Bookoo

About a week ago, I received a message from a Bookoo representative, Kellin Smith.  Apparently, they are looking to promote their new Chicago branch.  I was quite surprised, of course, but I opted to reply to the message with some questions.  I'd never heard of Bookoo before.  Naturally, being a curious little ferret, I asked Mr. Smith lots of questions.

First off, Bookoo is a garage sale style listing site for artisan crafts and other goods.  Unlike craigslist, it primarily trades goods and services.  There's no job listings and very few ponzi scheme listings that tell you how you can make up to $400 dollars per day selling widgets and policies to other people.  It's easy to navigate and you don't have to filter as much because there's less spam. 

Here's how the short interview went down. 

How long has Bookoo been active as an organization?
     About seven years. The owners started Bookoo in Texas. As it kept expanding, they moved to Illinois to be closer to family.

What sorts of transactions does it support, besides online 'garage sales'?

     You can post about online yard sales, you can also list items of service, items to trade, and wanted ads.

Does Bookoo have any special features for crafters or artisans?

    You are able to offer the service of "$5 painting of whatever" or something like it.

Are local artisans benefiting from Bookoo now that it has come to Chicago?

     It is a site where they can go to showcase their work. If someone is interested in one of their items, they can see more items from that seller.

Will Bookoo ever host any offline special interest fairs or outdoor events that local artisans can participate in?

    Occasionally we do a Bookoo summer picnic. 2013 we did one for Aurora, Oswego, and Naperville. Last year we did just a big Bookoo picnic and invited all the nearby sites.

Are there any other reasons to be excited about Bookoo besides the ability to list items for sale?

    It's free! We don't charge members to post items. Also, we keep it family friendly by blocking profanity and deleting inappropriate items.

Does it support applications like paypal?

    No, the members interact with each other and usually pay cash.

What's your role in it?

    I am a marketing intern. I work full time doing whatever Adam and Austin need me to do. Most of the time it's spreading the word about Bookoo to our newer sites!



So there you have it.  Bookoo allows you to list FOR FREE.  You can offer goods and services.  You can rest assured that you won't have to deal with people seeking sexual favors after seeing you post photos of a fabulous scarf you made, and, there's the possibility of you being able to go to a picnic in the summer.  I know a lot of artists trade services and such between each other.  Bookoo could be another way for us to all network.  Check it out, try it out and send me a message about what you think.

Babies: The Invasion of Cute

I've noticed something odd and I'm sure that you have too.  Recently, there's been a great rise in the appearance of miniature humans.  Every day you can see them.  You don't even have to go out of your house.  Just peek out the window for a while and you'll see a caravan of pastel colored frippery, being pushed down the sidewalk by a tired, but happy adult as they march to the tune of squeaky toys, jangling sounds and the clicking hiss of rattles.
I'm talking about babies.   Toddlers.  Rosy-cheeked little ambassadors of high-pitched squeals and huge, toothless grins.  Tiny, little humans.  They are everywhere. They're infiltrating the nuances of daily life!  For a while, it was common to see a few strollers while you were out.  On public transportation you could count on seeing at least one baby,  but all of a sudden, whenever I find myself on CTA, I see no less than 3-5 infants in strollers, snuggle carriers or car seats.
When I look out my window, I see parades of nannies, Mommies, and sometimes Daddies all walking along with their caravan of babies.

Just like that.

When riding on the expressway, every other car has a baby or evidence of a baby in its back seat, advertised with glaring pastel banners, baby Winnie the Poohs and stuffed teething rings.  They're everywhere!  It's like a never-ending Parade!

EXACTLY LIKE THIS

I like to think about why things are the way they are, so of course I thought about this.  What changed in the last few years?  I mean, we're still in a recession, folks shouldn't be having babies.  Then, it dawned on me.  I'm in my mid-twenties.  Most people are planning the arrival of or have recently brought forth their first or second child.  I'm also part of one of the largest generations there is.  Generation Y.  The Echo Boomers.  The Millenials.  The Peter Pan Generation.  95 MILLION PEOPLE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 19 AND 34!  Prime baby-making age.

Well, that was easy to figure out.  But, you'd think that with about 20% of us still unemployed, most of us working a series of temp and part-time jobs because of budget cuts, and our extended stay with our parents we wouldn't be able to care for children.  But some of us are having babies.    It may look like lots of us are doing it, but I'm pretty sure if you play the numbers game, the rates are low in comparison with the rates of previous generations.  There's just so many more of us that it looks like a lot.

Babies.  They're the future of our nation.  It's important to make sure they have a good start in their lives so they can grow up to be the game-changers we need them to be.  Recently, a cousin and a couple friends of mine announced that they are expecting adorable little girls.  I'm excited.  Especially since my realistic assessment of my life has led me to the conclusion that I'll be baby free for a while now.
I  must live VICARIOUSLY.  That's why I'm going to start making a bunch of baby-themed stuff!  My babies (read: babies belonging to people I know) will have hand-made blankets, dolls, and butt covers- because I love them and because I'm living vicariously.  Whatever.  They get to feel special and loved.  The parents don't have to pay a ton of cash for unique baby items and I get to exercise my creativity and create spoiled monsters.

That's right, little diva.

Everyone wins.  Yaaaay! 

Now let me get busy.  


PHOTO CREDITS:
Google Search:  Poor Mojo's News Gallery, B*tch media, Mommyish

College

Okay, so, I guess I've never told you how old I am or what I do for a living.  I am 23 and I am in college.  I am also about to graduate.  Technically, I should have graduated a year ago, but silly me, I had my rebellious phase during college and it wasn't against my parents, not really.  It was against my school's bureaucracy and the series of events that led me to be a management major.
You see, I didn't want to be in the business college.  Seeing my mother wrecking her brains and under heaps of stress every quarter convinced me that I didn't want to work like that.  Dealing with the problems that come with doing group work and being 'group leader' in grade school told me that I never, ever wanted to be a manager.  I wanted to get my bachelor's in SCIENCE.  How else was I going to become a mad scientist?  Alas, I'm stuck being just a step away from a dirty politician, a management major.  I hate management in the corporate business sense.  I'm a filthy Socialist Commy, or perhaps, I belong with the likes of Emma Goldman.
If you've played Dungeons and Dragons, you'll understand this phrase: Chaotic Good with Neutral Good leanings.  In other words, I'm a motivator for change, progress and enlightenment, unafraid to work in, around and under your machine with the sole purpose of tearing it down so you can see that it's inefficient.  I tear conventions down and find a way to make them better.  At the same time, I love to help, even if you're my enemy.  I can pity a person who doesn't care if I live or die.  I can walk up to a random, injured high school kid after they've gotten jumped on by 20 people, stop them from doing the stupid thing and going after their attackers while dabbing blood off them with my ever-present wet-wipes.  I know, I've done it before.
But, I'm not a manager, not in the corporate sense, or even the 'I work for the University' sense.  I'm not a back-stabber, a brown-noser, or a cut-throat business person... nor do I ever want to be.  It's too easy for people to slip into rationalization as a defense mechanism.  I know myself.  I do it too.  When that guy tried to come through my apartment window, I did the rational thing.  I called the police, calmly waited for them to arrive and when all was perfectly safe, a report filed, the window repaired and fitted with new bars, that's when I freaked out.  In the business world, danger lurks everywhere.  It mixes all of the shark-tank exploits of Wall Street with the jealousies and insecurities that some people never grew out of .  The business world is like high school, but with no teachers or parents with enough clout over these grown-up children intent on ruining your life.  There's no punishment for bad behavior unless it's truly illegal, and sometimes, not even then.
It would be best for me to be conditioned to that sort of lifestyle and behavior.  It would be best and even beneficial for me to become a cold, over-rationalizing human-faced monster.  I don't want to be that.  I don't want to rationalize my guilts for selling people products that could kill them with the idea that I have 'fiduciary duties'.  The other thing I don't want is this economic depression. 

Yes, depression.  The financial folks don't want to call it that, but we've sunk low enough, employment's in the toilet and no new advances have been made.  I don't care if we don't look like we did in the depression in the 30s.  People had fewer clothing items, food was cheaper and there were still jobs for unskilled labor.  Here, there's nothing. 
 It's a dead zone if you come out of high school and your family doesn't have cash for college.  Heck, it's a dead zone if you do.  I don't want to be that kid in the L station with their resume strapped to them front and back, asking for a job.
I don't want to become a vagrant contemplating college as an extremely expensive mistake.  I want to feel like I can make a difference in the world or at the very least be happily and comfortably successful at something I enjoy.  I want to make my parents proud of what I've done with my life.  That's why I fear the day's job market, my own unintentional major, and the negative possibilities that may follow.  But, that's part of growing up, right?

The Makings of Elegance: A Reflection

Since I've been busy crafting a lot of these epicly beautiful and utterly timeless pieces, the nerd in me fixated on the phrases most often uttered when such things are displayed.  "That's so elegant!"

My inner linguist takes out her spectacles and asks "Why these words in particular?"  What is it that makes one bracelet or necklace elegant and beautiful while the others are just beautiful?  So, I set out to answer this question by inquiring amongst my fellows, peers, and elders about the attributes of various things they deem elegant.  Here are some of the adjectives I uncovered.

Sparkly                                         Classic                                    Regal                              Sleek
Stands-out                                    Abstract                                  Simple                            Dark

You may not think it's very interesting, but I did.  The majority of the these words don't necessarily apply to something 'elegant'.  For example, a brooch of a 6-inch tall gorilla cast in gunmetal and covered in sparkling rhinestones is dark, somewhat abstract, sparkly and it most certainly stands out, but it's far from elegant.  Really, only 2 of the adjectives I've presented aren't words that could just as easily be applied to something that isn't elegant.  Regal, Classic.  Hmmm.

Typically, something regal is something exuding a kingly bearing.  A kingly bearing?  How do we see kings?  Usually in a positive light...possessing the best and finest things, graceful, polite and well-cultured.  So, a regal piece of jewelry is something of the best and finest materials, a graceful form and possessing a non-intrusive, yest still very noticeable air. 
The other word, classic, refers to something iconic, easily recognized and generally well-liked.  So, a classic piece of jewelry is something easily recognized and usually well-liked.  It's most likely something traditional.  These words have intrinsic qualities that always align with the notion of elegance.

From this, it's safe to assume that the true aspects that make elegance are how classic and regal a piece is.  It has to be something incredibly beautiful, but capable of standing up to time and changing fads, something timeless and genuine.  To that, I'd like to add the word 'unique'.  Elegance is not something mass produced, but something truly beautiful in its rarity.  The diamond solitaire necklace at the very beginning of its use was deemed elegant, but since then, it's been mass-produced, imitated to death and its reputation destroyed.  Everyone has one now.  It's become easy to overlook.  It's elegance has been reduced to an expensive fade-into-the-background accessory.

So, now, I'll take off my nerd hat and bring this topic to... what was it again?  Oh yeah, this blog's about jewelry and each post is supposed to give you an interesting take away!  Here's some of that take away.  Elegance is a quality you want to be applied to yourself and your craft.  So, be genuine, unique, classic and stand out from the crowd. 
My personal take away is that while having a brand name with a catchy acronym or bright colors seems 'cool', the style and quality of the jewelry I make doesn't fit with that.  Long, pretentious names don't work either because my style hops and jumps here and there.  Everything I do is limited edition and one of a kind.  Everything I do is Nonpareil Joolry.