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A couple of days ago, I promised a list of some cool articles . . . so here are a few links to articles around the web which I’ve found particularly useful or fun or just liked. I thought perhaps you’d enjoy them as well.

Chris Brogan – Do What Works for You

Blogging Without a Blog – Interview with Lorelle Van Fossen Part 7 (Check out the rest of the series with Lorelle also.)

A Year of Crockpotting – Vegetarian No Noodle Lasagna (This looks so good! I’m going to be making it one night this week.)

Catherine Lawson – Are You Falling into the TFT?

Freelance Folder – Becoming a Freelancer: 7 Things To Do When (Or Before) You Take the Plunge

Joel Falconer – How to Double Your Income With the Art of Delegation

If you’ve found something this week you really liked, why not share it with us? Feel free to post it in the comments. I love finding new blogs with great content so don’t be shy. I read everything from tech blogs to fun blogs to design blogs and news blogs, so don’t censor something you enjoy by thinking nobody else will. Just put it out there!

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Special Announcement

For the past several years, I’ve been creating blog headers and ebook covers for friends and family but it’s not something I’ve really put out there for my design or writing clients (or on this blog, for that matter).

Until now.

Introducing my blog header and ebook cover design project!

It’s brand new and as a result, I’ve decided to offer a very cheap introductory price of just $55 per graphic. Now, if you’ve looked at my fee schedule for my other services, you will know this is a rock-bottom offer here. And I’m doing it this low for one reason: YOU! To show my appreciation for you – for reading my blog, for following me on Twitter or FriendFeed or wherever. It’s all for you.

So, if you have a blog or an ebook you need a design for, let’s talk! I offer a 72 hour guarantee which means I guarantee you’ll have your design in 72 hours or less. You’ll get the file as your choice of a JPG, PNG, or a GIF in the case of a header and your choice of JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF or Word doc in the case of an ebook cover design.

To find out more, simply follow this link to my contact form, send me a quick description of your blog or ebook cover project and if we decide it makes sense to work together, I’ll get started. (The contact form is broken at the moment so in the meantime, just send me an email to my business email.)

If you don’t need a blog header or an ebook cover, please feel free to send a link to this post to anyone you know who might need one. I’d appreciate it!

Make it a great day!

This week marks the beginning of a couple of new projects, one of which I’ll be posting an announcement about either Monday afternoon or Tuesday. It’s just about something I’m starting – a sort of niche within a niche – because I’ve seen a need for it lately. I’m excited about launching it.

Well, it’s not really a launch, per se, or at least not like one of those big launches most of us have come to expect from the big marketing guru’s. No, it’s just a simple announcement and I hope it’s something that others will find useful. If not, we’ll regroup and take another path. Simple as that.

It’s not an earth shattering thing nor anything new – just a simple thing I hope does well. And if the comments I’ve read recently around the web are any indication, I think it’s going to be a nice little project.

Anyway, enough of that. For now.

A while back, I wrote a post about regrouping and dropping some projects that just don’t fit. In the past month + since then, I’ve done that and I feel good about the direction I’ve chosen. Right now, the decision I need to make concerns what to do with the projects I’m letting go – sell them, sit them on the back burner and come back to them later or just completely delete them. I’m not sure.

I’m seriously considering selling one of them but to be honest, I have no idea how to go about that. I’ve never sold a website/concept/project before. So, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Meanwhile, expect some other things coming up including what I’m working on for the Thirty Day Challenge.

And of course, my announcement later today.

I hope you had a great weekend! If you haven’t checked out what’s new here in the past couple of days, don’t miss my write up about the KWJZ Smooth Jazz Festival my mom and I went to Saturday. Wayman Tisdale brought the house down! Man, what a great show.

It was equally great to spend time with my mom. Not something we get to do very often and I always enjoy it when we do. It’s so great to just get out with her by myself and have fun.

And it was great to come home to a fixed septic system after our relaxing day out. Spending a week + with things out of whack was very difficult, especially with 4 kids home all day. Glad it’s over and things can get back to normal. If you’ve ever dealt with septic issues, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

Oh – one last thing before I go – look out for a post in the next day or two about stuff from around the web. Haven’t done one of those posts in a while and I’ve found some great stuff lately I’d like to share with you. Hope you enjoy it!
In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when

I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Well, here it is, only the 3rd day of the Thirty Day Challenge and I’ve already fallen behind. I’m still on Day 2.

Although I’ve had a little trouble with downloading the videos for Day 2, the real reason I’m behind is because of this.

As soon as I get through Day 2, I’ll post my thoughts and then move on to Day 3. Hopefully, I can get through both of those plus Day 4 on Monday.

I had a moment yesterday to download the Market Samurai tool and it looks awesome and I did watch the Intro video but that’s it. How are you doing so far? I’ve heard on the forums that MS rocks! Can’t wait to dig in.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as I did. Check out that link for details.

I had planned to take lots of pictures yesterday but unfortunately, they would not allow cameras into the venue so I didn’t get any (other than 2 I snuck of Wayman Tisdale with my mom’s phone) so I grabbed a couple pics from the artists’ websites for you. Enjoy!

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Pictures are property of their respective websites (listed below in my previous post).

By the way, you may have to go the website to see the slide if you’re reading this from an RSS reader. They don’t always show up in the feed for some reason. Not sure why.

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

The KWJZ Smooth Jazz Festival yesterday was AWE.SOME! I cannot even begin to tell you how cool it was. I’ve never been to a concert at the Chateau Ste. Michelle so that was an experience as well. (I have been to the Chateau numerous times for other things, though. It’s a gorgeous place. If you’re anywhere in the Seattle area, you owe it to yourself to check out the wineries in Woodinville.)

Anyway . . .

My mom picked me up about 10 am so that we could arrive early enough to hang out, look at all the booths (food, food, wine, food, and many others) and enjoy the surroundings. We even got there early enough that we got into the VIP parking on the Chateau grounds.

The weather wasn’t all that warm, in the low 70’s and it was kinda overcast but it was comfortable for an outdoor concert. I’m actually glad it wasn’t hot. I don’t do that well in temps above 80.

Gates opened at noon-ish and we found our seats in the reserved seating area. Even though security had to check everyones bags and coolers, it went surprisingly fast and we were inside within 10 minutes.

Since we both have food allergies, we brought a cooler of stuff (I’ll post my moms killer vegan potato salad recipe maybe later this week) so we didn’t sample any of the great food booths – except an incredibly tasty and delicious Mango Lemonade – but wow! The smells were enough to make ones mouth water and tummy rumble!

First up was Nils, kicking off the concerts at 2pm. He did a mix of old and new stuff that can only be described as incredible. Nils is a great guitar player and a true showman. He even waltzed through the isles a couple of times and it was great. He really knows how to have fun. Nils’ 2007 CD, Ready to Play is beautiful.

Next was Marion Meadows. His set was awesome! Marion is a pretty funny guy, he had us laughing a couple of times – a real character. And his sax skills are spectacular! I wish I could play the sax like that. He also stepped into the isles a couple of times and touched hands with some of the fans. A very personable and instantly likable guy. His show was great. And his band is awesome too. His keyboardist is a little gal with awesome pipes. I don’t remember her name, but he introduced her as the gal who sang the Lion King vocals in the movie. She was great, too. Check out Marion’s 2006 CD “Dressed to Chill.” If you like sax, he’ll blow you away.

Third was – how to describe, because AWESOME just isn’t enough – Wayman Tisdale. I’ll tell you, that guy is one hell of a guitar player. And so nice! He’s incredibly down to earth and humble for being such a huge star, both as a guitarist and in NBA basketball. He played a bunch of songs from several of his CD’s including his most recent, Rebound. Wayman had the crowd up on our feet almost the entire set. It was the by far the best the set of the day. I wouldn’t mind seeing him again.

And last, was the Crusaders. The lineup included the original members – Joe Sample, Wilton Felder, Nils Lundgren and Ray Parker, Jr. – along with Joe’s son, Nick Sample and a guy on drums whose name I didn’t catch. I mentioned Friday that I don’t particularly like the Crusaders, but seeing Joe Sample and Ray Parker, Jr. was cool. Ray even sang a bit of his famous “Ghostbusters” song, except that Joe made him change the words to the Crusaders. It was pretty fun. They sure can rock a crowd still for being “old guys.”

My mom and I bought a wine we hadn’t tried before – Syrah, pronounced like sir-ah – that was delicious. It’s very similar to Merlot (which is my favorite) except that it has a more spicy flavor. We shared it with my husband when we got home last night.

So – there you have it! I’m definitely going to both days next year and hopefully my husband will come with me too. He’s not that into jazz but he’d still have fun. And although I liked sitting in the reserved seating area because it was so close – we were about 12 rows back! – I think next year, I’d rather bring all my stuff and my lawn chairs and sit in the grass.

And if you’re in Seattle, let me know if you go next year. I’d love to meet you.

In the arena,

PS – Just a quick update – our septic is fixed!! YAY! My husband and his buddy put a new line from the house to the tank, fixed the junction box and got it all put back together before noon yesterday.

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Just a quick update because I’m sure you’re getting as tired of my septic issues as I am.

Looks like everything should be 100% fixed Saturday afternoon. Yay! We found a second section of the line from the house to the tank that has crumbled and is likely the culprit of 90% of the issues we’ve been having. The septic guy will be here first thing in the morning to help my husband replace that end of the line.

And it looks like the drain field is working properly so with any luck, we won’t have to do anything more there. We did get the filter at that end of the tank cleaned out and it seems like it’s draining more normally now. This is very, very good news. Because I did not want to have to dig up the entire back yard to replace it.

Although, come to think of it, it might not be such a bad idea. The back yard could use a little help in the looks department. It’s lumpy and my husband says mowing is a real pain in the arse. We’d like to dig everything up and level it all out. We had planned to do that this summer so we could build the new deck but someone apparently decided that fixing the septic would be more fun.

Right.

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.