Taming the Tangle

A Tough Day

Today is a tough day. Last year on this day I received the call from my brother that his wife had lost her battle with cancer. It's hard for us all to not be thinking about it, so we are getting together as a family to hang out and enjoy the company of the boys (2 who are so young, only 4 and 6!). We are all moving on in our own ways. I have decided to run the Chicago Marathon as a Charity Runner with the American Cancer Society. I will run in Julie's honor for the strength she showed in her fight, but also for my many other friends who are currently battling. If you'd like to make a donation towards my fund-raising efforts, please do so here. I'll post periodic updates as to my training progress... so far I've had to fight off a huge toe blister and am trying to understand the pain in my right hip. I'm a mess! Luckily the marathon is 4 months away. If you have any pointers, please share them.

Lucky Number 13

Yes, 13 years ago today Dan and I got married. We are older, wiser, and even happier than I look in this photo. We've learned that the best gift we can give each other is time together, so we each took the day off and biked to our favorite bakery -- Milk and Honey -- where we sat reading, drinking cappuccinos, and sharing scones (one of our weaknesses). We then treated ourselves to massages at Urban Oasis, followed by more reading (it's a slightly chilly, rainy day... and we are both tackling fat sci-fi books that we are engrossed in), and we will finish the day with dinner at Bistro Campagne where we can walk and then later meet some friends for birthday drinks at the end of the night. Also forgot to mention, we saw Avenue Q last night. Hilariously wonderful! 

I'm feeling more rested and less anxious about having to pack my bag again tomorrow for another weekend away... my first trip to Columbus, Ohio. Please spread the word to anyone you know there that I will be at the Columbus Arts Festival on Long Street... it runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Tracking Progress

Networking has been on my mind a lot lately. It’s important to build new networks, but it’s also valuable to keep connections from various life points alive. Sometimes those connections can really come in handy.

Last month when I drove to Las Vegas and back, I was able to couch surf the whole trip. This was fabulous! It not only helped me to save money, but it gave me something to look forward to at the end of a long grueling day on the road. It was also a fun bonus to eat everybody’s favorite cereal (have you tried Cracklin' Oat Bran lately?) or sit down for dinner together. It was a life saver for that trip overall (yet have I mentioned that I won’t undertake that type of drive again?).

It was also interesting to capture the snapshots in time of where we all are right now, which gives a good sense of progress. I know sometimes I think I haven’t accomplished much with my jewelry career yet, but that’s because I’m monitoring day-to-day progress which feels like a snails pace! Several of my friends felt the same.

My friend Martha Schindler-Connors, who had the good fortune of hosting me to and from Vegas :), has pushed her freelance writing career to a new level (she’s in the midst of writing a book). It was also great to get some running pointers from her… she is my “just do it” running idol.

In Vegas I visited with Ramsey Hong, a college buddy who I hadn’t seen in probably 9 years. I always remember him doing fun illustrations and working on the comics section at the newspaper, and now he’s had his illustrations published on a new game: Walk the Plank.



I didn’t get a chance to play it yet but am eager to track it down for some of my nephews. It was also fun being reminded that I had lost a lot of weight since he saw me last (60 lbs.!)… which helped me take some pressure off myself to lose 10 more pounds to be at the weight my doctor wants me to maintain.

While on the road I also sent a newsletter to my friends, contacts, and customers announcing the launch of my new website (you can sign up for my newsletter here). It was wonderful to receive a response from my friend and former colleague Pat Rosenzweig (a fantastic knitter... find her work at Artisans 21 in Chicago) with the simple question, “Is it true that just 5 years ago you were selling jewelry out of your loft?” Indeed it was true, and suddenly I realized that not only do friends and contacts ground us, but they can also lift us up when we need it. 

Return to NoHo, Networking and A Dose of Mystery

After being home for just over a week, I’m back on the road again – heading towards Northampton, Massachusetts for the Paradise City Arts Festival. Northampton holds a special place in my heart because I attended Smith College for two years and met two of my dearest friends there (for any Smithies out there, here’s the code: 1990-92, Ziskind House). This will be my second year at this show – last year was memorable for me because one of my most dramatic pieces of jewelry (the Wire Boa) found a rightful owner, and I made gallery contacts… my work is now carried at the Smith College Museum of Art Gallery Shop as well as at Pinch on Main Street.

This goes to prove the point that I’ve discussed with many people this week, for opportunities to come knocking, you have to put yourself out there and be receptive to them. We’d all love to sit back in our living rooms and just get “discovered” one day, but I’m taking a pound-the-pavement approach by trying to meet as many people as possible, unearth opportunities, and keep myself open to opportunities that I’ve never even considered.

Along those lines, while I was hoping for a relaxing week at home, many networking opportunities arose that I just couldn’t turn down. I’ve already mentioned my class with Arline Fisch last Saturday and Sunday.  On Tuesday I joined my friend Alley Maranto at the Illinois Institute of Art Chicago (where she has joined the faculty of the new Accessories Program) to teach a class on designing a jewelry line (this morphed into lots of career and networking discussion as well). Wednesday night found the two of us meeting up again at the Mayor’s Fashion Council networking event… so many interesting contacts (and hopefully more to come from the business card exchange table). I had great discussions with Boris Powell, a fabulous emerging Chicago fashion designer (hopefully we will collaborate on a runway show some day!), as well as Jenny from Evlove Intimates (maybe we’ll join up for a bridal home show soon). Alley also laughed as I pushed my way to meet Jason from the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, but I’ve learned to not be too shy at these things. Combine those unusual opportunities with a half-day of accounting with my bookkeeper and a separate training session on understanding inventory control practices for my business, and today, as a full 12 hour day in the car, was almost a welcome relief from this go-go schedule… it gave me time to process everything I took in and start setting priorities.

Just to make sure you don’t think it was all work last week, there was fun stuff like cooking club one night and Mystery Night another. What’s Mystery Night? It’s a great idea I learned from my friend and fellow jeweler Sara Lenart… Dan and I take turns (roughly monthly) planning a fun night out to surprise the other. It’s a great way to break the routine after almost-13 years of marriage. This week was Dan’s pick – we went to see the play “Speech and Debate” at the American Theater Company, a great local theater that we were able to walk to. It was an interesting play about high school sexuality; I was particularly intrigued at the incorporation of video projection to capture texting and internet interactions.

After that full week, even just in re-cap, I’m ready to hit the hay. Which reminds me… random product placement. This week I got a new pillow (upon the suggestion of another friend and jeweler Joanna Gollberg)… it’s a curvy neck-supporting memory foam pillow. Awesome! I love it. It should really help with the jaw and neck tension issues I’ve been having, and it makes for a good travel pillow. In fact, I think I hear it calling :)

Home is where the food is

As much as I love to eat out and try new cuisines and restaurants, one of my passions is cooking. Over the years cooking has become a hobby for me and my husband Dan. When we're both at home during a "normal" week, we will cook 3-5 meals together each week. Our cooking tip: since you're going through the effort of cooking, go ahead and make extra so you have leftovers for lunch the next day (it's so awesome to pull out a pork chop for lunch!) or freeze them for an easy dinner later on.

When I travel, I miss our home cooking so much! This is why I was excited that even though I just got home on Monday (from Birmingham, MI — thanks to everyone who came out! Sorry about the rain-out on Sunday!), I was psyched to have a cooking club meeting on Wednesday night. Cooking club? Yes... it all started about 6 years ago when we moved to Chicago from Boston. I read about supper clubs in Cooking Light magazine, so hopped on line and started one up in Chicago (there were several going already but they seemed at maximum capacity). Over the years themes have varied and membership has changed; it is now mostly couples (by chance) but each person is responsible for their own dish. And due to everyone's increased time constraints, this year we're starting to mix in some restaurant hopping as well to make sure we stay on our monthly meeting schedule. It's been a great way to try new dishes and, most importantly, make new friends.

Last night the theme was Mexican, specifically we all chose recipes from our Chicago favorite Rick Bayless. I made the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake from his "Everday Mexican" cookbook and was surprised at just how fast and easy it was... that's a cookbook I'll have to add to my collection.

ps- Notice a favorite find in the upper right-hand corner of the photo... a bamboo knife block from Viva Terra catalog. Everyone who walks into our kitchen comments on it. It's great for holding knives of all shapes and sizes.

Making time for yourself on the road

When I'm driving 11-14 hour days like I've been doing the last two days, the only time for myself is a latte from a Starbucks here and there (although due to anxiety I've even had to give up caffeine, so it's
decaf for me). Those unusual circumstances aside, this year I've started setting aside some time each morning to work out... in my case running. This puts a little sanity into my day and really gives me stamina for a long show day (especially with no caffeine). It also helps me to feel like I have some control over my day and my schedule, which is good considering last year I was on the road for 90 days. Do you have any
tips for finding sanity on the road or setting a schedule in unpredictable circumstances? Please share.

Until then, enjoy this photo from a beautiful Las Vegas park that is filled with sunshine, unusual plants, and little darting chipmunks... it has helped me prepare to face a convention center and a car full of display stuff to unload. But first I'm going to hit the Starbucks I spotted on the way here... sometimes you just can't beat familiarity. -- Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

Making Time for Yourself: A Day Off

My travel schedule is already in full swing, which means a constant state of feeling behind and getting done only what needs to get done at the studio. It also means I'm not home much, so when Dan suggested taking Friday off together I knew that was exactly what I needed.

Why is a day off different from a weekend? For us weekends are still full of responsibility... groceries, laundry, and the like. Dan is also a screen printing studio monitor at Lillstreet Art Center on Saturday afternoons, so sometimes the weekends feel compressed even more. We also usually want to catch up with friends.

A day off is a secret. No one except your co-workers knows you are taking a day off. It's the perfect day to sleep in without guilt and let the day unfold before you. There are no set plans! That's certainly what we learned on Friday. Our initial thoughts involved dog beach, going to the movies, and biking, but we woke up on Friday (rather late) to a cold rainy day.

We made a nice breakfast and decided to still take Iris to the Montrose dog beach. We have two dogs, but Peeve has embraced old dog-hood. She has developed a fear of the car and much prefers to stay inside. So we left her on her dog bed with a rawhide to make her feel special, and off we went to the lake with Iris.

Iris is a dog who knows how to embrace the "now," our theme for the day. Despite being 13 years old, and despite the biting wind, she still decided that she must run along the waterfront. That's all she does at the beach. She runs laps barking at the waves until she is hoarse. All the other dogs thinks she's weird, which is fine by her because she's not very social. We think she's just trying to tell the lake what's what, but it never listens.

For those of us who were not covered in fur, the lake was a little chilly... we were ready to move on to another cup of coffee or at least a warm car. We corralled Iris and started driving, fully expecting to hit a Starbucks. But then Dan had a brainstorm... it's 11:45, why not go to Hot Doug's for lunch? Hot Doug's is the Chicago destination for encased meats, from a basic Chicago dog to a gourmet alligator sausage. We were hoping for not much line on a Friday; at that point it was only about 20 minutes (if you've never been there, be prepared to wait an hour or more!) to wait or so and we fit inside, our only criteria.

We both opted for crazy chicken sausage concoctions from the specials board. Dan's was the really crazy one with Thai peanut sauce and coconut involved. Mine was an apple rosemary combination with rosemary infused mustard and gouda cheese. We were satisfied but also vowed to only get a special from now on if we really want it, not just to experience it... the offerings on the regular board are really tasty and we should explore those more.

The rest of the day was simple enough. We wandered home and rented a video (Dan's pick: "The Mist." He should be really embarrassed that I'm mentioning that in public. Enough said.). We decided to pursue a cup of coffee after all, which took us on a walk to The Grind in Lincoln Square. While there we stopped into a couple of our favorite places: The Dressing Room, Fleet Feet Sports, and The Book Cellar before making our way home for the evening dog walk. The day felt pretty full to us, so we stayed in for the evening where we made a simple dinner and binge-watched two episodes of Battlestar Galactica (we are still catching up on DVD).

At the end of it all? I felt refreshed and resolved to delegate more of the business work that bogs me down in the studio.

Quick Gala Recap

As you can tell from my last post, much of the fun and excitement of going to a gala (for the first time) is the prep work. The good news is that Dan and I fit in visually, our most important goal. I was extra excited because about 5 people stopped me about my dress... of course I would have loved it if they stopped me about my jewelry! That was a big hit, too, especially at the dinner table where people could see it in more detail... particularly the new riverstone ring I wore that has a pearl floating inside. It's subtle but got noticed.

The main activity at the gala was a silent auction to raise funds for the Society of Contemporary Art. There was so much art! It ran the gamut from artists I am familiar with like Cat Chow, Sol Lewitt and Philip Pearlstein, to some of my controversial favorites like Kara Walker and Takashi Murakami. There was a lot of art that I loved from artists I didn't recognize but will probably start seeing around. Prices were all over the place, but Dan and I did not have the budget to be bidding.

The nice thing about this event is that there was art to talk about, so it was easy to get into a casual conversation with someone. The setting was fantastic — it took place on the 6th floor of the old Carson Pirie Scott building on State Street, which is now a gutted construction site. The theme was appropriately "Raw," perfect for the concrete floors, construction-site lighting, and framed-out walls. The theme was carried across to the event staff who were either wrapped in bits of yellow "Construction Line" tape or decked out in orange vests and hard hats. I felt a little bad for the bartenders and servers who had to constantly field comments about The Village People, but everyone took it in stride since it was a fun crowd.

Throughout the evening there was live music and a small theater troupe who silently played out fashion and art vignettes... the best part was their costumes made entirely of blueprints, tyvek, and other blue and white construction materials.

The most relaxing part of the evening was the dinner, a fabulous multi-course affair of artfully constructed plates. From an opener of tuna tartar and beef carpaccio to a little mug of soup and ultra tender beef shortribs, it was one of my favorite meals in Chicago. The most fantastic discovery, though, was when Dan and Tara, the owner of Sprout Home who was sitting next to him, realized that they had not only both graduated from Carnegie Mellon University the same year but had actually been in the same 40-person program together! That weirded us all out, but they got to play the name game catch-up during the night, which made the time pass in a fun way.

At the end of dinner, the organizers got us all up from our tables in a clever way: desserts were being passed, which also gave art buyers another chance to finalize their bids. We mingled in and said our good-byes to the few people we knew. I made it home by midnight before turning back into a pumpkin.

Countdown to a Gala

Last week at this time Dan and I were in the throes of getting ready for a big art event... a gala to be exact. I've never been to a gala, and there's nothing like getting invited to one to make you analyze your self inside and out. Here's what went down, which should also stand in as explanation of why I wasn't blogging last week (sorry!).

Monday = confirmed attendance. Dan and I received official notification that there was room for us at my brother, Richard Wright's, dinner table. The event: a gala benefit for the Society for Contemporary Art. This notification was also confirmation that we were not in any way prepared for attending a gala... Dan needed a suit and I needed a dress. Panic! Luckily Dan remembered that one of our former neighbors Jim works at a fabulous old-time tailor shop, Richard Bennett Custom Tailors, so he called him for advice.

Tuesday = my first boutique. Since this was an art gala, I wanted to avoid a standard party dress if possible. The theme was Dress: Deconstructed... which seemed to leave a lot of room for interpretation. I ventured to a boutique in my neighborhood, The Dressing Room. What a great store, with pieces from my favorite brand Neesh. I did walk out of there with an outfit, but it felt way too casual (for the benefit, but I still have the pieces... bonus!). I will definitely hit this store again, though, because the prices were in my range.

Wednesday midday = Dan's suit shopping (alone and under pressure). Jim measures Dan at lunch and sends him off to Filene's Basement where he strikes out and decides to head straight to Macy's. He too wants something a little different, not just a basic black or grey suit. Luckily he finds something that fits the bill and will be improved by a custom tailored fit, so he heads back to see Jim and drop off the suit with reassurances that it will be perfect by Saturday morning.

Wednesday afternoon = 2 more boutiques. Seeing how time was slipping by, I decided to hit two of my favorite stores but vowed that if they don't work I'd go straight to Nordstrom. My first stop was to Saffron, a store I love because it also carries Neesh, but I always think of it as having a few well-chosen dresses and fancier pieces. This was true, but the between-season is tough. There was a great lace dress that had a fierce fit, very flattering... but was it artsy and deconstructed? or just pretty? I snapped a pic and moved on down the street to Robin Richman, the store that first came to mind with the "deconstructed" theme. My biggest concern was budget... this is such a fabulous store with so many beautifully handmade pieces from here and Europe. At first glance I couldn't afford anything (but loved everything!), but I finally fessed up to my dilemma and soon I was trying on dresses in my budget that hadn't caught my eye but that Robin and her assistant knew fit my criteria.

The result? I bought a dress that I was totally in love with and could imagine myself wearing again because it was more funky than fancy. The bonus: Dan also thought it was perfect.

Thursday = a girl's shoe dilemma. Robin gave me advice for shoe shopping to stay in my budget. My first stop was to City Soles, which is part of a higher-end shoe store called Niche. I had the best helper in the whole world, but we couldn't find a shoe in my budget. The pair I fell in love with cost more than the dress... it just was not an option. I had to leave them behind and move on. Later that day I went to Lori's. Who can't go to Lori's and not try on 10 pairs of shoes? That's exactly what I did, and luckily found a great pair of black dress shoe/sandals at a fantastic price, and they were comfortable to boot. Wow! Things are coming together, until I realize I need a haircut. Ugh!! I call my hair stylist & luckily she could fit me in on Friday morning. Phew!

Friday = hair. I wanted a new look. My outfit was black, not my best color, so I wanted to add some color to my hair to lighten my look overall, but I wanted the hair to be a little conceptual as well. Kate Balsley at the new Robert Jeffrey Lincoln Park Salon has cut my hair for a little while, but she outdid herself! We did a short sculpted hair do with red and blonde streaks... I think this cut will get more fun as we fine tune it with different colors and longer bang accents, etc. This was risky to do the day before an event, but what an impact!

Saturday = the big day. The event starts at 6:30pm, but Dan and I still have a long list of errands. We head downtown at 9am (no sleeping in!)... already clean and showered in case we cut it close.  We pick up the suit, which is perfect. All Dan's worries about mis-remembering the color went away. We came up with a plan and headed out shopping for shoes and a shirt. We hit Filene's Basement again in the hopes of getting lucky and strike out again, so b-lined for Macy's. The shirt selection was pretty good, so by the time Dan hit the dressing room he had about 5 shirts to choose from... we opted for a bright orange-red but no tie. Very sharp under the brownish-green (shale?) suit. Shoes were a snap after that.

Dan left me in Macy's since he had to get back to Lillstreet for screen printing. I headed for the MAC cosmetics counter and decided to splurge on having my face done in an evening look. My makeup artist was great... she did beautifully smoky eyes but left my cheeks and lips in lighter almost-natural shades so I didn't feel unnaturally made-up (I don't wear much make-up usually). I liked the look so much that I bought several of the components and have been having fun experimenting. It was fun riding the train in my fleece and jeans at 2pm in full evening make-up.

Here's the picture scoop of how everything came together:

Dan's photos looked terrible, so you'll have to imagine how sharp he was.

Now what about the event itself? My goodness, I'll have to fill you in on that fabulousness in my next post.