I would have a better idea if I wanted to offer them next year. Right now I have two scheduled. I may add one more. Fingers crossed. Writing a blog is a lot of work. Writing a daily blog post is a huge amount of work. It's a big commitment and I am always searching for ways to simplify the process.
My first tip is to write the posts in advance and schedule them. I have spent too many nights writing frantically before my posting deadline which causes me way too much stress (and typos)! I now try to be at least two or three days ahead of my deadline. The most helpful tool I now use to write my posts is a “speech to text” translator. I find it easier to say my blog post out loud than type them. I have two different "free" ways to do this. The first is to use the app on my iphone called Dragon Dictation. You just record your post and it automatically saves it in text. The only issue with the free version is that they don’t allow you to record forever. So you might have to break up your recording in to a few shorter ones. The other option is to use the app Voice Memos. This app comes on your iphone. I just speak in to the app and record the entire post. This is great when I am driving or at the car wash as it allows me to multi-task. Then I just upload all of my blog posts to the website called transcribe. It plays back my recordings slowly and I just type them as they play. It's not hard to do. There are other “speech to text” apps but they cost money and you know I would never opt to do that! My latest commission. The canvases barely fit in my studio! Actually the canvases fit in my studio. But I didn't. You should have seen me crawling under the tables to get to the other side. Ugh.
I've spent the last few weeks working on this very large commission. The commission came from an interior designer and was a diptych painting with each canvas finished size measuring 6' x 5'. It's been a difficult commission to paint because I could barely fit and paint them inside my studio! I had two canvases stretched one foot larger (all the way around) than the finished size. After I painted them I took the canvases off of the stretcher bars as they will be shipped overseas to the client. It was an incredible experience but it took a lot of paint and a lot more time than I expected! I encourage you to not shy away from painting large. I will post the photo of the painting as soon as the client sees it! In case you are wondering where I get my large custom sized canvases they were made at a company called Artist Brand Canvas. Nick is the owner and he is a great guy. He came over last week and mentioned they ship all over the US. They have great wholesale prices for artists! "What's Inside?", Oil, 12" x 12" available here. It’s Tuesday and I am back in Waco getting ready to start another Marketing Boot Camp. I feel more like a local this time and am so happy that I get to do this all over again!
So what am I going to do differently? Not much. I changed our dinner plan and substituted a new restaurant and decided to cook dinner on our last night. Finding healthy restaurant options near the Magnolia House is nearly impossible! I changed up the agenda too. Not much, but just a few things. I hope you caught last week’s AHA show as I shared what happened in my marketing boot camp last week. You can listen to the show here. Today feels a bit like ground hog day but I am so excited to be able to come back to such a magical place! And later today I get to check out the holiday merchandise at Magnolia Market. Yippee. I decided not to mention my canceled flight and need to drive from Dallas to Waco. Plus, who needs luggage anyway, right? Ugh. This digital watercolor is inspired by my oil painting "Holiday Wreath" which can be seen here. With the holidays coming up I thought would be a good idea to share with you two of my favorite websites. The first is saveoncrafts.com and it's a great site to find inexpensive items for the holidays. They sell craft items but also decorating items such as beautiful glass apothecary jars. They have really wonderful different styles of chalkboards including the really cute one that was on the kitchen counter at the Magnolia house in Waco. They have all kinds of holiday items and I think it's a great place if you're looking for holiday items at a great price. Their prices are really low!
If you're looking for ribbon or wrapping paper I really like papermart.com It’s the least expensive wrapping paper I have found online and the quality is great. Some of the wrapping paper comes in huge roles but they do have a pretty good selection that's more like the 25 yards (instead of 250 yards of paper!). I bought wrapping paper in my business theme colors and I use it all of the time. I know you will be surprised but it's aqua on one side and a bright green on the other. (I also bought the wrapping paper holder for easy storage.) I think if you visit either one of these websites for the holidays you can save a lot of money and find some very cool stuff! My visit to the town of Waco Texas last week surprised me a bit. It was smaller and quieter than I expected. That might be because I managed to miss the entire area where Baylor University is located. (I hope to make it out there next week.) Plus I am pretty sure anywhere seems sleepy compared to Los Angeles!
Waco has had tough luck if you recall the tragic shootout and standoff in 1993 between FBI agents and Branch Davidians and the ammonium nitrate explosion that occurred at the West Fertilizer Company in 2013. But the town of Waco should be best known for the it's wonderful people! Waco residents are not only proud of where they live but they are the friendliest people I have ever met! And ... they all love the Gaines family. I talked to a lot of people while I was in Waco and every single person had something positive to say about Chip and Joanna Gaines. They love them as much as the fans of their tv show! My best example of Waco hospitality was when a neighbor knocked on the door of the Magnolia house to deliver Halloween candy and a welcome note. All he wanted to do was welcome us to the neighborhood. Amazing. I mentioned earlier that I really enjoyed Chip and Joanna's new book "The Magnolia Story". I just saw that the book is now #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Of course it is! I would suggest you listen to the book as it is narrated by Chip and Joanna. You can do that here. Thanks for joining me on this fun journey. I was so excited when I returned home to unpack my suitcase with my purchases from the Magnolia Market. Somehow I imagined I would put everything out and my house would look just like the Magnolia House. Wrong. My house doesn't look different at all. (Apparently I bought too many Christmas gifts and not enough stuff for the house.)
On the plane ride home I read the book by Chip and Joanna Gaines titled "The Magnolia Story". It's a really good read and feels like an honest portrayal of how they met, their early struggles, how they almost went bankrupt and how they ended up with their widely popular TV show "Fixer Upper". But guess what? I am now obsessed with Joanna Gaines and her "brand" Magnolia. I love the fact that everything in her store is identified with chalkboard signs. With real chalk (ok, actually they use chalk pens but it's still real chalk). I love the two fonts she uses for everything that has to do with Magnolia. I love all of the thank you notes and cards that are always included in your shopping bag with a purchase. I love that her new rugs are named after her kids. I love that she has an "image team". And I love her "industrial farmhouse look" in all of her remodeled homes with shiplap to make the walls look really cool. So I am a bit obsessed with shiplap, chalkboards and chalk pens, mason jars, metal marquee letters and cut-out metal signs. Yep, I am hooked. Good thing I am headed back to Waco on Monday. Yippee. |
Leslie
Mom. Wife. Artist. Marketer. Teacher. Radio Show Host. Archives
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