all things girls can tell

holiday shipping deadlines!

the shop is all gussied up for the holidays! which can only mean one thing: shipping deadlines for online shoppers are nearing!

i do my very best to pack up your orders as soon as they're received all year long. all orders ship within 2-3 business days from the time payment is received (some even ship sooner! like i said, i really do my best!). however, even if i'm as speedy as can be, delivery can take a couple days. most US orders are sent via 2-3 day priority mail, and international orders are sent via first class international mail - please allow enough time for delivery when ordering!

to ensure you all get your holiday goodies in plenty of time for gift giving, the following are the last ordering dates for which i can be sure you'll receive your packages in time:

 

US holiday shipping deadline: order by dec 19 for dec 23 delivery
Int'l holiday shipping deadline: order by dec 7 for dec 23 delivery

as always, if you have a special gift giving event that you're ordering for, please let me know when it is! while i make every effort to ship as quickly as possible, i'm much better at drawing diagrams than reading minds. a heads up with your order is much better than us scurrying to find a solution at the last minute!

thanks so much! happy gift giving this season! shop small + support independent businesses!

the return of the tea towel!

after much anticipation, i couldn't be more delighted to announce the return of girls can tell tea towels! after much deliberation, the new towels are a little different than the classic girls can tell towel.

they're now square (well, near-square - 28"x29"), but just as soft + absorbent as ever. as always, girls can tell towels are responsibly sourced + milled in the US. you can use these towels often, as they're completely machine washable + durable. each one is printed with a girls can tell original diagram - i've brought back many of the favorite diagrams, of course, and will also be introducing new designs into the line periodically. and the best news is that the each towel is now printed with an even better, bolder, bigger diagram image, so you can better enjoy all the illustrative details!

 

 

right now, there's a handful listed in the shop, and be sure to check back in often for additional designs. i'm also planning on posting limited edition towels in special color runs every so often! follow me on twitter + like girls can tell shop on facebook for occasional specials + announcements. xo!

the days + weeks fly by

earlier this week, how quickly a few significant dates were approaching caught me by surprise. big dates ahead!

 

renegade craft fair chicago:

days from today

 

 

 

 

 

crafty bastards fair in washington, dc:

days from today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the holidays officially begin on

   days until thanksgiving.

 

 

and to think only a matter of weeks ago i was blogging in anticipation of summer.
it seems time is flying by, because it really is. everyone has different deadlines + events + goals they're working toward. for me, seeing these numbers right here in black + white really jolts me into action!

what are you working toward, and how soon is it really happening?

a word on knock offs

I've been hesitant to post on this topic for a few reasons today (not the least of which being that I'm supposed to be packing up the studio to move into the new work|shop today), but I've been mulling + mulling... Here goes...

If you'd prefer to have a random towel that you traced artwork that isn't yours onto with (what's more or less) a sharpie in your kitchen, so be it.

Professionally handmade work isn't for everyone. If you don't want to buy a towel that I hand printed through Anthropologie's website or through my own website (where I've been selling these towels myself for years), I probably can't stop you from making a cheapie version for your own use.

However, you should know the hours upon hours that I've put into sourcing the very best floursack towels (100% floursack cotton, in what I've deemed the best size ever, milled in the US, that gets softer with wear) and that I've honed my style of illustration for years as my little tiny business has grown (I don't have an MFA, rather a degree in Architecture, but that's a whole other story). I've printed thousands of towels over the past few years for a living (hereby making me a professional). Most importantly, I've worked so very hard over many, many long hours to build my little business and perfect my products.

But if you'd prefer your traced-on sharpie version, knock yourself out.

I stand by my work. And I support my peers - other independent artists - whenever and however I can. I buy less, but sleep easier at night, knowing that how I spend my money is aligned with what I believe.

Those who know me (virtually or, gasp!, in person) know I've been doing this for some time, and that I'm a real person (brutally honest at times, and with a weakness for locally crafted beer). I work really hard and I'm generally pretty nice. While I've been more than fortunate in enjoying some unbelievable successes lately (seriously, pinch me!), I certainly won't be wallpapering my bathroom in benjamins anytime soon. So if you'd rather make your own cheap knock off than support someone who has inspired you in even a tiny way, and if that gives you satisfaction, so be it.

fontifying

i've been having a good bit of fun lately, playing with fontifier. it's the simplest way to make handwritten fonts you could dream up, and while it's not perfect, it's pretty amazing.

  

work + play

 

now, i've mentioned here countless times how much i really admire seth godin, and in particular, his blog.

if you haven't already read it, i highly recommend taking a moment to read his recent post about a work / play divide solution. it's an issue i've felt for years. while doing something i love for a living has alleviated much of this problem for me (there's something to be said for knowing you barely have enough hours in the day to get what you need to do done + also shower as a motivator for not wasting time on games), i think i could get behind seth's easy (although pricey) solution. here's the post - give it a thought.

imitation isn't flattery, it's a recipe for mediocrity

one thing i believe completely, through and through, that helps me keep calm and sleep well at night (note i didn't say sleep for long periods of time...): if your inspiration is primarily influenced by what you see other people having success with, you're setting yourself up for mediocre results.

in the long run, it's a lot harder to sell something that isn't yours entirely. pulling bits and pieces and trying to mimic the success of others won't get you nearly as far as really doing your homework, putting in the time, dedicating hours of thought and pushing through a full creative process. if you know where your work comes from and it comes from true effort, much thought, love, constant evolution, original creativity and the desire to keep doing more, you're going to be just fine.

or, as the wise conan o'brien once said, "if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen".

best tips: facebook as a tool (not a toy)

slowly but surely, i've noticed several of my peers shuttering up various online presences, most notably, facebook. the reason for this, for the most part, has been that they find maintaining a presense on so many applications to be a time-suck. and i totally understand that - it's easy to lose valuable hours of your week poking and browsing and snooping around on facebook. we've all done it.

but i do think it's a shame to just give up such a potentially useful resource because of an inclination to get click-happy. i've always been of the mindset that it's important to be where people are going to look for you. and whether we like it or not, there are certain people who are potentially going to look for you on facebook. they internet through facebook. it's not how i internet, but it's 20111, and facebook is a force to be reckoned with for sure.

so how can we, as tiny creative business people, use facebook as a tool and not get sucked into facebook as a toy? here are some ideas and guidelines i've been following (and plan to follow through the year) to make the most of facebook:

• only post to facebook if you have actual content to post - no filler! and if you want to post something often, do something worthy of posting first. which means creating actual work often.
• take facebook off of your bookmark tool bar. or however you click into facebook. don't make it easy, because then you're more likely to "check in" without thinking about it. make your visits to the site intentional and purposeful. 
• use a service like postling to monitor comments + activity on social networking sites all in one place, without having to log in. postling is great - they send you a daily synopsis of all activity related to your profile on sites you link to from them. i get an email each morning with comments from twitter, facebook, flicker, my blog, etc right in my inbox without having to check each site or the temptation to click through my friend's posts (which is the inadvertant time-suck).
• choose a set "down time" to actually go through and browse, click and comment to your heart's desire. there's a lot of great stuff out there - i know you don't want to miss it all. pick a routine that works for you - maybe a half hour coffee break at 10:30am to sit and absorb the internet. set a timer and don't let yourself play past your designated browse time. 

the whole point of setting up a business profile on facebook is to keep your fans + friends apprised of what's new with your business. you don't want to overwhelm them with too many posts, and you don't want to let your profile sit totally domant, either. obviously the strength of an application like facebook is the potential for feedback and interaction, so consider creative ways to engage people with the content you provide on your business's profile. by focusing on quality and not quantity and really remembering to treat facebook as a tool and not a toy, you can totally find a happy medium for social networking.

the fine line of a business blog

happy new year!

i can't believe it's been a whole month since i've posted any real content here! it's almost embarassing just seeing all those posts of things i've been cleaning out lined up there in a row...

there are just a couple reasons why i didn't compose any real posts here in december, the most obvious of which being that i was fortunate enough to be featured in some amazing holiday gift guides, and holiday sales were out of this world. it was fantastic, hard work, at times frustrating, stressful, exhilirating and overall, completely amazing. in prioritizing my time, i realized that getting all of my customers exactly what they wanted by the time they wanted it was more pressing than getting out my thoughts here - which probably seems obvious.

the other reason i didn't post anything here (other than photos of things i've decided i don't need anymore) is the smart, simple rule "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". as i mentioned earlier, the holidays were fantastic, hard work, at times frustrating, stressful, exhilirating and overall, completely amazing. for every rewarding moment, there was usually a moment of wanting to tear my hair out when something beyond my control stressed me out. there were a few times that i started to write, but realized nothing i had to say at that point was constructive, useful or something that i'd want posted on the internet for any length of time.

i realized that it's important to use my blog for good and not evil. there's a fine line between using your blog to show the inner happenings of your business and exposing too much of the guts of your job.

small business saturday

i've never been much of a black friday / big bargain weekend shopper, and this year has been really no exception (the fact that this weekend is usually one of my busiest working weekends of the year makes it pretty easy to skip the box stores during prime holiday shopping season) but please join me in making an effort to support "small business saturday" this year. while it's nice to skip the crowds and dodge the madness, it is super important to support the great independent businesses we love.

where will you be spending your hard earned money this year? boutiques? indie online shops? local restaurants? neighborhood corner stores? i want to know!