It was a simple post on my Facebook page yesterday:

"Finish this sentence: "I wish someone would come and take care of ...
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I guess it should come as little suprise that the responses were many and varied. Much of what was posted though was in line with things I hear from clients all the time: the painting, my floors, cleaning, workload, living room, yardwork, grocery shopping, organization and interior design [ok, that one is obvious], and on Twitter a couple added, "my banking" and "my morning workout".

So a few of these are beyond my ability to help ..... aching muscles, a book report and golf swing, for example. Though I did manage to find a great site offering tutorials on improving your golf swing after a quick google search!!

Everything else mentioned, are common to many a "to-do-list" so I thought it would be fun to elaborate with some quick tips over here on the blog.

We can't really control the number of hours we are given each day, but we can control our productivity, through planning. How do we do that? One step at a time!!

So here is Tip #1: a great place to start your spring cleaning....

According to Feng Shui expert, Natalia Kaylin, highlighted here in the past,

"the sector of the home that relates to wealth in Feng Shui is the southeast. The southeast is where we experience the most beautiful part of the day; where chi is rising and this is exactly how we want our wealth to do. We want our wealth to grow."

So with the weekend in front of you, the southeast corner of your home awaits your attention!

Have fun!

Sarah

The Interest in Pinterest and Olioboard!

I'm pretty sure by now, that most of you have heard of Pinterest. What is it you ask? Well, essentially, it is your old traditional bookmarking, mulitplied to infinity. Back in the day, we would find something online we liked and click, "add to favorites". Before we knew it, we'd end up with a long list of hyperlinks and no idea of what they went to. The thought of clicking through to find out, too much work.

Pinterest is essentially the same thing, with two exceptions: (1) it's visual and (2) it's public. Now what I "bookmark" or "pin" is easier for me to recall because I have an image and is also shared for the rest of the world to see. Have a quick peek!

Here is a snip from my "Crisp, Clear Color" inspiration board:

Here, a snapshot from my "Stripes" inspired board:

Here a quick peek at my "Pinks & Berries" board:

You might be asking yourself "why?" about right now. I hear you. For myself, being in design, I think its obvious that these boards are useful not only for me, but for my clients. It provides a place for them to search for inspiration and/or a place for me to create inspiration boards specifically for them.

It's not just for designers and artisans though. It's truly amazing how many industries are finding Pinterest helpful. Infographics, for example, provide useful, factual and/or tutorial-type information:

The AARP displays boards that illustrate the retirement "lifestyle" and of course draw viewers back to their site and organization:

So, whether you are a dance studio, an educator, a graphic designer or an engineer, chances are, there are real value and productive ways that you can benefit from Pinterest. It's not all just time wasted or fluff, unless of course that is what you want.

But, maybe, just maybe having all your "stuff" out there in the public is not what your after. You want to collaborate with clients privately as you work together on a project. Olioboard offers you that. Olioboard is a social commerce site and currently boasts a record 60,000 active users in it's impressive 2-year life cycle.

What is truly amazing to me, is that Olioboard does not limit you to what you can upload Though they are an affiliate site, you are free to create sets (collections, if you will) of your own, from anywhere on the web or from your harddrive- and this is true for their free accounts, as well as their Pro plan.  You always have the control whether to keep these items and the boards you create public or private.

I can see potential for quilters, landscape designers, event planners, cake decorators, cabinet makers. Olioboard offers a quick way to create great looking marketing materials as well (web-use; resolution not high enough for print). A good example of this is for a muscian/band. Quickly upload pics from the last gig, along with pictures of the venue, logo and performance dates and voila... export to a jpeg file and you have a great looking photo to upload and share on your Facebook page, blog, twitter, Pinterest, etc.

There are so many ways to use these two sites together and so many benefits that many do not realize. That being said, I invite you to join me on Friday as I discuss the benefits, cautions and value of Pinterest and Olioboard as I see it and some creative ways you can use them in your business.

Hope you can make it!