Repost || Those Girls: If a Tree Falls In the Woods...

This is a post that we wrote two years ago, but it still seems so relevant today. Art in photos is lovely and appreciated and important. But what does it mean when it becomes your identity? We'd love to hear from you. Tweet us or Instagram us with your responses:
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If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to Instagram it, does it make a sound?

We started our Those Girls series as a portal for reality, and it's been a while since we wrote a post--for good reason, of course. The reason being life! We've been working on a book project together; and separately, I've been working on my branding business and am in my nineteenth week of pregnancy, and Emily is busy renovating her house while chasing after two rambunctious toddlers. There are days that go by when we don't even touch social media, and I have to admit that this makes me particularly anxious. Will our friends and customers forget about us if we don't Twitter/Instagram/Blog/Facebook/Pinterest (TIBFP) every portion of our day? The truth: I don't really think so. Our readership numbers remain steady, even on quiet days. In that case, what exactly is the social media race for?

Lately (perhaps I can blame this on pregnancy hormones) I've been noticing that after I spend some time browsing TIBFP, I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted by the mirage of perfection. Before these platforms were made available, we were able to get our lifestyle inspiration in small doses: in a magazine, a craft book, on a TV show, in Martha Stewart's trashcan. The images and articles were pitched, styled, photographed and marketed directly to a customer that could consume at their leisure and discard at will. Today, however, these images of lifestyle glory are constant, and in our faces 24/7, mostly by our own allowance. I can't even turn on my phone without mindlessly pressing the "Instagram" app and browsing through photos almost first thing in the morning. A bright and early reminder that many talented people are doing life perfectly: a perfect meal, perfect floral arrangement, perfectly-styled pickling party that I wasn't invited to (but knew just who was, according to the tags), or perfect vacation. What kind of message is this to send oneself several times a day? Even the most secure, hard-working and cheerful person has days when "you're doing it wrong" is the main message being sent by these images. Why don't we feel this way when we look at magazines? Here's why--> because we accept that these magazines are put together by professionals, doing their jobs and being paid for them. Today, it's easy to dismiss an Instagram photo as part of a blogger or creative's perfect everyday life with no preparation or styling whatsoever. That's their life. PERIOD. Definitely not so...we forget what she's trying to sell us. This is her job.

Let's acknowledge the fact that social media isn't going anywhere, and that a person can choose to either acclimate to the current culture or completely reject it. Neither is the right or wrong answer, but I find the former easiest because let's face it:

1. I truly enjoy remaining connected with old friends.
2. Deleting accounts leads to social ostracization merely by default, not by unkindness.
3. It's kind of my job.

So where do we go from there? I find that the culture of popularity, and the inherent need for acceptance is at the root of this problem. We all want to be told that we're doing it right. That's what that trusty "like" button is for. It's almost ironic that these words are being posted via blogger. This is how we communicate, and how we understand each other. Our posts say a lot about how we view ourselves and how we want to view ourselves. Here are two completely possible scenarios:

1. "I made the most perfectly deliciously gorgeous birthday cake with perfect frosting and sprinkle 'scatterage' and I'm going to share it with everyone because it's awesome. I am a great chef and a fabulous hostess. SHARE. like. like. like."
2. "My house looks like The Purge happened there and I am way too lazy to lift a finger, other than to put that Trader Joe's O into my mouth and then back to the box for more. I am a failing at making myself and my family perfect, organic, grassfed meals. This may ruin my personal brand. DO NOT SHARE."

My mother and I have always agreed that women would rule the world if we would just stop trying to one-up one another! I know what you're thinking. "Andie, that's just a picture of an adorable toddler's ice cream social catered by Target with a professional photographer, stylist, and product endorsements--it has nothing to do with shaming other women. Get a grip!" Don't get me wrong, I love a good ice cream social (just kidding, I can't eat ice cream), but the fact that lifestyle bloggers have cornered the market in lifestyle products and books makes me very wary, especially because we still insist on viewing them as "regular people." In reality, most of these very successful career bloggers have a lot of money and sponsors with which to style events, decorate rooms in their home and buy outfit-of-the-days. They are the modern-day celebrity, in a very sweet and "normal" disguise. There are so many campaigns out right now defending young girls and women from comparing themselves to models in magazines. Where are the same standards about comparing ourselves to lifestyle bloggers that are packed with sponsorships? These are lovely women who are making their careers work for them, but emulating their public personas is not the answer to originality or happiness. Not even for themselves! I feel fake when each photo we upload is carefully arranged, slapped onto Instagram, and tagged. There's a time and place for this, but I fear an oversimplification is becoming reality, and cheapening what life really offers.

A lot of the most interesting women in my life are not avid users of social media. They don't know how to use Twitter, or ignore Facebook, calling it "boring." These women support orphanages in the slums of India, or play in orchestras in Scandinavia, or create beautiful works of quilted art, or have wonderfully messy, happy lives right here in Seattle. When we get together we talk about everything: classic literature, science, politics, religion, sappy beach reads, crafts, our families, exercise, food, etc. Our tables are never pretty or photogenic when we're finished, with torn open sugar packets, dirty coffee spoons, and bags of sliced fruit in Ziploc bags that I bring to every meeting so I won't be tempted to eat bagels with cream cheese. We forget to take photos until everything is eaten and drunk, and at that point, our conversation seems too sacred to be shared with the world.

There's nothing wrong with styled photos and beautiful blog posts--in fact, we love them, it's part of what we love the most about our jobs. These pictures of perfection inspire us to make our world more beautiful, and see light in simple joys. These only become wrong when our identity or the identity of others is hinged on public likeability. Let's try to remember to be liked by the people we like, be loved by the people we love, including the whole unphotographable mess that goes along with us.

On Real Life: Our Social Media Break

Hey all--Andie here. Yes, we took a little unannounced social media break. There have been a lot of reasons for the quiet blog, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, but I'll just tell you about a few of them for now. It has been almost a year (!) since we've updated the blog and if you're still with us, I have to say, thank you.

Throwback photo to Assemble circa 2009

As quiet as we have been, we have been busy little bees. The last post from October of 2014 introduced our book, which is still slated to be released in August of 2016. Our tiny team of worker bees--Michelle Beilner of Sparky & Marie and Jaqui Shumate of Jaquilyn Shumate Photography--have been superstars in our eyes. It's such a blessing to be able to work with friends, but when those friends are absolutely stellar at their work, it's magical.

We are almost completely done with it, besides layout edits and a final cover shoot. That process is daunting and stressful, but we were so grateful to read this post by Emily Henderson. We are not stylists by any means (and have an immense amount of respect for them too!) so it was nice to read that even professionals go through the difficult task of representing their work on something so "quick-glance" as a book cover.

On the other side of the coin, Assemble has been quiet because of, well, life. Social media has always been my part of the game, and I came into this business as a single person. I wasn't married, nor did I have kids (unless you count Assemble mascot, Grady the chihuahua) and Assemble was my baby. I devoted every waking hour to building our brand and loved every second of it. As time went on, I got engaged, then married and eventually had our little baby Alice on December of 2014.

While I was pregnant, I was so worried about finding the time for a baby while working on a book, a side-business and day-to-day Assemble tasks. Now that I actually have a child, I am astonished at the amount of time, heart and grace that Emily is able to give to our mission with two....TWO! The reality of the situation--and something that no one can explain to you pre-baby--is that it's not about finding a way to fit a baby into your life. Something I found to be true for myself, is that every priority that I had in building our business and my dreams, was suddenly sub-par. The book took a back-seat. Our blog was literally an afterthought. Instagram? What's that? And I didn't care. Not one bit. My brain and heart was focused on playing with wooden tambourines on the floor and teaching Alice to roll over. "How boring!" single Andie would say. She would be right for her own life, but not for mine.

Now that things are beginning to be more scheduled, and the baby fog is parting a bit, I've begun to miss the social aspect of Assemble so much. The thing about a regular career, is that a woman can have a baby, take a break and then go back to that career. When you own a business, and you take a break, your business can go on radio silence. It's tough to not be able to return to things exactly as you left them. Regardless, here we are! We hope you'll take us back in (plus one!).

Those Girls: Where, Oh Where, Are Andie & Emily??

We know. We've been absent from this blog BIG TIME lately. We're not even sure that you are still out there reading this! But if you are, we oh-so-thank-you. Last year was a roller coaster for Assemble. There were high times, low times, and all of the in-between. We wanted to reach out to our faithful friends and customers and let you know what exactly has been keeping us silent for the past couple of months.

Brainstorming session at Top Pot Doughnuts, Queen Anne

First, some "bad" news. We don't see this as bad news, and hope that you don't either, but if it has to be classified either way--then this is it! If you've been sticking around here lately, you might notice that we have been selling off all of our non-Assemble inventory at 50% (or more!) off. Emily and I have to decided to focus our attention exclusively on the Assemble-made products. Our stamps and kits are now our main focus in the shop, and we won't be taking on any other outside designers. The designers and product lines that we have carried in our shop for the past four years make up some of the most special people we have ever come into contact with, and are so glad that we had the pleasure of working with them. But it's time--to focus directly on what's best for us.

Which leads us to the good news! (Drum roll...........) We are writing a book! We have acquired literary representation and are now putting the finishing touches on our first book summary and outline. This has, of course, put a lot of pressure on us to focus all of our writing talent toward the project at hand, so our blog has been set on the back-burner for that past few months. Sometimes we come back here and sigh a little sigh, knowing that all of our blogging energy has been turned toward the pages of our upcoming book. We'll have more announcements for that project in the future, so stay tuned.

It's one of my (Andie) personal goals to start visiting this blog a little more regularly, despite using our allotted "word count" in our book preparations. We miss you all, we miss our projects and recipes, interviews and Those Girls interactions. Don't worry--we haven't left, it's just a slow-blogging momentum at the moment.

Stay tuned.
Love, Andie & Emily

This Fall's School House Craft Conference

Hey guys! Guess what? We will be teaching not one--but TWO--classes in the upcoming School House Craft Conference! Coming up on Saturday and Sunday, the 14th and 15th of September, we will be on hand to give you our knowledge and answer any questions you may have. The conference will be held at the Sunset Hill Community Club in Ballard, and Early Bird tickets are on sale now until September 1st. (After that they become a bit more expensive.)


The Fall 2012 SHC Conference
For this season, Andie will be teaching an Absolute Beginners Course (AB) & Established Businesses Course (EB) called Establishing a Unique Brand: Learn how to brand your creative, small business for maximum success online and and in-person. We will cover design, social media and customer loyalty. This class starts on September 15th at 10:15am. (This one will be a bit like a section of my Go Mighty class, but more in-depth).

Then, a little bit later in the day, we will both be teaching an Established Business (EB) class on Creating a Successful Kickstarter Campaign! Learn how to get your idea funded! We will walk through the pros/cons and steps to creating a successful Kickstarter campaign for your project.

Plus, there are a lot of other fun classes to choose from and amazing people to connect with, including Kristen Rask of Schmancy fame and Danae Horst (and many more!)

Click here to register!

Photo via School House Craft

A Slow-Blogging Miracle

Inspired by Erin Loechner of Design for Mankind: if you aren't a regular reader of Design for Mankind, I highly recommend you jot that one down on your to-do list. Recently, Erin wrote an excellent post about the rebirth of slow blogging that caught our eye. Insightful and genuine, Erin detailed her decision to get back to writing more infrequent posts that are packed with heart and thoughtfulness. We love this.


On Assemble: A Well-Crafted Life, we never post anything that isn't something from the heart. Each of our posts is conceived and written for ourselves and our readers with thought and time--however, what if you don't have the time?? Our little online company is picking up speed, and we are so elated about this that we can't even see straight, but what does that mean for our blog? Rather then let our blog slide into something that we don't feel is relevant or heartfelt, we've decided to scale it back *just a bit. Assemble is a blog, but first and foremost we are a place of making and doing (well--assembling, really!). *Don't worry, by "scale it back," we mean just a few posts a week, and not one every day. Not so bad, right?

In the meantime, we're working on some brand new wholesale awesomeness, new kits, and special projects with some amazing companies (some local, and some global). Thanks for coming along with us!

Photo Fun + Tutorials

Recently, we got the opportunity to do a quick photo shoot with Jessica May Photography. Other than giggling the whole time, we got to have some fun in front of the camera and get some brand new photos (we didn't have ANY together!) So, we got gussied up and headed out to Auburn for fun times. See below for a few of our favorite photo tutorials on the web, full of great tips for shooting.


Some other photography fun tips:
• Blog Tip: Basic Photo Tips for Bloggers
• Etsy Success: Product Photography for Beginners
• Why Your Photos May Look Bad on the Web
• How to Pose for Photographs

Sale in Our Online Shop!

First row: Embrace Pregnancy Journal by Nikki McClure, Assemble Hardcover Bookbinding Kit, Grey Chihuahua Plushy
Second row: Knot & Bow Heart Stickers, Bubblegum Statement Necklace, Party Squirrel Crewel Embroidery Kit
Third row: Pigeon Print, French Rule Stationery Set, Farm Scene Stamp Set
We're happy to announce a sale in our online shop to kick off our brand new, exclusively online status! Please enjoy 20% off in our shop by using the coupon code "SUPPORTSMALL" at checkout. Code is valid through the end of January. We're so excited about the brand new items that we have in stock, including our crafting kits, brand new work by Berkley Illustration and much, much more. Have fun!! And if for some reason you don't see what you're looking for, please send us an email. Thanks! Andie & Emily

A New Series: Those Girls

If you are in a creative field like Emily and I, you will know how difficult it is to navigate the creative hemisphere and establish yourself as unique. I'm sure all of you can relate to thinking of a great idea, drafting it out and getting it started, then finding a blogger or designer who has done it first, and worse: better. We begin to imagine that they are better.

You see, the thing is: these people don't exist--at least not as the superwomen we imagine. Don't get us wrong, there are some truly fabulous women out there. Perhaps one is amazing at cooking, and another is amazing at styling, another takes the most beautiful photos you have ever seen. These are talents that we should all respect and adore, but remember, that these are elements of a real person. And what does that person have to say? What is she afraid of, who is she shy around, what intimidates her? Making it look easy, doesn't mean it is easy.


The truth is, one of those girls (just like us) is shoving the garbage off of her desk or just out of frame for the perfect photo, and another is taking pictures of her feet only (trés chic) because she hasn't washed their hair in three days due to deadlines, kids, and visiting family. Those girls (you know, the ones we fabricate in our head) sure make us feel...well, like we are not enough. Emily and I have a saying (seriously tongue in cheek, please forgive it): "don't be jelly." And yes that DID come from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills! We love TV and aren't ashamed! Don't be jelly! Don't be jealous, be productive in your own ways!

We want to create a space for those of you who need a safe haven. Not for complaints about those who are doing well or who thought of that idea before you, but for complete honesty, respect and encouragement. We will pour our hearts out to you here, and we hope that you will as well.

Do you ever feel like there are too many things that you want to do in life and not enough time?

Do you ever feel envious of bloggers or designers who seem to have it all together?

Do you wonder why it seems to come so easy for others but not for you?

Guess what:? We all feel this way. In this weekly series, we want to share:

• encouraging comments
• fears and doubts about our work
• time-saving tricks to get it all done
• quick ways to eat healthy when you are super busy
• happy thoughts to dwell on
• things we are grateful for, things we need to remember
• fabulous outfits to make you feel confident that won't break the bank
• written exercises (break out those worksheets from school!)
• physical exercises! (no groaning)
• ways to find a truly well-crafted life: within yourself.
• etc., etc., etc.

Please join us!

Election Day Quick 2nd Post: VOTE

Regardless of who wins the election, let's all rejoice that we live in a country where we have a choice. Not everyone in the world has that kind of freedom. Vote values, vote LOVE, vote country, vote PEOPLE.

A Little Bit About Us..

For those of you who are brand new Assemblers, we wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves a bit! Emily & I (Andie) met in 2007, when we worked together at a large paper, invitation, and crafting boutique: Paper Source. Throughout the short time we worked together, we formed a fast friendship and dreamily chatted about the day we would start a business together.

Two years later, in 2009, we did just that! Emily and I combined our collective love for craft, design, and art, and after very little sleep and a lot of elbow grease, Assemble Gallery & Studio was born! Assemble offered a space for crafting workshops, events & parties, art shows and beautiful products by thoughtful and creative designers. With lovely life events along the way, (babies and weddings, new homes and travel) we have maintained our mission: to showcase craft as modern art, while teaching both traditional and avant-garde crafting techniques in a workshop environment. We formed Assemble as a gallery of inspiration and ideas in the business of happiness: a place for people to assemble, make, and do.


Photo by Jaquilyn Shumate Photography
Recently, we've decided to close our sweet little brick & mortar shop, and forge ahead as an exclusively online space in January of 2013: Assemble Shop & Studio! Our blog, our online shop, our future video workshop tutorials & kits are all here to share our love and ideas with all of our friends and followers. We hope you'll come along for the ride.

To learn more about Emily and I, please visit the about section on our website, or send us a note or an inquiry! We would love to hear from you. ♥