Buckster & Beekins, Eq.

The lovely chestnut colored thoroughbred in the upper right is Mr. B, our newly adopted horse! With him in the other photos is Buck, our quarter horse gelding. He was the lone horse on the ranch for the past year. He never did really bond with the cattle, dogs or cats, so now he has a new buddy! It is so rewarding to adopt an animal - just knowing that you have given this animal a loving home brings tremendous joy! I hope that all of you seriously consider adopting a pet- most people will tell you that adopted animals make the very best of companions! We can really tell that Buckster is extremely happy now because you'll never find him more than 30 feet from his new best friend!

New Crafting Site- MyCraftCorner

 

There's a wonderful new craft community just starting up over at MyCraftCorner well worth joining if you enjoy any type of crafting, art, sewing,  or jewelry making. It's free, by the way!

They let you create a page with all of your links- twitter, blogs, sites, shops etc.  There are also several interesting groups forming.

I started one for metal working, jewelry making and lapidary arts.  I'd be really happy to have all of you who read this post join my group!  It will allow us to have discussions (forum), leave comments and upload pictures, links etc to share with each other all in one spot!

There is even more good news because this site also does giveaways (check my Sept. 16th post for my giveaway and links to several others) and they will be giving away a cricut machine very soon- be sure to sign up for a chance to win!

Hope to see all of you there soon!

More Giveaways AddedToday! Don't Miss Out on These!

 

I added several more giveaways to the Sept 16th post below!  People offer these promotions to help advertise their shops and give customers an opportunity to sample the wares!   Many only require simple things - like following their blog or fan page, or leaving a comment on their blogs.  If you participate in a few - it could result in having to spend less over the upcoming holidays.  You certainly have a better chance of winning here than you would in a lottery - and these promotions are free to enter - no cost to you except a bit of your time!

Leave me a comment if you have a promotion you want me to add!  Also if you enter these contests- leave the sponsor a comment and let them know you got the info and link from me! Thank You!!!

The vintage sun/moon pin above will be in my Etsy shop soon.

Create a Collage Background for Twitter etc.

 

I created the collage above using Picassa - free to download from Google.  It is a great program for organizing your photos, doing some fixes and uploading them for web use and much more.

Picassa automatically finds all the photos on your hard drive and then you can click  (while holding down the control button) to add photos to the area in the lower left bottom of your screen (press the little thumb tack button after each picture- to keep it there).  When you have all the pictures you want in your collage - click the collage button (bottom of screen).  Play with the different types of collages till you get one you really like- so many variations possible! You can even add text - I added my web site name.  Then save them and upload to twitter (design tab- change background) or anyplace else that you want to customize.  If you need more info or something here is not clear- leave a comment.

You can see it at:  divine3designs on twitter

If you used this to make your background- leave a comment- I'd like to go see it!

Giveaways Galore!

Yes, it is exciting!  Just in time to help with the Christmas or holiday shopping or to simply give yourself a reward for all your hard work - I'm doing a great promotion to help publicize my blog.  I'll be giving away a $25.00 gift certificate that you can use in my Etsy shop .

You can use it to buy anything you want and I will deduct the $25.00 from your PayPal invoice. (sorry this cert. can't be used to deduct the shipping - I only charge what the post office charges me).  You will have a 1 in 100 chance of winning because as soon as I reach 100 followers- one of them will be drawn! I will contact the winner and post the name here as well!

And, I couldn't call this "giveaways galore"- if I didn't have more giveaways to lead you to.  Several other Etsy shops are doing similar promotions- make sure you go to their links published below and check out how to qualify for their offers!  Thanks to all the Etsy shops who so kindly made them available!

More links will be here soon!

Midnight Creations
Friends and Family - 1.
      Friends and Family -  2
Designs by Vanessa (1)
      Designs by Vanessa (2)
Pottery 123
Annas Trunk
Shiny Adornments 
Cappy Sue Vintage
Steam Punk Rings
Designer Favors 
Listed 9/21/09 :
Etrelles
The Vintage Chain
Love Charles
Burning Moon Products
Old Bag Vintage
Awesome Artists Giveaway
Added 9/23/09
Blue Hour Design
Hap Tree

Some of these end Sept 30th- so hurry over there and follow their blogs while you are at it- I spied some good stuff!

Keep  following and reading this blog for many more exciting deals coming up before the holidays!

Designating Jewelry Size in Photos

I'm trying to come up with a way that someone shopping for jewelry on the internet can visualize the size of jewelry.  In the example above I made a cardboard - life size ear "manekin". I added the ruler so that both inches and cm are displayed.  This is a mockup and I wish I could find a really nice display manekin that would incorporate these elements.  Most of the ones I've found are great in a store but deceptive in photography.  The ideal of course is a live model - not always easily available.  Plus people come in all sizes and even showing jewelry on a model does not always truly represent how it would look on someone of a different size.   I welcome suggestions or ideas to help solve this problem.

Free Copyright Protection

Exciting news for artists and designers. Here are the links to two sites that basically explain a way to copyright protect your designs for free! The first one has a video that explains the process. The second one provides the service.
Documenting your designs before you release them in photos you display on the internet is becoming much more important these days. Too many fellow artists and designers have seen not only their designs stolen but even the original photos they placed on the net to display or sell their creations. Many don't realize how important copyright protection is until they find others selling it!
Even if your design needs to be patented to be protected - you will need proof of when the design originated - you can use this free service to create that proof.

http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-protect-your-content-with-copyright-for-free/

http://myfreecopyright.com/

Adopting Animals

With the economy in bad shape and many people having to tighten their belts (and wallets) there is a large increase in animals that are becoming homeless. If you are in the market for a new pet please seriously consider adoption from an adoption center as opposed to purchasing. Many of these pets are healthy and already have all their health records and shots up to date. So you'll save money while getting a pet that may already have much of the training you would otherwise have to do yourself.