Bittersweet Creative

Pure Animated Wit

abi.byrd — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:37:18 +0000

“Guess what I use for a bean bag? A raisin.” I am officially smitten with Marcel. Still laughing out loud after watching this an embarrassing number of times.

Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp
Written by Jenny Slate + Dean Fleischer-Camp

Just launched aoneeight.org!

Kate Schmidgall — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:37:23 +0000

We just printed a promotional booklet and launched a website for NCC’s aone:eight FEARLESS campaign! We love opportunities to use our skills and experience to support meaningful work!

Visit the site! Or, better yet, sign up to get involved!

New site launch!

Kate Schmidgall — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:53:21 +0000

Bittersweet was delighted to support Janet Oberholtzer (fellow DreamYear participant) in her endeavors to share her truly inspirational story with audiences across the country. The goal was to build a simple and sophisticated site that reflects Janet’s unique style and story. Built on WordPress, the site allows Janet to easily maintain a blog, update her event calendar, and keep visitors up-to-date on the progress of her forthcoming book.

Visit the site

How to be alone

Kate Schmidgall — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:04:23 +0000

This is a fabulous poem and performance: a really fascinating integration of hand-drawn illustration, video, music, and poetry. The sort of piece I hope to eventually produce for stories told within the Bittersweet Zine. Janet Oberholtzer recently posted this video on her blog and, after watching it a couple times, I just HAD to share it with you.

Bittersweet sponsors ‘Combat Human Trafficking’ event

Kate Schmidgall — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:52:19 +0000

Driven by faith to intelligently engage in the critical issues of our day, we want to know: What can we do to help combat human trafficking? Join us at Busboys & Poets on July 22 from 6:30-8:30pm.

Women of Global Action is a Christian non-profit that exists to educate women on social issues concerning women and children around the world. WOGA is a network of 150,000 women worldwide with eight US-based chapters, of which the DC Chapter has just started and is hosting its first event (focused on trafficking + sexual exploitation) on July 22nd. The DC Chapter specifically is a community of women, driven by faith to affect change, intelligently engage in and understand the critical social issues of our day.

We are thrilled to have Andrea Powell [Executive Director, FAIR Fund], Bethany Hoang [Director of the IJM Institute], Candace Wheeler [Founder & President, Restoration Ministries], and Supei Liu [Director of Business & Product Development, Nomi Network] all come together to address the central question: What can we do to help combat human trafficking?

This is the first of three WOGA events Bittersweet is sponsoring in 2010 (next are in Sept, Nov). Hope to see/meet you at Busboys on the 22nd!

Let’s raise kids to be entrepreneurs

Kate Schmidgall — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:14:59 +0000

Cameron Herold gives this inspiring, comically right-on account of growing up as an entrepreneur–basically asserting that we need to do a better job recognizing and cultivating characteristics and skills of entrepreneurs in kids.

As Cameron says, “Let’s teach kids problem solving, to lead others, to want to make money, public speaking, to ask questions, to learn form mistakes, how to sell, to never give up, to be creative, how to save money, to ask for help, and to see solutions.”

A bit hilarious, a bit sickening

Kate Schmidgall — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:18:15 +0000

Sarah Haskins says it all, I think…

A departure from rules and incentives

Kate Schmidgall — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:34:59 +0000

Barry Schwartz delivers a riveting, worth-watching-again-and-again TED talk discussing ‘practical wisdom’–our lack of it and need for it.

Partnering with artists in the West Bank

Kate Schmidgall — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:36:21 +0000

The vision for Bittersweet has always included a documentary-style magazine/catalog, which would in part seek to empower local entrepreneurs (in difficult or developing markets) with a global platform. While in Israel & Palestine these past couple weeks, I had the opportunity to visit some Palestinian entrepreneurs in the West Bank. One shop, in particular, really captured me.

The pieces pictured above are examples of their work–all hand-crafted glassware made by melting down old glass bottles, containers, etc and adding locally sourced minerals (magnesium, cobalt, and copper) to achieve the various colors. Each piece is handmade, which means perfectly imperfect and genuinely unique.

So, as we begin planning our pilot issue of the Bittersweet zine, I’m strongly considering launching with a pilot line of handcrafted West Bank products (like those featured above), but would very much love to hear your thoughts and feedback–would you have any interest in purchasing the items above as gifts or for your home? Supporting the struggling West Bank economy and the livelihood of a dozen Palestinian families is, of course, a fabulous byproduct…

There’s nothing to buy, at this moment, I’d just like your thoughts and feedback…

Blast off!

Kate Schmidgall — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:12:53 +0000

We just launched a site for Alicia Britt Chole’s latest endeavor: Leadership Investment Intensives. The site design is clean, classy, and professional, focused specifically on women leaders and professionals.