by Nicole Ouellette | Sep 1, 2009 | Too Cute Tuesday
Christy, last week’s birthday girl, requested we do a special tie dye Too Cute Tuesday. “I’m going to tie dye everything!” she proclaimed. This we had to see!
Well, that and we enjoy those more passive crafts on occasion…
Materials
Rit Dye (by the way, if you are stuck on how to do your tie dying, check out their website)
Bucket
Hot water
Light colored items
Skewer (for poking)
Elastics (for designing)
Cocktail of the Night: Lemon drop martinis (mix plus lemon vodka, shaken to fantasticness)
1. Realize that you have nothing white you want to tie dye right before Too Cute Tuesday. Show up at Craft Central and figure other people will have things they want to tie dye.
by Nicole Ouellette | Aug 31, 2009 | Marketing Monday
I’ve been following the DC Goodwill Fashion blog for over a year. I’m what we’d call in the online world a ‘lurker’ on this blog, meaning I never leave comments but totally read and enjoy it. Here’s a few reasons why this blog is a great marketing tool.
Genius Idea #1: The blog has a consistent (and actually interesting) voice.
The DC Goodwill Fashionista Em Hall (the blog’s author) is someone you want to be friends with. She’s fun, upbeat, and intelligent. Corporate blogs can feel stuffy, but this one never does.
Here is how Em explains the DC Goodwill Fashion blog (from an interview with Righteous (re)Style):
“The DC Goodwill Fashion Blog is all about vintage and contemporary fashion with a Goodwill twist. The blog emphasizes mixing high and low, old and new in attempt to help every reader discover his or her own personal style. And, at the end of the day, all money raised through the blog and shopgoodwill.com help to support Goodwill’s mission of training and employment for people with disadvantages and disabilities. In that way, one can look good and do good.”
by Nicole Ouellette | Aug 29, 2009 | Tech
Someone asked me to write a post about online degrees. Since I had no experience, I put it out to my Twitter followers. The following is a guest post from Ginger, one of my Twitter friends. She asked me not to link to her account because she wanted to be really candid about her experiences. Here is what she had to say about getting an online degree:
Degree attained: Masters of Instructional Science and Technology
Time it took: Two years, full time online courses
Total cost: Approx. $8000 (not including books) (cost to me, after employer paid for tuition: $1000 plus books)
Financial aid: I was lucky enough to have my employer pay for my Masters. I paid only for student fees (around $250/semester) and books (varied). Thus, I definitely felt it was worth the financial and time investment, even with working full time (and sometimes overtime) and going to graduate school full time. So no, I don’t think my employer paid more for the convenience of online classes.
My program was at a state university, and was what is called a “blended learning environment,” that is we were mostly online (throughout the semester) but at the beginning of each semester (and the end of the last one before our capstone presentations) we met face-to-face. These were required sessions. So our program cost the same price another traditional graduate program on the same campus would have cost.
by Nicole Ouellette | Aug 26, 2009 | This Week In Business
As I continue to work on my business plan and video (and, you know, paying work), here is what happened in Breaking Even Communications this week:
I tried my streetcorner market research.
A couple weeks ago, I vowed to stand on a street corner ask people the market research questions I needed the answers to in order to get my business plan done. Here is a moment by moment account of what happened when I actually did this on Tuesday:
9:00 am- Check my Facebook and see via a friend’s status update that today is a ‘boat day’, meaning there is a cruise ship docked in Bar Harbor. More foot traffic is good for me!
10-11 am- Make my sandwich board with my almost out of ink printer and a spare piece of particle board I have from a previous Too Cute Tuesday project. I put on a cute but professional blue dress and walk into town.
11:45 am- I set up my sandwich board on the Village Green in Bar Harbor. ‘Want to get more out of your website?” is the only text that fits. The words ‘free consultation’ do not. Oh well, I can tell people when I talk to them. I tweet what I’m up to and call my lady Anne at SCORE to let her know I’m doing it!
11:55 am- Board blown down by wind. I whip out my duct tape and to the amazement/amusement of a few nearby tourists, I duct tape the sign to the granite sidewalk. I try to make conversation with them, saying that between my duct tape, water bottle, and sunscreen, I am ready for anything. The woman is not amused but her son is. She clearly thinks this ‘saleswoman’ is too friendly!
by Nicole Ouellette | Aug 25, 2009 | Too Cute Tuesday
This Tuesday we aren’t having our usual Too Cute Tuesday gathering. It was bound to happen sometime but everyone is either celebrating a birthday or working or out of town. I thought I would instead share a craft I did earlier this week. TCT resumes next week with tie dye, as requested by Christy, today’s birthday girl.
I shared a really neato image my friend Andrew found on the Too Cute Tuesday Facebook page.
Besides being cool looking and basically summarizing the TCT philosophy, the image has a creative commons license, meaning it can be reproduced so long as it’s not sold and is attributed to the creator. Fair enough! I just appreciate that there are people out there creating cool things for people to freely enjoy.
Can you just copy someone else’s work? Sure, but then you’ll feel kind of sleazy. Plus the image might not be high resolution enough to be useful. See, cheating doesn’t pay!
Instead, use the search function on the Creative Commons website and everything that pops up means you are good to go! I just did a search on ‘squirrel photo’ just to be silly and there were a ridiculous amount of options.
Christy, last week’s birthday girl, requested we do a special tie dye Too Cute Tuesday. “I’m going to tie dye everything!” she proclaimed. This we had to see!
This Tuesday we aren’t having our usual Too Cute Tuesday gathering. It was bound to happen sometime but everyone is either celebrating a birthday or working or out of town. I thought I would instead share a craft I did earlier this week. TCT resumes next week with tie dye, as requested by Christy, today’s birthday girl.