A Purple Cow

Cheryls Purple Cow Blog

apurplecow — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:23:53 +0000

At the same time I was setting up this blog, Blogger added the pages capability to its blogs.

So I decided to stay there because I am used to Blogger and that is where my followers already are.

My blog is Cheryls Purple Cow: Raising Awareness One Bead at a Time.

You can also find me on Facebook at Cheryls Purple Cow and My Extra Beads

Or in my 2 new stores on ArtFire:

Jewelry by Cheryls Purple Cow

Cheryls Extra Beads

apurplecow — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 07:42:00 +0000

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common epilepsy syndrome with focal seizures. These seizures are often associated with auras. TLE often begins in childhood. Research has shown that repeated temporal lobe seizures can cause the hippocampus to shrink over time. The hippocampus is involved with memory and learning. Although it may take years of temporal lobe seizures for measurable hippocampal damage to occur, this finding underlines the need to treat TLE early and as effectively as possible.

MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

pilepsy comes from a Greek word meaning ‘possession.’ The Greeks believed seizures were caused by demons, and regarded them as a supernatural phenomenon. The true nature of epilepsy has long been distorted by myth and fear, and people continue to hold mistaken notions about the disorder.

Welcome to My New Blog

apurplecow — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:56:26 +0000

I am learning how to do things on my blog on WordPress. There are many differences from blogger to here. It may take awhile but I will learn how to maki this blog do what I want it to do. The best part of the new blog is the pages.

I want to have tutorials easily available to my blog readers and I am going to set-up a page for my tutorials.

I am also going to set-up a page for a listing of the Awareness Ribbon Colors and the Causes represented by each color. I am striving to have one of the most comprehensive lists of Awareness Colors.

I have 2 shops on Etsy and I plan to have a page for each one.

I am going to promote this new blog address with a give-away. I am still hammering out the details but the main prize is going to be really nice. I still have to figure out the hoops that you will have to leap through to enter the contest. I will let you know real soon.

A New Blog

apurplecow — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:59:00 +0000

I am in the process of setting up a new blog at WordPress. I am excited about moving my blog because I will have pages on my blog.

I already have several pages set up, but no real information on them yet. There will be a page for each of my shops and a separate page for my Epilepsy Awareness efforts.

The difficult part is learning how to manipulate the layout and data on WordPress. If you want to start following now the address is http://apurplecow.wordpress.com. If you know some shortcuts for learning WordPress, please let me know. I specifically need to know how to fix the blog posts covering part of the blog title.

I will announce the new blog formally within the week with a special give-away. I just have to figure out which hoops I can expect you to jump through for the give-away prize.

Awareness for Mom

apurplecow — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:58:00 +0000

I have not announced my Awareness Treasuries lately but I need to announce this one. I dedicated it to my Mother. Please help me support Awareness by visiting my Awareness Treasury. Click on each picture and leave a comment. This increases the rank of the Treasury.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=108313

expires Thursday Jan 28 3 am

Make sure that you don’t miss viewing these Treasuries. Sign up for my Awareness Treasury notification by leaving your email address in the comment section. I always moderate the comments so your email address will NOT get published.

Anyone can sign up to receive notice of my Awareness Treasuries by sending a message to me through this blog or through my Etsy shop.

$5.00 Sale by the Trade-A-Holics

apurplecow — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:07:00 +0000

The Trade-A-Holics team has been very busy. We had a great Trade Event this past weekend. It gets kinda hectic in that thread but I traded for bunches of nice things from my teammates.

But its a new week and this busy team is keeping busy.

The Trade-A-Holics January $5.00 and Under sale is already going strong. I counted 85 shops listed in the first entry on the thread. There are many more shops listed in the thread. And here is the link to one of the best sales so far this year:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6416106&page=1

Come and shop at the Trade-A-Holics January $5 and Under Sale.

Exciting Sales from the Trade-A-Holics Team on Etsy

apurplecow — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:10:00 +0000

The Trade-A-Holics are having 2 sales Back-to-Back.

The first is the Trade N’ Stay event that starts tomorrow and ends on Monday. As soon as it ends the $5.00 sale starts and runs for a week.

I participated in my first Trade N Stay (TnS) in December and it was a blast. You do NOT need to be a team member to participate. You need to have a shop on Etsy with inventory because that is how you will pay for things. There is a forum thread on Etsy with the names of the shops that are on the list. You arrange a trade with one of those shops and your shop gets put on the list. And once you are on the list, you will stay there until the end of the event. There are some guidelines for courtesy Trading 101 that you should read here: http://tradeaholics.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network.

The $5.00 sale is just what it says. Shops participating in the sale will have items in their shops that are $5.00 or less. I will post the link to the thread with the list of shops in my Shop Announcement as soon as I get it.

Thursday Treasury Tips – Treasury 101

apurplecow — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:25:00 +0000

Before I joined my first team I didn’t know much about Treasuries. I knew they existed. I knew I had never been in one. That was the extent of my knowledge.

A Treasury is basically a poster that shows 12 items from different Etsy Artists chosen by a Curator. Sometimes there is a theme (Valentine’s Day, Green things), sometimes the items are just things the curator likes and sometimes the items are from shops that are friends or teammates of the curator. Treasuries only last 48 to 72 hours.

Etsy has an application called “Poster Sketch” that is the first step in creating a Treasury. This is the link: http://www.etsy.com/poster_sketch.php. When you have chosen an item that you want to include in your Treasury, open the Poster Sketch. Then enter the item number in the one of 16 boxes on the poster sketch and press OK. Do this for all 16 items. You can drag the pictures around to set them up in any order you like. You can click on the copy button at the bottom of the page and it puts the item numbers on your clipboard. I paste that in notepad or Word and then make a list of the numbers from it. I think it is easier to cut and paste into the Treasury that way.

Now you are ready to “fish” for a Treasury. Check the Craftopolis Treasury clock at this address: http://www.craftopolis.com/index.php?com=tc.

Be sure that you are signed in to Etsy. (Don’t ask how I know to remind you). Remember that the time till the Treasury opens is approximate. I have seen it take an hour longer and I have seen it go an hour or even two quicker. The closer it gets the more often I check. When it gets within 20 to 30 Treasuries I open a window with just the Treasury lists and I go back to it every few minutes if I am doing other things on the computer. Sometimes I get out a project that needs work and just watch the open window.

Sometimes as it gets close a bunch of people will cancel their Treasuries in order to get one in the new batch. I have seen 10 to 20 people cancel their Treasuries in a matter of 5 minutes. That does not include the ones that were scheduled to expire during that time.

When the number gets to 340 on Main or 230 on West, I do not leave my seat. Keep looking at the time left on the individual Treasuries due to expire to figure an approximate time. I can just about guarantee that if you leave the computer a bunch of people will cancel and the Treasury will open and you won’t get one.

When the number hits 332 for Main and 221 for West you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page immediately. You will see this:

Enter the name you have chosen for your Treasury where “Bright and Beautiful” is entered on this form, and click enter. Then complete the Treasury like the Poster sketch.

When I am done with the Treasury I click on each photo and when the item opens in the other window I click on contact shopowner and send the shop owner a convo to let them know they are in a Treasury. The shopowner will usually click and comment on your Treasury and they will usually inform their “network” that they are featured in a Treasury and some of them will click and comment too.

That is Treasury 101.

If you have suggestions or comments please use the comment box below. I moderate all comments so if you don’t want your comment published just indicate that and I will delete it after I read it.

Big Plans and Dreams for this Year

apurplecow — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:41:00 +0000

I have not been attending to my blog the way I would like to but that is due to the changes I am in the process of implementing. I decided that I would share my plans with you.

I started selling some of my destash supplies in my shop but I don’t really like the way they look in the shop with my creations. So I opened a new shop. I call it MyExtraBeads. the address is http://MyExtraBeads.etsy.com. I will be selling quite a few extra beads and other arts and crafts supplies.

I opened a new FB account for my Epilepsy Awareness efforts. If you are interested you can find that page at MyEpilepsy Page on FB. My personal page has way too much going on. I have my friends and family, Larrys friends and family, people that I have met and fanned through Etsy, and all my Epilepsy contacts on my personal page. Some days I have to go through 4 or 5 pages to see an hours worth of posts. I decided to break off the epilepsy because that is something that needs undivided attention. I even opened a group page along with it so that others could contribute more to the page.

I have been doing well with the Awareness Treasuries. I have kept them going almost continuously for almost a month now.

I am also working on a comprehensive list of Awareness Ribbon Colors that shows all the causes for each color. I am trying to figure out how to add a page to my blog so that the list can be posted here.

I started the Facebook Tutorial on my Tuesdays Tutorials segment of the blog. I still need to come up with a couple more segments that I can publish weekly.

I am going to announce a blog giveaway as soon as I hammer out the details. I will be giving away a custom made bracelet from my shop. I think I know which one, but I’m not sure.

Hmmm, I need a couple new segments. I need something to promote my blog giveaway. Maybe I will combine the two.

Boy, just seeing this list is making me tired.

Till next time.

New Weekly Feature Tuesday Tutorial How to Create a Facebook Fan Page

apurplecow — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:58:00 +0000

Facebook Tutorial How to Create a Fan Page

I answer many questions about Facebook Fan Pages and decided that I was going to start writing the instructions for others in the form of Tutorials.

The first tutorial is written as if the reader has not played around with Facebook much. I am going to give basic information that may bore some of you. Please bear with me while I bring the new to Facebook audience up to speed.

This tutorial is going to walk you through creating your Fan Page. You should already have a page set up for yourself. That page is the “Profile” page.

There are a 2 ways to get to the “Create a Fan Page” and both ways take you to the page below.

1) If you are on someone else’s Fan Page, scroll down to the bottom of the left-most column. You will see this:

click on “Create a Page for My Business”.

2) You can follow this link: http://facebook.com/pages/create.php

This is a picture of that page.

Choose either “Local”, “Brand, Product or Organization” or “Artist, Bank, or Public Figure”. When you choose one you will have access to a drop-down menu. Scroll the menu and choose the selection that best describes your Fan Page. I have expanded the drop-down menu for the category “Local” so that you can see what choices are available.

Type the name you want for your Fan Page in the “Name of Page” box.

I recommend checking the next box so that you have time to work on your Fan Page before it goes public.

Read the small paragraph above the blue “Create Page” button. If you need more information read the statements below the button.

If you are ready to set-up your Fan Page click on the blue button.

This next page is your new Fan Page. I recommend bookmarking the page or saving it as a favorite. It is not always easy to get back to the page at first.

You need to fan your Fan Page. This is not automatic, you will go through the steps like anyone else. Simply click on the “Become a Fan” button.

*I forgot to take notes while I did this step so please send me any corrections you notice*

Next you should add a profile picture. Click on “Edit Picture” on the left side of the page. Click on “upload from computer”. Find the picture you want to use and click on it. When you are done click on “Go back to your page” to get back to the main page.

If you want to change your settings, change the admins of your page, get your “Badge” or “FanBox” click on edit page. There are too many options available on this page to go over them now

Congratulations!!! You have just created a Fan Page.

I am constantly looking for Tutorial suggestions. If you have a topic to suggest please use the comment to suggest it or go to my Fan Page and post your suggestion in the Tutorial discussion.