Tangible Tidbits 2011 #12: "The Way We Were" and Taking Action

Hey, everyone! I just finished watching The Way We Were. I saw it once a long time ago, and all I could really remember was that I didn't like the ending. It's a good movie, but I still don't like the ending. Call me a sap, but I think if two people really love each other that much, they should be able to find a way to work things out. Sadly, that's not the case in real life, so I'll give the film points for being realistic. On the other hand, we watch movies to escape reality, so a "happily ever after" ending would have been nice. I know...I know...it would have been an entirely different film if the ending were different. Still, who wants to experience someone else's heartbreak? Someone who hasn't experienced the real thing, I guess. :p

I've been working on my final wrap-up video from San Diego. It's about 75 percent finished. I'm lacking footage that will fill in some of the gaps, so I have to check around and see if I can scrounge some up in order to finish it. :)

Also, I added links to the appropriate sections of the website store in the photo albums on Something Tangible LLC's Facebook page this week, as well as ten new product photos. I still have a dozen or so to fix, and I will update the photo gallery and store pages on the website once I have them all completed. ;)

BSNJ's St. Patrick's Day Party was fun. I got a nice pair of earrings in the Swarovski® Earring Exchange, as well as the materials for a pair of green beaded earrings as the party favor. I made mine right at the table while I was waiting for the food line to get shorter. ;) I also won some recycled paper beads in the silent auction and our table's centerpiece -- a candle decorated with leprechauns. All in all, I'd say I did pretty well! LOL

One of the blog's regular readers sent me a really nice email this week. She said one of my posts helped her decide to get a medical test she would have otherwise put off. While the results weren't serious, there was an issue to be addressed. She was grateful for my message. It's gratifying to know my words touched someone and resulted in her taking action. :D

I've been hearing a lot about "taking action" lately...it's being encouraged by many life coaches and business mentors these days. Taking action isn't always easy. Sometimes, it's pretty d@mned hard. And it doesn't always turn out the way you'd anticipated in my experience. I will admit that I've been doubting the wisdom of some of my actions over the past year. People forget that every single thing we do affects someone else in one way or another -- directly, indirectly, purposely, or incidentally. Too often, we don't realize the effect our actions have on others, good or bad, until some time has passed...if we ever learn about it at all. In the end, we just have to trust our own judgement, go with our instincts, and hope for the best. I do that more often than not, but I have been burned a few times in the process...sometimes, painfully so. Still, I suppose taking a risk that failed is better than not taking a risk that would have succeeded. The only way to learn the outcome is to make the effort. :\

Off to finish my Sunday night. Have a great week, folks! :)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #17: Happy Mother's Day...What's Left Of It!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day. My sister and brother-in-law took us all (the two of them, my two nieces, Mom, and me) to The Melting Pot for Mother's Day...part of their gift to Mom. The kids don't eat much, but they love putting everything in the fondue pots for us. :) I posted a photo of the Memory Wire bracelet I made for Mom in the GALLERY on the website and on the Something Tangible LLC Facebook Fan Page. I also gave her "The Thorn Birds" on DVD...something to keep her occupied after she retires July 1. ;)

Things are going okay with the business..."Slow and steady wins the race," as my grandfather used to say. I have three orders to deliver tomorrow. My presentation book made its way around the office last week. I kind of shocked everyone with my decision to take the voluntary layoff. Unfortunately, one of my colleagues must not have liked me being the center of attention, so he had to make himself the center of attention by dying suddenly on Tuesday. He was only 41 and we don't know exactly what happened yet. Such a waste! He was a good man and a good friend. I will miss him terribly...I already do. :(

So, with this abrupt change in personnel, I have extended my stay at Registrar and Transfer Company by a couple of weeks...until the end of May. They certainly didn't expect to replace both of us at the same time! :\

The final critique for my MSU class was this past week (the same day my friend died, to be exact). I've posted my school projects in the Non-Gemstone Items section of the Store on the website and on the Facebook Fan Page. Check them out when you get a chance! :)

Have a good week! And stay safe and healthy! ;)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #7: Short & Sweet...Well, Not That Short!

Sorry I'm a bit late this week, but Mom had her surgery on Tuesday and that kind of took center stage focus since the end of last week. She did well, although it was a long night, since the surgery started and ended later than expected, and we are now waiting to find out when she can be released from the hospital -- in the middle of the third snow storm this month! :p I'm trying to keep up with everything the best I can, but the next 4-6 weeks of her recovery will increase the level of chaos in my life.

I attended the Bead Society of NJ meeting last week. Nice party. Check out the Swarovski(R) Crystal earrings I made for the exchange in the GALLERY section of the Store if you get a chance. ;)

Still working hard on my class at Montclair State. The new Focal Piece of the Month helped me jumpstart my research for the five-minute oral presentation I have to do in a few weeks for the mid-term critique...mid-terms already? :o The new Focal Piece should be up on the site in the next week or so. Sorry, that's a little late, too. **hides**

As always, please feel free to pop in and leave a message or comment for me on the website blog. It would be nice to get some activity going here (or there, if you are reading this via the email newsletter or the Facebook Fan Page). For those of you who know me from my message board days, remember "The Sharing Threads" at MR/ARD/5LYF? I was hoping the blog would evolve into something similar to that, only maybe a little less "heavy." KG is back...tell all your friends! LOL ;)

Until next time, "TTFN...ta ta for now!" (Gotta love Tigger!)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #4: We Were Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

My apologies to anyone who visited our store earlier this week and found it in disarray. As I mentioned in last week's message, we scheduled our monthly update for this week. As promised, the Focal Piece of the Month has been changed and we made some minor tweaks here and there. I've also moved all of the NOT FOR SALE photos from the active Store area to the GALLERY link in the menu on the left-hand side of that page to minimize confusion. Unfortunately, in doing so, I accidentally tripped over some code -- I'm not quite sure how -- and messed up the Store pages for the three active Inventory Items categories. We got things straightened out relatively quickly, but anyone who happened to peek into the Store during that period of time would have found a bit of a mess in there. :o

In any case, now it's all cleaned up and everything is as it should be. :) I've also added a few new items to the "Kits from sb designs" area and one to the Non-gemstone Items" section. With my MSU class heading into full swing and the Adult School class now finished, I won't be adding too many new items to the Inventory very frequently. I'll be working on items ordered by request in whatever free time I have, so I will keep posting items to the GALLERY as I am able, though. And there are a couple of things I want to do for the Valentine's Day Party meeting of BSNJ, so I'll post those as well. :) And we have four major projects for MSU this semester, so those will be very different than anything you've seen from me so far. ;)

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. I can't believe it's already February...where did January go? LOL