Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Blissful Mondays is Now on Facebook!

I finally did it! I created a fan page on Facebook! I am a little nervous of the idea of "growing" the business because I know that this may very well increase communication from customers to me. That makes me nervous because I can get fairly busy making items and taking care of the kids and I am afraid I won't be able to stay on top of communication with folks. However, I am going to do my very best!! 

Come on over and "Like" my fan page if you'd like! If you have bought something from me and have appreciation photos I would love it if you posted them there! It warms my heart to see your precious babies in my hats and booties!

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Blissful Mondays on Facebook

In case you haven't been in the shop for a while, here are a few new items.





Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Why Does(n't) Media Equal Truth

As a society, we are inundated with news reports, photos, videos and blogs from all kinds of sources. From television, internet, radio and papers, there are literal millions of media outlets to fill our thirst for knowledge. However, how factual is that knowledge? Would you be as interested in a news story if you knew it was written with the purpose of changing your opinion, and thus the truth was stretched or slanted to gain that goal? Or how about an out and out fabrication; would you be interested in that story, photo, blog if it were posing as truth and turned out to be an out and out lie? I think most of us agree we aren’t interested in being coerced into believing anything. Sure, I’ll read a persuasive piece any day as these news pieces are not masking as news reports…but as one person’s opinion.


The problem is that most people when coming across a “news source” (and I mean that in the loosest sense of the word “news”) immediately believe it to be fact. No further investigation is done to corroborate the story…no independent unbiased reading is conducted. The media is absorbed, either auditory, or visually and it becomes cemented in that reader’s mind and becomes truth. This is such a dangerous habit so many of us have. And I’ll admit I have done this too. After all, it is so much easier to just accept what we hear or see as truth; it is much harder to actually put the work into finding out if it is true.


Take the image above, for instance. Take a look…a real close look. See anything wrong? Many won’t, it takes a trained eye to see many of the flaws, but one is obvious. The building on the left mysteriously disappears on the right side below the tear in the photo. There are other signs that this is a doctored photo as well, but that one is the most obvious. Yes, before you get upset, this is a fake photo. That is not to say that there is not animal abuse in the circus, or that an elephant has never been hoisted with ropes before. All it means is that some creative person cut and pasted this image together and it is FAKE. But looking at it and not knowing that evokes some emotions in you, doesn’t it? I would think that it is safe to say that whomever made this image intended to do just that…evoke emotion. Maybe they hated circuses and wanted to taint their image….maybe they just wanted their photo on the front page of the paper. Who knows; the point is that this picture should not be used to base your opinions of circuses. Like them or hate them is regardless. Base your opinion on facts…not media biased or lies.


Take a moment to read through the comments on this Pin on Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/pin/2814818486958233/

Yes, you’ll see a few of my comments in there….to no avail. Amazing how angry and passionate people get. How many of those people are really ensuring what they are seeing is real? If you looked you’ll know very few are.


Okay, so I am going somewhere with this. The same frenzy this photo created is not so unlike the frenzy created over the recent Susan G Komen scandal. Thousands and thousands of people blogged, called or emailed their complaints to numerous media outlets in the days to follow Planned Parenthoods media release about the funding changes from SGK. How many people really looked into the facts? How many people rushed to judgment, threated to mail coat hangers in the mail to SGK, called all pro-lifers women haters, cursed the overall mission of SGK? It was flabbergasting. There was the story from SGK, and then there was PP story….and in the middle was the truth. But no one cares about the truth sometimes. Not when the slant helps push their cause forward so much better.


Back to the photo. Are circuses bad? Maybe. But to prove it you must base it in fact. The same needs to be said for the whole abortion issue. Hate abortion? Great? Why, and don’t tell me because it’s wrong. Tell me why it is wrong. Have some meat to your argument. Maybe you support abortion rights. Why? Again…don’t give some lame answer that a woman has the right to do to her body what she wants because we all know, whether we want to admit it or not, that it is not her body that anything is being done to. The suction tube sucks up a fetus, the saline solution burns the fetus inside and out, abortion pills poison the fetus…not the mother…they are separate human beings. The mother is not burned, poisoned, or sucked up into the tube used by abortionists; the unborn baby, often times with a beating heart, little hands, feet, and head, is. So, again, have a valid arguement that supports why you believe it is okay to end the life of a baby in the womb....and (hopefully) don't approve of it outside the womb.

How many people who are on the fence, or even pro-abortion, would change their point of view if they based their opinion on researched facts rather than media slant? And yes, most of your local news stations pose every story to you with a strong liberal slant. Our wealth of knowledge should NOT come from media at all! And everything we read should be supported by other factual pieces or we must question the validity of that piece. So, if you are reading this, know that this is not a news source, but merely my own ranting on frustrations of how gullible otherwise very intelligent people can be. (even me sometimes!).

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Introducing my Deluxe Baby Booties and more.



January started off as a good month, but about mid-way through I got all caught up in an idea and became determined to figure out a way to increase my sales on Etsy. Thus, the rest of the house was ignored. Yup, you know what that means. I've got a lot of household chores to catch up on!

Good news is that I think I have developed a great product that in time will be a number one seller! I saw so many booties on Etsy, many of which look so much like so many others, and I just knew that to be successful I needed something to set my product in a different category. I decided to crochet tiny embellishments on each booty, or hand embroider designs on each one to add to their aesthetic qualities and provide something no one else is, that I can see on Etsy.

The first set of booties I listed sold within hours! I hope that is a good sign. Only time will tell. I love feedback, so please check out my products and let me know what you think. Here are some photos:



Aside from that I have been trying to continue decluttering the house, though I am behind on the schedule. I feel like once I get this new booty line up and running I will feel good to get back to getting the house in order. As it is, I have family arriving in a month and I am totally not ready!!

February, I hope, will be a productive month. My plans for this month are to gut my teenage daughter's bedroom and redo it...in a more grown up fashion. Gone will be the fairies and stuffed animals and in will move a mature theme appropriate for a young girl her age. Maybe that will motivate her to keep her room clean....a girl can wish!

So, before I go, here are some great sites on found on embroidery that I hope are going to help guide me through learning this new trade.

Wild Olive:
http://wildolive.blogspot.com/search/label/embroidery%20basics

Sarah's Embroidery:
http://www.embroidery.rocksea.org/