An October hello to everyone.  It’s Ingrid from Artists to Watch.  I’m so pleased that Ceci has asked me to write now and then for our blog. I love cards, beautiful art, and quotes that catch my mood. I also love being surrounded by paper (my sister calls it my “detritus” ) and fun people, so of course, Artists to Watch is perfect for me!

I’ve been working here part-time since the summer of 2009 and have been laughing all the way. I do a little bit of many tasks, but mostly it’s helping to pick and pack cards for store orders!  I especially enjoy writing little notes on the order sheets so if you get a little doodle of flowers in the spring -- or leaves (fall) -- that’s probably me.

A curious thing how life can be so full of coincidence, synchronicity, magic, whatever you want to call it. I'm originally from New England and worked for seven years at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Shelter. Feeling that such a special place deserved more than old posters stuck to walls with masking tape and pushpins,  the very first piece of art I donated to the shelter’s lobby in 1992 was a framed signed photograph of Jim Brandenburg’s wolf looking through the trees (CB101).  And now, almost 20 years later, here I am in Minnesota, working again alongside (boxes of) this gorgeous image.

 As a customer said to me the other day, have a DELUXE day.

Until next time.

Ingrid 

Wow! The new site is finally done and we are so excited to share it with you! Working on the launch of the new site has reminded me of how hard change is sometimes. We had our old site with which we were dissatisfied — but comfortable. We had become accustom to it's foibles and inadequacies and in return it did not give us much to worry about.

Now "BOOM" change has struck and we have a super slick site that can do all sorts of wonderfully mystic — to me at least — things and it means we here at ATW have spent our last few days in website chaos! Change is hard and frustrating and it means that we have a had a few little hiccups along the way — and we do need to apologize to all of you who tried to log on and were met with no site or a big bad error message! Or those of you who had to have orders credited or redone — we are so sorry. Like all new beginnings this one was a little bit rocky. But as the week comes to a close there is light at the end of the tunnel and I know that one day we will be as comfortable with this site and much more satisfied!  So thank you for your patience.

Why change will be good! We anticipate the new site being wonderfully simple to use, both for viewing our cards and placing orders. There are separate sites for wholesale and retail customers so that we can serve each of you more efficiently. The new site also allows us to feature certain artists or products and to occasionally offers specials or even a sale now and then. Make sure to check the blog, website or Facebook so that you stay updated.

The one downside of change is that we could not transfer our old accounts into the new site! So that means that all of you our wonderful customers will have to make a new account. We are so sorry - I hate asking you to use it redoing something that you have already done, I know that your time is valuable and I would much rather you get to look at beautiful cards than fill out a form! But there was nothing we could do to resolve this issue, so to make amends we sent out an email with a little gift notice — it is only good until the end of October so use it soon and I hope that makes it this change a little sweeter!

We also are starting up a blog in conjunction with the new sight and everyone at ATW is so excited to start posting! You will be hearing from all of us and we will be commenting on any and everything related to ATW, our artists and living an artful life! We look forward to letting you know more about all of us and we hope that you will be part of the conversation as well — reading, and participating by leaving your comments!

So check out the site — look at all the wonderful new cards and remember change is good! Ceci