And So It Goes

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the annual Doors Open Denver, where businesses all over Denver open their doors for tours. Here are two of my favorite pictures from the excursion. The first is the inside of the D&F Tower on 16th Street and the second is some beautiful tulips that were growing outside Castle Marne.

Over the past couple of months I have discovered that i have a new-found talent and love: jewelry making. I took a beading class and after one day I was hooked (no earring pun intended).

Since I am already an avid fan of Etsy, I have decided to put myself out there and open my own Etsy store. Right now I am big into making earrings and necklaces and am learning new ways to manipulate wire. My hope is to become efficient at wire wrapping my own pendants so I can make some more original pieces.

This new venture will not only challenge my creativity and crafting skills, but also my ability to market myself. To check out my current inventory, visit my shop: ChainOfJewels.

I will post more updates as I create new pieces, and I welcome any and all feedback!

It’s amazing how much things can change in five years.

Today I was out shopping and picked up a new 4GB jump drive for about $14. This got me thinking back to when I bought my first jump drive back in 2005, which was almost five years ago. Back then I was taking a class called “Style and Design in Public Relations Messages.” The course naturally involved a lot of computer assignments, so we were required to have jump drives to store our work. I bought one with 512MB of storage for $150. Today I don’t think they even make ones that small, and for the amount I spent on my old one you could get 32GB or more of storage. Amazing.

Looking back, I have realized just how far technology has come since 2005. Here are just a few examples:

Then: All of my music was organized in Winamp, and when I wanted to go on a trip I burned several mix CDs.

Now: My music is organized in iTunes and all I have to take with me on trips is my iPod.

Then: I had a little silver flip phone that I adored because it had text messaging, a camera, a cool color screen, and polyphonic ringtones.

Now: My phone has a touch screen, GPS, video camera, internet browser, mobile email, mp3 ringtones and photo editing capabilities, among countless other features.

Then: Facebook had just opened up to high school students and was still very basic.

Now: Facebook is open to everyone, has millions more users and myriad features that it did not have in 2005, such as notes, gifts, news feed, status messages, chat and applications.

Then: Most people had never heard of YouTube.

Now: YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the web and has more than a billion views per day.

Then: Gmail was invitation only. I had gotten an invitation and signed up, but wasn’t sure if I would actually use it.

Now: Gmail is open to everyone, has more than 100 million users, and is my primary email service. Also, Google Wave is on the way.

These examples represent only a fraction of the ways in which technology has changed in the last five years. I can’t even begin to express how much these changes have impacted the way we communicate with each other and experience the world. With the way technology is growing exponentially, I can only imagine how different things will be a mere five years down the road. All I can say is that I am glad I will be along for the ride.

In college I had a blog where I would occasionally post photos I had taken especially ones that made me particularly proud. Though that blog is no longer in operation, I would like to continue the grand tradition here, starting with a few pictures I took on a recent trip into the mountains. Enjoy!

Matchless Mine in Leadville, Colorado

Matchless Mine in Leadville, Colorado

Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado

The internet never ceases to amaze me. As such, I feel compelled to give a shout-out to some of my favorite sites. For this post, my choice is Etsy.com.

I first learned about Etsy nearly a year ago when one of my students gave a speech encouraging people to use the site. Etsy is an internet marketplace where people can buy and sell all things handmade. These items range from artwork to clothing to jewelry and even furniture. People wishing to sell their wares can create stores to showcase and sell their work while people looking to make a purchase can search for a specific item or browse by category. There is also a blog, chat, online classes, news articles and other community-building tools.

One of my favorite features of the site is alchemy. With alchemy, people who are searching for something specific can post the specifications of what they want and then artists can put in bids to create the piece. I used alchemy in November when I wanted a painting of the family cats to give to my sister for Christmas. I got nearly 30 bids and was able to browse the works of all of these artists as well as compare their prices. In the end I chose a great artist called brigittemarie. I sent her a picture of my cats and she went right to work. Through Etsy, we were able to discuss the specifications of the picture and she was very dilligent in sending me in-progress photos to make sure I was getting exactly what I had wanted. In the end I recieved this beautiful painting:

Etsy is such a great site because buyers and sellers can interact directly with each other. If someone has an issue with a purchase, they can go directly to the seller without having to sit on hold for hours or fill out generic feedback forms. Just visiting the site makes you feel like you have entered a close-knit community rather than the site of some entity trying to make money off of you. Whether you are looking to buy, sell or simply browse, please take a moment to visit this amazing site. You might just find that perfect handmade gift for a loved one or even yourself.

Meet Chloe.

A little over a year ago, Chloe was a stray cat living at the Maxfund No-Kill Animal Shelter in Denver. My sister, who had been a volunteer for Maxfund for a while, decided to become a foster parent for Maxfund cats. Her first charge was Chloe, who was so stressed out by living at the shelter that she would overeat, making her one very large cat. Going home with my sister allowed Chloe to live in a much less stressful environment while she waited for someone to adopt her.

While fostering an animal is great for that animal’s overall health and peace of mind, it makes it much more difficult for that animal to be adopted, since it is not at the shelter where most potential pet owners go to find new family members. To help out with this process, my sister decided she needed to give Chloe some kind of visibility beyond her Maxfund profile.

The solution? She started a blog.

The Purrfect Companion gave my sister a chance to write in greater detail about Chloe’s personality and progress in her new setting. Though she only made a handful of posts, the results were astounding. Over the next year, nearly every person who wrote to express interest in Chloe mentioned how much they loved the blog. Chloe’s web presence drew quite a few people to come meet her in person. Unfortunately, Chloe is a rather shy animal who failed to seal the deal because she often hid when people came to meet her. Without the blog though, she might not ever have been given the chance to meet so many potential owners.

Eventually, the blog paid off. Chloe’s story attracted the perfect match and she now has a happy new home with her new owner.  My sister plans to continue blogging about future foster animals, so keep an eye out. You may just find the purrfect companion.

Welcome to my new blog. Here you can learn more about me, my experience with social media, and some of the wonderful things that can be found on the web. Enjoy.