The big unveiling of the social media friendly logo

Introducing my new, more social media friendly logo for Blue Daisy Graphics.

I can easily isolate the daisy,

and use it in an avatar,

to see it see it live
visit me on twitter here @suedaisy and facebook here


contact me and I can create a more social media friendly logo for you too.

suzanne

Designing Inside the Box

So I went to this lunch and learn recently about twittering, and social media marketing. It was a great event. @swaygrl put it together. It introduced me to more ins and outs of twitter and how to use social media to market my design business. I immediately became painfully aware that my old logo was not social media savvy.

Those tiny little avatars 48px x 48px made my logo look awful.

I am redesigning, so the logo will be more social media friendly. I will take the blue daisy out of the logo and use it in my avatars and favicons. Another example of a logo that is not social media friendly is Seattle's Best Coffee.

They just went through a major restyle.

They got some slack for it too. I understand why they did it though, and now see others that have already made the transition, like Dairy Queen

and Dunkin Donuts

Then it hit me, here's a direction to go with my design business. I can design social media logos, avatars, twitter backgrounds, graphics for blogs and etsy.com stores. I can use social media to market myself and market for my clients as well. As I complete a new logo design or restyle I'll tweet about it, include it on my blog, pimp it on facebook. I'll start with my own, look for my logo restyle launch in the next few days.

Suzanne

@bluedaisygrpx

10 year old birthday countdown 10, 9, 8

My oldest will be 10. So trying to think of a theme for his birthday that was not too young, was daunting.

Then Jack's birthday came and he received a rocket and some astronaut ice cream as a gift. I was inspired and talked to Sean who is starting to study the solar system, so we thought how about a space themed party?

Immediately I researched the rocket that Jack received and found the Cosmic Rocket and the ice cream were easily available online. For the party we'll keep the invite list small and those invited will build their rockets.

Then we'll sample astronaut ice cream and

we will also experiment with the mentos in a soda as demonstrated here.

You can find a kit online here or at Learning Express.

we'll serve Tang of course...

I also bought some pump air rockets to play with and have as a take away.

Sometimes you can get these at the dollar store. I ordered mine from here.

We will have a pinta and whack a planet or meteor, filled with milky way and mars bars.

A cookie cake decorated like the solar system, and some more mentos to take home as well.

I also thought of some space or moon inspired background music, here are 10 that I thought of;

1. Fireflies - Owl City

2. Man on the Monn  - R.E.M.

3. Starman  - David Bowie

4. Space Oddity (from Space Oddity) - David Bowie

5. Moonshadow - Cat Stevens

6. Walking on the Moon - the Police

7. Rocketman - Elton John
8. If There is a Rocket Tie Me to It - Snow Patrol
9. Drops of Jupiter - Train

10. Moondance - Van Morrison

leave me a comment of some other songs if you think of any.

Hope his party is out of this world!

Suzanne

Bunco... how to get started

I wanted to get Bunco started on my street. I am going to share the steps I took.

You have to have a bunco set, see if someone has one they are not using, or you can purchase one from here.

1). Talk it up among your circle of friends. Get a reading on who might be interested in playing. I used facebook to reach out to folks on my street, and got a very good initial response.

2). Pick a date to have an introduction to Bunco party, and invite folks. I'll use facebook and email as well as traditional invitations for those that are not on facebook. This is where those that are interested can come, learn how to play, learn about the time commitment involved and we can decide if it will be just snacks and dessert, or a full dinner, a BYOB, and what prizes we'll have and then determine what day of the week, and what week of the month you will play. Then folks can exchange contact information, and using a master calendar, pick a month to host.

3). Play a round or two so those new to the game will get a chance to play, and a refresher to those who have played before. Many folks play differently so this is a good time to decide how your Bunco group will play.

4). Have name tags.

5). Get excited for the first game. I have met folks who have played for 15 years plus.

How many of you have played Bunco before? and for how long have you played?

Do you give prizes, have dinner? Tell me what worked for you.

Suzanne

New Decade, New Year, New Day.

So I was one of the Kris Allen over Lambert folks on American Idol. I really thought that Kris could sing well, and looked forward to his take on each song each week. My favorite was his cover of Kanye's Heartless.
Then Kris Allen's album came out and his first release is Live like we're dying.

Am I the only one noticing a trend? Live like we're dying, Nickelback's got a song out, Never gonna be alone, and other's have lyrics about living in the moment.
I agree that it's important to tell those you love that you love them, and tell them often.
I also think that we must also "save our pennies for a rainy day". Teach our children to save for things that they want, pay cash, look towards the future, more than just looking forward to the next holiday or birthday. You never know what's going to happen, you may die today so live life with no regret, but you may live till 100. You can't rely on someone else to be there to help so do things now that will take care of you later.

Encourage your children to spend some of that birthday money, but save some also.
We use ING for the children and once a year with money we have saved here and there for them we buy relevant stock. Sean's is Home Depot, Jack's is Hershey. ING had a program called Sharebuilder, you can set up an automatic investment each month to purchase stock you've selected from over 7000 companies. Right now they are having a promotion $40.00 to start investing. Visit ING.com now to learn more. It's nice to have something tangible for the children to see. you can get a certificate of the stock at oneshare.com to frame.

Never pay the difference needed when your child is so close to saving enough to get that item they must have. Encourage them to save, do chores so they will know that reward of saving and working hard to earn something that they wanted.

Also, always kiss them good bye, and never go to bed angry with them. Make sure that they know that you love them. Foster relationships with family near and far. Also, if they have a good friend, encourage them to develop that. Everyone needs at least one good friend.

Most important, live what you teach. Save for that rainy day, live without regret, stay close to family, and don't lose touch with close friends. If you live to 100 you'll have friends and family to celebrate it with, and enough saved to throw the party yourself.

Suzanne