I constantly get asked where I got the name for my company, which is Half the Sky Designs LLC. Why “half the sky?” - that’s what people are curious about.

It comes from the Chinese saying, “Women hold up half the sky.” (Yes, I know – even the guys admit we hold up more than that.) I also think there’s nothing like that wide open feeling you get when you tilt your head way back and gaze skyward. During the day, the sky serves up that lyrical blue, the texture of clouds and a blast of sunlight. At night, it’s the subtle shimmer of stars that delights the eye, with the moon dangling overhead like a pendant.

That’s why, since time immemorial, when an artist has needed inspiration, all she had to do was walk outside, look straight up and breathe deep. (The word “inspiration” is actually a synonym for “inhaling.” Who knew?) It’s a given that creativity springs from inspiration. But what springs from creativity?

At Half the Sky, we’re all about the 3 “C’s”: creativity, confidence and community. I truly believe that nothing inspires confidence like newfound creativity. Just try one project. Once you’ve gone from “I’m not creative” to “Wow, I made that,” you’ll start to think about all those other things you keep saying “I can’t” to and wonder if perhaps, after all, you can do them.

That’s what I did, years ago, when a friend of mine cajoled me into making my first pair of earrings. From there it was onto necklaces and decoupage (which is just paper and glue - the same stuff you’ve been playing with since kindergarten). Now I’ve added building bookcases and starting my own business to my repertoire. And did I forget to mention designing eco-friendly handbags?

Maybe it’s time for you to find out how simple learning a new skill can be, to discover the satisfaction that comes from freeing the colors and shapes in your mind’s eye and fashioning them into something for the whole wide world to see.

All you have to do is take a deep breath and plunge in.
XOXO Marty

Man oh man – I’m way overdue for a blog. So sorry about that. I’m trying hard to make blogging a habit but it’s taking me a while to grow into it.

There’s actually a book called The Creative Habit that everyone should get. Its author, acclaimed and spritely choreographer Twyla Tharp, not only documents her own artistic journey but also provides exercises she’s used over the years to develop her own creative habits.

One of Tharp’s most useful exercises is also the most obvious: simply set aside a certain time each day or each week for your creative endeavor. So, for example, if I were to sit down each and every Saturday at 10 AM to write, I’d get used to letting my creativity percolate at that time every week. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?

Initially, yes, it’s not exactly easy. Building constructive habits rarely are. But think of it like a dance step – remember this from my earlier blog about working with wire? The first few times it’s awkward. But as you get accustomed to it, you know it, embrace it and come to enjoy it. You may even miss it if you have to skip a session, though you better have a spectacular excuse and not just be avoiding your newfound habit.

I’ve also used this same approach toward making responsibility and accountability a habit. In this world – and I know it’s not just L.A. – it’s all too easy to weave your way around being dependable, truthful and otherwise trustworthy. I swear it feels like we’re forced to be the opposite of these things.

I’m not saying I’m completely accountable every way or all the time. But I really do choose to be as thoroughly as possible. For example, among my friends I’ve become known as a CLC, a constant latecomer. So I’m endeavoring to be more accountable. Granted, sometimes it’s just impossible due to an unforeseen 3-car pile up on the 405. (That’s a main north-south freeway, for you non-Californians.) But I now force myself out the door earlier than I’d like, and it’s not easy! I’ve spent years building my late habit. It’s very comfortable for me. It feels so right – I really should finish reading that article, writing that e-mail or applying one more coat of mascara before leaving because…because…well, because!

I literally have to make a conscious choice, to remind myself I’m building my accountability habit, and get my ass out the door sooner and not later. And amazingly enough, it usually works. However, I still do break my new habit on occasion. But when I do, I don’t blame my lateness on traffic. I’ll cop to leaving late, accepting the responsibility – which aids my new habit in a different, if not exactly timely, way.


These things affect every corner and cobweb of our lives. How often do you say “I wish/should/want/would/could…but…?” Those big ol’ buts sure do get in the way, don’t they? I think they should be outlawed. Because I’m know for as much for my whole arts and crafts thing as I am for my handbags, I often get told people that they wish they could knit/sew/make their own jewelry, etc. Well, if you want to knit, if you wish you could make your own jewelry, if you really should learn how sew – then do it! You don’t have to do it right this minute. But make a plan. Tell yourself that, as a Christmas gift, you’re going to ask for or give yourself the gift of doing whatever it is you’ve been dodging. Print out our Project Monthlies or scan the web for ideas. Over on the HGTV and DIY Network websites, they have all kinds of ideas and instruction.

So stop avoiding and start doing. Make a date. I will too to further my endeavor to be a better blogger.
XOXO Marty

I admit it! I admit it!

Calling my blog “Nudge the Norm” isn’t the most obvious or graceful of titles, but I do have a philosophy behind it. I even have a video about it in hopes of making it that much more palatable:

See? Of course, it would be nicer if the still frame you click on didn’t make me look all grumpy. And yes, that’s the same video that’s down there on the left. But I figured if I put it front and center you might actually watch it.

XOXO Marty

Amnesty International has a new campaign to improve the human rights situation worldwide. Please please please go to www.protectthehuman.org and sign the petition to, among other things, stop violence against women (“Women hold up half the sky” after all), help free political prisoners like Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sun Suu Kyi, and take a stand against torture. All that, just by adding your name to their petition.

We began donating $1 per order to Global Exchange at the start of this year. I spent the mid-90’s doing human rights work in Chiapas, Mexico in the aftermath of the Zapatista rebellion, and I worked quite a bit with Global Exchange when I did that. There wasn’t a part of my life that wasn’t thoroughly transformed by that experience, so it’s my way of giving back to an organization that was such a vital part of that.

And at least now you know what inspired me to make sure our Rebagz™ are made under fair trade conditions. After what I saw in Chiapas and in many other places I’ve traveled, working in China or India was not an option as far as I was concerned. Besides, if you treat the people sewing and weaving your bags well, they’ll take more care and be more productive. It’s just good business or, as I’ve been know to say, “That’s just a big duh.”

We like to say Rebagz are “human-friendly fashion.” We’re kind to nature – and humans are a big part of the natural world – by making our bags using recycled materials and by using eco-friendly practices in our offices. And, as I just mentioned, we take care of our workers. Just as importantly, however, is that we offer excellent customer service because the humans who buy our bags deserve fair treatment as well. You keep coming back to us, even in these difficult times, and we really appreciate that. And besides, talking to you on the phone has become part of our office social life and we truly enjoy getting to know you.

Business takes place along a long spectrum of people, and I believe every single person along the way should feel like they got a fair shake. It’s soooo obvious. And yet so many companies ignore one part of the spectrum or another. We do our best to make sure everyone’s taken care of. That’s just good business, as far as I’m concerned.

XOXO Marty

Colleen Wainwright, the Communicatrix

First off, a shout out to my outrageous new friend Colleen Wainwright AKA The Communicatrix. If you haven’t checked out her site, do it now! She gave Rebagz Eco-Friendly Handbags an amazing - dare I say outrageous - plug on Friday.  She dropped by for an office visit and we had a long chat on our “QVC Couch” (bought, obviously, to celebrate our first airing on the shopping channel.) She’s also a terrific photographer - check out the pics she took! How can I not absolutely adore someone who describes me by saying, “she’s like the Pollyanna of eco-commerce, I sh*t you not. And she somehow does it all without making you feel bad about what a lazy, first-world Cheeto-eater you are. And by ‘you’, I mean ‘me’.”

I especially love that because my mother’s name was Polly, so I guess you can call me “Martyanna.” Or maybe not. Either way, thanks Colleen!
Communicatrix Colleen also did an amazing job scouring my company’s entire online presence - a very BIG job - and gave me fantastic feedback. She’s smart, she’s fun and she seriously knows her way around the whole cyber-world. And now she’s carrying a Rebagz Messenger Bag. All I can say is, ’bout time!
Colleen and I actually met via a very illuminating webinar she did for the Cornell Alumni Network. Yes, both of us spent time “far above Cayuga’s waters.” When I was a student at Cornell, once upon a time, I had a wizard of a professor…

Words & Attention

His name was Frederick Marcham, who died in the middle of his 70th year – of teaching. He was 94 years old at the time he died and my mother had been his student too. Prof. Marcham was a cross between Socrates and Merlin because he helped us discover our own answers by showing us the magic in everyday things, like the way sunlight dances through tree leaves when caught by a spring breeze. I used to visit him after I graduated and he’d tell me about the new students who were in his seminars. He always talked about “stirring them up,” by which he meant igniting the engines in their brains. How did he do it? By having us all read Shakespeare and Spencer aloud, by having us listen to and discover the passion of words so that learning became not just an exercise of the mind but of the spirit as well.

For the first time in my adult life we finally have a U.S. President I want to listen to. The others I’ve had to ignore because their disingenuousness, their arrogance or policies that made my innards drag. When I listen to the President’s speeches, I’m reminded of Professor Marcham because I find my imagination rekindled and that I’m once again “stirred up.”

And given the recent events in Iran, I now feel a strong determination to see not only change but transformation. “Hope” is an uplifting thing, but to forge what hope envisions words like “intention” and “focus” must come into play. I’ve been disappointed with how the media and people in general have forgotten about the situations in both Iran and North Korea (they’re still firing missiles, according to Seoul reports) and instead are focused on the celebrities that have passed on recently. Sad as these things are, my concern is that people prefer this simpler - albeit sad - news rather than the more complicated sort.

Remaining focused on things like the Iran protests and North Korea’s pathetic but perilous foot stomping is so much more difficult because it’s a prolonged process layered with uncertainties and great frustration – plus there aren’t any tunes you can dance to.

Let’s be outrageous and keep our minds attuned to the larger, untidier issues because they have the far greater rewards and, somehow, doing that makes those subtler moments when the sunlight plays among the trees that much more transcendent.

XOXO Marty