Deb, Maxine, the studio, some natural light and a feature in GMARO Magazine December 2022 Issue #26. GMAR Magazine is published in France, you can follow them on Insta here.
Shot at Doris Land, all three of us collaborated and made this magic together. My favourite way to create is when everyone gets to contribute. I love the result.
This editorial was created with an amazing team.
MUA Maxine Munson
Model Deb J Braun
Shot at Doris Land with Natural light.
Do you know what a stockist is? It took me a minute to realize what it was but it’s kinda simple. It’s a store that carries your stock and I am so happy to announce I am back at Hunter and Hare.
I ran into Mickey, one of the amazing people who started the consignment shop recently and let her know that I have been upcycling and embroidering denim.
The pairs featured below are available in store now for you to try on, they retail for $100 each. The denim is upcycled and super soft. Stop by, say Hi and try a pair on, they will feel like you never want to take them off.
Now that fall is on the horizon it might be a perfect time to pick up your new favourite pair of jeans.
You guessed it, markets, they are fun and who knew you would like coming out to them as much as I like hosting you.
Thanks so much for all of the support you have shown me, knowing my merch is out in the world instead of floating around in my closet brings me a lot of joy.
Now let’s get to the details Knox Church is hosting a fab event August 27th 5600 Balaclava Street in
Vancouver. You can follow them on Insta to find out more about this amazing event. I am featured in their promo, with my red hair.
This week we had a couple of amazing shots. One was a creative where we did 6 looks outside and I also worked in the studio twice. One day creating footage for my Skillshare course and the second with a model.
With the outside shoot, I worked with an amazing stylist and makeup artist. The model was fantastic and we had the sun in the sky for the whole time which was really great.
I have been thinking a lot about intention lately, what are the intentions behind these shoots.
When I press my finger on the shutter button of my camera it is important for me to be connected to why. The intention of the shoot is key because at the end of the day you hope your message will be portrayed to the viewer. The intention is there, behind every image, every click, every photoshopped edited final, every batch I upload to my Flickr page, there are so many steps and each one has such a specific intention and I find myself reminding myself of that in the recent days.
Do you think about your intentions? Have you read the power of why?
This week on Instagram I decided to share product images. I love denim, I can’t really tell you how much I do, I just do and I have often thought about why and as of yet I do not have an answer. I will, at some point, but for now I just let the love be.
The love of the shapes, feeling and wearing of denim gives me so much inspiration to draw my lines. The continuous lines replicate the intricate patterns that create these garments.
What is inspiring you this week?
Wow, what a year eh. So many ups and downs and not knowing what the next few years will bring has made us all a little on edge.
One thing got me through and I want to share it with you because maybe it will help you too. Hope.
I have always had hope, some weird form of faith because of how things have turned out for me, I always have hope. Call it blind faith, call it silly but I managed to pull through this crazy time and come out on the other side with more of it. Strange, I know but that’s me I’m a little eccentric anyway so that’s half the fun of waking up every day for me.
I wanted to recap some highlights from the past year here and maybe it will give you enough juice to take a look at your year and find some of your own for your highlight reel. I would love to see yours too.
I was published in Vogue Italia 8 times.
I began working commercially with brands providing social media content.
I found studio space.
I made a portrait project in Tofino
I created a lookbook of my merch with the help of a magnificent team.
I finished a year-long photo and word project.
And I reached out to you consistently for 52 weeks.
Thank you for being here, I really appreciate it. I wish you and yours a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2022.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a big word. Especially when you work for yourself.
But you know what, someone shared an idea with me, or rather a concept that I wanted to share with you because it has changed this whole beast for me.
Have you ever heard of Agile Project Management? It has 4 key values; individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software (insert your service/product here) over comprehensive documentation; customer collaboration over contract negotiation; and responding to change over following a plan.
There is also an agile form of marketing, I know right? Who knew you could be so agile in freelance? I only thought agility was for dogs. Anyway here is what agile marketing is; the field of advertising and content creation. For example, a marketing project can be segmented into a landing page, Ad campaign, content creation, and so on. Next, these tasks are carried out and eventually, the team reviews and makes adjustments based on the lessons learned.
So my friend has a new job at a big company as a project manager and we were talking about her workload. She has 1 project that is following the old school waterfall project management where everything kind of flows into the next. It has a very specific task list and you chip away at it with a specific goal. It is the typical way of managing a project and also an effective way to get a team to work together because everything is defined.
Agile is a totally different animal, at least my interpretation of it is. It is something that is always moving, always changing and having your own business, especially in a pandemic has needed a master class in adaptation. I feel agile project management is a way to ebb and flow with your business plan and goals in mind in a more attainable way.
I have been through two self-employment courses, one at BCIT and one at Centennial College, both were great and I wrote business plans in each program. In one we even learned about and implemented the lean canvass business plan, it is the way of the future. Or so they say. https://leanstack.com/leancanvas
At the end of writing both business plans, you do write an action plan, and it gets you going, month by month with attainable actionable steps but what agile project management gives you is a way to be more flexible with that plan. I have my main goal in mind and both of my plans were very similar and I know that you need multiple revenue streams to stay afloat as a small business owner. What agile project management gives you is a more flexible way to execute those goals in two-week increments.
Does that make sense or am I just babbling?
What I did was take a large piece of paper and on the outer edges wrote the main end goals and then made a list of numbers to identify the weeks and gave myself goals to achieve inside of each of these weeks. IF the goals are not met or need to change that is ok, it is part of this process. Part of the ebb and flow of having a business because it does become a living breathing organism and it needs to be able to grow in a way that you may not have planned. Agile project management gives you the ability to encourage that growth in a much more functional way.
So that has been the last couple of weeks and today I just met my first goal so I will move onto the next. I will keep you posted on how things go here, I just wanted to tell you about this just in case it can help you too.
In other news, I went to see the VanGogh exhibition and it was just as they said, like being inside of a daydream.
I have also filled up a sketchbook with some new types of figure drawings and I am really liking them. I created a silkscreen of one of them and am thinking about putting the simple face on a tote. I then will take everything to the streets to sell. Sit out on a blanket with my wares and my SWAG, a simple sign, my square (to take electronic payments) and a smile. If you want anything DM me on Insta and I will hook you up. Right now I’m figuring out how to do screening properly so please stand by.
