National Hot Dog Day

Since today is National Hot Dog Day, i thought it would be fun to check on ETSY to see if there were any creative hot dog themed goodies. Sure enough, there was!

These grilled cuff links come complete with both hot dogs and hamburgers! They are made by Inedible Jewelry - hand sculpted treats for the food obsessed.

Get crafty by making your own felt hot dogs. The felt pattern and instruction set by Bugga Bugs will guide you through making not only hot dogs but s'mores and chips as well. This set will help you pack the essential food items everyone needs while enjoying the great outdoors. Look how cute these things are!

These retro hot dog hair bobby pins are right up my alley.

I'm always looking for some new cool hair accessories. These are made by Very Vintage - whimsical retro accessories.

So, go get yourself some dogs, get grilling and get crafty as well.

Happy Hot Dog Day!!

What a SCAM!!!

I am so annoyed!!! Internet scams really exist! and I fell for one!!

My brother-in-law and I discuss the Internet all the time. He's a really big eBay fan and is always researching various things online. He bought a few domain names recently in hopes of selling them and making a profit. So pretty soon after he registered one of his new domains, he was contacted by a potential buyer. Of course he was so excited since it happened so quickly. The buyer said he needed to see an appraisal for the domain before he can make an offer and suggested a place where he could have it appraised. The website was www.easynamesale.com. He even pointed him to a forum where people were discussing having used this service so of course my brother in-law thought he was doing all of the proper research. He ended up paying for an appraisal and it came back with a great amount. The buyer was now eager to not buy it but HELP my brother-in-law sell it and he said he would just take a commission for it. I in turn, decided to get one of my domains appraised at the same place. When I was doing it something just didn't seem right. I don't know if it was the look of the website - not very consistent and not as professional as it could have looked. The fact that it was overseas threw me a bit. The fact that when he go his appraisal sent to him from a hotmail account with a different url in the message. This time they were referencing www.domainsecondhand.com. I didn't listen to my gut and went ahead with it anyway.

The next day I got the appraisal back and it was for an exorbitant amount. On one hand I was so excited but on the other, it just didn't sit right with me. I decided to do some research. UH!!! There were tons of references as to how this was a total scam!!

Here are a bunch that I found:

• http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/311/ripoff0311140.htm
• http://www.dnforum.com/f209/striking-down-easynamesale-com-thread-291335.html
• http://paulenderson.com/2007/10/12/toughguynet-domain-name-appraisal-scam/
• http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/401699-domainsecondhand-com-is-a-scam.html

I just couldn't believe it!! I immediately called the credit card company to dispute the charge AND to have my card locked and to get a new card sent to me. I can't believe that people have nothing better to do with their time than to scam others.

My lesson learned here was to always go with my gut instinct. If something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't. I hope by writing this I will at least have saved one other person from making this same mistake. Please pass this post on to anyone who may be considering a domain appraisal or sale of their domain. Would love to hear from anyone that had a similar experience.

From Poland With Love

For years now, every time I go to the Barnes & Noble on 66th & Broadway in Manhattan, I've always admired a print hanging on the wall. As you take the escalator up to the second floor, there is a print of a woman wearing a large hat made up of couples dancing together. I don't know why I am drawn to it so much, but I just love it.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Pam and I met there before we went to dinner and of course I was so excited to see that it was still there. Then at that moment I told Pam, I HAVE TO buy that print!! So we both scrambled through our bags looking for a pen and paper to write down all the info we saw written on the print: "La Rondine", "NYC Opera", "Giacomo Puccini", "Rafal Oblinski", and then when I got back home that night, I started my search.

I first started looking at the big poster websites like posters.com, art.com and allposters.com. No luck. Then I searched on NYC Opera. No luck. I tried Rafal Oblinski and finally came up with a site that had exactly what I wanted. But it was in Poland at a website called Polish Poster Gallery. I was hesitant for a moment. Is this for real? Can I trust this website? How will I track it all the way from Poland? Well, I bit the bullet and took my chances. I entered my credit card info, hit Submit and hoped for the best.

Well, it took about 2 weeks, but the other day, to my surprise, it arrived! All safe and sound!

Two things I learned from this experience.

1. I always loved the Internet but now I do even more. It's so amazing how everything is more accessible than you think and truly at your fingertips.
2. Once you actually DECIDE to do something, that's when it happens. For so long I had been kooking at this print, WANTING to get it. It wasn't until I actually DECIDED to get it, that I took the steps to actually make it happen.

My next project...getting it framed.