Fan Friday: Mannyapolis

Every Friday I'm going to be spotlighting something (person, place or thing) that I'm a fan of on Facebook. Not only to get me more into the mood of regular blogging, (if you've been reading my blogs up to this point you probably know that I'm trying to make it a habit) but also to hopefully introduce my readers to some new stuff!

Today I picked my good friend Manny Castro who updates the lands of Facebook and Twitter on the daily weather situation in the Twin Cities.

He is:

Mannyapolis

His mission: Providing the most accurate misinformation and detailed reports of misestimation to the public in general.

Short and sweet posts yet more entertaining than any weatherman I know. Heck, Manny tweets everyday. I don't see Paul Douglas doing that and he's a professional, yet retired, weatherman.

Even if you don't live in Minnesota, you should be Manny's fan. Maybe he'll branch out if he gets enough out of state fans.

Become a fan of Mannyapolis on Facebook here

Follow @mannyapolis on Twitter

Making changes

The workshop in Estes Park was excellent. I got lots of good information about how to increase my online presence, but more importantly, I met some very awesome artists from all over the country. The energy in the room was amazing; so many people trying so hard to make their businesses succeed. It was very inspiring. As those of you who have actually read my blogs know, I struggle with what to write about A LOT because I always thought about all I should be writing about is what's going on with my art. New pieces I've made, shows I've applied to, etc. NOT TRUE! I got a whole list of ideas of what I should write about for my blog and I've very excited to start applying them.

I also got some great tips about my Facebook and Twitter profiles and have started applying what I learned to my Facebook right away. Having two Facebook profiles was getting to be quite difficult to keep up with so I decided to whittle it down to one and just clean up shop. I had so many stupid application invites, almost 120 of them that I went through and finally got rid of. Some of that stuff is fun, but there's already so much to keep up with on Facebook that having a Lil' Green Patch and some hatching egg thing and whatever else is just overkill. No offense to anyone who sends me any of that stuff, but I won't accept it unless it's either REALLY funny or REALLY useful/cool. I've got enough to do without getting sucked in to quizzes like "What Steel Magnolias character are you?". 

So from now on, you will see some different things going on with my blog, and possibly see a switch as I try to learn more about WordPress and how it might be a better fit for me (also a workshop suggestion). 

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!

I have not forgotten, I'm biding my time

I'm VERY excited for the artist's workshop on building a better web presence! I have not forgotten to blog, I've just been pretty busy preparing to go to CO (where I am now) and didn't want to write a blog about nothing in particular. I'm saving today's blog (yes I know I'm blogging today but it's not anything huge...) for tomorrow when I know I'll have something informative to say.

Here's a little something that I noted on my Twitter that popped in my head while I was watching the wing move (I luckily got a window seat!) when we were preparing to land. The mechanics don't move the wing THAT much, but it makes such a huge difference in how the plane flies and how the wind reacts to the wing. I thought about how our lives are like that. Sometimes just the smallest changes can really make a difference in how we fly, or as someone pointed out on Twitter, how we crash! Little things really can make big differences.

Okay, okay, iCal, I KNOW!!!

iCal keeps reminding me, like it's supposed to, that I have to blog today. And once again, I don't have a whole lot to say, but going to just make some commentary on things going on around me lately.

A great person I follow on Twitter, Cassandra Harrison (@geehowquaint), told me about this book that she reads to get her butt moving; to keep procrastination at bay. It's called "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield (link provided to save you from going through 10,000 pages of "art of war" when you search). So, one day on lunch I went to Borders and flipped through it and thought for $13, I NEED this book. It's inspiring, it's motivating, and it does it in such a matter of fact way. None of this sunshine and rainbows garbage. More like, you're the one who's getting in your own damn way and the only person you can blame for your failures is yourself. Get off the couch, tune out the chatter, and GET TO WORK. It's a very fast read because of how he's broken up the sections and again, definitely worth the money. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to start something new, follow a passion or just be a better version of themselves.

We had another visit from the trainer (Bark Busters) yesterday and Bea has been behaving. It's kind of scary because it was such a dramatic change from one day to the next. I hope she's not depressed or something. But she is being very, VERY good. I'll post some pictures of Bea sometime soon so you can see how cute and adorable she is. :)

To give, to help, to share....pass it along

The design/art community is truly a wonderful place to be. Granted, there are always folks that ruin it; that steal ideas, undercut prices, underbid jobs, all in the name of getting ahead. But at the heart of it lies people that just want to share their passion with others, that want to give as much as they get, that love their job/craft and just want to let everyone know.

I've started some great communication with awesome people on Twitter that really inspire me. People that have nothing to gain by telling me that they like what I do but do it anyway. They don't have to share their techniques, what they've learned, what they've discovered; but they do. They make me laugh, they make me think and they make me realize the world is really small when you get down to it. I'm appreciative of all of my followers on Twitter and by no means are these the only people that I think are great, I just wanted to pull out a few that have taken the time to DM (direct message for you non-Twitter folk) or reply to my tweets; people who know the name of the game of Twitter, and that's to build connections. 

I truly believe that what you give comes back to you, so today's blog isn't about me, what I'm selling, what I'm advertising, what I'm doing. It's about those people who have taken the time to share their thoughts, ideas, and artwork with me and I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look at what they do. I've included their Twitter ID's if you'd like to check out their tweets but please don't follow them if you have something to sell or something to spam. The last thing Twitter needs is more people pitching the promise of 15 bazillion followers overnight or the ability to make someone into a "social media expert". 

Dead Pan Alley

@deadpanalley

Sarahndipitous

@sarahndipitous

Laura Timmins

@goheadoverheels

Lisa Stewart

@ecstewart

Melinda Wyers

@jetgirlart

Miss Destructo

@missdestructo

Alyssa Meadows

@alydesigns

Kim Woodbridge

@kwbridge

Shannon Grissom

@shannongrissom

New Etsy site

I've been following Etsy on Twitter and have always had a love for the site. I really enjoy making things by hand but am more of an admirer than a participant. When I started my business, most of my products were handmade items, and because it was so time consuming, I slowly moved to doing digital collages. Still time consuming, but no mess to clean up and no products to buy other than paper and ink for my printer. But I've been missing adding that handmade touch to my artwork. So as I struggled for a way to mount the new collages I posted last week, I decided it was time to return to my love of making things by hand.

This the new artwork:

I mounted the collages to 4 x 4 canvases that have been painted with acrylic paint and then "antiqued" with walnut ink. Then I applied beeswax to the print and the canvas.

I will be selling these collages through Etsy and you can find them here. They are a limited edition of 100. Enjoy!

20 minutes late

So I posted my Monday blog on Sunday and I'm twenty minutes late for my Wednesday blog. What can I say? I had work to do and lists to make. But now here I am, still trying to figure out how best to capitalize on my stupid downtime. I hate downtime. I hate super busy time, too, but I would much rather have that than sitting here trying to figure out what next. Pouring over tons of marketing websites, trying to figure out how best to promote on the cheap. I'm spending more and more time on Twitter and I'm really starting to like it. Being connected to other artist/photographers/people with like interests is really fun.

I'm following Etsy on Twitter and have decided to create an Etsy account to sell some of my new collages. The audience here in MN really seems to enjoy the location collages, but I'm always curious if there's an audience out there for my other work as well. 

So I'm going to give that a go. I also might bring back some of my old work, like my handmade greetings cards. The work that got me started. I spent quite a while digging through old Zip disks (yes they still work!) and CDs trying to find the files so I can create more than what I already have if I want to, but as of yet I haven't been too successful. I'll keep digging, but for right now I might just focus on making new work. Making new work similar to the old work might even produce better results! I'm kind of excited. I really enjoy making handmade things.

One last plug....don't forget about Arts at the Oval coming up in a couple of weeks! 2 days after my birthday, in fact.

Until next time!

Twitfacespace

I am completely overwhelmed by social networking these days. There's SO much!! People blog, tweet, facebook, myspace....you could spend all day just talking about yourself! Or pointing people to things you found interesting. Or connecting with customers, friends, family, etc. It's amazing. An artist I'm following on Twitter, Shannon Grissom, pointed me to this article. It made my head spin. I could spend all day reading up on how to "properly" use these resources. 

Is that the best way to use my time? I have no idea. I hate to bring up the economy because people are probably so very sick of hearing it, but I think drumming up new business will be a struggle this year. Plus I'm trying to be cost effective in doing it. I can't afford to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on ads, be it print or web, so I'm going to take a shot at all of this social networking stuff. So...shameless plugs:

Follow me on Twitter!

Friend me on Facebook!

or, sign up for my email newsletter on my website!

Sorry, folks. If I don't have business, my dog goes hungry. ;)

This might just work out!

Ok, I'm positive bragging about my ability to follow through with posting a blog every three days is annoying, but it's a big deal to me since my whole goal this year is to consistently follow through on things that will better my business in the long run. I promise that this won't be a continuous topic of my blog, or maybe it will be until someone comments to shut up already. :)

New things.....

I'm going to work towards getting to Chicago in the beginning of March to FINALLY complete my Chicago collages. Yes, I know, I've been talking about that for a year, but this time I have the time, resources and travel companions in place to make it happen for sure.

Atlanta collage? I have a friend that will be moving back to Atlanta this year and she's invited me down to show me around. She thought it might be an interesting place to do a collage of. I'd love to hear some feedback!

Collage a day. I'm currently tossing around the idea of doing one collage a day and putting it up for sale on a separate blog page. Right now I just don't feel all that creative and it's a bummer. I've seen a lot of 365 blogs (my friend who's moving to Atlanta currently has one that I think is fantastic) and I just like the idea of trying to do something you love every single day to push yourself to be better at your craft and learn new techniques. I'll update my website with a link as well as announce on my Facebook profile and Twitter page should I follow through!