weekly retro #29: (close to) an ego death by wax and words
the latter half of august is so weird because it's so hot but the fall season is being rolled out in the form of schools going back into session, autumnal merchandise being set on shelves, and the holiday season for candle-makers has gone into effect. meanwhile, i'm like...
weeeeeeeee
this week i hit 6 weeks of running bugs rock. the first wave of friends and follower sales has died down a bit which is great timing, because packaging and shipping takes a lot of energy and time and i really need to go heads down on what the fall/holiday products are going to be.
the above graphic came across my tumblr feed this week at a very opportune time. experimenting on a new candle idea using new and challenging techniques while also writing a talk for monday's inaugural brooklyn web workers meetup - where i am ultimately explaining to a bunch of tech workers why i am no longer a tech worker - had me get about as close to an ego death as i can imagine someone can get to while making a candle and presentation slides.
but when pumagreg gives you lemons...the fact that i'm writing this talk while i'm going through this creative challenge is weirdly great as it's forcing me to face lessons i've experienced in my candle-making and small business-making that i had already come across before during my time in tech/corporate - which is ultimately the thesis of the talk i'm giving. nice job on the lemonade, jennifer.
the weather this week has been amazing, with even a couple days where i didn't have to run the air conditioner. the energy bills in new jersey have skyrocketed, meanwhile my tolerance for the heat has not. how curious!
saturday was the last installment of the book-binding workshop i'd been attending at the library. i think half of us showed up, i assume the others were on vacation. i feel like they missed the best part!
here is my first ever hardcover book that i've bound! when i was gluing down the pink paper to the cover and closed it just to see what it looked like, i was like "wait, why does this look like a real book" lol. i'm so happy with how it came out and i will definitely be making more.
it's funny, refreshing even, how the rollercoaster of emotions this week was mostly driven by me creating things, not by a c-level executive's decisions. my mistakes empowering me to level up and try again to make something people love, versus making me feel like i'm in trouble over something i don't really even find joy in...this week had its challenges but it was necessary to remind me i'm on a very good path.
things i enjoyed this week
- this drone footage of the backstreet boys performing at the sphere landed on my recommended video stream and i went to the main account to find more and really enjoyed seeing this behind the scenes of them capturing the ny liberty banner ceremony. very cool footage.
- zach leatherman shared this sweet piece of eleventy and family history. i love that his grandma typed out her letters but signed her name, and that zach has this wonderful souvenir of a time.
- i've been following bad comic art on tumblr for awhile, but wanted to share for those of you who want to get better at identifying the difference between a woman drawn by a man vs any other gender.
jamie's on his way over now so we can work on our talk for chinatown.js on tuesday, with the day before being my brooklyn web workers talk. look at me, leaving tech but fully booked up on the tech meetup circuit!
xoxo jenn