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interior design youtube clips

Bring back 80's cartoons!

I came on the computer to do some work, but have got totally distracted by youtube! Here are some of my favourite 80's cartoons, some of which I had completely forgotten about. Muppet Babies started me off when 'We go together' from Grease came up randomly on my computer and made me think of them - random when I haven't thought of them for years and had forgotten the theme, funny what sticks with you :)

Muppet Babies



Jem and the Holograms



Glo Friends





Count Duckula



Victor and Hugo



Captain Planet



Stop the Pigeon



Duck Tales



Chip N Dale



Good times!

My new favourite song!

This is from the movie Nine, very dramatic.

I liked the movie. It wasn't as extravagant as I was expecting, but I loved the lighting and the sets and the costumes and the drama! It made me want to paint and to dance and any movie that inspires me like that is a good movie for me :)

Building a business from scratch - things I've found useful

I want to turn my idea into a business, but not spend heaps of money especially before I know if it will work or not. What's got this idea from idea stage to potential business stage is because I wasn't working much and needed to be doing something productive. I know you have to spend money to make money, but I figure if I learn how to do a lot of stuff myself, then I know how to do it again. It will take longer, and I know I will have to play around a lot to get to something that looks professional as a business, but I had the time to put into it anyway.

But I was starting from NO business experience! So here are some things I have found/am finding useful.

I attended a 'Small Business Enterprise Training' course at Vision Manawatu (www.visionmanawatu.co.nz) presented by business mentor Dave Gaynor (www.frdevelopment.co.nz). I would thoroughly recommend attending a business course if you can. It's not only learning from people who know about what you are doing, but you can meet other people who are doing a similar thing. It can create great supports.

I have found some great books at the library.

• 'Lessons of a Lipstick Queen' by Poppy King (www.lipstickqueen.com/book.htm). A fun, easy to read book about the story of a girl with a idea who built an empire. Very inspiring and lots of great tips.
• 'Brain Tatoos - Creating unique brands that stick to your customers brains' by Karen Post (www.braintatoo.com). Lots of really great tips, it will change the way you see branding and marketing for yourself, and in what you see around you.
• I designed my logo and other design elements with Adobe Illustrator. A trail version is available for a month trial at www.adobe.com

That's a few things I've found helpful on my steep learning curve of a journey so far!

foxy tiles in the news!

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Building a business from scratch - the first question

Everything new starts with a question. A what if..? The mark of a good question, I think, is that it doesn't just lead to an answer. It leads to a whole new pile of questions, which in turn lead to more questions......that first question becomes the foundation for a mountain of ideas and possibilities.

I had an idea, so I tried it. That's a pretty good start, for me. Lots of my ideas get lost in distraction, but I had been sitting on this one for a while.

What if ... I painted through lace onto tiles?

I played around with the idea of painting though lace years ago, and tried it on canvas. It looked good, but I never took it any further. The idea never quite left though. I don't know where the tiles came from. My subconsious must have been busy ticking away while I was busy!

So I tried it, and it looked amazing! And I wasn't the only one who thought so. I got really positive reactions from everyone I showed them to.

Maybe, I thought, people would pay for these? That was the second question......