Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all my dear readers.

I {anatomical} heart all of you.

Yes, I'm kind of a dork. I can't do anything normal. (Proud of it, too!)

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I {Anatomical} Heart You

Happy Valentine's Day to all my dear readers.I {anatomical} heart all of you.

I {anatomical} heart you., originally uploaded by passitonplates.

Last year at my day job, we exchanged valentines. The treat that I brought in last year was pretty well received, so I think I'll make this year a repeat of last year's treat.

First, I went to a restaurant supply store and got narrow poly bags that are food-safe and have a zipper seal. A hundred 3x5 bags were only about $2 and I have a LOT left over. (Incidentally, these are the same type of bags I use when packaging Pass It On Plates Lite.)

Next, I went to the bulk section of my grocery store (I love Winco!) and bought a couple pounds of candy jelly hearts. I poured 1/2c of candy into each bag and zipped it shut.

Last, image was printed on card stock to make a foldover type of card that was stapled over the zipped top of each bag.

It looked great and everyone was talking about it.

So since I did red jelly hearts last year, what kind of candy should I use this year?

(Yes, I'm kind of a dork. I can't do anything normal. (Proud of it, too!) )

Well that was an exciting blog remodel

I was so prepared. Last week I went through every little widget in my sidebar and copied the HTML code into a Notepad document. Next, I copied all my layout HTML into another Notebook document. I felt smart and smug.

Do you know where this is heading? Do you think I backed up these two files?
You should be nodding then smacking your forehead at the last two questions. Know why?

I didn't back up. Why? I was just going to do a simple layout replacement then re-install all the HTML from my sidebars. It should take a couple hours, at most.

Ha-hah! {{evil cackle}} this tempted the computer gods and my computer crashed.

Enter my Knight in Silicone Armor: The ever helpful Mr. Pass It On Plates. He knows a thing or two about computers and offered to help by resetting the previous settings back a day. Should be good.

No. The computer was reset back to March 2007 and everything not backed up after that point was gone.

Poof. Shazam. Gone.

Little Miss Pass It On Plates was sitting on the couch next to the computer armoire and she looked at us, thinking there was going to be some sort of huge fight with lots of yelling and blame. They're extremely rare, Thank God. She was nervous because it was so darned quiet. We were hiding behind the door to the armoire whispering about her... in sign language, of course; he's Deaf - hiding behind doors makes it really easy to whisper in sign language.
"How do we tell her all her iTunes stuff is wiped out?"
"You tell her."
"I'm not ready for that kind of upset."
"Yeah, but she lost her entire library. Hundreds of dollars in iTunes gift cards (blowing into hand and gesturing) gone."
Chuckling, "What about the 5000 pictures of her feet standing here and there, and her bathroom mirror self portraits of goofy faces and spiked hair?"
"Those are NOT irreplacable."
"So do you want to tell her?"
"I think we should wait."
"Didn't you back up anything?"
"Yeah, a while ago, but we couldn't figure out how to back up iTunes stuff."
"What about your business files?"
"Backed up on my thumb drive. It's good. The biggest loss is the music. But I don't want her to know just yet."

Just then a hesitant little voice came from the other side of the armoire, "Mom? Did we lose my iTunes stuff?"

On the other hand, the computer runs a lot faster without all the photos and un-backup-able iTunes music stored in it. I guess that's the upside to this lesson in being anal retentive in backing up even the stupidest little things. Frequently.

Now this morning, 14 hours into the project, I'm sitting down to finish my 2 hr blog remodel. Without all my widgets and code, though, I feel a little like my skirt is tucked up into the back of my pantyhose... If something is hanging out that shouldn't or if something looks a little odd, will you be a friend and let me know?

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Computer Paper Organization

Computer paper organization, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

I am a little anal retentive when it comes to being organized. Of course, you'd never know it if you walked through my living room at this moment. Keep in mind, I live with the Tornado Twins.

That's kind of why I took over the one car finished garage with my PIOP Studio. It's my "Girl Cave" and I don't have to deal with anyone else's messes in there but my own. Which I promptly clean up.
{{happy happy}}

Ok, so here's what I do with all my various computer papers. I organize them by type, then put them in a labeled magazine holder.

Stationery is obvious, but Biz Cards & Project Papers are biz cards, of course, and CD Labeling papers, Post Cards, Half Fold Greeting Cards, etc.

Labels are pretty much anything adhesive.

Even Mr. Pass It On Plates (the elder Tornado Twin) grudgingly appreciates the organization and can find what he's looking for within seconds. Success!

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Where do your readers come from?

I grew up in a multicultural community (ok, not what you think - this was Czech, Slavic, Polish, German, and Scandinavian farm country in northern Wisconsin - with a Finnish 'outpost' a little ways down the road) and have always been curious about other cultures.

Imagine how tickled I was when I looked at my traffic stats and found out that I've gotten a little traffic from http://www.bhuz.com/, Belly Dance Central.

I guess there are some forum posts about DIY Christmas Presents that are sending readers my way. Since I'm not a member, I can't read the posts, but it's so intriguing that I'm getting traffic from there. My only connection to Belly Dancing is my friend Marcy, who took a class. She's actually pretty darned good at it. The way she can move her hands back and forth is mesmerizing.

I'll never forget when I took a much younger Rachel to Marcy's recital and we sat with Marcy's husband and three sons. The two older boys got bored and wandered off, so we watched the show with Nate, who was about 10 or 11. Rachel started to get bored, so I asked Nate if he wanted to go wander around with Rachel.

In his little voice Nate replied,

"Uh, hello? Half-naked dancing women on stage. I'm a guy. I'm staying here."

But I digress.

Since I think a Belly Dancing website is the most interesting and unlikely place I've had traffic coming from, I thought it would be fun to ask:

What's the most interesting - and unlikely - place that your blog has received traffic from?

PS: The Finnish outpost is the little town of Ino, WI. (Pronounced "I know.") Being a Wisconsin town it consists of a crossroads and a bar. Don't blink or you'll miss it. Ino is about 20 or 30 miles from the town of Oulu, WI. (Pronounced "Oo-Loo.")

Oulu is bigger than Ino.
Two bars.

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Finding HTML Colors

Have you ever tried changing the look of your blog or website and wanted to use a very specific color? No matter what program you use, be it a website or blog development software, Blogger or some other blog platform, there is usually a set collection of colors available and that's it.

This was the case when I made a recent tweak to this blog. I was frustrated with my "Thisaway Rose" template loading slowly on my cable connection and knew something had to change.

The little light bulb cam on in my head over my morning coffee today as I realized I should just switch to the "Minima Stretch" template and just change the background color. Duh. Don't know why I didn't think of that before...

So I make the switch and click the pink button to change the background. I wanted the blog to look pretty much the same as before, and when talking to Donna, my Pass It On Plates partner in Wisconsin, I like referring to this blog as "The Pink Blog" and the Plate Diaries as "The White Blog." We have one other blog that we use, just between ourselves, that we call "Projects." It's marked 'private' and we chat back and forth there and post articles, business links that we use, and it's a great place to collaborate. Our "Projects" blog is the subject of another post, though.

Back to colors.The Blogger color choices were way too dark and I don't really understand the Hex Code used. I tried fiddling with the numbers and letters but nothing seemed to change. Enter a Google search on "Hex code." The site December.com was at the top of the list so I checked it out.

Wowie. If you have ever searched for hex codes, this is the place to go.
Mind you, these are only the named cool-pinks. There are other hues, other saturations, and a whole section of un-named colors. I did try some un-named colors and Blogger didn't recognize them, but with thousands of hex codes at my disposal, I was able to find exactly what I was looking for.

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Six steps to designing a Project Wonderful ad

Now that you have some info on buying and selling advertising with Project Wonderful, what ad will you use to advertise your site or hot new product? Today I'll show you how to make a great-looking Project Wonderful ad without any special computer programs.

You can create one in just 6 easy steps using your Flickr account.

1. Look at Project Wonderful and decide what ad size you want to make. This quick tutorial is for the 125x125 square ad.

2. Log into your Flickr account and choose an image. Click on it.
(I made an ad based on the image used for the giveaway blog post so they matched.)

2. Click Edit. Flickr's editing program, Picnik, will open. Be patient, it takes a moment. When it opens, you will see two tabs. One is Edit and the other is Create. You will start out in the Edit tab.

3. Crop your photo. If you are making a square ad, select the square from the drop down box. (These screenshots are from an upcoming blog post... You'll just have to bookmark this blog or subscribe so you don't miss my next Flickr tutorial.)

4. Resize your photo to the Project Wonderful ad size you want to make. In my case, I typed in 125 and Picnik did the rest. When the shape and size are to your liking, click OK.

5. Now for the fun part. Click the tab named Create. Type in your advertising word or words and play with the color, font, layout, and other settings until it's perfect.

..........

6. Save your work. Before you complete the save process, let Picnik know if you want to save a new copy or replace the original. I recommend always saving a new copy so you can use the original for other ads or projects. Save this image to a location on your computer so you can easily upload it to Project Wonderful.

Ta dah! Quick and easy.
And fantastic-looking.

If/when you make one, comment here with a link to your ad. I'd love to see how it turned out. Plus, if you send me a link to your ad, I'll write up a post to be published next week to show off all the ads. Hey, that's free advertising for you.

Ok, also... Come back tomorrow to find out who won the big giveaway!

Wordle.

When I was about 8 years old, my mom joined the local theatre group and I spent the rest of my growing-up years backstage, on stage, or involved in a theatrical production one way or another. Part of the fun was learning how to take on the characteristics of the people portrayed on stage. Even as a props girl or running a follow spot light, it was fun to pretend to be someone else (and the other back stage personnel was my only audience.)

One year, Mom directed the Rogers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma!" and the title song required nearly all the members of the cast to take turns and sing one solo line. Some people could sing very well; others couldn't carry a tune if you put it in a bucket for them. I learned how to mimic the singing voices of the entire cast. (What can I say? I was bored one evening at rehearsal.) With an operatic old lady voice I would belt out "Flowers on the prairie where the June bugs zoom," then I'd change my voice to a soft and gravelly gentleman's voice "Plenty of air and plenty of room." For a week or two I kept it to myself, then one day I sang the whole song with all the voices for my mom. She was dumbfounded as I began, then burst into fits of laughter as I sang the line from the one guy who could not sing no matter how much coaching he had. I warbled out his line just like he did and Mom just lost it. From then on, I loved learning how to mimic voices and accents. I only do phrases that I've practiced, but it's a lot of fun.

A little footnote here: In 2005, Mom was cast as the Old Woman in an indie horror film, "Harvest."

Have you ever seen the ad on tv for the Magic Bullet blender? At one point the Australian guy exclaims that you can blend and serve smoothies "Right in it's own frosty mug!" We make smoothies for breakfast at least once a week and when I serve them, the Aussie guy's exclamation comes out of my mouth. And my too cool for words 12 year old daughter rolls her eyes, takes the smoothie, and exits the room. (I secretly think she's impressed.)

In fact, most of the time I like to embarrass my very hip 12 year old daughter by not acting my age or demographic. At home, I keep the voices alive by using a fake French accent, a fake Indian accent (which Indian? Both feathers and dots; I'm lousy at both,) as well as talking like I'm from the 'hood, Marlon Brando, Casablanca, you name it. Poor embarrassed Rachel nearly blanches when I refer to her friends as her homies (and I say that in my best suburban-mom-goody-two-shoes accent) and when she questions my authority, I give her my little speech about 'respecting the mom' and end it with "Word."

Why so I do this to my tortured middle schooler? Control. I can threaten to talk like this in front of her friends if she "disses" (disrespects) me. No, I don't threaten-threaten her; we have a strict rule at home about treating people with respect, regardless of the situation at hand. But she does know that I can break out in Valley Girl if she's with her friends and things get out of hand. I know she doesn't want any funny talking from me and she knows I don't want any back talking from her. One snotty comment out of her, especially in front of her friends and it's "OMG! Gag me with a spoon!" She's very polite after my outburst.

On the other hand, she's just as goofy as I am, talking like a German Chancellor while making spaghetti with me, or her latest: "LOL Speak" via email to me while I'm at work. What's LOL speak? A sample email from her would go like this.

"OH HAI, MOMMEH. DO U KNOE WER I CAN FIND MAH BLU HAT? IF U DOAN KNOE, I CAN HAS UR BLU SCARF? LET ME KNOE, K?"

(Hi, mom. Do you know where I can find my blue hat? If you don't know, can I have your blue scarf? Let me know, ok?)

At home we love words. A few years ago, Mr. Pass It On Plates and I built a ten foot wide by six foot tall wooden bookcase to hold all our books. (Problem is, it doesn't hold them all.) Words are interesting in print and interesting when spoken. The funny thing is that even though we're fascinated by words, Mr. Pass It On Plates is Deaf and we communicate at home in sign language. Yes, I have a fascination with signs and that's a whole 'nother blog post.

That said... (*sigh* ok you have just been exposed to my innate weirdness. I had been holding it back for several months now. Yes, I agree - I think it is hereditary. Maybe the last 9 paragraphs were just TMI - Too Much Information?)
Here's a 180-degree turn from what I just told you but ... (and BTW, I love the name of this website and my have to work it into my various languages with my 12 year old punk.)

Wordle

What the heck is Wordle? It's a super-nifty bit of programming that takes text that you type in OR it takes text from a URL that you provide and pulls out words. Wordle then arranges the words into a word cloud. You can choose from a long list of interesting fonts that I (the "font queen" at home) have never heard of, and you also get to mold the shape of the words. You also control the color.

I absolutely love this. I think I'm going to have to put this on a shirt or tote bag.

**Promotion tip - you could use your Wordle on promotional items such as shirts, hats, tote bags, jeans, book covers, magnets, business cards, your website, pillow cases, baby onsies, program an embroidery sewing machine with it, coffee mugs, mouse pads, etc etc etc, ad nauseum. And you're allowed to sell these items for a profit. I checked the Wordle FAQ and they say it's ok.

This collection of words captures the essence of what I'm doing here, and I got to pick my favorite colors. I think this looks a lot like my business personality. (My personal personality is a lot more of the goofy accents and weird language shared with my daughter. Some day I'll make a wordle based on that part of my life. Maybe around Halloween would be a good time to unveil that part of me...)

So this is my Wordle, in all it's happy-colored glory. I saved the picture and uploaded it to my Flickr. If you click on the picture it will take you to my Flickr and if you click the link atht e beginning of this paragraph it will take you to Wordle.net where you can see the original (and a better quality image.) The words are based on what was on the first page of this blog on July 21, 2008.

wordle from 7-21-08, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

I have to give credit to the fun artists who got me on to this. I first read about Wordle in a post at KMC Designs entitled: Duct tape wallet with an American Trilogy. Next, I read the comments under the post and wanted to check out Eskimimi's word cloud.

Are you as intrigued about this as I am? Go to Wordle and make your own word cloud. Save it, and then please leave a comment here with a link to your own wordle. If mine is a visual wordle-y representation of my personality, I'd love to see what yours looks like.

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Another Technorati Experiment

Like the Technorati Experiment post, I found another similar experiment solely for Blogger blogs on Trestin Meacham's blog and decided, why not add this, too?

Here is what to do:
1. Be a Blogger user with a blogger blog (this includes .coms that use a blogger platform)
2. Copy and paste this list into your blog (you can do it as an older post so it does not interrupt the flow of your blog.)
3. Make sure the links in your post are working links
4. Add your Blogger link in the comments, and the link to the post you copied the list in.


THE LIST

1. BLOGGER IDEAS
http://trestinideas.blogspot.com/

2. NATHOLOGY
http://nathanlawis.blogspot.com/

3. TRESTIN HOME
http://trestinmeacham.blogspot.com/

4. Sound Libraries by Discovery Sound
http://samplecds.blogspot.com/

5. World Ethnic Sample CDs
http://discoverysound.blogspot.com/

6. TRESTIN HISTORY
http://trestinhistory.blogspot.com/

7. LDS STUFF
http://ldsstuff.blogspot.com/

8. Super Space Cowboy
http://superspacecowboy.blogspot.com/

9. TRESTIN POLITICAL
http://trestinpolitical.blogspot.com/

10. Jill's Grumbles
http://jillsgumbles.blogspot.com/

11. Trestin Sports
http://trestinsports.blogspot.com/

12. Flotsam and Jetsam
http://iamtolkienreader.blogspot.com/

13. ASK TRESTIN
http://asktrestin.blogspot.com/

Join us and spread the word!
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Oh for the love of all things pink

Pink is a controversial color.
Depending on the hue, the mood of pink can be cute babyish, smart and sassy, or dangerously old-lady. Artists report that pink items are a tough sell.

I love pink. Not old lady pink, and not baby pink but smart and sassy pink.
Rrrowr.
Hot pink. Magenta. Fuschia.

This morning I was poking around Etsy and fell into the WildMagic Design Studio.

This little bag caught my eye and I love it. Isn't it cute?

This little guy's definitely not baby pink or old lady pink. He's hot.
Rrrowr.

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Mountain View, CA

About the only thing I know about Mountain View, CA is that Shirley Temple Black lives there. At least she did, many years ago when I worked for a national moving company.

About once every week this blog has yet another visit from someone in the Mountain View area. (This shows up on the Feedjit visitor bar, to the right - you may need to scroll down to see it.) Now I say 'area' because that's what shows up, but my frequent visitor(s) could be from another small town in the vicinity. Ben Lomond, for example. (Sometimes my own visits to this blog show up as a town about 40 miles from my computer.) My Mountain View visitor could be the same person stopping by again and again to check on things, or it could be a handful of different people visiting from Google.

You might even be searching for the Pam Hawk at Periodik or the Pam Hawk Real Estate Professional and you ended up here. Those two are in California, there's me up in Oregon, another couple of gals named Pam Hawk in Ohio and I think maybe another one of us in Pennsylvania. There aren't very many women with this name and I'm proud to be one of them. (Yes, you heard it here first: I'm a Dork. With a capital D.)

Either way, I'm intrigued, since I don't really know anyone in CA, it makes me smile every time I see another visit from Mountain View.

Because of the frequent visits, I'd like to send a plate of cookies to Mountain View to say thank you for visiting.

If you're from Mountain View, will you please add a comment with a link so I can contact you? Or just email me at pam[at]passitonplates[dot]com.
Thanks! :o)

Oh, heck. If your name is Pam Hawk and you live anywhere in the world, drop me a line via email for your free plate, too.

I'm #2! (and 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9)

Oh the joys of nerdy fun.
I periodically Google myself to see how my name ranks in the great Googleverse. In past Googles of my name I discovered there are other Pam Hawks around the US. Their careers range from real estate and accounting to dentistry. My first name Google put me near the bottom of page three.

Since taking Pass It On Plates online my name has moved up in rank. Today I was (nerdily) excited to see I'm #2. Not only that, but I take up seven of the top ten spots on page one.

Of course, I realize this may change tomorrow, but for today I'm happy with this. My goal, of course, is to be #1.

Googling Pass It On Plates (no quotes) has me in spot #12 on page two. Today, anyway. That's moving up, too, but not as quickly. My goal for that is to be #1, as well.

Have you Googled your name? How close to #1 are you today? Have you seen your rank increase over time as you continue blogging? How about your blog name?

Did you know that posting your comments with your name/URL will help you move up the ranks in search engines? If you did, good for you! If you didn't, here's more info about how commenting on other blogs helps your search engine rank.