Written by AnnaDenise on Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 22:09
We left Brussels Friday morning and arrived on Saturday morning, Hong Kong time. I watched three movies on our flight from Brussels to Delhi and two more from Delhi to Hong Kong. Plus an episode of 'Bones'. I love 'Bones'. Also, why all of a sudden does no one say 'New Delhi' anymore? It's right next to Delhi according to the airplane map, but I used to hear 'New Delhi' a lot more often before. Is New not cool anymore? Anyways, on to the adventures. We walked around a lot that first day, but I was so spaced I can hardly remember what we did. I know we ate some delicious fish ball soup, though. Hehe. Fish balls.
On Sunday we did a walking tour of the neighborhood called Wan Chai. It was absolutely lovely. Colorful colonial style buildings stood shoulder to shoulder with tall, glass, sky scrapers. We immediately got acquainted with Hong Kongs 'hilly' landscape (yeah, in Holland we would call those hills 'mountains' but ya know) and intense humidity. If I had any illusions that taking a week off Bikram yoga would be chill, they were taken care of right then, when we walked up a bunch of stairs in a lovely park in Wan Chai. Also: old post offices and temples.
The next day we walked around 'central' some more (the big, financial heart, with lots of intense tall buildings) and went to a panorama viewing floor in Central Plaza. Which is just a building where people work, and not so much used by tourist, so we got some weird looks, posing in our denim shorts and flip flops. In the evening: Honeymoon Dessert. Which is basically a place where everyone goes to eat dessert. But not your regular dame blanche, crème brulée dessert - no intense black bean, brown weird jelly and 'gluttonous' mango dumplings. It was absolutely delishious. Thank you, Danielle, for the tip! Oh also, we hung out in Victoria Park for like, five minutes and I literally had 24 mosquito bites when we left. Insanity. Also, I am pretty sure I have some kind of disease now, as my jaw started hurting, too (but more on that later).
On Labor Day we went to Macau, the Las Vegas of Hong Kong. Also, once you get past the crazy gambling bs, it's a lovely old Portuguese town. In fact, when we boarded the ferry, our passports got stamped and we got some new currency (which was linked 1-1 with the Hong Kong dollar, so really, what's the point if you're not even confusing people into spending more money on gambling then?). Truth is, Macau was kind of a shock. It was crazy busy in the old town, full of Chinese tourists, it was blistering hot, and also: it's like you're in a Portuguese town... but everyone is Chinese. We didn't gamble, so no interesting stories there. Oh, also - there were these Buddhist monks everywhere, taking pictures of each other in front of casinos... with their iPhones. Yah. I know.
Next day: Kowloon. The 'real' Hong Kong. Where everyone apparently lives and shops. We visited the Science Museum, which was totally lame, and the History Museum, which was totally awesome. They had rebuilt complete streets into the halls of the museum, including houses from the different eras, shops, boats, everything. It was so interesting to learn more about this city which seems to grow taller and more modern every minute you spend in it.
Because Kowloon is quite big, we spend another day there - visiting the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Center (great building by Daniel Libeskind). We then had high tea in the Peninsula Hotel, which was quite the ordeal. There was a string quartet and everything and people holding open every door and serving you. Most amusing thing, however, were all the non-rich folk sitting there pretending to be fancy (like us).
Friday: Lantau. Ahh, I wish we had visited this amazing little island earlier or would have just stayed here for another week. There's the big golden buddha (which had his head in the clouds when we were there) of course, and the monastery, but the island itself is just amazingly beautiful. Especially this little fishing town called Tai O. All the houses were on stilts. So amazing. We took a boat ride for €1,- and saw pink dolphins. AND baby sparrows. We then took a bus and looked for shells on the beach. Best day ever.
Last day. Sadness. Our flight only left around 7pm, so we still had time for a walking tour around 'our' neighborhood (MidLevels & SoHo) and delicious dim sum. Then we checked in and I slept the entire journey home.
The end! :-)
PS: You can see larger versions of the drawings by clicking on them. If you're interested in seeing all 99 photos of our trip, let me know, too.
Written by AnnaDenise on Monday, May 07, 2012 at 17:00
Written by AnnaDenise on Monday, May 07, 2012 at 08:15
I just came back from a marvelous weeklong vacation in Hong Kong. I was excited about the trip beforehand, but the city definitely exceeded my expectations. I had never anticipated it to be this beautiful. I took a crapload of pictures and am still finishing up my journal pages. Here are a few photos.
Written by AnnaDenise on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 00:36
Wow. Most inappropriate title ever. Yeah. I drew about kids and I drew about prostitutes. Not at the same time of course.
I probably should have split this up into two blog posts. Well. Too late now! Enjoy!
Click on the images to see a larger view.
Written by AnnaDenise on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 23:47
I urge you to take an extra hard look at April 8th as I did this drawing in ‘the heat of the moment’. I was so pissed right then. I never do this, to be honest. Usually when I’m pissed, I just sit around being actively pissed and obnoxious. But Ashwin was asleep and there’s only so much rage you can channel into 140 sign long tweets. I think it turned out nicely. I should really be pissed a bit more often. None of this “perspective” bullocks I’d been going on about before.
Written by AnnaDenise on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 00:36
Now. I know no one wants to say it because it's 'wrong' and whatnot.
But let's face it: soon there will be more of them than there will be of us (and there's a great possibility some of you will walk over to the dark side yourselves soon) so we best get these things out in the open.
So I'll say it: old people are farts.
Well, my own grandmothers excluded of course (although my Dutch grandma used to be married to my grandpa who definitely committed the wife-beater offense on a daily basis), but generally speaking the evidence is just too clear to ignore. Most old people definitely are farts or at the least are guilty of some pretty obvious old fartery behavior. And I'm worried.
Just a short FYI: if you're really into old farts or are one yourself, you might just want to head over to the comment section without reading the post. There you can proceed to offload your bitterness on me, whilst keeping your blood pressure slightly below a dangerous level. Deal?
PS: I plan to do one on babies next.
PS2: I am really a nice person. I swear. Old people just kind of creep me out...
Written by AnnaDenise on Wednesday, April 04, 2012 at 09:00
On Saturday, I put on my bright orange cardigan and my Lord James brooch, and pedaled my mom’s bike to In de Ruimte (which means ‘in the space’, but also ‘in space’) to moderate Etsy’s first ever Dutch ‘Startersdag’. The Startersdag was an all-day symposium meant for new Etsy sellers to get a handle on how to run an Etsy shop.
My job was to introduce the speakers, make sure everyone got all the information they needed, and to make sure we finished the whole shindig on time. Of course, the occasional rogue beamer needed to be guided towards to the light as well, which happens to be one of my specialties. All of our honored speakers were very well prepared and it turned out I had plenty of time to make good use of my iPad and tweet the most important lessons of the day. Since I did all of this in Dutch, I’ll simply refer all you Dutch speakers to the hastag #hiergroeitiets, but for everyone else: here are a few highlights.
Marketing = Me
First up, Diana and Laura from @Mamamarketing on ‘becoming a big fish in a small pond’. They accentuated the importance of being authentic and personal in all of your communication and urged sellers to “Make [themselves] visible and crack that door wide open. Become the person behind [their] logo.” Your personality should shine through everything you do, they said. “Actively look around for themes and media outlets that resonate with your personally.” Then, they argued, please stop worrying about people who don’t seem interested in the message you’re trying to convey. “You don’t need those people, anyways”.
The MamaMarketing ladies were very practical and gave us some good, clean, hands-on advice. Like the idea to create a content calendar for your blog, so you can spread out the blog posts and topics you want to write about, or how to create an attention-grabbing bio for your Twitter account. Or who knew that newsletters are not a thing from the past, or that press releases may, not must! still be sent out by mail – preferably in a big envelope with a little trinket inside? Fascinating stuff! As a bonus, the ladies offer handy worksheets free of charge on their website.
Legal Jungle
Then, after a short break, Monique Ruggenaath, Etsy seller and legal advisor, took us on a brief safari into the legal jungle. She urged Etsy sellers to first “[m]ake a conscious choice to become a pro in your business. Once you’ve made that mental switch, the legal steps become quite obvious.” In fact, unlike what a lot of people seemed to think “everyone who has an Etsy shop has already made the decision to try and sell outside of their immediate circle of friends and family. If you have an Etsy shop, you already are an entrepreneur. And you will need to register yourself as a business.”
More importantly, however, Monique spoke of the importance of a good shop policy. “Your shop policies are extremely important. You don’t want to have to rely on them, but in case of a conflict, you need a legal framework to fall back on.” In fact, as soon as someone buys the product you offer on Etsy, you’ve engaged in a contract with your buyer and the shop policies are a big part of this contract. “Be very very clear in your description of the product you’re selling about WHAT exactly it is you’re selling.” Especially if you are using props in the picture or if you suspect your product might have some downsides to it (like it being dangerous for small children to play with, or the colors bleeding when washed).
First focus: Photography
After another short break, we shifted our focus to photography. One of the most discussed topics on the Etsy forums and one of the most important I’d say. Etsy seller Liesbeth Verhart (or PiniPiru as her clothing shop is called) and photography enthusiast showed us a bunch of examples on how to show off your products, but also how NOT to frame your works. “As an Etsy seller you need to seduce your customer through photos alone. Buyers can’t touch or pick up the item, so use all 5 photos to draw them in and convince them. The first picture is the most important picture. It’s the one that goes into treasuries. So make sure it’s interesting, but not too crowded, unclear or weird in color. It needs to fit into different kinds of treasuries.”
In short: put your product in the middle, make sure the background isn’t too distracting, make sure people can see how big the item is and how it can be used. Most importantly, however, make sure the colors are right. “Learn how to use Photoshop or some other kind of photo editing software. To be truthful, you shouldn’t put any photo online that hasn’t been through some kind of editing process. It’s so important that the colors are exactly right.”
Also: a cloudy day is perfect for taking pictures. A sunny day will produce too many harsh shadows.
Putting the ‘fun’ in ‘finance’?
Rob Kramer, from Bedrijfscijfers, told us about bookkeeping. By this time most people were pretty tired and I needed to intervene a bit at the beginning. In an attempt to make the subject matter as accessible as possible, Rob used some words and a manner of speaking that some members of the audience felt were a bit derogatory. It’s not a sensitivity of mine, personally, but I can imagine some people might feel like they’re constantly battling stereotypes about what it means to be a professional crafter. In fact, some members of the audience told us that when they went to register their company, they were pretty much laughed at and told to just go back home and continue with their “little hobby”. Shocking. Rob encouraged them to just go back and insist on them registering you as a company. His core message was that bookkeeping can be simple and manageable and not scary at all and perhaps even fun, when you know where and how to get some of the benefits that small companies can apply for.
And then it was over. We had a short drink afterwards, but I think most people were eager to go home and let all the information just sink in a bit. It seemed like most people had a great time and had learned a lot. Business cards were exchanged and goodie bags given away.
The next day I went back to see the Showroom and do some shopping of my own. The place looked GREAT and I met a lot of people that I had previously been in touch with via email or social media and it was so fun to actually meet them in person. I didn’t have a whole lot of cash with me to spend, but I did get a beautiful cup and saucer from Kim Welling. Pictures of the showroom can be found on Facebook.
All in all, the weekend was invigorating. It was amazing to meet so many new and likeminded people, simply wonderful to be able to contribute to the events of the day, and just so inspiring to be around so many talented people and beautiful things. A big thank you to Marta from EtsyNL for asking me to moderate the day, a big thank you to all of the amazing speakers and, of course, thank you all for coming!
© All images used in this post are courtesy of EtsyNL
Written by AnnaDenise on Friday, March 30, 2012 at 17:30
A small FYI: tomorrow I have the absolute pleasure and honor to be moderating Etsy's first ever Dutch 'Startersdag' ('start-up day') in In De Ruimte in my hometown of Utrecht. The theme is #HierGroeitIets ('something is growing'), a number of experts will help creative (Etsy) start-ups in getting a handle on things like marketing, accounting, law, product photography, and financing. Tickets were sold out even before the official announcement went out, which is why I didn't announce it here before.
Fret not, however, as this event will be taking place in conjuncture with the Etsy Showroom, which will be open the entire weekend of March 31st/April 1st. This unique showroom marks the one year anniversary of Etsy's arrival in Holland and showcases the work of over 30 Dutch Etsy designers, crafters, and artists. It is going to look absolutely amazing and you won't want to miss it, so please make sure drop by on Saturday or Sunday (12-18h).
See you there!
Etsy Showroom in France
Written by AnnaDenise on Friday, March 30, 2012 at 08:15
It's been a weird week. The weekend started off quite amazing, with the weather being fabulous and Ashwin and me finally being able to spend some time together. We walked around town all Sunday long, watching the wild parakeet colony in our neighborhood and finding the loveliest little pavilion to drink a beer - which then turned out to be a Dutch pavilion, moved from the Nieuwe Keizersgracht in Amsterdam to Wolvendael, a lovely park in Brussels.
On Tuesday, the plumbers came by to fix a recurring leak. We figured it would just be a matter of re-sealing the bath tub, yet somehow by Wednesday evening there was nothing left of our bathroom, laundry room, and hallway. If we're lucky the wonderfully restored wooden floor will remain untouched, but most likely that will have to go out as well, as will our kitchen and most of the indoor hallways. Turns out our beautiful apartment with the beautiful original wooden floors and doors, also still boasted the original plumbing from the 1930s, which had rotten all the way through, leaking and rusting away the gas pipes also. In fact, one of the gas pipes had to be fixed immediately and closed off, leaving us effectively without hot water, a shower, or ehm... well, a floor. Well, at least we still have the IKEA pictures to look at, right?
It's still unclear how long all of this will take, but do not be surprised if in a few months you'll see me pass you by on the street looking ripped. I have taken to showering and washing my hair at my Bikram studio, so the good thing is that no matter how bad my asthma will get from the dust in our apartment - I will at least look hot while dying of asphyxiation. HHopefully, I'll find a place of zen while I'm at it. Actually, I think I might have found it already. Turns out my big, badass plumbers love singing along to Shakira's 'Whenever, wherever'. We are going to become great friends, I just know it (although the starting work at 7 am-thing might become an issue later on in the relationship).
Of course, I've been drawing about my amazingly mundane (yet upsetting) adventures and my new friends in my journal, but it might take a while for the scans to get uploaded. I have things to do, places to go, cats to comfort, and hallways to vacuum clean.
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