Beadwork bonanza

When I came across Chris Maj's work on etsy, I at first, said "oooh." And then I said, "whoa." Why? I saw this:

And this:

And this:

And they are made out of beads, by hand, each bead threaded and woven together. Suddenly, I felt a kinship with all those people who look at my quilts and say, "You did all this? Wow, you've been busy. How long did it take you?" When underneath those questions is the unspoken elephant in the room:

How do you have the patience to do this?

The short answer is, we find it fun. Read Chris' long answer in my profile of her in Go Triad. And don't worry about how she does it, just appreciate the artistry, feel the connection to this art form that has been around since antiquity, and get your "oohs" and "aahs" ready.

Big Congrats from The Beehive

A few months back, I listened to a podcast of Christine Kane on "upleveling your business."

What does this mean? She asked, and then she proceeded to lay out the steps. While I enjoyed the lecture, I didn't feel the need to pursue listening to her any further. However, the term "uplevel" was one of those terms that stuck with me.

Today, I can report that I've seen it in action through my work with The Beehive -- one of my clients, Floradora, has expanded her business beyond Etsy to a fully live, beautiful and interactive ecommerce site! I am so proud to work with this home decor company. 

Sarah Reed of Dodeline Design hit this one "out of the park," translating the Floradora aesthetic in an easy-to-navigate site, and then trained Floradora on how to customize and in general keep her items, and site, up to date. 

Custom-designed table linens is a Floradora specialty

Throughout the process, Floradora owner Courtney Scott really put in the work as well, creating wholesale pricing for retailers, organizing her stock by style collections, and in general thinking about her business and how she wants it to grow. 

Congratulations to Floradora on her big debut, and The Beehive wishes her all the best!

Take it From Me

It's a hard thing to admit to myself. That the word "underemployed" has always fit. When I started out in my "grown up" career, I'd never heard the word. But it's true -- for my entire working life, save a couple of brief stints as a full-time newspaper employee (you know, another healthy industry), I've been UNDEREMPLOYED.

I have been teaching or teaching part-time -- full-time hours with adjunct benefits, or writing, or thinking about writing, or supposed to be writing but really mostly not writing, to writing again, then really writing. whew.

What do you do if you're me and underemployed? Well, you get more underemployed by working. Through the years,  I've fallen back on a "steady" source of supplemental income: food service. I've waited tables, bartended, been bar manager, server trainer, and menu educator.

I've seen a person who almost severed his thumb not go to the hospital because he was undocumented. I've seen servers with fevers so high that they were almost delusional try to serve courses. I've been passed over on promotions because I did not party with the management, partying that included drugs. I've seen racism and sexism, and double standards, and I've done the math too, working out that that lunch shift where I made $17 in tips actually put me in the hole.

In each restaurant, I've found kind people, hard workers, and a caring manager or two. I worked in the mid-ranks of this high turnover industry, because I needed a place that was OK with my first schedule -- writing. I wasn't in it for a career, and it treated me like I treated it -- a numbers game, a slot to be filled.

That personal era has passed, but if you've haven't worked in the industry, chances are you are oblivious to the nature of it, that on a good day (or in a good place) it can feel like family, but for many of us hidden in the ranks, it feels more often like the place of the lowest common denominator.

I'm not here protesting or bringing signs or trying to whistle blow. I'm voting with my wallet, making my choices matter. Read the ROC National Diners' Guide, and make your own choices, at least when it comes to a chain restaurant. How do your favorites rank?

A MAD opportunity

I was much more into The Little Princess than MAD Magazine when I was little, but I understand what a creative effect it's had on American culture for 50 years.

So, when I received a phone call from former editor Nick Meglin last week, I jumped at the chance to speak with him, despite the fact that he repeatedly asked for the last 4 digits of my social security number in order to verify my freelance writer status.

He's relocated to North Carolina, found great satisfaction in creating musical theater, and thinks that the Open Space Cafe Theatre in Greensboro is doing great things. He wanted to talk about it all, and I wanted to listen, and he taught me more about the nature of musical theater in our one conversation than all you that have tried to convince me how awesome Rent and Mama Mia! are over the years. Not that I don't love you for trying ... I just didn't get it til now.

His musical, "Tim and Scrooge," opens tonight in Greensboro. As of the moment, tickets are still available. And you don't have to provide your social security number, no matter what anybody says.

My Daily Gift

Nature doesn't ask anything. When I go, it is there. When I stay, it is there. The mist at the bottom of Rainbow Falls in Gorges State Park or the scent of the mock orange blossoms in my neighbor's yard is equal pleasure.

I drive past the tall, toast-colored grasses of the marsh on my way to the grocery store, and I remember the feeling of the volcanic rock path on Mount Fuji. To me, they are the same gift.

July light on the shallows of Lake Michigan

Macintosh Monday dinner

Tomorrow morning there is going to be a lot of writing, or at least, the thoughts of a lot of writing, about The Macintosh, a new restaurant by The Indigo Group down on Upper King Street, Charleston. There was a lot of media types eating and enjoying tonight, and you know how media (esp. in Charleston) like to talk about what they're eating ...

First, I should say, Jeff Allen of The City Paper wrote a perfect piece about the place and its amazing chef -- and he wrote that more than a month ago.

However, this restaurant is the "feel like it's been there forever" type of place that still has you excited about the food (despite the fact it smells like new wood). Namely, the appetizer of rabbit, unctuous and beautiful and punctuated by little cherry tomatoes that burst in your mouth. Now if the thought of rabbit wrinkles your nose in the way that people wrinkle their noses when they are scared of food, then, well, The Macintosh is not for you.

But The Macintosh is for me. Yeah, it sounds pretentious, and you're right, I am when it comes to having an open palate. But visit O-Ku or The Cocktail Club or The Macintosh and find yourself there. I do, and it is the best version of myself. Not the "hey, I just ate a funnel cake" self but the self that cares about the balance of flavors in the midst of a balanced decor.

I would've taken a picture, but I was enjoying myself too much ... go and see and enjoy too.

Post-Halloween ghosts

Yes, Halloween is the coming out party for many a ghost story, but the people who like to research ghost stories like to do so all year. Like, for instance, Michael Renegar and Amy Spease, authors of Ghost Stories of the Triad.

It might be a sunny Saturday, their only day off, but they're tucked up in a dusty corner of a library floor, researching the death toll of a long-forgotten structure fire. Or it might be a cool evening, better suited to homemade chili and a Monday night football game on TV, and instead, they're beaming flashlights onto uneven graveyard turf.

So just because Halloween is past, don't forget the hardworking ghost hunters who work all year to make your Halloween extra special ... and bring you special ghost stories about places you know, stories that are special any time of year.