Waking up today is both exciting - Obama won! - and extremely disheartening - roughly half of California voted for Proposition 8. It’s hard to be elated when you’re sick to your stomach.

For anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, despite California’s supreme court ruling that denying gay marriage is unconstitutional earlier this year, propositon 8 was added to yesterday’s ballot to change the constitution, making it once again illegal for two people of the same sex to marry. As of this morning, it’s looking very close, but that those in favour of the ban won. I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_(2008)

I want to cover the topic of approaching someone you don’t know for a meeting/interview/lunch/information/internship or to just introduce yourself. Rather than breaking this out specifically for tips to get an internship or interview for example, I’m going to cover it together as most of the points are fairly universal and I trust all of you to connect those dots. This is part one, which has to do with the first part of your letter or email (which should be the first step, which I’ll cover later as well).

Also - especially in this first part, everything I’m saying probably sounds *really* elementary. The problem is, between the hiring I did in my corporate life and the inquiries we get now for all sorts of things, I’ve received and read literally hundreds of these types of inquiries the past few years and 90% of them fail on one of these points. SO! Even if you think this stuff is obvious, refer back before you hit send.

First! Whether you are hoping to gain audience with a high powered business person (not me) or the owner of a small business you have interest in (me), there are a few overarching principles that most of the individual tips will fit into. If you read nothing else, read these.

1 - This person is busy, they have their own stuff going on. If you want their attention, it absolutely must be just as easy for the person you are contacting to say YES than for them to say NO. You have to do all of the legwork here.

2 - There has to be something in it for them. This can be tangible or intangible - maybe you are also someone that they would like to know, maybe they need an intern, maybe they really enjoy mentoring new business owners, or maybe it’s lunch. There has to be an upside for them.

3 - Show a little respect. This ties into doing all the legwork in point 1, but it’s one of the most common reasons I will hit delete rather than reply on an email or voice mail. Respect their work/position/whatever is compelling you to get in touch, respect their intelligence, and respect their time.

4 - After all of that, you still have to break out and get their attention. When you get to this stage presumably you haven’t annoyed or offended them, but why should they notice you?

With me? OK. Here are a few points for the first half of your letter. Check back later this week for subsequent sections!

i - Take a few minutes and do your research - know who to address. Sending an email with the words Sir or Madam anywhere will land you in the trash quicker than, well I don’t know what. Take the time to figure out who you are writing to.

With larger companies this can take some more research, with smaller ones like ours where our names are plastered everywhere it’s downright rude when someone can’t take the time to figure out who to address, and yet wants us to take the time to meet with them. If you are a sir/madam person and unsure why you never get a response, this is why!

ii - Let your contact set the tone. This is more or less applicable depending on who you are contacting, but if you send someone who is decidedly not formal a very formal letter, you sound stuffy and boring and will not get a response.

On our site in the about section under the heading Reilly + Miranda we mention interests ranging from snowboards to polaroids to jujubes. We have fun, I think we sound fun, so make yourself sound fun too! For us, this would mean *not* addressing us as “Mr. and Ms. Lievers” and writing like you are addressing a law society. Take a queue from your contact and write like you would speak to them.

iii - More research - don’t send a form letter. Simply put, if you are emailing many people rather than just one contact (ie: job hunting), customize your email or cover letter to show that you’ve at least read through the website.

For a large company open up google and read their latest press release to at least have a clue what is new and exciting for them. For a small company, look through their website and reference something you saw. Even if you are sending 30 letters, take a few minutes to show you put a little time into each one.

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At this point if you are sending some sort of letter it should be addressed and be partially written. This could be long, or for an email to us, it could be as simple as this:

Hey!

I saw your website and loved your blog. The Cuba photos in particular are awesome - I was there last year!

…

The key, however, is at this point you don’t want to have done anything that will get your inquiry tossed. Haven’t fully gained my attention just yet, but haven’t lost it, so we’re doing OK.

In Parts 2 & 3 I’m going to talk about how to ask for what you want (and figuring out what you want in the first place), how to make it just as easy to say yes as to say no, how and when to follow up, and a few things to avoid in the process.

Cheers!

Project File: 11.02.08:1
Object: White office table, 4′ round.

Problem: While only a couple of years old, our office table was covered in scratches and dinged up. The legs are good, the table is solid, but as a focal point in our office space it was not working. And, until we get our client room fully set up next year, it is also doubling as client meeting space - making it that much more urgent that this piece fits into our space properly.

Budget: As we already had a functional table, purchasing a new one as we’d been too hard on the old one was not an option. Therefore, little to no budget.

Project History:

Recently when Reilly and I were at one of the Croatian Cultural Centre Retro Fairs I came across an oversized book of old movie posters. While slightly water damaged, flipping through confirmed many gorgeous images from the 20s - 60s, all on nice big sheets of paper! Perfect! I knew immediately what I’d do with it. We’d talked about possibly decoupaging the table, but this confirmed this would be its fate.

Supplies:

movie posters, white glue, foam brush, shallow dish for water, scissors, brayer, acrylic sealer, fine sand paper - all items we had on hand

Method:

1 - Cut out each of the desired poster images (making some tough decisions over oposing sides of the page!)

2 - Scan in the cut pieces for later use in other projects. When you have material this good, don’t destroy it in the process!

3 - Working quickly and one sheet at a time, soak the pages in a dish of water for a few seconds to allow the image to relax. This eliminates potential wrinkles as everything dries.

4 - Once wet, I used a foam brush to brush both the back of the sheet of paper and the area of the table I would be positioning it on with diluted white glue (somewhere around 1 part water to 1-2 parts glue)

5 - Pieces in the middle of the table simply went down, pieces going over the corners were carefully creased to match the corner. The wet paper makes this part easier, too.

6 - Using the brayer I firmly flattened each image, squeezing any extra glue out the sides. I rolled the extra glue back over and around each image to ensure each page was fully soaked with adhesive.

7 - Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Let dry.

8 - When everything was finished and as I wanted it, I started to seal it. Working one coat at a time, I applied the acrylic topcoat with a brush, allowing 1-2 hours to dry between each coat. You can also sand with ultra fine sandpaper in between each for a smoother finish. So far I have 5 or 6 coats on my table, but will do more. 7-12 coats is likely the ideal number. We chose a glossy finish for ours and love that it is waterproof, looks great, will hide dings and scratches well, and easily repaired.

Here it is!

With the new studio we are enjoying just that much more work/life separation. There’s really only so much you can get in the first place when you love what you do, are self employed, and live at your studio, but we can try

Other than scheduled shoots and the occasional time-sensitive email or task, work ends at end of day Friday and resumes Monday morning. Weekends don’t otherwise mean a lot to us, but they do mark the regular availability of our friends who have jobs, so it only makes sense to try to organize our lives at least a little to match up. In the summer we don’t get them at all, so we have to take advantage when we can in the fewer-weddings-season!

This weekend has been blissfully office free as we’ve been tackling many of the projects we’ve been planning since taking over the new space. Sure, the office hasn’t even existed and the servers are all unplugged and in a corner to make way for painting and such - but it’s been nice regardless of the reason!

Friday started things off when Darren joined us for some independent theatre at Chapel Arts where we watched Here Be Monsters‘ performance of Jesus Christ: The Lost Years. Here Be Monsters produced our favourite fringe show this year, and as such we were quick to head back for more. After another uproariously hilarious performance we’ll definitely be keeping these folks on our radar and hitting more of their shows!

It was also the first time that we attended an event at Chapel Arts, and will also be subscribing to their mailing list. It’s a really great space here in the downtown east side and has recently been transformed into a venue/gallery for the arts. This weekend alone they had multiple plays, parties, and other things going on. Cool shmool.

Friday ended off at the Black Frog which is a regular hangout, but as it was halloween was a bit of an abnormal night. The highlight was definitely the drunk dude dressed up as iron man who figured out how to scale the building across from the pub to get up onto the rickety fire escape, which he quickly ran up and got onto the roof. It was all too fast for anyone to do anything but stand and watch, keeping one hand on the cell phone in case a quick call was required to either the authorities or an ambulance. He made it back down as quickly as he made it up, though, and celebrated with a backflip while back on solid ground. Huh.

Yesterday was a full work day for us with a visit to home depot and a number of projects started from painting to decoupage. We found ourselves hard at work until almost 4 am - which magically turned to 3 am thanks to daylight savings - before hitting the pillow to be ready for breakfast this am.

Reilly hit up the camera show first thing this morning and then we headed out to the Alibi room for brunch with Darren, Gillian, and Tamara. The Alibi is our newest favourite breakfast place - we had written it off some time ago as they stopped serving brunch at some point, but now that we know they are open for brunch again it’s the perfect spot. Close, delicious, and never a line. Excellent.

After that we hit Ikea and Home Depot for more things from the list and as of right now the place is still in a huge state of disarray with mass disorganization and painting all around. I like to post photos, but I flat out refuse to show anything until things are done! So, you’ll just have to wait. So many cool features, I can’t wait to start sharing the pics.

My evening from this point will consist of assembling Ikea storage solutions (aka boxes) and enjoying the pot roast that has been in the slow cooker smelling delicious and making us both hungry for hours.

Back at work tomorrow am with album deadlines looming and many books on the go, and the hopeful reassembly of our space. Pictures to follow once things are nearing completion!

I have just now super spontaneously signed up for NaBloPoMo!

Not to be confused with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) or NaSoAlMo (National Solo Album Month) or Movember (Mustache growing in the fight against prostate cancer) or NaGoCatMo (Totally doesn’t exist but has to do with the cat on the keyboard problem many of us face on a daily basis), NaBloPoMo is about writing a blog post a day for the entire month of November.

But! - you say - You never blog any more at all! How in the world are you going to go from never blogging to always blogging, while keeping us all entertained and coming back?

I don’t know! It has to do with the spontenaity - it’s not entirely thought through. If things go downhill, I’ll forgive you if you leave and don’t come back until I start posting with much less frequency and - I like to think - much higher quality. If things go *really* downhill, this will all end in about 3 days.

Today’s mission: Operation Orange Paint, Operation Turquoise Paint, Operation Keep Cats Out of Paint, Operation Don’t Make This Blog About Cats, and finally - Operation Look Out Window and Wonder Why We Rescheduled That Shoot Due To Weather When Clearly The Weather Lied But Then Again A Weekend Off Is Good Too.  Woo!

In parting, I share with you a small snippet of the survey I just took on my experience with a vacation rental property website. Like most, I typically delete these things, but it’s a small type business and I was feeling generous. Until, that is, I was asked about my age, and realized that if *they* weren’t taking the whole thing seriously, neither should I. Proof read much, anyone?

I bring you - Survey Fail

Back tomorrow!

As I am not interested in having the wonder that is the road kill carpet remain at the top of my blog for any amount of time, I’ve decided to post the working floor plan of our fancy new live/work loft space.

To start, you walk in through the door on the left, as before.

Our logo is on the wall facing in the bright torquoise entry way, followed by a red gallery wall with canvas gallery wrapped prints into the main of the studio. The laundry room at the entrance is our current darkroom, although we still need to install a sink. The bathroom needs a paint job and a few things and will be done in black and white. The old bedroom there on the left will be turned into our client meeting room as shown once I have finished re-covering the chair and when I find a couch to match, so that will be a longer term project.

The open space after the client meeting room is our office, with a large u shaped desk for Reilly and I. The round table is currently white although I will be turning it into an art piece shortly.

The kitchen (or break room as we now like to call this one) is home to a fridge full of various film and beer, which seems an appropriate combination. Across from that is another red wall and we just need to finish assembling some ikea furniture and we will have a counter with cupboards underneath for the length of that. That will hold equipment, albums, cutters, and the like.

The large open space near the windows is now our shooting area complete with our backdrop stands and other equipment for both studio and natural light portraits and headshots. That room is completely open to our new livingroom on the right (between which we tore out a wall), allowing for the shooting space to extend as needed. We have a gorgeous view of the ocean and north shore mountains out the windows as well, so it’s a pretty spectacular feature!

We will be purchasing a sectional couch at some point for the space, it’s been picked out but we’ll probably wait a bit to pick that up. We’ll also be doing a very large art canvas on the wall and some fun stuff that way by the time it is finished. There is also a curtain we’ve installed dividing the new livingroom from the new kitchen for when we have clients in the shooting area.

Moving into the kitchen we still need stools, we had those picked out but the company went out of business leaving many people with paid orders and no furniture, so in retrospect it’s a good thing we procrastinated!

Across from the stools against the wall we’ve moved our ceiling height cupboards for art supplies, tools, and so on. My card catalogue is being turned into part of my work area counter there as well, and will be completed as soon as I’ve had a chance to hit home depot for some supplies.

The dining room is my most anticipated feature - I haven’t had a dining room in basically ever. The table is the second major piece of furniture yet to be purchased, although it was picked out some time ago. The buffet/bar and paint for that area are going in shortly and I can’t wait for it to be finished.

Just past that is our new bedroom, no longer doubling as a storage room, followed by our bathroom and laundry room. As we have no need for two front doors we are blocking off the back corner in front of the door there and putting in a counter and rods so we have an actual laundry area rather than just a washer and dryer in the closet, so that will be good. That stuff is also already purchased and just needs to go in.

So - that’s the new space! We have lots of great plans and surprises with a large percentage of the work happening in the next month and the final touches likely in the spring with our last two big purchases. We’ll share actual photos once things start to be completed!

As a followup to my previous post on inappropriate wall decor, and because I am still buried in end of season photo editing and album making and I-have-no-life-until-I-am-done fun, you can now match that awesome wall piece up with this great road kill carpet!

I hope to rejoin regular life soon, but until then, enjoy

I read a great many design blogs and look forward to all sorts of inspiration each day, especially as we continue to plan the eventual design of the home and studio.

There is some good stuff, some bad stuff, and then this - the unspeakable stuff.

“Hey Pa - I done here got me some road kill. What shud I do with it?” …

Wow.

I always take pictures of things I’m doing with the intention of blogging them, it’s just that transition from photo to writing and posting that is the problem. This is an attempt to catch up a little!

Project 1 - The Blue Olive Blog, yo. Go check it out It’s new and fancy like

Project 2 - Bags! This is wayyyy overdue, but I keep meaning to post it.

A few months ago I decided that I needed a new bag. And, as there’s always lots of fabric and it doesn’t take much more time once everything is out and such, not only did I need a matching zippered ipod-sized pouch to go with it, but Shan and Kimli did, too. Weu!

I don’t do patterns although presumably I would have taken less time if I’d just planned it properly, but that’s no fun. Everything worked out well though and I’ve been using this bag as my daily now for months. Only just recently have I noticed that I should have reinforced the whole strap/square ring/bag part a little more, but now I’ll know for next time. Considering that’s the only thing I’d improve upon if I made another I think I did pretty good. Other than that, people keep asking me where I got it, so that’s got to be a good thing!

Project 3 - Does it count as a project if it took all of 4 minutes to do?

We added some flooring today to the hole in the hardwood left when we ripped out the wall between the old and new studio, which caused lots of banging. The neighbours downstairs were obviously annoyed with our banging as they were banging back, but as we were literally putting in new floor there was little we could do to not bang on the floor.

So, while I can’t take back the banging, I can make a very cute note card to apologize and make nice.

I try to keep pads of fun, cover weight papers around normally for notecards. I use my stack cutter to cut the whole pad to note card size, then rip out the sheet I want when I need it and fold it. This ends up way cheaper than pre-folded cards, and I get way more variety in papers which works well for me as I can match my card to my mood & purpose.

I didn’t have an envelope so I folded up some velum to match, and topped it with a completely non-sensical sticker courtesy of Daiso.

And - voila! Banging yes, but Cute Card! Yay for cute cards

Projects 4, 5 & 6 - Vintage finds for the new studio

Still on the hunt for a loveseat sized sofa in a similar style to the chair, but the first 3 of the vintage projects for the new studio have been started. Everything is still a work in progress, so for now you just get the before pictures.

I present - the awesome 3 legged super mod end table and to-be-reupholstered parlour chair (both finds from out in Maple Ridge at an antique mall) and the card catalogue courtesy of Rob & Andrea of Lotus Events (and our partners in crime for planning Indie I Do - http://www.indieido.com - the alternative wedding show we’re putting on in January. Err, did I tell you we’re putting on an alternative wedding show??)

That’s all for now! I plan to be a little more timely with the crafty updates going forward, especially the followup on my projects above. The card catalogue and table are almost done, and the chair is getting there. Looking forward to sharing those as well as some super exciting things we have in store for the new studio!

Cheers!

Oh - and for those following along at home - knee surgery is required. Appt with the surgeon who fixed my ankle and was going to fix my knee basically went like this:

M - Look what my knee can do now that I’ve been walking on it and using it more! It bends this wholly unnatural way AND that wholly unnatural way, giving out multiple times a day!

First Surgeon - Um. OK, let me get my colleague - also an orthopaedic surgeon who deals with broken knees on a regular basis - to look at it with me

Second Surgeon - Wow! Um! Huh! While I know it’s YOUR knee and you just want it fixed, I find it completely fascinating! We have no idea what is wrong with it!

First Surgeon - Indeed. While we enjoy your knee, you are clearly a special case. Broken knees normally do THIS OR THAT, not THIS AND THAT. Off to Even-more-special-just-hope-you-don’t-have-to-wait-forever Third Knee Super Surgeon you go

And now I wait…