Happy Birthday Juliette Gordan Low

Today is Girl Scout founder Juliette Low's birthday. She was born October 31, 1860. Which would make her 148 years old if still alive. I do not think I need to explain the impact Juliette Low has made on the United States and the world. Today 3.5 million members belong to Girl Scouts.

Girl Scouts is not about cookies and camping, it's about creating leaders. In fact, 64% of the woman leaders today were, you guessed it, Girl Scouts. Every year, on October 31st, Girl Scouts across the country celebrate Juliette Low's birthday! It's a Girl Scout tradition! In fact, I am helping to organzie a big birthday event on November 8th in my community.

Juliette Low died of breast cancer on January 18, 1927. She was just 67 years old. In 67 years, she made the world a better place.

A friend from high school, Lisa, (oh my, was it really 20 years ago?) sent the following email today. Lisa has always been a runner, and is currently putting her running shoes to good use:

"Thank you to those of you who have supported me in this current season and in the past. These are trying times for our nation and exciting ones as well. In a few days we will have the opportunity to make history, either the first African-American president or the first woman in the White House. Our economy is shaky and people feel as though the future is unsteady. But for some the future is more than unsteady, those suffering from cancer and their families.

"A few weeks ago, we had a celebration of our "Cause", our honorees and they announced that a little honoree from Silicon Valley passed away after a valiant battle with leukemia (she was just 5 years old). This news really struck me since Rebekah is 7, and I couldn't imagine her not being with us. Then last week, I watched the TV show "Extreme Home Makeover" and they were working on a home in Arkansas where the little boy (10 years old), battled leukemia and while he was in remission from that, the treatments caused him to require a double lung transplant and he was wheelchair bound. I sat and watched and thought about how difficult the treatments are on the body to rid it of the cancer. Sometimes, the treatments are much harder on the body than the cancer. How can we keep these things from happening (children dying, people struggling after remission because of treatments), we can donate to organizations like The Leukemia Society. They guarantee 75% of all donations to be returned to research. They have funded the research of Gleevac, a drug that is responsible for many lives being saved.

"How can you make a difference in this trying world? You can donate to my fundraising campaign so together we can make a difference in people's lives and become their hero. We never know when our lives will be changed by a single act and wouldn't we want someone to help us if we were diagnosed with these diseases.

"I am going to challenge you to donate at least $10 to help find a cure for other children, like Mickey, Teagan, and Dylan. You are more than welcome to donate more but I am asking that everyone donate at least $10. I am also asking that you send me 5 names and addresses (email or snail mail), so I can pass on this challenge to a larger group of people or please pass my email or snail mail address on to people that may help us in this fight.

"Please use this link http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/honolulu08/lloder to donate online quickly and securely. You will receive a confirmation by email of your donation and I will be notified as soon as you make your donation. Please make checks payable to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have committed to raise $2,340 for the Society but my fundraising goal is $2,500 (I have currently raised $624.50) I would like to reach my commitment goal by November 15th, so I can concentrate on my final weeks of training.

"On behalf of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, thank you very much for your support. I really appreciate your generosity! Please remember that 100% of your donation is tax-deductible."

While Leukemia and Breast Cancer are much different forms of cancer, a cure can be found for both. I encourage you to make a donation to either BreastCancer.org or The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of Juliette Low, or someone else that has touched your life. Like Juliette Low, you can make the world a better place, too!

Oh and...

Free Business Cards for All

On Branddoozie you can create free business cards, download the PDF and print it right on your printer. Its easy to use, and even if you don’t have a business it’ll be fun to make and print one out for yourself.

I’m sure you could think of all kinds of great titles you could give yourself; Chief Executive Home Officer, Queen of Blogdom, Mrs. Do-it-all. Go ahead click on the link and give it a try, let me know what you think!
Here is one I made today!

Guilt

As woman I think we learn guilt at an early age. It comes in all shapes and sizes.

We fell guilt when we think we are not spending enough time with our kids

We feel guilt when we hover too much over our kids

We feel guilt when we think we are spending too much time working

We feel guilt when we think we aren’t spending enough time working

We feel guilt when we don’t have the time or energy to make dinner

We feel guilt when the houseplants are thirsty, and our furniture is drowning in dust

The one thing we never seem to feel guilty about is when we neglect ourselves.

So I want to remind you all, make that dreaded annual Dr. appointment, (I for one am overdue) Lock your self in your bedroom and give yourself a facial. Take yourself for a walk (OK you can take the dog with you if leaving it home will make you feel guilty) Sit down with a cup of coffee and look through one of the magazines that’s been lying around for a few months untouched. Do something for yourself and don’t feel guilty about it, nobody else does.

Jill

Panic and Stress

A couple weeks ago I talked about panic and stress and how I wanted to figure out an acronym for each of the words.  Well, I did it and uploaded the file to my site.  So if you want to print your own (colorful) panic and stress sign, click here : )  It is a pdf file and you only need to print one and then cut it apart.  Hopefully it will help me (and you) chill out during this busy season.

Hmmmm.....I'm thinking maybe I need some kind of little stuffed animals, or pet rocks, I could name panic and stress. Then maybe I could learn to take care of them and love them. Notice I did not say plants? I so kill plants : )

Fantastic Friday: Increase Targeted Website Traffic

I am currently enrolled in Cricket's search engine optimization classes online because Lynn did. And I always do everthing Lynn does. She's awesome. I'm on lesson 4.5.

This whole process has been eye opening. Over 400 pages of our custom furniture website have been indexed by google. We get about 130 hits per day. Most orders are placed via telephone, not online. But, since we do not have a brick and mortar store, we know they find out about our furniture online. We do a good amount of business and make a decent living. I'd like to do a phenomenal amount of business and make an awesome living. Thus, the search engine optimization classes.

Cricket's Lesson 4.5, Increase Targeted Website Traffic, leads with: "Imagine for a moment here that my business involves country style decorations for the home. I am currently working on optimizing a page which includes various wall decorations."

Hmmm... we make custom furniture, but we mostly make American Country style custom furniture. So, this lesson hits home in a unique way.

Cricket advises to pick one niche, and focus on that niche for the duration of the classes. I picked wood tv stands because we happen to make some nice ones, like this 56 inch Girtz Plasma TV Stand:

So be like me and do what Lynn does... take Cricket's Search Engine Optimization classes to learn to increase traffic! Then come back here and tell us what you think!

Do What You Love

A piece of advise successful entrepreneurs are always throwing around. The idea being if you are doing what you love, it will be easier to attain success. This weekend I went to see Jimmy Buffett, talk about someone who is the poster child for this train of thought. He gets on stage portraying a barefoot, carefree child at heart, having the time of his life, while he is raking it in. He has turned what he loves doing into a major empire. Playing all summer to sold-out concerts, while Parrotheads everywhere are drinking his Margaritaville tequila and Land Shark Beer. Then there are his record and book sales, toped off by his chain of Margaritaville restaurants with gift shops selling everything from $500 margarita makers to key chains (which of course double as bottle openers).

Don’t get me wrong, I am a big Jimmy fan, and have personally added to his pile of money. I was just wishing that all of us could be having that much fun while we were getting fifthly rich!
Jill

Moms Blogs & Moms Clubs

I've been on the hunt for new business lately. Did some searches for moms groups, moms clubs in my area and landed on the Chester County Moms blog. Today, Sarah over at Chester County Moms featured my glow in the dark pillowcases in a product review! That just makes my day:0) I had emailed her a few weeks ago and she replied with a cheerful note and positive feedback about Comfy Cozy. It's exciting when someone you don't know has such cool things to say about what you make - even more exciting when they want to tell others about it!

I found some cool blogs for moms - where were they when my boys were 1 and 3?? They are a great place to learn, share and vent.

I've also been contacting MOMS Clubs in PA. When my boys were really young, I went to my local MOMS Club a couple of times. They are great when you need to get out of the house but have to take your kids. I figured the best way to increase sales and get the word about my company is to go directly to my target market. DUH! It took alot of time and research, but I was able to contact them. The advertising cost is minimal for their newsletters and it's good to know that the fee goes to support their efforts in their communities.

The ads will start running in the next week or so. I offered them a special offer and hopefully some of the moms will be just as excited as Sarah and order a couple pillowcases for the holidays.

Advertising is so expensive that I rarely do it. But I think I've hit on something that is beneficial to me and the MOMS Club moms. I get some exposure, the moms learn about our fun and functional products (I stole that from Lynn) and make a little money for their projects.

The best thing so far is the great response I received to my intro email. The women were receptive to my request because I was a mom just like them:) One mom even said that after visiting my site she became inspired to go after her dream and start a business making quilting kits. Good for her - good for me! I hope her MOMS Club members give her alot of support and encouragement.

Catching Up

If you happen to read my personal blog After the Dust Settles, you know I've been sick. This cold is still hanging on, but as a (really) small business owner and a wahm, I have no one else to do the work. So I try to do a little bit each day. Just a little though....can't wait until I have my energy back.

Several times a day Periodically I type piggy banks into google, just to see where my site lands. Imagine my surprise joy when I found myself at #1 yesterday and today (so far). So exciting. I haven't been at number one for years....now we'll see how that affects business. I've been pretty steady this whole year, so I may not notice much of a change.

My site will be getting moved to a new server. Cross your fingers that goes well. Right now it is not passing the PCI security test. This is the guidelines the credit card companies want businesses to follow when they collect customer information. Once my site is moved to the new server, we'll be good to go. If I don't pass the tests, I'll have to pay a monthly fee for non compliance. Kudos to Jo for working on this for me.  Of course, I may owe her my first born : )

Hubby got my second kiln set up last week. I have to take some pictures of my work area. It's handy to have 2 of them now. It should make a huge difference in me staying somewhat caught up this year. Maybe it won't be quite as stressful a holiday season....I can dream : )

And that's it....I need to get moving here and get some stuff done : )  Only 2 weeks to election day!  Yay!

And the Winners Are

First of all, thank you to everyone who visited our sites and who signed up to follow our blog. We appreciate your friendship.

Please contact the person who's prize you have won.

Kandas - kellyh

Diane - georgie

Noelle - marrdy

Peggy - megryansmon

Jill - pseudonymoushighschoolteacher

Lynn - bink

Thankful Thursday

Doom and Gloom or The Glass is 1/2 FULL......
I choose to believe the glass is 1/2 full. I think that you are what you believe and if you believe in doom and gloom then you will be a gloomy person. There is so much to be thankful for. Our beautiful FREE country. God Bless Her. :) Long may she live.
I wish you a beautiful day where ever you are. :)