2007 August » Bookworm Broadcast

I love my sweet dog, ‘Puppy’, so much! And yes, I have him in my heart! But now – I have him next to my heart, as well! And that is because I just got the nicest and prettiest silver locket with a picture of him in it! The locket is so beautiful! And it is amazing – and newfangled – because it is not an actual photograph inside it. The photo was actually engraved inside it. It is so cool! It came from PicturesOnGold.com, a really nice online jewelry retailer, that could very well drain my bank account! The photos are laser-engraved onto the jewelry and they come out so nicely – I was really amazed! I had never heard of this before, and I am really impressed with the quality of the image!

Let me show you, so you can see what I’m talking about and how nice it is! And I was able to get text engraved on the front of it. I chose ‘Lisa Marie Mary’ and it came out so pretty! Here is the front of the locket (and the back):

And here is the inside of the locket, with my sweet Puppy:

I scanned it to try and capture the wonderful quality, but, the scan doesn’t really do it justice. The image looks just like a photograph, though – it’s really great. And also, Puppy’s photos often look like he has no eyes, because his head is mostly all black with dark brown eyes, so it’s hard to get his eyes to show up in pics.

PicturesOnGold.com really has some gorgeous jewelry! And they even cater to us diehard bookworms, with the 14K Yellow Gold Book Locket! Perfect!

GO READ A BOOK!

Today I want to tell you about a different kind of book than I usually talk about here. This book was written by a good friend of mine. She is an esthetician, and she has given me a lot of good advice about skin care products. She even sent me some – all the way from New Jersey!

She wrote a book to help out people who are in training to become estheticians. She says that when she was in school, she was always looking for a book to help with her studies that wasn’t too technical, so that she could understand what was being taught. Some of the questions that she had seemed too simple and some of them veered off topic too much. So she wrote the book to help skin care students out with their studies – the book she wished that she had access to during her own studies. The book is called, Skin Care Student Q and A, and her name is Deborah Schwabe. I’m sure it will be a great help to those training in her field.

GO READ A BOOK!

There are numerous studies that illustrate the value of a musical education. Two of my kids are in band, and I’m sure we will encourage our daughter to join her brothers in this pursuit. If I thought a musical education was great before, after listening to our elementary band teacher talk about her experiences, I am definitely convinced now! She went to college on a full-ride scholarship, plus spending money, for music!!! That’s awesome!

And I definitely encourage my children to enjoy all types of music. I don’t want to limit them to just one kind of music. I think that allowing them to enjoy all kinds of music, will prolong their interest in it.

And then, of course, there is the fact that I like lots of different kind of music, too! One genre that I thorougly enjoy includes the band, Def Leppard. I did take Patrick to one of their concerts with me once – when I was pregnant with him! I went with another gal who was also pregnant – she was farther along than I, and her baby was going crazy all through the concert. It was so funny! I would love to take Patrick to another concert of theirs now – he might even enjoy it more! I was looking over the Def Leppard tour schedule, and they are coming to Atlanta on the 25th of this month! That would be so cool to go! And they are performing with Styx and Foreigner! How awesome would that be?

GO READ A BOOK!

Continuing with the Back-to-School series:

If you already have a bedtime routine with your kids, pat yourself on the back, because, they can be so hard to establish in the midst of our busy lives. Bedtime routines are so vital, though, especially for young children. Consider adding one more step to your bedtime routine. Give your kids a chance to tell you about their school day.

Make an effort to keep the communication free flowing. If you set good habits while your child is young, it’ll be easier to talk about just anything as the years pass. For starters, don’t ask yes or no questions. You don’t want to establish a nightly Q & A, but rather two-way communication.

Sometimes “tell me about your day” doesn’t generate much conversation. You could begin with, “tell me five things that happened today; recess and lunch don’t count.” That is usually a great ice breaker. Kids learn really quickly that if you don’t ask, they’re not telling.

In addition to asking what was for lunch, ask who your child sat next to. Who did they play with at recess? What did they play during recess? Was anyone sick today? Did anything funny or embarrassing happen to anyone in school today?

If you can get your child to tell you about someone who may have had a hard time (in gym, with math, with reading aloud, etc.) it is a great segue for a life lesson in difficulties and hurt feelings.

It really doesn’t matter what you talk about; it’s more important that you talk. Make talking about your kid’s day a regular part of the bedtime routine, you’ll be surprised what you learn!

GO READ A BOOK!

We are definitely living in an exciting time! I’m sure all generations have said that, even my grandmother’s, but, I imagine she would really be in complete wonderment to learn that I work, and earn a living, solely from home – solely online. I used to wish that I was born in a different era. I thought it would be fun to be a teen in the 50′s. I also thought being a flower child must’ve been the coolest thing. But I will tell you now, after my experience these last few years online, I would not in a million years switch places to another time. This time – right now – is so exciting, and being in on a business online in the beginning phases of the internet really changing the shape of everything we do, thrills me to no end. I am definitely glad to be a webpreneur. (See? We even have our own new language!)

And one tool that is absolutely crucial for a webpreneur to have in their bag of tricks, is web conferencing software. That is how we connect with each other and learn from each other. Because even though we may be all working ‘alone at home’, none of us are working alone. There are countless people I could list off the top of my head who’ve helped me get to where I am now, and countless others who will help me even more. And I try to make an effort every day, to help someone else out. That is another really cool thing about online business – there is such a ‘working together’ attitude, that I think, perhaps, has not permeated any other business so completely.

I just attended a web seminar last night, and I learned quite a bit, and more importantly, I connected with a lot of other men and women working towards very similar goals. These connections have been vital to the progression of my success. And they’ve also been extremely satisfying, as I’ve met some wonderful people along the way.

One such company that helps to make these connections possible, prides themselves on not only being business people, but, also, being people people. I really like the sound of that – it just furthers this whole idea I’m talking about – online business owners and their helpful attitude towards each other. The company I’m talking about is The Conference Depot, and the big way that they carry out their ideal is through their Conference Coach concept. Each account is assigned a person to help them out every step of the way as they learn to use the web conference software. Awesome – I love that! So often, with new software, new gadgets, new computers, or whatever – you get stuck and you just can’t get a human to talk to who can help you out!

This is an awesome time to be a part of internet business, and finding all the right tools to help you along the way is very important. The Conference Depot, with their ‘people attitude’, definitely gets my vote!

GO READ A BOOK!