Holy mackerel, who ever thought something like this could happen. I joined Pinterest a few months ago, in order to do a little more self promotion of my Etsy shop. The article I read said that you should not only make pin boards of what you are selling but also board of things that are of interest to you. I created a few different board with some interesting photos one of which is of some fun memories of Disney vacations. Some how, one pin went viral over the weekend. A zillion people saw it, many commented on it and was eventually noticed by someone as the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/disney-world-security-guard_n_1695034.html?1343073180

The writer of the article told me it was all over the Internet but I didn't realize how much until I followed some of the links she provided. There are of course those with the crude and negative comments, but the overwhelming majority of people who commented really like the photo and adjoining story.

Memories

When we were children, we all wanted to go to Disneyland. But it was so far away and only kids who lived in California got to go. By the time I was 19 (a million years ago) I was working for American Airlines. For my very first paid vacation, I took my parents, first class to Disneyland. Mom and Dad really were not the amusement park types so we breezed through the park in just a few short hours. The only attraction we did stop at was It's A Small World and the music annoyed my Mom to death.
As we were getting near the end of our visit I realized that Dad had not taken any pictures, so I stopped one of the characters and asked him if he would pose with me.
Here is the photo my Dad snapped.

So why am I laughing? As anyone who has been to Disneyland or Disneyworld knows, the characters are not allowed to speak. This one, however, wasn't going to follow the rules. He said " I get off at 5, lose the old folks and meet me at the front gate".  After all these years, I still have to laugh when I see this picture.
BTW, can you imagine a Disney park with almost no crowds?

Who did I piss off this time?

I joined Facebook a few years back, because I was going to use it to promote my Etsy shop. I started to find friends I haven't seen since high school and then I found friends from grammar school. It was fun catching up on all those missing years. Following instructions on how to advertise your shop, I then started a Zizzybob's Shop page. I didn't do much with it and it didn't seem to get much notice.
Then I discovered Twitter and quickly got the hang of it. I tweeted often about items in my shop and watched as the views increase whenever I did. I made a few friends, followed some famous people, got re-tweeted often, learned about hashtags, and in short it has been quite helpful.
So mid June I get the big idea to have a Christmas in July sale. I have been promoting the heck out of it but so far all I got was one discounted sale (Thank you Winota).
This past weekend I blitzed the heck out of Twitter, tweeted constantly throughout Saturday and Sunday. Twitter got me a ton of new views but then there's Facebook. I created several Zizzybob's shop entries and posted them. I shared them on my own page and where did it get me? Despite my urging, begging and pleading with family and friends, I only got 3 likes, 1 from Winota, 1 from a stranger and one from my sister who I don't even speak to anymore (we'll talk about that some other time). I watch and wonder at the "likes" and "shares" of cute kitty pictures, the "click in 3 seconds to see what happens" posts and all the other stupid crap people seem to like. I saw a post by an old friend that said her husband was watching a ball game so she wasn't going to cook dinner and somehow that started a long conversation with several people. I get far more interaction from total strangers on Twitter than I do with friends and family on Facebook. I don't get it, just who did I piss off at Facebook? Someone please explain this to me?

Scissors

My Dad always said "The right tools for the right job". He was a brick mason but that phrase seems to be appropriate for any job. Here in my studio I have many pairs of scissors. This is only as small selection. I have others, mostly small ones, that I use when traveling with hand sewing.

Don't you dare cut that piece of paper with any of those. Move on to the kitchen where some older pairs are ready for paper, cardboard or even a chicken bone.

Out on my desk is another set of scissors. I think there was a sale at the now defunct RagShop when I got carried away buying these.

I'm not even going to tell you how many pairs of scissors my husband has. How many pairs of scissors are in your house?