The Premio Meme Award

My blog has been awarded the Premio Meme award by KayzKreationz. Kay makes wonderful stained glass creations. So be sure to check out her blog and her shop on Etsy. She makes some really unique and beautiful items. I am particularly fond of the mini pyramid beach sandscape.

And what does premio meme mean? I haven't a clue! I have searched everything I could think of, even asked jeeves, and the only thing I can come up with is, 'premio' means prize in spanish, portuguese,and italian. But 'meme' only matched in french and it meant same. So I am quite sure I haven't the proper translation. But I like prizes, so I'll stick with that part of the translation. Maybe someone out there can tell me.

To accept this award I have to share 7 things about me. Do I have that many things I haven't already blabbed about? Well, let's just see:

1.) I like it cold. We keep our house in the 60's. If you're cold, you can always throw on a sweater or a blanket. But if you're hot, naked is about as cool as you get without taking a cold shower. What am I doing in the middle of the desert?

2.) I had two children- my son, the oldest, died in a motorcycle accident 5 years ago when he was 28. Don't drink and drive is all I can say about that now. And my daughter is 32, married, and has made me a grandmother 4 times over. Wow am I ancient or what?

3.) I am an Aries with Leo rising and moon is Sagitarrius-what does that mean? I am a fire, fire, fire sign. I won't bore you with any horriblescope (horoscope) definitions. Fire,fire,fire should say enough :)

4.) I love, love, love the beach! I grew up in Southern Calif in Torrance, San Clemente (next door to President Nixon's Western Whitehouse), and Dana Point. If I sit in the sun here in the Utah desert, close my eyes, and concentrate I can still smell the ocean air. I get choked up thinking how much I miss the waves, the sand, the seagulls, the fog horns...well you get what I'm trying to say, huh?

5.) I am a carnation kinda gal. Don't give me roses; can't stand their perfumey-ness. I'll take a fresh smelling carnation any day of the week.

6.) Tacos are my absolute favorite food. I could eat tacos, breakfast, lunch, and dinner...and I have a done that on more than one occassion....yummmmmm

7.) And last but not least, I believe in fairy tales, the para normal, love at first sight, handsome princes, the power of positive thinking, and miracles. And if I left any out, I'll be back later to add to the list...

Do you feel like you know me any better? :)

Ok, now the rules are I have to pass this on to 7 more great bloggers I know. In no particular order, here they are:

1. MoeArt-funny lady!

2. NatureWithMe - go green in Oregon

3. SoulReader- for all you paranormal believers

4. AnotherBrightIdea-ever play blog charades?

5. Mouchois-follow the adventures of Melvin the kitty

6. JdFootloose- hi jd *waves* :)

7. CreativeCritters -she has some really great articles

Check out these blogs; I'm sure you'll find at least one more to follow. I varied them for different interests.

Happy Saturday everyone

Painting Puzzle

Well moving right along with my writing career, my next article was published this morning on HandMade News. It's a quick painting puzzle . As always, I need all the thumbs up and comments possible. I am a little bit down, cause I've only got 2 comments, and I've been promoting all over the place!

I realize that they make one sign up to leave a comment, but I promise you, there is no spam involved. All you have to do is create a user login name and a password, that's it!

Please , please , pretty please with a cherry on top :) leave me a comment and vote. My views have dropped waaaay down, and they are starting to lean on me for more response to my articles. If I don't get a following, they will drop me :( and then I won't be able to feature shops, items, and sellers.

And I really do like making someone's day when I get to tell them they have been featured.
Til next time...keep on smiling :)
XOXOXXO,
Cindi

I Got a Job!!!!

So yesterday I had the job interview and I got the job! Yay! Horrah!
I know many of you probably already heard the news elsewhere and I still have a couple more places to post it. But starting next Monday, I will be working at a coal cleaning plant for the next 2 and a half weeks, doing computer data entry for the truck shipments. I am so excited, I am still doing the happy dance today. Thank you everyone for all your prayers and good thoughts.

Do you have an Idea?

Wow my articles are getting published faster than I thought they would! Here is my latest, and if you are getting a little thin in the memory area, this is perfect for you. It is something I have practiced for the last year. So instead of giving it all away here, I shall post a link to my Idea Basket. As always, please be sure to drop on by and leave a comment and a vote. This means a lot to our advertisers and keeps me in good standing with the editors.

It has been an extremely busy week for me, and here is what I have accomplished:

ClayItAgain is having a Christmas in July sale going on right now on Etsy and ArtFire. Those links will take you directly to the Christmas sale section. My most popular Christmas item of late has been my elves. I have discounted so much, I'm practically giving it away. And just for this weekend, I will offer an additional $10 savings on any wreath. With all the markdowns, they are 1/2 price now, and I would really like to get those out of here to make more room in my studio. Please feel free to share this info with all your rich friends :D

I also took the plunge and set up a fan page for ClayItAgain on FaceBook. My first goal, is 100 fans and when I reach that, I will have a drawing for a gift certificate good for anything in my shop. I also set up a fan page for 12MidnightOils. And I will also have a drawing for a gift certificate when I get 100 fans there.

Our garden has really kicked into gear now that the weather has turned hot. The 2nd round of lettuce is starting to thrive. I always thought that lettuce needed a cooler environment, but we've never had a shortage of lettuce...AS LONG AS WE KEEP THE SEEDLINGS WATERED ;) So maybe we will have something to donate to the food bank, after all, this year.

On Monday, I have a job interview. Yay! It's only for a temporary job while a lady goes on vacation. But heck! The $$$ I make in that 2 weeks could carry us financially for another month! So be thinking good thoughts for me on Monday afternoon.

Well I think that about wraps it up for this post. Don't forget to enter the drawing for my giveaway. There's only 2 weeks left til I announce a winner, and I think there are only 7 entries...incredible odds I must say!

Chalk Art

Wow! I got two articles published this week! And so without further ado, I bring you the link to the next, in my journalistic career

http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=2833

Please click on over there and leave me a vote and a comment. The more I get, the longer I get to feature shops and items. Who knows? Maybe yours will be next :)

And you really must click on the two artist's links while you are there. Their sidewalk art is totally freakin amazing! I was wandering the web for hours checking out 3-d art. I had no idea there was so much. I guess that's what comes from living in a small town for the last 10 years. (I have no excuse for the other 15 years of my life)... ;)

And while I am on the subject of articles, did anyone (besides my best friend from 5th grade) try out the dinner roll/bread recipe? I should have made bread two days ago as we are all out, but I bribed my way out of it when I found a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix hiding in the cupboard.

Christmas in July sales are in full force. ClayItAgain has finally joined in on the action, with a half dozen or so items listed on Etsy and Artfire.

And the Polymer Clay Smooshers Guild will be featuring a Christmas in July event next week. Details will be announced in a few days.

One of my most popular items last year was these little elves. and out of all the different colored packages that I use, the red is the most popular.

I have a bunch more stuff still to list for the Christmas in July sale. I hope I am able to get them all listed before August gets here, or I'm going to be having a Christmas in August sale.

I still have more wreaths, elves, and snowmen to get photographed and listed, so I better say good bye for now.

Have a great week everyone...I'll be back soon *waves*

XOXOXOXO

Cindi

ps Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway! (Upper right hand corner for details)

Week 2 of My Publishing Career

My second article on Handmade News was published this morning. It's a mouth watering, fill the house with good smells, tastey recipe....yummmm. And Mr. Clay has woofed down every last bit of it, and has already started asking when am I going to make more.
So please click on over to my article and show me some lubs. I guess the more comments and clicks I get, the higher it goes in the rankings. My last article got so much action it was #8 on the top ten list of poplular articles! Yay!
I am making this post short and sweet.

Don't forget I am having a giveaway. If you would like to win the flip flop earrings pictured in the upper right corner, please leave a comment with a way for me to contact you should you be the winner. So far I only have 3 entries. That sure is good odds!
Have a great rest of the week everyone.
XOXOXOX

My first ever giveaway!

Yesterday, the 4th Of July was our 10th wedding anniversay! TaDa...

My present to the hubster was to de-weed the backyard, and trust me, that was no easy chore.

In celebration of my anniversary, I am having my first ever giveaway! I will keep this post short and sweet. What am I giving away? Well these orphan pair of orange flip flip earrings.

How do you enter? Leave some way for me to contact you-makes no difference to me if it's email, shop url, website...whatever you choose, and leave it in the comment section in one of the posts between now and July 31. At the end of the month the lucky winner will be announced.

That's all I have for today..stay tuned..and have a Great Week everyone! :)

Yay!! I'm a Published Columnist!!

This morning I awoke to my first column being published! I have been tooting my horn all over the place. Please visit Handmade News and read my article and show me some lubs. The more comments and thumbs up I get, the more I can keep writing and featuring sellers and their items. Plus as an added bonus, there is also a quiz to test your smarts. So now that I've told you all that, you probably want a link, heh? OK, I'm in the Just for Fun section and my article is Attracting Birds (not my choice of title, but whaddya gonna do,huh?)

In celebration of my 1st article published I am offering a 20% discount!! on anything in either of my shops til July 4th! Just send me a convo (thru Etsy), a message (thru ArtFire) or an email (clayitagaincindi [at] yahoo[dot] com) and I will reduce the price for your purchase before you have to pay. Oh, and let me know you saw the special here on my blog. That's all there is to it. That means you could actually get $50 off my larger paintings and the discount is not limited to one item either. This is my stimulus package to help stimulate the economy :)

Ok to bring you up to date with the rest of me :) I finally broke down and set up some Facebook Fan Pages. I guess it's the newest rage for promoting; so now ClayItAgain has it's own fan page....and 12MidnightOils has it's own fan page. So why am I telling you this? Well, become a fan of each of them, and when my fan list hits 100 I will draw someone's name for a $10 gift certificate. Good toward's anything in either shop. That's going to be 2 drawings, not just one. And just in case 1 person happens to win both drawings (not likely..BUT just in case) yes, you can use both at once for a $20 savings. Now how can you turn that down? I have not yet begun to promote my fan pages, so they don't have any fans, except me. I am my #1 fan! How vain is that? So hurry on over there and become a fan. I've always wanted one.......hundred!

And as soon as I get the pictures taken I am going to start a giveaway here too...I am hoping to get the blog promo up and running by this weekend.....so stay tuned to me me me me :P
Have a Great Day everyone!