One final post for the road

If you come to this blog today or before I post a new topic on top of this, make sure you read the last 3 posts underneath this one, a few days worth of blogging sensation that I had to suppress. Also if you happen to click on any of the links to other sites, and you leave them a commment, let them know how you found out about their site. Linkage and all that jazz. I know I hate it when someone says, "I found your blog through another site or blogger, and I have no idea who that is, it would be nice to know a little more about how peolple are finding your blog. The feedburner and technorati helps some, but it is not 100%. Well for me anyway. Signing off until next time.....

• P.S. Raghav left a comment on my Lines Overheard post, and that was a bit of inspiration for my sketch

What I learned online today: The challenge

So many cool and different things I have learned online recently, you know how I really prefer facebook over myspace, well I have just found even more reason to love it, I have found 2 very good blogging groups there. Also thanks to one of my blogging/facebook contacts-thanks shaz , I have realized the benefits of the Mashable blog site. It is the#1 blog about the most popular social networking sites. I signed up for it sort of by accident before, and really didn't give it much of a second thought, but they actually have very valuable info for utilizing the social network sites to the fullest, as well as keep you informed of all the new applications, and on top of all that gives some good info for bloggers often as well. Facebook has become such a popular social networking site, that Stanford University has designed a course about it . Gotta love the Ivy league schools, "Oh the things you can think, if only you try." Next item- Blog Rush , oh yes people it does work, I find myself scrolling down to the bottom of my page and checking the post titles, I have found 2 really good blogs through Blog Rush already. One of those blogs you can view here and the other is a Piece of Shirt , no that wasn't a typo. A piece of shirt is a blog about...you guessed it shirts, well t-shirts to be precise. The reason I like the blog is because it has links to really cool t-shirt sites. Two of them in particular are Johnny Cupcakes his story about how he started is another inspirational entrepreneur story, for those who have ideas, but are too fearful to give them a try. After you read his story though, be sure and check out the t-shirts! The other really cool T-shirt store is Threadless Chicago they have a really unique approach in that some of their fans are able to design some of the shirts. It goes like this, you have an idea for a cool t-shirt you submit it to them, and they post the ideas for everyone to vote on, if your design is made into a shirt, you get $2000 dollars + a $500 dollar gift certificate, and membership into the alumni club. In addition if your design is reprinted, you get an additional $500 everytime they reprint. If you are not artistically inclined, you can enter an original slogan and possibly win $200 dollars. Some bloggers who I think have the creative aptitude either though their ramblings, or their artistic display are Bent Objects , Kartoen , and The Ranting Monkey , I would mention Basic Instructions , but they already sell their own line of t-shirts. So if any of you happen to read this there is a challenge for you I would be interested to see what you could come up with. Moving on-I was considering moving my blog to another blog format, but I may change my mind after I check out some of the blog layouts that have been graciously formatted for blogger by Blog and Web . I may try to change the layout soon, and this time I hope I do not lose my links, I will take some different precautions this time so hopefully... Finally my new fav. online tool is Sketchcast.com. It is this really interesting widget that you can embed in your blog posts, or send your visitors to your channel, to view you sketches. You can record your voice into it, if you have a microphone, while you draw. Click here to see what I mean. I tried to embed mine in a post, but it did not work for me.

I am blogging today

Ha ha so much so much. Well I am blogging today... first thing:

• I have a new store ( cick here to visit it), well it does not actually sell my stuff, it is more of a consignment deal, I suggest and sell products for other websites. So we will see how that goes trying out new things. etc. There are some really good books on blogging in the books & manga category.
• Next I have found a host for my site, but I am in the process of tweeking it and of course I need to hurry along and finish some bags so that I can list them.
• I have been trying to check out all the blogs in my link list. I have deleted a few that I don't read enough, and have added a few. arrggh many good blogs out there.

There is so much going online I will have to write about it in another post, new topic and all.

Technical Difficulties

I was having some issues with changing the html code for redesigning the layout of the blog, and in the end I decided to keep the orig. layout, but in the process, I lost most of my widgets and links and all of my links. So I had to manually redo everything. So I am still updating my links for other blogs I read. So if you were there before and no longer see your blog in the list, I will update soon, or some of them may be listed at the other blog.

About Vera Bradley & Others

Vera Bradley I believe is one of the designers who really helped pioneer the use of fabrics other than vinyl, leather, and leather-look in making handbags. Her bags are mostly quilted cottons. She has allowed people to understand that a nice quality handbag can be made out of many different textures. Other designers who use odd materials to produce interesting handbags: ~Whiting & Davis for their use of metal mesh in their handbags ~Ecoist for their use of recycled materials such as candy wrappers. They have some really cool bags. ~ Wendy Stevens for her use of sheet metal and leather combination, her bags look like works of art you want to display them in a museum. (You can purchase one if you can afford it ;) at www.guild.com If you like to do your part whether it is helping the environment, helping tsunami victims, or helping African women crafters make an income, these are some companies whose products benefit these causes: http://www.ecoist.com/ www.eco-handbags.ca www.laga-handbags.com www.lucuma.com www.ethnicsupplies.co.uk/