Kiwi Tales

Looks aren't everything

Do you remember back when you were a young wee whipper snapper with all the rushing hormones ?
Or am I the only one that can remember that feeling?
Or am I the only one that admits to that feeling?
hmmmmmm
Anyway.....LONG LONG LONGGG AGO...pre having being neutered and turning grey, The Kiwi lived at a time when looks were arguably ONE of the most important factors regarding attractive qualities. Whilst I was never one of these shallow, superficial people, still today and some may say, even more so, looks do come FIRST in some arenas.
Move the clock hmmmmmmmm 20 plus years. The Kiwi has adopted this mindset about looks and is now herself guilty of pre judging. I want to share with you, my peeps, how looks can be deceiving. A word of wisdom!
As a rubber stamping biz we have advertised in a couple of the main major mags or M and M's  for short. We also aspired to advertise in a couple of the che che, cutting edge, absolutely gorgeous, very expensive to advertise in, wonderfully textured, forever giving birth, family of OTHER magazines out there. For simplicity sake I shall henseforth just refer to them as The OTHERS.
Yes people. YanKiwi fancied playing with the big girls and is regularly courted.
We all know that the current economy sucks, I can't think of a better word than SUCKS because it indeed seems to SUCK everything out of one. More money for petrol, more money for corn, more money for petrol made of corn  you get the drift. It is a sucking time out there for a lot of us.
Before I go off on a tagent never to return I shall bring the purpose of my writing to the forefront.
We didn't even consider the mag that took over from Rubber Stamper. Didn't like the idea of being in a mag with croqueted tops and  duck shaped candles, didn't want to be on a shelf in a supermarket at rugrat level so to be smeared with greasy fingertips. That was the image that I had formed in my wee Kiwi head. I was still, in my mind trying to justify how we were going to compete against a self serving conglomeration known as The OTHERS, without feeling like we were funding their stamp line with our precious advertising dollars. Pimp I was not!
In the meantime we had some stuff published...only took a bit less than 2 yrs but then there was a change of owners and everything was a bit hickle dee pickel dee. To cut to the chase because The Yank doesn't think y'all can understand my English, We have had MORE business to date from the, excuse the saying, errrrrr , ugly duckling mag than we have got off some of the ones we pay to advertise in. I must emphasize TO DATE.
Whilst it has not made us millionaires, by any means and the tummytucks and eyelifts will have to wait till the next life, we have now reopened our mind and THAT in the least is refreshing.
To quickly summerize. Looks arn't everything, unless you're an eye, and that my pretty is the moral of the story and ain't it just wonderful to be able to rethink something and come out with a different conclusion...if only The Kiwi could have been this wise when she was a sweet young thing. Next life eh!

Long time no blog

"Goodness grape nuts" The Yank did say. "Why aren't you writing?"
Wellllllll....there's a 1001 reasons and none of them good enough.
I will give you 13 off the top of the bean..
1/ hmmmmmmmmm...nothing to say.
2/ Still sulking cause Hillary missed out.
3/ The economy sucks and I can't see the end of the tunnel.
4/ Didn't get a hybrid in time.
5/ Missed out on a FREE copy Dr Laura's book "Stop Whining Start Living".
6/ Bill Handel threatens me with the prospect of living in a dumpster, every 20 mins between  5am & 9am.
7/ Don't know what to do 1st...on a daily basis.
8/ The Kiwi melts in temperatures over 87.2 degrees.
9/ The sequel to Hannibal is being filmed in LA and they needed a brain.
10/New neighbors moved in.
11/Stress dulls the comic within.
12/Feeling my age and some #&*%^ mentioned my next b'day that happens to have an 0 in it.
13/Someone once said "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything."

There you go, the above excuses are some of the reasons why The Kiwi has been silent.
The Yank has another saying that she sings...Shessssss backkkkkkk!
and back I am.
I would like to add, with a vengeance, but I guess I have to first earn that rap.
I have been creating though, being the hermit I can be. The Yank turned me on to making stained glass creations and of course we had to reorganize the garage to accommodate . When you play with solder and flux and all the other goodies like sharp pieces of glass, one must proceed with caution. I, myself, had to have my own designated area as The Yank and I are very, errrr different in our needs from a work station.
Bottom line The Yank is meticulously tidy and The Kiwi can't even spell the word...get the picture?
Sooooo... a bit of time had gone into learning the art of playing with glass and I must say I have made some pretty nice wee things. Its kind of addictive and the only thing that stops me is the fact that the garage turns into a deep fryer after 2pm. I am incorporating some things we sell at YanKiwi.com into my creations and by the time the next "Art In The Yard" rolls along, both the Yank and the Kiwi will have plenty of treasures for sale. Pricing is the worse part. We both hate that... the reality is that it has to be done...you can only give so many away and if one wants to improve and be able to buy more stock then one has to sell some things...easy peasy. I mean, it just makes common sense. There's only so much space and a gal can't possibly keep everything.
I learned the perfect remedy for letting go when I had a brick and mortar Antiques Curios and Collectible shop in Auckland New Zealand.
Of course when I first started stocking the shop I bought what I liked. I didn't have $2000pr Ming vases or anything like that. Though I was in possession of a necklace made of cornelians belonging to Elizabeth 1 .
I digress... When one buys things that one likes and one also owns a shop, one has to learn to let go or else one would not be able to continue buying and would get that distasteful label that leaves me all a-quiver: PACK RAT. Sooooooo... The Kiwi decided early on in order to continue the process that it was enough to hold, smell, touch and generally molest the treasure when in custody, BUT be prepared to let it go and therefore be able to repeat the process over and over. AND...do you know what people?...it worked. I consequently got to play with and temporarily own lots of fabulous aged treasures and THAT was why I was in the biz. Because I love that stuff.
I just loved the history and being in its presence.
Its amazing how something so simple works when one is just prepared to apply the theory!
I could end there on that poignant note but I won't. I want to talk a little more about pricing ones creations. The have been 100's of articles written and rehashed on this subject. Most of it has gone in one of The Kiwis ears and out the other. (Note: in one eyeball and out the other doesn't sound as good so The Kiwi reserves the right to say what she damn well pleases cause its her damn blog...nahnahnahnahnahhhhhhhh) Re pricing: unfortunately we have all come across stuff MADE IN CHINA or MADE IN INDIA etc etc that is mass produced by basically, slave labor for a pittance and gobbled up by a society that doesn't care to think about the longterm ramifications or just doesn't think full stop. Example... I have seen stained glass sun catches in Michaels for say $20...use your 40% off or 50% off coupon and you could pay as little $10 for someone's creation.
Now whilst my stuff doesn't look like their stuff, BUYERS look at it and may think my stuff is priced high in comparison and so they buy the cheap stuff because it is cheap. You get the drift eh. THAT is why it is a worthy conversation and THAT is why we do our Art In The Yard shows because the peeps that come know in advance that our stuff is all handmade by the vendors present. They appreciate it and THAT is what keeps the process alive. In a nutshell... we all know that we don't get back the hours put into our creations and thats not how we can tally up and come to a price. It is all a matter of just looking at your work, know what goes into it and being realistic and proud enough to put a price tag on it. If it is gobbled up at a show I guess one can say...Right On!
More than $ is gained from creating and whilst it is a wonderful feeling to be monetarily rewarded for our art, the fact that so many people have been touched by things I have made and you have made is PRICELESS.