I'm Not Dead, Just Stuck...

Me doing the "Flamingo Pose." I'm weird, don't ask...

So, you may have noticed that I've been completely out of touch lately. I haven't posted a *real* blog in over a month, sometimes I don't even log into Tweet Deck until the afternoon and I've even gone days without checking my e-mail (GASP)! What's been going on with me? A lot. I'll spare you the details but the short is that I had a staph infection, two allergic reactions to the antibiotics they used to treat the infection, an event I've been planning for four months and another condition that I just found out yesterday will require daily medication and ongoing treatment for at least a year if not more.

Regarding the illnesses, there's not much to say there. They sucked and I complained a lot and was often overwhelmed but c'est la vie. I'd rather not dwell on that and I'm sure you would appreciate that as well.

The event. After all that work and planning, not just by myself but by some awesome volunteers and staff, the event was canceled due to weather the morning of the event. Talk about anti-climactic. The good news is that most of the fundraising was done online and ahead of time so our clients will still benefit. That's what is most important. So far, we think we've raised about $48,000 which compared to the $36,000 raised last year is a miracle--especially for an event that didn't really happen! There are still numbers being crunched (not my strong point) and questions that we're asking ourselves but overall I'm pleased with the outcome.

Speaking of asking ourselves questions, I've been asking myself a lot of questions lately. Many "why" and "what for" questions. I can't say that I've found many answers, or at least ones that I like, but I'm asking anyway. It's confusing and sometimes frustrating but again, c'est la vie.

I am excited about some shows that are on or back on TV now. Not that I have a TV but who needs one when you have hulu, right? I'm in love...with Glee and excited that Grey's is back on. I was a little disappointed in the season premiere of Dollhouse but I'm sticking it out because it was awesome last season! Of course we also have my crime shows: CSI, Bones, Numbers and I have to track down The Closer since TNT won't play on my MAC (Ted Turner is a loser!). I'm too far behind on the Office, Samantha Who and 30 Rock to watch this season but they're wonderful anyway. What shows are you excited about this season?

Losing My Web Video Virginity!

Click here to visit my fundraising page!

Failure to Launch

My nephew and I taking a nap when he was a baby

As you may have noticed, my Etsy store is NOT open yet. I had hoped to launch last weekend but was not able to do so. Although I'm disappointed, I can see some key steps that I needed to take in order for this to happen.

1.) Don't over commit. Although I knew I had a lot of deadlines at work last week and was pretty certain that I would be working some overtime, I still set the deadline for last weekend. I even knew that Sunday I would be at church and then work until in the evening. I ignored these facts because I really wanted to launch but I should have realized that it just wasn't feasible.

2.) Eat an elephant one bite at a time. I had a list of all the things that needed to be done: policies written, pieces designed, photographs taken and descriptions written. but I didn't really have a plan for getting all those done except for, "I'll do them this weekend"--A weekend I already knew was going to be busy. Now, I have a step by step plan to get those things done that doesn't involve pawning it off on the weekend. Just manageable pieces each day so that maybe I can still enjoy my weekend and not stress.

3.) You still come first. I was so exhausted from my stressful week that I could hardly hold my eyes open Saturday afternoon or Sunday evening and those were the main times I had available to work on my store. In the end, I still had to choose health over getting my store up. I needed to get some serious rest this weekend instead of running myself further into the ground.

I'll start posting more updates on the store but thank you for being patient as I get everything situated. Trust, it will be worth the wait!!!!

Grand Opening??

So this is my workspace. I'm busy trying to get some pieces together for the grand opening of my Etsy store, Where You Live! I'm still hoping to launch it this weekend but we'll see. There's still a lot of work to be done. I'll try to post some pics of actual pieces as I go along. Wish me luck!

MAC-5 | PC-0

There was a snowstorm somewhere really hot last weekend as my father made ANOTHER big conversion. This time to a MAC. Yes, my father ordered his first Apple computer this weekend.
Years ago, when I was the first in my family to convert, I never thought that anyone else in my family would ever own one. To be honest, I thought this might be my own little unique attribute (as the middle child, I'm always trying to stand out). Apparently not now. After I got my beautiful 17 inch G4 (that's what we had back then), my younger sister got one followed by my brother-in-law the pilot, my other sister and now my father. I never thought I'd see the day...

I am not in the MAC evangelism group. I love them but I don't look down on people who don't have one and I don't really say a whole lot about it. In other words, I don't try to make people want to get one. There are some really hard core Apple people out there who will list off 20 reasons why you're an idiot and completely uncool if you don't have a MAC but I'm not that hardcore. I will, however, share why I switched purely to communicate my reasons not to convert people.

1.) I was so sick and tired of my Dell crashing. My first two years of college, I went through at least four Dell laptops. One actually pretty much caught on fire and had smoke coming out of it. I spent more time on the phone with tech support than I did in class. They made me take it apart and do all this stuff to it. I was like, if I wanted to be a computer technician, I probably wouldn't be at college studying theatre. Any call that requires multiple screwdrivers, at least 2 hours and a translator is just NOT worth it!

2.) They just don't have as many problems. Most viruses aimed at PC's and don't even effect MAC's. The only problems I've ever had were getting a printer to work with my MAC (user error, didn't understand the whole "driver" thing) and a mother board went out. Neither one of those issues ever involved me getting a screwdriver or having a two hour phone call to India.

3.) Let's face it, MAC's are pretty! I don't mean to be completely shallow here but I have impeccable taste and they're just beautiful pieces of art. Even the boxes and packaging is pretty. More than that, they can make pretty things too. I was at art school in Atlanta when I bought my first MAC and that's what serious creative people use. It just makes sense that if you want to make pretty stuff then you use something pretty that is kind of the expert of pretty things. Now, that being said, I think that you can be an artist or film maker or whatever and use a PC. This doesn't make you any less creative. These are just reasons why I have one.

4.) Steve Jobs is a genious. I love inovative people and inovative things. Apple encompasses both. End of story.

5.) This is why you shouldn't send a PC to do a MAC's job:

My parents with their three PC laptops, none of which do what they want (thus the new MAC)

Where you live cannot decide whether you live or whether you die

Yesterday, I saw someone who tweeted that she was going to do something today for the sole purpose of keeping herself "accountable." It turned out that it didn't work out exactly how she thought but it got my wheels turning all the same.

Earlier this week, I posted that I wanted to get a bike. This expense is kind of unnecessary so I haven't been able to justify it to myself...until now! I've decided to use social media to keep myself accountable for something I've wanted to do for awhile but "haven't had time" and this something can help me make the money I need to buy my bike. It's a win-win. So here it is...

I'm opening my Etsy store!!!!!

As some of you know, I dabble in making jewelry. I've been doing it for almost 10 years and I love it but it's an expensive hobby. I've sold pieces and even done some commissioned pieces but I've never been in it for the business. I found this awesome website called Etsy several months ago and kicked around the idea of opening my own store. I even blogged about it here. Well, I finally stopped dragging my feet and took the first steps. The store is live and you can visit it but there aren't any items posted yet. Coming soon, I promise! I'll start with my jewelry designs (earrings, bracelets, necklaces and sets) but hopefully will also branch out into other "top secret" product lines later:)

A little background on the concept for the store. We all know I'm a complete non-profit junkie and in college I got involved with the One Campaign which is a movement to end extreme poverty in Africa and around the world. I was very inspired by Bono, rock legend turned humanitarian, and became very active in that organization. I once heard him give a speech where he said, "Where you live shouldn't determine whether you live or whether you die." His words just struck me and I knew then that this quote would be significant to me. Now, almost four years later, I'm opening an Etsy store whose name comes from that quote.

The plan is, to give 10% of my profits to organizations that help in some way respond to the need brought up by this quote. I also want to have special pieces where 100% of the proceeds go to some of my favorite non-profits that do such important work to ensure that no matter where or in what state of being one lives it does not determine "whether they live or whether they die."

To jump start the launch of my store, I will attempt to sell at least $125 worth of jewelry in the first 2 weeks so I can get my bike!!!! See how this all works together? I chose that number because I need about $100 to buy my bike, $12.50 will go to charity and then the rest is to cover the fees associated with listing on Etsy. I hope that you'll help me reach this goal and have a GREAT GRAND OPENING.

I'll be posting about the entire process from creating designs, listing items and actually selling. My goal "true open" date is NEXT Saturday, August 15th at noon. Be on the look out and keep checking in for updates. Thanks for going on this journey with me and I look forward to seeing where we go!

What endeavors have you made for the sake of passion and art?

What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Google!

So, I was smart enough to do something for work a year ago that I hadn't done for myself until today--GOOGLE ALERTS. Great things, really, but for some reason had never thought to do them for my name and blog. It all goes back to how Randy and Spence talked about branding yourself.

I love branding, why didn't I think about this sooner? hmmm....
If I already received Google Alerts, I would have discovered several neat things about my social media "conversation" yesterday. First, one of my social media heroes @GailHyatt RT'ed me. I knew that from Twitter but I also would have seen it in my Google Alerts if I got them before today. Second, two (count them TWO) CEO's tweeted AND posted a link to my blog from theirs. That must explain the spike in my blog views from 20 to almost 200 yesterday. I was also tweeted by six complete strangers which I found out about on this neat little site called Tweet Meme. I'm still not exactly sure what this site is but it looks interesting. Anyone familiar with it?

Monitoring your web presense is also essential for businesses and non-profits. If Etapestry and FristGiving didn't moniter theirs, they would have no idea about a disgruntled customer from a little non-profit in Nashville. And who would have thought they'd care? But they were watch and they did care. That situation is completely worked out now and I can say with 100% certainty that it wouldn't be if it weren't for Twitter.

Tomorrow, I should recieve Google Alert e-mails for "Mandy Singleton," "mandycsingleton," "mandycsingleton.blogspot.com," and "Mandy C. Singleton." We'll see how that goes. Now I just have to keep writing, doing and being interesting so there's actually a reason for an alert!

Do you have Google Alerts and how else do you manage your brand and web presence?