Happy Friday Series Archives - Page 7 of 11

The Happy Friday Series: Fine Art Photography And Family

06/07/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Live Life Like A Kid by Ed King Photography

The Happy Friday Series is a perfect name, especially because Fridays make me happy. This isn’t just because it is the end of the week; for us, it’s family time and about doing things together.

One of the highlights of my fine art photography business is sharing my work alongside family adventures. Having a super supportive wife and kids with a sense of adventure make it really easy to mix work with play although having a camera by my side for so many years if you were to look back at family vacations they almost look nonexistent for me.

What does a weekend of fine art look like from my wife’s point a view? It consists if of long drives, little sleep, singing songs in the car with my youngest daughter and breakfast on the run. I know to some it doesn’t sound like much of an adventure but it’s about family time, being a bit crazy and creating memories.

These times spent together are enjoyed by my daughter so much that on a Friday night with a blanket in hand she’ll ask where we are headed the next day.

This sense of adventure started way before the camera.

I’m writing a secret for the first time my wife Karen and I share. (I apologize to our parents!) When Karen and I were dating, most of our time together included drive time in the car. I picked her up in the early morning, and we headed to New Jersey 400 miles away or drove 11 hours cruising mountain roads in New Hampshire. We were hundreds of miles from home, and I would drop her off late as if we had been at the movies. Together we created some of the best memories of our lives.

The Wildest Adventure

Living in coastal New England there are so many beautiful locations to shoot. Sometimes I think my wife wonders what I see in water and boats hundreds of miles away where similar compositions can be found within a close walk of our Bristol, Rhode Island home.

Ed King Race Point, by Ed King Photography

Have you ever left the house at 11 p.m. Friday night to drive all night several hundred miles to share a sunrise with the ones you love? We have! And, then we continued to drive the coast for another 10 hours only to have dinner and get back on the highway with a warm

bed in sight.

Karen and I are both Gen X’ers but that doesn’t stop us pulling into a toll both at 1 a.m. singing do-op or the same set of songs from a tape (now CD) over and over and over. She is by my side because she doesn’t want me to adventure alone; I play that up because I want to adventure together.

Lost by Ed King Photography

Life Is About Balance

As a Gemini I internally struggle with balance. I have an internal light switch that is all on or all off. The one part of my life with no switch is my family, and to share the passion for family with the passion for photography and business make for the best Fridays a person could ever have.

About Ed King

Ed King is a freelance and fine art photographer living in Rhode Island with his wife of 22 years and their three children. Ed also has a background in business, sales and marketing and enjoys the artistic side of his photography business while influencing its growth from the ground up. You can find Ed on a variety of social platforms with Google Plus his top favorite as well as Facebook and Twitter, you can also find a large variety of his work on his site at https://02809photo.com/

The Happy Friday Series: Beads, Buttons And Crochet

05/31/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Who knew? A Bead & Button Show. And more surprising yet. I’m going to attend it!

Well, let’s start at the beginning. But what is the beginning, really? Was it when I was a child whose crocheting prowess entailed all of making a chain of unending stitches that I would stretch through the house so as to chart my progress?

Was it the doilies I would later crochet because they were fun to make even though no one uses doilies anymore – updated funky colors notwithstanding?

Maybe it was the miniature granny squares that I turned into Christmas ornaments to friends’ delight.

Steel Crochet Hook

Probably it was when my steel crochet hook connected with fine copper wire. At least that’s when I’d found my muse. Wire + vintage and re-fashioned beads = endless creative possibilities for shiny, sometimes elegant, sometimes whimsical necklaces.

Why vintage and re-fashioned beads, you ask?

In short, because I was part of the first Earth Day (at a VERY young age), and environmental responsibility has remained at my core. By day, I run Terracom Public Relations, which since 1990 has helped innovative green organizations grow in size and impact. By night – or whenever I can – I am creating for my latest venture, zii designs.

Which brings me to the Bead & Button Show. I learned of it last year, shortly after I’d begun this jewelry-design adventure. This is no few-day gathering of beaders. Oh no. It fills out nearly two full weeks, drawing instructors from around the country: “The Biggest Consumer Bead Show in the World.” And it’s in Milwaukee, easily accessible from Chicago.

Well, life at Terracom prevented me from attending last year. But this year, I’ll steel away for a class and a hunt for more vintage beads. I suspect there will be a whole culture at this Bead & Button Show that could make for its own sociological study. I’ll be an interested observer.
And when I return, I’ll set my sights on a few boutiques I’ve targeted as prospective places to carry zii creations. (I do love the entrepreneurial pursuit.) My hope is I’ll be able to sell enough jewelry to sustain making more.

Because that’s what it’s all about. The joy of creating, of seeing how things come together. The breathless discovery of it all.

About The Author

Christine Esposito is founder and chief connection officer of Terracom Public Relations, chief crochet officer of zii designs and an amused owner of a retired racing greyhound.

The Happy Friday Series: Amazing Online Friends

05/24/2013 By Jayme Soulati

When I started my social media marketing agency 5 years ago, I did it for a variety of reasons.

I didn’t have a job. I had just been laid off from the magazine that I worked for when a larger publishing company bought it out. They were in OH, I was in NC, we didn’t know each other, and I was easy to cut.
I have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. In early 2000s, I made President’s Club when I was in sales because I was the first to do email blasts. A few years later, I started the concept of selling Webinars to my advertisers at the magazine.
I started my blog in 2003 – I was a “mom” blogger before most moms even had email. I was on LinkedIn the first year; I was on Facebook when there were less than 800,000 people and so on.
I’m BIG on customer service and helping people succeed.
I’m very social. I like to meet people.

One of the BEST parts of social media is getting to know people. I have met some amazing people that I would never have had the opportunity to meet were it not for social media. I met my friend and mentor, Mark Schaefer because of Twitter. I don’t know what tweet it was that he saw, but he reached out to me and offered a half hour of his time to “mentor” me. I was floored and giddy all at the same time. Whether he liked it or not, he had a follower for life. I wouldn’t meet him in real life for at least another year and that was when he came to be the keynote speaker for me at ConvergeSouth. He came to speak because of our relationship that we had built online.

Meet Whom You Tweet

You can build amazing relationships with people online but at some point, you REALLY want to meet them in person. To put a face to a Twitter handle or avatar is the best feeling in the world. That’s why I go to conferences.. it’s not to learn (added bonus if I do!) but rather to MEET WHO I TWEET!

I think it’s so important to find these opportunities to connect in person that I started a group affectionately called the #BWTs.. Broads Who Tweet. My point is getting to meet my online friends makes me happy for days. The energy I get from our BWT weekends will feed my soul for weeks. I just love taking those online relationships to the next level.

BWT is a group of tech-savvy women who I had gotten to know over the course of time and we had built such great online relationships that we wanted to get together in person. We have a hoot when we’re together.. we laugh, we support each other and we talk non-stop. After a few lunches, I thought…Hey! Why don’t we go on a retreat! We can get away from the family for a few days, drink copious amounts of coffee and wine and learn from each other.

And just like that, the #BWT Beach ReTweet was born.

We’ve done two of these retreats, and I’m in the process of planning the third. These relationships began on social media. We’ve carried them into real life and formed real friendships. I know that I can call on any one of these women to help me with something and they will be there in a flash. And they know that they can ask the same of me. It was because of this group that I joined forces with my friend Adrienne and together we created a new, bigger and better social media agency. It doesn’t get much better than that, friends.

You never know where you will find your next friend or your next tribe. Some last, some don’t. I’m grateful that I have them and all of you. Every chance I get to grow my social media circle, I do it because you never know where it may lead.

About The Author

Kristen Daukas is the Director of Social Media for Atlantic Webworks. When she’s not creating magic for clients, she’s busy trying to keep her sanity as she navigates the water of raising three teen and tween daughters. She also enjoys long walks on the beach in the moonlight with her husband. And she thinks she’s really funny. Come share a tweet and circle her at Google+!

The Happy Friday Series: Tunes Of Time

05/17/2013 By Jayme Soulati

What’s a great way to relax and turn off the brain after a long work week? I’ve been known to find some fun things posted online that teach me something, but not work-related.

#1. Watch and listen to this video, and, if you’re old enough, take a trip back in time. (If you aren’t old enough, imagine your parents or grandparents). We’re walking into Montgomery Ward, Wolf and Dessaur, Hills, Gimbles or any number of department stores around the country. You’re making your way through clothes, shoes and cameras on the way to the snack bar or soda fountain, and this music is playing in the background.

You’re familiar with services like Muzak (just purchased by Mood) which now offer a variety of formats to businesses via satellite. From the ’30s through the ’80s, many stores played music from Seeburg jukeboxes. Seeburg jukeboxes rotated through records that ran at 16 r.p.m. There were versions for both in-store and industrial uses, to keep customers and factory workers awake and on the job. Many people still collect and restore these devices. We may think some of the versions of pop songs are horrible, or, we might decide we actually like them!

#2. You’ve no doubt heard songs in languages other than English and maybe even tried to sing along without really knowing the words, let alone what they mean. Here’s how it sounded when a South American band sang the 1960s Kinks hit “A Well Respected Man” on an Argentine version of “American Bandstand.” Making the lyrics sound as close as possible to the English ones without actually knowing them, the teens in the audience loved it!

#3 I lived briefly in Quincy, a few blocks from the Mississippi River in Western Illinois. I commuted to work at a radio station in Hannibal, MO. One day in March the Illinois state offices and schools were closed for a holiday I had never heard of called . What I didn’t know is that there’s a pop song commemorating the occasion. Who’d have thunk?

#4. You know the familiar beginning to “I Love Lucy” the classic TV show that has been running in syndication for decades. What I learned on YouTube was that the original audiences saw a different open, with Lucy and Desi as cartoon characters, and you’d see Lucy and Desi promoting Phillip Morris cigarettes in the open and even in the body of the show as part of the script. Of course, there was the famous Phillip Morris bellboy. I’m not one to try to reach almost 60 years back in time to try to apply 2013 standards about smoking to a 1950s TV show, but I did find this information interesting. If you’ve researched 1950s and 1960s television, you know that even The Flintstones smoked. Incidentally, Desi and Lucy made sure their production company owned the filmed versions of the show and invented the rerun. Embed is disabled with this video but you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/WrvHYUXo–o?t=11s

#5. What if you had a band in West Palm Beach, Florida, during the height of Beatlemania? Why, you’d reinvent yourselves as The American Beetles and tour South America! That’s exactly what this band did, scoring hit records and TV appearances all over Latin America. Some very rare recordings are on YouTube, some as The Razor’s Edge.

So there you have it. Need something to do on a rainy day? Just look up useless, but fun, things on YouTube.

About The Author

Brad Lovett is a radio personality and behind-the-scenes wearer of many hats in the broadcast world of Knoxville, Tenn. He is accessible on his and via and Facebook where he’s most likely lurking and popping in with supportive comments.

The Happy Friday Series: Spring Does Come To New England

05/10/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Credit: Michelle Quillin

Do the changing seasons affect your moods, and by proxy, your productivity and creativity? If you live in an area of the world where winter means months of early darkness, cold nights, and endless bouts of ice and snow, you know all about the winter doldrums. You may even suffer from depression directly tied to the seasons.

I was raised in the deep south, where the seasons are marked not by changing weather, but by major holidays and celebrations. Christmas and New Year’s Eve come in the winter, St. Patrick’s Day and Easter signal spring, the Fourth of July is a summer celebration, and Halloween and Thanksgiving mark autumn. But while holidays and celebrations are a great source of joy for most of us, they’re a harbinger of deep sadness for others, a reminder of loss, or of what’s missing from their lives. Now, tie those winter holidays to a dreary New England winter, and you’ve got a recipe for a real darkness of spirit.

My junior year of high school, my family moved from Georgia to Rhode Island, where I first discovered seasons marked not by holidays and celebrations, but by s eagulls and sailboats in summer, vibrant palettes of gold, red, and orange leaves in the fall, and blankets of deep snow, ice skating, and sledding in the winter.

For many, though, winter isn’t a time for fun, or for the joy of playing outdoors in the long-awaited snow. Instead, winter brings a shutting down, a closing in, and a sleepy, dark hibernation of the soul. And like the trials and hardships that come into every life, winter seems to go on and on, for far too long. The clouds hang heavy and low…

But then, enter spring! Glorious spring! Harbinger of life!

With spring comes the first signs of new birth budding on the barren, storm-battered trees, and sprouting from the still-cold ground, covered in dead debris left there from the previous fall.

Spring in New England brings with it the sights, sounds, and smells of new beginnings. A promise of the veil lifting. A sense of renewal, of opportunity, of change. Change that heralds good.

Resurrection.

A New England spring reminds us that no matter how long or dark a season of life may be, there is always hope. Because just as spring follows winter, after darkness comes light.

Things always get better.

Always.

And hope? It springs eternal.

Credit: Michelle Quillin

What does spring mean for you?

About The Author

Michelle Quillin is chief connectivity officer of New England Multimedia and writes a blog at New England Multimedia. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook as one of the best around for engagement strategies and search engine optimization.