Here is my studio in its temporary space. This is where I work while construction is being finished on my new studio.
Kermit watches over the studio
The Great Gonzo
Bug
My beloved guppies.
The Wildthings...and I don't mean the figures.
Chalupa the puppet
WOMAN!
My drawing desk. A hybrid of traditional and computer.
With our baby’s due date approaching at blindingly fast speed, we had our baby shower this Sunday. It made me start to think about my first baby and the items that I found most useful. Following are ten baby items that I could not live without as a father. I highly recommend them to all new fathers to make their journey into father hood easier.
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Baby Carrier: I highly recommend this for new fathers. It’s important that you not entirely restructure your life to fit around the new addition. Find ways to implement your baby into your life. A baby carrier is a great start. My wife and I are involved in theater. It is a love we share and it brings us together. However, having a baby can present a problem with us both staying involved. We found our solution with a baby carrier. It allowed me to rehearse and perform in the musical “Seussical the Musical” with our baby strapped firmly to my chest. We made it through the musical as a family with neither of us having to stay home. No, I didn’t play the sour Kangaroo, though Aubreigh would have made a wonderful baby kangaroo. Baby Bjorn makes a great baby carrier. There are also more affordable variations that work just as well such as Snugli. |
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Jogging Stroller: Once the baby is here, it’s time to work off that baby weight you have gained with the pregnancy…yes, guys gain it too. A jogging stroller is a great way to lose that weight and for the baby, it provides a joyful stroll. After all, you need to start taking care of yourself so you can be around for all the grandchildren and great grandchildren you will one day have. There are many variations out there. My advice is to research on the internet to find the best combination of price and functionality to meet your needs. |
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Suitable Television: Babies are highly impressionable. Though they don’t understand all they see or hear, it still influences them. Remember: A baby can only dream about what it knows. Make sure they have good dreams. There will be times you are sitting up late at night with your baby and though it may be tempting to turn on “Superbad” and have a laugh or pop in the latest thriller, resist the urge. Avoid violence and harsh language. Instead find a happy median: Entertainment you can enjoy that will positively influence your child. I highly recommend Fraggle Rock. It has great characters, great stories, great fun and best of all, great music. All four seasons are available in a box set from Amazon or your local DVD dealer. |
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Baby Wipes Warmer: A no-brainer. Cold and backsides go together like orange juice and toothpaste. If you have ever touched a cold wipe to a baby’s bottom, you know what I mean. A wiper warmer spares your baby from the discomfort of experiencing a cold chill on their tush. Not to mention it saves you from having a “sword in the stone” moment. This happens when you use a cold wipe and your babies cheeks clench down like the jaws of life. It’s impossible to unearth the wipe from the depths of East Cheek and West Cheek without leaving behind bits and pieces of paper which you must later fish out. Be kind to the behind. Prince Lionheart makes a wonderful wipes warmer and it is available at most baby retailers. |
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Diaper Bag: Aka, the survivor kit for being a father. This will host everything you need to care for your baby while out and about. Don’t leave home without it! Diapers, check. Wipes, check. Blanket, check. Toys, check. Bottles, check. Now you need a way to carry them. Don’t be ashamed to posses one in public, it’s a badge of honor announcing your dad status to others, not a purse. For a more discreet papa, there are book bag style diaper bags. Diaper Dude Diaper Bag is a great bag and Skip Hop makes great bags as well. I personally carry a Vera Bradley Mod Floral Pink diaper bag and yes, I have gotten many nice compliments about it from women. |
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Good Computer: Now that your new life has started, it’s time to save those memories. Investing in a new computer is an excellent start in documenting your child’s path from diapers to drivers-ed. Not only does it allow you to print and store digital images, but it allows you to easily create videos using home movie footage, still images and music. As far as quality, ease of use, stability, and value of software out of the box, you can’t go wrong with a Mac computer. Both the MacBook and iMac are affordable, professional computers for image and video creation. |
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Bouncer Seat: An affordable solution to calm your new baby. I recommend a bouncer seat that includes a rumble motion. This often has a calming effect. A good bouncer seat is a comforting and welcome seat for your newborn. Not only is it great for playtime, but often it can lead to a nap. Find one with bright colors, music, toys and rumble motion. Boppy makes a great bouncer I recommend that is extremely soft and comes in colors for both girls and boys. |
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Infant Gowns: Trust me on this one: Snapping the countless snaps of a one piece sleeper of a crying baby with a dirty diaper in the middle of the night is about as fun as licking a porcupine. Often you will end up with a leg through a hole that is no hole at all or extra snaps that have no opposite snap to buddy up with with the only option being a restart to to porcupine licking contest. Infant Gowns eliminate this frustrating trial. Don’t worry, their for boys too. If it makes you feel better, think of it as a kilt. Gowns allow for easy diaper changing when a child is young and diaper changes are frequent. |
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Baby Toys: As a work at home father, the right toys helped me to grab a few minutes of work time while keeping my baby entertained with educational and stimulating activity. For newborns, I recommend a play mat/baby gym. They provide endless hours of entertainment with varying actives for young children. The one I personally recommend is Bright Starts Baby’s Play Place Play Mat. It’s a Swiss Army Knife of baby play. Starting out, it has sides that fold up to provide a safe environment for your child to lay on their back and stare up at flashing lights and mirrors and listen to colorful music. As they grow, the sides fold down to expand the play mat and provide quality tummy time. A play mat allows your child to be entertained and give you a much needed and deserved break. As your baby grows and starts to stand, I recommend an excersaucer for the same purpose. |
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Most Importantly: Love. Love your new baby and your significant other and your entire family. The love you show and display for your child is the love they will share as they grow. Provide a warm, nurturing environment for your child and watch them bloom into amazing human beings. |
Have a reccomendation of your own? Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite baby items.
Stay at Home Dad Tip: There is always room for one more pair of jeans in the washing machine. How does the saying go? “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.” Why not apply this concept to washing machines? People want you to believe it’s possible to overload one. It isn’t. I propose a new rule: if you can sit on the lid and achieve full closure of the machine, it is not overloaded. People would also lead you to believe you should limit the number of jeans in your washing machine. Again, untrue.
Load that washing machine up. Load it with every article of clothing you can fit in it. You will cut your laundry time in half. What is the worst that can happen? You can off balance your machine, sending it careening and whirling out of control? Why is this a problem?
It’s not. It’s the opposite of problem. It’s FUN. I have installed a saddle onto my washing machine. I purposefully overload it and when it spins out of control, I have myself a Washing Machine Rodeo. Buckle up and hang on! Grab that machine and take it for a ride! My best ride time so far is 14.3 seconds, after which I was bucked off by the rogue washer into a pile of dirty socks. The more jeans you load, the angrier the washing machine gets.
Have fun! Life is too short NOT to overload your washing machine. Invite over all your friends and have a Washing Machine Rodeo Championship. Of course the winner takes home the dryer lint.
*note: www.jeffduckworth.com is not responsible for any broken washing machines or broken people or broken anything that happens as a result of your Washing Machine Rodeo. Mount your machine at your own risk.
I’ve been quite busy in the past two weeks. Lots of great projects in the works for the future. Moo-Pig is off to the publisher for consideration. I will let you know when I hear something back. Might be up to three months. I have a number of other books I’m working on now. Two are for submission and one, This Tree is For Me, is for this Blog. Should have an updated on that next week.
Below is the final illustration for our Baby Shower Invitation.
Final Baby Shower Invitation
I also designed and painted three baseball helmets last week. Here are the images for the final painted helmets.
Baylie's Painted Baseball Helmet
Mattie's Painted Baseball Helmet
Tanner's Painted Baseball Helmet
These are all personal/family projects. I like to make sure I keep my family involved in my work. Designing for them is very rewarding. As you can see, my dino from the invitation made it onto a helmet. I love this character and plan to develop him further.
My son is now in the 1st grade and my daughter is 17 months old. With the birth of our new boy approaching faster than I can believe, I have been amazed about how much my children have grown and most of all, how smart they are.
Samuel can now read a book with no problem. He read all by himself, for the first time, a book that I wrote and illustrated. That was an amazing experience! He spells words that I still struggle with and he has begun to beat me regularly when we play Nintendo together. He is becoming an independent young man and has already begun to develop teenage habits. The other day he came home with a girls phone number.
Aubreigh is amazing as well. She now opens child safety-locked cabinets with the ease of a master locksmith. They still perplex me. Now if I need a cabinet open, I spare myself beat up knuckles and just ask her to do it. She dresses herself, although not tastefully. Her outfits consist of large socks, shirts worn as skirts and various articles of clothing slung about her neck. She even feeds the cat many times throughout the day (2 pieces of a cat food at a time. It is adorable.)
A few things have happened in the past weeks that have really put things in perspective for me.
1. I decided to play a joke on my usually gullible son. I took a pinch of black Play-Doh and smeared it on one of my front teeth. I then approached him and casually said “Did Mommy tell you what happened earlier? I got a tooth knocked out.” I grinned to show him the blacked out tooth. “DUH,” he replied, “That’s just Play-doh. That’s preposterous.” He was right. Play-Doh may smell tasty but it isn’t. And it doesn’t easily come off teeth. Who was the smart one here? The 6 year old with no Play-Doh on his tooth or the 29 year old with black Play-Doh smeared across his tooth and the horrible, salty taste associate with it.
2. My youngest is akin to a cat. She does things that make no sense to anyone but herself. I was in the shower when I was greeted with a “DAAAADDY.” Then suddenly, my clean underpants were thrust into the shower and were soaked. Of course she was trying to be helpful. All I could say is “Thanks,” followed by a mumble of “what a nut…she makes no sense sometimes. What is she thinking” A little later, she begged for my car keys, which I let her play with. She immediately took them to the VCR and shoved them in. Again, all I could do was say to myself “what a nut! No sense at all, that one.” I went to the VCR to fish them out. The lights on the VCR begun to flash wildly, in and out, as I dug around blindly inside with my hand. That’s when it hit me, who is the smart one in this situation. Who is the nut? The 17 month old thrusting my clothes into the shower and my keys into the VCR? Or the 29 year old wearing wet underpants with his \hand jammed into an electronic device, still plugged in and powered up.
Jeff – Zero. Kids – Two.
The day we get to meet our little baby boy is quickly approaching. Only three more months until he is here. WOW. I am currently working on the invitations to send out for the baby shower. Here is the artwork.
Baby Shower Invitation Artwork
It is an absolute honor to create artwork for this extraordinary event. Who knows. One day you may be reading about the Life and Adventures of Baby Duck.
*ding ding ding*
In this corner, wearing the dumb confused look of frustration and goofy red shorts that went out of style with the Swatch Watch: Jeffrey “The Goat” Duckworth
And in this corner, sporting a red frame, multiple families of mice and a dull blade: Snapper “I don’t want to come out of Hibernation” Mower
Now, lets have a good clean fight….not likely says the Snapper.
Yes, it’s that mowing time of year. This year I approached our outbuilding that houses our Snapper Lawnmower with optimism that the mower would start without a hitch. I might as well had hopes that if I stood in the ocean, a crashing wave would slap me in the face and delivery a freshly cooked lobster for dinner. I opened the outbuilding door to a scattering of mice. “Quick,” I heard them squeak, “It’s the dorky human with the unsightly shorts. Run.” One mouse even stopped in hus scattering about to thank me for the supply of grass seed I had left to feed them through the winter. I am at heart a softy. These mice would meet no harm.
I hopped onto the mower literally with mice scampering about and over my feet. They are friendly mice. I turned the key over and: Nothing. As I yanked the mower out of the building, I kept running through my head possible solutions. First the basics: In neutral? Check. Brake On? Check. Battery Hooked up correctly? Check. Gas? Oops.
There was a hole in the gas tank. Apparently the mice were bored over the long winter holiday and decided to entertain themselves with gas fumes. This explained their goofy behavior. No problem. I took the gas tank off for patching. In the mean time, I pulled a gas tank from a push mower and put fresh gas in it. Gas? Check. I tried to crank it. This time the engine turned over but wouldn’t start. It was getting dark at this point so I called it a night. Round 1 went to the Snapper.
Round 2: Towed the mower down to the garage. I took off the engine cover to reveal the biggest mouse nest I had ever seen. In it was a momma mouse and her 4 babies. They scampered away harmlessly and I cleaned their nest off the engine block. I felt bad for destroying their home but knew they would be OK. I pulled the spark plug and cleaned it off. I sprayed some starter fluid into the carburetor and cleaned off the air filter. Turned the key and…nothing. I had enough mouse home wrecking and threw in the towel. Round 2 went to the Snapper.
Round 3: I installed a new sparkplug. I also patched and replaced the gas tank. I cleaned the connections of all possible wiring problems, including the ignition wire which had an inline fuse. I gave snapper a fresh drink of starting fluid and tried to start the mower and it turned over a few times before dying lifelessly. The Fuse had blown. Round 3 went to the Snapper.
Round 4: MacGyver, aka my father-in-law showed up at this point. No one messes with MacGyver! He took out an empty pack of cigarettes, tore the foil in a small piece and wrapper it around the fuse. He then turned the key and of course it started the first try. This caused a sadly funny scene. The mice had built their nest back in the mower. As the engine roared to life, mice were quite literally blown out of the engine. They hit the ground safe and undeterred. They turned to fuss at me before running off to safety. One mouse was blown across the yard 5 feet. The mother was the last to leave her rebuilt nest, her last baby in tow. MacGyver then sets out to make a new deflector shield for the mower with a sheet of tin and a few self taping screws. Round 4 went to Macgyver.
Round 5: The snapper got one last punch in. 30 minutes into my fight with the lawn, the belt snapped. I replaced it and finished the yard without incident. And the winner is: Jeff, with the assistance of MacGyver.
In the end a gas tank was patched, a spark plug replaced, wires were cleaned, blades were sharpened, a new deflector shield was made and a few mice took the ride of their lives. After I finished mowing, I decided to take a chance on starting the weed eater. No problem, right? The weed eater had observed my battle with the Snapper and wanted nothing to do with me. I picked it up, gave it a few tugs, and it fired to life. Somewhere under the rumbled of the weed eater, I couldn’t help but to mumble to myself: “That’s right, Homelite, don’t mess with Mr. Duckworth. He is a certified Bad Grass.”
Todd Spitting Peas at Jeff
What a weekend! Sadly I must report that I’m still being held captive by Todd Pigworth and his piggy minions. He has me tied to a chair. Currently he is busy spitting peas at me. “Can you stop that?” I asked him. He wouldn’t. So I asked nicer “Can you stop spitting at me? Pretty peas?” *insert drum sound* Apparently he didn’t think this to be a funny joke. If I ever get loose, I’m going to mow his pants down with a lawnmower. Luckily he is allowing me to make an update on my blog…I’m sorry, my BOG. Geeze, who knew pigs could be so particular? How am I typing with my hands tied together you ask? Simple. I’m really good at typing with my feet.
Last week was a success for Duck of All Trades. First, I was honored to display my puppets at the McDowell County Chamber of Commerce Annual meeting. I had 16 puppets on display. I am very grateful for the opportunity. I made new contacts, had a great meal, watched an entertaining ventriloquist act and won a “bag full of stuff.” Yes, I won a door prize that was touted as a “Bag Full of Stuff.” I could care less what was in it. This is the first time I have ever won anything like this. Maybe I’m starting to get my mom’s luck?
The highlight of the evening for me was meeting Peggy Miller, a wonderful ventriloquist. You can visit her site here. I was impressed by her puppet skills. She was able to use two vent dummies at once, switching between multiple controls, multiple voices and multiple personalities. If you ever have a chance to see her, please do.
Business wise, I have a few new clients this week. Adwords seems to finally be paying off. I am still getting a small click through ratio (.06% or one pet gerbil) but apparently it is enough to generate interest. www.duckofalltrades.com stats are also improving. Since starting with adwords, I have gone from about 4 unique visitors a day to an average of 21. While this isn’t great, it’s an improvement. I have also spent time optimizing my site for Google. As a result, my placement has been better and I’ve been getting more traffic from searches. In the coming weeks I plan to work harder to improve the site by adding new content. Some of the ideas I have for content are:
These changes will be done over time and the end result should be an increase in traffic. For now, the goal with my site is to begin to tailor it to what people are looking for. Despite more traffic, some visitors leave after viewing one page. This has lead to the question “If I were to show one potential client one page for a minute or less, which page would that be?” To answer this, I’m going to set up new “portfolio pages.”
These will be pages unique to my different services, crafted with relevant information all on one page and linked to my adwords advertisements. The first page I will create will be a “Children’s Illustration” page. Instead of having thumbnails to other pages, this page will contain a self contained gallery. It will also show an estimate of time and cost, information about myself, links to “Birth of a Book” to show my process, and any information I feel like will sell my services best. I am limiting the gallery to ten images. For these ten images I am creating a new portfolio. Below is the first image I will include in the portfolio. I hope to create 1o new pieces for the page. Just what I need. ANOTHER project. The next update, I hope to have the beginnings of this page as well as an update on Stromple the Puppet (which I have fleece for). There are many more adventure to come.
I also hope to be freed from peas.
Under the Sea Birthday Surprise
I have spent an incredible amount of time lately (thanks to my partner in Design Connie sharing with me books by Seth Godin) evaluating my business. What is it? What does it need to be? Where is it going. As a stay at home father, it is crucial for me to be successful. My wife Keeley and I made the decision a year ago with the birth of our daughter that I should try to work from home and be a stay at home father. After spending 6 years working in a graphic design market as a temp, a freelancer and a contractor, it made sense. For once I would be in control of my destiny. My job security would not depend on if the company I was working for at the time had the payroll or the business. My job security would now rely on me. I was free to make of it what I could within a reasonable limit. Not to mention the thousands a year we would save in child care and the piece of mind we would have knowing that our youngest would be well taken care of and our oldest would have the help he needed with his homework.
I’m happy to say that after a year, I haven’t failed. My business has shown progress with slow and steady growth and I have successfully changed 875 diapers, 342 which have been rather unpleasant in the smell department. OK, so that’s an estimate. You don’t seriously think I keep track of diapers, right? However, I now realize that it won’t be enough to not fail. I need to thrive, to find my voice and find an audience. I have put a number of measures in place to allow this. I have been tracking stats more seriously for my site. I have it optimized and streamlined. I have started using Adwords to help promote my site and attract new visitors. Most importantly, I have realized what a SMALL window the web is. Most users I have view my site for less than 30 seconds. Most click off after one page. A quick exit. To me, this is scary. How do you sell a customer in less than 30 seconds and after a one brief glance. This is a question I have struggled with lately. It isn’t an easy thing to do. The tough thing about the web is if a viewer isn’t immediately impressed, they can look elsewhere with the click of a mouse.
My remedy for this is working on making my website more relevant. The website as we know it is dead. The web is no longer an album, such as the Beatles’ “Seargent Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band,” meant to be listened to from beginning to end. It is a streamlined collection of all their greatest hits in MP3 format and the surfer has the power to go to any song, fast forward, rewind and skipping to only the parts they want to hear. Like it or not, google and other search engines have led to this. So what works? Relevancy. Controlling what the viewer sees through that small window by using more specific keywords and giving the mythical search engine crawlers what they need: better site maps. Also, I have tailored my AdWords to point potential clients to the information they want, not to what I think they may want after they give me a chance. That way if they only give me 30 seconds of their time, it is 30 seconds dedicated to something that might interest them. I also plan to add more visuals. You can learn much more about a picture at a moments glance than a grouping of words.
So will it succeed? I can guarantee that it won’t fail, at least not in my mind. You see, I believe the only way to fail is to not learn. If you are walking along and you trip because your shoe laces are untied, have you failed? Not if you get up, realize that if you tie them, you won’t trip again and then keep them tied. When you learn from a mistake, that’s not a failure. That is a growth. Eventually you learn to tie double knots and it is smooth sailing from there. More importantly, have I succeeded? I see that answer everyday when my daughter surprises me with what she has learned in her short time on earth or when I pick my son up from school and find out he has made another 100 on his spelling test. That is all the success I need as a father to inspire the success I will need as a new business owner trying to find his way.
I use a shop vac to clean the house. The fact I’m using a garage “tool” totally outweighs any noncoolnes in doing housework. Seriously. And I’m not talking about your run of the mill shop vac, I’m talking a big beefy, suck a size 2T sock up in a heart beat piece of machinery. Not only does it clean the floor, but it will suck off any couch, any mini blind, any crevice, etc. Ceiling fan blades cringe at the thought of being touched by such an awesome force that is a shop vac. Not to mention that it will clean a hardwood floor without slinging debris and other small objects everywhere. Nothing escapes one. Plus if you get bored you can play a fun game. It is called “What is the biggest object I can suck with a shop vac?” You would be surprised. Need a good laugh? They also make great hairstyling tools for the little ones. You know, give them that nice ice cream cone shaped hair they so desire.
I’m still trying to find a manly alternative to a mop but have had little luck. The pressure washer was fun, but the results were mixed. Good thing we have flood insurance.
In other news, here is a picture of a new creation. I call him “Chalupa.” He has given me an idea for a catchy new website. I will keep you updated as this site progresses. Right now, it is top secret.
Chalupa the puppet hogging the camera.
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