"i need your portfolio..."

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to present a portfolio of my pocketbooks.

At first I was super excited... then I went in to pure PANIC and FREAK OUT mode:

a portfolio?! WHAT?! I can't just send them to my website -my Etsy - my blog - my Facebook page?!

A PORTFOLIO?!

I'm a redneck... my portfolio is out in my front pasture on cinder-blocks! (or something like that...)

THEN I went through the whole, "good grief - I have to find a model!" and then I thought: "what do I have her wear?!"

THEN I went through the whole, "oh GOOD GRIEF - what am I going to use for my background?! Do I put the model and bags on tractors? Cinder blocks? In a wrecking yard?"

THEN I thought: "AUGH! I have to have a "Lookbook!" How do I make a "Lookbook"?!"

"What is a Lookbook for cryin' out loud?!"

A lookbook is a collection of photographs compiled to show off a model, a photographer, a style, or a clothing line. It is an especially popular term with "fashion bloggers".

Lookbooks in their online form can be described as "fashion diaries" because bloggers are constantly updating them on a daily or weekly basis. However, sometimes they are made to compile the looks of other people such as a celebrity, politician or socialite. They can also be used as an artist's portfolio. wikipedia.com

uhmmmm.... There's no way I could pull off a Lookbook. I'm about as computer literate as a cinder-block.

Sew - after many hours of "OH MY GOSH's" and "oh GOOD GRIEF's" I realized this:

I am me.

I am a redneck.

(albeit a Chic redneck... I hope...)

My backgrounds are cinder blocks, tires, white walls and rusty things. My models are cinder blocks, tires, white walls and rusty things. (with some tractors thrown in for grins and giggles.)

I am old-school. I am duct tape and paper and a label maker I have a lot of fun with. I am a portfolio that you can hold in your hands and see all of the little details that make me, me.

I am a portfolio that takes some time... not only in editing and printing photos and descriptions... but a portfolio that takes time to piece together so the pages can be turned, flipped through... studied. After all... if I will spend the time to cut - glue - type and duct tape a portfolio... can you imagine what all I do with my pocketbooks? It's all in the details...

Plus, you really can't digitize duct tape... it just doesn't feel the same!

comin' to you LIVE from a single-wide where I had to be talked down off the ledge a few times... a couple of phone-calls where I was filled with fear and tears and red.neck angst... "am I picking the right pocketbooks to showcase?" and "dang... I could have added this and that, here and here to this pocketbook...".

I was told this: "the fear one feels while standing on a ledge isn't the fear of falling, but the fear comes because one feels the desire to jump."

me: "no... for me it's the fear of tripping over my own feet and falling over the ledge... I know me."

response: "true... you do fall up stairs..."

After thinking about it... me standing on the ledge and fretting WAS the fear of jumping in to something new and different and a slightly different direction for me. Our ideas and creations are born in our head and grow in our imagination... given life through our fingers... then we expose our passion - a piece of who we are - for the whole world to see... that fear will get you - even if it's for a small second - every. single. time.

yeah... i cracked myself up when i put that on the back... LOL

But I now have a portfolio - and an extra one! Complete with duct tape, cut paper, tape and labels... 'cause I'm old-school COOL like that! Have you ever built a portfolio of all of your creations? Let's jump off of a ledge together.