I will admit it - we are credit card junkies, although we have gotten better about how many cards we carry balances on.  But at the same time, I always find myself trying to figure out ways to make a little extra money on the side so we can start paying down those vicious balances and free up all that extra money.  One of the ways of possibly making extra money is through blog marketing, which I think I am going to try doing.

The other day I came across this new site called Snapbomb, where you can get paid to blog about various different topics.  I have already tried a little bit of subtle blog advertising here but I haven’t had much luck with it yet, so I am hoping that with paid posting I am a bit more successful at generating some spare income.  I am going to try Snapbomb and see if they are a good fit for me.  With the state of the economy right now I’m sure you’ll probably start hearing a lot more buzz about this site, so if you’re looking for a way to make a few dollars here and there, I suggest you take a peek over there and see what it’s all about.

Making extra money

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/making-extra-money/

I just heard from my husband that the show, Pushing Daisies, will probably be cancelled.

NOOOOOOOooooooOooOOoOooOoo!!!

WTF, man?  It seems like the networks always, ALWAYS are canceling the interesting shows and keeping the crap, unless an interesting show is really super uber popular (a’la Heroes).  We both swear the network execs must smoke crack daily to make the decisions they do on what shows stay and what shows get the ax.  Why do they still base their decisions primarily on Nielsen ratings??  With the throng of Tivo and other DVR recorders, you’d think they would find some way to take their ratings from those devices, especially since many people have dual tuners or multiple devices in the house that record shows that are on at the same time on different channels.

Bah!  I’m just ticked off that another great show is meeting its end just because it can’t gobble up a 20 share in ratings (or whatever).

Pushing Daisies - say it isn’t so!!

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/pushing-daisies-say-it-isnt-so/

Google is rolling out cool new themes for Gmail.

You will have to log out and log back in, but only if your current layout of Gmail tweaks just ever so slightly… If it looks different to you and you can’t quite put your finger on it (the normal blue color changes just a bit), but you don’t see a “themes” link in your Settings window… Then log out and log back in and you should see a big yellow bar across the top letting you know Themes are available to you.

If your Gmail looks the same as it always has, just wait a little while - it may be minutes, hours or days, they’re rolling out the changes slowly but I’m guessing they’ll probably be done by the end of the week.

I’m using “candy” on one of my accounts, tea house on another, and desk on a third.

Nifty Gmail themes

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/nifty-gmail-themes/

Why is it that every time I go to Subway for lunch, I can still smell the place on my clothes hours later? And while the smell inside the store is nice (mmm… fresh bread!), the after-smell doesn’t smell so great? (it’s like a sour bread-going-bad smell)

It’s like walking into a restaurant or bar that allows smoking and coming out smelling like cigarettes later even if you didn’t do any of the smoking.

Blech.

That lingering scent…

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/that-lingering-scent/

Here is what I spent some of my weekend trying to figure out how to make:

It’s not a great picture, I took it with my camera phone.  But if it’s hard to tell what they are, it’s gingerbread men.  The first one on the left is a dud, I made the clay too thin and attempted to correct it by adding some clay to the back, but quickly found that wasn’t very astheticaly pleasing and trying to blend the seams without squishing the rest of it was more work than I was willing to put into it.

The two on the right are about 2/3rd done in the pic, I finished by adding eyes, smiles and rolls of white clay on the feet and hands for icing.  And a holly berry & leaf on their heads.  Then I made four small round beads that will go with them.  I’ll take more pictures after they’re baked, which I am going to save for when I have more beads to cook - energy conservation and all that.

So what do you think?  Are they cute enough?  These are merely testers since I still need to test them out after baking to see how much abuse they’ll take on a bracelet before I would consider selling them.  I wouldn’t want one of their little bodies to fall off and get lost somewhere (the thread hole is drilled sideways through their heads).

What I did during part of my weekend

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/what-i-did-during-part-of-my-weekend/

That makes me sad

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/that-makes-me-sad/

It’s been catching quite a bit of spam.

Inappropriate spam.  And if you post inappropriate comments, then you know who you are.

How do you like the spam purgatory?  It sure isn’t lonely there, you’ve got company for sure.  Enjoy your stay! 

Thank goodness for Akismet

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/thank-goodness-for-akismet/

I have a bunch of polymer clay sitting around from when I did sculpting (of dragons, primarily, if you’re curious) a few years ago.  Once the kiddo was born, my interest in it kind of waned because it was a bit of a challenge to try juggling work, caring for her in the evenings and trying to do any kind of sculpting with her in the room, especially once she became mobile.  Now that she’s a bit older and can either be entertained by a DVD or with playdoh, I have been contemplating pulling out my stash of clay and trying my hand at making beads.

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Contemplating bead making

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/contemplating-bead-making/

Ok, this is aimed more specifically at those jewelry makers who bounce past my site from Entrecard, but anyone can offer input if you wish.

Please go to my jewelry e-commerce site, Positively Charming, look at my offerings, and provide your thoughts on what I have there. What is crap? What are my best pieces? Do you think I am over or under pricing anything? Any other suggestions or critiques?

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Requesting constructive criticism please

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/requesting-constructive-criticism-please/

There is a blog I came across using Entrecard that I marked on my favorites on the EC toolbar.  It is a gal who makes rings with wire wrapping, and it looks really neat.  She also has an Etsy store, and has a LOT of rings up for sale.

Here is one that caught my eye, simply because it happens to be my favorite color - and the skull bead makes it badass:

Catherinette Rings

 
I’ve always wondered about wire wrapping and trying my hand at it, but strangely I find the few times I’ve tried simple stuff, I am quite clumsy and end up putting dents or ugly unwanted bends in the wire. I can do simple wire looping to connect beads together, but the wrapping like above? Pshaw, I think I’d have a mangled mess!  So I give her props, she has some pretty fine looking wire wrapping there!

Anyway, here is a link to her blog, too:

Catherinette Rings blog.

Go! Go check out her rings!

Pretty rings

http://www.itsjustmythoughts.com/pretty-rings/