SOCIAL MEDIA THE HAPPYMESS WAY

The past month I have been a part of the happYmess quest to get all of my media frenzy in order. I am a habitual blogger, website starter, facebook poster, frequent frenzy tweeter and Mitzi Jane Media has provided me with so much happYmess to explore that my head might just bust open!

MJM STRENGTH Social Media Conference for Small Business 
has been the facilitator for area experts in every genre of Social Media.

Follow her on Facebook to get highlights and find when the next conference will occur!

As for now, I am pecking away doing a bit of happYmess housekeeping. Here are a few of the baby steps I have achieved this week:

Began the happYmessLIFE BLOG (still in progress...thanks for checking in with me)

Began the happYmessLIFE facebook page

Made a notebook grid of all of my "identities" and sites that I have scattered across the world wide web with columns to connect the many emails to the entity with which they speak to one another. 

(YES I should simplify..but one of those email addresses I have had since I was in college...perhaps I am a virtual junkie!)

Updated my Linked In Account...sorry all of you who just use Linked In...I still don't get it..perhaps because most of you are on the "morning cycle". 

I have embraced my creative inner clock..thus Linked In is not working too well for me!

Pinterest...I have formed a happYmess pinterest account and plan to privitize my personal account in many areas....until the workshop I had no idea it was for followings...I thought I was using it to stash great ideas for me to use only!   Don't be buying up the horses I have pinned! It is my goal to own a flock of them!  a herd of them....

I have updated my bloGSSSSSS....and thought long and hard about where to go from here. We'll see about that.

I have updated my new website that I build myself.....which is FLASH so web crawlers do not find it...but it was easy...free  from WIX.com and I love the graphics.  SOOOOO..re-evaluating that.

www.allisonpadams.com

Please check it out and give me feedback!  It was a hair wrenching project where I had goals to finish it in my journal a year ago today!  I arrived at the conference and had my doors blown by the fact that WORDPRESS is THE way to go...by the way...it and blogger are in with GOOGLE. Thus the ease in searches.
WHO KNEW?  Wish I had a year ago! 

And TWITTER....wow...the value of the conference went through the roof when I learned about a little ap I can add to my phone and IPAD MINI to post and schedule tweets called  HOOTSuite! Thanks to Julie Brannon with TELP Media I have been humming the little lollypop song associated with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang all day....It is a life saver if you are a multiple personality media person like myself!

And THANK YOU to Rachel Callahan, blogger of graspingforobjectivity.com  and active blogger leader of alabamabloggers.com ,who made me feel like a creative spirit again instead of a whistle in a square business hole. The session before was the technical stuff I love to know but hate to do~ google analytics, search engine optimization.  She freed me to blog on what I love in random order, all with handy bars at the top so the reader can pick what they want instead of wading. She is still telling me that Wordpress is the best way to achieve that. I'll be sifting that through my brain after I get back from vacation next week. But so far....Wordpress keeps wrestling me to the ground!

Don't get me wrong Jerry Brown (with InfoMedia), your information was invaluable....it just had my creative self in a tail-spin for a day or two. 

There happens to be ONE MORE SESSION!  

On Monday night, April 29 at 5:30 we will wrap up the month with Maximizing Your Online Productivity with Emily Lowery and the Top Ten Take Aways for Small Businesses with seminar maestro Mitzi Eaker.

IF YOU ARE CURIOUS, IT IS NOT TOO LATE....

Contact Mitzi at the link for MJM STRENGTH Conference to see how you can be a fly on the wall to catch the information buzzing out on 280!  She has a one time admission price under $40 bucks.

You won't be disappointed! If for any other reason than to GET ON THE LIST TO SIGN UP FOR THE NEXT ONE~

Hoping to MAKE MORE SENSE TO MY FOLLOWERS (because you know I usually, truthfully just write for myself!)

 about music, writing, art, fashion fun, fluff! design ideas and all that my life leads me to! I love to share....I love to write....I was born to BLOG!

Thanks Mitzi for turning my sprinkler into a smooth flowing water hose...at least that is the GOAL :)

Blessings!

Allison Adams

Visit her blog for highlights. 

This photo from MJM Social Media Conference by Mitzi Jane Media

this post is cross posted on www.happYmessLIFE.blogspot.com

Photography

20 Days of BLOGGING 

Gone are the days of the old rolls of film where you shoot and shoot and hope something comes out that you can keep. I wish I could go back and re-live some trips with my digital camera. 

The memories are great, but now that I actually know how to select the ones that work, tweak them if they don't quite get there and DELETE if they stink, I would have loved to have those memories IN LIVING COLOR!

I recently took some photos of babies~ They make such great subjects!

Photography, another great source for all things CREATIVE~

(and on subject with my blog daily on creativity as well as today's about "what you are doing")

I am available to take photos on location where they are most comfortable~  

$50 fee to come to your house which includes access to one free photo for you to use.

A great way to capture that Christmas card photo or holiday gift idea~  

I also photograph your pet and create watercolor/ acrylic pet portraits.  

#bloglikecrazy BLOG A DAY CHALLENGE #2- DEFENSE

Friday, Nov. 2 --  Defense! No, I'm not talking about football. Write a post defending something or someone that usually gets a bad rap. This could be a celebrity, a book, your favorite food, a region of the country, etc. The possibilities are endless. To narrow your choices, pick something that's somehow related to your blogging niche.

Defending artist Paul Jackson’s nude painting removed/ censored from Facebook~

It amazes me how different Americans are from Europeans when it comes to the naked body.  All along the streets when my sweet husband surprised me for my fortieth birthday and whisked me to Paris were billboards and posters promoting a beautiful exhibit. A European photographer captured the body through creative photographic vision to resemble flowers, a river, mountains. The exhibit was tastefully provocative, creative, magical, the posters quite interesting, and most definitely a stretch for American standards.

I had photos of the poster that lined the streets. It was at first not recognizable as a body, more like an inverted lotus flower in black and white that ended up being a buttocks. 

In America we make such things taboo and in doing so magnify the dirty feel instead of embracing the sheer beauty. The masters of Europe captured beauty in the natural body, making women of any size and shape feel good about the natural tendency for the body to be appreciated for what it does.  The significance of the breasts for nurturing a newborn in Europe was so often captured in magnificent light with the subjects being revealed as Goddesses of life. 

Because our children are not exposed to the pure beauty of the woman’s body, they find at puberty this snickering, immature relationship with the very thing that brought them into existence.  

Even facebook bans nude paintings and drawings on sites. And while I am surely against the posting of a bleach blonde revealing breasts that are guaranteed to show no functional value for bearing children, I appreciate the tastefully painted rendition of a woman with light cast on her body as she is captured by the creator of a painting. 

http://www.pauljackson.com/2012/01/muse-27x56-watercolor-by-paul-jackson/

Here is a link to his facebook and blog posts about the painting. 

Be WARE!  Tasteful nudity alert! If you are under 18 do not open without permission from your parent. 

As an artist, I will say, if you are my child...appreciate ART. You are wise enough to know the difference.

Some Recent Artwork by Allison Adams

Independence Day

This morning
I zip into the Chevron,
grab a shot of caffeine,
Head on my way.
In front of me
A woman on a cell phone slows traffic.
I watch another walk her dog
On the long winding path beside me,
No cares, no concerns.

Yesterday,
As I hit snooze,
Purrs of lawnmowers and
shrills of children on bikes
Dashed in through my window.
I turned over,
Went back to sleep
Because I could.

Overseas,
A friend sleeps on rock,
In tents,
As much as he can,
Before jumping into action
on streets where
Women scurry with children,
Men eat quickly in fear,
Pausing only to listen for any
Sign of threat.

This Independence Day,
I pray that the joy I have
With family and friends
Is scattered across the globe,
In the minds and hearts of children,
Who also play, but
Under shelter of cover,
Not openly in the streets
As in AMERICA.

This Independence Day
I pray for PEACE.
I extend gratitude
To those
Who give me and my children
the choice
To simply BE.
Allison Puccetti Adams 2009

Allison Adams Images

PAINTING A DAY CONTINUES

Ok, it is harder than it seems...
but I still persevere!

well, as my artist's friends point out...as they look at me with dismay
when I tell them,
I decided to do a painting a day in December...

IT IS DIFFICULT TO PAINT EVERY DAY!


And ok, today is the 10th...so I need 9 paintings to meet the overall "quota".

WELLLLLLLLLLLL.......

Here are 3 more....
actually the angel was just "tweaked"
so that makes 6?

Allison...
but it is EARLY in the DAY! :)
(ok for you CPA types like my husband...
no I am NOT painting every day..
did you not see the blog about the cookie parties?
But doesn't painting with icing count?
I CERTAINLY THINK SO! :) )
oh, and the birdhouse..it is STILL coming along between paintings I add
dots or stripes here and there....

These will be at the show this weekend!
Hope you can come!

www.wildflowerwax.com

GIVE A GAL A FEW HOURS

Ok, there are some people who might look like they are defeated
(I have been known to be one of these)
and then OUT OF THE BLUE...they round the corner...
So I present to you..
PAINTING NO. 3 AND 4 of the PAINTING A DAY challenge I have given to myself.
So, on December 5 (began the second)....I am at 4 paintings...and CAUGHT UP!

I began the TUSCAN PATH painting a few weeks ago, with my Creative Call group
click on the link below for Highland Artists to see that website if you need inspiration ~

We all meet at my house every Wednesday to share tips, techniques...
read about THEM on the blog...
they have shown me the true value of friendship.

Then the angels...
AHHHHHHH, I am back to a place, with angels.
in 2007 I wrote a book about angels, illustrated by Donna Jones.
It is in a vault as I now understand why the Christian stores didn't take the book..
it was a creative "worldly look" at Angels on Earth....
we all have ideas of heaven, God and earth...
some more quirky than others..
but the truth is, Jesus is the ONLY way.
I know that now and pray every day for protection from God's angels against
the darkness of this world.
My prayer is that everyone will come to know HIS love....

Look for more angels on E-bay...I have sold out...
so today, as I add 2 more due to my "challenge" I am MOVING FORWARD...

but let me tell you...staying in my PJ's by a fire all day yesterday,
having cookies baking for my babies after school was
SURELY A FINE NON-PRODUCTIVE PAINTING DAY ...


Blessings!
Allison

SEDONA

I have not written since going to Arizona...
what a hot...yet beautiful place...
we stayed a week...in 112 degree heat..and NO it is NOT a dry heat..
it is HOT...

But we had a blast...
Ann Kathryn went too..

pictures say it all...
Red rocks...Sedona
Grand Canyon...
Route 66...
The Mondrian...
This chapel was on the way to the Grand Canyon..
and we saw the one in Sedona build by Frank Lloyd Wright..
a dream of an artist's...build after her family members passed...

it was a creatively stimulating trip and a spiritual journey as well...

and another incredible Birthday and Father's day trip....

CAREER DAY

I recently spoke at CAREER DAY at my daughter's school- as an ARTIST.

I had a hard time sticking to the "JUST ARTIST" theme...as those who know me may have imagined....

I took tons of props (as you can see in the photo)
starting with my projects from interior design school...
I used to LOVE to do renderings...and perspectives...

I shared that as an artist I can work for designers, creating boards and renderings,
finish schedules, floor plans.... (actually I AM a licensed and registered interior designer but didn't want to get off the subject of artist because there was already an interior designer there...as pointed out by my daughter)

I shared a wallcovering collection I helped create at a company in Jackson, Mississippi...as a coloration/design consultant, selecting colorways...working in the actual factory where the wallcoverings are produced....
We would take inspiration from all over the place...
I learned about color...and how color is dictated by a "Color Expert Committee" that selects the color for the year eight years before we ever see it...
but a hint is that we can see it first in fashion about three or four years before it hits the home furnishings market.

I shared with them that when my daughter, now 12, was two, I had the urge to publish two books...so I formed a publishing company, The Oaks Publishing Company, and I wrote, illustrated one...hired an artist to do the other....because of her incredible talent with pastels....and went into the publishing business.

This was way before Print on Demand...wow would I have loved to have known about THAT...writing and publishing a book is about like birthing a child!
Once it is out there...there are about...depending on your "discount frame of mind" and mine was 5000 copies of each...to get that price for EACH down...ha
(publishers are chuckling as they read that knowing EXACTLY what I mean) and not realizing I had to WAREHOUSE, take orders, ship, and do accounting for these babies!

I did this right as the big publishers were emerging and were squashing the small publishers...1997...and as I watched CSPAN's publisher debate, their great idea was to "tap into the gift market audience"....well I was a designer...I was already going to the largest gift market in the country..in Atlanta...
so I got a temporary booth...set up with a friend who painted glasses, vases and pie platters...and took orders in Dec. of 1997 and with the help of market began filling orders for over 1000 of the books and prints that I also sold with the books.
I signed every book, shipped them, and still had about 3000 books by the time I moved to the gulf with my "then husband" after being in Montgomery for 8 years.

At that point, you don't just "move" a publishing company...there is registration with R.R. Bowker, for ISBN...with Barnes and Noble, books a million...all of the address changes...so the books resided with me in my families beach house...until about three years ago.... I didn't know what to do with them...they still had my "previous name"....so what the hurricane didn't destroy, we threw them away...

so Print on Demand...is an option...I can re-edit the books...and have them available if I want to promote them again. With this option...they are filed in a computer...and as a person orders them, they are shipped and I am paid for the order AFTER they are shipped and printed "on demand". Pretty ingenious...no inventory...although the glossy cover has to be shopped or you end up with a cookie cutter looking product...

Book publishing...even the book publishers are not too sure about how to make a go of it!

I also wrote (this year) Birmingham Sketchbook...someone elses book, their idea, their baby...and I was hired to write the history "for hire" and submitted one painting...even though it is a large publishing house's book...
that book is currently being promoted by ME... at least in Birmingham...
the person who was carrying the ball...jumped ship...
so sometimes...something you love, whether a foster child or your own...
still becomes a BIG endeavor that you have to sink your heart and thought into!

Either way, self published or other...you find a connection that can't be explained...

See it at the link to Birmingham Sketchbook.

Then I talked about how my being an artist, led me to the writing of the book...as the promoter was looking for "artists" I ended up interviewing to be the WRITER.

That book led me to a freelance job writing for Southern Beauty Magazine, which I am currently doing and am working with them on the SOUL Section of the magazine where I write about inspiring women who dig more into their life purpose.

I have interviewed some incredible people, including Marty Dunn (a brain tumor survivor with young children), Beverly Gardner (she and her husband have had over 100 foster care children in their home and have 14 children they have adopted or had),LeAnn Rimes, Emily Proctor and most recently Debbie Reynolds.

This job has been the most rewarding of any I have ever had, as it is fulfilling something inside me that helps bring together all of my core interests and so far with EACH and every interview, there is something that is directly reflective in my life at that time.

I was mocked recently by my ex-husband's lawyer ...because I "don't make enough money" at what I am doing... (mainly because it affects the 380 odd dollars my ex contributes to each of his children each month and am asking him to contribute more)
I tell them and I explained to the children "you are living in a community where there is 100% parental participation...fathers and mothers....live in this community because the schools are incredible...that is the most important thing you can do in your life..offer your children a great education and be there for them as they grow up."

I know it is not always easy...when my oldest two were young...I was climbing some "ladder that was against the wrong tree". As I have grown older, and start again with a three year old...I know how awesome, growing up in a small town myself,it is to walk through that door at three and just go play in my room, or jump on the trampoline or play in the creek. Those are memories you don't get in daycare or after school programs.

Being home for my children at 3:00 when they walk in the door, or call on their cell to see if someone can come over, is the biggest gift that I can give them.

I don't have a full time job, I don't drive a fancy car like my ex...in fact I select my car by the number of passengers it can hold (but I have NOT been able to do the MINI VAN...I know they have all the tables and cool doors...but I haven't personally been able to go THERE...ha)
but where I am now is my priority...and I want my children to understand that.

I don't know where this path will take me, but I have worn many hats, but they all come back to the artist...

I showed them paintings, and talked about the ways you can sell artwork...
but I also talked about other ways you can use your artistic gifts.
I painted the cover for the Symphony Orchestra Picnic fundraiser invitation, I have designed the last three years of t-shirts for the Hughes-Brinkley Memorial Fun Run at the Emmet O'Neal Library, I painted the mural for both of my children's school plays.
I did not do any of these for "hire", I did them because I CAN and want to.

At the end of each session (and I repeated my speech 6 times) I took the group up to the music room where they each grabbed a paint brush. I showed them how the mural was sketched and with each group, the mural came alive. They all wrote me thank you notes, and the highlight of their day was to put their prints on that mural for the sixth grade play.

Sometimes being an artist is just all about helping others find the artist within themselves.....and that day...you couldn't have paid me ANYTHING to miss THAT.


(mural shown in the basketball photo above)

About Allison

ARTIST
Allison's work can be purchased by calling her at 205-914-2400
and can be seen at JenniferHarwellArt.com gallery in SOHO Square, Homewood

Allison will have a show of crisp, colorful, summer fun paintings in Fairhope, Alabama in March, 2008.
She is currently looking for representation along the Gulf Coast, in Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and the Florida Panhandle.

You may contact her at alliadams11@gmail.com

Allison is an
AUTHOR/ ILLUSTRATOR
She recently wrote the history of Birmingham for Indigo Publishing Co.'s Jan. 2008 release of Birmingham-Hoover Sketchbook. Her illustration of the Birmingham Train Station that was torn down in the name of progress is featured in that book.
She is also the author of Southern XYZ's Alabama Edition and A Gathering of Angels.
SONGWRITER
Allison is working on a cd of original songs.
Her son, Brent, has performed on radio at the age of 8, was on NBC13 at age 11 singing and playing harmonica, won third place in the Alys Stevens Stars Fell On Alabama Competition at age 11, is a contender in the America's Got Talent show with one more audition left to date, and is working on a cd as well. He plays guitar, piano, harmonica and sings his original songs. Brent is 14 years old.
INTERIOR DESIGNER (REGISTERED STATE OF AL)
Allison graduated from the University of Alabama and worked in the commercial/healthcare field of interior design. She was a board member of IIDA and served as the Southeast Regional Vice President for ASID while in college. She has worked as a coloration consultant/wallcovering designer. She uses her ability to visualize color and pattern in the creation of custom paintings for designers.
REALTOR BROKER- RELFE-WELDEN REAL ESTATE (Specialty: Gulf Coast vacation homes and rentals, Hunting Property- West Alabama, Birmingham Residential Property)
Other interests:
Past President of the Baldwin County Chapter of the Alabama TREASURE Forest Association.
MEMBER CHURCH OF THE HIGHLANDS
Delta Delta Delta Sorority
Junior Women 100- Emmett O'Neal Library
Highland Artists