Success

Great article, “What is Success?” by designer Ellen Luption (also author of Thinking with Type and DIY).

Success is more than going to work every day and getting paid. Success means finding personal satisfaction in your work and loving what you do. And it means engaging with a social world: a world of clients and employers, but also of readers, users and other designers. It is those things that make us rich.

Designers getting out beyond their computers and clients to engage? I love it.

Who needs a jewlery box?

I came back from Mexico a few weeks ago with enough new jewlery to double my modest collection. While it’s very exciting to have some fun new earings and necklaces, it posed a question of storage … where do I put this stuff? Even more, where do I put this stuff so I see it, remember I have it, and will actually wear it?

I started looking at jewelry solutions online, and the box I liked at Pottery Barn ran $100. Hmm… There was the cheap plastic storage options at the Container Store, but I’d rather put that money towards the nicer box.

Then I started thinking … what about those coffee sleeves?

I think I’ve mentioned my strange compulsive collection… I made a wreath out of them last fall (again a reaction to not wanting to spend big bucks for a nice seasonal wreath) and I’ve been hoarding them since. In addition, my friends pass theirs along (special thanks here for Scott and Tracy who kept their collection at home and recently handed me a worthy stack of about 50!).

Well… my conviction that these sleeves have more functionality than preventing burns finally paid off… I started stapling them together into a honeycomb pattern to create little cubbies to store my necklaces, bracelets, anklets, clips, hair bands, etc.

I created three units out of seven sleeves each, and strung them from two nails in the wall. I didn’t know if it would hold, but they’ve done a fair job. Each cubby is a little unique, so it takes a little coaxing sometimes to convince pieces to stay, but overall, it works well. I poke earrings through the sleeve material letting them dangle.

While I will probably not store my jewelry in coffee sleeves forever, I have to say, I’m pretty satisfied. I saved $100, worked with my hands, and finally justified my crazy collection habit!