Tangible Tidbits 2010 #37: Fifteen Minutes of Fame

First off, I want to thank those who reached out to me after reading last week's message. I didn't intend for it to come across so morose...but I guess in the state of mind I was in, it was inevitable. Actually, I thought the tone was pretty middle-of-the-road, but I guess my perception was off. :o Anyway, I apologize for that. I've been feeling much better since the moon left Pisces...Pisces is a water sign and the moon was in Pisces when I was born, so I can be overly sensitive and sentimental at times. :\ I'm basically fine as long as I'm keeping busy and focusing on what I'm doing at the moment. It's the quiet times that I can get into trouble, because I get stuck inside my head, and I often hear negative stuff when that happens. Most of us do. So, I guess I'm better off just keeping busy for now, and I'll have to hope I can keep my stamina up without relying on quiet time to help me recharge. :p

I got home in time from my MSU casting class (we're learning to make wax casts for metal pieces -- I have a second degree burn blister on the middle finger of my right hand already!) on Monday night to watch Alex O'Loughlin's new "Hawaii Five-0" series premiere on CBS. I liked it a lot! It came across as a big budget mini action movie, IMHO. I liked the chemistry between the characters...and seeing Alex without a shirt never hurts, either! LOL

My Virtual Garage Sale auction is taking up a lot of time, but it will hopefully be worth it when all is said and done. An LFN fan friend told me about an opportunity for it to reach a wider audience via a mention on Lisa Steven's radio program for "Moonlight" fans. Lisa is one of my Facebook friends, but I didn't even know she had a radio show! LOL

On the business side of things, we posted the new Focal Piece of the Month this week, and the updates to the Virtual Mall are almost finished for this month. ;)

I've also been increasing the company publicity efforts by posting my 1978 Maplewood Arts Center workshops on three local website calendars: the Maplewood Patch online newspaper, Maplewood Navigator (affiliated with the local weekly newspaper The News-Record of Maplewood & South Orange), and Maplewood Online. The announcement ran in the print edition of The News-Record this week, but there was a minor snafu. They made it appear as though I am the contact person for ALL of the classes and workshops at 1978. I found out about the article when the president of the 1978 board copied me on an email to the paper regarding the error. Mom had already read and recycled the paper, and she missed it on page 3! Luckily, the recycling hadn't been picked up yet, so I salvaged the paper and cut the article out. ;)

In addition, I submitted Something Tangible to be included on Artbeads.com's Friends, Fans & Followers page, as well as created a profile for myself on Art Jewelry magazine's website. I've also been expanding my reach via various social media sites. :)

Both personally and professionally, it looks like my fifteen minutes of fame has begun! ;)

Have a great week and Happy Autumn all! ;)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #32: Rain, Rain & More Rain!

I don't know about you...but when it is dark, rainy, and gloomy outside, I have virtually NO energy. I just want to hibernate and stay in bed all day, which I did for much of today! Unfortunately, we're not supposed to see much sunshine before Thursday. I have hopefully gotten out of my "hibernation mode" -- thankfully, today is Sunday and I could get away with it! -- since I have stuff to do during the week. ;)

I played around a bit this week and came up with some new pairs of earrings, a key chain, a crystal puffed heart pendant -- a lovely person from the Bead Society of NJ graciously sent me the instructions -- and a nickel & Chinese Turquoise ring. The ring was a complete experiment, but I think it turned out rather well. I'll post pics later on tonight. :)

I spent a lot of time this week working on a personal project, so I don't have a lot of business news to report today. :\ I decided last weekend to hold a Virtual Garage Sale of my television memorabilia from five years in the "La Femme Nikita" (LFN)(USA Network 1997-2001) and a year or so in the "Moonlight" (ML)(CBS 2007-2008) fandoms. I still have to go through my ML stuff, but I have acquired a massive amount of LFN stuff over the years, so I tackled that one first. Everything from wardrobe pieces to scripts to charity event photos to fan art. I even have a director's cut and other footage from a number of episodes on VHS and DVD. Cataloging everything and then typing up the 11-page list took up a ridiculous amount of time, but it will be time well spent if I make money from effort. I posted my announcement on Facebook, and received quite a positive response almost immediately, so I'm hopeful this will be a good experience. I forgot to mention that half of the funds received will go to charity: the ML proceeds will go to Donate Life America, as Alex O'Loughlin is an ambassador for this organization, and the LFN stuff will go to Fondation MIRA in memory of a good friend and the former fan liaison between the fandom and MIRA. :)

I did post a "shameless plug" thread in the auction forum on Five Light Years Farther (5LYF) -- I am an administrator of this former LFN board -- for Something Tangible. I don't spend much time there anymore, so I figured I'd let the folks know what I've been doing lately. ;)

Anyway, I will go through the ML stuff in the next week or so, since I have to start taking pictures of everything and creating descriptions before the first auction starts on Tuesday, September 14. I've decided to have multiple auctions of maybe 10 items/packages lasting three days each (I think a full week is too long on eBay, as people tend to forget things over a longer period of time), one a week until everything is gone. Wish me luck! :)

Keep dry and sane over the next few days. And if you happen to be somewhere bright and sunny, I'm jealous! LOL :)