Sunday Inspiration and Motivation July 21,2013

Hi All!

Dr. Venus Reese explains a position for many years that a "Good Education is Bad for Business".

  

So what do you think? Did this resonate with you? Leave a comment telling us what you think? 

Michelle


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Treasury Thursday July 18,2013

Hi All!

Here's agreat treasury entitled, Nature Our Muse" by the GVP team.




So what brings nature to mind for you? 

 Michelle



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Sunday Inspiration Suze Casey June 30, 2013

Hi All!

I had to share this author with you. I just finished her book Belief Re-patterning. Take a listen as she shares how the book came about.

 Interesting. I'm all for affirmations, but if you don't change the emotion tied to a given incidence or situation,your inner voice is not going to accept the change. I'm going to do a review of the book on Monday.

We're coming to the last week of my giveaway for the $25.00 gift certificate. You can still enter here

Michelle 



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New Giveaway Coming For Father's Day

Hi All!

I'm having a giveaway that will start Saturday June 1, 2013. The contest will run til June 9, 2013. The winner selected will have 48 hours to contact me. Check in Saturday for your chance to win a great Father's day gift.

Michelle

Sunday Inspiration April 21, 2013

Hi All!


Do you believe you can change your reality? Share your thoughts in a comment after watching the video.

 I put a great deal of store in the subject of this video. In 2000 I was told by an orthopedic specialist that in 10 years I would be in a wheelchair with my head bent on my bosom. I said thank you fired him and found doctors (Naturopathic, Rheumatology, nutritionist, nuclear medicine, etc) who believed like me that this prediction did not have to be my future. Well this is year 13 and I may be rickety at times but I 'm not in a wheelchair, my head is unbowed and I'm still chugging along.

What has been your take away from the video? Leave a comment and share.

Michelle



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Wordless Wednesday 1/23/2013

Hi All!

 

Detroit Before the Dawn

Michelle
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I was featured on the EtsyMom Blog

Hi All!

I was featured on the EtsyMom blog.
I loved the write -up and hope you do too. Click on the image to read the review and leave a comment.

Thanks,

Michelle

Wordless Wednesday January 9, 2013

Hi All!

Click here for info.

Michelle


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Saturday's Line-up More Necklaces 12/8/2012

Hi All!

Today's line-up is NECKLACES with a discount coupon to finish your up your holiday shopping. Use coupon code Blog40 for 40% off good till Sunday at midnight for the entire shop. here

The Winter Holiday giveaway is still going strong till 12/16 for your chance to win $500.00 open worldwide. Enter here   

Now on to our goodies for the day.

All of these original works of art are available for sale here
For more information and to purchase click the link and use code Blog40 at checkout for 40% off.

Happy holidays!

Michelle

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Nominated For the Versatile Blogger Award

Hi All!

 I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Blogger BeULuv.

The RULES are as follows:

Thank the Blogger who nominated you 
Share (7) random facts about yourself 

Nominate (15) fellow bloggers that you recently discovered or follow regularly 
Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs 
Add the Versatile Blogger Award to your post   

Special thanks to BeULuv who honored me with this award.

Seven (7) Random facts about me. 

1. I'm much older than I look.

2. I'm a chef level cook. Smile

3. I love Science Fiction.   

4. I don't like creepy crawly things.

5. My eyes are green with brown flecks.

6. I'll make all the time in the world for elders.   

7. People always ask if I can sing because of the depth of my voice. I couldn't carry a tune if it was in a bucket.  Smile. 

I nominate the following blogs for this award: 

SistaSense.com
Pay the bills and more
Yarnology 
Magnetic Woman
Emerald Harvest
Cassandra Broomfield Bridal
Needle Artists and Crafters
Waterbury Jewels
Seriously Natural
Seasonal Color Analysis
Savvy Brown 
 Onyx Woman

Check out the blogs I nominated and you might find a new fav.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Michelle  

 
 

Shopinterest.co Is Now LIVE

Hi All!

This is actually my third post about shopinterest.co the site to sell from your Pinterest boards. When last we visited Shopinterest they were pretty much dead in the water. Many of us were dismayed because it held such promise. So lets see what a capital infusion can do for you.

The site is now live and you don't need an invitation. More on that capital infusion in just a minute. The site was supposed to allow you to sell from your Pinterest.com boards. Here's what they actually happens:

1. You fill out the information page to get the ball rolling including what boards you want to use.

2. They pull your listings (products)  from the boards. (You can also use pictures from your computer).

3. You edit the listings (products) and add any others you want.

4. Provide your payment info.

5. Preview and launch. You don't get you exact name. I did not get wirequeen even though I own the domain name. I did a search using http://wirequeen.shopinterest.co without the numbers and it brought me to . Which begs the question why, Why I was not given the name I applied for. Emailed them  last night, waiting for a reply.

Here's the screen shot of my shop courtesy of Pinstamatic.com

Here's that all important payment info:

Payments and Fees:

How does shopinterest manage payments in the transactions?
We don’t take ownership of the items nor do we take your payments. The shopinterest platform allows your customers to pay you directly. We might include a convenience fee to be paid to us but the actual transaction is handled in between buyers and sellers
Is shopinterest free?
No, we will offer a trial period and start charging after that. You will have the option to pay per item or to subscribe on a monthly basis to get additional features and services. The subscription costs will be based on sales volume and number of items. Buyers may pay a convenience charge.Current;y they are charging $0.99 per transaction.

I did get a partial response back that the  trial period would last through December 2012. According to the email the additional pricing structure had not been determined.


Questions, Questions , questions, I've contacted them for clarification on these all important issues my Creative friends. Still waiting for an answer. 


Now back to the money infusion. TechCrunch featured the story as a Shopify for Pinterest. There most resent up date is here

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/25/shopinterest-the-startup-that-lets-you-sell-from-your-pinterest-boards-gets-500-startups-backing/

The article goes into the details about financing from a group called 500 startups. Francisco Guerrero the founder of Pintic and co-founder of Shopinterest is now going to focus solely on Shopinterest. Pintics will be shut down and you will be transitioned to former rival Pinfluencer. 

So now the burning questions are ; What will be the monthly costs of selling on Shopinterest ? Is there offering enough to make you leave ETSY or whomever you're using to sell from? Do you care enough about Pinterest to even want to sell there? 

Got questions, add them in the comments section and maybe we can get answers.

P.S. I never got the invite that Shopinterest had opened for business. Did you?

Michelle

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October Ultimate Blog Challenge

Hi All!

The entire month of October I will be participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge. This is a challenge among bloggers to have 31 blog posts by the end of October. The Challenge is run by Michelle Scism and Michelle Shaffer every quarter. This is the last one for this year.

I am blogging on wirequeen blog and starting a new blog under my name http://MichelleSHawkins.com

Check back to take this journey with me and follow my progress.

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Guest Post: Self Love Is Not Selfish by Mothyna James-Brightful

Hi All! 

My guest post today is by  Mothyna James-Brightful. I think the title says it all. Enjoy.

"Self Love is not Selfish!"

This affirmation is featured in our book Because I am a Queen: 100 Affirmations for Daily Living, however, this isn't about a shameless plug. Rather, it's a reflection on what it means to truly internalize self love.

A perception of love that I embrace is that it is an action word; a verb that requires movement and an expression of what one has declared. If you heard someone state to "love" something then one would expect to see that love displayed. For example, if it were a professed love for ice cream, you may expect to often see them indulging in the latest ColdStone creation. Or perhaps they are a gold card carrying member of Starbucks because of their immense love for the brewed beverage. On the other hand that love may be for a spouse or child and their undying devotion is displayed in everyday acts of kindness and sacrifice. So then it begs the question, if one has self love how then is it displayed? Better yet, if YOU have self love how do you display it? Can YOU be found indulging in activities that promote your wellness? Are YOU a gold card carrying member of immense love for self? Are YOU capable of undying devotion to yourself in everyday acts of kindness and sacrifice? These are the questions I had to ask myself.

Self love is not selfish!

It's ok to say no sometimes. It's ok to feed yourself and not starve literally and figuratively for the things you need to be well. Self love means WE understand our self worth. It's inherent, intrinsic and cannot be lessened or made poor. Self love means care for our mental and physical well being. Self love means we are careful of who we allow into our sacred space. Self love means we define situations and do not allow situations to define us. Self love means that we value people, things and experiences that assist us into developing into our best selves. Recently, I've embraced the concept of being a self-love revolutionary. It's dawned on me that many people who do not value themselves will aim at killing another's natural desire to see themselves in the best light. Thus, we unwillingly accept others perception of who we are and the value we bring to the world. When the reality is, very often those individuals are viewing us from their own skewed reality. There is a serious lack of beautiful, reflective love in our communities and sometimes our homes. Our girls do not see themselves as beautiful and thus struggle with seeing the beauty in their sisters. I've been blessed with an amazing group of women around me who strive to reflect the best of themselves so I see the best within myself, yet we're not perfect and we too struggle.

While, writing in my journal the other day I realized I was feeling quite unhappy. It seemed out of the blue but upon further introspection I realized that even with all my work, I was still engaged in habits of negative self talk, giving more time and voice to things that I didn't want rather than positive self talk to things I do want. I needed a mutiny in my own mind. I needed to take drastic action. Self love!

Thus, I declared a ground breaking, radical revolution in my life. I would be a self love revolutionary. We must thank the late and great Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets for the adage that the revolution will not be televised because it shall surely start in my mirror. It means I take care of my spiritual, physical and mental wellness. I speak words of love and encouragement to myself. I write myself love letters that I mail at random. It means to not sacrifice my spiritual time with my Creator or treat it remotely. It means to be purposeful in taking care of my body. It means I become a "gold card" carrying member of the self love club. While it's a very personal journey to be a self love revolutionary, I would appreciate my sisters (and brothers) checking in on me. If it touches a part of you declare a self love revolution in your life. Be innovative and absolutely rebellious with your revolution, because self love is not selfish and you deserve the greatest love.

Your Sister,

Mothyna James-Brightful

Plug away Mothyna

Feel free to leave comments on your thoughts about self love.

Thanks for visiting.

Michelle

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Tag Wars: You're It

Hi All!


Yesterday I was tagged by Holly Rousseau of the blog Aggravation Station to receive the Sunshine Award as part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge which ends July 31, 2012.This is my award below.

All awards have requirements so here's the requirements.

The rules are simple. There are only four of them:

   1. Post the rules

   2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for me in her post.

   3. Create 11 new questions to ask those who I’m going to tag.

   4. Tag 11 people on the Facebook page with a link to this point.

1. Post the award and link back to the person who nominated you. http://aggravation-station.blogspot.ca/2012/07/walkn-on-sunshine.html


2. Answer the 10 questions below.


3.Nominate and link to 10 fellow bloggers to pass along the honor.


4.Don't forget to comment on your honoree's blog. Done


Okay so here's my answers.


Who is your favorite Philosopher? Angela Davis Because of her I earned a law degree and learned how to defend myself. I had the opportunity to meet her and share this with her in Detroit.

What is your favorite number? The number 7. There were seven children in my family and the number has always been good to me.

What's your favorite animal? My cat Tiger.

What's your Facebook and Twitter URLS? http:://facebook.com/wirequeen and http://Facebook.com/MichelleSHawkins . http://Twitter.com/wirequeen and http://Twitter.com/MichelleS.Hawkins


What is your favorite physical activity? Walking. Gets me out of the house and out of the car. Not as boring as you might think. Fresh air actually hearing the world around you meeting people. Interesting.

What is your favorite non-alcholic drink? Water. I know I'm boring in that regard, but I'll take water over anything else.

What's your favorite flower? Pink Roses, my sorority colors. They're beautiful without a commitment. I can give them to my friends who have done something great without any connotations other than I think you're great. I've given them to women and men. I love the look on my males friend's faces when they receive them.

What is your passion? Seeing people live their best life. Whether that's helping them find their path or networking them in into new business.

Okay, so here are my questions I want answered.
1. Are you happy?
2. What's your favorite blog post you've written and link to it.
3. Favorite City you've every visited.
4. If money was no object where would you visit?
5. If money were no object what would you do with your life?
6. If you could do anything you wanted what would it be?
7. If you could have a conversation with anyone in history who would it be?
8. Favorite Teacher in your life?
9. Person who YOU learned the most from?
10. Who do you miss the most in your life


Now I have to tag people I think are worthy of the award.......so here goes.

1. Sue Walker http://over60andoverhere.blogspot.co.uk/
2.Peter Mead http://petermeadit.com 
3.Dot Hurley http://dothurleyblog.co.uk
4.Celia Westberry http://eatyourselfyoungersuccess.blogspot.com/
5. Renee King http://www.aviewtoathrill.net 
6. Michelle Shaeffer http://michelleshaeffer.com
7 Allen Miles http://www.hroomph.com
8. Lisa Marie Selow http://lisaselow.com
9. Arwen Lynch http://tarotbyarwen.com 
10. Carl Young http://whynotfathers.com

Looking forward to seeing how you answer the questions.

Thanks

Michelle

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Pinterest Tools: Shopinterest.co Beta

Hi All

Would you like to turn your Pinterest boards into a shop and sell directly from the board?
Well if the folks who brought us Pinetics have their way that's exactly what's going to happen.They've developed an application to allow you to do just that.

Shopinterest.co is the name of the application. The process seems simple enough.
To get started, users will sign in, select the boards where their products are shown, add a description, price and shipping charges, and then select how they want to get paid (PayPal or Dwolla). The rest of the setup is handled by ShopInterest itself. Click the video to see it in action.




 To sign up click on the image below.

.http://signup.shopinterest.co/?lrRef=7Xivs

Currently in beta, signup to receive an invite. Leave a comment to let me know if you would use this service.
And of course I'd appreciate it if you

Thanks for visiting and leave a comment sharing what you think.

Michelle
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Pinterest Tools : Analytical Tools

Hi All


There have been numerous tools to provide analytical data for Pinterest.com. tools to developed to track your analytics , including how many times and item has been re-pinned who pinned it. The best times to pin, etc.I compiled a list of the ones I kept encountering.
Pinerly.com was my first first post in this series so you can find it here


I have listed the tools and singled out what is different about each tool. All will track your pins, who's sharing and how many times its shared.


1. Curlate.com measures analytics for Pinterest.com and your website.


2. Repinly.com tracks popularity on Pinterest.com


3. PinReach.com  Provides Analytics to study your influence and which of your followers is an INFLUENCER.


4.PinPuff.com Measures Pin influence and gives you a value ($) evaluation for each pin and its repinning.


5. Pinzy.com Allows you to see what the competition is posting.


6. PinAlert.com is like Google Alert for Pinterest. Set your keyword up and they will send you an alert when that keyword is triggered. The alert gives you the who what and where. I use alerts to track international trade info and international events of interest to Creatives.


7. Cyfe.com- This one I found really interesting because its an all in one dashboard that lets you track all your sites. Allows you to pull data from sources , has pre-build widgets to do this and you can do read only sharing with whomever you designate. 

You can also use Google Reader by feeding your Domain source page from Pinterest. Mashable does an excellent job of walking you through how to do this with detailed pictures here
http://mashable.com/2012/03/14/pinterest-track-content/ 

You can play around to see which one best services your needs. I know many of you who come to my blog are internationalists and  creatives so you don't need analytics which become a job unto it self. Since being a creative also means your selling a product or services you need to know how the pin is being shared , how many times and whose influencing the share. 


I've got some great info for Friday and Saturday as I wind this Pinerest series down which will help increase your sales using Pinterest. So check these tools out and leave a comment how you like them. If you are already using one or more of them, share how's it working for you. Feel free to add to this list in the comments.


See you tomorrow.
Michelle
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Tools for Pinterest: Pin Search

Hi All 


Let's on continue on our quest to find tools for Pinterest.com to make this platform work for us. 


Pin Search (for Chrome browser) is the tool for today.


This nifty little tool helps you find the site of the actual picture.

The site makeuseof.com explains its use succinctly.


"Although Pinterest provides a source for every image, we sometimes want to know more. Where else does this image appear? Where can we find similar images? The best answers to these questions can be found on Google Images, and this is where Pin Search for Chrome comes in handy.

After installing the extension, a new Search button will appear every time you hover over a Pinterest Image. Clicking the search button will perform a Google Image search for the image, and open a new tab with the results, which include the image’s original size, other sizes it’s available in, where it appears and visually similar images. This is a great way to turn Pinterest into an even wider discovery tool for images."
(Courtesy of http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pinterest)

This is great if you see an item you want to purchase and the home site has gotten "lost" in the pinning.

Go give Pin Search a spin and come back and share in the comments section.



See you tomorrow and enjoy the holiday.


Michelle

Pinterest Tools : Pinstamatic

Hi All

Here's another great tool for helping you get the most out of Pinterest.

Pinstamatic.com allows you to:

 "Get more from Pinterest by adding so much more than photos. You can now add locations, music, quotes, calendar dates, Twitter profile links, sticky notes and websites". Pinterest.com

This one application  allows you to do all of the above. It's easy to use. Let me repeat that, "its easy to use."  Smile

With Pinstamatic users can:

1. Leave a short message to followers.
 2. Add Location based services which include address, title, and      description. (possible coupon?)
3. Share Spotify tracks.
4. Add a quote with a unique font. (Your own meme)
5. Recommend Twitter users to followers.
6. Add a screenshot of a website on a Pinterest board.
7. Add a calendar date.    

Pinstamatic screenshot.com If you're already using Pinstamatic leave a comment sharing how you use it. If this is new for you take it for a spin, its free. Come back and leave a comment sharing your experience. Some of you have contacted me privately , but still leave a comment here. We are not all techies so its okay if we have questions or need a little extra help. See you tomorrow. Michelle

Pinterest.com Tools: Pin-A-Quote

Hi All


Here is another tool for making Pinterest.com work for you. Pin A Quote is now ShareASImage.com. "Share As Image lets you highlight text anywhere on the web and easily convert it into an image. With the PRO version you can choose fonts, colors and text size! Once you've created your quote image, you can share it on Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter! "


Try out the free version to see the kind of things you can do with Share As Image. There is also so a pro version for $2.99

I have foxfire installed on my computer so I went to the site grabbed the icon and planted it on my toolbar. Very easy for me to install.

I went to yesterdays post, highlighted the text I wanted and then clicked the share icon on my toolbar .

After you highlight and click you're offered the option of uploading to Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter. I didn't want to do this , so I used an app called take a web screenshot. which I uploaded to paint and saved. I know you should be able to take a screen shot on your computer, but I've had to have virus removed and my computer has been tempermental every since. So this little app has been great at reducing my stress.


ShareAsImage is a great little tool for bloggers because sometime you just want to use your words. Considering how often memes (those pictures with quotes and or images) are shared across social media sites this is a great way to get your content out there and shared.

If you've used ShareAsImage.com (formerly PinAQuote) and/or Take a web screenshot leave a comment and let us know what you did with it. Leave a link so we can view your handy work.

See you tomorrow.


Michelle

UBC: Pinterest Tech Tools Explained for the Non-Techies

Hi All

Today starts the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I'm going to go through tech tools and apps for Pinterest for the non-techies. I might even have something for the tech masters. Smile.

We're going to start this week with a tool that creates the visual effect of Pinterest.com. Pinterest is the visual site that is sweeping the web as the third most searched site after Google and Youtube. You need an invite to Pinterest.com and be accepted to join. You can go to the site and request an invite. My email came pretty quick (about two days)

I want to start with Pinvolve.com for this week since Facebook is still the 300lb gorilla on the web. Pinvolve is an app on Facebook that turns your timeline into a pinterest like setting

Click on the image to go to the site. After adding the Pinvolve app to my profile page on Facebook it now looks and displays like Pinterest. You can find this app in your app listing or you can go to my page and click the app. If you decide to use Pinvolve, come back and tell me whether you like the effect. See you tomorrow. Thanks  Michelle