Look Ma! We're on TV!

Labor of Love

We are thrilled to be featured on www.ideamensch.com, a website that showcases creative people doing what they do best or, as the site lovingly puts it:

[We are] a community of people with good ideas. Our impossible mission is to help anyone who wants to bring their idea to life, do it.

Well. We are over the moon to be today's featured interview! In it, we dive deep into the world of storytelling and "process" and what blows our hair back. We talk about how Velveten Stories got started in the first place, our current projects and the craziest job we'd done so far.

Here's a little exerpt:

What is the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?

Mia’s worst job was in retail, selling cheap “business casual” wear in a mall. Constantly scrutinized by a bevy of frustrated, power-hungry middle managers, she did her best to execute the “five steps to making a sale” with rote precision, but her creative spirit kept tripping her up. The lesson: Never again will Mia work a job where she needs to ask, “Can I interest you in a pair of socks to go with that pantsuit?” And never again will she work in a room with no windows.

Natasha also learned this lesson while temping in the basement mail room of “the Northwest’s largest dairy distributor.” The environment was toxic, despite (or maybe because of) the free chocolate milk and discounted butter (by the pound). She sorted and filed and became temporarily lactose intolerant.

Read the whole enchilada over at IdeaMensch.

I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful...

...than a lifetime of nothing special." (Steel Magnolias)

Indeed, Shelby.

We have been busy with a new project that aims to record just these kinds of wonderful... Double dutch on a hot city sidewalk. An inky night around the campfire. That first messy bite of wedding cake.

With our Moments collection, we seek to capture all kinds of experiences from life with one of a kind illustrations that are each accompanied by a little story or vignette. "Moments" can be created to serve a specific purpose, such as an invitation, save the date or birth announcement, or simply framed as an original work of art commemorating a special occasion.

Remember the Time

We all want to remember the time when...

Sometimes, we'd like to see our memories arranged in a way that is beautiful and that also makes sense. And so we try with Velveteen Stories. We try to capture a moment or a story that is too damn valuable to toss into a box of photos, stow in a filing cabinet, or archive in Snapfish-land.

Taking a sideways step, this seems to be happening in the digital world as well. Yesterday I came across Storytree, a brilliant project that allows people to build a "tree" of memories using videos, photos, and bits of text. Even better, it's private and free. 

Storytree: Remember the Time from StoryTree on Vimeo. 

Storytree is another solution to the deep unmet need that exists for building and preserving legacy. Looks like a winner.

Big news, we've been spotted!

Wow, what an action packed summer it’s been.  Almost three weeks ago, I packed our entire life into a trailer and shipped it off to our new home in Austin, Texas.  It’s been a crazy, stressful, exciting and bittersweet time, especially having parties and goodbye dinners with all of our close friends.

Before I left Seattle, Natasha and I had many conversations about Velveteen and about our plans to continue working together while in different cities. We felt confident in our strategy, in our strong working relationship, but I think that both of us have been putting on a bit of a brave face. We’ve barely gotten off the ground—how will we continue to get the word out? How will we keep our momentum going, especially with this new hurdle? And do I have what it takes to bust into the Texas market?

But things can change in a moment. After day one of our 2000 mile drive across America, we found ourselves in Caldwell, Idaho, unwinding at dusty La Quinta. Exhausted and too tired to do much else, I decided to take advantage of the free wi-fi and check my mail. I opened the first email and everything shifted. WHAT. Seven new messages!?  

Speed dial Natasha.
Natasha: “Hello? Mia? Whoa... are you okay? Did you guys break down somewhere? Do you need me to google map...?”
Me: “NO, EVERTHING IS GREAT. CHECK YOUR EMAIL RIGHT NOW! SOMEONE WROTE AN ARTICLE ABOUT US! And there are six new people already inquiring about books!”

Needless to say, neither of us really slept that night. We stayed on the phone, freaking out, jumping up and down, and virtually hugging each other (she in her kitchen with a bottle of wine, and me in La Quinta's hopping business center). The article (“Personalized Books Handcrafted from Individuals’ Life Stories”) was published on Springwise.com and opened a new window for us. Being described as part of broader trend—as part of a community of storytellers—was totally exhilarating. We were tickled by the number of people—many of them entrepreneurs—who congratulated us and sent us their well wishes.  

In the last three weeks, our inbox has steadily filled with inquiries. We’ve watched dozens of tweets come in from around the world (Oslo, Capetown, Goa...), and I’ve been wandering around my new house, singing the theme to The Mary Tyler Moore show—“Love is all around, no need to waste it, You can have a town, why don't you take it? You're gonna make it after all. You're gonna make it after all!” Clearly 2000 miles have nothing on us, it’s on Velveteen, it’s on!