The Watts Family Band : Sassyfras Workshop 2012

Let's go down to the river in the morning
Let's rise up before the sun
Listen to the whispering waters,
Sing an anthem to the lord above

Let's go walk to the top of the mountain
Watch the sun creep up so slow
Golden light flooding the canyon
... flying, I don't glow
How pure and ... appears
So lovely in your ears
All that I could do, be an instrument for you, playing

Let's go find your whipping willow
See it cry it's tears for Christ
Lay our heads on the grassy pillow
All creation sings his mind
How pure and ... appears
So lovely in your ears
All that I could do, be an instrument for you, playing

How pure and ... appears
So lovely in your ears
All that I could do, 
How pure and ... appears
So lovely in your ears
All that I could do, be an instrument for you
Sing a song that's new, let my words be few, playing.

THE VESPERS

What a fun shoot we had with the lovely Watts Family.  It was a crisp COLD day at the workshop.  This was the first of 3 shoots that would be happening at the workshop, and it had rained all day.  Lollie and I were scrambling to put together a back up plan for it.  We were praying the rain would turn to snow, that it would go away, we did an anti rain dance, and the Lord heard our pleas, because the rain stopped just as the session was starting.  It was a miracle! 

Tenille, Chris Vada, Pacey, and Lana were just GEMS, and brought out the true homey, loving feeling of a family out on an adventure to bring the world music through their instruments.  Music, what a raw emotion filled language that we can all attach ourselves to, find resonance and meaning in it's notes, breathing life through each of us, by the simple fluctuation of sounds.  HOw blessed we all are to share the common bond of music.  

{DRUM ROLL PLEASE}

And now we introduce ... THE WATTS FAMILY BAND!!!!

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Christmas Cheer : 1 Find the Tree

The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is :

These Simple Steps.  This season follow us as we gather to do our Family traditions, and share them with you!  These are all our go to family traditions, that fill our hearts with cheer, and our souls with peace.

The first way that we find Christmas cheer starts with the tree.  We have always had real trees, in our family, anything else is blasphemy, so one of our favorite traditions, was always the day that we would go find the tree.  As a family of 5 girls {and dad} you can imagine how picky we were about the tree.  We had a saying every year after the tree was home, snug in the gorgeous ceramic tree holder, lights being strung, and ornaments laid out ready to adorn the tree...  the saying was... ," Wow this is the best tree we have ever had."  We still say it to this day.

What's such a big deal about the tree... why spend so much time on something that will be out of your house in a month?  For us, it was a time to spend time together, to come together, and decide on something as a family.. the right perfect tree, that you will all gather around on Christmas morning, and if you were like my family who had a hard working dad that couldn't always be there.. a time to see 5 girls with a saw taking turns to hack away at a stump {Hilarious}

And as we end.. one more story as to why Christmas Trees  mean so much to us.  We grew up pretty poor.  The thing about being poor is that you don't know you're poor until you're not poor anymore, at least that's how I see it.   You would have thought that we would have realized we never got new clothes unless it was Christmas, or that many nights my dad would go into the pantry and gather whatever cans he could find to make his not so famous "matter mess" for Dinner, and though we had way more than 99% of people in the world, and the Lord never let us go without, we would have been considered poor to most.  I remember one Christmas in particular.  It was a rather hard one.  I, Cryssi,  was in the 4th grade, and my dad's work had been slow {Seems to be the life of a carpenter}.  I remember my precious mom explaining to us that we couldn't get a tree yet, but would have to wait a little.  My mom never let on of our money troubles.. the last thing she would have wanted was for us to worry, but the thing we didn't know is that we just didn't have money for a tree that year.  Lollie walked into class a few weeks before Christmas, and lying on her desk was an envelope of money.  The only thing on it was a few words... for a Christmas tree.   We were blessed.  God saw it favorable to even meet such a small need as a Christmas tree.  I will never know who did that for my family... who helped us meet that need of Christmas Tree by allowing us to keep our tradition, but I want to start off this list of Christmas Cheer by saying thank you.

Don't know where to find a tree farm... check out this handy dandy site.

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Love Will Take You : Adair

If we never found this love
If we never took that road
If we hadn't had the heart
We wouldn't have this home

Love, love will take you
Love, love will take you there


In this world the heart beats slow
In my arms let's share the cold
In my eyes you're all I've known
Darlin' let's go home

Love, love will take you
Love, love will take you there

Agnus & Julia Stone

 

 

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Coming Soon : Gypsies

So I'm back, to the velvet underground

Back to the floor, that I love

To a room with some lace and paper flowers

Back to the Gypsy that I was

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Hey, Sweet Pea!

Hello Fall Lovers...
   It is a perfect fall day here in North Carolina... fifty degrees, cool, overcast... the best day to wear a thick cardigan and nuzzle up with some hot chocolate while reading up on the amazing team of Hey, Sweet Pea! We first heard about these awesome peeps through the wonderful world of Facebook. Their energy, love for branding, and all around "sweet"ness, made me realize I had instantly met new friends. They are a talented group of lovelies who specialize in all things branding: logos, websites, blogs, helping you find who you are as a photographer! Plus, Elise and her hubby Scott both teach classes at The Define School (check them out!)  I love what Elise from Hey Sweet Pea is sharing with our amazing Sassyfras followers today. I honestly think it can apply to so many different people in the lovely world of business... photographers, stylists,  designers, planners, etc...
So, sit back and soak it all in!
xoxo
Lollie and Cryssi



DIY Branding Tips
Let me first say how honored I am to know the Sassyfrass sisters. I've never met them in real life, but the interactions we've had via Facebook, Email, and Instagram made me fall in love with them from day one. You could say I have mad girl crushes on both of them. So when they asked me to guest blog, the answer was a huge resounding OF COURSE. 

Before we jump into some DIY branding tips, let me introduce myself. My name is Elise Grice and I am currently the Art Director/Co-Owner at "Hey, Sweet Pea." Our business specializes in branding development and custom digital design (Logos, Websites, Blogs, Social Media designs, etc.). We are now 1.5 years into being small business owners, after making the leap from working at the studios in Hollywood. Scott (my husband of six months) and I are busy planning the future of our business and so excited/humbled by our company’s success. We’ve met some of the most fantastic people and have been given some of the most amazing opportunities. We truly love what we do.

Branding is a huge undertaking and we work with our clients for months at a time, guiding them through an extensive soul searching process, to help them find their specific niche in the world. We love being a part of these branding journeys because of what individuals and companies discover along the way. My favorite part is the "AH-HA" moment: the moment when they figure out who they are, what they stand for, and why they exist. Obviously a process that extensive can't be written into just one blog post. But I wanted to share some of my favorite tips, for how to easily DIY a mini branding journey!


Focus your who, what, and why
Defining your brand anatomy starts with the “who, what, and why.” Sit down and honestly ask yourself these three questions:

1) Who am I?
2) What do I do?
3) Why does it matter?
The goal is to answer all three questions as unambiguously as possible. It’s harder than you would think. I will use our business as an example. In answering these questions, this is what I wrote:
1) We’re HEY, SWEET PEA, a digital branding and design company.
2) We specialize in creating visual concepts and strategic solutions for businesses seeking
fresh brands.
3) We help other businesses grow and develop healthy brands in an increasingly
digital world.

What did I just do? I focused who I was and what makes us different. I’ve also focused our brand to the core of what we do and want to be known for. I’ve boiled the who, what, and why down to its purest form.


Focus on what makes you unique
Specializing your business to a certain niche is vital. It’s not only vital because it helps you stick to the who, what, and why, but because of something you all dread: competition.
Ronald Manalastas explains specialization this way, “Specialization is the method of doing work for a singular, narrow, or limited scope of products, services, markets, or objectives. It is one of the most reliable and most durable operating platforms that any business can depend on. It builds strong internal capacity to profitably create and deliver value to the point of customer loyalty, delight, and advocacy. Specialization is predicated on having a superior positioning strategy very much difficult for others, more particularly competitors, to follow, imitate, or hurdle. It is a vital cog in building business viability and competitive strength. If you are a business owner, a professional, a manager, or even an employee, it is best to note that specialization involves the exercise of knowing, understanding, and focusing on your core competency in serving specific customer needs. The idea is to leverage your unique capabilities in the conduct of business in order to achieve appreciable efficiency and sustainable competitive advantage. You need not be everywhere doing everything for everybody in order to succeed in business.” 


Isn’t that concept freeing? You don’t have to accept work or create products you don’t want. To take it a step further, you shouldn’t accept work or create products you don’t want. Crazy, right? In the process of focusing and specializing, you’re actually doing what’s best for you and the future of your company. To summarize this concept, the benefits of specializing are:

1. It’s a reliable and durable way to build your business.
2. It allows the capacity to profitably create and deliver value.
3. It encourages customer loyalty, delight, and advocacy.
4. It provides a superior positioning strategy against competitors.


Focus on your ideal client
Who do you want to work with or create for? So many people struggle with this step because they don’t know how to accurately attract their ideal client. Don’t worry about how you’ll attract them just yet. Figure out who they are. I’m sure most of you have an idea in your head of who you’d love to work with, work for, create for, etc. It’s time to define them.

Let’s start with your favorite clients. Yes, we all have favorites. Let’s start with admitting that. But why are they your favorites? What makes you love working with or for one type of customer? I think using BRAND AGAINST THE MACHINE’S strategy is very helpful.


Assess your 10 favorite clients. And ask yourself questions about all of them. Questions like:
1) Were they respectful?
2) Were they male/female?
3) What age group were they in?
4) Where did they live?
5) How did you serve them?
6) What problems did they have that you solved?


Answering questions like that will help you build your own unique ideal customer profile. As BRAND AGAINST THE MACHINE says, “The answers to these questions help you identify who that ideal client or customer is. Once you know, you can target all of your efforts toward them. Your marketing can focus on solving their problems and showing them that your brand is the perfect fit for them. Most brands create a product or service and then go chasing after customers. This approach is completely backward. Picture your target clients, and then create solutions to their problems.”


My hope is that these three simple tips and exercises help you, dear reader, on your own branding journey! If you ever have questions, thoughts, or want to work with a specialist, we can help! We offer consulting sessions, online classes, and custom branding packages. You can get in touch with us via:


Website: www.heysweetpea.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/heysweetpea
Email: info@heysweetpea.com

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Happy Dance

Monday we will send out our sixth and final lesson for our Define : Wedding Stories Class.. We couldn't be more thrilled and excited to have been able to teach this class!  Soooo here's a big WOOHOOO and a HAPPY DANCE ! Hopefully ya'll can join us for another class soon!

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