New Title for a New Day

This blog has been wearing me out a little. I just found it hard to keep up with and a little repetitive. I finally decided that the focus was a little too tight. I already spend most of my days entrenched in faux finishing. Then I update my website fairly regularly with the latest projects and pictures, so by the time I get here i just don't really care anymore. I've also been struggling with how to talk about and display my other artistic interests too. So I've decided to rename this blog, The Design Guy. It'll give me a place to showcase other fun projects and hobbies I have that may or may not be work related. Hopefully this will open things up a little more so my posts won't be so redundant.

Trying to get in some downtime!

Sorry about the gap in posts but I have been a busy guy lately! Getting ready to start a new project on Monday and getting together the last minute details. Trying to use the slowdown in the market to get a few ducks in a row. I hope the falling gas prices and the election being over puts people in a better mood and gets things going at a more regular pace again. The holidays are sure a lot more fun when you have money!!! Took my son to see the new James Bond film last night. It was a pretty cool movie but the saddest part is that I think I spent more time looking at the distressed walls and run down buildings in all of the exotic locales than I did on the plot of the movie! I'm such a nerd. Here are just a few. I have to get out more often!

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!

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

Fisrt official blog post!

Hey Everyone!

This is my first official post to the brand new g3 Studios Blog. For anyone who hasn't heard of us at this point, let me introduce us and tell you a little bit about what we do at g3 Studios.

My name is Gipson Shoemaker III (thus the name g3) and I own and operate a faux finishing and decorative painting business along with my wife Deb. We work out of the twin cities metro area in Minnesota.

I know g3 Studios is a vague name and doesn't directly tell you what we do at first glance, but we thought that was a good thing for a reason. That reason is because we, like the design world, are a changing and ever evolving business. We didn't want to pigeonhole ourselves by descriptively naming ourselves. This allows us to keep adding new services and ideas to the mix without having to make new business cards all the time.

Anyway, we offer a lot of services and artistic ideas which we go into at great length on the website, so we won't bore you with all of that here at the risk of becoming redundant.

Deb and I haven't really figured out yet who's going to be doing the posting here. I'd like to say it'll be a shared responsibility but knowing me it'll probably become more of Deb's baby than mine eventually. We'll put our name at the bottom of the posts so people know who's talking.

I hope you find this blog to be fun and entertaining and make sure you let us know if you feel we're overlooking anything you might be interested in.

Gipson