Becoming (Really) Professional

In the last year, my company has taken some big steps away from the handmade DIY aesthetique and towards a true ready-to-wear company.  I had gorgeous tags printed with my logo for the inside of my garments and accessories, as well as size tags and care tags in lieu of hand screen-printing my own.  They look great.  Another step I have taken is ensuring packaging looks amazing and boutique-ey.  Every customer who purchases a piece from Desira Pesta gets a gift, well, what looks like one.

If you’re like me, you LOVE getting presents, especially in the mail.  I therefore wrap my orders in logo-covered newsprint paper and vintage ribbon or lace and a little thank you card; and it is almost like getting a present even when you bought it for yourself!

Right before Renegade Craft Fair on the weekend of June 5,6, I was kind of freaking out about not having Desira Pesta paraphernalia for my booth.  In the past, I have used a piece of cloth that I screenprinted with a gooey Are You Afraid of the Dark? type of font of my name for passersby to know who I was.  (I’m hoping people still remember this show, I’m feeling old lately.)   This wasn’t durable, professional, or even cute. I wanted to go the professional route and wanted a custom vinyl banner with a lovely IN YOUR FACE graphic of my logo.  Lastly, it was slated to rain that weekend with tornado warning and I would need something waterproof and windproof.  AUGHHH

Lo and behold!  I got wind of a company called Buildasign.  Alright, I’ll build my sign.  Knowing how much my dad used to have to pay for his car magnets and signs from FastSigns when I was a kid, I figured these things would be $300.

They weren’t.

I could also get a sandwich board and look like the guys on 6th avenue pushing Italian food!

Buildasigns products are VERY reasonable and their site is VERY easy to use.  I went through the steps of buying my html Custom Vinyl Banner in a few minutes, got to the image section and put in my high res logo:

Now because I am cursed with electronics, of course it my image didn’t have high enough resolution, or my dpi was off and I had to badger the poor customer service rep 40 times.  She sure had some patience, as as I uploaded it like 240574 times and changed it 395686 times in Photoshop to make sure it looked alright, she stood by me and replied swiftly and promptly that it hadn’t worked, yet she would prevail with me.  After I finally got it right, my order went through and in about 4 days, a box came.

I was excited!!!!!!  This is Desira going professionallllllllll!

I opened it up.  Look how beautiful!!!!!!!!

Now, that weekend it did rain.  It poured like it was the apocalypse and on the Sunday of Renegade, we were forced to pull our mud-soaked wares and booth furniture into the middle of our tent and hug each other in fear.  My Buildasign hung on the right back end of our booth and shone on.  Not only did it make it through the wind, rain, and mud, it actually served as a shower curtain and added an additional protective layer against the elements.

If you need anything business-related for any kind of event, for your store, for your home office, or even as a gift (THINK SISTER’S FACE AS A FOUR YEAR OLD IN DIAPERS ON 3 X 6 FOOT BANNER FOR HER BIRTHDAY), I strongly recommend you get your butt on over to Buildasign. It’s totally mom and pop and not like Kinkos or Staples AND a waaay better deal.  I’m so happy I did.  ;o)

Hello! From Brooklyn

So lot’s of time has passed since my last post and so I will update you with some news…

Obama is president!  Just Kidding it’s only been like 6 weeks..

My Movie Debut!  Check out this trailer and me sitting very near Mr. Ben Stiller in one of my favorite directors, Noah Baumbach’s latest film due out in 2010.  The movie was a blast to shoot for a week of my life in April and I met some great great people.

AUGHHHH!!!  WOOOOO While in Los Angeles, I had a sample sale with my pal, Layla.  The female star of the movie, Greta Gerwig, came and is now a proud owner of a Desira Pesta top.  She is also a super sweet lady.  A blast.  Can’t wait to see the movie!!  Greenberg – Coming to theaters March 12, 2010. Cast: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Never would I thought that four years ago after seeing The Squid and the Whale and thereafter watching it obsessively for a year would I get to meet and be on set with Noah.  AUGHHHHHHHHH  Similarly, Zoolander, one of my guiltiest pleasures and from which I can quote every line, is another surreal dream come true.  Follow your dreams.

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This Life As We Know It

These days, we might be floundering, trying to find meaning in a little bit (or a lot) of suffering.  Strong constants in our lives have vanished somehow, somewhere, and we are left somewhat disabled by our unsecurities about our futures, as well as our fear for what’s to come.  Bills are plentiful despite our hardships.  These guys always get paid, don’t they.  Perhaps we’ve abandoned age old habits in lieu of a more simple life, a more humble life, in this day and age.  Maybe we were forced to take a job “far below us” ; and are therefore forced to work amongst people we would never have encountered other than being served by.  Maybe our troubles mimic their own and we can all share in a dance of hiding from our them, and seeking refuge from them.

Maybe our constant companions are worries and doubts, empty refrigerators and voids where our favorite possessions used to stand, yet now have a new place to call home.  Maybe our eyes are badgered by the need to sleep.   Our bodies are aching for the beds they used to see more and dream more in.  Alarm clocks break our dreaming and remind us of our obligations ,in hours earlier than we’d like to greet, require us to see.  We need to work more.  We somehow have less.  E-C-O-N-O-M-I-C   D-O-W-N-T-U-R-N created this exhaustion and we are the casualties.

Maybe we once had retail shops that were flocked to and prized by the media.  A once highly decorated shop windows stands naked with a single poster asking, “who would like to move in?”.  Our comforts in the things that were always there, ever-present, exceptionally reliable, like those old customers, annihilated.  We look around and somehow people are still thriving.  We grow angry, jealous, despondent, aggressive.  Others are aggressive too.  We all push and shove a little harder, our tongues are quick to throw out words usually reserved for worse conditions.  We can’t take it.  We’re pissed.

Friends might have left you and moved somewhere cheaper or somewhere where dreams grow a little better. Perhaps some gave up.  As terrible as it is to say it, some couldn’t take it.  Some saw no end but a grave. I know one, do you?  Time has experienced this before, but some of us haven’t.  Some of us were mere babes in a grown up world in 1991-1992.

I am not one to be cheesy, but this song cheered me up.  It made me feel a little more community in a crappo time….

xoxox Desira

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