I got some holiday cheer today, finally. And so I set about putting out a few more Christmas decorations.



I created this lovely bird nest scene in a glass bowl I bought for a dollar at a tag sale a few years ago. It was so easy to do. I got the idea from Better Homes & Garden magazine.

After selecting a glass container like this, dust it with confectionate sugar on the bottom for the "snow." then insert the bird's nest. (I dusted the bird's nest too.) I used a real one here I collected years ago, but you can find something similar at your local craft store. I went outside and cut a few sprigs of hemlock and used one of the birds from my Christmas decor, as well as a few small ornaments for the "eggs." And voila. I think it's kind of cute.

Today was my product testing venture. I was convinced I wouldn't qualify because one of the questions on the screening survey online was, "Do you have a lot of moles/freckles on your arms? I sort of do. But happily, they accepted me. I overheard the women at the lab saying there were a lot of cancellations, so maybe they were running short on subjects. The product was a body wash. So I'll get a check for $40 in early January.

I've been thinking about my marketing plans for 2012. My freelance business, I mean. Last year, I emailed a whole bunch of realtors, got a few queries, but no work. This time, I want to contact office sales managers only, and if I can find the equivalent of the new construction VP, my oldest client, at other real estate firms, that would be where the work would be....new subdivisions or condos. Office sales managers will happily spend company money on PR or marketing, while individual realtors generally don't, unless they're top producers.

I know that 2 of 3 big clients of mine about 6 years ago at one brokerage have since gone on to other brokerages. I want to target all 3 brokerages in 2012. To make better inroads, I decided to email the 3 I did a lot of work for, and who really liked me, just to ask them if I could use their name as a reference should an interested sales manager inquire. Normally, I would use their name without bothering to ask, but I plan to be contacting LOTS of people and I don't want the 3 to be inundated with queries without knowing in advance what it's all about.

I heard back from one already and she said she'd be happy to write a testimonial. I hadn't really asked her to write anything, just to serve as a reference. I think she may have read my email too quickly. Five minutes after that, she'd send me a 2-sentence testimonial that really made me sound great. So then I figured, heck, this is too good NOT to use. So I asked her if she could put it on my Linked In page, which she did.

Its real power would be if I used it in a marketing flyer I sent to sales managers at her company (a big one), but that's difficult to do because if you go to their website, they don't provide their work email addresses anymore; if you want to email them, you fill out one of those forms online. It would seem a little odd to include the quote in that kind of format.

Phone calls cost money and half the time you'll get voice mail. If you get the person on the phone, they won't remember half of what you said, unlike a flyer they can look at more than once. Mailed flyers, of course, also cost money. So email is the way to go. I just wish I could get around the online message form on the website, which is not conducive to a nicely-designed flyer. Tempted to ask the woman who sang my praises for a list of sales manager email addresses at her company, but don't want to push my luck.

Well, I still have time to mull over the details. But I'm planning on starting right after New Year's with my email campaign.

I have a sizable pile of firewood growing in the driveway form the October storm. I happened to call my dad last night. He expressed interest in the wood. (I don't have a fireplace.) I said sure, but then said gee, you might not want it, it's cut but not split. My dad is 78 and really sedentary. But he told me he'd just bought a splitter. Which would be perfect. So I said ok, next time you're up.


This a little tabletop tree I won in a silent auction a number of years ago. I like it becus it has little red and green bows and came with some miniature lights on it. There's nothing to disassemble. I just store it in the attic.

Tomorrow and Thursday are the last legs of my nutrition study, thankfully. I'm ready to move on to other things.

Since I have to stay home to do the urine collection aspect of the study, I think I may start baking Christmas cookies. I'll start with the super duper easy chocolate/walnut/dried cranberry concoction and then go from there.