The Funny Things That We Name the Ones We Love AND Some Exciting News!!!

 Hi, there! Eppie and I think and talk a lot about play and the importance of love in the form of button eyes and fabric bodies. 

Recently we were discussing the interesting names that kids give to the precious stuffies and toys in their lives.  

I had a doll named Baby.  Baby was a rag doll based on a Raggedy Ann pattern complete with blue and white dress and fluffy, white apron. She was made for me by my baby sitter, Mrs. Smith. (She actually made me 3 of them over the course of my childhood, as I tended to love Baby to death... repeatedly.) I slept with this doll for many years, she went with me everywhere and was my best friend. 

Eppie's mother made dolls for her and her sisters. Her's was a cute cotton rag doll named Hannah. Hannah had big, blue embroidered circle eyes and a sweet embroidered mouth. She was the perfect size for a 5 year old's hugs. Her mom also made her a few outfits for Hannah and the other sisters' dolls.

While Baby and Hannah are pretty standard names, children can come up with some very interesting ones. Dorian has Captain Funny Face, Army and Sandstorm. Silas' favorite is Bob the Banana (who is actually a monkey) and Pizza and Pizza, Jr. the Ploppets. Anyka has Squeaky the pterodactyl and Cloudy the little handmade cloud that Loreal Brown made. Amora's fave is a blanket named Kiki. We have a Scottish friend who had a opossum in his tree that he called Jennifa in his awesome accent and so when someone gave Mia a possum, she named it Jennifa.

Eppie and I asked my oldest daughter, Mia, to tell us a bit about her favorite stuffie. Here is what she had to say in essay form. (Gotta get those English credits somehow :))

There Once Was A Cow from Khol's

Buying a toy for a child is a tricky thing to do. Will they like it? Will they really play with it? Or is this just another of the many toys to be tossed to the bottom of the toy box? Children tend to become attached to some of the least suspecting of toys. In my life, I have grown up loving the strangest of ‘toys.’ When I was about eight years old I came to love a refrigerator box, which I went on to name Boxy. I practically lived in this box, until it began to decompose in my bedroom floor. 

Boxy was not the only object the small child version of myself held dear; I also had my action figures, Polly pockets, and most importantly, Cowey. Cowey was my baby. From the moment I saw her on the stand of $5 toys in Kohl’s, I knew I needed her. It took convincing, but after many seven year old puppy eyes, and whiny begging, my mother caved… She bought me a cow. This cow became my best friend. I had her with me when I got up in the mornings and with me when I went to sleep at night. Washing her was unacceptable. When my mother would finally sneak her into the washing machine to “give her a bath,” I almost instantly noticed the disappearance of my beloved toy. 

Actually, Cowey was more than just a toy to me. She had life. She was alive. She was my child. I let her age change as mine did. When I was twelve, still madly in love with this cow, she was the ripe old age of five. She even had a birthday, and I sometimes gave her gifts. After officially a decade of love, this year… I still have her. She has suffered many battle scars, and has faded in "cowlor" (see what I did there?), but she is still going strong. At seventeen, I no longer feel the need to sleep with her. This may be sad for my mother, or other family and friends who knew "Baby Mia" to always have her trusty cow, but, as time passes, my three-year-old sister has shown interest in my cow baby. Though I don’t expect her love to run as deep, I believe Cowey will be loved and cherished for many more generations to come. 


So, tell us, what was (or is) your favorite toy, stuffie or doll?
What is its name? Do you still have it? 

AND we have some exciting news to share! We are taking a little growing step and moving into a studio space in Turnip Green Creative Reuse!! We will be joining the creative family of Turnip Green and Plateone Print Co-op in a very community oriented environment to do our art and design work and have a cool space to meet with clients. We can not wait to invite you in to see it! Stay tuned to info about our open studio grand opening in March...
 
~ XOXO~ Julie

WIN A WINNING FRIEND...

Hi All!  We thought it would be fun to give away two softies attached to this blog topic!  These bunnies are not for sale and are different from our shop bunnies, in that they have SPOTS!  If you would like to have one of these cuties for your very own then simply post a few lines about what softies have meant to you, your siblings, your children, or anybody you know... (shoot, any little thought about a favorite doll or stuffed animal will do, whether a 'real' friend or one from fiction, such as The Velveteen Rabbit or Raggedy Ann!)  Post to our blog or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ProBohemia and we will enter you into the drawing that will take place at our new studio, Thursday, March 19th (more info coming).

Ok, so this is just two shots of the same guy... but there WILL be two! :)

We will draw two names and both bunnies will be given away that night, one to our online community and one to somebody that is at Turnip Green Creative Reuse, in person that evening, to visit with Josh Wagner (the artist of the night) and to help us celebrate the opening of our studio space.  If you enter online, we will notify you if you are a winner!  If you are present at the time of the drawing and win you will go home with your new friend!  Hey, why not try and win BOTH! :) ...and Liz and Melanee, you are our first drawing names and are perfect examples of how to enter!!!
-The Professional Bohemians

Children + Devices = Bad Bad Bad (or does it?) ...and how does that make you feel? :-/

Frying their brains... or learning skills?

 When we were little the 'big deal' was television.  Too much TV rotted your brain, right?  What about all those people that grew up to be actors, producers, cinematographers, etc.?  Why was television, arguably, GOOD for some people and just a numbing, zombie making, box of brain death for others? This is what we think, some people were thinking... the whole time they were watching!  They were inspired by the images, music, story lines, SOMETHING.  They were creating later, with the information that they gathered.  Television was a springboard for them, not the end all.

From our experiences with our children, we see that there are different ways that different people 'do' different things.  One kid can watch a TV show and sink into a stupor of unthinking blobness while another kid can watch that exact same show and think about how the lighting bounces off the puppets, how the camera angle makes such a big difference in the 'feel' of the shot, and wonder the whole time how they can replicate the set to produce their own 'movie' of the same quality.  It makes us wonder if the activity (in this case TV watching) is bad for our children, or if there are WAYS to watch TV that are bad for our children.  It makes us wonder if a better question than 'how much screen time' might be 'how is each individual child handling screen time'.

Violently creative?  Or creatively violent?

Do our children really need to be fluent with technology?  Yes.  Won't there be enough people that are computer and device savvy that the world won't need OUR children turning into drones?  Well, the thing is, technology is a language and they will have to 'speak' it well.  (We see that we could be on our own screens far less if we had a better command of technology ourselves.  Ironic, isn't it?)  It makes us think though, that a healthy dose of technological know how is definitely very important for our children's futures.

We spoke with our friend, Loreal, and some good points emerged.  People, we concluded, are individuals.  Rules for one child might not be exactly right for another child.  Life should be lived fluidly and if there are indications that too much internet, device, or digital entertainment time is happening we can simply stop allowing so much...  Maybe instead of spending so much time discussing and thinking about the damage that certain things do to our children's minds we might look at our children, in the moment, and efficiently diagnose the immediate, present situation and respond to that...

Our children can still hold pencils!

Does your child spend time on MineCraft and then build elaborate (or inspired) structures in the living room.  Do they draw box-like creatures on napkins and talk to you about them?  Is there evidence outside of device time that indicates they were thinking while they were staring at the screen?

Some of our children spend time on their screens and then produce all manners of artworks, music, writings and ideas around what they have watched or played.  Some of our children only complain about how bored they are when they are not allowed to play with their device.  Guess which ones we allow to spend more time in front of their screens?

...and are adept agents of espionage!

What do you guys think?  Do you think that we should worry about time constraints if our children are growing, or would they grow MORE without screens?  Also, do children need to be encouraged to be creative and be in the habit of creating FIRST, in order to respond to technological stimuli in a forward thinking, motivated way? What does screen time and the limiting of it mean for adults?  Is it bad for us to be glued to our devices so much, even if we are working?  Do we sometimes make all this more complicated by spending so much time thinking about it?  Would we all get along with less guilt and judgement if we did not have 'emblazoned burned on our hearts' opinions about these things? Thoughts?

-Epp

People That Other People Talk About...

This is a photo of the egg funeral.  Though this egg never had any articles or fun things written about it, we like this photo, and thought it would be fine to just stick it up here at the top of this article about 'living life to its fullest'. RIP egg.

I've noticed that we do a lot of things that, if they don't accomplish any big thing, we brush away by saying, 'Well, at least it's something we can talk about.'
Thing is, there comes a point when that is not enough.  When having a story to drag out at a party or social gathering about some 'fun' thing that we did last week (because we're awesome cool, kick butt artists :)) is not enough.  
I must be getting old.  I just don't have as much fun in the talking anymore.  I want to be doing things that are so mind blowingly awesome that I don't have time to talk about them.  Is it so wrong to say: I want to be doing things that are so undeniably interesting that other people (people that are better equipped and more gifted than I at putting into word the world around them) take time out of their day and open up space in their writings just to talk about me. Wouldn't the world be a million times more interesting if every one of us woke up in the morning and decided that we wanted to be 'people that other people talk about'?
-Epp

When in Doubt, Be Human

We read a line in a post by Seth Godin, quite a few months ago, that I wrote down on my war room wall: When in doubt, be human.  I don't even remember the exact story he told to explain what he meant by that, but he spoke of how we often try to deal with work related things in ways that might be deemed 'professional' but might lack empathy or compassion or simply 'human-ness'.

 We were laughing today at how different mine and Julie's personalities are.  I tell EVERYTHING.  I am an open book and I ramble, complain, rejoice and inform.  Julie is more private.  She shares, but discretely and only what she wants to share.  The thing is, each of us are 'real' in own way and to force ourselves to be different would be somehow false.  I am learning to shut up and she is learning to speak up as we get to experience more and more business successes.  Best of all though (through this baby business and our relationship with all of you) we are learning what it means to be human.  We thought we would be so much more professional at this point.  We thought we would 'learn how to be successful'... It's funny to us that one of the biggest things that we are learning is, when in doubt, (simply) be human!

-Epp

Love, Love, Laugh!

It's time for a big giant smooch!!!  Around our houses love is a big deal!  We think it kind of ALL comes down to love, actually...  All the work, all of the thought, all of the communication... It's all to bring us together and teach us how to love.  Creativity, in a practical sense, is mostly important in its application to overcome obstacles that prevent growth. Right?  

But why's it all so serious?  WE like to have FUN!  The Professional Bohemians have this little thing called Think for Play.  It's simply using our brains to think, in a way that is as fun and as playful as possible.  That makes us wonder, Valentine's day is just around the corner... what are some fun ways that you have said, "I love you"?  

  

A Child Growing Up

 

Today my eldest child takes her ACT test. What?!!! She technically could stay in high school for another year because she has a November birthday. Not a huge deal, I guess, but to me it represents the first step in a series of life changing events for her and me and our whole family. Driver's license, ACT, college, maybe just a phone call to her mother now and then because life is so busy that she realizes that she's not spoken to her (ME) in like three weeks?!?! Hmm. Let me pause here to call my mother. I suddenly feel very guilty.  

 Although, I am not (quite) rethinking the "Fly, Little Bird, FLY!!" cheer that I have always given her. "Of course you don't have to live by me when you are grown! You can go ANYWHERE, do anything!!"

I am not scared or (very) sad, just SO dang excited for her. She was born with amazing drive, a terrific mind and a dash of perfectionism, which being one to let some things slide, I absolutely admire. So, off we go to drop my baby at a test that will be her first step to college, to life outside my home. But, for now, I will soak in the fact that I am very glad to be the one driving her around today. 

XOXO

Julie

 

-BTW: Above is a photo of us from when she was probably twelve or so. She dresses nowhere near that colorful now! (Teenager.)  ;) I wouldn't  doubt if this photo is not already on this blog somewhere from way back when...-

Learning to say YES or (Grabbing Life by the Balls) or (Things I Say to My Kids but They Don’t Like to Hear Because I Use the Word ‘Balls’ and Tend to Be Very Long Winded)

***Disclaimer: This post is beneath a LOT of you... but for people like me, here goes... :)

It is so difficult, as an artist, a parent, or a human being, to learn to say ‘no’.  Generally people don’t like the confrontation, risk of rejection, or determination it takes to make their lips form that small, two lettered word.  I have found that for me it is equally difficult to say ‘yes’.  I don’t like plans, expectations placed upon me, or the responsibility a good ‘yes’ requires.  Frankly, many times I am outright fearful of not being able to deliver on that ‘yes’--- therefore turning it into a postponed and oftentimes excruciatingly more difficult to deliver ‘no’.   This little problem translates into a life of passive, live by the seat of your pants, take in the left overs sort of arrangement.

 

“Do you want this last piece of pizza?”

“Ummmm, well, does anybody else want it?  Uh, I really am kind of full… I don’t think I should.  I’m not going to eat again for a long time though.  Hmmmm.”

“Hey!  Do you want this job?  It’s awesome and it will make you a bundle?”

“Ummmm, I’m not sure my schedule will work out there… I, uh, think that I should probably research that position a little deeper.  I’m kind of trying to figure out what direction I want to go…”

“Do you want to do this thing that you have dreamed about doing from the day you were born and are clearly capable of doing and have told everybody every day of your life you are going to do?”

“Ummmmm…”

What in the world???  How can you go from being a ‘hide under the bed when friends come over’ to a ‘grab life by the balls’ person?  You have to start by saying ‘yes’!

An important step in that direction is to realize that you have as much power as anybody.  You might immediately think that you don’t have as much power as the president, or the queen of England but seriously, they can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.  They can punish you or withhold from you things if you don’t follow their rules, but they can’t make you do anything.  This point can be taken further if you narrow it down to just them, and their personal ‘as one human being’ power.  If they were sitting across the table from you without their armies and organizations and money they would have the same amount of power as you.  Most people are not born into great power.  They either find their power, work for their power, or steal their power.  All people though have some power, the power they need to go through life and continually grow.  Powerless people, people that always insist everything that ‘happens’ to them is somebody else’s fault, are simply people that have not claimed their power.  Most people that cannot give a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when life demands it of them are people that have denied their power.   Stop it!  You are entitled to an opinion.  You are definitely capable of making simple, daily decisions.  Why don’t you?

Well, I have avoided making decisions and having opinions in the past because I never ask for further information.  I will lack knowledge and simply won’t ask for it.  I am powerless to stand in front of somebody and question their question.  What exactly does everybody else think about this last piece of pizza and me having it?  What kind of job is it and what kind of work environment is it?  Can you clarify what you mean by ‘my dream’ so I can align your idea of ‘my dream’ against my idea of ‘my dream’ and get back to you?  A person that is used to making decisions is full of questions from the moment they are approached.  The person in the family that controls the planning of meals has a lot of questions when somebody asks them if they want to buy a tomato… or they had a lot of questions and answered them in their mind before they were even approached.  I know this because, for a long time, my husband was the decision maker by default.  He had to make all the decisions because I would not and if he had to rely on me to do something he had questions.  He would ask me how I chose a specific camera, or ketchup, or insurance.  Generally I would answer him that ___________ (fill in the blank with some decision making, powerful person’s name) told me that that is what he/she bought/used/chose and so that is what I got.  What in the world???  Know things.

 Another main obstacle to power, for me, is pride.  That might, on the surface, sound irrational.  You have to have pride in yourself to have power.  I’m talking about the kind of pride that has prevented me from acting because to do so would indicate that I was taking advice, doing something contrary to what I have professed to support in the past, or would simply be embarrassing to me, were I to fail.   Pride has been a main contributor to ‘power killing’ in my life.  Pride is also the reason that I have refused to ask questions.  It is difficult to convince everybody that you know everything when you are caught asking questions! 

Alright, and I guess it must be mentioned because, even though it is so obvious, it is a biggy: FEAR, FEAR, FEAR.  As I have already mentioned, I am fearful.  I am afraid of failing and equally afraid of succeeding.  I am afraid of any decision that I make turning out terribly wrong.  I am afraid, and this leaves me powerless.  Don’t be afraid!  I am losing my fear in (successful) leaps and bounds.  …and I am becoming increasingly more a ‘force to be reckoned with’.  Become your own ‘force to be reckoned with’!

Another stride toward learning to say ‘yes’ is to hang out with people that say ‘yes’.  We honestly don’t know that new experiences can infuse us with power and that we can catapult forward through life simply by stepping out into the unknown.  We don’t know that new experiences can give us courage and wisdom and can help us connect with people and community.  We don’t know the benefit of ‘yes’ unless we can see it intimately in our own lives or the lives of people close to us.  Make friends with people that are comfortable saying ‘yes’!  Don’t be afraid!  Remember, you are just as awesome as the next guy… you just have to learn to say YES!

Sincerely Yours, 
Eppie

Another Language

A friend from Knoxville and her husband came over to Eppie's yesterday and visited with us for a bit. A very welcome break from researching packaging, in fact... As we all talked, of course, the subject of entrepreneurship came up. 

Our friend's husband has had a business in the medical software industry for 15 years, as have we had an art business for that long. He has just gone through the process of rebranding, well, what a coincidence! So have we...

As he described his feelings of excitement mixed with trepidation about the many ways he is shaking up his standard way of doing business, I couldn't help but know exactly what he was talking about. I love how entrepreneurship has a language and set of experiences that can bond the artists, scientists, landscapers, acrobats- anyone who has to be tenacious and GO GET IT themselves! - Julie