An Obituary printed in the London Times........ Interesting and, sadly, rather true

oday we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights I Want It Now Someone Else Is To Blame I'm A Victim Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone! Unique Commodities

Snow man humor

Wordless Wednesday

Unique Commodities

Wordless Wednesday

Unique Commodities

Woman calls 911 three times when Mcdonald's Runs out of McNuggets!

Can you believe this?! What in the world! Now I Know McDonald's nuggets are good but are you serious! This was Hilarious so I just had to share!

Woman was told McDonald’s was out of Chicken McNuggets after paying for a 10-piece meal, a local woman called 911.

Three times.

“This is an emergency, If I would have known they didn’t have McNuggets, I wouldn’t have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don’t want one,” Latreasa L. Goodman told police. “This is an emergency.”

The McNugget meltdown happened last week at a McDonald’s in the 600 block of North U.S. 1 and ended with Goodman, 27, getting a notice to appear in court on a misuse of 911 charge, according to a recently released police report.

Goodman told investigators she tried to get a refund for the 10-piece McNuggets, but the cashier told her all sales are final.

“I called 911 because I couldn’t get a refund, and I wanted my McNuggets,” Goodman told police.

The cashier told police she offered Goodman, of the 2400 block of South 25th Street, a larger portion of food for the same price to make up for it, but said Goodman got “irate,” the report states.

Goodman reportedly yelled, “I don’t want a McDouble and small fry,” the cashier told investigators.

Dispatchers for 911 told police Goodman called the emergency number three times and on each occasion was told an officer was en route.

“Goodman maintained the attitude ‘this is an emergency, my McNuggets are an emergency,’” the report states.

McNuggets, introduced to the McDonald’s national menu in 1983, are sold in more than 100 countries and often are dunked in barbecue or hot mustard sauce. Goodman’s 10-piece selection has 460 calories and 29 grams of fat.

On Tuesday, Goodman said she agreed to get a McDouble in lieu of the McNuggets as long as she also got the difference in price back. Goodman said the only menu items she cares for are McNuggets and McDoubles.

Goodman claimed a McDonald’s worker wouldn’t give her the difference in money back, so Goodman decided she wanted a full refund.

Donna Pool Featured Etsyblogger

Donnapool is Etsybloggers team featured artist of the month!

In her own words, she says "Think of my shop as a place where you can find something traditional...with a twist!"

Check out these cool items from her shop!

Why Etsy? Blog Carnival

What made you open a shop on Etsy? What do you like about being a seller on Etsy? What don't you like?

I had been selling on Ebay for a couple of years and was growing tired of how saturated it had become and its off the chart fees. Fact is though I happened upon Etsy. I was doing a search for a particular item I was looking to buy and Etsy came up as a place that someone offered it. I saved Etsy to my favorites out of curiosity and several months later, I finally looked around at the site, liked what I saw and opened up my Unique Commodities Etsy shop on April 11^th, 2007. While I greatly enjoy the team spirit of Etsy and love all of the new online relationships I have built, it seems IMPOSSIBLE for jewelry sellers to get much exposure. So many people are selling it and the fact is as soon as you post so are 10,000 other jewelry sellers. The search criteria is HORRIBLE. Even when I search for my own items after posting, sometimes I can’t find them!

But overall, being a part of the Etsy team has been a positive experience even if all I get to do on it is network and have a few good laughs with a great online friends!

Featured in Treasury

Thank you so much Magdalene Jewels for featuring me in your Surrealistic Pillow treasury!

MY OWOH WINS

WOW! I am so excited about my FIVE OWOH give away wins! LOL! Now you are probably wondering how in the world did Unique Commodities win FIVE!?!

Well they say its all about the odds of numbers baby and I entered over 560 blog contests! LOL! A couple of my gifts I have not received yet but no doubt they are in route (hey that rhymes)! I must say that my absolute FAVORITE gift received was my note cards below from Caloway Creations! Not only did she give me note cards but she wrote me a sweet note on one of her other hand made cards! LOVE IT!

OWOH Gift #1 from Caloway Creations

OWOH Gift#2 from Rhonda Willis Glass and Jewelry and my next favorite

OWOH Gift#3 from TresBelle (also got a book mark but couldn't find it at the time I took the picture)!


OWOH Gift #4 (en route) from Dale's Flights of Fancy
OWOH Gift #5 (en route) from 88 Designs

HELP PLEASE - Left over Bead Mess!

Ok so where do you guys keep your beads left over from projects or that you open and realize it doesn't work for the project. I have sooooo many beads and they are covering my work table! I cant seem to figure out where and how best to store them so they can be easily accessible! So tempted to just DUMP them in the trash but of course I can not do that every time I start a project! I want to be able to use something recyclable versus going out and buying new containers and need it to be space conscious since my work space is rather small (folding card table for now)!

What do you do?

Zionna's Wig Debut!

I tell you little ones have a way of making you laugh until your tummy hurts!! Zionna walks out of the bedroom with her mommies wig in hand and feverishly tries to put it on her head so OF COURSE grandmommy had to help her get it on because it was way too much for her to handle!

DRUM ROLL!!!!!!

Here you have it – Zionna in her mommy’s wig! YES, My young daughter wears a wig!

Necklace Featured on a newbie Bloggers blog

I feel extra special to have my Red Icue Cubed necklace featured on a newbie bloggers blog! I shared about Stuff in a recent article! I love her pay it forward spirit! Check out Stuff's Bonanzle booth!

Thanks again for the feature! Honored to be your first blog and your first follower!

My First Jewelry Booth

A few weeks ago a friend of mine offered me a FREE booth at a Men's Health Fair. I was most excited to have the opportunity to "practice" hosting my first booth. I have never hosted a booth before so I asked Stormy Designs for some tips since she shared in the Etsyblogger forum that she was hosting a booth as well. She sent me to a blog that had some great tips and a neat checklist. I tweaked it and used it to help guide me regarding my supply and set up needs. Set up was required the Friday before the Fair so with my checklist and supplies in hand I went to the venue location. To my pleasant surprise, each table had beautiful white table cloths and my table even had a chair! On top of that, I found out that both a buffet breakfast, lunch AND and a ticket for a drawing to win one of about 20 prizes were included with my booth! WOOT! WOOT! I did not win any prizes (would have LOVED to win tht giant George Foreman Grill) but those full course buffet meals were DELICIOUS! I finished my preliminary set up and felt I was set to arrive at 7:30 am the following morning!
Saturday (to my shame) I arrived about 15 minutes late! That is what I get for going to see "He's just not that into you" with my girlfriends so I didn't get home until 1:00 am! Great chick flick by the way! Anyway, I had to scramble to get my jewelry items and a few other things out on the table. When I arrive the place was already overflowing with men! I got a little nervous because most of the men were older and I really wasn't confident they would be interested in buying their wives gifts for Valentine's Day!

A few things I did were

• have a jewelry give away
• Put blank note cards out with a sign that said write your loved one a note letting her know how much she means to you for just .25 cents. Mostly did this to draw people to my table and only wanted to try to recoupe my cost for the cards!
• 

I laughed because most of the men said "If I write my wife a love note or buy her a gift, she would wonder what was wrong and what I was guilty of"!

The short of it is although I had a goal of making $237 (the cost of all my supplies and jewelry items created for this venue), I only sold $21 worth of jewelry and cards!

BUT....the great thing is that I did some great networking and as a result

• I booked another booth for 6/27/09
• I got a custom order from an organization that wants bracelets and earrings and another organization took my card in hopes of doing the same!

Lastly, to insure that my time there was fruitful (sales or not), I brought some of my jewelry supplies and made several jewelry items!


What are some of the experiences you have had with hosting jewelry booths?

Associated Press Interviewed Me

So here I am sitting in the unemployment office using the computer and here comes a lady asking if she could take my picture while I surfed so they could do a feature regarding the high rate of unemployment. So I said "SURE"! I figure any media exposure I could get with my name and title might drive some recruiter to me right? Well that didn't happen though I did get a one year contract position through DP Professionals at Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS)! I am so excited. Here I am though...bad hair day(that is why I am wearing the hat) and NO MAKE UP!

If you want to read about my BRIEF moment in the spotlight, then just click on the picture!

Jewelry Lust

OK I am beside myself! I log off for a few and get back on and how about ANOTHER pair of my earrings were featured on a different hand picked list! What in the world! Now I haven't had any sales from Bonanzle but I have been featured more than I ever have on any other venue! So exciting! Thank you Crystalhaze for featuring my earrings in your hand picked list!

Bonanzle Featured Earrings!

I am loving all the exposure I am getting on the two new venues I joined thanks to all the research provided by Roseworksjewelry and Tiltcreations!

I logged on tonight and Miss Jones Booth had me featured on her handpicked Limes list! So exciting!

Valentine Daydream - Blog Carnival

Tell us about your sweetie or dream date. What do you like to do for Valentine's Day?

I have not seriously dated since my divorce in 2000 so I almost just wrote about a tutorial or directions but I thought hey I can dream! I can say what my dream date would be if I had a hubby (yes if I am going to dream about it – he might as well be my hubby not boyfriend)! Fact is I am a simple gal! I don’t need extravagance to encourage me or make me feel special Now mind you I do not put a lot of stock in Valentine’s day itself but since the symbolism of the day is what it is… I I think my Valentine celebration will start the 1st of February(sheepish grin). A rose a day with each rose being a different color and representing some symbolism of what I mean to him. He can write me a love note (even on scrap paper) with each rose and place them wherever his imagination tell him to. Perhaps I wil be getting in my car to go to work and there taped to my steering wheel is a love note and a rose. On Valentines day, he can cook me a romantic dinner..yes right at home, we talk and laugh and all that jazz and we ends the romantic dinner with sharing why we are more in love with each other today then when we first met!

It’s my daydream so leave me alone! LOL!

CROBBIES is AWESOME - TWO more sales! WOOT!

Can you say TWO-PEAT? WOOT! WOOT! Being Crobbies featured front page Seller has incredible perks! I got TWO more sales yesterday so that makes 4 sales on Crobbies in my three weeks of being on the venue!! I am loving it!

My FIRST Crobbies Sale - So Excited

OMG! I am so excited! After just TWO weeks of being on Crobbies! I have had not only been the featured Seller on the front page but just got my first sale and sold TWO items! I am so excited!

Featured Bonanzle Seller - Sofyblu2

Where did you sell before you started selling on Bonanzle? How did you find out about Bonanzle?

Bonanzle seller Sofyblu2 was a Power Seller on Ebay for some years. As the “handwriting” showed on the wall in the last 1 1/2 yrs they started looking around at alternatives. None of them grabbed them in the least. Then they saw Bonanzle mentioned in an Auctiva article sometime around June/July. On Aug 27th , Sofyblu2 opened their Bonanzle booth #1627!

What has your experience on Bonanzle been like?

The ride from the beginning was fun and nutz at times always something new changing or being tweaked. When we were “small” the “quarrels” LOL then were the best ways and means to promote Bonanzle. Thru September/October it was a push to get new sellers. October/November it was the push to get new customers. The oldies here, we would scan anything and everything looking for new places to drop the Bonanzle name. Then as a means (I believe) of not overly repeating ourselves the BAC was formed to hit the dirt with a new assignment each week to promote the site.

How many sales has Sofyblu2 made on Bonanzle?

Since Aug. we have sold 50 items. Now many of the “high” sellers seem to have less expensive items therefore their turnover is much faster. Our stuff is on the higher end but not the highest LOL Probably 3/4’s of those sales were to “outsiders” and they were for multiple items, many in the hundreds of dollars. Currently we are a bit stalled as sofyblu2 desperately needs more inventory added but we are trying to finish up sofy’s choice.




We are all looking for good marketing advice. What’s the best tip or trick you can share with us?

The best advice…mmmm.. google feed and google checkout. They help to boost your ranking in the google pages as well as the “master list” of places to promote.