Green Rascal Design

 
Small Updates 01/24/2012
 
We've been making some small changes around here; I dunno if you noticed.

First there is the Drawing Board. It's something I decided to toy with after seeing it on another blogger's site. Basically it is an accountability group for gettin' stuff done. Everyone's workload is different, so no judgements!

Then there are the Rascal's friends, who we decided to add there on the right hand side for anybody who wants to know about the kind of people we scratch and peck with all the time.

We've also gone into garden arts professionally. So I'm working on how to word that and get it up in the services list. The services list needs an overhaul.

That's about all that we're working "On the business." I better get back to working "In the business," and crash on my AZ house plans. Yay!
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Things are way too busy around here right now. Well, I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but it's been a long time since we've taken pictures of the garden or the birds or done a building project.

First, I was at the annual CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis weekend before last for the other company I'm working for, High Def Zone. (shhhh! don't tell anyone!)

Getting ready for and recouperating from a 4 day long business trip really took it out of me. And the fluffy chickens missed me a lot. So I spent some quality time with them for not only their sakes but mine too, because playing with the birds always puts me at ease.

The squashes growing on the chicken cage have gotten enormous to the point of nearly ripping the fence down! There are also several large squash vines taking over our butterfly bush. I'm not sure if there are actual squashes on them, but it looks crazy anyway.

Also on the chicken cage are overgrown Chinese yard beans. We will have tons of yard beans available for planting next year. If you want some, I'm sure hubby will be happy to share. I can't see how any one household could use that many beans! We basically haven't harvested any of them, prefering instead to give them to the chickens as treats. I don't know why, but the birdies LOVE those beans.

Our tomatoes went absolutely crazy. They grew out of control all over the yard and over the sidewalk, making it interesting times getting to my car in heels and a pencil skirt. We haven't been picking many tomatoes lately as they are taking much longer to ripen with all the clouds and shorter days.

The hardy kiwi vines, I'm happy to report, have made it to the TOP of the trellis finally. Now they are looking really awesome. The male vine actually needs to be trimmed back now! So hopefully next year we'll get to experience some of these little hardy kiwis.

We let the raspberries and blackberries grow long and take root so that we can dig them up and give them to the farm. Henry Got Crops has been a great experience this year, and we're looking for more ways we can easily support them. I don't have time to work in the fields, so maybe a gift of 10 or 20 little plants will help.

I was at FOUR evening networking events last week! One of which was a SARA PA board meeting on Tuesday. (love those guys!) A Women in Business Alliance event in Princeton Wednesday (where I was recognized for winning the logo contest). A King of Prussia Business Networking meetup Thursday which was HORRIBLY attended - NO offense to the 4 great guys who actually bothered to show up. And then there was the AEC Networking group first annual golf event on Friday... and I've never played golf before, but my team was amazing and I really need to follow up with a couple of them and schedule a lunch...

This doesn't include the daytime stuff: CSA pickup on Tuesday, Women to Watch by the Biz Journal on Wednesday morning (at the ass-crack of dawn), and BNI on Thursday morning (also the ass-crack of dawn).

Saturday after my weekly tai chi lesson I was dragged to the gun show in Valley Forge because of hubby's new hobby... yeah... tried to make it to my school's tai chi event in Phoenixville, but it just wasn't in the stars.

Yesterday I had a coffee appointment (just after the ass-crack of dawn). Today I was scheduled for a Power Lunch with some people, but it was cancelled. I'll just go pick up my CSA stuff. Tonight is my BNI group's open networking event at 8 East... I have a showroom to visit as well as an architect to spam. Then Thursday I have BNI again (you know, the ass-crack of dawn)... and later is the 422 ARCH September happy hour in Pottstown - which we have been mercilessly promoting all over the place. Then Friday (BEFORE the ass-crack of dawn) morning I'm lucky to have been invited to the Business Clubs America breakfast down at the Union League. Then apparently there is a Power Lunch that I had thought was on a different day, but oh well... Then there is a Penn alumni event that I was HOPING to make it to at the Mission Grill... but I'll probably just collapse on the couch instead.

So hopefully I'll have a few minutes one of these days to post pictures of the crazy squash and monster tomatoes. Until then, missing you!
Cheers,
H
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Using LinkedIn 08/11/2011
 
I do a LOT of networking. Not to say that I do more networking than anybody on the planet, but I do more by far than most people I know. That's just how it is when you're trying to build up business. So it really irks me when people are rude about connection requests.

This has been happening to me a lot on LinkedIn lately. Now, I don't claim to be the MOST sensitive to others' needs, but I do try. I haven't bombarded any one connection with requests, and believe me I could. But I am trying to start relationships with certain people. This is what LinkedIn is for! It is a tool for building networks. You can also think of it as an online resume or ad space, but for the most part it is for networking. Thus the name, LinkedIn. You are Linked in to other professionals. I don't see why this is a difficult concept for some people to understand.

Another thing - when I see an opportunity for somebody I know (even if I don't know them all that well) I send them a note about it. It's good practice to try to help people. Most networking groups are explicit about this. They want people to give referrals. I have not found a single networking group that has stated you should go there and sell sell sell. So I personally have been very mindful to make connections where I see a possibility. Do not ever accuse me of simply being greedy and requesting connections willy-nilly.

So here I am,
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Picture
I have taken time for granted! Just this morning I was thinking, Geez! There is WAY too much stuff to do! I haven't posted a blog in forever, and have been meaning to participate in the blogoff much earlier today.

Business has been very busy. I have a house plan I'm working on slowly. There have been several lunches, etc. I still need to send follow-up messages to thank all the people I've had lunch with, etc. Really, I do plan on sending out thank you messages! Promise!

And I've been working on stuff for a new project somewhat unrelated to my Rascal duties. I'm doing business development for another entrepreneur who has been working in a similar industry for years. It's fun because I studied home automation at Penn, and I find it really interesting. Hopefully it will take off. I will probably post links at some point, however things need to settle down first!

The little chickens are laying eggs now! I know I mentioned it before, but the fluffs are taking up some more time lately because of the heat. I have to furnish them with stockpiles of ice underneath their house in an attempt to keep them somewhat cooler. They seem to want lots of attention, too, and mommy just isn't around much this week.

The garden is awesome, but we're not really getting any blackberries like we hoped. Also, there were some teenagers back there last night really late smashing things up. They didn't really do any damage here, but next door they destroyed some plants and things. It was really upsetting, and I didn't get much sleep after they woke us up at 2:30am. So I lost sleep time too!

And this Thursday is the kickoff for the 422 ARCH. We have been running around like, well you know what, trying to figure out who is coming, how many of them there will be, and how do we collect all this info for next time... It's a madhouse. I'm very much looking forward to Thursday evening when we will finally all just be there hanging out, and can collect biz cards so we know who actually showed... We're already starting to plan the next official event. (there are two unofficial events scheduled in between!) At our August event we hope to have a speaker! It'll be really cool - but this all takes so much time to set up!

So there are so many things going on that I have not had a moment to think about what I have been taking for granted - other than time itself. It seems like only a few months ago I had some time and it was grand. The blog was being updated somewhat regularly and all was well here in Rascal-land. I'm really sorry I haven't been able to read the other blogoff posts yet today, but at this point I think I will have to extend my blogoff into tomorrow.

Time strikes again!
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We haven't been on vacation, if that's what you're thinking. It has been super busy this week with the garden and extracurriculars.
raspberries
raspberry and blackberry bushes
I counted the jars of strawberry jam, and we have ten. Some strawberries are still in the freezer awaiting rhubarb season. There is also a gallon of strawberry wine bubbling in the basement. Since strawberry season ended and raspberry season has begun, we have canned 3 jars of raspberries. I will soon start to make raspberry vodka. Blackberries are on their way now, too.

We stopped trying to harvest sugar snap peas. They're just plain old peas now. The same is true for the lettuce. We just got sick of salads.

The kale and swiss chard is harvestable now. I know that's not a word.

And the tomatoes started invading the walking paths, so I had to spend an hour tying them up on the little trellis things that have been there for months with no action.
tomatoes
monster tomato plants
You can't even see the trellis things anymore because the tomato plants are THAT big. There are lots of tomatoes starting already.

The chickens have been integrated for a little while now. Pumpkin and Clover still get picked on a little bit, but there is very little screaming in the morning.

Also in that picture you can see a little bit of the new house we've been slowly working on. Now, this is NOT fine home-building. I read Fine Homebuilding, and our skills in no way match those of the professional builders you read about in that fine publication. However, the chickens are much happier now that they have more space and more private nest boxes. They can also go underneath the new house and roll around out of the sun where it's cooler.

In my backlog of tasks is the new shade device for the chicken cage. Eventually it will be fabulous, I promise. Ok, well maybe not FABulous...

Now away from home-base, there has been a lot going on all over the place. First, I had a chance to go see a potential project out in the middle of nowhere on Swamp Pike. It needs a TON of work, and I'm not sure how the potential clients intend to pay for all of this. But I need to write up a short proposal and send that off to them. That was Monday, and I feel bad it's been this long.

Tuesday after my regular work I went to The Power Lunch Project/King of Prussia Business Networking Group's speed networking event. It was really fun and interesting, and I'm glad I went. However, I still need to reach out to most of the people I met there.

Wednesday after my regular work I went to the Women in Architecture/SMPS presentation on networking at the Center For Architecture in Philly. There, too, I had a lot of fun and met interesting people. The speaker, Aimee Lala, was really cool, and I hope to rope her into talking to the 422 ARCH attendees about networking in AEC as well.

Thursday I had to go get chicken feed because we were completely out. The trip to Pickering Valley is fairly long, and so I ran other errands on the way. This all prevented any real work from getting done, but sometimes you just gotta do "office management." haha. I'm still recovering...

Today I had real work to do, and I'm happy that my one rammed-earth house project is under-way. I still have no idea how this "observation tower" is going to work! BUT at least I can entertain new networking contacts with the story of my rammed-earth design.

Luckily the new Rascal business cards arrived in time for all of this networking!
Rascal business card
latest card
Right now I LOOOOOOOOOVE the new card. Sometimes I just stare at it. It might be a little minimalist, which one may think is the antithesis of all that the Rascal stands for... but we're happy. Of course we are. I wouldn't be sharing them here if we thought they sucked. (notice how I've never shared a biz card here before?) So wrap your pretty little heads around that one!

Plus, it's prime Cancer season... I have lots of friends and relatives born under the sign of Cancer, so here's a shout out to all of them and a heads-up to say I did indeed send out birthday cards. Recycled paper with soy based inks, no less.

Have a great weekend!
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I've been reading a lot of books on the psychology of influence in business lately, on the advice of the Startup Daily guy, Karl. I finished Power by Jeffrey Pfeffer really quickly. I loved it. There are a ton of really good stories in that book, which makes reading go fast even when you're reading it at bedtime. I found myself staying up way later than I should have because it was that good. I started thinking about what ELSE we can do here, or what can architecture inform in the business world.

Now I am reading Yes: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Robert B. Cialdini and others. The chapters are really really short, so it's easy to digest in small bites. Although, there are 50 of them. I never thought about things such as the WAY we're asked to reuse towels at a hotel before. Of course I always prefer to reuse my towels, but apparently there is a trick to getting more compliance from guests.

At the same time, I have been working with some new friends on a networking group idea: the 422 ARCH. I'm beginning to see this thing as a way to think about our service industry differently. For a while now, since seeing those TED talks about tribes, I've had this nagging idea that we're doing things all wrong and how can we help change that. So hopefully this Architecture, Real Estate and Construction happy hour group will be a success!

And related to that, I was at a Trustees Council for Penn Women event on Wednesday. It was not as big as the first one was, but I still met somebody really super interesting. I think it was the first time anybody has ever said to me that they love how architects think. She was really inspiring! This whole time I've been down in the dumps because it seems like the public doesn't know what we do or the value we can bring to everything. Then I meet this incredible woman who isn't an architect but knows what we do and how we see the world and believes these traits to be wonderful! How amazing! I must now go research all the interesting people she mentioned, and find out what Organizational Dynamics is and how I can meet more people in that field because it's rare to feel that good about this vocation these days.

So while I might be doing lots of other things that take me away from my beloved Rascal duties lately, this stuff is always on my mind. I believe we will change the practice of architecture sometime soon. We just have to figure out how!
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Rejuvenate! 05/12/2011
 
Huzzah! Looking at my old plans from back in the day somehow brings new life. All at once I know there is going to be a lot of work involved, but it's also going to be tons of fun. How I love these clients. They have great ideas, and it's going to be beautiful!

Also, I was looking around at some other power lunch project members' facebook pages, and I had a great idea for a new service! I'm really excited by this but I can't tell anyone what it is just yet. Some more thought has to happen before we roll it out.

This is also in part due to a message I saw in my inbox this morning regarding somebody who needs some help deciding what to do about grass. No, it's not the grass part! What is exciting is the realization that there are people out there who could use some green help in a way that we can provide it!

Time to dig out the drafting board!
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I spent my morning learning more about modern tribes by watching videos of TED talks from around 2 years ago. This was part of going through some old RSS posts I had yet again put off, and a reaction to yet another architectural disappointment. But let's not go there. My gut says this tribe thing deserves a try.

Recently I was asked "what do you like to do?" The question was not about the kind of architecture I like to do, or the project types I like to work on, or even what role do I like playing at a firm. It was simply what do I like to do. The broadness of the question shocked me as if I'd never been asked before. So I decided to do a diagram of all the things I like to do broken down professionally and personally, and in the end what I like to do can be summed up as solving problems and helping people with a nod toward doing no harm toward the environment. There are lots of specific things that point toward these three boxes, but generally that's what I like to do.
Diagram
Diagram of Likes
Ok go ahead and criticize. I'm not in Haiti helping earthquake victims. I'm not spending every waking minute volunteering in soup kitchens in the city. I'm not out on the highway picking up trash. But everybody views "helping people" differently, and I would argue that making connections is a good way to help people.

For example, some years ago I was becoming good friends with an aspiring dj. At the same time I was paying a fair amount of attention to the local techno scene around these parts. One day I saw that somebody in the techno community was looking to unload some big speakers, and I simply forwarded the info to my friend. He was elated. I had helped him out BIG TIME, and it was just by paying attention to his needs and making a connection. This story warms my heart when I think of it - and so this kind of helping people seems to mean something to me. Maybe that is why I'm not too afraid to comment on others' blogs and such.

Also, I've kinda made it a mission to show people other ways of using their space. Generally this means promoting different sustainable gardening techniques, and hopefully at some point this will expand into building techniques too. Though the latter seems to be taking its sweet time.

So after some thought and exploration, and a lot of fence-sitting and self-doubt, I guess its time to find my tribe and start nudging. While architecture is a great overall direction, perhaps this addition can help create true purpose.
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Updates 02/07/2011
 
I'm working on putting some more things up here which we've been working on lately. There are some really fun blue and red rascal things going on at least. We have a new logo and favicon for our friends at District Web Solutions. Also, a lot of my time is going toward a residential project for Brian Billings.

We are working on shelves inspired by the Brick House in our spare time. Not that there is a lot of spare time.

In the spring we are planning to get 2 more hens. Since we started out with 6 chickens last year, it only seems right to introduce two hens in place of the roosters we lost. So there are discussions about that floating about. I am personally hoping to get an Americauna that lays blue eggs.

Lastly, there are lots of plants started in the basement. Hubs set up the little heat mat and seed starter, and he's got 30 onion plants, 18 basil and five or six peppers going now. In a week or so we will start a bunch of Swiss chard, Amish deer tongue lettuce, arugula and patience dock. Can anyone say SALAD?
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I love blogs 2 01/25/2011
 
I learned something interesting yesterday from a friend about blogging with respect to online searchability. It seems blogs are easy to find because of their regularly changing content. Who knew! (seems like this is something my friend should have informed me of earlier!) Also, my use of keywords needs work apparently because they are all the rage when it comes to Google finding you.

Then today I got my regularly scheduled Legalzoom email, and one of the featured articles was Blogging and Intellectual Property Rights. It was very interesting, and I encourage any bloggers watching to check it out.

That's about all for today. There are too many things on the docket right now: ongoing CAD drafting work, new graphics projects and general office upkeep are all weighing heavily.
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