To Blog or not to Blog!

This is about the point that I think most newer bloggers start wondering if it's really worth the effort. When inspiration has worn off a little and you're worried you'll start sounding like a broken record. This is a business blog so I try to refrain from negativity and personal musings, so it limits my content somewhat. I promise to try and keep this as interesting as possible but if anyone has anything specific they were wondering about or wished I'd address, feel free to add a comment or suggestion. I never take critique personally so don't be afraid. I'll also try and post some more pics of current projects and fun things. I know that adds a lot to the visual interest of the blog.

So here's to keeping up with this blog and hoping it finds a voice of it's own someday.

Feeling Lucky!

Today was a good day! Not a great day, not a stupendous day, just a good day. What makes that original statement so awesome is that it's Monday and I can still say that! Mondays don't typically treat me too well but today I had nothing to complain about. And since life is too easy to complain about I try extremely hard to keep this blog positive and as complaint free as I possibly can.

With all of that being said, I think it's the good days that make life worth living and the work worth doing. I sometimes get worn out by my choice to be self employed. I think it would just be so much easier if someone else could...fill in the blank. I'm sure you know how it is. But then days like this come along when I decide what time to go into work. When I get to go home for lunch and touch base with my kids. When I can say yes to my youngest and hang out a little longer to indulge in a quick game of catch with a football. When I can go into my latest project during off hours to get some work done without the distraction of other contractors because this time it's a commercial job instead of residential.

It's the good days that I realize how lucky I am to get to do what I do for a job. And it's days like that when I truly feel grateful for the people who allow me this luxury in life. Those people would be you, my clients. Generated mostly through word of mouth, my clients are the ones who allow and trust me to be me. Not many people get to say that.

I had an art teacher tell me a long time ago that being an artist for a living was the best job you could have. "Think about it" she said,"it's like getting paid everyday to be you! Can you think of any better way to make a living?"

No, I really can't.

Thank you for allowing me to feel so lucky!

Fauxing Green!

I know a lot of people are sick of hearing about the whole "green" thing, but we take it very seriously at g3 Studios. It's really easy to throw around a lot of buzz words and green terminology but we like to think that this issue can go a little deeper than a sales pitch. In other words, anyone can buy and use the latest green product and call themselves a green practitioner.

For years we have always worked hard at being environmentally aware. I can't tell you how many job sites I've been on where anything goes as far as what makes it into the trash can at the end of the day. Or the amount of toxic materials that were used to create a certain finish. No one is perfect but I can promise you that we try as often as possible to maintain a green and clean work ethic.

Some tell tale signs of contractors that claim to be green but aren't are easy enough to spot. They still use tons of plastic instead of reusable drop cloths. The amount of paper used for masking and being tossed at the end of the job is ridiculous. The use of disposable brushes instead of washing out quality brushes. They buy product by the gallon instead of larger 5 gallon containers because they might be convenient.

An occasional shortcut too often turns into sloppy and negligent habits that have a way of adding up over the years, typically in land fills.

My personal pet peeve isn't that everyone hasn't adapted to a better way of working, it's the pretenders who are claiming to be green in the efforts of lining their own pockets with a different kind of green!

Staying positive!

I sure am glad that it's not Monday anymore! I swear that Monday's are jinxed with strange voodoo. It's so hard to stay focused and enthusiastic sometimes and when you add the burden of a Monday to that, the results can be disastrous if you're not careful. OK, so maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic but you know what I mean.

I guess the name of the game is to just try and stay positive. Even when you don't want to be. I think now more than ever it's important. It's easy to be positive when things are going well, it's when things get tighter that this philosophy is harder to maintain. Go g3 Go! Yeah team g3!

I'll have to keep working on that!

Gipson

Slowly but surely!

Today was the official first day of the studio having it's doors open to the public! A whole one person came through the doors and it turns out they were looking for the law office upstairs:(
The good news is that they came in and didn't hesitate to ask for the law offices which must mea on some level we looked like a professional business and not someone's living room! Hey, I've got to find the silver lining in something.

Anyway, it's a start and like all great things you have to get through the bad to get to the good. Tomorrow, 2 whole people might come in and who knows, maybe one will be looking for a good faux finisher!

Gipson

Giving back!

Deb has been working on organizing our charitable efforts. It seems most of our clients have a similar love for dogs that we do. We will be donating 5% of our gross income to an animal shelter located in Hastings called Animal Ark. This is a no-kill shelter and it's where we found our first dog, Cinder almost 11 yrs ago. They do wonderful work and are in the process of expanding their facilities as well as their own charitable efforts. Cinder was taken care of by these people for over a year. She is a large black Chow mix. At other shelters she would've been put down long before we rescued her.

The reason we like the idea of funding this charity is because it obviously hits close to home without being just another extension of our work. Even we like to give it a rest occasionally. We realized one of the great perks of this job is getting to play with the client's dogs while we're on site, so the choice just seemed fairly logical in some ways.

This isn't a marketing ploy or tooting our own horn, it's just a way for us to give back in a way that our client's could relate to as well. This decision is not going to reflect in our pricing in any way. This was a business decision based on what we wanted to give back, not what we wanted to make people give inadvertently. We will never pass off charitable offerings onto our clients and claim them as our own.

Gipson

By the way I promise to cover other subjects also!

I know this showroom talk is getting to stack up and trust me, I think I'm sick of talking about it more than anyone right now. So, in the spirit of newness I promise to take a break from it and talk about other stuff once in awhile. Some of the topics we'll be covering in the near future will be; finding inspiration in day to day life, staying centered when the world goes crazy, design ideas and tips, recommended reading, how to pick a color, and just about anything else that wanders through my noggin occasionally.

For the most part these posts will remain business oriented but in a much lighter way than the website is. The website is supposed to feel very formal and professional while the blog is where we get to let our quirky side out a little more.

It never really dawned on me until now that I might be a boring person or writer and that people may not really care about anything I have to say, personally or professionally. What a shocking realization! All of a sudden this seems like a big responsibility, this blog thing! What if I'm too old to blog? Or too out of the loop? To be totally honest I'm not even 100% sure of what a blog really is or how to do it. I think I'm heading in the right direction but who really knows? It's not like there's a core group of blog police out there to let me know if I've strayed into the nether regions of the cyberverse never to be heard from again! Or is there? That's a whole new thing to consider!

Only time will tell I guess if I'm cut out for such an awesome responsibility of writing a blog. Hopefully like anything new and unknown I'll keep getting better at it as I continue to do it. If anybody wants to address anything specifically that I might be overlooking make sure to let me know first before you report me to the blog police!
Gipson