Top 5 Highlights of 2011

2011 was quite a year - personally and professionally. I started working as a graphic designer at Dalhousie University in January, a little over a month before I launched my book twentythree. I'm thrilled that almost 300 people have a copy of twentythree either on their bookshelf or coffee table. I didn't really have specific goals set, or a communications plan or a marketing plan. It all kind of unfolded. Looking back on 2011, these are the top 5 missbrenna highlights.

1. The arrival of twentythree

100 copies of the book arrived a few days before the launch. They sold out in 2 weeks.

Pretty, pretty, pretty happy...

Seeing twentythree for the first time - This is a video of me opening the box. I forgot it existed.



2. Launch at the Hub & Inverness County Centre for the Arts

The Hub, Barrington Street, Halifax (February 25, 2011)

This wall was the inspiration for printing the pages of the book as posters. I wanted to see the entire book on one wall. Also, I wanted people to be able to interact with the images, questions and answers.

The poster wall. It turns out the posters are extremely popular. People have spent up to 15 minutes looking through the posters deciding which one they want to buy.

Launch in my hometown (Inverness, Cape Breton). I'm very proud of where I come from and was so happy to have this event in Inverness at the Arts Centre. It was truly the only other thing I wanted to do after publishing twentythree. The best parts were having both sides of my family present, my favourite teacher, and Frank MacDonald (yes, the author, Frank MacDonald introduced me).

3. Lumiere 

Lumiere was held, for the first time, in Sydney, Cape Breton in October. Lumiere is an "Art at Night" event, very similar to Nocturne in Halifax. It was a terribly rainy night but people came out by the dozens. This was an incredible event. People were really into answering the questions and reading the answers from twentythree. Now, to figure out what to do with all of these responses.

4. Shoptalk in the Coast
My all-time favourite column in the Coast is Shoptalk. It is a sweet little column that gives snippets of information about local shops, restaurants, artists, etc. twentythree was included in the December 3, 2011 column of Shoptalk.  
twentythree in Shoptalk

5. Carbonstok
Just recently, I contacted Carbonstok to see if they'd be interested in carrying the suite of twentythree products. They said YES! So now, twentythree - the book, posters, prints, cards and conversation cards - are available at Carbonstok on Barrington Street in Halifax!! I love Carbonstok - it's a cool store that supports local. twentythree is also available at the Bearpaw in Inverness, Atlantic News on Queen Street in Halifax and online: http://missbrenna.bigcartel.com/.

2011 has been an awesome year. I'm so appreciative to my family, friends, co-workers and the contributors who have supported me and gave me the confidence to "go for it!" Because of those first 100 books I sold, I was able to order 150 more and then another 100. People have shared the book with family and friends and slowly the word is getting out about twentythree. 

Someone from British Columbia told me they heard about twentythree on CBC radio. A girl stopped and took a photo of my logo - missbrenna because her sister's name is Brenna. A woman told me she was going to share the book with her family on Christmas morning. Teachers have bought the book to use in their classroom. I've witnessed people cry and laugh while reading twentythree. Someone told me, "This is like Post Secret but much cooler." Wow, what a compliment. 

I'm excited for 2012...


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12 | 28...12/28

Birthday blog (12 | 28 is an art project I started working on a couple of months ago.  I wanted to do a monthly project and since my birthday is December 28, I decided to call the project 12 | 28. On the 28th of each month, I document the day through photographs. Why? Mostly because the days are really busy and this way, I make myself take notice of the interesting things and people around me. It's too easy to let the days slip by. 

12/28
This year's birthday was incredible. One of the best! I enjoyed 3 birthday cakes, visiting with my parents, in-laws, siblings and oldest friends. I saw a live performance of The Last Waltz. I love The Last Waltz!! If I could snap my fingers and be anywhere at any time, it would be "The Last Waltz" on November 25, 1976 at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Since I can't do that, seeing the Last Waltz performed at Strathesbay Place in Mabou did the trick. Words can't describe the performance. The crowd loved every moment. Pure happiness. It was cool to be in an audience filled with family, neighbours, and friends. My uncle was randomly sitting next to my husband. One of my best friends, 2 rows ahead. My brother and his girlfriend, 3 rows ahead. It was awesome and one of those events that we talked about for the whole night. As soon as we got home, we put the DVD on and watched/listened to it again. Then...4 parties! Wow, what a day! I can only hope the year ahead will be as magical. I love Cape Breton...

I love having a birthday close to Christmas in Cape Breton. There's always decorations, lots of people around and ready to celebrate, I can see my parents on my day of birth - and sometimes, there's a little birthday beer under the tree...hahaha.

3 birthday cakes! The first was at my parents-in-law where my 2 god daughters were visiting. A ticket to The Last Waltz - awesome birthday gift. Impromptu birthday song on guitar. Homemade cake at my dad's. Ice-cream cake. Happy Smurfday! Still love the smurfs (thanks Jen & Brian : )

Some of the fabulous people I hung out with on my birthday (unfortunately, not everyone is shown).

The Last Waltz! I started the day watching the documentary. I like Bob Dylan's "look" in The Last Waltz. Cast and crew, some of the performers and some people got dressed up 70s style. There was a standing ovation for the last song with the entire cast.

Playing with Jerry, visiting Glenora Falls (and getting the mail the old fashioned way), Inverness Beach, the girls, 3:30am and still dancing, Bran, some Loretta Lynn, Deepdale...

The Sunday Sessions...

Chocolate truffles...YUM!

A little Tom Petty, seasonally warm autumn weather, coffees in hand and boxes and boxes of Jill's Chocolates, stickers, and packaging. After 6 years, Jill is fast approaching her goal of opening her first shop in March 2012 and almost as exciting, launching her website for the 2011 holiday season. But, before the website could launch for the busy Christmas season, we needed to do a photo shoot. Jill and I have almost completely opposite schedules so we did the shoot in 2 Sunday Sessions.

Jill and I have a great working relationship – similar sense of humour, work ethic,
complete honesty and we have a lot of fun! Also, she's a fellow Cape Bretoner.

Jill and I met while teaching English as a Second Language at East Coast School of Languages in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2006.  

A year later I decided to study graphic design and Jill fell in love with chocolate making. We have had so many fun brainstorming sessions over the years - from packaging, to ideas for the shop, to which chocolates to include in which collection, to taste testing. Excitingly, it's all coming together because Jill is opening her first shop in the Trillium Building on South Park Street, Halifax in March 2012. 

Currently, Jill is making chocolates in a rented kitchen space while working at the Old Triangle, meeting with contractors and business folks for the new shop, and spending time with her husband and little girl Ellie. 

Some shots from our Sunday sessions...

We both coincidentally wore purple.

The result: 12 piece nuts and caramel. Front and centre is the Glen Breton dark chocolate. Decadent!

Chocolate tubes

I love these because they remind me of the icy cups I bought as a youth at the Inverness Arena - figure skating and hockey energy! They are toasted coconut cups - think Pot of Gold (but better ; )

Combo packs - NEW this holiday season.
The 4-box and chocolate tubes are also new.

30-Piece assorted with chocolate map.

30-Piece Nuts and Caramels

So pretty. The perfect LOCAL GIFT for the sexy chocolate lover on your list : )
My favourite? The sesame caramel in the front. WOW...

Jill Franklin – Chocolatier



www.jillschocolates.com will go live the first weekend of December. 
All of the chocolates above will be available on her website.

www.missbrenna.ca

12 | 28 ... 10/28

I started taking photos for the 12 | 28 project in October 2011. I hadn't gotten around to posting these photos until now (February 2012). It was a busy Friday finished off with a Halloween party!

 

How cute is that pumpkin? Everyone should have a magic wand.

 

Same place...different time...

As a rule, I almost always have a camera with me. The reasons are plentiful - the light may be perfect, the sunset colours are saturated and vibrant, old friends getting together, etc, etc. More than anything though, I love capturing a time and place - what it looked like, how it felt... I wanted to show a couple of photos from twentythree and how those places look since I originally shot them.

This first photo was taken in Glenora Falls, through the barn window on my parents-in-law's property. It was taken in October 2007. The trees were changing colour and there's a slight blue cast to the image. The second photo was taken last weekend on a bright, sunny summer afternoon. Funnily the hay is higher in the second shot (I guess the rain is good for something).

Glenora Falls, Cape Breton Island, October 2007

Glenora Falls, Cape Breton Island, July 2011

Patience, was originally taken while I was a student in Applied Communication Arts at Nova Scotia Community College in Halifax. The photography assignment was to shoot 'space'. This parking metre was sitting in front of the Chronicle-Herald building, which no longer exists. A couple of weeks ago I quickly snapped the same scene, except the building has been demolished and is slated to become a convention centre.

Patience, Halifax, Nova Scotia

This one really amazes me because no matter how much I wanted to, I could never reshoot it. Maybe the name Patience has even more relevance in this shot.

Behind the Lens

This will be a short series describing the stories behind some of the photos in twentythree + side notes

****

Photos are wonderful in how they can evoke emotions. They show us lives, objects and stories from someone else's perspective. When I first started taking photos at age 11, my family's new kitten, Cuddles, was the subject of many rolls of film my mother paid to have developed for me. Now the photos were not very interesting or exciting but there was a story - Cuddles taking an afternoon nap, Cuddles showing off her acrobatic skills, Cuddles perched on the floral swivel chair gazing outside. It was all about Cuddles - from an 11 year old's perspective! Boring I know, but I knew at that point in time that I loved taking photos. I loved storytelling with my camera. I was always the girl with a camera and definitely that girl with piles of Superstore envelopes filled with prints (this was before digital cameras and smartphones). 

Granted, the subject matter in my photos has changed over the years, although Jerry (my brother and his girlfriend's awesome schnoodle) does make it into a lot of shots. He's hilarious and his personality really shines through in photos. See!

Jerry loving life on Inverness Beach in Cape Breton.

So, besides animals, my collection of photographs include landscapes, sunsets, vibrant colours, doors and windows, bicycles, people living life, objects with interesting lines and texture and dilapidated structures. I grew up in rural Cape Breton and I'm fascinated by barns and buildings and homes that have been abandoned and left to nature. It's a common occurrence for me to pull over to the side of the road or to even turn around because something has caught my eye. The photo below was a result of that. The setting was perfect – sun shining, blue sky, rolling green hill in behind the house, completely still.

Prince Edward Island near the ferry terminal.

Inch by inch...

Idyllic setting but I'm a bit timid to get up close – time for a telephoto lense!

In my coffee table art book – twentythree, every question is paired with a photo. When I originally designed twentythree (as a school project), I completed the entire project in 5 weeks – photos included. It was spring and I had been home in Cape Breton. My brother offered to drive so that I could take photos. It made my life so much easier and helped that he knew some pretty cool places for me to photograph. We were driving through Deepdale and took Loch Ban Road. At one point we got a little bit lost and had to turn around but once we got back on track we saw this: Wheeler House. It was magical! Honestly. I normally love looking at dilapidated houses but getting up close and personal - not my thing! This was so different. It was very calming on that piece of property. 

This photo from twentythree belongs with the question: "Describe something that someone has said or something you have read that has had an impact on you?" This photo is called Impact.

I had heard about Wheeler house from Tom Ryan, a good friend of mine. It was near his family home and he played on the property as a child. In addition, I had seen whimsical paintings of the front of this house done by Virginia McCoy. This house and property are actually in Frank MacDonald's children's book: T.R.'s Adventure at Angus the Wheeler's.

These photos are so full of history. Perhaps that's why I like photographing dilapidated structures. They make me curious about the lives that were lived there and what led to its state of destruction. And, there's a natural beauty, yet sadness, in seeing a man-made structure left to nature.

The front of Wheeler House.

These photos were taken in spring 2006. I have no idea if this house is still standing or not.

To market, to market

The sun rise over the Halifax Harbour on the way to the Seaport Market.

I've been going to the Farmer's Market in Halifax since 1999 and I LOVE it. Fresh produce, colourful flowers, fragrant soaps, meats & cheese, local wine, unique crafts & gifts and the buzz of people. When I lived downtown, I was a regular at the Historic Farmer's Market, which still exists in the Brewery building on Lower Water Street in Halifax. The new market - The Seaport Market - is located on the waterfront a little further away. I honestly had never thought about myself as being a vendor at the market but, at the new Seaport Market, there's an entire aisle of crafts and gifts, in addition to the upstairs area of the market. I decided to take a chance and fill out an application to become a vendor at some of the Saturday markets. It was accepted!! 

missbrenna table at the Halifax Seaport Market

I'm not sure how often I'll be a vendor because of space availability, but my first experience - on Saturday, May 7 - was wonderful. Okay, I'll admit that for about 10 minutes, in the early morning, I was struck with panic thinking, "Oh no, I may not sell anything!" It was the first moment it had crossed my mind. Thank the lord (and the lovely vendor down the way who brought her friend over) not even 20 minutes later, I made my first sale! 2 books and 2 cards. Whew - my table was paid for!! So exciting!

The view from my table!!!

People taking a look at twentythree.

It was a neat experience to have exposure to so many people who had no idea about missbrenna and twentythree. I wasn't expecting to have as many conversations as I did but it was a chatty day. I met an 85-year-old retired photographer. We talked for almost 10 minutes about photography. He was such a sweet man. I also had a long conversation with a familiar looking gentleman who it turns out was one of my public relations professors at Mount Saint Vincent University. Overall, I had a positive and optimistic response from people. Lots of smiles and that makes it all worthwhile - especially after a 5 am wakeup call : )


Visit my online shop if you're interested or send me an email: missbrenna23@gmail.com.