Nov. 3 I was a speaker at TEDxTU! See the talk here! I am honored and thrilled to have been part of such an amazing group of people & a part of this magical entrepreneurial community. I was pretty nervous about my voicebox declaring mutiny but luckily my brain stuck with me too & I remembered all that I had prepared to say in my 5 TEDx minutes. The points that I wanted to chat about were taking risks, listening to your instincts, and letting yourself obsess over the things that are important to you. It’s impossible to obsess over things that you don’t care about & if you give your time to things that really matter then you’ll find yourself working on things that make us all feel more gratified and thus happier. That’s what I find anyway : )
See all of our recent news here!
The past few weeks have been full of progress which feels really great, I have a part-time cohort in Birdmaking, Raegan Robinson, which I wish I had taken this financial risk on hiring someone to help me much, much sooner. I’ve realized in the past few weeks that I can’t do it all, there is a limit to human capacity afterall, unfortunately.. this realization took a while to fully form a foundation in my determined brain. I kept on thinking if I just switched to slipcasting then I would have more time, that I wouldn’t be working so hard to make the birds, but the flag has been raised that I can’t focus on the other important parts of Matter if I am always in ceramics lande. Also, I felt badly about passing over the press mold making to someone else, but feel great about passing along the slipcasting Birdie baton.
It’s pretty funny, I often make the slipcasting molds at the same time that I’m preparing a meal – I’m using my kitchen as my moldmaking room & the countertop is right next to the stove.. The other night I made pasta w/ broccoli rabe while also prepping & pouring the new mold. And I didn’t put the broccoli rabe in the plaster & or the birdies in the pasta : ) Ultimate multitasking. The other funny thing is that I have not enjoyed working w/ plaster in the past – I am having to come to peace with the plaster making & master the plaster and we are indeed becoming better friends. That feels good too, on the road to mastering an old arch rival.
If you are a Whole Living subscriber or fan, check the December issue – the Birdies are featured in their Gift Guide! I can’t wait to see the spread!!
Happy Sunday – it’s 80 degrees in New Orleans today and while walking my doggie this morning I noticed some bananas growing down the street, so cool. After living in Wisconsin for three years where I did four winters [the last one was a record since 1918 with 180" of snow] I relish in this warm weather, it feels like heaven : )
TEDxTU, November 2011
bananas in November
slipcasting moldmaking + dinnermaking = multitasking
building a flock of hope : )
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This week I just got back from Chicago’s Renegade Craft Fair which was so fun. Dirty Laundry gave us ‘Best Project‘ for the fair, so honored thank you!! : ) This was my second Renegade and it was so great to visit the lovely windy city again and see so many wonderful friends while in town [Kara I'm sorry I missed you though!] I shared a booth this time with the lovely Larken - such talented ladies! And it’s so fun to meet all of the wonderful peeps that come, I think I’m a Renegade Addict : )
Thank you to my dear friend Mercedita who helped us so much for the fair : ) we couldn’t have planned it any better – her studio is on the same street that the craft fair is on, so it was wonderful to be able to store the birdies there overnight during the fair, it was really one block away from the booth! It felt like we had a lookout apartment in a spy movie it was so well orchestrated!
This week is my bird-day week so it all felt like a massive birthday present! I had been planning to take the train up for the fair, but after thinking how close I would be to Wisconsin where a friend of mine is a master moldmaker at Kohler I decided to road trip it so I could bring my sidekick Tonto and cart molds, etc.. I felt like I had to take the chance while I could because I’ve been wanting to get to slipcasting for a loooong time now and haven’t had much luck in Nola in this dept.
I’d never driven through this part of the country before, MS, tip of TN, MO, IL and we had a steady three state diet for each day’s drive. I love to drive and think actually, especially with how busy I’ve been lately it actually felt pretty relaxing to motor and take in the scenery, letting my thoughts wander and take a break from logistics.
So after driving through hundreds of miles of cornfields, butterflies, sunflowers, and wind farms, we first visited with my friend Monty in Wisconsin and got his expert help in making a master slipcasting mold that I can now make 10 molds off of to more efficiently make the birdies. I lived in Wisco three years ago, [when I worked for Kohler designing faucets] so was great to see a few old friends and hear what everyone is up to. Before heading to Chicago I was also able to catch this amazing show at the Kohler Arts Center – if you’re in the area GO! Amy Chaloupka curated this wonderful show on Memory in the Arts. Since she’s my amiga I was lucky to have her walk me through it, which was a real treat to hear a little backstory on this dense, thoughtful exhibition, if you live nearby it’s worth a daytrip to see!
First we determined the shrinkage of the slip [6 - 8%] after firing and I made my birdie to the appropriate size. Then we made five ‘positives’ to use for the moldmaking. We laid up a bed of plasticine, careful of undercuts and to create the pourspouts. Monty made me make one batch of plaster, since it’s not my forté – be agressive with it he said! : ) After creating the first side, we cleaned it up a bit, then coated the first side in mold soap to prevent the second side from sticking once poured. Oohlala! It is such a beautiful mold!
On the way to the Windy city I also needed to stop and do a little Gandhi scouting. I’ve been considering Milwaukee’s Gandhi statue as one of the upcoming Gandhiwarming locations..
Renegade Owl? + Gandhi : )
More road trip photos here on flickr.
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Happy Saturday! How can it be August and already mid-August at that.. holy speedy 2011! The 22nd will bring the one year anniversary of arriving in New Orleans for the first time to see what I could see and how I might get this project going. This year has been so filled – it’s like a packed bookcase filled with amazing happenings and lots of learning!
Funnily enough, the 22nd will also be the date to begin voting for the 12 selected runners for DailyCandy’s Start Small, Go Big Contest! Please send the Birdies lots of good luck and to be one of the chosen twelve!! This contest includes a trip to nyc to attend DailyCandy Academy – which includes exciting business building with their awesome mentors like Jonathan Adler and Marcus Samuelsson! If you tweet us to win please include hashtag #SSGB in your tweets : )
Also this month I sent in an application for Sappi’s Ideas that Matter grant for 2011, fingers/wings crossed for good luck! This grant has been given to some impressive peeps and would be so HONORED if that came through – this would help BirdProject [& Matter projects] develop packaging, new website and so much more… don’t want to jinx it, but please send us good wishes : ) I love this quote from their website: ‘Design is Hope made Visible’ that’s the best description for design that I’ve ever heard - and a good yardstick.
Coming up in September [10,11] BirdProject is excited to be a part of Renegade Craft Fair’s Chicago event!! This is their hometown and I’m so excited to visit the Windy City and see some dear friends. I haven’t been back since moving from the Wisconsin in 2008, nuts! If in Chicago or nearby, please come & see the Birdies! Woot, so excited to see all of the good stuff at the Fair : )
I squeezed in a little beach vacay with some dear amigas a couple of weeks ago so I would be refreshed for the busy months ahead, it was truly a treat to just sit and not do a thing but look at the ocean : ) Thank you ladies, that was the best treat!
The past few weeks the Birdies have received some awesome press! These great articles in Ecouterre, Springwise, and Mixing Reality. Also, a wonderful product review for About.com. Please see the full list and links here on the website. Also, see this video interview with a group of Haworth Business Students for SENO.
Speaking of SENO, Thank you! I said to Andrea [the executive director] the other day, SENO is way better than any Cinderella [or Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, etc.] : ) We have made so much progress, a new website in the works, books getting straightened, projections getting made, plus so much more, oohlala!
Well, more coming soon & I should get back – it’s time to make the birdies!! : ) Please do send us some good luck wishes for all of the exciting applications in the works, merci beaucoup in advance : )
Happy Sunday! Wow, things have been so busy since my last post! The SENO New Ventures Accelerator has started up and I’ve been learning mucho. I don’t have much experience in the land of excel spreadsheets, formulas, etc. and my brain starts to swirl a little in them after a while, so I’ve been getting better at them & been doing some strategic planning for the future of MATTER L3C, woohoo! Working with Stephanie, John, and Andrea is so wonderful – they are so inspiring and it’s such an honor and such a relief to have their expert help! Still seeking an executive mentor.. wow, this whole thing is such an honor!
Man, I’ve been getting better about scheduling which can be really difficult when it’s you working solo and a list miles long of things to do [overwhelming sometimes] : ) If you struggle with this too, I now find that it’s easier to just have one calendar. Before I had a paper calendar w/ notes for the week & my phone/computer calendar for large deadlines & that was becoming… stupid. Ha! But, true. So, I ditched the paper calendar and am all digital now – it’s been so much better. I had the fear of out of sight, out of mind, but it’s really working great & I find it way more productive to actually schedule me time [aargh matey, typo but I'm keeping it!].
Funny, I did some freelance work this week & while working on it, I realized.. I know what I’m doing.. what is this odd feeling? It actually was a great relief – everything I’m doing these days is new, so it was reassuring to realize that I’m not a dunce, I’m just learning.. A LOT, ha!! As I said to some friends the other day, starting your own business is kind of like going to school for everything at once : )
Yesterday I figured out how to set up MailChimp for newsletters on the website - please sign up for Early Birds! [BirdProject's mailing list for the first peek at new products, news, and there's a special summer bird-dog days of summer discount when you sign up in the next month!]
So thrilled about the Birdies being in Bask Magazine! Check out the beautiful spread & thank you to Michelle Pulfrey of Bask!
In other recent BirdLove – they were also posted on I am the Trend from Chicago & Lost at E Minor out of Sydney/NYC! More exciting things in the hopper, will post them soon!
I’m so excited and totally blown away. Yesterday was my first meeting with the MATTER team for the next 10 months as part of SENO‘s new ventures acccelerator program. I will be working with Stephanie Darden president of FDG Creative, who has built an incredible business over the past nine years and John Padavan, an MBA at Tulane who is majoring in entrepreneurship & has an impressive background in strategy and marketing. Like I said, pinch me! I am thrilled, delighted, grateful, and enlivened for the upcoming learnings and progress. Thank you so much for selecting me to be a part of this amazingness SENO!
In other updates (and sorry for my delay, the last couple of weeks involved a double computer crash, yes double, but am back up again, shew!) Austin was amazing, met so many wonderful peeps & the Renegade Craft Fair was really awesome. It was a great learning experience and I totally would love to go again, perhaps try other towns too! But, if you haven’t been to Austin – go! My mom flew in to help and we had a great time, we both had never been there before and loved it, she even treated us to some cowboy boots jahooo! : ] Thank you so much mom!!!! While at the fair we made some great connections, one of which being Mike Litt who invited the birds to take part in ‘Identity Project: The Greatest Ideas Ever Branded‘ which was inspired by Morgan Spurlock’s latest film The Greatest Movie ever sold. I wish I could have made the event, but I left Mike with a little flock to attend in my place and it certainly looks like it was a wonderful eve!
The birdies found several new homes in the past couple of weeks, on Friday I took a nice flock to the Ogden Museum store. They also found wonderful new homes at Defend New Orleans, Miss Malaprop, Cahoots Handbags in Gainesville, Texas, Jennifro, Hair and Makeup Studio in Richmond, Virginia, Firefly Home in Thomasville, Georgia, and with our good friends at Dirty Coast, who also included the birdies in their newsletter!
Last night I brought some more birds to NOMA‘s gift shop, where the birdies have continued to spread their wings further – hooray! One of the guys that works in the store told me how much people really love the birds, that they get so excited that they run them across the store to show their friends and family!! 
Is that cool or what, was a great feeling to hear and so glad that he told me! I thought later, it’s so gratifying to hear how much people connect with the birds and pretty special considering a typical life of a product designer, so I particularly love that. : )
Also at the Museum last night I saw Swoon‘s installation and heard her speak about her work, it was a beautiful evening and a real treat. She posted several of her pieces in Red Hook, my old neighborhood in Brooklyn, and I’m a big fan of her work. Her talk was really inspiring and comforting to hear, she’s a great speaker.. a couple of things that stuck w/ me was her talking about building relationships with a city and how that can be just as important as the initial work that you do there and listening to your creative intuition, how certain things make sense to you instinctively. They might not make sense to others at first, but that’s ok you know you trust it and know it will come along.
Another was an audience member asked her where the most value was found in her work [good/tough question!] she said that for instance, in her boats work, when they rolled up to the shore in venice people just freak out a little bit, they get excited and thrilled at what they’re seeing and forget about the things that typically hold them back. And at that moment, even if it’s for a couple of seconds, it’s a ‘hi! there’s another possibility out there.’ I love that and think I have felt similar moments in this project as well as in gandhiwarmer. It was great to hear her talk about the stresses you can have or self doubt if you’re doing the right thing, and the conversations you have with those that we trust to help us through those tough moments, we’re all human after all aren’t we : ) The layers in her work are so beautiful and inspiring, it made me want to run home & draw stacks & stacks of inspired pages & try some street paste-ups, hmmm…
Also, keep your eye out for this, Swoon is creating a musical house on Piety Street in the Bywater with Airlift, sounds totally magical to me! TM, baby, TM.
Tonto is healing up well since his recent surgery and liked shnorteling around at the hotel, he liked having those sliding doors open up for him
I was so happy to see some food trucks here in NOLA after returning from gorging myself on taco truck yummies in Austin! YUM!
So excited for this weekend! Heading to Austin for the Renegade Craft Fair : ] I’ve never been to Austin and honestly I’ve been feeling a pull towards it for a while. I can’t wait to check out all of the awesome vendors & meet the wonderful peeps! : ]
I also can’t wait to chow down on some Austin eats, bbq, tacos, a friend just told me about the breakfast tacos there, yum! She said to make sure I eat as many as I can everyday, haha! : ]
Hoping that the flooding has been averted and not feeling as much pressure to bring all that I might treasure with me, fingers crossed! I did move my books and a few precious things upstairs last week before they opened the Morganza spillway. Really feeling for those that are evacuating right now and watching their homes and businesses become flooded. I hope this will lead to a more full water protection system [not full reliance on levees & more inclusion of wetlands/natural water processing methods].
So my big news from last week is that I’ve been selected as one of SENO’s 10 Fellows for its New Ventures Accelerator Program!!!! I’m more than thrilled, everytime I think of it I feel so grateful and very lucky to be a part of. This will be such a massive help in getting started on the right foot – creating business plans, getting my books working well, and mentoring and Wow! I’m completely honored.
So this trip to Austin will also be one of celebration! I’m so excited for a road trip too – my little car will be filled to the gills with a few hundred soaps, BirdProject totebags & washcloths, booth gear, & of course my dear pal Tonto! I’ve had this song stuck in my head for the past couple of days in anticipation of the drive.. will play it along the way : ]
Hope everyone is well! Some good personal news to start off, my boo Tonto had a successful surgery and is snoozing happily [slightly due to painkillers] at my toes. He had two mast cell tumors removed, I found another small bump on his side the night before surgery luckily & so he had all of his suspicious puglumps removed. The kind DVM at Southern Animal Foundation treated him really well, they are all very caring and I’m so glad he’s home to heal.
Back to the birdies! Last week I was so honored to be included on a social innovation panel for the inspiring Secondline conference, there were so many inspiring speakers, please check them out here – totally impressive & pretty awesome you can download their presentations here! Last week my friend Mary also visited to attend Jazzfest and brought her dog Mr. Pants, Tonto was glad to have a buddy for a few days & was fun to hang with Mary around town & enjoy some tasty treats around Nola. [Next year gotta go to Chazfest!] We also stopped in at New Orleans’ awesome new gallery/shop/event space for Good: Unfold Media for their premiere opening of ‘Tsunami of Support.’ It was a great evening & half a dozen birdies went to new homes too!
This week, starting tomorrow – a flock has flown to NYC! They are part of this amazing event Model Citizens at the Chelsea Art Museum!! Another complete honor to be a part of and in such inspiring company – I wish I could be there for the event, am prepping for the Renegade Craft Fair next weekend in Austin, can’t wait to meet everyone!! Ich bein eine Excitement addict – really – I think I might be addicted to good things & excitement.
On the hand of too much excitement, I’m keeping an eye on the upcoming water heading this way & seeing if I need to head north a bit in order to cross the mighty mississippi for Austin. Fingers, toes, & braids crossed and please don’t let New Orleans flood!!!! I don’t want anyone to have to go through the destruction and personal loss of flooding of course [Morganza spillway debate]. It seems like a very poorly designed flood relief plan that if you open the floodgate destruction also occurs and this sort of choice has to be made. I have two views of the Army Engineer Corp sailing around in my head – the good people with respect for nature and the Big River described in one of my favorite books ‘The Control of Nature‘ by John McPhee & the corrupt, bureaucratic robots highlighted in the Big Uneasy by Harry Shearer. I’ve been looking around, considering what I must bring with me in case of the worst flood ever for New Orleans, and can’t help but picture my things bobbing around my apartment.. & if it floods 20′ when will I return to NOLA & to what?
Ok, on the lighter side.. More good, exciting news coming.. thrilled about, can’t wait & will tell you as soon as I can! : ]
Tomorrow through Sunday, May 13 – 15! If in New York – please go!
sometimes it’s the little things.. like new glazing brushes!!
Mary also got to go to a crawfish boil on her first trip to Nola!! Notice how this is of everyone’s backs! The first round was impossible for me to squeeze in – ha, I got a potato! Plenty on the next rounds though – YUM!!
If you haven’t had breakfast at Elizabeth’s in the bywater… you might not have had breakfast! Yes, I did say that!! Try the bubble & squeak.
Next weekend in Austin!
Shameless, I know – my boy is already back in action – smiling & Mr. Zen! : ] So grateful he did well in surgery.
This week brought the sale of 1000 birdies, pretty wild to think about it. Since late December to now BirdProject has sold 1000 handmade birdies. Wow, thank you BirdSoapers – truly, truly! Emily and I have made more than that [building up Birds on hand to take to Austin next month] and it’s quite amazing to think of handmaking one thousand of anything. My mom and I will celebrate in Austin and I’m thinking of a 1000 Birds celebration here in Nola to thank everyone involved.
Also this week, it has been one of shifting and expanding. I’ve been fully dedicated to this project for the past six months, working daily and often fifteen hours [or more] a day – I’m trying to start also fitting in me-time, relaxation, and a little bit of other life. To be a healthy and thinking person I need to include and see new things. I love working on this and simply realize the need for rest and as a designer/artist new things spur new thoughts. With starting a new business you really have to be everything and working consistently, but you also have to feed yourself to avoid burnout and go for the marathon, it’s not a sprint.
What a really difficult week in regional news – fires, floods, and tornadoes, my heart goes out to those in need. And god, I can’t believe that congresswoman Giffords made it to her husband’s now delayed shuttle launch, wow. Talk about progress. I was trying to imagine how those words [talking about all she's been through this year] would feel coming out of your mouth. Also, yesterday I took my doggie to the vet and found that he has a small mast cell tumor on his back, luckily it has been found now while it is really small, but it truly breaks my heart since my other doggie Carlos died over a year ago from mast cell tumors. The vet asked me if I wanted to look at the x-ray slide to see the mast cell tumor, I couldn’t do it. To see this cellular thing which took my dear Carlos now on my dear Tonto really kills me a little – or a lot. I’m trying my best to stay hopeful, positive, and confident that the surgery will really remove the mast cell before they spread any further the bastards. Ups and downs.
In an effort to find one good thing everyday amidst world events – I started this blog WONDERFUL for MATTER – if you need a pick me up, check in & please feel free to send Wonderful things along. Making some more porcelain birdies today.. I think they will be therapeutic to work on.
it’s a lovely space isn’t – last night while working on the sofa with a very tired tonto after his vet day, i appreciated my lovely workhomespace – ha, i’m always in my studio, so i hardly see this one! and we had a nice, cozy eve afterall.
tonto’s linked in profile pic : ]
Delivered more birdies to Nadine Blake! I love her, she’s so awesome : ]
birdies drying for the kiln in the morning sun
Rabbits went out last week : ]
tonto and the swan : ]
photo shoot preparing for Craft Renegade : ]
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This week is a busy week indeed, starting off with taxes due, then the anniversary of the spill on the 20th [also passover this year], earth day tomorrow, Rabbits hopped to new homes for Easter..
Yesterday was a tough one, in one year what has happened? Has the industry made any move in creating change to eliminate [not avoid!] these mistakes from happening again? I looked at some of the images from last year, which I typically avoid, they are so heartbreaking. [No horror films for me either] Seeing them again jolted me back to the feeling I initially had while living in Brooklyn.
Those images made me hit the highway full of the need to help restore this awful mess and to try to make something hopeful and moving into the future. I do feel immensely proud of getting so much done towards BirdProject in the past six months, as I was chatting with a new friend this week though – this sort of project is really ego-less. Yes, it’s you doing it, it’s your idea, but that’s not what it’s about and the you really falls to the wayside – it’s about doing it for the good of it.
To get back to industry, If I could make a wish for yesterday, it would be that the people making the decisions would start using something else besides money as their basis for yes or no. What a different world it would be. What if these decision makers used the worst possible thing that could happen as their guiding factor [since these things are impossible to repair] and then also considered these effects 25 – 50 years out. It seems so basic doesn’t it?
Ok perhaps that’s too big for this blog to discuss at this moment..but where will be next year? What can change or progress can occur by then?
In other things new, I will be introducing a porcelain version with a lovely crackle finish [think traditional Japanese ceramics] as a commemorative version to mark the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster. This will be launched in a couple of weeks, mostly because it made me feel weird to launch it the day of. I would like to give the first eleven porcelain birds to the families of those killed one year ago. If you can help me contact them, please do drop me a line, I’m still in this process.
BirdProject is in Audubon Magazine’s blog, an update from my volunteering after the oil spill, have a looksee! Also the birds are included in GRN’s blog on products donating to oil spill cleanup. Yesterday I made a donation of $700 to both GRN & IBRRC on behalf of BirdProject for this second batch of birds – is such a wonderful feeling, thank you BirdSoapers you are simply amazing!!
IBRRC tweeted this afterwards – makes me grin each time: “Blowing a kiss from Calif: @BirdProjectSoap for its wonderful donation today: Making bird-shaped soaps: http://www.birdproject.org/” : ) And I learned that Gulf Restoration Network received a ‘major donation’ due to seeing BirdProject in Coastal Living! Hearing that totally made my week : ]
Also, my friend Shannon of reMade USA [upcycled leather to bags, ottomans, & more] wrote a lovely post today about the Birdies, thank you Shannon!!
Last and in no-way least, MASSIVE thank you to my Mom who came for a visit and to help with BirdProject last week! We packed birds, shepherded birds around town, worked on Rabbits too [Rabbits for Reading] and got to delight in some tasty treats around town as reward! Thank you Mom, you’re the best!!
Aaaaand thank you so much to recent Materials Sponsors for the Birdies! GIGANTIC Thank yous to Katherine Kleimenhagen, Laguna Clay, & Alligator Clay! See more on that here!
10-4, more soon!
first try of new slipcasting molds
baking the molds when they were too wet due to overuse and high humidity!
congregating in the kiln
reward! red velvet cake ice cream at Creole Creamery!!
Reward! Praline bacon at Elizabeth’s! YUM! : ]
The birdies are on page 13 of April’s issue of Coastal Living! Very exciting!! I love the photo, is a thrill to see them in print, and this certainly also helped the birdies fly to new places, thank you so much for all of the wonderful interest and for bringing birdies to land at your home!
Also, the birdies have found a new nest on Etsy, I’m totally thrilled about that and am enjoying learning about the Etsy community and seeing all of the beautiful goods for sale! Am excited to see so many wonderful natural and handmade things, now I know where to shop! Also, BirdProject is now a member of Etsy Nola, who just put up a post about the birdies, thank you! And in Nola you can also now find the birdies at Longue View House & Garden Shop!
Busy-ness! The past few weeks have been sooo busy, let’s go ahead and make that the past 6 months haha! Still working to get the new slipcasting molds right w/ Nick over at New Orleans Tile, I am so grateful for his expertise. My mom has come for a visit this week and is helping me pack birdies, make deliveries around town, birdmaking etc. aaaand make me eat regular meals, get a haircut, ha some of the things that just fall by the wayside when you’re such a busy bird! We’ve had a few yummy breaks at the Creole Creamery, St. James Cheese Shop, & Elizabeth’s today, lawdy – soooo good! Dropped off another batch of ceramic birds at the amazing Emily’s to be soaped, I feel so lucky to have found her and am so thrilled to be working with her on this! : ]
Soon upcoming is the one year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Spill, it’s incredible a whole year has passed. It’s also incredible how much more there is to do in the Gulf and how much is still unknown or yet undetermined. I hope that with the anniversary the attention brought will help spotlight the things in need and show that this is far from resolved.
More coming soon..
