Bad day distractions

I'm having a particularly not so great kind of day. It's definitely made mostly of my own attitudes toward each of the situations I've come across and I hope that I'll fell more positive tomorrow morning.

Until then I'll share two articles that have distracted me and cheered me up a little.

This is a really neat look at Teller, the silent and (I think) more interesting half of Penn & Teller.
A man, a ball, a hoop, a bench (and an alleged thread)... TELLER!

The second one is short and sweet - a special effects company makes a mermaid tail for a girl who had both legs amputated beneath the knee. I wish there was more pictures included. Super cool.
Mermaid Dream

My heart is unraveling all over the internet...

I found my Unraveling Heart online, being recommended! I like what pandabear18788 says about it. I think I'm gong to find out a bit more about this website, but here is the link:

http://www.thisnext.com/item/11EA35D1/2BA40E7B/arevera-Unraveling-Heart

:D

Facing the book.

From Twitter, to Facebook, I'm all over the web now, muahahaha!

But seriously, I'm working harder to be more out there and online so that I can get a little more notice. I know I have a lot to do with my shop, including working on some new pieces, but I keep taking steps, slowly but surely, and I'm getting there one way or another.

I've had negative views on Facebook for a long time - things that I've heard about it mostly. I worry that now I'm going to look a little like a hypocrite, but I have good reasons for signing up. The difference between me then (not interested in facebook) and me now (signing up) is not that I've seen any sort of light to it or changed my views entirely, but I have realized it's practical potential for what I want and need. Before I didn't have a shop that I wanted to promote.

I've never thought of this before, but if someone asked me if I was ambitious I would have to say, "definitely, I am". I work hard at what I love and at what I dream, and that, I suppose, is ambition. I'm definitely going to have to take a look at the definition for that word, lol.

I'm all a Twitter

Teehee, I just signed onto Twitter - now I'll be able to keep in touch with things so much more.

As much as I'm loving the blog, I want to get myself out there as much as possible, and i think the twitter will help me do that with the shorter, more frequent posts. I never seem to update my blog as much as I'd like to, and it's hard for my blog to get noticed even when I am posting on it.

My next step... Facebook.

I've been avoiding it for years, but now, well, I think that might be a fantastic way to get myself connected to a lot more people. I need to make connections in order to get people's attentions so I need to make the first step.

Making friends was never easier... or in my case, more difficult. Not being an extremely social person, it's hard for me to all of a sudden start trying to get talkative, but it will be a new experience for me.

Anyways - here's the Twitter link:
twitter.com/areVera

Speaking of all this, it seems that I haven't updated my Flickr in almost months. Maybe I should start with that (blushes).

New Pictures!

I'm super excited about the new pictures that I took! Here are some of them:



I'm using some handmade paper that I bought from the local scrapbooking store. I think the texture works really well and the colours are definitely more eyecatching.

I built a light box to make the pictures brighter. I got the instructions from a website that someone showed me when I got advice in the forum on etsy.

Here's the link to the instructions, if you're curious:
www.studiolighting.net/homemade-light-box-for-product-photography/

Sales are ending

It's sad, I know, but as all good things come to an end, so must the sales in my shop. They won't be the last but at the end of this coming week both the introductory sale of free shipping on Veracious and the Valentine's sale on areVera are going to be ending. Sigh.

Part of the reason for this is because, well, Valentine's day will be past and also my reading week is coming up. Veracious will actually have to be on vacation for next week because of this. I will be visiting my parents, and the sculptures are not easy to travel with. areVera will still be up and running.

Reading week is going to be a great oppourtunity for me to do work on my shop - but it's also going to be pretty busy for me. I've got a lot to work on for my classes, but perhaps I'll chat more on that later.

Free Rice!

Why does it seem that everything I link to has been found on Neatorama? (Probably because I read from it almost every day - is that bad?)

Anyways, here's something great that I found, called Free Rice.

www.freerice.com

You go on this website and answer questions. You can be quized on different things from vocabulary to art to chemistry. You get to learn from it, and, more importantly, every time you answer a question correctly, you are donating rice through the UN. It's only a few grains at a time, but it will make a meal for someone that is hungry. There's absolutely no catch to it either, you don't have to sign up, you can play and stop any time you want.

The first subject I automatically was put on was vocabulary, how awesome is that? Teehee, it pays to be a bookworm now and again.

Fun things

Talking about creativity - check out these pictures of fruit carving (found on Neatorama):
http://completeall.com/Art-and-Design/Watermelon-Carving.html

Also, I found a link to this (also on Neatorama). It's apparently a pledge all about laughter, which is a super-great idea:
http://weeklyworldlaugh.blogspot.com/

Things are going well, more or less..

I've been getting some fantastic reviews about Veracious Art and it makes me fantastically happy! More than one person has messaged me with a compliment and someone actually put me in their blog. Check it out here:
http://brennneda.blogspot.com/

Yesterday the views I received on "Reading Man" made a huge spike and most of the others grew a little as well. My guess (probably more my hope than anything) is that I might have made it to the front page. I really can't be sure unless there is a way to check, but I don't know how. Oh well, I'm happy to get the numbers!

I have so many sculptures in mind to make, I hope to put them into the shop as soon as possible so that I can keep updating it. Hopefully I can figure out how to make my pitcures brighter.

areVera is making some sales - the hearts are going great! It makes me happy because I'm always glad to make them because they're fun to do. My first sale seems to have hit a snag, however, it hasn't arrived at the destination yet, and I was told it should be there right about now. I hope that it gets there soon...