(Quote courtesy of Rain Man)I woke up this morning in a bit of a haze. My daughter has been sick and my husband is away so she’s sleeping with me. A sick kid in a bunk bed is a recipe for disaster, I know this from experience. It was a long night of tossing and turning and fighting for blankets and I woke up with a pounding headache smack in the middle of my eyes. I was hoping my daughter would sleep in, because I really needed a few more moments...but she popped right up and starting chatting. She’s still far too sick to go to school, which means I have to cancel a rather important meeting today.
With Dad away, I don’t have a back up babysitter. Since we moved out to the country and away from family, we’ve not found anyone we can trust to watch her. She’s our only kid, so yes we’re rather protective of her. We had a flicker of hope when the Mennonite family next door came to bring us a loaf of fresh baked bread and we discovered they had a teen aged girl. Those hopes were dashed when I came back from a business Christmas party (a.k.a. schmooze and network event with snacks and libations) to find my daughter sitting at the kitchen table with just the parents and the teen aged girl MIA. The look in my daughter’s eyes was pure sadness and I felt, as mom’s do when they juggle so many different roles on a day to day basis and tell themselves it’s for the betterment of the family unit while secretly wondering if it’s really because they’re selfish...which they’re not...but sometimes they feel that way...but I digress. I felt like I’d let her down. The teen aged girl had apparently in the three hours she’d agreed to watch my daughter felt it was okay to go see a movie and leave Avalon with her parents. And she wanted me to pay her?! Are you freakin’ kidding me? I was livid. LIVID. So there went our babysitter. And here is another personal revelation in a public forum which leads me to this...
In those few quiet moments of waking this morning I started to think about the level of transparency in which I function. I started to wonder if it’s not getting a little out of control. My husband is wondering that too. Do I really need to share with people on the internet that my daughter is sick, that I’m going out of town, that my husband is away, that I’m meeting a friend and the details of that meeting? It’s a quandary. People talk to me on my Facebook wall about things I sometimes feel are kinda personal and not for public consumption when they could just as easily message me, shoot me an email or pick up the phone. Are we all becoming just a bit too transparent? Do I really need to conduct my life in a fish bowl? When is too much information really too much? I blog about PMS, plastic surgery, illness, professional triumphs, personal tragedies and virtually every aspect of my life and my career as I’m building it. People who read my blogs know an awful lot about me...it’s made for some rather interesting conversations when I meet them. I kind of forget that I’ve shared with the class and then they ask me about Botox or Auntie Flo!
I know people who are also building personal brands who never reveal anything personal. I think them wise on one level and foolish on another. How can people connect to you if you give them nothing? Then again, when do you stop serving your brand and start becoming egomaniacal and self indulgent? When does transparency become naval gazing? How much do people really need to know about you?
Oddly enough (and I’m quite sure you’re going to think this patently untrue) I’m a very private person. Just try to fish through my purse or rummage through my office without my expressed permission and see me turn into Linda Blair in seconds flat. I spend the majority of my time alone here in my studio working by myself in total isolation and quiet. Most of what I’m really thinking, feeling, experiencing I keep to myself. People know far less about me than they think they do, but perhaps they know more than they should. It’s a fine, fine line and I’m navigating it each and every day. I have decided to draw it though. I’ll be pointing to the line here in the coming days. I’ll be transparent as always, but perhaps just a tad more opaque when it comes to the personal.
Yes, Madge has drawn a line. She’s bedazzled it with hot fix crystals though, so it’s a very pretty line. On that note she says as she segues into a seemingly unrelated topic, I’m officially announcing that I, along with 19 other incredibly talented designers, have officially become an Ambassador for the Create Your Style initiative of the CRYSTALLIZED™-Swarovski Elements brand. What that means is I’ll be teaching, blogging and promoting Swarovski’s CYSCSE crystal components in an official capacity for the next year.
Six years ago I sent a blind email to the info@ address on the Swarovski website. Someone contacted me back and I began a professional relationship with the folks at Swarovski. I’ve designed for them, consulted with them, advised them on new colors for beads (ahem, mocca brown was my idea which I nagged them about for two years...I swear!), was the speaker at their anniversary lunch and have taught for them at the Tucson Gem show for the past several years. Apparently I was the first person to contact them about product support for a book! This is why you should never even for a second doubt the power of believing in possibility. You never, ever know where it might lead.
Risk, dare, dream!
I’m off to do all three as I continue working on a TOP SECRET project. See the sparkly line...it’s right over there!
PS: Blogger decided to unfollow ALL of the blogs I follow for me. I'll be reinstating you over the next weeks so please forgive the mix up. I'm not rejecting you! Argh...Blogger.
xoxo
Margot
