Blog
Falling backwards
As much as I try to catch up with my list of things to get done, the more I seem to fall behind. It's now November and I'm still wondering where the summer went? This summer found me exploring my childhood towns of Marblehead and Rockport Massachusetts with my daughter Olivia. We began our trip by visiting my older daughter Johanna who was interning in Washington DC, as part of her UC Davis International Relations major. We explored the Newseum with my brother Steve and his wife Gerri who are both teachers in the area and have raised a family of teachers and counselors. Rewatching the news footage of the assassination of JFK was quite moving for all of us, as was finding the newspapers from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and the victory of the North in the Civil War.
Hillside Attractions
On the morning of my photo shoot for 12 Small Things it was pouring rain. I was on the phone with my photographer, Mark Johann, to see if we should reschedule, and checking our model’s availability, when my daughter Olivia called me crying from her cell phone. She had just left the house to drive herself to school for the first time since getting her driver’s license, and bumped into the car in front of her at an intersection. When it rains it pours. Using another cliche, I told her to get back on the horse, and call me when she got to school. Checking the weather forecast I decided to go ahead with the shoot, as the model I wanted was traveling to Los Angeles later that week. I answered the door as my friend Margaret Barr arrived to help, and so began yet another busy day.
Sweet Home Chicago
I went to Chicago last month to attend theInternational Home and Housewares Show for my job as a sales representative for Keena, and to see my friend Deb Boardman for a few days. Thank goodness I was staying with Deb and her husband Joe in their art-filled home, as it provided great contrast and relief from the monolithic trade show downtown at the McCormick Center. I had been to Chicago before to attend a press check when I worked for The Gap, but had never been the the McCormick Center nor to the Housewares show. To say the show was over the top, a trade show on steroids, would still be an understatement. I definitely felt very, very small as I walked the aisles by myself the first day I attended, and had to keep from gawking when I saw celebrity chefs Emeril Lagasse and Guy Fieri as well as Mr. Clean himself!
All in a day's work
Happy new year! What happened to 2012? I blinked and now it’s another new year and I’m definitely not getting any younger. My work as a sales Representative for Keena in San Francisco has kept me so busy, I’ve had little time to dedicate to 12 Small Things. Since returning from New York it seems as if I have been working 24/7, selling products to my Mission, Bernal Heights and Potrero Hill customers, as well as my key accounts including Cost Plus, Williams-Sonoma and Whole Foods. Cost Plus and Williams-Sonoma both have corporate offices where their buyers work, so it’s one stop selling once you get an appointment. Whole Foods also has a corporate office, but the sales are made individually through each store, of which there are 38 in Northern California and counting, from Monterey to Reno and San Francisco to Fresno!
Life lovely, problem, no!
taking advantage of the warm afternoons and beautiful ocean viewstaking advantage of the warm afternoons and beautiful ocean viewsMy friend, designer Mimi Robinson, founder of Bridging Cultures through Design, explained where she first heard the phrase, while we were having lunch last week, catching up after both returning from New York. On one of her many travels around the world she found herself in Luxor, Egypt where you can sail boats out to little islands on the Nile. Sailors sit on their boats waiting for customers, and call out, ” Life lovely, problem, no! Do you want to go to Banana Island?”
Picturing Summer
I went to a fundraiser last week for the Ama Foundation that supports a school in Nepal for orphans. I was invited to the event by one of the co-hosts, Sean Gelbaugh, a photographer who I used to work with at RedEnvelope and Smith and Hawken. Sean and his wife Dawn, who is also a photographer, became involved with this organization through their children’s school in Oakland and have traveled to Nepal volunteering their time and skills over the past few years. It was great to see Sean again with his family and friends, actively involved in supporting such a wonderful organization.
Shop Small
I’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate small businesses in my own back yard in San Francisco’s vibrant Mission District. As both a small business owner of 12 Small Things and as a sales representative for Keena, I work with a number of small businesses on Valencia Street, including Aldea Home, Paxton Gate, Serendipity, The Curiosity Shoppe, Ruby, Dog Eared Books and Currents. These stores purchase products from some of the small local companies I represent including Yellow Owl Workshop in the Mission, Austin Press over by the Piers,Glob in Berkeley, Modern Twist in Emeryville and Roost in Sausalito. Both these retailers and wholesalers are trying to make a living, producing products they believe in, hiring local employees and supporting their family.
Supporting Mothers
Just in time for Mother’s Day, 12 Small Things has launched a new gift collection for Spring 2012, featuring fair trade gifts made by artisans around the world, including San Francisco. The FeltLink Vase Collection is created by San Franciscan resident Kate Frankel, from her home-based Roger & Hebe Studio in Noe Valley. Kate has been making clever gifts for her family and friends over the years, out of the high quality, colorful felt she buys from Germany.
Signs of Spring
Driving back from Davis after visiting our oldest daughter, Johanna, I was amazed to see that despite the lack of rain, the blossoms were still unfolding across the orchard trees in the distance, the grass lush green, the cows and calves grazing happily. Throughout dry spells and tsunami anniversaries and spiteful politics and warfare, the tree blossoms nevertheless, still appear every spring, as a kind of reassurance that life goes on. What are we going to do with this new year, already in our fourth month, to show our resilience and make it better than the one before?
Great small gifts from Africa and Haiti
There is still time left to get thoughtful, unique, handmade gifts for the holidays. 12 Small Things is offering a collection of fair trade, hand-made gifts that gift back, by helping to support artisan communities in need around the world. 12 Small Things, along with By Hand Consulting and HAND/EYE Magazine has curated a collection of gifts from skillful artisans preserving cul
