Giveaway!

Ok so a site called Giveaway Scout wants to put my Etsy credit giveaway on their site. What this site does is search blogs for different giveaways and then compiles them into one place for people to find. It's actually pretty cool, a neat concept I hadn't thought of before. So I just wanted to share that with you :)

Onto other news: I am employed! I got my dream job: at Archiver's, a scrapbook supply store. I started on Saturday and worked late, so hopefully that will help my reputation there and get me lots of hours. I sure need them. I want my Macbook Pro back SO badly! I am so sick of this old thing. It's slow and every time I see a Macbook Pro or look-alike on t.v. (which is a LOT), I get so sad. One day I'll have that $1,280 to get it fixed. I hope to save at LEAST $100 from each paycheck. I am opening a savings account just for that. I miss my graphic design software SO much. Photoshop, Illustrator, iMovie, iPhoto...I miss it all. One day...I'll get it back. I hope to get it back by Christmas. That would be the BEST present ever. I am head over heels in love with my 17" Macbook Pro with glossy screen and my external hard drive named Sylar...

My scrapping suffers due to the lack of my Mac, as well. I can't edit photos as elaborately, can't split up 12x12 layouts and print them into fours and then connect them (that made no sense to you, I know, but I know what I mean!) so I can get exact measurements...and this computer gets viruses and malware and I'm just sick of it. And I don't have iTunes on this computer. I would have to reformat my iPod to work on a PC and it would erase all my songs. So I can't add new songs to my iPod now :( It's been that way since January. It sucks so bad, but I am happy to have a laptop to use in the mean time. It may be five years old but it still works. Trying to count my blessings here :)

Ok, back to some projects!

Challenge Masters $10 Etsy Credit!!!!

Have any of you checked out Challenge Masters? It is the most interactive forum I know of...each week there are several challenges for you to participate in, and one winner is chosen! Sometimes you get a RAK (random act of kindness) for winning, sometimes it is all for the glory!

I am in charge of altered art, a link to my challenge this month is at this link.

I am looking for ideas for an altered challenge for next month...any takers? I would love your input for altered art! Maybe a canvas, maybe a book? Hmm...the possibilities!!! September's challenge will be issued the first Sunday of the month, so check back to Challenge Masters for next month's challenge!

To encourage all of you to join the fun at Challenge Masters, I am offering this incentive: $10 of credit at my Etsy store (www.naiveglowarts.com)! To be entered, do the following:

1. Comment here letting me know you signed up at Challenge Masters (www.challengemastersonline.com) and give me your user name that you chose.
2. Introduce yourself in the Introductions subforum on the site!
3. Enter one challenge by September 10th! Come back here and tell me what challenge you entered.

Once you complete all these steps, you will be given $10 of credit towards any handmade item on my Etsy site. (This excludes the kits). Remember you must complete ALL three steps to get this credit! You can join ANY challenge but you must have your entry uploaded to the gallery there by September 10th! If any of these steps is not completed, you will not receive the credit.

If you're not familiar with my Etsy store, check it out here: Naive Glow Arts By joining and participating in the Challenge Masters forums and challenge(s), you will get $10 of credit at my store, not including shipping. So that's $10 of free product, no additional purchase necessary! So you get $10 of free product with FREE shipping to anywhere in the CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES. If you buy $15 worth of product, your total will only be $5, no shipping charges! If it comes to $10, you owe nothing :) If you are outside the continental US, you will only pay shipping.

Any questions? Let me know! Again, the site is ChallengeMastersOnline.com. Check us out!

Inspiration

Are you starting your own business? Be it official or just something on eBay or Etsy, you need motivation. You need something to drive you to succeed. That old adage, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" is pretty true...though it kind of contradicts itself...not planning in the first place doesn't lead to planning to fail...it just leads to failing...but anyway, we all know what it means :) But before we jump into planning (which I'm still learning), I'd like to share a few (ten to be exact) inspirational quotes that resonate with me.

1. "Follow your passion and everything else will fall into place."
   
   
2. "The secret of life…is to fall seven times and to get up eight times." - Paulo Coelho, from The Alchemist
   
   
3. "Each moment of our life, we either invoke or destroy our dreams.” - Stuart Wilde
   
   
4. “I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work." - Pearl S. Buck
   
   
5. "I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou
   
   
6. "You can make mistakes, but you are not a failure until you blame others for those mistakes." - John Wooden
   
   
7. "The only thing all successful people have in common is that they’re successful, so don’t waste your time copying 'the successful strategies' of others." - Seth Godin
   
   
8. "Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads." - Erica Jong
   
   
9. "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." - George Bernard Shaw
   
   
10. "Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." - Mark Twain
    

I hope these mean something to you, too. They made me stop and think, and if you really read them with an open mind, you'll find that they ring true.