illustration friday: twist

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's theme of "twist"

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These gals are going to twist and stretch their way to better bodies! Speaking of yoga.... I am off to do mine now!

Who wore it better: the Haute Dior version

The dress is from the Eastern influenced SS07 Christian Dior Haute Couture show, which was completely and utterly awe inspiring... never ever in my life have I felt like that! It truly was fashion at its best: fashion as an art form come to life! This lovely lovely creation has this unforgettable beauty about it and well, obviously- Galliano has done it again! So, tell me now... who wore it best?

As a baseline, do you prefer Morgane Dubled wearing the original in the runway show? 
Or would you rather Cameron Diaz at the 2007 Met Costume Institute gala with the Poiret theme in a magenta/dark pink version?

Erica Baxter, now Erica Packer and the wife of the richest man in Australia James Packer, also wore the same in a vision of white as her wedding gown (which is actually difficult to see considering the LQ of the image. Sorry about that...) for the couple's June 20 wedding on the French Riviera. The price tag is $100,000 AUD according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Was it worth it?
Cred: SMH, style.com, theage.com.au

it's there!

The package that I sent to the Martha Stewart producer is there! Yipes! I am nervous, will they like it? What will they think? Did everything arrive in perfect shape? Will it go OK? Taking deep breaths it all works out!!

PS anyone else watching Hey Paula???

lookie what I got!

In my quest to become a better "accessorizer" (because I am lazy, normally the only jewelry I wear is my wedding ring). I bought this necklace from here.

It's on its way to me! Can't wait!

this just finished....

Here's an 11x14 custom artwork that I just finished up of this cute couple and their sweet doggie.

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As you can see the guy is a Florida Gators fan (go Gators!) so managed to work that in with a tiny logo on his shirt. This is the first picnic themed piece in a little while, I have another one in the works now!

Beware of Buying E-books that Cost $97

One of my online friend e-mailed me and informing me that a kind of swindling activities are going on in the internet particularly from those self proclaimed Marketing Gurus who are trying to convinced the unwilling victims to buy their money-making Ebook programs which promises a sure way to earn thousands of dollars online.

Below are some of the informations e-mailed to me:

WARNING: The 'Gurus' Are Holding Back and It's Costing You a Fortune!

Could they be intentionally leaving out critical information from their ebooks to confuse you or to swindle you for more of your hard-earned dollars?

It seems like after you buy a $97 ebook, you're told you need to buy another $497 video course. Then after buying their video course, you're still lost and told that you'll have to attend a live seminar for $2997.00 in order to bring it all together.

And the worst thing here is that after you paid all those amount you are left alone wondering how to get back those money that you spend. Because inspite of those Ebooks, videos, and seminars that you bought still you could not make money online as promised to you by those Gurus.

So, I hope this would serve as a warning to those who want to make money online in an easy way by becoming a falling victims to this kind of online "swinedlers".

Just remember this - "If it has a cost then most likely it is a scam".

random thoughts tuesday

this is what I did today:

• worked on custom artwork orders
• wrestled with Stanley and managed to trim his nails
• talked to my friend Missy
• answered lots of emails
  
• talked to Bernie
• talked to Cynthia, she's coming over to visit tomorrow! yay!
• asked my friend Martha if she will help me cut the wood for my frames on her table saw. Yes she will! yay! thanks Martha!! who knows! Maybe I will even like it and want one of my own!
• discovered a whole family of tadpoles living in our fountain (even though it's on! I have no idea how they do not get caught in the pump!) I went out there to put some chemicals in the fountain to clean it and discovered tadpoles well on their way to becoming froggies. Of course now I can't clean the fountain until they are all grown up and move away!!

My Hot Hot Mix

A selection of songs which is constantly playing in my ipod! The genre varies, from the electro to the kitsch to ballady slow jams to the old school, and I tried to included a mix of artists. Please take your time to listen and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making this playlist!! Featured artists here include Bloc Party, The Killers, The Presets, Justin Timberlake, Pat Benatar, Nouvelle Vague and more...

Cred: projectplaylist

Sitting on the fence

Quite frankly, I find these tees to be a bit hilarious! I get this feeling that the designers at Supré, one of the more popular Australian chain stores, were having a bit of an indecisive moment along the lines of "Do I like the 'I ♥ NY" tees more or do I love House of Holland more?" when brainstorming ideas. I guess they decided to compromise with a House of Holland font on the NY style top...

And on the topic of Supré... is it just me or do others also remember the days when the store, in an attempt to rebrand and reposition itself from a mature woman's clothing store to target the younger teenage/tween audience, sold tees for $10 and skirts for $15? If my memory is correct, that was only about 7 years ago! Now, clothes retail for prices like $75 for a dress...

Which has got me wondering: Is that also what happened when Forever 21 decided to up its image and take the role of counterfeit queen?
Photo cred: Supré

monday, monday

Still working away on things here. I have been finishing up custom artwork orders and getting the stuff ready to send off to the Martha Stewart producer. Just about there!

Here's a custom sketch artwork that I finished up a little bit ago. This little guy is nuts for pirates so of course the artwork had to be all about pirates. I love the little dog in the front of the boat with his little arm over the edge.

I have been getting custom orders for my sitting poppets®! That is exciting! I think I'll have to add a section to my web site about that, hopefully this weekend. Also still working on the web site pages with the custom greeting cards too. Need more time!

I suddenly realized that I have 32 artworks that I need to frame up before I hang the show at Orlando City Hall on July 31st. I wish I knew someone with a table or circular saw that could cut all this wood for me. I hate cutting it all myself with my little hand saw. But I also refuse to use big and crazy power tools like a circular saw. I have a terrible fear about cutting off a finger or a hand. When I was a freshman in college they took us around the wood shop and told us all the horrible things that happened at each machine. Like "John Smith got his finger sanded off here" And "Bobby John got his scalp ripped off here" then they showed us PICTURES!!! I think they thought they were warning us so we would be careful but it did a little bit of too good of a job for me. Now I break a sweat just looking at any kind of power saw. *shiver*

crazy busy

I worked round the clock this weekend, getting everything ready for the Martha Stewart proposal. Whew! Almost done! Too tired for a proper post tonight, more tomorrow!

AW07 Campaigns: Part I

The campaigns are gradually flowing in now, from one of the earliest being the vividly-colored Christian Dior ads to the Dolce and D&G ones popping up only yesterday, and for me... emotions ranged from disappointed to ecstatic. My favorites, as of now, are:
Pringles of Scotland

Definitely my favorite as of now: head over heels in love with the dark evocative neo-romantic mood of these print ads!! The metal structures/props lend a hint of industrialism into the mix, and the great clothes, great hair and beautiful styling means this gets a very strong nod of the head from me. The girl on the left looks hauntingly beautiful, no? That the campaign was shot in B&W makes me love it even more!! I am a big advocate of B&W photography because of the atmosphere it captures.

and D&G!
Quintessentially D&G, I suppose it might be considered a bit boring... but I like it! Very glamorous! The menswear influence is very now. It's fantastical! And look at Rachel Clark! I thought she really shone through in these ads. Why they feel a need to reuse the set bothers me though...



This Marc Jacob one, however, is more mediocre. It isn't bad per se... but I just cannot decide whether the marketing is genius or insane! To make it so small means that it is not nearly effective enough to catch the attention of a magazine flipper, but then one can say that the excess of white provides a stark contrast- hence catching their eye and making them want to study the clothes more closely. Definitely undecided on the ad...

I'll leave it there for now... but the ads are still coming in, so look out for a part II continuation of this!
Photo cred: TFS

long day....

Today seemed like an exceptionally long day. I woke up wide awake at 5am after only 3 hours of sleep, full of worry and ideas and pent up energy. I worked on stuff until 7:30am and then went back to bed. Then got up "at my regular time" and worked some more.

About 3:30pm Mabel comes down with a weepy eye (it was fine all day! then 3pm it's weepy!) so I rushed her off to the vet before they closed at 5pm. These things always happen on a Friday just before the vet closes for the weekend, thankfully they squeezed us in. The vet didn't even mention Mabel's tubby belly. She's only 13.4lbs, but she looks MUCH bigger don't you think? She is on a strict diet and we monitor her food like crazy, she's just always chubby. She goes in next week for her annual exam, I think he'll probably bring out the fat cat-size charts then.

Paul left today for Ohio a reunion/50th wedding anniversary so I am left to my own devices for feeding myself. Fortunately he made Martha Stewart's Mac N Cheese recipe before he left so I am reheating that. Maybe it will last until he gets back on Sunday or else I'll be eating cereal and microwave popcorn again!

studio kitties

OK it's been a whole week since I posted pet photos, so here come some more! I snapped these photos of Stanley and Mabel in my studio today.

Mabel loves to sleep under my desk in a pile of gift tissue and Stan loves my colored paper tub!

Stan chewing on his own tail! silly boy!

Mable later on top of the desk!

mom's favorite stuff

Thanks to Mom's Favorite Stuff for the great write up about my custom artworks! Check it out here.

Seems like I just got... TAGGED!

Thankyou to Lady from You Say I'm a Bitch Like It's a Bad Thing who just tagged me for the blog game doing its circuit around the blogs I read! A bit of fun and it enhances my procrastination time (studying for finals is hellish).

"Game Rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to then report this on their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. They then need to tag 7 others and list their names on their blog. They are also asked to leave a comment for each of the tagged, letting them know they have been tagged and to read the blog."

OK... I guess I'll get started then:

1. Anyone who knows me will realize that I am completely obsessed about Manhattan!! Something about it being the epicenter of the world because it never sleeps (I am sick and tired of living in a city where stores close at 5PM most days, with the exception of a 9PM on Thursday "late-night-shopping" night), and because everything I love is there- Fashion is in NYC. Art is in NYC. Commerce is in NYC. Starbucks is also on every street corner in NYC? Admittedly, I've never been to the East Coast, so my Manhattan could very well be romanticized.

2. I wish I was alive in the 60s! Self destruction in a "sex, drugs and rock n roll" lifestyle appeals to the wild child side of me- Edie Sedgwick is such a fascinating character who epitomized that generation. The "live hard, die young, leave a beautiful corpse" mentality in her partying ways was so insane that:

"To parents terrified of the influence of sex and drugs, she was an abomination; to the would-be cool, she was an ideal; to painters as eminent as Robert Rauschenberg, she was a living work of art."

3. Ever since watching Center Stage, I've been totally enamored with ballet and want to try it out. I love the ballerinas' grace and elegance... the fluidity of their movement makes me think of impressionism, which is by far one of my favorite art movements. I think it also has to do with the chic dancewear that could be worn to the studios- Pastel colors, pointe shoes, black leotards (♥♥♥), legwarmers, long sweaters, shorts over leggings, flowy handkerchief skirts. Think Michael Kors' soft SS07 collection.

4. One of my many aims for this holiday is to watch the whole Sex and the City series, from start to end. Most likely, I will watch it online: talk about have the world at your feet! Was entirely too young to watch such a sitcom when it first aired (would never have got the jokes anyway... I was what? A fifth grader?), and by the time I realized the series is great and just classic, it was ending.

5. For someone who loves traveling so much, it's funny that I've never been to Europe!! Where am I desperately dying to visit? Paris, Florence, Venice, Milan and St Petersburg!! Partly for the shopping but mainly for the breath-taking scenes, architecture and the museums!
6. Sometimes I don't like living in Australia/ Southern Hemisphere, and sometimes I do. The advantage is that us Aussies can technically be wearing the AW07 trends right now (keyword is trend, not the actual runway collections), because it is winter and just so unbelievably cold over here, while those on the other side are sunbathing. Cons? Mainly that most fashion magazines here drive me crazy- why on Earth does Vogue Australia feel a need to cover swimwear and the spring/summer range when the nation is grabbing out their gloves, scarves and coats? Russh, a bi-monthly, got it right though! It's usually the only AUS mag I buy, and it has my recommendations.

7. No matter what I say, some are convinced that I am obsessive-compulsive because I carry around hand sanitizer in my bag. I guess it's just not a common practice around here.

Now I have to decide on seven people to tag, dont I? Um... I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who hasnt been tagged yet, so- if you think of someone or if you want in on this exciting game... just let me know, ok?
Cred: You Say I'm a Bitch Like It's a Bad Thing, style.com, greenwichmeantime, ltierney, photomann, TFS

More on Ferré

Just something from The Daily that I found particularly endearing and further highlights the role of Gianfranco Ferré as the "architect of fashion":

“I met him when I was working in the New York office of Vogue Italia,” said editor-at-large Joyce Caruso Corrigan (of Marie Claire), who recalled her sole encounter with the architect of fashion. “I was introduced to him by Franca Sozzani, who was also wearing all black, and when we shook hands, he looked at my all-black outfit and said, ‘Oh, I see you’re part of the mourning party.”

Because well, quite simply, architects love black! I love black too! (Vera Wang, I dont care if you think black is the 90s!) After all, doesn't everyone?

summer and winter at the same time!

Here are a couple of custom artworks that I just finished up! The first, a very summery scene and the other - all winter!

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This cute couple, love to spend their days at the beach and especially love kite boarding. I managed to work the kite boarding in by having him reading a magazine about it!

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This one was for a birthday present for the mom, they all love to go skiing as a family so I depicted them on a ski lift. I can't wait to hear how she liked it!

Where is the mayhem?

I lied. I went into Target at 10AM- it was too much effort dragging myself out of bed. The store was as calm and peaceful as ever for that time of the morning. Guess not many people knew about the Josh Goot for Target range then? I didnt see any of the pandemonium that the Stella range supposedly had (I couldnt make it to that one) and there were no naked mannequins. First thought when I say the calm was "Yay! More for me!" Sadly, the quality of the trench did not pass my test ( nor did the fabric suit the style imo)- I hate being such a picky person! The silver fabric fared a bit better on the racer tank but that style just looks strange on my frame.

Ahh! The weather is still dropping and I need more winter clothes!! Whatever am I going to do?

Martha Stewart Living!

I am SO excited!!

Thanks to the amazing Holly and her interview of me on her blog, decor8 --- a Martha Stewart show producer contacted me about being on Martha's TV show!!!!

oh boy!! Now I am FREAKING out getting everything ready to send a pitch package for the show. Keeping fingers crossed that Martha likes what I send and I can get on the show!

yay and yipes all at the same time!

P.S. interestingly this fortuitous event has nothing to do with the artwork I gave to Martha Stewart in January!

monday musings

I love it when I get gifties in the mail! Look at this gigantic box of ribbon that the sweet gals from Creative Impressions sent me! oh boy!! I can not wait to start using it. I plan on making a whole bunch more of my sitting poppets® and this will be perfect!

I spent today working on custom artwork orders, my goal is to get 5 sketch orders + 1 canvas order a week. So I am also working on a big PR campaign to boost orders. I sent out press releases to a few magazines, including domino magazine. Hope it works!

Then I was researching online backup systems. I think right now I am going to go with Carbonite. It's fairly easy to use and now I have 1/2 my stuff uploaded for the free trial. Mozy looks really hip and nice but now that I have gotten so far with Carbonite I am reluctant to mess with it anymore. I hate dealing with this stuff. I can always switch later if Carbonite doesn't work out.

After all that I started getting artwork ready for a show I am having at Orlando City Hall, August-October. I am seriously worried about having enough artwork for this show. Since I work so small (9x12 - 16x20) I don't know if my art will cover all the walls that I am supposed to. It is stressing me out. I have to turn in all the label information to them this week so I can't work on big stuff between now and then. akkk! Maybe the other guy who is showing at the same time can just take up some of my wall space!

It's late!! see you tomorrow!

file back up services?

This weekend I spent some time looking into online file backup services. I am paranoid about losing my files. I have an external harddrive but it has started making funny noises so that's what prompted this sudden search.

So far I have looked at:

Xdrive (their web site gives me a file error when I try to upgrade to the 50GB so I am leary about it)

Carbonite (their free trial isn't working for me right now, grr!)

Mozy (cute site! I haven't tried the trial yet)

Does anyone use this sort of service and can anyone recommend one? Preferably one that isn't really expensive, like no more than $10 a month.

thanks for your input!

etsy hand picked!

Thanks to Jennifer Perkins for letting me know that my Vespa Girl is on the front of Etsy as one of their hand picked items! wooo hoo!

(click image to enlarge)
Have a great day!

Josh Goot for Target

Comes out 9AM tomorrow. I am checking out the range tomorrow morning- got my eyes on the silver foil knit trench coat (left) which is priced at $130 and should look damn fine with black stovepipes/ opaque black tights (maybe the ones with the silver sheen?)/ leggings!! Must say, one of the selling points of this collection is the great likeness with Josh's normal line, in terms of style, but with reduced price tags. Chicalert claims that silver trench from his main collection "retails at around $700 at leading international stores such as the prestigious London retailer Browns Focus, Colette emporium in Paris and Henri Bendel in New York!" Superbe, non? Hopefully the quality will be satisfactory- I will be devastated if the fabrics are as terrible as the Stella for Target line, because I subscribe to the philosophy of quality over quantity.

Going to head in at 9 (no waiting around for me, thanks!), as I think that it wont be nearly as chaotic as the Stella frenzy, considering that the media has not been too noisy about it and that Josh is not as well known as Stella McCartney. Guess I'll find out tomorrow. With any luck, I will score something fabulous and chic!
Cred: chicalert

Experimenting the Free Directories

Since June 8, I did not post anything in this blog because I want to observe how this blog is doing by itself. I made an experiment by submitting this blog to selected free directories which I think are the good ones. You can see them at the sidebar. I submitted this blog to those free directories simultaneously last May 29.

I observed that submitting your blog to free directories did not help much in attracting traffic to this blog. From June 8 to June 17 there are only 19 people who visited this blog as recorded in the sitemeter report. And among the 19 visitors not even one are coming from any of those directories.

So, my conclusion is that -

"the idea of submitting your blog to the free directories will not give you a guarantee to increase traffic to your website. It is completely a waste of time if you consider the process of submission which is so laborious where you have to submit your blog to each and every directories manually."

I am now experimenting on the "dofollow" scheme by posting a comment to a blog which has also a "dofollow" page. They said that if you post a comment to a "dofollow" page your blog is automatically link to that site which the google spider will consider as such. This way your blog's PageRank will increase. Hopefully this is true. I will post here the progress of this experiment in the near future.

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Salute to Gianfranco Ferré

Gianfranco Ferré, perhaps best known as the “architect of fashion” for his sculpted shapes, structured forms, and for his groundbreaking career at Christian Dior, died Sunday evening after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. The Italian designer was 62.

It's sad to note the death of yet another prominent figure within the fashion industry- the creative director of his own label but more importantly, the head designer of Christian Dior where he reigned for seven years from 1989 to 1996. The simplicity and structure of his designs should be noted- I liked that it exuded that sense of ease.

While that's wonderful and worthy of praise, what I love and find the most fascinating about Gianfranco Ferré is his groundings in architecture- a degree from Politecnico di Milano, which has one of the best architectural programs in the world (and I was almost going to apply to attend). I think there might be a tinge of regret from me that I didn't end up going through with Bachelor of Architecture degree now that I think about it.
Cred: style.com, the Daily

happy father's day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there!
Here's a photo of my Dad when he was a little boy in 1952. Happy Father's day Dad!!
xxxox

illustration friday: rejection

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's theme of "rejection"


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I didn't have time to make a new artwork this week so I used an existing piece that I re-worked for Illustration Friday. This one uses more digital work that usual -- I had fun playing with the woman's face to make her look extra grumpy!

indie entrepreneur

Thanks to Indie Entrepreneur for a great interview! You can read it here.

i am tired

I am exhausted and I have a huge migraine. So I'll leave you with a cute pic of Stan asleep in front of our computer. Note the blogger post screen in the background :)

Sweet dreams! nighty night!

one of those days....

Today was one of those days that got sucked up by annoying errands. I hate it when that happens, it drives me crazy because the whole time I am running errands I am thinking "I should be doing this and that and the other instead of doing this" BUT I also need to run these errands. I always get a migraine and grumpy on days like this.

It started off good, I was working away, then remembered that it was time to get Mabel checked for her re-occurring bladder infections so off to the vet I went. They were busy there so it took a long time.

Then I needed to mail out a few packages. Rather than go to the Post Office I decided to go to a little Pak Mail place and send from there. The woman behind the counter told me that my global priority mail package to Australia would be $37. That's THIRTY SEVEN DOLLARS!! I was sure she had it wrong so then I went to the real Post Office and waited in line and they told me the same thing, that Global Priority Mail no longer exists (what!) and now you have to send First Class International or something. Grrr! So then I went back home and repacked my package and then mailed it off again.

Then I had to go to the drug store and other places and before I knew it the day was gone. Now I am exhausted! I wish I was one of those people who could run errands and do a million things, but I never have that kind of energy. For me, it's either work in the studio OR run errands. I can never do both.

So tomorrow I will get an early start and make up for lost time today! whew!

this just finished

I just finished up this custom artwork of this cute gal and her kitty.

It was a bitter sweet artwork to create because her cat went over the rainbow bridge just before she ordered this piece. Which is why I chose to give him wings. I also included a small butterfly which is a symbol of rebirth.

custom note cards now available!

Anna Bella Stationery and I have collaborated to create note cards featuring YOU!

Now you can have your custom artwork printed on note cards that you can send to your friends and family. You get the artwork and the cards! YAY!

HOW IT WORKS:
Commission me to create a custom artwork. Then, after it's finished you can go to Anna Bella to place your stationery order - they'll have a special link set up just for my customers, which I'll will pass on to you as soon as it's ready. But for now just shoot me an email. Anna Bella will coordinate with me to receive your artwork and will then send you several online proofs to view. Once approved your cards will be printed on their signature linen stock with rounded corners and coordinating linen envelopes.

WHAT IT COSTS:
There is a one-time $15 set up fee which includes color correcting, and unlimited online color proofs. There is no minimum to meet - you may order 1, you may order 101 and everything in between. When you re-order cards you will not have another set up fee. A2 notes with blank envelopes are $1.35 each. A2 notes with your return address on the flap are $1.89 ea. All cards are hand folded to ensure quality and shipped directly to you from Anna Bella's studio in Orlando, Florida.

If you've already worked with me on a custom artwork and would like note cards created from that image, email me to get things started!

I'm also working on a collection of Wedding Invitations with Anna Bella, which we can't wait to show you - coming soon!!

stanley get down from there!

Stanley gave us the fright of our lives when we discovered him lounging around way-up-high on our plant shelves. He of course thinks it's loads of fun! I don't know how he figured out how to get up there!

There's Paul trying to make sure he doesn't jump down at the wrong place! We had to show him the way to the fridge, then the counter, then back to safe ground. Whew!

sopranos finale

Anyone else feel like the Sopranos finale just wasn't what they hoped for? My mom loved it, but Paul and I wanted more "final-ness" the finale. I really thought something big and crazy was going to happen and feel let down. Bummer. Oh well. I'll miss Tony and the gang on Sundays!!

my new etsy store!

I didn't get everything uploaded just yet, but enough to launch my new etsy store! So here's a preview below! I am still messing with the preview images, darn etsy crops them in a square and some of my heads are getting cut off!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade claudinehellmuth.etsy.com

PS If you are interested in a Metal Sitting Lady Poppet® with your own photos, they are $45, just email me and I'll send you info.

PPS. OK now I'm really logging off, The Sopranos finale is almost here!!

etsy store! well almost.....

I have been working all weekend on an Etsy store and the whole site seems really slow. The images take forever to show up, and not just on my store, on many, many stores.

I stopped uploading items because I couldn't see what I was doing without the images showing up. Grrrr!! Anyone else??

EDITED 8:30pm EST: I checked now and it seems to be working. yay! Now off to watch the Sopranos Finale!!

illustration friday: suit

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's theme of "suit"



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No time this week to make a new piece, But I think this one works with the following quote:

"Mathilda was determined to fit into her new bathing suit...."

And here's a true confession: I have not owned a bathing suit in 5 years! This year I promised Paul I will go and buy one so we can go to the beach. Target here I come!

Different Way in Reviewing CareerRamblings.com

The most-read webloggers aren't necessarily the ones with the most original ideas, say researchers at Hewlett-Packard Labs.

Review Career Ramblings For A Backlink is a simple promotion offered by Career Development to other bloggers or webmasters as the case maybe to simply review their site and enjoy a backlink which has recently received a PageRank of 6 from Google. The authors of this blog Career Development, John Anthony and Jane May, are well versed on this topic since they write through their respective experiences in Corporate America and life in general.

But as the opening quotation says this idea of offering a Review and enjoy a free link back is surely not an original idea of Career Development. However, since this idea offers a win-win situation for both parties many well-known bloggers adopted it and bait most of the willing bloggers to make a review of their site. And both are happy to the results of this partnership or endeavor- in terms of gaining a higher page ranking and as well as boosting their ranking in the Search Engine.

This idea become infectious and well accepted by almost all bloggers specially those who want to make money online. However, who started this idea? majority of us does not know anymore, what is important is we gain what we wanted for our respective blogs.

But I hope the Hewlett-Packard Researchers will found out who started this idea as they have discovered that authors of popular blog sites regularly borrow topics from lesser-known bloggers -- and they often do so without attribution.
Furthermore to quote an statement coming from wired.com on its topic Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious:

To satisfy their curiosity, the researchers began analyzing data from Intelliseek's BlogPulse Web crawler, which regularly mines thousands of blogs for references to people, places and events.

When they plotted the links and topics shared by various sites, they discovered that topics would often appear on a few relatively unknown blogs days before they appeared on more popular sites.

"What we're finding is that the important people on the Web are not necessarily the people with the most explicit links (back to their sites), but the people who cause epidemics in blog networks," said researcher Eytan Adar.

These infectious people can be hard to find because they do not always receive attribution for being the first to point to an interesting idea or news item.

So, to those who adopted this progressive idea of "Review Offer to have a Free Linkback" maybe it is time to know who started it in order for us to at least honor him or her. And may it be a start of an infectious behavior to all bloggers out there in blogosphere to acknowledge the creator of the "ideas" that being introduced and adopted by us.

happy birthday paul

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!!! I am so lucky to have you in my life! I love you!

no text?

My mom tells me that when she looks at my blog, the post below only shows the image but no text. I can see the text in both IE and Firefox can you?

rainy day

It was crazy rainy here today, which is a good thing because we need it. Everything is parched.

But the cloudy rainy weather made me sleepy all day. I had a hard time working. Toby didn't like it because it ruined his walks and Stan and Mabel aren't happy about their favorite bird watching seats on the porch being all wet!

Even though it was rainy and I was sleepy, I did get some work done.

I got a couple of custom artworks further along. One is a big one with 8 people in it! It was giving me a hard time, figuring out how to dress everyone so they don't clash, but I think I managed to beat it into submission. I had to put it away and will look at it tomorrow to see if I liked what I did today!

Tomorrow I have to run some errands in the morning, my sister in-law and I are inventing something and we have to pick up the prototype - it's top secret, so I'll tell you more later!!

Then tomorrow night we are going out to dinner, it's Paul's birthday! Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

it's tuesday!

Not much super exciting going on around here today. Just working on stuff and getting orders done, sending out press releases trying to drum up good PR. I'll let you know if it works!

I talked to Bernie on the phone while she was driving back from Wisconsin and she has found a forever home for Noel! Yay! I can't wait for her to blog about it tomorrow!

Also all 84 (wow!!!) of the puppies and kitties from the last 2 transports have been adopted out! These are all fur babies who wouldn't be alive if it weren't for all of Bernie's hard work and YOUR donations! That is so exciting! Thank you to everyone who donated to Bernie and helped her. Unfortunatley more money is always needed, so please think of Bernie when you would like to help out a good cause.

Here's a new photo of Mabel! I couldn't resist! I am going to have take some pics of Stan too, I've been on a Mabel photography trend lately!

Join the Ride to Stentorized the Alexa Train

I have been invited by Gibo of Pinoy Seminars to join the Alexa Redirect Train started by Carl Ocab of Make Money Online with a 13-year Old. I now pass on the invitation to 5 other blogs and hope that they too will join the ride to stentorized the Alexa train. Hopefully this thing will increase traffic to newbie blogs like mine.

~Start Copying Here~

Alexa Redirect Train by Carl Ocab .

Rules:Put anything you like above this list – Chit Chat, talkies, introduce what this is. Something like that.

Start copying on the “~Start Copying Here~” and copy all the things listed without removing the links. (Of course, the train would be no use without those links.)

Move all the sites labeled “Newcomers” to the list labeled “Oldies.”

Add 5 sites that you want to include in the train and make their link like this: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.example.com then invite them to join the train.

Visit all the listed sites! (That’s not much work! Remember, if you plant good seeds they will also grow good) and look at your high Alexa ranking next week!

Newcomers:
Trader Pinoy
the GrapeBunch
Project Agloco
GreenPhils
REFLECTIVE THINKING


Oldies:
Hundred Percent Katherine
Sa Iyong Pagbabalik
Mai Paul
Stentorized
Quick and Random
Female Gamer
Garry Conn
Pinoy Seminars
Bookmarks
Cafe Romanza
Blog About Money Online
Manila Mom
ScottPot
How to earn money online?
Quasi Fictional
Make Money Blogging!
Make Money Online 2.0
Nate Whitehill
Jozzua
Grow your Writing Business
CultureShiok
Gary Lee
Smart Wealthy Rich
TechZi
Make Money Online with a 13-year Old
Erik Karey: Internet Entrepreneur
Tjantunen.com
Hate The Grind
Earn Money Blogging
bajaenergyblog
Deden Amijaya Weblog
Mommyba's Journey

~End Copying Here~

this and that

Today was a busy day! I did all sorts of phone calls and house-type things: I called 2 tree trimming companies to get estimates (the trees need to be trimmed before hurricane season really gets going), called the pharmacy, did the laundry and figured out (I think!) what's wrong with our microwave.

On top of that I got a lot of work done on new custom artwork orders. Also discovered that yahoo email customers seem to be having trouble getting my emails. That is disturbing. I don't like to think of people not being able to get my emails. Don't know what is going on there.

Here's a custom artwork piece that I finished a little while ago, around Mothers day! Love how this one turned out. Ok! Back to work for me on Father's Day orders, I can't believe it's almost here!

Stentorized Agloco Viewbar

I put it on the top of My window screen...

The viewbar is fresh only just minutes after I downloaded!


Join Now and Earn Money While Surfing!!

another weekend over

I can't believe another weekend has come and gone! This weekend I:

• did my second quarter taxes
• watched The Queen thanks to netflix
• went to The Enzian and saw The Waitress (loved it)
• did the housework, cleaning etc.
• paul and I fixed a gutter that the roofers broke
• went to dinner with our neighbors
• dropped off a journal at lynn's studio
• packed up 3 custom artworks to send out tomorrow
• tackled lots of email
  
• now I'm getting ready to watch the Sopranos!

illustration friday: paradise

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's theme of "paradise"


(click image to enlarge)
This is a piece I created quickly today just for the theme! When I think of paradise, I think of a relaxing day in a bathrobe, hot chocolate, a kitty cat for company and lots of time to do nothing!