Followers

Sunday, June 19, 2011

"IT's All About The Glass"

     If you are from the Baby Boomers Team, you may have already visited Cindy Watson's "ShinyThings1" shop.  You may have chatted with her and didn't realize what a remarkable artist  you were chatting with.At the age of two her art work was already being collected and saved, She was drawing pictures on wood at that time and her grandmother was saving it all.
     Cindy says she has always loved to work on wood. She would  use an age old art of  tole painting on these pieces of wood that she would find.
      About 13 years ago she took some classes at her local college, where she learned how to do stained glass. Cindy said, "That's all it took, I was hooked , Now it seems like it's all about the glass".
    About the artist herself, she still has a day job as a Care Giver, something she's done for 18 years. She loves to cook and to garden,  She raises both vegetables and flowers. Where does she find the time! Also, she is a mother and grandmother.
     Cindy is also a generous philanthropist. She made 35 pairs of earrings and donated them to a charity that helps with education. She and I have something in common; she has 2 cats and 1 dog,all of them rescued, because she dearly loves animals. I happen to have a dog and 2 cats all rescued, why? because I love animals.
     Cindy has been a member of  Etsy since Sept.2010, and says she learned of Etsy from a Gift Shop owner, who happened to be selling some of her pieces. Armed with the information of getting on line with Etsy,she looked it up right away and as they say the rest is history
     Cindy is also a memberof the Baby BoomersTeam,and we are blessed to have her aboard. We chat with her each day, and we look at her beautful stained glass art pieces. She is liked very much by other team members and has proven herself dependable and flexible when the occasion calls for it.
      I hope that she will be with the rest of us as "Boomers" for a long time, she has the TEAM SPIRIT we all appreciate. Below is a link to her shop.

http://www.shinythings.etsy.com

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Is There Such A Thing As Too Old?

     Let me think on this, I'm 59 ( that is the first and last time that info will be spoken of) I'm too old for roller skating. I know because the last time I had a really bad fall I broke my left ankle and my right foot. I was in a wheel chair for months, with casts on both legs. Not an experience I want to repeat. Oh, did I mention that was over 10 years ago, and it was because I had a stroke when I was taking my first step down of 3 steps. I take vitamins and drink lots of milk but I don't trust my bones to take another bad fall.Although I was a great roller-skater as a kid, I think maybe I may have lost some of that skill since the last time I skated I was in my 20"s.
     Last year I thought bike riding would be great exercise for me and I could join a friend who is older and bike rides all the time. When I got on my brand new bike for some reason I was a tad bit wobbly. But I pushed ahead, you know, "like riding a bike, you never forget how",  either that statement is not true or I'm too old to ride a bike, Oh, did I mention this, while riding my new bike, I fell twice, I fell into grassy areas and I believe that is what saved me from more broken bones.After a year my bike is still waiting for a rider. Could I be too old to be out riding a bike? I'm not saying that others my age or older are too old, I'm saying it's possible that Me,myself and, I , might be too old.
     On another note, every day when I get up, My dog and I go out for a 2 mile walk. This walk takes place without fail, despite the weather, or what ever the condition my health may be. because my dog will do his business only on these walks, not at home. So if it is pouring down rain, or freezing out, we walk anyway. (Just so you know, my dog has a responsible human who picks up after him)  Later in the afternoon he needs another walk so we take a shorter walk then.  I mention this to say, it's not like I'm living a completely sedentary life.
     I'm not too old for most things,  I live a very active lifestyle. But even at that I know so many people older than myself that can run races around me. When I took over the Captains position of the great Boomers
Team I tried to look at everything from my perspective as a Senior, disabled person, who myself happen to be on 13 teams . As I thought about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to take the team it could only come from my own perspective. Fulfilling the needs of the team members has been priority.  I am a baby boomer and the changes that are taking place are good for me and what's most important, I am capable of doing these things without hurting myself. In other words, I'm not too old and not too young or too energetic for the boomers.
     I'm sure the rest of you are also on other teams as I am. Quite frankly I am on so many teams for the purpose of Promoting. I am here to sell my Jewelry and soon my paintings.But Boomers is home for me now and I have tried to make it a home for everyone else. I have created Social Threads that are just for chatting because I know that is what is important to many of you. I have added some threads for critiquing, and I've tried to make the promotion threads as easy to understand and use as possible. I've put up a thread where you can directly speak to me if your conversations are not of a personal nature,  you can always convo me instead. You also can speak to our one team leader FernHollowFinds and you already know how great she is.
     Is there such a thing as too old? I don't know. It's relative. As for the members on this team, you all amaze me, Some of you are still working full time and then you create your works of art and create and run your shops, and you get your shops and yourselves onto these teams. I do think most of us have a tendency to feel put upon when we are asked for anything more then we're already giving. When that happens I guess we  have to weigh it out, and see what happens on your personal scale. I have a scale where I put these ideas in the palms of my hands, this is how mine looks; one hand-a team that is doing nothing for me, on the other hand-a team that is serving it's purpose and is helping me to earn money, BUT it involves changes.                   
     Only you can decide if the changes are worth the pay-off

Friday, June 17, 2011

Our New Blog

     Baby Boomers is really getting hi-tech now. We have our very own blog. Every one better look out now. This will be our place for team news events, announcements, team activites, and the fun parts, interviews and pics of team members. Articles showcasing our shops. I would like to see "How-To" columns in here as well.
     What I need to see now would be some of you stepping up and volunteering to do  some blogs for us. I guess as Team Captain I will stay on as Managing Editor until that point that the blog is well staffed and someone is ready and willing to take over.
I would like to see some columns perhaps about something that has nothing to do with etsy or Baby Boomers just something that is interesting. So I am asking again let's stand up and get active.
     Baby Boomers as a team is on the move and it will be a great team and you are the charter members, we should all be thinking of people to invite to join, or thinking of ways to find people we could invite to join.       Let's get on the ball. Baby Boomers will take a back seat to no team. We are  a moderated team now,  people have to meet our qualifications to be on our team. So let's go out there and find these people.
Please be thinking about how you can contribute to this blog, and if not the blog then perhaps a committee, on our team, or a team leader.

Baby Boomers Team Rules



1.Do NOT Create new Threads. I have tried to cover every possible discussion. If you feel that nothing in the discussion threads covers what you want to do, then before doing anything else, convo me (your captain) and we will resolve the issue.
2. Check in to the Threads at least once per week.When checking in you must post something. If you have nothing new to post, then these are your options.
    A.   Post a Renewal
   B.    If you have nothing to renew, this is your option;
  C  . Take any one of your items and run a daily special on  it, you could put it on    
        Sale or just feature it. But you must check in once per week and post
       Something.
3.While you’re there spend some time looking at your team mates postings and make comments.  (We want to get to know you, spend a few minutes)
4.  Use one of the critique threads once a week, you can do it at the same time while you’re fulfilling the above requirements.
      The critique games serve a purpose, they help us improve our shops and we   all should be using them on a regular basis, even if it’s the same one each time it will be a different person critiquing you so you can always learn something new.
5.  Once a month you will create a treasury,  it can be a team treasury (just team members) or not. You have a whole month to work on it. If you don’t know how to make a treasury then contact me (Captain) or a team leader
            Treasuries are a selling tool if you don’t know why you should have
To make one. You are doing a service to everyone you feature on your treasury. The treasury is promoted the same as we treasure our items and people like looking at them because they are attractive,  And often sales are generated straight off the treasury. When you do treasuries others will make treasuries and include you in theirs and then you have the opportunity of all that extra exposure you did not have to generate for yourself. Treasuries are a terrific selling tool that we have at our hands and all of us should be taking advantage of the privilege. 

6.. You will comment on your team mates treasuries on the day that you post your treasury.  From the point of your treasury go back 5  treasuries on the thread, look at them and leave a comment. Even if you have seen the treasury before and left a comment, leave another comment.  We need to support our team mates every way and every time that we can, and remember they are doing the same for you,
7.  You can only list one Treasury per posting. If you have more then you will have to make a separate post for each one.

These rules will be in place for 6 months, until Dec. 31, 2011. Jan,1,2012 we will institute another set of rules. Actually they will be pretty much the same, except there will be more severe consequences for breaking the rules. A little more will be expected of you .A team spirit will be expected from everyone and by then i hope that everyone will be familiar with one another, at least to the point of recognizing one another’s avatar, and saying to yourself, oh yeah she’s in here all the time. No one expects that you should know each other on a first name basis. I felt like we needed to be broken into having RULES on a little bit slower pace since we really didn’t have RULES until now.