EP DESIGNS

Something rather fun, fluffy & pink caught my eye while browsing through the Pink Heels blog. I had to stop & have a giggle but found the item to be … well, quite attractive in a way. I never would have thought to dress up my computer in this way but it would certainly brighten up the room & put a smile on your face. And of course it has a matching mouse. I think I’d have to name it Fluffy Fifi

The post directly under the fluffy laptop, titled Business Etiquette led me to another web site with videos on modern manners. Some of these are quite funny and worth a look, so take some time out and have a peek here.

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This is the theme for the Business Mums Network annual conference. Running a business takes many skills, but new business people need help to learn many skills.

The second annual Business Mums Conference is a fantastic weekend for all small business people. Brilliant Business and Beyond will give you:

• practical information and solutions you can apply
• networking opportunities
• inspiration to build a strong business
• perspective on your business

The keynote speaker, Kathie Thomas, will get you started on the theme of Brilliant Business and Beyond.

Selected speakers will then present workshops on exciting and informative topics such as email marketing, intellectual property, trademarking, and online promotions.

Theme: Brilliant Business & Beyond

Date: Saturday 12 - Sunday 13 July 2008

Time: 8.30am - 5pm

Venue: Holmesglen Conference Centre, Chadstone, Victoria
 

You can download a copy of the timetable, read about the presenters and find out more about registration details at the BMN web site.

This is also a fantastic opportunity to network with other business people keen to build their future.

Ciao, Elena

Since I started blogging I’ve come across many gorgeous blogs and ‘chatted’ with bloggers all around the world. At ‘Me and Mine’ I discovered a post titled ‘Friendships Around The World’. They are aiming to reach 1000 blog links - Come along and join in. Being added to the blog list will help your Technorati ranking plus you will get to discover many more blogs & make more blogging friends. Just follow the instructions below ….

::Start Copy Here::

Rule:
1. Copy from ::Start Copy Here:: through ::End Copy Here::.
2. Add your blog to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs. Just make sure to post this to each of the blog you added in the list.
3. Tag other online friends you know.You don’t need to be tag in order to join. If you want to join just post this one in your blog.
4. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list.That way, everyone is happy and can meet new friends too!
5. Come back once in a while to get the master list! Let’s see how this makes our Technorati and PR goes up!
6. DO NOT REMOVE THIS: scrap page made by Yen. Using alphas and tapes from Kate H., flowers from Ida,paper by Catrine.

1. Me and Mine 2.Creative In Me 3.Little Peanut 4. Pea in a Pod 5. Sugar Magnolias 6.Because Life Is Fun 7. Piece o’Kaje 8. Mon a Bric 9. Celebrate Life 10.My Journey11. Deeply In Love 12. Pink and Brown Diaries 13. Happyheart 14. Wilstop 15. Fun|Fierce|Fab 16. Nita’s Random Thoughts 17. Nita’s Corner 18. Thomas Web Links 19. Thomas Travel Tales 20. Make Money Online 21. Great Finds and Deals 22. PRC Board Exam Results 24. My Wandering Thoughts 25. Nita’s Ramblings 26. Just Me.. Eds 27. Etc Atbp 28. When Silence Speaks 29. Juliana’s Lair 30. Juliana’s World 31. Juliana’s Library 32. Blessed Chic 33. Can of Thoughts 34. Hailey’s Domain 35. Hailey’s Beats and Bits 36. ISL family 37. Arbitrary Thoughts 38. D’ Cooking Mudra 39. My Big Picture 40. Dancing in Midlife Tune 41. Blessings In Life 42. My Colorful World 43. Dare to Blog 44. Life Realities 45. WebGeek Journal DotNet 46. WebGeek Journal 47. Let’s Travel Philippines 49. MY DAILY THOUGHTS AND MOODS 50. A Sweet Taste Of Life 51. My Life in this Wonderful World! 52. Denz Techtronics 53. Denz Recreational 54. Surviving Deplyoment 55. Ester’s Raptured Dreams 56. Nipa Hut 57.Picture Clusters 58. My Wanderings 59.Maiylah’s Snippets 60. EuLehKulit 61. Life Quest 61.Being a wife. Being a Mom. 62. MoMie SPace 63.Woman Xplore 64. PinayWAHM 65. Agring’s Simply Digital 66. Agring’s Home & Garden 67. Agring’s Homecooking & Baking 68. Agring’s Electronics & Entertainments 69. Scrap Addict Sundays 70. Mommy Talks 71. Aggie Scraps 72.Teacher’s Corner 73. My Drift 74. lancernews 75. My so called Life 76. See Me for what You Will… 77. kathycot.com 78. buhaymisis.com 79. All about Mye life 80. Everything has a Reason 81. Life’s Impression 82. Some Thoughts I have 83. Life’s Lessons 84. Just Let Go 85. Pieces Of Me 86. Winding Creek Circle 87. BOTH SIDES NOW 88. Happy Life 89. Blessed Sanctuary 90.Confessions of an Army Life 91. moms….. check nyo 92. Mommy’s Little Corner 93. Wanna Be SuperModel 94. Gandacious 95. Jo-Jo’s Place 96.My Quiet Zone 97. Proud PINAY 98. Simply Jen 99. Jenny Said So 100. A Slice of Life 101. My Blog 102. TIP OF AN ICEBERG 103. Coffee Cup Princess 104. Deranged Insanity 105. Just Another Day 106. Stev & Emz Journey 107.Runaway THoughts of Emz 108. Heart of Rachel 109. Nora’s Notes 110. In the Life Of Mne 111. In my Kitchen 112. Nyumix’s Blog 113. Everything’s Here 114.Out of Nowhere 115. My Simple World 116. Seek Health. Feel Great 117. Smile Puppies 118. Almanacqueen 119. The Life of an Outback Pinay 120. Dancing With Butterflies 121. My Treasures 122. Everything Green 123. 124. Memoirs of a Filipina 125. The Pit Gadgetry! 126. My Daily Life Experience 127. Married and Happy About It 128. My Discoveries 129. iCreate+iDeas 130. My Healthy Living Journal 131. Busy Moms Cook 132. Christian Weekends 133. Reflexes 134. Caramel Corn 135. Sunny Side Up Foodie 136. A Mothers Horizon 137. Bits and Pieces 138. Whats Up! 139. Simply Me 140. Life and Me 141. A Handful of Surprises 142. Anything and Everything in Between 143. from here and beyond 144. The Nameless Blog 145. Exploring Asia 146. Malaya 147. Swan Portraits 148. BUSYNESSWORLD 149. Sprawt 150. Thinking Consciously? 151. BLOGSILOG 152. Cherry’s Comfort Zone 153. DigiScrapz: Captured Memories 154. Buzzy Me 155. Thinking Out Loud 156. Wishing and Hoping 157. Jobs for Davao 158. Jobs for Cebu 159. Filipino Jobs Abroad 160. PRC Board Exam Results 161. Nakedminds 162. Personal 163. Interesting 164. squeeshies 165. Shenzee’s World 166. Geekyology 167. Swanportraits 168. Rumination Under the Clouds 169. In My Home by Ria aka Msculit 170. It’s my Party (and I’ll cry if I want to…) by Ria aka Msculit 171. Malaya 172. Cheese: Jherson84 173. Beans: Jherson 174. EP Treasures 175. Republic of A 176. Nora’s Family Treasures 177. Points of View (Discussion Blog) 178. Gala Tayo! 179. Lucky Peso 180. Buhay Pinoy 181. Pinay Mommy’s Love Blog 182. MOMEMO 183. OnlineBiz and Resources 184. Lourdes’ Mia 185. Pinay Mommy’s DigiScrap and Musings in Life 186. Pinay Mommy Online 187. ‘nna 188. My Sweet Escape 189. The Next Chapter 190. Painted Life 191. Petty Ramblings of a Petty Queen 192. The Real Deal 193. My Beautiful Life 194. Berry Blog 195. A Tsinay Blog 196. A Celebration of Life 197. My love.mylife.my everything. 198. Gamay and Dako Adventures 199. Ester’s Daily Thoughts 200. Choc Mint Girl 201. I AM KCAT 202. RanZ-Goodies 203. RanZ-Famous 204. A Time to Weep and a Time to Laugh 205. Surviving the Circus of Life 206. The Nook207. Allen’Wifey 208. Fern’s Backyard 209. Amor’s Blog - My Place in Cyberspace 210. The Other Side of Me 211. Stylishbabe111407 212. The Inner Shopper 213. TheGeneralInfoBlog 214. my angels world 215. Pinoy Raket Online 216. My Life 217. BloggingInMyPyjamas 218. Baby Shern 219. Mariel 220. So Real 221. Okay, I am Arms and this is my blog 222.Lucid Creativity 223. Read my Mind 224.A Simple Life 225. My debt blog 226.1stopmom’s blog 227.Mommy Gamer 228. My First One Million Pesos 229. Mindless Thought 230. MommyandMe Boutique 231. My Life’s Labyrinth 232. 100% Kelly 233. Of Colors And Styles 234. KadusMama 235. The Maven 08 235. Rainbows 236. My freehand 237. Sentiments of a Effed-Up Man 238. Princess Vien 239. My freehand 240. Confessions of an Enchanting Princess 241. Marites-Pinay Heart Wanderings and Musings 242. Me, the Islands and the World243. Leaf In Deforest 244. MAX 245. Lhedy 246. Making sense..(somehow) 247. Our Life Together 248. The Chic Shopaholic 249. In Depth 250. That Blog 4 Me 251. A Nice Thought 252. Live it Up! 253. Chronicles and Tales Unlimited (RED) 254. Momhood Moments 256. It’s a woman’s world! 257. Forgotten 258. Esophoria 259. Pixel Dust 260. GladyGirl 261. Uncomplicated 262. Gentle And Compassionate 263. Kwentong Kengkay 264. Mind Juice In Full Throttle 265. Jo’s Precious Thoughts 266. Hobbies and Such 267.Jenny’s Wandering Thoughts 268. A Window to Our World 269. Let Them Eat Cake! 270. Live Love Life 271.Theif’s Stolen Collections 272. Panda’s Multiply 273. Kitty’s haven 274. lancerlord 275. The YTB Celebs Blog 276. Welcome To Earth David 278. Pinaymama’s Diary 279. Pinay Mom in Czech Republic 280. Ally And Allies” 281. Beauty of Life 282. Creations 283. Watchamacallit! 284. Nellypie’s Chatterbox 285. The Daily Matters 289. Bread & Butter 290. tazdogz blog 291. my 3 boys and i 292. Dabawenyako 293. Icelog 294. Days of Our Life 295. Precious Moments 296. Crissy’s Haven 297. Baby Jhari 298. The Maven ‘08 299. Our Growing Family 300. Confessions Reborn 301. SEWDELISH 302. Live from Waterloo 303. The So-Called Me 304. EP DESIGNS 305. Toni-Marie.net Excelling in Excess since 1988… 306. The Monotonous Life 307. Hit-or-Miss 308. Crazylicio.uS 309. Latina On Travel 310. MoneyGirls Blogging On the Internet 311. MsMoneyGirl Stock Magazine 312. Top College List 313. Free Personality Test 314. A Piece of Idea 315. YOUR BLOG!

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Note from ‘Me and Mine’

“Please NOTE that you are not allowed to change the “HERE” in number 4 to your own blog url. I am making this so that everyone can enjoy the benefit of higher technorati rank and who knows more PR! And being the author of this one, I’d appreciate if you respect that. “

Ciao for now,  Elena

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Recreated, decorative and useful!

I’ve found heaps of coasters in my opp shop travels. I love working on these little items. Although a fiddly process the final result is stunning.  I could never really price them according to the hours spent painting them but I still can’t stop myself from doing more.

These of course have decopuaged roses but my next batch of coasters will have my own painted roses. I can’t wait to get stuck into some new painting. It has been a long while since my last session of painting and I’m missing it.

My aim further on this year will be to show you some of my work as it progresses through each stage. It will be a long process because I work on pieces in batches rather than singularly, but I hope to show you how much is involved in recreating decorative homewares.

Ciao for now,

Elena

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When I find an item that can’t be reused for it’s original intention, I’ll find a new use for it. I’ve probably mentioned this in another post but I often come across items that I find appealing & inspiring. It may be the shape, size or look of the thing that draws my attention, but whatever, I know when I see it if I must have it or not. Here is one such item of which I ended up with several. So from gravy boat in all it’s past ’stainless steel glory’, they were transformed into candleholders.

All were given the ‘decoupage roses’ treatment with a shabby vintage finish & gold highlights. This particular one had candle wax poured into it while others were sold with wax beads in various colours & scents.

A quaint little recreation to lighten up a cosy corner or quiet nook.

Ciao for now,

Elena

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I find Recreating items for an entirely different use very rewarding. Not only am I recycling but also creating a new decorative showpiece, and one that is useful too. I have bought an assortement of drinkware over the years, most of which were once shiny silver pieces. Recreating these into pin & brooch cushions was one popular idea I worked with, and creating pairs of candleholders was another.

These small drink goblets were finished in a motley mix of soft colour and highlighted with pale gold detail. The candle in each holder is held firmly in place by filling the goblet with rice. Each pair recreated was a one-of-a-kind design.

Ciao for now,

Elena

How often do you visit blogs & web sites listed in your blog roll? Whether we have business related blogs or not do we take time periodically to visit those we exchange links with? Even if you have a long list of sites listed do you alternate & check in to see what your blogging friends are up to? I’m just curious. I’ve visited sites where the blog roll is so long that I wonder if the blogger remembers who’s who or what each site is about.

Since my forced time-out one of the things I’ve been doing, and which I’m discovering I’m actually quite enjoying, is checking out other blogs and web sites related to them (if there are any). I don’t know if this is the start of blog addiction - I hope not because I don’t really want to spend a whole lot of time blogging although I do enjoy it.

I’ve come across some gorgoeous blogs by visiting sites listed on other sites, which I’ve added to my ‘frequent visit’ list in favourites.

I discovered a lovely blog called The Art of Life over at Marakye plus I was surprised to find a photo of a group of Business Mums Network members from Perth having a get together.

My Cozy Cottage World has a long blog roll but I love visiting & checking out some of the links there. I’ve found some absolutely gorgoeus sites there - you’ll have to visit and take a look.

At Beauty Banquet we share almost the same blog roll but I’ve also found some interesting sites from the Plug Me board. Plus a link where you can find out what your power colour is. It’s another one of those tests - My power colour turned out to be red/orange. I don’t know exactly what to do with this information but it was fun to do. Give it a go

Another ‘time-out’ session is over so it’s Ciao for now from me. Happy blogging …. and don’t forget to visit your blogging friends

This may not sound like business talk but one of those things most home based small business owners tend to forget to do is to take time out. This fact in particular has surfaced lately & is close to my heart because of my own experience. Health problems could have been avoided by simply taking time out. It’s easy to get caught up in the flow of work & business management where you just keep going, & before you know it, it creeps up on you and ‘bang’ the time-out factor is forced upon you because your health breaks down or you break down. Then you start thinking about how you could have avoided it all if only you had taken care of yourself. I don’t think we allow this to happen on purpose and there is usually more than one contributing factor which can lead to this. But it does creep up on you like the frog in the pot of water - the water begins nice & cool for the frog & the frog is nice & secure in it’s familiar surroundings that it doesn’t realise the heat under the pot is also heating up the water, ever so slowly, that it may be too late when the frog realises it’s in hot water. 

I’ve been like that little frog and I thank my God that the water didn’t reach boiling point for me. I’ve had to stop, pause my business (only keeping it going slowly) & try regain my health. Slowly but surely I’m now getting back on track with my health, taking things a day at a time, and doing jobs one small step at a time. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I’m back to my usual self….. well, minus the crazy overwork. Although for me it was a culmination of personal circumstances as well as business that brought me to a halt, temporarily, I realise the importance of taking time out. We all know about it but usually continue to ’soldier on’ believing ‘we can manage ok’ because we have to. Something as simple as going out for a short walk, meeting someone for coffee, browsing through non-business related web sites, or remembering what your hobbies are & get stuck into them again are amongst some of the things you can do to help keep yourself healthy.

It’s those Little things that will help fend off those mind & body break downs which will ultimately force you to stop whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not. We feed our children, take care family, we help out friends, we work, we pay our bills …… but the do we knock off at a reasonable appointed time to end the working day? Do we rest when we’re tired? Eat when we’re hungry? Drink when thirsty? No? This is not good and only adds to the recipe for disaster. It’s best not to wait before something happens but do it now. If you find that things are starting to get out of hand, then slow down, look after yourself, take time out without feeling guilty, before it’s too late, because you are important.

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I had quite a collection of silver drinkware (& still do). Some of them were given a painted finish & others retained their original look if the silver was good polished up. Here is another of the silver pin cushion designs in my past work.

This little liquer goblet was a plain desgin without any decorative features so the embellishments made up for it; and put together with remnant pieces. Gorgeous tassel fringing, a rossette, and a tiny swathe of beads lend this item an elegant touch.

Like the previous pin/brooch cushion cup, this one also reminds me of 1920’s stylish elegance.

Browsing through Heart Harmony’s blog Small Business Ideas got me thinking about small business and how some of them come into being. In her post Give a cheer for small-medium business…, Ingrid Cliff talks about the difference small businesses can make to their community. She also writes - “Many times small business doesn’t realise the impact it makes on the community. One employee here, another there all adds up to a significant total. We are the powerhouse behind our local communities and the economy.”

There are many diverse small businesses and I’m always aware of the countless creative hobby-turned-businesses there are. I’m constantly stumbling across web sites showcasing their creative abilities. I do enjoy browsing through their sites even if theirs is a different art or craft to mine.

Recently I clicked on one Google Ad that brought me to three creative sites - the first being Bear Essence. It caught my eye because of recent posts on my EP’s Treasures blog about teddy bears. It turns out that Bear Essence is only approx a 30 minute drive from where I run my business.

From Bear Essence I was led to two more sites Monica’s Attic Treasures - another delightful bear site; and Jacquie Lawson’s E-Cards. Jacquie’s animated e-cards are gorgeously creative.

I do enjoy taking time out to see what other creative people are doing. Some may think theirs is simply a small little drop in the business world, but, as Ingrid from Heart Harmony states in her Small Business Ideas tag line - There are no small businesses - only small ideas.

So, cheers to all small businesses out there.

Ciao for now, Elena

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Brooch and pin cushions were a popular little item at my past EP Designs Exhibition & Sales. This little ornate silver casing would have had a glass insert as part of its original design & use. When I found a couple of them at an opp shop the glass insert was missing but I already knew what I would do with them once I got them home. I kept them silver (so painted finish was not required), & polished the casing as best I could.

Then all that was needed for this item was the embellishing - Beads, a mini rosette, colour & a petite feather to decorate the cushion and cup.

A Recreated Treasure - A rather elegant piece - it reminds me of the 1920’s era.

Not many of these were photogrphed but another stylish pin & brooch cushion can be viewed at my EP’s Treasures blog.