Batten Disease Awareness - Giveaway

Read on to learn about Batten.

Click this button to enter the giveaway and see below for bonus entries ➜ Sweet

This weekend is International Batten Disease Awareness weekend, and you all know I have a soft spot for Tatyanna and her relentless fight against this terrible disease.

Tatyanna is a very brave little girl battling Batten disease with the help of many lovely people who have joined efforts to allow her to benefit from the latest research. She is an amazing child who finds the strength to smile and hug other people's worries away, when she herself is suffering.

I am hoping this giveaway will help spread the word about Tatyanna's Hope and Batten disease. The giveaway will end June 8th at 11:59 EDT and you can enter by simply spreading the word about Tatyanna and letting me know. More details at the bottom of this post.

A little about Batten...

Batten disease is a rare inherited autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder and can affect children and young adults.

It is the most common form of the NCL (Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses) group of disorders. The four types of Batten disease are classified by age group: infantile NCL (INCL), late infantile NCL (LINCL), juvenile NCL (JNCL), and adult NCL (ANCL).

Batten disease is inherited through what is called an autosomal recessive pattern. It gets inherited like blond hair, i.e. if both parents carry a specific mutation in their DNA, their children have a 25% chance of being affected.

Research has shown Batten disease is caused by problems with the brain's ability to remove and recycle proteins. This is because mutations in the genetic DNA impair the body's ability of creating certain substances, which in turn causes the buildup of lipofuscin pigments in the body's tissues.

These lipofuscins pigments are considered "wear and tear" pigments, so research to cure Batten disease can have much larger benefits through the understanding of how the body deals with damage and aging.

Those affected with Batten disease literally waste away. It all starts with vision and motor skills loss, and over time seizures worsen, mental alertness becomes more and more impaired, muscle mass starts decreasing, and the child or young adult's life ends blind and bedridden.

Right now, there is no cure for Batten disease, and the very expensive treatments that do exist are only successful in slightly delaying the inevitable.

This doesn't have to stay this way however. There is HOPE!

Research is ongoing and eight genes have already been identified as having an association with Batten disease. Gene therapy for this disease is in its infancy, so more research is needed to help understand not only Batten disease, but many other NCL disorders.

Help spread the word!

The more people are aware, the faster research will progress. The faster research progresses, the faster a better treatment will be found, or even a CURE! The faster a cure is found, the more we can help Tatyanna celebrate many birthdays!

So here's to hoping this giveaway will help spread the word. You can enter by simply telling your friends about Tatyanna's Hope and letting me know. Be it twitter, facebook, blogging, emailing, or simply telling your friends, it all goes. Spread the word!

Up to 10 BONUS giveaway entries for finding the answers to the questions below :)

~ 1 ~ Who did she meet in this blog post?
~ 2 ~ What project did her sister pick?
~ 3 ~ Suitcases... they are like what?
~ 4 ~ How is milk packaged in this blog post?
~ 5 ~ What was Tatyanna's wish?
~ 6 ~ What color did they choose?
~ 7 ~ What did most drawings have in common?
~ 8 ~ What did Tatyanna use to say when offering coffee?
~ 9 ~ What did Tatyanna do to the TV?
~ 10 ~ Tatyanna made great progress during the treatment. What did she manage to do?

On June 8th at 11:59PM, one lucky winner will be chosen using random.org and will win one of my HUGE Senbazuru, A Thousand Paper Cranes Get Well card, as well as a GORGEOUS one-of-a-kind beaded metal bookmark with the words of your choice (up to 15 letters) for a total value of over $20!

Entries (Giveaway closed June 8th 11:59 PM EDT):

@ApronsbyMeMe (1)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 1) ~ WINNER drawn by random.org
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 2)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 3)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 4)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 5)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 6)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 7)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 8)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 9)
@ApronsbyMeMe (bonus 10)
@barleecreations (1)
@barleecreations (bonus 1)
@barleecreations (bonus 2)
@barleecreations (bonus 3)
@barleecreations (bonus 4)
@barleecreations (bonus 5)
@barleecreations (bonus 6)
@barleecreations (bonus 7)
@barleecreations (bonus 8)
@barleecreations (bonus 9)
@barleecreations (bonus 10)
@BattenDiseaseUK (1)
@BernoullisAttic (1)
@cntkreations (1)
@CrankyCatStudio (1)
@Demure4you (1)
@DesignsbyAudrey (1)
@FadedLeaves (1)
@ForgetMeNotSoap (1)
@hotglassbabe (1)
@JuliaPeculiart (1)
@kraftymax (1)
@lukehebe (1)
@PaintingByElfie (1)
@pur3h3art (1)
@rajankoshy (1)
@sandyunderwood (1)
@SilverSkyDesign (1)
@ThruSarasEyes (1)
@UrbanDivaStyle (1)
@WoolyBumblebee (1)
@youtubebeauties (1)
FarrOutDesigns (1)
KLDesigns (1)

Good luck and thank you for spreading the word ♥

How to Use an Artfire Discount Coupon Code or Gift Certificate (mv Visual Guide)

Redeeming a discount code on ArtFire is super easy!

This visual guide will walk you through the steps needed to redeem a Coupon Code or Gift Certificate valid in an ArtFire shop.

In summary, you would enjoy shopping, and enter the Discount Code on the second page of the checkout process.

The first page will be the Shopping Cart, the second one the proper Checkout. The reason for two pages is so the shipping can be calculated for an accurate Order Total. The third and last page will be the payment information page.

Let's look at using the Coupon Code mv10moreFUN for 10% more FUN :) Just replace MV10MOREFUN with your code in the instructions below.

(IMPORTANT! When a discount is in dollars, for example $10 OFF, it means your order has to be at least $10.00, otherwise it would be a NEGATIVE PAYMENT and it won't go through.)

How to redeem:

No ArtFire nor PayPal accounts necessary to use your Gift Certificate code, and no need to login anywhere. Easy Peasy! :)

To use the code:
1) Enjoy shopping at http://mv.artfire.com
2) Choose your pretties and click ADD TO CART
3) When ready to checkout choose your Location (United States, Canada, etc.) in the upper right corner of the Shopping Cart, and click CHECKOUT NOW.

The next page will have a Gift Certificate/Coupon Code box right above the address. Enter the code MV10MOREFUN and click APPLY COUPON. The Grand Total should have 10% deducted from it once the code has been applied.

Enter your shipping information and click SUBMIT ORDER AFTER confirming the discount has been applied and the total amount is correct. Amazon, Google, and PayPal payment choices will be given (For Credit Card payments, choose PayPal without logging in to PayPal).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please double-check your email is correct so the seller can contact you if needed.

And now for the visual guide... Easy as 1-2-3 :)

Enjoy Shopping - SO EASY and FUN :)

STEP 1: Get ready to checkout

Choose your location so Shipping can be calculated accurately, and then click CHECKOUT NOW.

STEP 2: Redeem your Coupon and enter your Shipping Information

Click APPLY COUPON to see your new Order Total. COOL!

Do check the discount HAS been applied and contact the seller before continuing if there are any problems.

STEP 3: Thank you for placing your order. THREE payment methods are available for your convenience :)

When ready, click SUBMIT ORDER. Amazon, Google, and PayPal payment choices will be given on the next page (For Credit Card payments, choose PayPal without logging in to PayPal).

NOTE: Sometimes there's an extra button PayPal or other sites will ask you to click to confirm your purchase. The payment is usually not complete until a confirmation email is sent by the electronic payments website.

DONE! :)

You have just taken advantage of a great deal :) Enjoy your pretties!

♥

Follow @ConanOBrien. Twitter says so! :)

SO.

A couple weeks back, here I was, browsing Twitter just for fun, checking out random names and words just to see who's there. And then I found @Jesus.

Not quite the Jesus you'd expect. If you are looking for that one, @J_E_S_U_S_LIVES is a closer match :)

BUT.

What really got my attention were Twitter's suggestions of similar people to follow: God... and Conan O'Brien.



SEE?

Twitter says so! Follow @ConanOBrien! :)

Kakuro Color Coded Cheatsheet FUN for a Happy 2011

It's that time of the year when we write the wrong year on checks, make hard to keep resolutions, and feel we are ready to start everything afresh. The baby 2011 has just arrived and it promises to be a WONDERFUL year! I mean, it starts with 1/1/11, isn't that PERFECT? :)

So here's to an EXCELLENT year for everyone! A 2011 filled with love, joy, prosperity, success, good health, and all the happiness life can bring!

And since I have a few days off, I've used my vacation to feed my Kakuro addiction and made the color coded cheatsheet I've always dreamt of having. I'm sharing it with all Kakuro and Sum Sudoku fans as an addiction feeding gift :) I hope you find it useful, pretty, and easy to use!

UPDATE: Now available as a poster as well AND in three different sizes WOOT! Get it at zazzle, it's awesome and it makes a GREAT gift! :)

See below for a free PDF download and I've also uploaded the cheatsheet as JPG images (click to print large size):















You can download the PDF here (free download, no registration required, but there's a 20 second countdown wait): Kakuro Sum Sudoku Color Coded Combinations List.

Scroll all the way down and click the Regular Download button. The file is very small (60KB) so ignore all the slow download warnings, it's actually pretty quick once you get past the Captcha.


The list is color coded by total sum and number of cells so it's easy to spot the row I'm looking for. Even numbers are white and odd ones are gray. Lucky unique sums are bolded.

I keep the file open in Facing-Pages View and Alt-tab between my browser and the PDF viewer when I need a sum I can't remember, like those pesky 4 and 5 cells in the 20s :)

I used to use the Kakuro Number list at http://www.grosse.is-a-geek.com/kaklista.html, and the Always Used feature has come in handy quite a few times, so I've integrated it into this list as well.

The headers mean:

++: Total sum for group of cells

##: Number of cells/squares/boxes

Possible: Possible combinations of non repeating numbers for that particular ++ and ##

|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|: The color codes for each number of cells. White is 2 cells, lavender is 3 cells, green is 4 cells, etc...

Common: Numbers that appear in every one of the possible combinations. Sum 35 in 7 cells will surely have a 5, for example.

Used: All possible numbers from all the combinations. A cell in a group of 2 for sum 6 can only be 1, 2, 4, or 5 for example.

Not used: These are in adjacent sums, as they cannot appear in this particular sum. For example, a sum 12 in 4 cells cannot have any cells with 7, 8, or 9 in them.

Now that you have an easy to use cheatsheet, head over to Puzzles Kingdom and have fun playing Sum Sudoku and Kakuro :)

♥ Wishing everyone a blessed 2011, filled with all the good things in life. May you be Happy, Healthy, Loved, Prosperous, and Successful in all your endeavors!

It's going to be a WONDERFUL year, I can't wait to see the excellent adventures it will bring :)

To all, a Happy New Year!
(And if you are looking for colorful gifts, head on over to http://mv.ArtFire.com ::grin:: )

Enjoy!

March Giveaway Winner

(White background and larger fonts available by clicking the buttons on the right)

The story of the March giveaway
The story of Jennifer, winner of mv's Second Giveaway

The first giveaway was so much FUN and had really given me a sense of being able to show my gratitude to all the wonderful people I'd met through LinkLove ~ so I decided to host one for the month of March as well! :)

As I'm still a newbie at those things, I wasn't too sure what kind of gifts would have been most appreciated by the lovely people who had joined my fan page, but I was determined to find out.

I personally like surprises. I often pick the Surprise Gift when I order from my favorite beauty store, it makes my order feel so much like Christmas! They always have such interesting gifts too, not necessarily all beauty products, and that makes it so exciting to open the package. Will it be a cute bag? Makeup? Candles? A watch? Just LOVE that suspense :)

But that's me, and I wanted to find out what other people liked. Luckily I could figure out how to make a Facebook Poll and asked my lovely fans to choose their favorite prize between Gift Certificate, List of Items to Choose from, Surprise, and Other Suggestion. The funny part? The poll ended in a tie, so it had to be extended. Finally, Gift Certificate broke the tie by one vote, so that's what March's prize was set to be.

So the giveaway was posted March 1st, but unlike the previous month, this one was made much easier: to enter, all one needed to do was click Like. Easy peasy! Still giving people the option of entering the giveaway or not, yet making it easy to enter so even the busiest fans can take advantage of it. Of course, there was still the option of extra comment entries for the super motivated fans :)

The resulting response has been astounding! 34 extra comment entries, and ... wait for it... SEVENTY TWO "Like" entries! That's a 230% increase from last month! WOW. And the number of fans had not increased by that much, so I shall strive to make the giveaway entries as easy for any future ones.

It really is amazing what a difference it makes. Kind of like the difference between having to just drop your business card, and having to fill a form. I'd guess the business card drop would garner a LOTTA more entries :) I'll keep that in mind if I ever get to open a B&M shop :)

Fast forward to Sunday the 7th of March, 9PM EST. With so many entries, it was going to take a little longer to double-check the list and enter it at random.org, so the announcement had to be postponed by a few minutes. List entered, randomized, random number picked: 82. Number 82 on the randomized list: Jennifer B.

Her answer was so cute! She said she'd never won anything before and couldn't believe she had won, and when I confirmed she was THE ONE, she started dancing and her husband was very confused as to why she was doing that. That was so super cute!

I had actually e-met Jennifer just a few days prior, so my memory of her site was still fresh in my mind. I was particularly impressed by her commitment to fair trade, and her keen sense of beauty seen through the product choices on her site. Given her great fashion sense, I was really looking forward to seeing what she would use her gift certificate for.

She chose one of my favorite necklaces, the Dark Shimmer. I was so happy the necklace was going to such a wonderful lady!

And a wonderful lady she is.

Ever since she was a child she's felt the need to help others. She still remembers being a little girl, home sick from school, and seeing a commercial on TV about donating to a fund to help feed starving African children. She remembers seeing a tiny, starving, shoeless little girl and getting a very strong feeling she had to do something about it. There was not much the 7-year-old Jennifer could do, but as she grew older, that strong feeling of wanting to help stayed with her.

So when she saw BeadforLife mentioned on the Today Show, she jumped at the opportunity to help African women build a sustainable future for themselves. Within the hour, she had already booked her first BeadforLife party. This is what she has to say about her experience and how it started shaping her future:

"When I received the beads, I was drawn to them like nothing before. The cause, their beauty, and power they hold. I swear there is energy pouring from them. (Hence the [Energy in my] store's name). I wanted to work with the beads on a larger scale, so I looked into doing a BeadforLife tour that travels to Uganda Africa, to meet the beaders and participate in an international sale, however I couldn't afford it for this Spring's trip, so I am looking into this Fall."

So far, Jennifer has raised over $3000 (6,255,000 Uganda Shillings) for this cause. That is an AWESOME accomplishment and she has made SUCH a difference already in the lives of so many impoverished African Women.

She wanted to do even more.

So she started reading more about fair trade, researching, trying to find more ways she could help. In her own words:

"[...] it amazed me to read such stories of hope people have to get themselves out of poverty, and how hard they will work to get there. Their hope and spirit keep them going through the most horrific tragedies. (And there ties in Spirit & Hope for the last two [words in my] store's name)."

You can guess what happened next, and what she has chosen to name her store :) Yes, Jennifer decided to make fair trade products more accessible in her area, and to do so she has started her Energy, Spirit & Hope store. A GORGEOUS and INSPIRING store if I may say so. You should definitely visit, there are SO many beautiful fair trade products, and more added every day!

It's so nice to see such a variety of affordable fair trade products in one place. Energy, Spirit & Hope has definitely managed to gather the best of the best, and with FIFTEEN different product categories there is something for everyone! Would you like to start your day with fair trade coffee? Jennifer has quite a few delicious varieties available. Art? Got it! Accessories? Got it! Toys? Got it! I could go on and on, but I think the point has already been made: you WILL find something for you, as well as for your loved ones.

When you visit, do check the Artisans category for an inspiring story about a community of Indian artisans who were being mistreated by their employers at the time, and who found their way out of poverty and mistreatment through fair trade. A truly inspiring and beautiful story.

I'd like to highlight a few products to give you an idea of the beauty of this store. This is really just a small fraction of all the beauty there is to be seen, but I'll try to give you a taste in a nutshell through how I'd see a fair trade day happen :)

You could start your day admiring the art on the right and sipping one of Jennifer's favorite fair trade coffees, Sumatran Organic Italian Roast. She says "The first sip is like a lightening bolt to the body. Over the weekend, my husband will brew it before I get out of bed and the smell alone propels me downstairs." Doesn't that sound like a great way to start the day?

You'd get dressed and wear your gorgeous copper on gold tone cuff bracelet, grab one of the many beautiful recycled Sari bags and head out the door.

The Sari bags are one of Jennifer's all time favorites by the way. As she puts it, "they are stunning, every single one of them. The beading and embroidery is BEAUTIFUL, and so well made. To think they are recycled Saris, [that's even more] amazing."

She also likes the tatami style purses from Cambodia:

"The purses from Baskets of Cambodia are gorgeous too. I don't know what I thought of when I ordered them, baskets? Into purses? Aren't they going to be stiff? Well let me tell you they exceeded my standards. They are so well made, soft sisal grass made into sturdy bags that won't wear over time."

As your day progresses, you'll find it easy to keep your todo lists in check and jotting things down on a gorgeous elegant leather journal.

One of these todo items may even be buying a gift for the house warming party tonight. A wine tote would be PERFECT! There are even wine bottle stoppers you could pair it with. And if the hosts are not drinkers, you couldn't go wrong with fair trade hand dipped and painted candles. And yes, you've guessed it, candle holders are also available, as well as GORGEOUS handmade gift wrapping paper :)

When coming back home, you could play drums with your kids, we all know how much they like noise. Actually, I like those animal decorated drums so much, I might just play with them myself, just as a sort of meditation device.

And finally, if you are like me, you'd burn the midnight oil trying to finish an article, and you WILL need more coffee. There's no more appropriately named coffee than the Sweetwater Midnight Oil! :)

That would be my day. How would YOUR fair trade day look like? Check out Energy, Spirit, & Hope, enjoy the sights, help people all over the world, and come back here to tell us the story of your fair trade day :)

You can chat with Jennifer at:
Facebook Fan Page
Energy, Spirit & Hope: A Fair Trade Experience store

Adding Widgets to Facebook Fan Pages

I am so excited about the new sparkly widgets on my fan page, I simply MUST share. Did you know you could add code to FaceBook pages?! I only found about this recently, and only figured it out today.

Today, I stumbled (again) upon this FBML thing, FaceBook Markup Language. Well, this place was saying HTML works, so my initial monstrous image of having to learn this "FBML" turned into "Oh, it's HTML, I can tackle THAT!"

So for those of you wanting a pretty widget on the side of your FaceBook Fan Pages, here's a little mini-guide based on what's worked for me:

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878 (Static FBML App) and click the "Add to my Page" link under the avatar.


2. An "Add Static FBML to your Page" window pops up, and you should see the avatar of your fan page in there. Click the "Add to Page" button next to it.


3. Now go to your FAN page and click the "Edit Page" link under your avatar.


4. Scroll down to Applications, and you should see FBML in there. Click the "Edit" link immediately underneath the FBML line.


5. You will now be in the "Edit FBML" window where you can edit the Box Title to say whatever you want, like LINKLOVE, for example. You can also put any text or HTML widget code into the FBML area. For example, to add a link to the LinkLove blog:
   <a href="http://linklovesuccess.blogspot.com"> LinkLove Success Stories Blog</a>
   Keep in mind you are designing for a 200 pixels wide area.


6. When done, click the blue "Save Changes" button at the bottom.


7. Go to your FAN page, find the Boxes tab at the top and click on it (may be hidden under the >> at the end of the tabs, click the arrows to expand).


8. On the Boxes page, you will see your LINKLOVE FBML. Click the tiny edit pencil in the upper right corner and choose "Move to Wall Tab"


9. TAADAA! It's now on the left side of your wall. You can even grab it and move it up and down (as long as it's under fans). Pretty cool huh?

You can see the widgets live at http://facebook.com/mvfans.

So that's it. The mighty FBML I was so afraid of trying out LOL

Do let me know how those instructions work for you or if anything looks confusing. Enjoy!

February Giveaway Winner

(White background available under Accessibility Options on the right side)

She was wearing one of her lucky shirt designs from The Spotted Olive™ when she entered the room. It looks like it has worked wonders! :)

Ok, now that I have your attention, feel welcome here, make yourself comfortable and let me know what I can get for you. The bar is stocked and the snack cart is overflowing with goodies. ::listens:: Alright! Here you go! Enjoy! Let me get some water and we'll be on our way.

The story of Debbie,
winner of mv's First Giveaway.

Photo of Debbie wearing her mv necklace.

It was a cold winter day when mv found out about this great concept of having a giveaway (yes, yes, I am new to all this LOL). A giveaway, the BEST way to thank the wonderful people she had met in her online travels! But how would this work? With the help of a few friends and some very good pointers from them, the first giveaway was born.

February 12, 2010, afternoon... I was having the jitters... Will anyone see this? What if I mess up? How will it be received? I had written and rewritten, rehearsed the whole thing a hundred times. Well, here it goes! Share.

4 minutes later, the first answer! WHEEE! It had worked! ::happy dance:: I don't remember if it was sunny outside, but it sure felt like it. As this was a multiple entry giveaway, I started seeing familiar faces coming back. I was as happy as one feels when a lovely repeat customer enters their store :) I was busy reviewing the links, the tweeps, and all the good places I was discovering thanks to the giveaway.

Hmm, I see your glass is empty. Would you like another drink? I think I'll get a martini for myself. I have this sudden urge for a martini... I wonder why.

Hmm, a tweet from an account that reminds me of a martini. Ah, yes, the super cute shop that had really cool business card designs, funky paper goods, and other cute stuff. As I was clicking more and more links, I was discovering more and more gorgeous designs. Business cards, note cards, invitations, stationery, postcards, stickers... Oh WOW! Cool T-shirts! Even shoes, and hats, and bags, and... WOW. Who is this talented person?! Look at all those GORGEOUS designs! OMG! So funky! So cute! So COOL!

LOL Check out this shirt! OMG! She is so FUNNY!


Fast forward to February 21st, the day of the drawing. Enter list at random.org, randomize, get random number, pick that number from the list.... Debbie! The martini lady! I mean, The Spotted Olive™ owner :)

Confetti!
Flowers!
Music!
Party!
Congratulations Debbie!

Her answer was so nice she melted my heart: "Happy to help promote other fellow small business owners. Was my pleasure to do and as an added bonus I won a prize. Thanks so much!!!"

That's Debbie for you. She is a kind hearted soul who strives to help others as much as she can. In January, she joined Hearts For Haiti a group of artists, designers and illustrators on Zazzle trying to raise awareness and funds to help the Haiti earthquake victims. She celebrates Earth Day every day. Helping the planet helps the people living on it. Use LESS! Help the environment!

We've had a few chats since, and what strikes me is how supportive she is of all businesses. She loves running The Spotted Olive™ because she knows it can help other businesses succeed.

Professionally, she's an award winning graphic designer who's been in the industry for 15 years now. She's joined the POD world January 2008, discovered Zazzle a few months later, and hasn't looked back since. Zazzle is her POD of choice and she has countless Zazzle stores, each a creative outlet for her boundless talent, each with its own Debbie style and designs.

In Debbie's own words: "The primary focus of my shops is paper goods, business cards, etc. I actually sell quite a bit of my business card designs to small businesses that are on Etsy and Artfire. I've had a few jewelry designers ask me to alter some of my business card designs so they can use them for their jewelry. It's kind of a cool connection from what I do to the handmade crafters, and how we can work together."

Isn't she AWESOME?

I wanted to show you a favorite business card from her store, but I couldn't stop at one, it was hard enough to stop at two! :)

Doesn't this design look perfect for a Craft Business?

And this one for a vintage seller?


She has also been recently interviewed by Zazzle, and you can read more about her design philosophy and inspirations at: http://blog.zazzle.com/2010/02/10/zazzle-featured-seller-interview-with-thespottedolive. It's a fun read!

Thank you so much for listening! I had fun sharing Debbie's story. She is such a talented designer! I will send her your compliments, so please do gush about her in the comments section below :)

You can visit Debbie at:

http://www.facebook.com/TheSpottedOlive
http://www.thespottedolive.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/thespottedolive

http://www.thespottedolive.com
http://www.zazzle.com/thespottedolivekicks
http://www.zazzle.com/twoheartsshoppe
http://www.zazzle.com/minkideluxe
http://www.zazzle.com/thespunkypuppy
http://www.dpgraphicdesign.net


The Spotted Olive™ Ultra Techie Fancy Panel Thingie is cool. Click :)

The story of Paul Pole

Paul Pole was a poll. (Try saying that 10 times fast!)
Paul Pole was alone.
Lonely heart in snowy land,
Waiting for a role.

For you see, Paul Pole
Had a lot of talent,
Excellent actor he was
Yet he got no call.

He checked his phone one day:
"Still got a dial tone..."
But the only calls he got
Were from Fannie Mae.

Then... one day...
A knock on the door!
A bit of sunshine
Floating on a dust ray.

"Who could it be", he asked.
"I know no one."
He opened the door
And there it was.

A bouquet of flowers.
A message!
"I've seen your play,
T'was lovely. - a neighbor"

"Oh my!" he thought,
"Must've been at the park...
But when?
I thought I was alone..."

He went again to the park
No one was there
Yet he performed his best
Knowing someone would see... some day.

The days went by.
He oiled the hinges.
For his door
Had to be used much more

More flowers.
Chocolate.
And then one day,
A little boy.

"Hi there" he said
My friends saw you at the park
I want to be like you,
When I grow up."

He cried.
He was so happy!
Paul Pole, the poll,
alone was no more.

His talent had been seen!
The town was abuzz!
"We should invite Paul Pole,
to play the first scene!"

Paul Pole, the poll,
Obliged.
Standing ovation!
Happy soul!

Paul Pole became very famous,
His shows were oversold,
Yet every day he'd still
Go to the park and play.

For had it not been for new friends,
His neighbors, and the kids,
Paul Pole, the poll,
Would still be all alone.

Have you met Paul Pole?
Yes, the poll Paul Pole.
Ah, I see.. You have!
Thank you friend!
You are very cool :)

Twitter Karma rocks!

Many thanks to shesbatty for posting her super helpful Best Twitter Tips on her blog! She had also posted them on the old ArtFire forums, but I didn't have the time to experiment then, so here I am now, gushing about one of the tips she has mentioned.

So I have finally gotten around to trying Twitter Karma today, and WOW, so easy to use and so useful! BTW, Twitter Karma is a tool for managing Twitter friends and followers, providing ways of sorting/filtering by activity, reciprocity, etc.

To use, just go to http://dossy.org/twitter/karma, click "Sign in with Twitter", click "Allow", and when redirected back to the application, click "Whack!"

No worries, it won't whack anything until you click the checkboxes on the next page. You can also sort and filter friends and followers with the drop down menus at the top of the page. VERY cool!

Check out the clean look! So easy to scan visually:


I found this tool to be very helpful to get a bird's eye view of my twitter account, so I'm hoping the steps above will help other businesses just starting on the social networking scene. Believe me, I'm still at a point where I find everything so overwhelming! :)

And while I will probably not "whack" for a while, I am sure the day will come when I will need to balance my karma so twitter likes my account (there are people out there who only follow until one follows and then unfollow, but hopefully it won't get too out of balance).

While I am still a beginner at these things, I can try to help as much as I can, so if you have any questions, go ahead and post a comment. And if you have tips you'd like to share, please, please do!

Finally, If you haven't already, do visit Batty's blog for more tips! She's awesome! Thanks Batty!

Update: Well, I had to do it as the difference was starting to impact searches. The easiest way is to click Hide Avatars right before clicking Whack, and then Sort by Ascending and Show Only following on the next page. Ta-daa! Just click the unfollow link under each name that you'd like to unfollow. Balance restored :) Easy peasy.

New article, yay! Easy Holiday napkin rings and ornaments.

My newest article is up! I made some cute napkin rings for Thanksgiving, so I've written a quick and easy HowTo expanded to cover all occasions, as well as ideas for Christmas ornaments, kids' bracelets, and other fun kids' crafts with ribbon and beads.

I am actually pondering making some Christmas ornaments with 45 beads for a larger diameter, and then creating spokes with silver plated wire or red and green string. It should be fun!

Check out the article and let me know what you think: How to make fun napkin rings for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other occasion. It was very fun to make the samples and to write the article! :)

The samples came out pretty cute!

Over and Out for now...

Chocolate on my mind...

ArtFire is such a great community! Professional, yet knowing how to have fun and be silly. There are always game posts going on, a lot of funny artisans, and plenty of interesting topics.

OneWord is one of my favorite threads. Often funny and witty, and always interesting to see what someone thinks of first. Some artisans see the noun, some see the verb, and some see an unexpected connection that will take you by surprise.

I love parsing and analyzing data, so it's only natural I'd ask myself what are the most popular words in the OneWord thread. What is on ArtFire's mind? So I've set out to gather all the one-words in the thread and reduce them to their root form to find the most thought of word. So what is it?

Chocolate.

I love chocolate and so does ArtFire it seems. Chocolate appears 12 times in the thread, as of today. It was associated with the color brown, candy (thrice!), valentine, pleasure, cravings, deprived, morsels, calories, sweet, and dessert. What do people think of when they see chocolate? Kisses (twice!), drink, candy, bon bon, cake, caramel, perfection, calories, bunny, and sundae (twice!). Quite fascinating!

The next popular word is snow, mostly associated with white and cold. It appears 10 times, and most of them are recent. Are people getting a lot of snow this year?

What's next? Love, red, and water at 9 each. Hmm, I guess we need some water after all that chocolate.

Red (9) and green (8) are the most popular colors to think of by association. The third ranking color, at only 4 thoughts, is blue. So they may say that blue is the most popular color, but this society is built on red and green :)

I've had a lot of fun with this! Here is a list of words that appeared 6 times or more - a window into ArtFire's mind:

12 chocolate
10 snow
9 water
9 red
9 love
8 work
8 sleep
8 queen
8 horse
8 happy
8 halloween
8 green
8 family
7 music
7 movie
7 money
7 hot
7 home
7 dream
7 beach
6 you
6 warm
6 tree
6 pie
6 joy
6 house
6 football
6 fire
6 drink
6 cheese

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my little fun adventure into OneWord thoughts. Leave a comment with your thoughts, or email me. I'd like to know what's on YOUR mind.

Over and Out.

First article!

I have been very busy writing an article on how to make elegant dangle earrings from buttons and it just got published today! I am so ecstatic about this I simply MUST blog... I wish someone had written something like this when I first started working with buttons, but even now most how tos are about how to glue buttons onto stuff to make earrings. I don't want no glue!

Here is the article: How To make dangle earrings from buttons. Tell me what you think!

I still remember when I first looked at buttons with the eyes of a beader. My stash of buttons may not have been as humongous as my bead and yarn stashes, but it was certainly larger than your average button pile. Nowadays it is much larger than your average button pile. What can I say, I'm a packrat, and if I must packrat better be small items!

I remember trying various things to make those buttons work as jewelry. Buttons can be so pretty! A Google search really didn't bring much up, people were using glue to stick those buttons to earrings and necklaces. I like fluid jewelry, so I'm not much of a glue person.

Buttons are meant to be free! Free the buttons! Hence the article about cute little buttons hanging from dainty chains. Cute as a button!

How do you like those cute earrings?

Over and Out.