UNIQUE STAINED GLASS

After a winter of careful spending, I decided to cheer up my home a little for Spring. Since I work nights and get home at 3:00 a.m., my family leaves one of the kitchen lights on for me. I hate to think what that costs me energy-wise, but it is comforting.

I love to peruse the Hand-Picked Lists at Bonanzle and found this adorable Ladybug Night Light on one of the lists and decided to order it! It comes from Unique Stained Glass and the items there are all handcrafted. She has a wonderful selection from birds,cats, insects and flowers, to unique items like the 3-D Eyeglass Holder pictured on the right!

You will find Lyn's workmanship impeccable and her customer service is extraordinary. My little Ladybug arrived in a few short days, so well packed the delivery truck could have run over it and it STILL would have arrived intact.

If you are looking for a unique, affordable, handcrafted item for Mother's Day, Graduation, Father's Day or another special occasion, please visit Unique Stained Glass at Bonanzle! It will be a wonderful experience!

SANDYPAWS - BEACH CAT RESCUE

Last month, Pieper talked about Sandypaws and her friends at the Beach Cat Rescue. These pictures are from Sandypaws' booth. You can donate to neuter a cat, feed a bunch of cats, or buy one of the beautiful items that Sandypaws makes to benefit the cats.

Beach Cat Rescue is a NJ Non Profit Corporation with 501c3 pending! Their rescue was created to address the needs of abandoned stray and feral cats in our community. They are a small home based rescue that focuses on the rehabilitation and adoption of abandoned, homeless and stray cats and kittens. All of the proceeds from Sandypaws and Willow Blue, their other booth at Bonanzle, are to support the cats and their needs.

So much energy and love goes into the beautiful handmade creations fashioned by Renee and sold on Bonanzle. Pieper and I hope that you will visit either Sandypaws or Willow Blue and perhaps help a cat or two. It was a hard winter on the beach; summer may be coming, but with it comes a whole new set of challenges. We thank you for looking and loving these little critters in your heart.

CAT FACTS: Did you know that cats smell with their mouths? It's true! It's called the Flehmen reaction. The cat sucks in pheromones through the nasal cavity to an area of cells that specializes in processing them. This area is known as Jacobson's organ and lies in the roof of the cat's mouth...And here I thought Pie's mouth was always open because she was just so in awe of me!

A CLEAN CAT IS A HAPPY CAT

A clean cat is a happy cat...a clean cat's owner...maybe not!

No matter how good Pieper is at cleaning herself, she always has something to share with me later...also known as "the hairball!"

It's a good thing that cats don't normally need baths (although I've heard there are some who love them) because Pieper would NOT be a clean kitty...but generally kitties clean themselves quite well with their rough tongues. They spend about 30 percent of their time grooming themselves (how is that possible when they sleep 90 percent of the time?).

Nevertheless, all cats benefit from regular grooming. Longhaired cats should be brushed once a day, shorthairs, once a week. Pie loves to hold onto the brush and just rub the sides of her face against the bristles. She fairly purrs doing it...all she needs me for is to hold the brush! I tried putting velcro on the wall at about her level, but no, she likes me holding the brush better!

Anyway, supposedly having us groom them lessens the chances of them swallowing too much fur and leaving us gifts...LOL.

PIEPER'S PLACE NOW MAKES CUSTOM BOOKMARKS

Need a special gift? How about a set of five bookmarks, personalized with pictures of a cat (or dog) you love, check out Pieper's Place booth at Bonanzle to see bookmarks like the ones pictured above. You simply e-mail me your favorite pictures. Pieper and I will fit them to bookmarks, add sayings, and put them in heavy-duty plastic covers with coordinated ribbons in the top. The price is $10.00 for five personalized bookmarks! Don't forget Mother's Day! Easter! Or that Special Birthday!

BRAINSTORMING BONANZLE

BRAINSTORMING BONANZLE – MONDAY MARCH 16, 2009

Bonanzle booth owners and other interested parties gathered last night at the Brainstorming Bonanzle podcast, hosted by auctionwally and attheboutique. We meet every Monday night at www.talkshoe.com at 8:00 p.m. EST for a two hour community discussion; on alternating weeks, we have special guests – either Bonanzle booth owners or others in the ecommerce business world.

Last night, we were delighted to welcome John (ColderICE.com) Lawson, the CEO of 3rd Power Outlet and a Platinum PowerSeller on eBay. John spoke to us about social media, i.e., using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other network services to promote our businesses.

One of the more interesting facts I learned was that YouTube is actually a more popular search engine than Google! I had never thought of looking up information on YouTube…have you? I always thought YouTube was for fun stuff, like watching cats play the piano, or people falling all over themselves. I never spent much time there because I never had much time to spare! Now I find that you can search for just about anything there and find out something about it just by viewing a video that someone has made.

John named three components that we can use to network: words, voice and video (which we just mentioned). Words would be blogs, voice is chat rooms and forums.

About blogs: John said that a blog is three things – not about YOU, not about YOUR STORE, and not a MONOLOGUE. I respectfully disagree with him on this point. I think a blog is about YOU – it is a revelation into your character, your beliefs and your world view; it’s about what you care about, what means something to you; what makes you “turn on.” Is this a bad thing for potential clients to know? I don’t think so. The Internet is very impersonal and quite scary when you hear some of the things that happen there. Building a following in a blog should be about people getting to know the real you!

Another, and more important point, is that you, as an ecommerce business person, need to define what works for you. If you aren’t comfortable with a blog, but love to mess with your video camera, do YouTube videos about your products or ways to use them. If you’re scared of Twitter, have tried it and found it not to your liking, then don’t do it. If you love Facebook or MySpace and are comfortable there, then by all means use it.

I always come away from Brainstorming Bonanzle with a head buzzing with ideas; it takes a couple of days to digest everything. Open forum nights are also very productive – last week we talked about the changes on Bonanzle which enhanced our selling abilities. If you’re interested in talking, you call in and share your ideas or thoughts via phone.

For me, the bottom line is get moving – don’t just THINK forever about which direction to go – just go. If it’s not for me, then I can turn back and try something else.

“You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.” (Thanks to my friend, Susan (Renagade), who twittered this quote this morning!

B.U.S.Y. - BEING UNDER SATAN'S YOKE

B.U.S.Y. - Being Under Satan's Yoke...or busy but productive?

I'll tell you friends, I'm doing this blog today totally off the top of my head, from my heart, so forgive my little rant if you can.

I find it harder and harder to keep my center, to keep my eyes on the Lord, to keep my wits about me. The economy is bad, people are losing jobs and I worry about everyone. How will they survive? Can I help? What would I do if I lost my job? What if I can't pay the electric bill? What, what and what??? It is driving me crazy.

I cannot seem to find a minute to call my own, which, of course, is not true. My family is grown, I have several hours a day that are my "own" and despite the fact that my 90-year-old mother demands almost no attention, I get overwhelmed by the amount of hours that are consumed by her paperwork, doctor's appointments, taking her cat to the vet, and other minutia, as well as my own.

So, I was thinking...why am I allowing myself to be so consumed by all the stress around me? Yes, I do have an anxiety disorder, but that is managed with meds. Every day I throw away precious hours that I could be enjoying what I'm doing, whether it's the "must do's" of life, or a hobby which I consider "fun," because I am running under someone else's priorities.

And that "someone else" appears to be Satan. Now, my idea of Satan and yours may be two different things - is Satan a guy in a red suit, with horns and a pitchfork? Or, is Satan the thoughts and actions that rob the joy from your day? Perhaps both.

So, now, when I get overwhelmed and resentful of all I have to do, I stop and ask myself: "Are you B.U.S.Y (being under Satan's Yoke) or are you busy being productive. Are you enjoying what you are doing? Will you feel good when that task is done, no matter what it is?"

Life is fleeting; enjoy each day to its fullest; have joy in your life no matter what!

Have a wonderful day and thanks for letting me vent!

INSTALLING LOVE ON THE HUMAN COMPUTER

INSTALLING LOVE ON THE HUMAN COMPUTER: HOW TO INSTALL


Tech Support: Yes, how can I help you?

Customer: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to
install Love. Can you guide me through the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?

Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running ?

Customer: Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However,you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off ?

Customer: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me
how?

Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been
completely erased.

Customer: Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - Program not run on external components." What should I do?

Tech Support: Don't worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before
you can Love others.

Customer: So, what should I do?

Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer: Okay, done.

Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming.
Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files.Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running.
One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.

Customer: Thank you, God.

God/Tech Support: You're welcome, anytime.

- Anon

MAKE GROWING YOUR BUSINESS A HABIT

I was invited to speak about my Bonanzle business on the Monday Night podcast called Brainstorming Bonanzle, co-hosted by Auction Wally and Phaedra and was very honored to do so. This is a weekly podcast sponsored by Auction Wally at Talkshoe from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EST. We have so many participating members at Bonanzle, this is a perfect forum to put our heads together, share ideas and work on ways to build or grow our businesses at Bonanzle.

After the show, each podcast is stored, both audibly and in chat room format, and maintained by another Bonanzle member, DeDe of Brightest Blessings. When you visit the Brainstorming Bonanzle site, you will an wonderful Avatar for us, done by the very talented Bonanzle member, Jamiro. I just love the orange ideas popping out of our heads!

So, I thought I'd share a few of my ideas for time management with you, dear reader. As with anything offered up by anyone on the internet or elsewhere, take what you can and make use of it, but only if it works for you! How do you know if it will work for you? Try the idea out for a few days; try it on for size; adjust or discard to your needs. Okay, so here are some of the points I think are important.

MAKE GROWING YOUR BUSINESS A HABIT

First thing everyday I
- check my regular emails for sales or inquiries that need immediate attention;
- check my Bonanzle mail for the same things;
- update my booth message DAILY! Something simple, such as "Good Tuesday morning" is sufficient;
- blog - ideas, post, research, etc.;
- check other sites I may participate in.

MAKE IT FUN

If you're not having fun doing what you're doing, then you need to consider why you are doing it. Fun doesn't necessarily mean you are chuckling all day; what I mean is that you enjoy it (whether it's listing, doing research, gleaning info from forums and other social networking sites) and that it contributes in a positive way to what you want to accomplish in your business. Hard work doesn't have to be a drag.


ORGANIZE AND PRIORITIZE

I keep ONE steno pad by my keyboard. ALL NOTES of any kind go in this notebook, including new passwords, websites, etc. Even my grocery items I may need to add to the original list. (Later in the day or when I have a moment, I can transfer the info from the steno book into the appropriate place and cross it off the list in the notebook). The idea is to keep me on track, instead of going helter-skelter, chasing links and ideas until I totally forget where I started and where I was going. In other words, STAY ON TASK! Take a break, walk around, have a cup of coffee, but go back to were you left off and keep moving on with that task.

Note the things you would like to participate in. I would like to do more RSS feeds, more SEO optimization, learn more about Twitter and decide if it's for me, use the new promotion tools available at Bonanzle (awesome things like an auto Craig Lister tool and the Google attribute tool).

I know that my time is limited and I can't possibly do everything, but I try to spend some time each day or week looking into things that might work for me.

KNOW YOUR STRONG POINTS AND WEAK POINTS

And work with them, instead of fighting them. My strengths are organization, keeping master lists of everything, and being disciplined about the time I have. My weaknesses are many, the greatest among them is HATING TO FILE PAPER! Isn't that silly? Organized but doesn't want to file? Yep, but it's a biggy for me.


DON'T COMPARE YOUR EFFORTS WITH ANYONE ELSE'S

In the beginning days at Bonanzle, this was a real problem for me. I would read about all these great people who had six booths, two or three blogs, listed in Craig's List every day, belonged to every group available to them on the net and thought if I didn't do all those things, I wouldn't be a success! To this I say, NONSENSE! It took me awhile, but I finally realized that I needed to be realistic about what I COULD do, would be interested in doing and what would help MY business. As a result, I am a happier business person.


BE REAL ABOUT WHAT TIME YOU DO HAVE EACH DAY

I try very hard not to overload myself with expectations of what I can do for the business on days when I have to take my mother to the doctor, or I have appointments, or I'm not feeling well. Which leads to my final point:


READJUST YOUR TIME SCHEDULE IF IT'S NOT WORKING

And that means on the fly if necessary! There are just some days when the neighbor decides to visit for an hour, the water main breaks, the Internet connection goes down - we could go on and on. Life happens. Feel free to reevaluate and reprioritize as needed. Don't feel guilty; don't despair. There is a reason for everything!

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Make your business a fun habit, something you look forward to; organize and prioritize, know your strengths and weakness and let them work for you, not against you; temper your expectations with reality; and most important of all -

MAKE EVERY DAY JUST THE BEST IT CAN BE - IN EVERY ARENA OF YOUR LIFE!