JuBella.com – Get Your Creative Dose

When you need a daily pick me up that is filled with cheerful colors, insightful stories of everyday living, beautiful photography, cozy quilts & crochet, glimpses of cute Cardigan Corgis at play, crafty ideas and patterns, and some sweet and indulging recipes to top it all off, then you head on over and grab up a bundle of Rosy Little Things with Alicia Paulson! I am always amazed at Alicia’s incredible amount of creativity and how she seems to literally make her daily creations and experiences come to life through her blog. If you are no newbie to blog land, then you probably are a permanent fixture in her part of the web so I am sure that you can all concur when I say that she is such an inspiration. She took some time to share a bit of her cozy love with us here on JuBella and she shares some great tips on marketing your work as well as a brief peek into her transition from having a 9-5 to capturing her dreams of creating her online boutique where she sales some of the cutest handmade gifts and home decor. And be sure to pre-order her new book “Stitched In Time” that is set to release in November 2008.

Thanks so much Alicia for a wonderful interview….and here she is folks:

JuBella: Why is creativity important to you?

Alicia: Creativity is important to me because it’s something I take for granted, like electricity, breathing, reading: I don’t think about it as something special, I think about it as something that is automatic. Of course, it’s no more automatic than electricity, breathing, or reading, which in their own ways are pretty miraculous – but I am lucky enough to get to live as if all of those things were unremarkable, and that is an enormous gift!

JuBella: What are your top 5 craft books that you have purchased?

Alicia: I buy a lot of Japanese craft books, but not a lot of craft books written in English, I must admit. I mostly buy lifestyle and decorating books. My favorites are Flea Market Style, Style on a Budget, Vintage Style, From a House to a Home, and Country Style.

JuBella: Why is it important for you to keep doing what you do, and what do you love most about your job?

Alicia: I’d love to keep doing what I do because I’m afraid I’d be useless at having a “regular” job anymore. I’ve come to really rely on the flexibility and independence that being self-employed has given me, though there are a lot of stressful, challenging things about being your own boss as well. What I love most about my job is getting to design whatever I want – more than anything else, I find it incredibly rewarding to have a “job” where I am able to flesh out any idea I have and call it “work.” That is definitely the best, easiest, most fun part, and the part that makes all the rest of it worth it. I’m always most interested and most inspired by the crafts and products and techniques themselves. All the other stuff, the paperwork, the packing and shipping, the computer stuff – those are the necessary chores that allow me to make the crafts, but I don’t love them. But I’m incredibly grateful that I have an audience that collects my work. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to do any of it.

JuBella: If you had to give 3 marketing/selling tips to an aspiring designer/crafter, what would be your top 3 points of advice be…also can you offer any advice on photographing your work?

Alicia: Well, I mostly think that the items themselves – whatever it is that you’re making – are absolutely the most important thing. Your work has to be wonderful, and you have to have confidence in what you’re offering. Your techniques have to be as good as they can be, and the materials you use have to be of great quality. I want everyone who buys my products to receive more than they expect. My worst fear is to have people disappointed by something that they’ve purchased. I work really hard to make sure that when people open that package, they feel like they are receiving a very special present.

As far as photography goes, I would get a camera that captures light in a way that is pleasing to you. Never use a flash, and always use a tripod, and a two-second delay so your focus is as crisp as possible. Think of what kind of environment you imagine your product living most happily in, and try to set that up, to convey it to someone else.

JuBella: We’re you nervous about leaving your job as an Editor in 2000…what was that transition like for you, and what was the biggest challenge of starting your own business?

Alicia: Well, there were lots of life changes going on at that time, so starting the business was precipitated by major upheaval, which made the decision conveniently easy to make: I was desperate to start my life over. That said, I never feel comfortable encouraging people to quit their jobs and start their own businesses – I hope they don’t see my example as a good one for anyone but me. I have absolutely no idea if anyone should quit her job and start an indie business. I’ve certainly found it very challenging, and I think there is a whole lot to be said for having a regular job that you love, and keeping crafting as a hobby. But in my life, with the challenges and skills that I have, it works for me, most days. But my husband brings home most of the bacon, and the health insurance, and the retirement plan, and all that good stuff, so his employment is an absolute factor in my being able to do this.

The biggest challenge has been having to not only invent all the products, but invent all the plans. I had no business experience before I started, so I’ve just made it up as I’ve gone along, and made a lot of mistakes. But I’ve learned a lot and had constant support along the way. Things that I thought were mistakes get re-framed by my husband as just part-and-parcel of the cumulative experience of becoming a working designer, so I try to listen to him when I feel like I’ve really messed something up. He always says, “You get paid in lifestyle, not necessarily dollars,” and I think that’s totally true.

JuBella: Could you share with us your favorites of the following items:

Flower: Peony
Tea/coffee: Chai
Dessert: Vanilla custard
Travel Destination: Wales
Novel/Book: The Element of Lavishness, a book of letters between a writer and her New Yorker editor over a forty-year span.

JuBella: How did you go about planning your studio design…did you just dive right in, or did you sketch it all out first?

Alicia: Total dive right in. There are very few ways that room can be configured because of the windows, the plugs, etc. As it is I still have more stuff than fits in that room, so some of it lives in two big cabinets in my husband’s office. It needs constant upkeep that room. At the end of the day it totally looks like a tornado hit it and I have to do a total clean-up every morning. I have too much stuff. I’m troubled by it all the time.

JuBella: Craft/Design magazines you could not live without?

Alicia: Marie Claire Idees, Martha Stewart Living

JuBella: What is an average day/week for you like as far as crafting, planning, maintaining your website, living, etc.?

Alicia: An average day always starts with coffee, and writing my blog post. That’s my quiet, Alicia-time. I find writing the blog easy and relaxing, so I always make time for it. Then I go into my studio around 9 a.m. and figure out whether it’s going to be an order-shipping day or a making-day or a shopping/errand-running day. Usually it’s a combo making-orders-to-ship day. I’m never ahead of schedule with anything. In between all that stuff I am usually working on a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff, commissioned crochet patterns or projects for books or magazines, answering emails (takes me forever), photographing new products and Photoshopping stuff to load onto the web shop, developing new products, thrifting for new fabrics or stuff for my antique booth. I usually quit at 5 or 6, then make dinner, and watch TV at night while working on a project for myself. I used to work on products at night, but now I only do things for myself after dinner. Otherwise you just feel like you have no life at all. I used to work through weekends, but now I do stuff like regular people – work in the garden, go out with friends, go shopping, see movies. I’m trying hard to separate work and life a bit more.

JuBella: Who are some of your favorite textile designers & fellow Crafters?

Alicia: I love Liberty fabrics, and Cath Kidston’s style, and the super talented folks at Martha Stewart. The community of craft bloggers are incredibly inspiring. I hardly buy magazines anymore, I must say!

JuBella: What could someone catch you listening to and/or watching when working in your studio?

Alicia: Modest Mouse, Lucinda Williams, Old 97s, and Wilco.