My 101 List

My 1001 Day Project ends on Friday, October 1, 2010 in .

• Cooking
• Catalog all my stray recipes
• Grow an herb garden
• Grow an organic garden in a pot
• Learn to cook fish
• Learn to cook flan
• Learn to cook my dad's garlic chicken
• Learn to cook pastelles
• Learn to cook piononos
• Declutter
• Clean my desk 1x month (3/36)
• Clean out garage
• Photograph and post at least 10 ebay or craigslist items for destashing 1x month (1/34)
• Photograph and post at least 10 supply items for destashing 1x month (2/34)
• Scan and shred all household documents
• Financial
• Create a budget
• Establish a $1000 emergency fund
• Inventory household items for insurance purposes
• Pay off all credit cards
• Health
• Exercise 3x week (0/143)
• Get hair trimmed 3x year (1/9)
• Get a real hairstyle…and not just a trim
• Kickbox 1x week (0/143)
• Lose 80 pounds
• Plan my meals out and shop for them 1x week (1/143)
• Start mountain biking again
• Start rollerblading again
• Test for brown belt
• Visit dentist 2x year (1/6)
• Household
• Buy/make non-disposable shopping bags
• Finish our living room curtains
• Fold laundry 1x week (0/143)
• Landscape yard 2x year (0/6)
• Paint our bedroom
• Setup memory board/mirror display in living room
• Vaccuum house 1x week (0/143)
• Wax truck 2x year (0/6)
• Jewelry
• Apply to 5 high end shows 1x year (1/15)
• Buy a tumbler and shot
• Learn Chinese knotting
• Learn silver wire fusing
• Redesign website
• Submit website for write up to 4 blogs 1x month (3/34)
• Write a blog post 1x week for A Pretty Rock
• Knowledge
• Learn to type Spanish language characters on keyboard
• Read 3 books in Spanish (0/3)
• Read Boriquas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings -- An Anthology
• Refresh my Arabic language knowledge
• Loving my dog
• Brush Snickers 1x week (0/143)
• Take Snickers for walk around block 5x week (0/143)
• Personal
• Create a family tree book
• Create an "in event of our deaths" list for both our moms
• Help our mom's fill out their own lists (0/2)
• Give blood (hate needles)
• Have a baby (again...hate needles...and pain)
• Keep a daily one-sentence journal for a year (3/365)
• Take my mom to see The Nutcracker
• Recreational
• Attend a USPS dead letter auction
• Create website for my WoW guild
• Create wedding scrapbook (been 9 years…about time!)
• Finish baby blanket cross-stitch (started for my godson who is now 2)
• Go hiking in the Appalachians (I live so close!)
• Go horseback riding
• Learn how to handbind a book
• Learn to alter/customize clothing for myself
• Learn to rock climb
• Learn to snowboard
• Participate in project 365
• Purchase a dSLR
• Read all the Chronicles of Narnia books
• Read my lapsed comic book series
• Start a cooking blog with a friend
• Visit a corn maze
• Wear a costume to DragonCon
• Relationships
• Buy/make everyone's Christmas gifts before November each year
• Host get-together 3x year (1/9)
• Keep track of birthdays and anniversaries (and addresses) and send a card on each one.
• Write thank you notes every time I receive a gift
• Spiritual
• Go on a missions trip
• Memorize a bible verse 1x month (1/34)
• Read bible 5x week (2/143)
• Travel
• Go back home to Puerto Rico with husband
• Take Jason to La Palguera
• Visit St. Thomas/Virgin Islands
• Visit New York
• Go to the top of the Empire State Building
• Go to the top of the Statue of Liberty
• See a musical on Broadway
• Visit Europe
• Visit Las Vegas
• Take a weekend getaway with my husband 1x year (0/3)
• Work
• Back up my computers 1x week (0/143)
• Create a program to serve a useful purpose for others
• Grow my business so my husband can stay home and work with me
• Join a networking group
• Learn a new programming language 1x year (0/3)
• Learn to expertly analyze web traffic tracking results
• Organize files on computers (0/3)
• Read a technical book 4x year (0/12)
• Setup landing pages for all my registered domain names
• Update paperwork for taxes 4x year (0/12)
• Write a blog post 1x week for Turtletopia (2/143)
• Write a blog post 1x week for YazminMedia (1/143)

Huge November Giveaway at Modish! · Tuesday November 25, 2008

Have you checked out Modish this month? Jena has had not one, but two giveaways! I missed announcing the first one, but clearly not this second one.

With over $805 worth of indie goodies up for grabs, you’ll also find my Gold Rose Duster Earrings in the mix.

Go! Get entered today!

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tags: miscellany

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History in the Making - 2008 Presidential Elections · Tuesday November 4, 2008

I hope you exercised your right to vote today. (I went on Friday, when everyone was out trick-or-treating with their kids. Absolutely no lines and my husband got to make everyone smile in his milk maid costume.) It’s a wonderful privilege…and considering this race, it’s been interesting to see how everything has unfolded.

This evening was spent playing World of Warcraft with some friends, but I’ve been glued to this widget from MSNBC:

And sadly, I’m exhausted from getting ready for the Brookwood Tip-Off Club show this weekend, so I am going to bed. I guarantee you though, this post will be the first thing I look at in the morning as we welcome a new era.

God Bless America!

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tags: miscellany

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Tagged! 6 Random Things · Wednesday October 29, 2008

Photo by Mike Baird

I’ve been working on being more efficient with my email and addressing things as they come in…although the efficiency is eluding me. I say that because I just found two emails in my inbox from earlier this month where I had been tagged on blogs!

So, for Jersey Girl Design and Theophany, here are 6 random things about myself:

1. I’m competitive. One of the many reasons I never took classes with my husband…another competitive soul. We would tear each other apart.

2. I’m 90% self-sustaining, 10% needy. (Yes, I do need someone to tell me I’m great every once in a while…and more frequently during kickboxing.) ;)

3. I’m more often hopeful to a fault than cynical towards everything.

4. I’m afraid of ocean waves…rather, the really large ones that crest over your head, engulfing you in a foam of salty bubbles. Bad childhood tumble has had me scared since.

5. I would like to learn to surf, if I can ever get over #4. (You’d think that if a dog can do it, so could I…sheesh!)

6. I want to jump out of plans…if only the Army had taught me how.

Now for my 5 bloggie friends:

• Deb @ StoryBeader
• Yvette @ Enter the Narrow Gate
• Mel @ MelDrop’s Corner
• Katja @ mis•cel•la•ne•a
• Brandi @ Brandi Girl

Consider yourself tagged!

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tags: miscellany

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5th Annual "Art on the Lawn" show this weekend! · Tuesday October 14, 2008

Come out and visit me and my jewelry at Art on the Lawn!

Hosted by the North Cobb Arts League, the Fifth Annual Art On The Lawn Festival is being held October 18 and 19, 2008 on the grounds of The Art Station – Big Shanty in Kennesaw, Georgia.

Joining me will be Myra Hopper from Myra Elizabeth Jewelry Designs.

What: 5th Annual Art on the Lawn Festival
When: Saturday & Sunday, October 18 & 19, 2008
Time: 10 am to 4 pm (both days)
Location: The Art Station at Big Shanty
Address: 2050 Kennesaw Due West Road, Kennesaw, GA 30152 (map)
Phone: 770-514-5930
Website: www.ncart.org/tas

Stop by and say hi! We’d love to meet you.

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tags: miscellany

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Hint of Glint is here! · Tuesday September 30, 2008

I’ve been in a rut. Having a hard time letting my creativity flow. Spending a lot of time looking at other people’s jewelry and feeling worried that I might end up copying their work inadvertently.

So I’ve taken a step away and gone back to how I started out. I’ve been looking at more of my older designs and trying to figure out what it was that really drove customers to purchase from my store.

While I was doing that, I got a good look at my stash and I realized something. I have all these beautiful gems and when it comes right down to it, I’ve hardly cracked a dent into my inventory. I’d go as far as saying I’m being a packrat. I’m sure someone out there can relate.

In an effort to help myself get out of this packrat mode, I’ve started creating a line of simpler and more pocketbook friendly pieces. Without further ado…let me introduce to you…Hint of Glint!

Hint of Glint is for those times when you just need a little something. A little bit of color, a little bit of sparkly, but a whole lot of lovely.

I’ve only posted three earrings from the collection today, but you can expect to see more if not all of the ones above ready for sale as the week goes by.

Let me know what you think of my new collection! I would love to get your opinions.

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tags: miscellany

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My Mom Rocks (and new Totally Indie Coupons are In!) · Tuesday September 23, 2008

She cut all 200+ of my coupon packages for Totally Indie Coupons, sorted and bagged them and sent them back to me. One less thing for me to do on my list. Woot. I love you, Mom! (Not just for that, but for so many other reasons, too…)

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tags: miscellany

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Facebook Users Beware - Part II · Friday September 19, 2008

Since my enlightenment concerning the terms of service for Facebook in regards to images, blog posts and other media, I’ve been looking for ways to minimize my exposure, but still use their website as a means to not only connect with friends and family more often, but continue developing the marketing and branding aspect of A Pretty Rock as well. (Whoo – that was a mouth full of a sentence, huh?)

By now you’re probably wondering where is Part I of this blog post. I guess there actually is no continuation for this post, but to get you caught up, this is what’s going on…

Tuesday I ran across a post on Michelle’s Complete Fragments blog titled Social Network Copyright Information. The post was about Facebook and their policy in regard to your media or that of anyone else’s that you post on your profile.

In short, Facebook takes a free use copyright on anything you post in the profile. This means that if they want to create a magazine with your images or your blog posts or anything else they find on your profile, they can do just that, without your explicit permission, because you already agreed to it when you agreed to the terms of service. Kinda sucks, doesn’t?

(Btw, that’s exactly what happened last December, as several people walked into their local bookstores to find an issue of Facebook Magazine on the shelves.) Once I read the terms myself and decided I didn’t like them, I chose to pull all of my imported blog posts and my link to my Flickr account through the MyFlickr app.

And with that, you’re caught up to this post. Having had time to think about the terms, I also had time to think about the various comments my friends made. One of them in particular, is what I think will be my approach to Facebook marketing from here on out: posting of lower resolution images.

Thanks to Facebook themselves, we are given the tool we need as a business to post information about our products without leaving ourselves open to abuse: the “Share on Facebook” bookmarklet.

With the bookmarklet, you can post a link on your Facebook profile from any page you are currently viewing. The bookmarklet then pulls all the images from the page, allowing you to select an image to post with your link…or if you prefer, no image at all.

Using the bookmarklet in conjuction with Etsy product pages (that contain the thumbnail photos) or your own pages with scaled down images, you can control how much you expose yourself to the Facebook ToS. If you look at my Facebook profile, you can see that I’ve put the bookmarklet’s “post a link” feature to use several times already, purposefully using the lower resolution images in my link posts.

Where do you get this fantastic bookmarklet? You can find it on your posted items page on Facebook. In the right hand column, you’ll see the information box for Share on Facebook.

So, lesson learned: Make sure you read the Facebook Terms of Service or any terms of service for social networking sites you frequent. Better to take the time and read, than to not read and get burned later.

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tags: etsy blogger's, miscellany

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Off to Radiology... · Tuesday July 8, 2008

I suppose a small update is in order on my pregnancy options…

Last we left off, I was waiting for the okay to get busy with my husband. ;) Basically, I’ve had to wait until one full cycle before they could run a tube xray on me and let me know if we could attempt to get pregnant again. The exam day has finally come and it is today.

So, if I fall off the grid for a few days, don’t be concerned. I’m probably just recovering. :)

See you on the other side…

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tags: miscellany

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Revisiting Jewelry Photos · Saturday July 5, 2008

It would be a perfect world if everything always turned out right the first time, but of course, it’s not! For the jewelry business, that means that I don’t always take photos with the right settings the first time around. So there will always be a few reshoots here and there. For example, here is a “before” and “after” of my Prehnite Cluster necklace I just reshot:

Before
 
After
 

I’m definitely liking the colors in the “after” shots much better.

Sometimes I even pull out older pieces and then get this desire to redo or embellish them even more. This is one of those pieces that brings out that feeling in me.

Anyone else ever feel the same? If you have and you’ve redone a piece, I’d love to see before and after pictures. I think it would be interesting to compare…

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tags: miscellany

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Happy 4th of July! · Friday July 4, 2008

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July.

“American Sunset” by GR58

“air force security forces” by Defensor Fortis

“the american” by Exodus Photography

“Raising the 2nd flag on Mount Suribachi” by Steiner62

“On the waterfront” by carpe icthus

“Have a safe July 4th!” by Exodus Photography

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tags: miscellany

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