Mommy’s Little “Helper”

New cozies are headed to the shop this week!  I’m adding a few a day, so keep an eye out!  I gotta tell you, it’s really difficult for me to only post a few a day – I much prefer getting it all done at once.  The thing is, posting them bit by bit keeps your items at the top of search lists, and gives you a vehicle to keep your new items in potential customer’s minds.

While I was doing a “photo shoot” for my new items, my son Rian (3 1/2 years old) got curious and found his way into my shots.  He had some mysterious icing on his face and hands, so you know he got an earful of, “DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!”  ;)  (I say this to him a lot.  A lot.)

He’s a cutie, right?  :)

You can probably tell that I do my photo shoots on a chair – an Ikea chair, to be exact.  It’s my sewing chair, but being white, makes a great surface for photos.  It reflects light and helps create a clean, modern look in my photos.  I’ve changed my photo style slightly over time and will probably continue to do so.  Right now, I like this look.

What tricks/tools/materials do you use for photo shoots?

BIEBIFY MY LOVE

So here's what happened. Questlove from the Roots (a band I didn't just start liking when the Jimmy Fallon show went on the air, oh no. A band I've loved since 1996!) tweeted a funny link. Not unusual – he tweets . . . well, he tweets a lot.

Sidebar that you may need: Do you know what TinyURL is? It's a website you can go to, to make your long URLs shorter. This comes in handy when posting links to Facebook and Twitter, especially, because you only have so many characters you can type. So TinyURL shortens your links for you, though they're still functional. An original link might look like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQRn-COuenU but after using TinyURL, it looks like this: http://tinyurl.com/34azggr. See? Significantly shorter.There are other websites out there that do this same sort of thing, but the link they create for you features their own website name. For example, there is one called Bit that creates shortened links that start with http://bit.ly there is one called Snip, and so on. You can Google “URL shortener” to find them.

Back to Questlove – the funny link he tweeted was a URL shortener that would TOTALLY BIEBIFY your link (it provides you a link that starts off with Justin Bieber’s name). All you have to do is paste your long link into the box inside Bieber’s mouth,

and he’ll spit back out a link that will start with something like: http://bieber.ly. Well, it would have if it was actually functional. It was just a joke, a short-lived webpage created by a handful of Tweeps. But it was a good joke! Because, as I have tweeted several times, #HESEVERYWHERE. He being the Biebs, of course.

I thought it was funny so I re-tweeted the link, with my own comment.

Then one of my Tweeps re-tweeted it.

Between those 2 tweets, Questlove noticed my username and said this:

Which of course made my day.

So thank you, @elliottkember, @dizzyup, @reddavis, @juliancheal, @philsturgeon and @iamdanw for sharing your Bieber love with the rest of us.

And thanks to @natejones, @crazygemini12 and @fertrue for helping me figure out a new Twitter handle YESTERDAY. Timely, right?

P.S. The Bieber URL shortener got so popular that it was reported by quite a few news outlets.

P.P.S. The site gave you the option to add the Biebifier to your toolbar . . . even though it’s not functional, I think I’ll leave it up there. I like seeing his pretty little face looking back at me whenever I do anything online.

Why I love my co-workers

From an email about a service project I'm taking the 2 older kids to on Saturday:

Shine up your serving shoes, the MLK Saturday of Service is only 3 days away!

Volunteer to be an MLK Day Super Server Leader – I may have just made up that title, but the Project Leader Position is a very real way to take on a leadership role at the event itself and play a more central role in our service day. No prior preparation is necessary. Project Leaders simply obtain a headcount on the bus at the beginning and end of the day, share with the bus information given to them about the site, help with any small logistics that arise, and lead some brief reflections on the return bus ride. Those of you who have already lost valuable MLK Service Points would do well to volunteer.

Lunches – So I lied earlier, everyone is getting a cookie with lunch. You’re welcome. Because some of us may be boarding different buses, you will receive your lunch before the day begins at 9am. If you board a bus without a lunch you better have eaten a big breakfast or know a thing or two about thieving boxed lunches.

Groups – Because there are a lot of us, it is likely we will not all serve at the same place. As of now, the only people being kept together are people who RSVP’ed for both themselves and their guests all at once and “Emily’s Besties” (her words). If you were planning on serving alongside someone else who RSVP’ed separately from you, please let me know asap. It also won’t be the end of the world if you switch groups with someone on the day.

Interesting story - the guy who wrote this is from my hometown of Wichita, KS . . . he went to my high school and was also a member of my high school youth group. He's 8 years younger than me so we didn't know each other back then, but what are the odds that we'd end up working at the same place, on the same floor, literally 10 feet away from each other, in a city the size of Chicago?

Are you doing anything service-related for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday?

A plan . . . I have one!

Friends, I has a plan. A plan to turn this blog into the shiniest, sparkliest, most interesting and inspirational blog the world has ever known! EVAR!!

If that doesn't work, my Plan B is just to get back into blogging on a regular basis.

So look for one of the two, in the pretty near future.

In the meantime, please check out Eastern Europe's response to The Biebs. #heseverywhere

I don't even want to look at the last date I wrote in this blog. There are way too many days between that date and this one, for sure.

A proper update soon, I hope . . . for now, know that I am coping with ice-cold Coke in a can and Rage Against the Machine.

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#justingeorge

I HAVE JUST HAD THE MOST AMAZING IDEA OF MY ENTIRE LIFE.

I think Justin Timberlake should cover Wham's "Everything She Wants".

That's right. I said Justin Timberlake should cover Wham's "Everything She Wants".

OH YES.

tweet this, folks. #justingeorge

Occasionally, I am funny

But just occasionally.