ECStewart $75 Gift Certificate Giveaway!

Announcing November Giveaway:
One $75 gift certificate* from ECStewart Designs!

Simple rules for the contest..

1. Post this as a separate entry on your blog by Monday, Nov 30th at 3p(EST).
   (You may borrow the graphic above.)
2. Once you do, post a comment here with your link.
3. Contest ends Monday evening, November 3oth 6p(EST).
4. Winning name announced Monday evening,
5. You can’t be related to me -even thru marriage. Besides, you get all kinds of cool stuff from me anyway, right?
6. You must be reachable so that we can contact you. If I cannot verify your ID or reach you via email, learn that you’ve come from a ‘Sweeps’ forum, I will disqualify your posts.
7. Not redeemable for cash

Send your friends and good luck!

How would you spend $75? Your wish list begins here.

Hurry! Monday is right around the corner!!
~Lisa, Your CREATIVEGoddess

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

For the first time in my life, I actually baked a pumpkin. The instructions were found in MAndrew’s Joy of Cooking book circa 1954! Of the hundreds of cookbooks that we possess, none of them had it! It’s not difficult by any means, but dammit! I needed include this on my bucket list! Sheesh!

Purchase Baking Pumpkin
(the small ones marked ‘baking’ -not the big ones marked ‘lobotomize your jack here’)
Cut it in half width wise
(that means set it up naturally and cut latitudinally [across], not longitudinally [vertical])
Turn your cut halfs upside down on foil that’s placed on a cookie sheet
Bake at 350* for 1 hour
Pull out of the oven and watch the foil crinkle around the pumpkins (too much fun!)
Let cool
Scrap the pumpkin pulp from the rind like a melon
Puree in your favorite blender until it looks like babyfood.
Choose recipe to use your new pulp.

My next thoughts turned to the options for using the pulp. I was going to make a pumpkin pie, but decided to use it for something a little more fun -muffins!

Pumpkin Muffins

I can only tell you how delicious they are since we’re still living in the dark ages without smell-o-vision. We found the recipe on Epicurious. Read the reviews, one might consider following them (extra pumpkin pulp, etc).

We’re taking a batch to our favorite inlaws to wow them.

Enjoy your day!

Have You Been Bought Through Twitter?

The giants are warming up to a new frontier of advertising: Twitter.

How? Getting regular people to send a sentence or two of text, on behalf of paying advertisers, to their friends and followers.

The NYTimes reports that there is a growing group of celebrities, bloggers and regular Internet users who are allowing advertisers to send commercial messages to their personal contacts on social networks. Charter Communications, the Make a Wish Foundation and other companies are among those harnessing informal chats between friends to promote their products and services.

This month, Amazon.com said it would start paying commissions to individuals who refer buyers to the site via Twitter messages. (People must first sign up for Amazon Associates, a program in which Amazon pays Web publishers for referrals to its site.) Would be nice if North Carolina could get it’s act together so I could at least get my Associates account re-established, but that’s another story.

John Chow, blogger and Internet entrepreneur in Vancouver, BC received ~$3,000 income from Twitter ads for ‘just pushing a button.’ On another occasion, he received $200 from Mars to tell his friends about personalized M&Ms.

My first question that I have is, “where do I sign up?” The next question I have is, “would my friends really enjoy getting duped if they realized my passion wasn’t really for PortoRico’s Danish Blend after all?” I think you all know the answer to that!

We buy based on trust.
We trust recommendations from our friends and resources that we know and respect. Would your respect continue to flourish once you learned that every few minutes, your private time was interrupted for a commercial break?

Honey? Why did you bring that chainsaw to bed with us?” “Because at a very inconvenient time, I’ll have to Tweet about it and run it’s engine!”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/business/22ping.html?bl

ECStewart $75 Gift Certificate Winner!

We’re so happy that many of you stopped by to say hello at our trunkshow at Seagrove Pottery and to see our new luxe goods. We always love to hear the ‘ahhhhs’ when fondling our soft leathers and the ‘ohhhs’ when you spy the earrings or the pendants.

So without further ado…
Announcing our Winner: Congratulations to Jane Albright!
We’ve sent you an email and look forward to sending you your choice gifts!

PS. Join our Fan Page and show off your new goods!

Trunkshow: Seagrove Pottery

Trunkshow | Seagrove Pottery, Cameron Village
Thursday, November 19 | 5 – 8pm

Celebrating Big: A Fostering Partnership

It’s been a long hard 2 years and we’re finally seeing some payoff for our due diligence. While we can’t reveal just who has affections for my art, I can tell you the Pure Breed Dogs will be announcing their presence soon.

Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, we’re enjoying a glass of 1997 Regusci Merlot -a bottle Andrew picked up on his first visit to Napa several years ago.

Our Rating: 1997 Regusci Merlot:
Nose: Smells woody; faint oak.
Taste: Bit of a burn, so cinnamon and a bit of Pepper, with strong overtones of cherry, and a little strawberry.
Mellows quite a bit over time.

Good food pairings:
Would go very well with a salad that has a raspberry vinaigrette: must include cheese.

Speaking of cheeses… a cave aged Gruyere

Meat:
Grilled pork tenderloin with grilled onions and a rosemary red wine reduction.
Andrew also says that it will pair very well with lambchops. I, however, won’t eat lamb simply because of my love for Mary’s pet.

Paired very well with Andrew’s pizza tonight

This sweet nectar of Bacchus must be savored slowly.

Pts: 87-92
Stars ★★★★✩

Cheers! ~Lisa

Help Me Choose 4 More Dogs!

I just got some fabulous news yesterday and I need your help! It is my job to illustrate 4 more dogs within the next four weeks.

Currently, I’m working on the Schnauzer and perhaps the Dachshund. What would be the next two dogs you’d like to see?

To purchase: Pure Breed Fine Art Prints & Cards

Thanks much!
XO ~Lisa

Studio News: On Giveaways

It appears as though the fun is finished on Facebook, at least for a little while. It doesn’t take long for the scurvy to find their way into clenches and ruin a good thing.

This month, I’ve just read a Special Alert: Facebook Issues New Policy Regarding Conducting Sweepstakes and Contests by Winston & Strawn, outlining the policy for administering sweepstakes and contests through Facebook.

As an creative entrepreneur, I’ve done my best to uphold the ethics while running my giveaways. My attitude is a bit casual for now, until I hire a team of attorneys who dictate that I must submit a conspicuous list of terms 10 miles long. Until then, it’s based on a gentleman’s agreement (I take those very seriously) that I uphold my end of the deal. Please forgive me if I’m a little late in choosing a winner -I’m striving to get better at the timing.

I’ve also called a spade a spade when it comes to parasites clamouring to my site to get something just for free rather than being a true fan. Sure, we all love free stuff, but I celebrate my fans by giving a little back and I’ll know right away if you’re here for just the beer.

Until then, I’ve got some delicious giveaways to launch! Stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday

How to Get Your Rhyme On

Alliteration Fliteration
AdAge is telling us creatives to get over our fear of alliteration & rhyming.

Why?

Because Mother Goose & Dr. Suess (oooh, I rhymed) was more than a handful a childhood stories to learn by, the these schemas taught us memorization. Singing also teaches memorization, but not many are fascinated with being included in my personal musical.

Simple, familiar sounds work easier at recall magic.

Alliteration is the repetition of the first consonant sound in a phrase. It’s also consider a ‘head rhyme’ because the rhyming begins at the start of the word.

“Bumbling, babbling band of baboons” (Goblet of Fire.)

Rhyming can be used in a specific and a general sense. Feminine, masculine, dactylic, syllabic, imperfect, semirhyme, assonance, consonance, half-rhyme are myriad way one can work unaided recall.

Rhyme Time
Loose Goose
Rumble and Tumble

Slogans: “One flick of your Bic, I can see you’re a hick.’”

When I need to memorize words, phrases or ideas, I run thru the list of synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms to speed the recall process.

Product Alliteration
While you’re busy managing your memorization, one should also look at business names, processes, and products that need to be named and labeled. When we were crafting the calligraphic style of my pets in 2001, we ran thru a dozen names before Andrew announced, “CalligraphyCats.”

It made perfect sense. It’s alliterative and it elucidates the form, function, and output of my product.

So, the next time you’re dreaming and scheming of your new product line, head to the alliteration station and get your rhyme on.

Now, I think this just might help with my podcasting… Stay tuned!