#Tishspiration Tuesday: I am seeing results start to come back to me!

#Tishspiration Tuesday: I am seeing results start to come back to me!

This week for #Tishspiration Tuesday, I am seeing results start to come back to me. What? Results? Things are going well. Not perfect, but very well.

A while ago I had asked for some information about cameras. I had been advised to find better quality pictures, and well, sometimes I like to use my own pictures instead of free to use stock photos, like the one I have featured above. The old Tuesday picture, the one I used to use, was my own, and I had a friend help me to edit it a while back. If you have been following for a while, you may remember this:

Treasure Seeker Tuesday
Treasure Seeker Tuesday

Previously on Tuesdays, I would write under this title and category. I was so grateful when my friends helped me with photo editing, and this was the final choice for the blog. It was a great pic at the time, and the enhancements made it better than the original.

Shortly after asking for advice on cameras, a friend offered to loan me a camera, long term. I am thrilled every time I take a picture. I use it frequently, and I have even downloaded the manual to improve my photography skills and to look up information as needed. It has been a dream to have a really great camera to take pictures with.

Since then, I have been working really hard on things.

Don’t get me wrong, I have had some good results from my hard work, and I appreciate every little bit of it. I have had meetings and appointments every week pretty much since I have been unemployed. It was a little tough at first, as nobody ever wants to unexpectedly find themselves unemployed. As you know if you follow this blog, I have chosen to take it as an opportunity to find out what I really want to do with my life. I have had jobs since I was a teenager, but now more than ever, I want to take another chance on me.

Sure, this is scary. It is a leap into the unknown, hoping that my dreams will turn into a trampoline and bounce me higher than I was before I started.

Realistically, I have wanted to be an entrepreneur for almost 20 years. I have tried on my own, several times, and failed. So why do I keep trying? The truth is, I am not a cookie cutter individual. I mean, I wrote a book which I describe as a memoir narrated by cats. I made up this word, #Tishspiration, and now I am developing a business idea, based on a word I made up.

Who does that?

I do. I make stuff up all the time. My sense of humour is sometimes out there, but I still crack jokes. With comedy heroes like Weird Al Yankovich and Betty White, I am going to make someone laugh, even if it is only me. I am writing a book and basing a business on a word I made up. It could be the best thing I ever did, or it could fail. In which case I will take the time I need to reflect on what did work, and what didn’t; before I try again.

So really, if you think about it, this entrepreneur thing is always a gamble. Someone comes up with an idea, and when they are brave enough, they try it out. Sometimes they make it work, sometimes they don’t. What happens next is the important part.

That part right there, the time for reflection, is the reason why I keep trying. If I quit, I could find a regular job and earn a paycheck every two weeks like I used to. When I left the job I had for 7 years, I had taken on a project which grew bigger than I could manage on my own, just to find joy in my daily job. The regularly scheduled work day was not fulfilling my life. I wanted more. I still do.

Today, some friends helped me out, in a big way.

Instagram. I have been trying to figure out how to be more active on Instagram for months. An author friend, Shannon McRoberts, has been advising me on how to do that without a cell phone. The day is getting closer to when I finally get one. It will be a celebration of some sort I am sure, and it’s going to be a real big deal when it happens, as people everywhere cannot understand why I don’t have one. It is something we haven’t been able to afford in our budget yet.

Lately, we are maintaining well, but any financial commitment will need to be planned carefully. It is also why we don’t yet have that kitten or dog we want. To be honest, I want 2 kittens, and I am in negotiations with Roy about it. He says because we want both a kitten and a dog, that we can’t get 2 kittens. I disagree; I also digress.

To expand my social media platform I have worked a little bit at a time. As an indie author, it is crucial to pick your lane and stick to it. With all of the changes lately in social media, however, I have thought about trying different lanes, and even different routes. I know there is a lot of action on Instagram, and I want to join in, to see what the buzz is all about.

I finally posted my first Instagram post today.

It was a fight, let me tell you. It seemed to be really difficult. I joined, but could not post from my computer because I couldn’t download the app from the google play store. It did not recognize my computer or laptop. My landline telephone number will not work as it is not a number from a mobile device.

Shannon told me about Hootsuite. I thought I finally had a workaround. So I went to sign up, only to find that I could try it for free, for 30 days. Another source said for 60 days. After the trials, I would have to pay to keep it going. I don’t want to be a flash in the Instagram pan, to be there and gone without a way to continue building content there.

After messaging back and forth with Shannon, finally, I learned that there is a way. Hootsuite will let me post 30 times in a month, to 3 different accounts. I am on my way to automation. It will be odd if you follow my author Facebook page, my Twitter account and my Instagram Account, as they will all be sharing the one post a day as I create them. Since I have a few to start with, and once they cycle through, I am going to create more content for the automation. I will work hard to keep as much of it as new as I can, so it doesn’t get boring.

I really do love to help people.

Shannon wasn’t the only friend who helped me out today, though. I went to see another friend, Marilyn King, at her store, King Woolens and Yarns. She has moved the location of the store several months ago, and it is now located within the city limits. It is really close to where I live, actually, and I have been to visit her there once every couple of weeks. I have been helping her with some graphics for the store, and she is learning more every time I visit.

Today, I helped her out, and she let me try to get the Instagram hiccup resolved by letting me try to do what I needed to on her tablet. She didn’t have the app on her tablet, and I thought I really needed a cell phone to get this program to work. I went home, disappointed, and ready to give up on it until I got a phone.

I relayed the news to Shannon, and she told me that the tablet will work if it has the app installed. Since Marilyn had told me it wasn’t installed on her tablet, I didn’t want to make her install it just for me to use for 15 minutes and then have to uninstall it. I thought of another option.

I sent out a message to another friend with a tablet.

MaryRuth McGee invited me to her place, and I made sure to ask that the app was downloaded. I wandered to the local dollar store on my way, just for some time to walk around for a few minutes. I found a cute picture frame and then went to MaryRuth’s. When I arrived, I said hello to MaryRuth and her daughter, who has grown up before my eyes into a smart, beautiful young woman, and I joined MaryRuth on the couch. I thought she was going to help me on her tablet, so it was a sensible place to sit. She handed me the tablet with a note on it for me to read.

MaryRuth’s note to me, on the tablet screen.

I read the note and thought it was a reminder for her to help me when I arrived. She is very organized, and I didn’t understand what the note really meant. MaryRuth was giving me the tablet to use for my business! She said it is slow and old but it doesn’t matter at all to me, I have none to compare it to.

It’s here and went right to the dollar store after leaving her house to get it a case and a stand. She gave me one, and now I have 3. One to charge on and one for my desk. The one she gave me will be great if I am travelling with it. I also found purple earphones with a mic to try, as I may be filming for my social media with it. I have seen that they are necessary for some situations, and I want to be prepared.


As I pulled into my driveway, a wave of gratitude came over me.

I had thanked all of my friends throughout the day, but at that moment I fully realized what was actually happening. People are helping me not only because they are my friends, but because they see what I am working on, and because I want to help people, my friends are supporting me by helping me on my way. I had to just sit with it for a minute in the car before I came inside. I was feeling like I could cry, and I was shaking with the enormity of what I was thinking.

The day had its moments, both good and bad. Overall, I feel really blessed to have such good friends in my life. No matter what you believe in, when you put the right thoughts behind your actions, good things will follow. It isn’t always what you ask for, but it is always what you need. Truly, this was a #Tishspiration moment, where my friend was able to surprise me with her gift, and her encouraging note.

Have you had an unexpected gift which helped you to achieve something you were dreaming about? Please share in the comments below.

#Tishspiration

Treasure Seeker Tuesday #10

Treasure Seeker Tuesday #10

Double Digits. Do you remember when you turned 10 years old? I remember that it seemed like a big deal at the time. I had lived through my first decade. I never had any real big parties for my birthday, it was in the summer, and I lived outside of town. I remember the day I found out in grade one that my phone number was long distance and nobody wanted my phone number to call me.  That broke my little six year old heart. I didn’t understand what it even meant at the time, except that none of my new friends wanted to call me because of my phone number.

I am still feeling a bit out of the loop in the modern world. My household budget does not have room in it for a cell phone. I don’t NEED it to survive, I am getting along just fine without it. However, I work in the industry, and it is hard to not want to be connected in the land of text messaging as it happens, literally all around me every day.

I don’t want just a cell phone when I finally get the go-ahead from my hubby to get one. He manages our household budget, and I am eagerly awaiting the day when I can make plans for purchasing things like the next pet we bring home, 2 cell phones, attending an event that I really want to go to, my next bottle of wine, and a second car. For now, we make ends meet, and we work hard to get what we can within our budget.

One of the most important features for me when I finally do get a cell phone will be to get one with a really good camera. I use Pixabay and Canva as resources in most of my blog pictures. The picture above was actually taken by me with my Olympus 2.8 x Optical Zoom 5.0 Megapixel camera. I try to get good quality pictures with it, but sometimes they are a little out of focus because I am not a photographer. I will need a camera that is so advanced that it makes me appear to be a good photographer so that I can feel more confident about sharing my own pictures here and on my website. I am still working on that project in the midst of everything else, and I have a lot of the planning done in my head, just not executed on the internet. It will happen. I am going to plan a launch for it, and I hope that all of my current followers here will follow me and the blog to my website.

The other thing a cell phone is going to need for me to consider purchasing it is an ease of transferring the pictures for storage on my computer. I need the phone and computer to be able to work together. As I have a PC, I am guessing I may have to go with an android phone. I do know that there are many opinions out there about cell phones, and I would love to find out more information on which ones have the best cameras, work well for listening to music, and are easy to get to talk to my computer. It also needs to be reliable and wants to be easy to use. I have not yet owned a smartphone, and I am impatiently waiting for the day that I get to share my digits with my friends and family.  It would be useful for blogging in my spare time, too, or checking out how the blog looks on a smaller screen.

With the recent change in Canadian Laws regarding unlocking cell phones, I am less restricted by what phone I can get, as I can use it with any Canadian carrier, including the company I work for; if I decide to go with that company. I am not as concerned with what provider I choose as I am about the camera. So I pose the question here: What cell phone would you be getting if this was your decision, with these requirements in mind? I know there are some people out there that are fiercely brand loyal, and that is OK, but if you only buy one type of phone, it may be harder for you to be objective in answering this question.

Double digits. Phone numbers. Megapixels. Optical Zoom. It all goes back to numbers. Which I am not all that crazy about. I am passionate about writing, and in the Blogging world, a good quality picture can mean the difference between someone choosing to stop and read your article or not. Blogging is something I am still fairly new at, but I know it is something that I enjoy. I will keep working with the tools I have until I can purchase something better. So, I ask you, Treasure Seekers, what would you be spending your gold on if you were in my shoes?

#TreasureSeekerTuesday