other people's ideas

one of my favorite things about the concept behind jujuisgoodluck is that people seem to always have something to suggest. different movies mean different things to different people... and while i have a rhyme and a reason behind what makes sense to me on a greeting card- a huge chunk of that is just personal taste. 

so... send your ideas to me at jujuisgoodluck@gmail.com!

if it seems like something other people might like too, it will end up on a card. and you will get some measure of credit :). if it makes me smile, it will end up on the blog.

this is for alex.

tweets, blogs and facebook updates

as a greeting card designer i am often reminded how obsolete the pen has become. as a part time employee hoping for a full time salary in a building full of magazines teetering the edge of collapse, i am constantly told that paper is something of the past. apparently we don't read anymore. we watch. or we scan rss feeds. we don't write. we blog. in fact, even blogging has become "so last year". we twitter. (we tweet? is that actually the correct way of saying that? are there actually more correct ways of conjugating a made up word?)

i have been thinking about it a lot lately, and twitter absolutely fascinates me.

for those of you who don't know what twitter is (are there people out there who don't know what twitter is yet?)- here is my favorite description of the phenomenon:

"if you're the last person in the world to not know what Twitter is, here's a simple explanation: it allows you to post text messages to the web. You have a 140- character limit per posting, and you can "follow" other users (in aggregate or individually) and they can "follow" you. It's kind of like Facebook's status updates, but available for anyone to see. To read an individual user's Twitter page in some semblance of order is beside the point. Most individual Twitter pages resemble a poorly written blog. If you looked at mine, you'd see updates from a recent football game I attended, a joke about the inauguration, and an alert that a friend of mine was getting a tattoo. My Twitter page is lame. Most are. What happens collectively is what matters." -Will Leitch
(to read the full article check here)

so basically, to twitter (to tweet?) is to keep the universe updated with your current thoughts, actions, mood, jokes, and random observations. to twitter is to hope that someone cares.

the idea fascinates me. it is obscenely personal and remarkably impersonal at the same time. it is not in any way private like a letter yet the things you read are equally as mundane or as deeply intimate. is this the future? not telling each other our feelings, but instead uploading them to the internet? obliterating the birthday card in exchange for a facebook wall post?

be honest, how much have you learned about your friends lives recently via facebook status or twitter activity?

yesterday i read an article on gawker entitled "I Tweet Therefore I am". it argues that the twitter phenomenon is evidence of an under-developed sense of self and an overdeveloped sense of narcissism in todays generation. read the article. it is interesting.

personally, i don't "tweet". sometimes i would like to think that i am above that sort of thing, but deep down i know it isn't true. it's probably much more honest to admit that i just haven't gotten around to it. i long for connection just like the rest of them... and while i don't have my own twitter page, i update my facebook status just like the rest of 'em. i often catch myself reading other people's twitters to get a handle on their life. why? why? why?

the article quotes an MIT professor saying "It's so seductive. It meets some very deep need to always be connected, but then it turnsout that always being trivially connected has a lot of problems that come with it."

i think she's hit the nail on the head- sort of. we each have a deep-seeded need to connect and to feel connected. i agree. but we are never fulfilled. hence the "problems" that she describes that soon follow such trivial connection. if we actually wanted to feel connected, we would connect. we would stop sending tweets into cyberspace and phone a friend. the problem is we are a generation that isn't quite sure what we want. we want connection-- ok... check. We want casual. we want convenient. we want quick. we are embarrassingly voyeuristic. we want to watch and to be watched. we need constant affirmation that we are living and breathing. constant affirmation that we are caring and feeling. and we are smart. there will be newer more casual, more convenient, more affirming, quicker ways of connecting invented every day. blogging has become tweeting will become something will become something.... until we are simply uploading our heartbeats online for people to follow. but (i think) i stand firm in my argument that we will continue to be unfulfilled. the more that these technologies distance us from our friends and from ourselves, the more worried we should become.

i'm down with the twittering and the constant updating and the posts to cyberspace, but we are a generation that needs grounding.

not to sound way too over-reaching, but i think that's what i'm trying to do with jujuisgoodluck. i only just realized that that's the best way i can answer the question "why greeting cards? why now? who cares?” greeting cards. the anti-twitter.

some valentine's day stories

a collection of valentine stories from friends and family and yours truly...

when i was in kindergarten billy m. gave me a necklace with a heart on it. i was too embarrassed to ever wear it or even to say thank you, but i still think about it to this day. boys seem to get it right in kindergarten...

my dad always sends flowers to my mom, my sister and i for valentine's day. it's a silly tradition because he could easily bring them home and give them to us... and we always know they are coming so it's not like it's a surprise... but it's probably the best thing about my valentine's day every single year.

when i was in 10th grade i had a crush on a girl in my math class. Valentine's day was my opportunity- and i jumped at the chance to show how that i liked her. i got to school early, emptied out her books from her locker and filled it with red roses. how was i supposed to know she would be running late that day and get in trouble for not having her books in class? my plan totally backfired-- instead of digging the romantic gesture, she flipped that i had stolen her books and gotten her into trouble. it was horrible.

my ex boyfriend totally blew it the first valentine's day that we were together. he did absolutely nothing. no thought, no nothing. so we broke up. by the next year we were back together... and he presented me with a scrapbook. he had saved some sort of token from every date we had had- every time we had hung out- everything- since that failed valentine's day-- and put it all together in a heart shaped book.

to be honest i'm not much for valentine's day- so instead of flowers or stuffed animals or chocolates or cards- i filled his room with a whole bunch of indie beers. you know, the kind he likes with hipster labels? do you think he's going to like it?

seven years ago my best friend wrote me a love poem. it was raining when he gave it to me, and got wet. we laughed about it because i assumed he had to have been kidding. to this day i don't know if he was.

hallmark holiday

today is valentine's day. a day for love- for chocolates- for over spending on a bouquet of red roses- for candle lit dinners, romantic gestures... and most importantly greeting cards. it is a holiday that screams commercial consumerism... a holiday that the romantics swoon for, and the cynics and hipsters dub a "hallmark holiday".

i think i must be the last of the romantics (ps check out the song next to the last romantic by josh ritter- it's wonderful) because all that i have heard for the past month is how much everyone around me seems to hate valentine's day. "its just so commercial" or "it's an excuse for everything to be over-priced" or my personal favorite, "why do i need a specific day to tell someone i love them or to have someone tell me they love me. he should do that 365 days of the year".

well, kiddos, i'm here to make a plea for the spirit of valentine's day.

it should absolutely come as no surprise that i love this holiday. i make greeting cards... it must be in my blood. this sort of thing is right up my alley, huh? well let me preface my "in defense of valentine's day" by saying that first of all, it has nothing to do with selling cards... and secondly it has absolutely nothing to do with chocolate, roses or candle lit dinners. Full disclosure- I have only been in a real relationship on ONE valentine's day- and my italian poliziotto of a boyfriend was busy keeping the dangerous streets of florence crime free to hang out. so there. this has nothing to do with romance or with chocolate or with roses and candle lit dinners.

instead my plea is much more simple.

valentine's day is ONE day built into our calendar year to tell those that we care about that we love them. it is as simple and as cool as that. it's not a conspiracy by the card designers and the florists to peddle our products. it is just a day to remind us to turn around to those around us and say "guess what? I love you" or at least, "gosh, i like you a whole lot".

it's not just for boyfriends or for girlfriends. it's for FRIENDS. it's for mom and dad. it's for brothers and sisters. it's for teachers or that coworker who always knows how to make you smile when things get stressful. it's for your favorite barista who always gets your order right just in time for you to make the train.

PLUS it's a total free pass of a day to be as silly and absurdly romantic or over the top as possible. it's a free pass for those of us out there who are chicken shit (myself included) to walk up to that cute boy we eye flirt with all the time and hand them a valentine. who knows, maybe that little valentine will the the start of something beautiful... and added bonus: if it totally flops we get to write it off as "being caught up by the hallmark holiday".

Valentine's day is a day built into our year to love others and to let ourselves be loved. and no offense to the haters and the hipsters, but we could all use a little bit of that.

let's stop looking at those coupley couples with matching scarves kissing in central park and then rushing home to eat a pint of cherry garcia in our PJs. enough of that- that's not what today is about. i promise you-- as a card designer who attends these secret conspiracy meetings about the nature of valentine's day-- that's not what today is for. instead let's embrace the true meaning of the holiday. let's get creative and open ourselves up. tell people how much you appreciate them. not with roses. not with chocolates. not even with cards (although jujuisgoodluck is perfect for that sort of thing, hint hint). just with a little bit of thought and a whole lot of heart.


so there it is... my quiet plea....

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY.

xoxo,
juju

ps. i love you all.

this week!

what i am reading: revolutionary road by richard yates
what i am listening to: the passion pit, chunk of change
photo of the week:
my brother, two of my closest friends, and i walked to brooklyn on the coldest day of the year. while we might have frozen our noses off, the photos were worth it.
website discovery of the week: www.thekitchn.com
movie rec of the week: while you should obviously catch up on the oscar nod movies, my honest movie of the week is he's just not that into you. it is cute, heartwarming, and wonderfully truthful about the neuroses of dating.
card designer of the week: chewing the cud

jujuisgoodluck on thekitchn.com

this was probably one of the most exciting things to happen, silly as it may be, and it could not have happened at a better time. as everyone knows, the recession is draining... not just on our bank accounts, but our emotions and often times our creativity. it is hard to stay motivated when trying to start a creative small business when more often than not your feedback is "i love your work, unfortunately we just aren't buying right now". such has been the experience for jujuisgoodluck over the past few months... which has lead to a pause in efforts and a lull in creativity. (it's about time i admit to it). and then, all of a sudden there was a spike in sales on etsy. "valentine's day," my roommate blurted from his spot on our couch, "duh."

obviously cards would sell better around valentine's day (thanks, roommate)... but why jujuisgoodluck? why now? why pretty much only the mac and cheese card?

the mystery was finally solved by way of one kind esty user who used the comments section of the order form... my card has been featured on an affiliate of Apartment Therapy... a blog known as thekitchn.com.

first of all, the blog is awesome for all of the food lovers out there-- second of all, i could not be more excited and flattered. check it out!

thekitchn.com

gros bisous,
juju

etsy

jujuisgoodluck's etsy shop

buy! buy! buy!
if for some reason the card you want is out of stock do not hesitate to contact me at jujuisgoodluck@gmail.com