I can honestly say that I now get Twitter. I get it!

I mean, the concept is about as straight forward as you can get, so I never had a problem grasping the idea of ‘tweeting’. I just had a hard time understanding what the big fuss was about and why people were claiming to be so addicted to it.

I have been addicted to other types of social media (myspace a few years ago, facebook for the last year, etc) so I was sure I’d be hooked soon after creating my account last Spring. But that wasn’t the case (right off the bat at least.) I think I’ve only updated 50-something times in the past year, so that tells you how little the Twitter buzz affected me up until this point. 5 of those updates were spread out over several months! I’ve only recently started to update on almost a daily basis. I am not quite to the point of no return - I can quit any time I want. However, I think as I get more interaction w/ my fellow Tweeps and get up over a couple hundred followers (I’m close!) I will be strung out on Twitter.

There is a WEALTH of information to be discovered via fellow Tweeters. Most of it you could care less about. But if you follow the right types, you will be knee deep in quality info/websites/videos/pod casts/etc. For example, I follow a social media guru (one out of a billion so called SM experts currently tweeting). This guy must not doing anything but twitter all day - doesn’t sound like my kind of fun, but hey - lucky me. His lack of a life outside the confines of social media websites has helped me. He directs his followers to articles on everything marketing related. Articles that have actual content and not fluff. Thanks to this guy I’ve learned how to effectively optimize my shop www.BlueSkyRocket.com so that search engines like Google rank me higher in the search results.

If you don’t run an online company or you don’t work for a company that has an online presence that would benefit from this type of info, then yeah, spare yourself the time Twitter will suck out of your week. But if you do anything web related - jump into Twitter head first by tweeting as much as possible. Tweet about things that interest you. Tweet about things you would want to read. You’ll eventually start to attract an audience with similar interests. Imagine having that kind of resource - a big pool of your peers that you can tap for info/advice/referrals/whatever at any time of the day or night!

I love Facebook, but I can’t relate to Jenny from my 4th grade class like I can to some dude in North Dakota that tweets all kinds of great news on the CPSIA issue. What kind of info can Jenny give me about Internet Retail? Wordpress design? Blog advertising? Nothing. We don’t share the same interests or careers. As much fun as it was to catch up with each other after losing contact for 20 years (give or take!), our ‘reconnection’ was pretty much over as soon as it started. With Twitter, you may not get to relive moments from your past with a former classmate or sorority sister, but you can sure as hell get ahead in your online career.

One day last week I found a post on a popular blog highlighting a product in my shop. The owner of this blog follows me on Twitter and read one of my posts. He liked my site, liked the product, threw a review up on his site and just like that - I had my first (known) Twitter related success story. Thanks to him, I got traffic, new followers and who knows - maybe they subscribed to my newsletter! Maybe they were one of the people I sold to that day! I don’t care really. It just makes me happy.

So, according to this former skeptic, Twitter is actually worthy of the hype. Just don’t expect it to do the work for you - just like any form of social media, the more you give, the more you get. Oh, & visit Mr.Tweet - that’s something I’ll discuss later, but do it now!

This morning my husband called to let me know that one of our best friend’s fathers passed away overnight. We knew he had been having trouble with his health. We went out with this friend and his girlfriend Saturday night. They were telling us how he seemed to be doing better.  

I just can’t imagine what my friend is going through. What do we do for him? I know he is in shock and hasn’t communicated with us since he texted my husband at 3:30 a.m. to tell him the news. I texted him to let him know I was sorry and that we love him and are a text/phonecall away if he needs anything… but this just doesn’t feel like enough.

As a couple, my husband and I are not the best at keeping in touch with everyone. We definitely let people have their space. Lots of it. I think we are more of the ‘lets meet up for dinner’ couple than we are the ‘let’s go in on a timeshare together’ couple to most of our friends. With the exception of talking to a couple of my girlfriends, we aren’t big on phonecalls either. We are just content as hell in our little bubble over here, and that I wouldn’t trade for the world. However, when we are around friends we have a blast.  We make plans to do this and that after 4 beers and then forget the plans we made. We exchange numbers and email addresses and then never use them. We just get used to our own world and it’s easy to just do what we do. I think most people are this way…

But, this being our closest mutual friend - a guy we lived with for a couple of years in the beginning of our relationship (the only roommate we ever had as a couple) - a guy we met in highschool that both of our families came to love as much as we do - I feel like there is something more I should be doing. I mean besides the obvious ‘make some food for them to store in their freezer and eventually throw out’. But what?

In the meantime I am just thankful for dads in general. My father is across the globe in China where I can’t hug him, but I will when he gets home. I know how lucky I am to have him in my life.

Yesterday, Friday, was so nice. I did next to nothing (well, until the boys got distracted and I did a little work in the office.)

My son woke up complaining about a tummy ache + a sore throat. In this house, the tummy ache is a new symptom that has been rearing its head on Friday mornings. It’s usually short lived, as it becomes a thing of the past once he is told he’ll have to ‘take it easy’.

Am I dissappointed that my son exaggerates and possibly creates these problems? Not at all.  I remember this gripe well from when I was his age. The tummy ache is the go-to symptom. Why? Because the tummy ache can’t be disproven nor can it be measured in severity. “Oh, its just a 98.9 degree tummy ache, you’ll be fine. Go on to school.” Mom just has to take your word for it…

It was raining yesterday morning and my 2 year old decided to sleep in, so the conditions were perfect for giving in to my son’s indirect request to stay home from school. The rain kept on coming, so we ended up watching t.v. for the rest of the day. I was able to slip in one of my childhood faves - the Muppets! My 8 year old protested endlessly during the annoying musical intro to “The Muppets Take Manhattan”, but finally shut up when he saw that they weren’t going to do that the whole movie.

I find it so weird that the Muppets aren’t a part of their world. My oldest kept asking me what animal Animal was supposed to be and he kept calling Kermit “Herman”! 

“Mom, why does Herman like Ms. Piggy?”

“Is Herman sad?”

“Will Herman die?” (when Kermit gets hit by the car & ends up with amnesia)…

I finally exploded, “Its KERMIT!!!” He laughed so hard at his mistake (for once!) We ended up watching the whole movie and I’m proud to say my son is an official Muppets fan!  So, some good came out of my son playing hooky. Plus we made a pallette on the floor, ate tons of snacks and laughed all day. It was the best “lazy day” I’ve had in years.

**I would never keep my son out of school were he not a genius, straight A student & all around good child…**

A couple of weeks ago we were approached by Vanessa over at Blissful Kids (part of Blissfully Domestic). They wanted to do a review of our Butterfly wall decals. Here’s the feature: http://blissfullydomestic.com/blissful-kids/blueskyrocketcom-giveaway/

Get over to the above link and read about how you can win $50.00 worth of free wall graphics from BlueSkyRocket.com!

Just wanted to say Happy Easter to everyone out there.

Yesterday was full of constant request for “clockits” (chocolate) from my 2 year old + frustrated sighs as my 8 year old tried to keep his chocolate smeared brother off of his Easter goodies.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

My shop (not this blog) has this ‘Squirrels Built a Rocket & Traveled The Universe To Find & Bring You Awesome Products’ theme. I created my shop’s design based on this theme. I tied images of furry animals into each product category to further emphasize this theme.  That’s plenty for the shop - last thing I’m trying to do is cram my astronaut squirrel concept down each potential customer’s throat. I mean, honestly, who cares? Is the onesie cute? Is it affordable? I get it. It’s not about the look & feel of the shop as much as it is about the products/customer service. and that’s how it should be!

BUT I want to expand on the astronaut squirrel concept over here on the handy old blog. (I use this for my personal blog as well as a ’shop-companion-blog’.) I started to do this by creating a page for the  ’backstory’ & ‘continuing adverture tales’ of the animal crew. It’s called ”Captain Simon Squirrel’s Space (b)Log“. There is very little content here - one post I did months ago when I thought that a single entry would suffice…it sort of came to me the other day that developing this area of my blog might be a fun way to get some creativity flowing around here.  I am creatively tapped out at the moment…long story - so I think it’s best to open this concept up to the kids for interpretation.

That said - I will be holding our FIRST CHAPTER WRITING CONTEST! The first chapter of Simon’s Space (b)log will replace the content currenly on that page. The winner will have full credit for their chapter (which will be Chapter 1: and then whatever you name it HERE) with a picture and link to their own personal blog (or their mom’s or dad’s!) Any age child can contribute their story idea. I know there are lots of middle school age and young teenage kids that have better writing skills than myself - so please - submit your chapter entry! Parents: if you have a young child that would like to dictate their idea to you – you can always help by typing it up and giving it any needed help (it should flow somewhat normally so readers can follow along).  It doesn’t have to be long - just 4 paragraphs max. 

The idea is to follow the concept of my shop but without plugging products or brands. So, don’t worry about making it sound anything like what is currently on the Space (b)log page right now. The chapter you/your child writes should answer the questions, “Why did Simon Squirrel want to build a rocketship?” & “How did he manage to build a rocketship?” Other than that - it’s all up to you. The more creative/funny the better! oh - please give the chapter a name!

Once we have enough entries to call this thing a contest, it’s on! I hope to have a winner named by the first part of June.

PRIZE: $25.00 Gift Certificate to BlueSkyRocket.com

There will be a SECOND CHAPTER WRITING CONTEST soon after announcing the winner of the first.

 If you would like to receive Contest Update Emails, please send me a note to sconway @ blueskyrocket.com - just put WRITING CONTEST UPDATES in the subject line. 

I’m very happy to announce some great new PERSONALIZED JEWELRY just in time for Mother’s Day!  Don’t forget to give yourself extra time when ordering custom/personalized items for Mom… They usually take a bit longer. These designs take up to two weeks. Please order by April 27th at the VERY LATEST. Here’s the newest designs - don’t forget we have more back at the shop here: {jewelry}.

From top left to bottom right, we have:

14K GF  Disc Pendant Necklace   $106.00

Double Sterling Silver Disc Pendant Necklace     $63.00

Hammered Teardrop Sterling Silver Necklace     $55.00

Sterling Silver Disc + Freshwater Pearl Accent     $58.00

14K GF Double Disc Pendant Necklace      $122.00