Day to Day

I can't believe the Spring semester is right around the corner (this Monday in fact). Exciting and petrifying at the same time! So in an effort to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I signed up for a Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator class. I have some not-to-shabby Photoshop skills as is. But since I'm 100% on the job taught I'm super excited for the chance to actually know what it is that I am doing. Plus I downloaded Adobe Illustrator last week and I'm just dying to get to mess around with it in a proactive way. The class is mostly online so I'll be posting my work (aka homework) to my blog. Genius, huh? The professor actually asks us to do this (through Blogger) in the syllabus. So you can look forward to regular posts in the near future on a regular basis.

A couple of weeks ago my grandma Lupe (certified crazy) was awarded as one of LULAC's hispanic women of the year for 2009. Here's some quick pictures. The ceremony took place in Santa Ana, CA or Orange County for your Bravo watchers out there.


Ever since I can remember my grandma has been a huge proponent for education. She's been a substitute teacher for the last twenty some years in Orange County. If you want to see her then make sure you call ahead. She's always taking some type of night class on any given subject.
You would never be able to tell by looking at me. But I am actually 25% Mexican and it all comes from my dear ole granny. My grandma Lupe actually didn't speak an ounce of english when she came to the states 45+ years ago. The story goes that my newly widowed grandpa was on vacation somewhere near Guadalahara and BAM! 2 weeks later he had a wife. Consequently, my grandma drives like she is still in Mexico.


top picture - me (Amanda Record) and my great aunt chiao
bottom picture - me, my mom, grandma, my aunt becky and my great aunt chiao

My Geology professor Matthew Taylor gave us an option of earning extra credit by attending an optional field trip to the Gemology Institute of America (aka GIA) in Carlsbad, CA. Most of us jumped at this offer. I'll be brief. It was a really nice visit even for someone that is only taking a Geology college course to satisfy breadth area requirements for transfer. Our tour guide was Terri Ottaway, curator of the GIA Museum. She was nice enough to let us view some of the newly developed course materials for becoming certified at Gem identification. I was really impressed and if this sounds interesting to you. I would look into their distance learning programs. I should also mention that GIA hires graduates of it's programs. Out of everything we saw I was most impressed with the staff's photo essays taken in Columbia and the Columbian Emeralds. Forgive the photo quality (iphone photos).

So I've been just horrible lately -- I mean horrible at keeping up with my blog . Believe me I do not refer to myself as a blogger to newbies. Well at least not yet. School is just taking up about 75% of my time and work the remaining 25%. The only thing that's been getting me through is that the fall semester end is near! December 15th in fact. Next semester I'm only taking half as many classes as I am currently. So I'm hoping to devote more time to work. I thought that when I moved back home I would enjoy not working and focusing 150% of my attention on my School work. But alas for quirky old me it is quite the opposite. I find I do better when I'm working and my time is crunched. It forces me to do my School work right away rather than procrastinating away my time.

So Black Friday is practically upon us. Most of these goodies I own and am quite fond of for anyone and everyone that I love this Holiday season. I say Chrismukkah because I've celebrated Hannukah since well before I was born. It's a long story but suffice it to say I have an extended Jewish family and I've never minded 8 nights of gift receiving!


Lush Sex Bomb $5.95
Inhale the come-hither fragrance of jasmine, clary sage, ylang ylang and soak your blues away. I've been really into my baths lately and like to up the ante with a pink glitter bath! Check out Lush's bath boms. This one the most popular for good reason.


Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinner's Cookbook - $25.16
I've loved this guy for years. I have numerous cookbooks from him and this is my favorite! It's basically a family themed cookbook. It'll keep your dinners interesting! Jamie blends Asian, Italian, and English flavors together seamlessly.

Love Necklace $58.00
My go to necklace by Dogeared. I love how delicate the chain and heart are. I also like the karma necklace version.

Solid Anklets 3 Pack $24.50
I love these in the neon colors or the neutrals. By Jcrew of course.

Three Star Apron $32.00
Anthropologie has an amazing selection of fun and ridiculously cute aprons! I have no idea why no one knows about them.

Micheal Antonio McKey Booties $60.00
So what a steal. Jcrew does a twin looking bootie to this one for $250.00. You won't find a better deal anywhere. The heel is a little high so you or your giftee won't want to wear these to work all 7 days of the week. Pair them with the solid anklets to show you care.

Purity 1 Step Facial Wash $32.00
Really gentle cleanser by Philosophy that one of my Aunties turned me onto.

So I was browsing last night listening to my favorite new soundtrack "Where the Wild Things Are". Which is just insane Karen O really outdid herself. I've loved that woman for years but I love to see artists expanding their range. Her work is totally removed from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and it transports you back to the childhood adventures of Max. Then it dawned upon me Max for Halloween so I started looking for costumes. The best out there (and sold out by the way) is made by Opening Ceremony, they design all the costumes in the actual film. Their Max costume is a whopping $610.00. Ouch! While on their site I saw this dress and while I am in love. I don't think I am quite ready for my 1st $440.00 dress. But maybe one of my lovely blog visitors is? Enjoy.

ModCloth.com sent this to my inbox today. To be honest I think this young brand is very bold in their Online Marketing choices. Not too long ago they completely relaunched their site. I would say they modernized their site by 15 years and brought it up to speed with their competitors. Actually scratch that I actually think ModCloth has the viral/social networking cornered for their space. I'll have to do another post on all of the things that I appreciate about their new website from my user experience. If you can't tell I love ModCloth just a wee little bit.

ModCloth surprises me by dedicating so much of their eMail efforts to Sweepstakes or Contests of some sort. I find that when they do feature clothing items their all in a theme. Versus Brands, New Arrivals, or Sale Items. A while back they sent me a "Mad Men" themed eMail with all vintage themed items/office wear from the 1960's decade.

Take this eMail (seen above) that they sent with the subject line "Color me Mod". First thing first, Kudos to their Creative team. Aesthetically this eMail is very pleasing to the eye. At first I found myself doing a double take. I thought maybe I misread my sender label and I opened FontShop's eMail instead of ModCloth. I also had to cut off some of the extra black background due to using good old function keys to take my screenshot and needing to paste it all together in Photoshop later. Which I wouldn't have needed to do if they had included a link to the web hosted version of this eMail/Html. I think there are 7 different links in this eMail. But it is hard to tell since there are no call to actions (read click here or arrow).

Funny story is that I am NOT a designer. Now that I have my glasses I might actually have a shot at that career choice. Before everything was so blurry (unbeknowst to me) that I couldn't detect the difference between a GIF or JPG. One of the previous creative contractors that I had the priveledge to work with once told me that she didn't believe in CTA's. Designers hate CTA's almost as much as underlining text. Her belief was that most people have some intelligence and do not need labels for where they can or cannot click. While I see her point there is a reason CTA's improve conversion rate. Which by the look of this eMail was not the overall goal.

A few goals for this little eMail that could would be
1. Add link of web hosted image. For those recipients who have not pre-approved viewing of your images.
"Can't see the pretty picture? Click here to view our eMail online."
2. Brand the navigation bar so that it is consistent with the look/function of their web site navigation. Add colored background behind the text. Which should increase conversion rate.
3. My preference would also be to move the "This eMail is from ModCloth" at the top next to suggestion 1#
4. There are social networking links at the bottom of the eMail set on a plain white background. I would also add a colored background (aka bottom navigation bar) behind these icons. It improves conversion and just looks nice. On a side note I don't know their network numbers but I believe for most retailers Twitter and Facebook are their Social Media power players. Most only include those 2 links on their eMail.

Bing Cashback
Lists your bottom line (price you will pay) and the % cash return that your Cashback Bing account will receive. I believe you can request your cashback about 60 days after your purchase (the waiting period varies by store) or use your PayPal account for faster deposits. You won't see the Cashback savings icon (dollar sign symbol to the left) once you are redirected to site. But Bing sends you a eMail later confirming your purchase.

I'm going to be interested in learning more details about these transactions. Are the prices higher or the same prices listed on Google? Is Bing charging less than Google for it's PPC? I mean where is this extra money coming from? I'm sure there are some studies addressing these questions. Please share if you have any sources or just stay tuned for follow up.

Shopping by Cashback
This program is really like an added bonus to your already planned purchases. I'll continue shopping by best value (price). But Bing gives you the option (left sidebar) of shopping by their Cashback program.