Alice Karolina Studio

21/12/2022

There’s something magical about being snowed in on Winter Solstice.

The propane for my gas stove has frozen and we’re all waiting for the power to go out again… but I can’t stop watching the flurries flying off the trees and the fire in my wood stove.

I’m agnostic with a dash of paganism and buddhist practices, but advent gets me every time. Probably the quiet ritual, revelling in evergreen branches and fire and a light in the dark bringing the sun back to us.

Winter Solstice is my first day of the in-between until a new era begins. Yesterday, I had my last ever client call, in January, I’ll be starting as a creative director at our local arts organization. On NYE I’m celebrating my 40th in my yard with my new best friends, a bonfire, and probably some witchy dancing.

I’ll talk more about why I’m leaving my business behind after 7 years and what I’ve learned …soon. Right now I gotta go play in the snow.

My heart is singing. It is full-full-full.

And from today onward, the sun is coming back to us.



[ID: Photos of a snowy yard with tall fir trees in the morning light, a lit white candle nestled in a bowl of fir and rosemary branches, and my cold little pine studio with a path shovelled to the door]

10/10/2022

This was the best!! Thank you so much Kate Holly Coaching – for doing this work and letting me be part of it :)

Loved this conversation with the amazing from on changing the culture of scarcity capitalism from the bottom up. Link in bio or wherever you get your pods!

20/09/2022

This morning.

A black-as-night Americano from Slow Coast Café, poured into my favourite little mug, with a croissant from the Bred Shed up the road only open on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Sitting on my deck in the early morning sun, definitely cold enough to wear a sweater (and probably socks)… thinking about the drawing I’m going to finish today.

What a majestic moment.

11/08/2022

My studio, my safe place.

Feeling the post-travel-blues for the first time in years.. or maybe it’s post-launch-blues? Or just… The Blues?

This is where I’m hiding. Journalling, working, reading, napping, dreaming. Waiting for the blues to pass.

Because there’s nowhere I’d rather be.

I made this. Laid out the sticks of where it was going to be built, drafted the elevations, and paced, impatiently, while 2 strong hippies in band shirts hammered it together.

Isn’t she beautiful?! 💗

[ID: photo of a little pine she-shed sitting on gravel amidst trees]

30/07/2022

Little adventures are easy to come by in Coast Salish Territory 😎

[ID: two SUP boards in a small cove, waiting to be paddled home]

16/11/2021

This is who I am today.

A little fed up with the patriarchy, definitely ready for a fight, but also can’t be asked.

Just take the foot off our necks already. And by ‘us’ I mean anyone NOT cis/het/male/neurotypical/white.

Stop making us have to fight you and watch what happens.

ID: Stylized illustration of a lioness with eyelashes, pink details, a heart tattoo on her cheek, and pink ‘blood’ dripping from her mouth. The words “Just You Watch” handwritten below in pink. Beige background.

20/09/2021

When my brain came back online during my trip, I was trying to decide how to start talking about branding.⁣
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Much of what's being said misses the point entirely, is too complex, or frankly anxiety-inducing, and I'd like to change that.⁣
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I've been thinking about branding for as long as I can remember. My mother taught communication at our local design college, so we were never not talking about it. Once I went to said college, I was hooked forever and eventually built my business around it.⁣
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Cliff notes of the last few decades: the core has not changed. But it is not usually talked about.⁣
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Everyone is trying so hard to find clarity, to get to the 'end result', we bypass the juicy bits. The bits that could make all the difference.⁣
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🧬 Branding is intertwined with everything we do in our business. Every decision we make, client interaction, piece of content, our brand is right there.⁣
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🌱 Branding is incremental. Tiny alignments each day. A rebrand is just the final expression of weeks, months, years of micro-adjustments.⁣
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🫀 Branding works from the inside out. Every time we communicate, we give our audience a glimpse of who we are, what we stand for, and what we're creating.⁣
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🦖 Branding is evolutionary, not static. Just like our work evolves, our brand grows along with it: some things stay, some things go.⁣
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I'm sure this rings true at some level – after all, branding is communication, and communication is in everything.⁣
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The main thing being: we can rest easy in the knowledge that we're not behind on anything or that we should have figured things out by now.⁣
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We're right in the middle of it.⁣
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And I promise to break down how to get to the juicy bits – in small steps, as is the nature of the beast.⁣⁣⁣
ID: Slide 1: Graphic playing with a repeat of the word Branding in many colours/sizes Slide 2-5: Branding essentials as written in the post in a few font + colour variations⁣⁣⁣
hashtags⁣⁣

13/09/2021

Let's get back to work already!⁣
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I took 3 whole weeks off to visit my fam in Switzerland. I slept most of the time, ate bread and cheese for breakfast every day (actually), visited with my heart friends and watched Austrian quiz shows with my parents over dinner + wine almost every night. It was glorious.⁣
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Now I'm back in my studio, fresh off of a solid midnight visit with the old J-Pod (our resident orcas), and I have to say... I've missed working!⁣
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My ADHD brain is not happy when it is not ...doing stuff.⁣
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So I've put together a little somethin-somethin called 'Back Of The Bus' 🚌 Strategy Sessions to get our collective mojo back!⁣
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Riding on late summer, back to school, let’s-jumpstart-Q4 vibes, I want to book up the rest of September with light, fun, easy-breezy – yet obviously fierce and powerful – brand strategy sessions 🔥⁣
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I’m offering 🌞 10 x 1-hr Zoom calls for $100 🌞⁣
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Check out what it all means and how to get it (it’s easy, send me an email) through the link in my bio.⁣
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👉 No matter where you are in your business, we can talk about your values, your content strategy, changing/finding/shifting your niche, which channels best match your style, we can develop new ideas, talk about your design, create some much needed clarity in your messaging, boost your confidence, or simply …let me hear you and see you and give you a glimpse of your brand future and tell you what to focus on next. 🔮⁣
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I'm way too excited about this. My brain NEEDS YOU.⁣
⁣.So tell your friends, grab that coffee, bring your biz partner, let’s GO already! 🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌⁣
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(Search 'Back Of The Bus' by G-Love, ignore the explicit content, and we got us a mood)⁣
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ID: "Back Of The Bus" written in black on white background, emoji of a yellow bus, "Strategy Sessions" handwritten below. Sun rays drawn in the top right corner just for fun 😎

06/08/2021

I've just booked my flights to Switzerland🇨🇭to see my family for the first time in years next week. I'm going for 3 weeks – and I'm taking those same weeks OFF. Like; Off, off. No emails, no social, no Marco Polos or Voxes that are work related.⁣
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I plan on being fully in my senses instead of my brain. 🐢🐢🐢⁣
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We are definitely hedonists in our family, so I'm looking forward to good food, good wine, nurturing conversations, lots of belly laughs, and probably some new stylish clothes when I go visit my friends. Maybe Covid will put a dent in my plans here and there, but I will nonetheless enjoy to the max.⁣
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Needless to say, supes excited!! ⁣
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But.⁣
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For the first few hours after booking and sending out vacay emails and setting up automatic responders my stomach was *churning*. I was nervous, sweaty, nauseous....⁣
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It felt like I was doing something terribly wrong.⁣
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This totally surprised me; I rail against ‘the system’ enough that I should be used to doing this stuff by now. Walking the talk of not performing the actions we are 'supposed to' is my jam – or so I thought. What the heck? Has this happened to you before?⁣
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Finally, a few hours later, the jitters are slowing. It makes me all the more convinced that there's a pot of gold at the end of taking that length of time off 'they' don't want us to know about 😂⁣
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I look forward to what my brain will come up with when I'm back online in September! 💗⁣
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What are you doing for your wellbeing these days?⁣
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…⁣
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Ps: Fully aware of my privilege to be travelling, to be fully vaccinated, to have the cash/ability to take that amount of time off, and to be going to a home where we want for nothing and I can comfortably quarantine if necessary.⁣
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Pps: wrote an article called ‘Switching Off As A Radical Act’ in light of us taking August off as a team⁣
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[ID: Illustration of an power button in white on turqoise-green background. A line leads from inside the outer ring to a little line drawing of a heart to signify self care]

29/06/2021

I had the privilege* of speaking on the beautiful What Works Podcast among my amazing peers about Teaming Up; of course I'm speaking of the team at the ethical move, without which our movement would not exist. Link in comment section.

My segment is both a love letter to my team, and a reminder that real change can't possibly happen in a silo.

*Speaking of privilege: hyper aware that this is a white panel, which is not representative of the network itself. Check out the About page on the WWN for a look at their community values.

08/06/2021

It's fun, when two podcasts drop on the same day! 😄 This is a meandering (but incredibly juicy) conversation where we both got to stretch our brains and practice our values!

31/05/2021

My studio, my dream, my little she-shed I didn't know I needed so badly is built, and it is exactly how I imagined it: The Coolest Thing.⁣
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I even got to flex my interior design muscles.⁣
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I have a full-width, built-in desk, a daybed, and the biggest Monstera you've ever seen. Light trickles in from windows on all sides, I have a heater right next to me (my body temperature drops to below zero when I work), the french doors open up to a little mini-patio where I can sit and look out over the garden.⁣
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I've already napped extensively, read books, drawn drawings, and had many Zoom calls. I don't have the words yet for how cool it is.⁣
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If this sounds familiar: it’s straight out of my most recent email newsletter, so you must be on my list! I’m currently calling my newsletter ‘the coolest things’ and I’m probably going to keep writing these because I can’t wait to share the next batch of coolest things... which is already filling up. ⁣
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If you’d like to sign up to know the coolest things, I promise it will be fun. And informative. And a little self indulgent. 😁 But definitely cool 😎⁣
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[ID - 1st slide: architectural drawings (elevations) of my studio on a notepad, 2nd slide: photo of my work space with various gadgets and a standing desk converter, behind it a window looking into the trees outside]

13/02/2021

Today, I changed my IG username from to – recognizing that 'spiltgold' means absolutely nothing to anyone except me and if I want to make sense online as a business owner, I have to consider you more than me.⁣
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Changing it though... brought up memories. My Grandma Polly was an English teacher in Alberta and when she retired (and I was 3 months old) she came to live in Switzerland to help raise me. She's the reason I speak English and feel Canadian even though I identify Swiss.⁣
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"Don't cry over spilt milk" was her favourite saying.⁣
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In her apartment I discovered the world of play-doh and dressup and spilled lots of apple juice on tablecloths that were "going to be washed today anyway". I still associate the word 'thirsty' with juice. And messes with ownership. Things happen, but you can always clean it up.⁣
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That saying always felt liberating. Not dwelling on things but taking responsibility has become part of my identity.⁣
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When I started reconnecting to my artistic side after a decade, I wanted her memory in all of it. 'Spiltgold' felt like I was making really beautiful messes... and giving my perfectionism and my trauma from art school the finger. ;)⁣
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Today, my focus has changed. I am no longer designing for my clients, so my art can become just that. Beautiful little messes whenever I feel like it.⁣
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Grandma Polly would be 103 years old in May. She pronounced the H in 'what' and always won at scrabble (of course). I still miss her soft "Hello?" when she answered the phone.⁣
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[image: illustration of a glass milk bottle laying on its side with contents spilled out]⁣
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13/02/2021

01/02/2021

January was an intense month of planning for my brand strategy business and . This week, I'm celebrating getting my act together in Notion 🔥😍
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Out of all the new strategies, cheat sheets, and databases I love this one the best: my daily check-in list so I don't lose my marbles trying to stay on top of . This is located top left on my AK HQ (AK is code for my business).⁣
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1. Life HQ is where my 300-day journal and all of my personal projects hang out⁣
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2. Weekly tasks means scrolling down the AK HQ page to look at my week for meetings and actions and a glance at my projects, goals, client portals, etc.⁣
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3. Calendar overview links to my Google Calendar⁣
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4. AK email – self explanatory⁣?
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5. WWN – The What Works Network by - The only online biz community you'll ever need! I spend quite a bit of time here⁣
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6. MMM – community dash for the baller Movement Makers Mastermind led by ⁣
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7. The Social toggle holds links to my social accounts. This lets me keep up on notifications in a quick 5 min in-and-out⁣
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8. ‘tem’ is the ethical move! I’ve been creating a new workspace for my team – mostly we hang out on Slack, but the Team HQ will be crucial to grow our movement.⁣
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9. $$$ means spending 10 mins making sure I have all my expenses/sales managed so I don't have to do it all at the end of the month⁣
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10. Harvest time tracking is an all-day thing, but good to have on the list.⁣
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Best part: this is a Template Button with links! I click on + ☀️ HAPPY DAY! and it generates this list. I check it off, then I delete it. All in all it takes me 30-45 mins at the start of my day.⁣
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This will probably evolve, but for now, it keeps me sane :) How are you managing your dailies?⁣
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[image: two screenshots of my daily check-in with the list above]

08/01/2021

Only recently did I discover how much of a perfectionist I am. I always brushed it off because I just needed things to be 'complete', not 'perfect'. Now I realize that the level a project has to be at to be 'complete' is ridiculously high. Basically perfect.⁣
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As I'm planning my year and setting my intentions and goals and strategies, I'm very clear that in order to step into my cool as all heck goals for my business, my advocacy, and my craft - I need to get a handle on this perfectionism thing right quick. It's in the way of all the cool stuff!⁣
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I have one bazillion ideas and collaborations and systems and tech I want to explore - and drawings to draw and content to write... and the amount I get to do under the thumb of My Perfectionism is such a small small fraction of it.⁣
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If you're wondering at all why I post once every few months, THIS is the reason. Not for lack of ideas or skill or tools. This little line drawing took me about 5 redos! Come. On. ⁣
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2021 is looking so juicy and fun - I will not let My Perfectionism get in the way of it. I have no idea yet how to tackle it, but the first step is always awareness.. right?⁣
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How do you do it? I can't be the only one.⁣
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[image: line drawing with 'My Ideas' in the open white space and a small circle and arrow pointing at it saying 'What My Perfectionism Lets Me Do' depicting vast amounts of ideas but only small amounts I get to do]⁣
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17/07/2020

This graphic is based on Dr. Barbara J. Love's framework for developing a liberatory consciousness: Awareness > Analysis > Accountability > Action/Allyship. Please look up her work on her website barbarajlove.com. I first learned it from Ericka Hines during a panel discussion.⁣
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This framework is how I'm learning to be thoughtful and intentional in my anti-racism work.⁣
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Before I learned this I went straight from Awareness to Action and caused harm. I was missing the most important steps; the ones that create useful action in the right direction - and by the right person.⁣
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Now that I know to slow down, I have a tendency to get stuck in Analysis, which is why I use step 3, Accountability, to set up a structure such as a timeframe for my research and a clear outcome - as well as its original intention of asking what needs to happen and what my role is.⁣
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Action/Allyship then looks very specific and has the ability to cause further Awareness. And the cycle continues.⁣
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This framework has been so powerful, I've adopted it not only for my anti-racism work, but also my personal and business development. I wanted to share my notes on this because you might also want a strategy to move forward consistently and with purpose.⁣
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There is a lot of oppression to deal with - enough to last a few lifetimes - let's not waste time going the wrong way and making a mess of things.⁣
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