By Melissa Kandel, founder and CEO of little word studio I have no other word to describe my car last Thursday morning than to say it was moseying down a side street somewhere in the suburban underbelly of West L.A. My friend Brittany and I had been stuck in a thick smog of traffic for […]
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No, I haven’t forgotten. No, this series “Novel Ideas” about my book in progress is NOT the proverbial sock stuffed into the back of the second dresser drawer from the bottom, collecting lint, collecting memories of smelly shoes gone by. The reason for my brief hiatus between the last blog post and this one is […]
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I’m starting to write a book. It’s a strange, big project I’ve been wanting to take on for years (I’ve written about doing it at length on here) and now FINALLY the time is right. Here we go. I also want to bring all 9,000+ of my followers along with me, hanging out backstage for […]
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The road to entrepreneurship isn’t always a straight line. Not all of us wake up one morning, watch the sun shining optimistically through our bedroom window and decide there and then to simply quit our jobs and go for it. Sometimes, entrepreneurship happens another way. Jessica Phan, founder of Northern California-based jewelry line Hathorway, understands […]
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Reposting this little rant on writing today because I’m reading John Lennon’s biography and also just because. When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.” – John Lennon The minute you start […]
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It takes a lot of grace to run a successful pastry business and it takes a lot of gusto to make Sia’s famous black-and-white wig out of nothing but fondant and dreams. Kathryn Gunderson, a professional pastry chef baking out of San Francisco, is doing both, boldly carving her sweet niche in the wedding cake […]
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I took the butterfly photo above yesterday morning on an iPhone. 🦋 It’s amazing to work with the big clients, the ones with huge marketing budgets that allow for a “let’s do it” attitude at every strategic turn, but there’s something imaginatively wild about a scrappy brand able to execute with nothing but the […]
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I’ve learned a lot by giving back. I’ve learned there’s happiness in selflessness and that even one person with a will to create change really and truly can. (I’m not referring to myself, although I hope to one day be such a catalyst for charitable revolution. I refer instead to Judy Burlingham, chairman of Pipeline […]
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Yesterday morning, I drank two cups of coffee and rode the train to San Diego. The frothy ocean views and muted seascape I’ll save for another more literary post but sitting on the train, watching the ocean curl below mottled-gray clouds, I felt like a detective on a civilized coastal adventure.
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In most cases learning something essential in life requires physical pain. – Haruki Murakami — Right now I’m in training to write a novel. I do think it’s strange to say I’m in training, but I am. If you read the best books on writing (King, Murakami and Bradbury are good places to start), there’s […]
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