Dispatch no. 47 - Updates Podcast

Would love to hear how you decide on a schedule and how do you actually manage one? I have been considering for a few years starting a youtube channel in regards to my quilting and garment making. However, even though I am quite chatty, I am more creative than lets say organised. Therefore fear the technical side of video making and maintaining a schedule!!

Question: how excited are you for Arcane season 2?

I'm here for your storytelling or your 'rambling', makes me feel like listenkng to a friend. so for your Q&A 1) I would love to hear some stories from your childhood or what made you the creator that you are today? 2) are you more goal- or process-oriented in terms of your sewing, youtube-creating, etc. 3) what's your thought process when planning out your schedule? Looking forward to see your new lookbook (as always) i love your sense for design. Sending you a lot of good energy for your mind and all your projects 🥰🤗

I would love to hear more about your writing

Two questions... 1. What is it about China/Asia-ish that drew you in to use it as the setting for your book? 2. How do you clean the bottom of your iron? I also have a Chi, and even using a pressing cloth, gunk gets on it. Haven't come up with a way to clean it well. Thank you!

I would very much like to read some of your writing. I think your biggest worry is what you will do when we want to read the rest of the story. Seems to me the great writers have an extraordinary ability to empathize with humanity. The stories coming from your mind tell that you take the time to consider what it feels like to be in someone else's shoes. That takes heart and courage.

Question: you make so many incredible garments each year, how many of them do you actually wear regularly?

Hi again, this is just an afterthought, but fwiw, I’m going to say it. Have you checked the person/company out on Google or whatever? Are they bona-fide and is the person who contacted you really who they say they are? All of what you and other patrons have been mentioning about time pressure, samples to them (just before they conveniently go on holiday and perhaps say that they won’t be contactable) and rush the samples to them, and don’t tell anyone about this… and yada yada… makes me wonder about that awful possibility. Is there someone at the company receiving mail? Is the address verifiable? (Both email and snail mail). I hope you have not been hacked or scammed, but you spoke about your computer making strange noises as well, and that sets off alarm bells in my head…albeit perhaps a wee bit paranoid head, but I’ve been on the receiving end of these pests and it very nearly broke me, so when I was thinking about it all, I wanted to ask you if you had done the usual checks to see if they are okay and verifiable, because I’d hate anyone to go through that sort of thing. They get cleverer and more cunning as the economy worsens, so, if I’m right in thinking this, then you are not the only one who’s fallen for maybe flattering and subsequent scamming, you are definitely not stupid and you certainly will not be the last to be duped. If I’m wrong, then laugh at me and my thoughts; it’s just my suspicious mind, and possibly you could use these paranoid, creations of my mind in your private stories??!!😂😂 Anyway, stay safe. I’m posting this with genuine care, concern and love for your work and person. 💕

I am usually the last to a party, so, no surprise here as I seem to be the last to comment..sorry. But, it’s because I was thinking of how you would feel if you released part of your private writing collection on Patreon. Whilst it may be flattering to read that your patrons want to read some of your inner workings as a n author, I think you should keep this to yourself. Why? Much like the comments above, if I loved what you wrote and then couldn’t read more…what a disappointment for me! If I didn’t like it, well, same disappointment! And this is a part of you that is very, very special, very uniquely you. You have said that writing helps you (diffuse, get through life, etc) and that is sooo important. I know that, as a diary writer and “What if…?” scenario writer, those thoughts and inner workings are fragile. If my one vestige of security, my place of safely dissolving into my thoughts and a bit of fantasy, was to be criticised before I was ready for it, I would probably get pretty darn 😠 . Do you see what I’m saying here? I have every faith that at the right time, things will slot into place, and you will publish …whether as a novelist or as an artist creator. Your talent for showing us your genius of garment creation is not up for question and those who truly value that will be very happy to wait a bit longer for one of your projects or podcasts. ( I just love those podcats, they are simply yummy to listen to as I’m pottering about, or sewing, or whatever.I will continue to support you , and I don’t have a problem with waiting a bit longer for a video showing your creations. I don’t want you to be hurt if someone however inadvertently or not, shares something from your fiction to someone else who then copies it and or publishes it. Keep your fiction private until you want to publish big time. As far as the secret project goes, again, someone else has already written a very sage piece of advice….try the negative reversal technique, by you and tell them that as you have not heard from them despite their express wish for your work to be sent to them immediately, (while putting the rest of your life on hold, btw!!) , you will be assuming that they are no longer interested. Ask them to reply by a specified date and time, then get on with your life. I have encountered people like this in my life, and whilst it can be a real downer, just continue to believe in yourself and in life. I am a believer in the “things happen when they do for a reason” even if at the time I can’t (expletive!)* see that reason. 😊 You are truly gifted, believe in your own worth and importance and take control….dont let other people control you. You’re much too special for that. Take care. ❤️

My support on patreon is for you to have the freedom to do your best work. Even if there were no extra videos and podcasts and I just saw what everyone else does on the public YouTube. Keep your writing til you're ready, and keep posting old patreon vids to YouTube for as long as you need to :)

As a potential reader, I would encourage you to NOT release the chapters. If I don’t like it, bummer. If I do love it, I cannot read the rest to find out what happens, so even more of a bummer. You need to protect your heart from criticism. I enjoy the additional Patreon content, but I contribute to support you and not for the content. Most sewing creators only release videos every 2 weeks. I understand why you do it weekly, but speaking for myself, you don’t owe me such a personal part of your soul as payment for releasing the old videos to the general public because of life.

I love that you can give us no update for 30 minutes. I wish I had your gift! So thoroughly entertaining and interesting. I wish you all the best. You made my day brighter.

As a freelancer, I can relate to the frustration of waiting to hear whether a major project will happen. I hope the Mystery People get their act together and give you a concrete proposal soon!

I hope you hear from the Secret Project very soon. The following is just my opinion/rant because I do not know how things are done it the fashion world. To me, it is unprofessional and shows a lack of respect to keep you waiting, especially when they wanted you to rush to get your samples to them...and then go on vacation (insert side-eye here). I would think by now they have enough of an idea of what they want to do to tell you 'yes' or 'no'. To keep this short, I will just say I am (at least) annoyed for you that they are not giving you a definite answer so you can make plans accordingly. Question: Other than your house, writing, and current creations, in a perfect world, what would you like to do, or at least try? I would be very interested is reading your book, if you choose to share it.

They sure are keeping you in limbo! I hope you will receive good news and speedily. I recently discovered the fashion photos that Edward Steichen did in the 1920s and 30s for Vogue and Vanity Fair. They're wonderful, very much like realist paintings and he was a painter, so it kind of reminded me of you. There are some really stunning images and always very grey and moody. It's wonderful to listen to you as you look at a photo and describe all the things you notice, the details, like you do in your Catalogue videos. A similar type of video for Steichen photos might interest some new viewers on YouTube. I was fortunate enough to be a pen pal with Yousuf Karsh, back when I was in high school and it was through him that I heard of Steichen. They were icons of photography! 📸 And as an add-on about your writing, I remember you saying in the past how you’d love to get feedback and feel the high of someone else feeling your words as you intended. It’s possible that could happen by sharing here on Patreon, but despite our best efforts, we are still strangers on the internet and this book is your precious creation. I would feel good knowing that you saved it for until you feel, in your heart, without reservation, that it’s the right time to share. Thinking about you sharing your writing as payment for patrons makes me sad. The reveals of your sewing creations are fabulous and the reveal of your book needs to own the stage, too! You’ve a good head on your shoulders. Fingers crossed that proper publishing is on the horizon!🥰📚

Yes, hope you hear back on Secret Project ASAP! For the Q&A, or I'd watch a whole separate storytime video about this, I'm dying for the details of the mermaid tail company you mentioned working for! Maybe a storytime video of all of your jobs before YouTube? How you got them, what you did, any funny stories? I worked so many weird jobs during college and love telling people the crazy stories, especially about the hotel I worked at one summer, ha, what a ride!

Thanks for the update! I’m fairly new to your patreon and I am here to stay. I love your videos and your style! I’ve got two questions. 1) I’m really curious how your fashion interest developed throughout your life. So what were you wearing, what did you wanted to wear but maybe didn’t (for whatever reason), and what/who did you inspire/influenced you? 2) this question is more drafting/sewing related. So we all have different body types. I for example have more of pear type. Wide hips , a fairly thin waist and an 75AA cup (europe) . So for the hips I can relate to what you are doing, but the bust is harder for me. How can I play with darts (like gathering) at the bust level, there just don’t seem to much to gather… do you have any tips/hacks for that? Maybe you could do a new dart manipulation video with more advanced techniques one day 😁

No schedule = anxiety in my world. I hope you get an answer very soon. I would love to read any of your work, but I do understand that anything written comes from the soul and that would very hard to do. Whatever you decide, I'll be here waiting.

I would love to read a sample of your work. It's always been thrilling hearing about that whole literary universe growing in the background, so any look at it would be so appreciated.

I understand your frustration at the delays. Not being able to set deadlines can leave you spinning in place and feeling like you can’t do anything. Hug the kittens, they will understand.

I am always brimming with questions for you but the moment you said you might do a Q&A they all flew out of my brain. Oh well. And I think it’s very brave that you are willing to put your writing out there for ons to read, maybe, because I write a little myself, have for nearly 2 decades, and I have a giant box filled with it (on paper) as well as an external hard drive, and while I have never finished anyting cause adhd brain won't let me, I would rather die than have anyone read it, actually I would probably take it with me when I die. It's too much me, too personal, it has been made up in my brain and I don't want people knowing what goes on in my brain. But it's such a comfort to read back your own writing. So I will feel honoured if you would let us read a bit of it, I am very curious. I hope you hear something back soon about the secret project and that it's positive, not just in the way that it's happening but also them understanding that it might be impossible to finish before April. I hope all the best things happen for you, you have worked your ass off and deserve it. Anyway, too much rambling. I will think about those questions and hopefully one pops up before the deadline. Have an amazing month to come! (Edit was me taking away me getting a little too sappy at the end)

Yes to the armor inspired garments. Q. Do you have any thoughts on wearable/sewable LEDs, such as the Lily pad arduino? Is that something you would be interested in demonstrating? (I’ve recently been working on a fire inspired dress that incorporates tiny button cell battery powered lights, your epic sleeve pattern from your iridescent and red dress and some lovely SFX fabrics such as shifty crystal organza and shot taffeta) If you feel comfortable to share, I would be interested in reading your work. Best wishes regarding the project

And I would LOVE seeing your whole eye makeup collection. I’m totally addicted to them because of your sharing them in the past. I have 4 palettes of glitter and multichrome eyeshadow. Also lipsticks! Q & A - what is your favorite part of creating your YouTube videos now, as opposed to when you started your blog/channel?

May I suggest filming updated collection videos as you pack stuff up for a move? Or as just filler content? Frankly just sharing your entire embroidered bug/moth etc collection? I really loved all of your older collection videos. If they don’t do well on main channel, how about sharing here?

The secret project situation reminds me of Tech Week in theater. Every thing is Hurry Up and Wait. It's maddening. Sending you all the strength and patience you may need!! I love q&a's!!!! What was the worst project you have ever sewn? What was your experience in fashion school like? Was it hard at first to get criticism on your projects?

How interesting they had to get your sample RIGHT AWAY, just before their vacation 🤦‍♀️

As frustrating as it is to delay your house hunting further, I will say the longer you delay just means being able to save more for your down payment + home improvement/repair budget! Hope you get closure and a path forward soon. Not having a definite plan can be maddening. ----- On mystery project a suggestion that you can feel free to take or leave: If you find yourself strung along with no response for too many weeks, I'd highly recommend using a negative reversal. We use them at my job for when potential clients still haven't gotten back to us on if they want to move forward with a project and they tend to get a much faster response. For example, instead of: "Any update on this? Do you still want to move forward with the project?" doing "Since we have not heard back, we will assume you are not interested in moving forward with the project at this time. Please let us know if that changes, and we would be happy to discuss our new timeline." We find clients are WAY more likely to reply if they think the door might be closing. It could even be a not complete door-close option like "As I have not heard back yet, I am assuming the project will not be moving forward with an April deadline. I have other project commitments I will be working on until . Please let me know when you have had time to review my submission and we can discuss a new timeline for this project." It could help you have some closure knowing you have stated your availability so that once/if it gets green lit you won't have a surprise short deadline coming.

Which is more terrifying? Having a Q&A or sharing your writing? Hmmmm. I'll enjoy either one!

Ever since your shared the first bit of your writing with us I have been hungering for more! I still go back to listen to it. The characters are so engaging and world building is so smooth... One can't help but get caught up in the plot! I will look forward to all and any you choose to share! ❤️

I've been there with the never-ending rewrites. I finally gave up mostly on agents and editors and self-published this month. It feels good to just have it out there.

I would love to read your books! I hope things settle down for you soon. You are very well organized and seem to really enjoy being organized. I mean, who doesn't want to be organized and know what is coming? This mystery gig sounds like it will make a great story regardless of where it leads. I wish you the best of luck and lots of calm vibes, as the youth says...say? anyway Good luck!

I feel it in my soul how difficult not knowing is for you... Waiting Mode is the worst! As an anxious planner myself, it sounds like you're doing a great job with the schedule! I'm the software development field, and what you described is similar to the Agile project management process - having an overall priority, and pulling work into active implementation as they are ready and you have bandwidth. A suggestion (if you want it) - Idk if you have ever tried using a Kanban board, but it might help you feel more in control than a calendar in this situation, where you have plans A, B, and C and you don't know which is happening. Granted, I know nothing about YouTube production so maybe it's apples and oranges 🙂 It's also perfectly reasonable to renegotiate the deadline for the mystery project after not hearing from them for a month. Presumably you will have expenses and you certainly will have the opportunity cost of lost time on other projects, so it's not like they should have expected you to be moving forward this whole time. I encourage you to bring it up if they don't, and push for a deadline that allows you to be a healthy human while doing it 💜 Also I would love to read some of your book!! But no pressure, I certainly don't feel as though you owe me anything 😊

Personally, I'd love to read some of your writing. But only when you're ready. Fingers crossed the mystery people get back to you soon, it must be so frustrating putting everything on hold.