Saturdays

Saturday has always been my favorite day of the week, even when I was a kid. I love waking up on a Saturday and having the whole day as my own. I love knowing I'll have the next day as my own too.

Sunday's are nice, but when you don't love what you do for a living then Sunday's tend to have that dark cloud that is Monday hovering nearby.

Birds always chirp on Saturday. The sun is usually shining on Saturday. When I get haircuts, which is the equivalent of a massage in my book, they're usually on Saturday.

Other things I love about Saturdays:

-Saturday morning cartoons
-Saturday Night Live (depending on the cast of course)
-going to the park
-dinner with friends and family
-going to the mall
-playing 9 holes of golf with my hubby or friend Connie
-leisurely drinking my Starbucks, instead of slamming it while on the highway going to work.
-working on my own projects - like 4700 golf journals and completelypizza.com

I love taking my son for haircuts like I did last weekend...



...instead of dealing with this:



But most of all, I love Saturdays because I get to be with them.



I hope your Saturday is filled with joy and happiness!

Letta - BellaOnline.com

Shortly after my precious golf journals arrived I started looking for ways to promote them. Actually, before they arrived I started looking for ways to promote them.

In my search for press opportunities I came across a website called bellaonline.com. Bellaonline is an online community for women. It covers just about every topic under the sun.

I happened to be looking at the golf section, trying to find the editor so I can send a press release about the lovely golf journals. That editor was Letta.



Letta is a real inspiration to me.

As I push towards the big 4-0, I sometimes feel a little down, especially since I haven't yet reached my professional goals. But when I think about Letta and all that she has done and continues to do, I'm inspired.

Letta is a passionate golfer. She LOVES the game. So much in fact, that she plays three to four times a week. She also schedules tee times a month in advance and sends the times to 22 friends who can pick and choose when they want to play (If I lived in Texas I would have to get myself on that list!). At night, she writes about golf for Bellaonline.com.

She has had SEVEN holes in one (unbelievable!) and has written four books - one about spices, one cookbook, a book on sayings and proverbs and a book on her family's sporting experiences.

I'm trying to figure out when Letta sleeps. She appears to have the energy and passion of a teenager.

Letta is 84 years old.





Oh yes, and a few other things. Letta is involved with activities in her church, where she publishes their bulletins and organizes a women's study group. She is involved in a community chorus where she was president last year. She is also the Secretary to the Friends of the public library. Almost forgot, she also does the Newsletter for the Mill Creek Community Association and is on their board.

A quote from Letta, "Sometimes I meet myself coming and going but really have a full life and love it."


Letta's husband passed away in 2003. She has five children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She lives on a golf course (where else would this golfer gal live??) in Texas.

When I grow up I want to be like Letta.

Read Letta's articles at BellaOnline.com.

I Love My Commute

Reason number 964 for why I want to work from home:



This was my view for two hours as I drove home from work Friday night. Thankfully, I was driving home and it was Friday night. Normally my commute to the south side of town is about an hour. But if it's snowing - typically it's a 2 hour drive.

Not horrible if you have a good audio book and some snacks. I had neither on Friday. But I did have heat (that's hit or miss in my car) and music, so it wasn't all bad.

I often think about what I could do with the time I spend in the car everyday. Here's a list of things I could do with those 2 hours:

-finish three loads of laundry
-watch 2 episodes of Mad Men
-watch 4 episodes of 30 Rock
-sleep
-watch my son chase the dogs with his grocery buggy for 2 hours
-cook a homemade meal
-read my son 6-8 books
-write at least three blog posts
-sleep
-learn some Spanish
-run for 1.5 hours on the treadmill and shower
-finally start the Harry Potter books
-read up on American history
-sleep

If I could find a bus that would drive from my neighborhood to work, I could actually do a few of these things during my commute, but since that hasn't happened, I will continue to search for good audio books and a few good snacks to keep in the glove box.

Forecast for tomorrow: snow!

Completely Pizza

Last summer I had the brilliant of idea of developing a comprehensive pizza site that would include information about each of the top pizza chains, recipes, coupons and other fun pizza stuff.

And as we are learning, once Susan gets an idea in her head, she's off and running with it.

I quickly signed up for a second site with SiteSell and launched CompletelyPizza.com. As is typical with me, I went at it full steam ahead and managed to get 70 pages up within a couple months. Then I lost interest and left it alone until last week.

Again, typical with me.

But that's okay, cause I'm back at it with renewed energy. If nothing else, it's a fun topic to write about. Who doesn't love pizza? There's a million different types of pizza, recipes and restaurants which gives me plenty of writing material. I've learned so much about the different pizza restaurant and brands.

Did you know that Totino's frozen pizza is the only one of the top brands (that I know of) that has trans fat?

Stick with me. I'll tell you things.

The other thing I love about writing CompletelyPizza is that every time I work on it, I swear I smell pizza. Doesn't matter where I am, if I'm writing for the site, the smell of pizza enters my brain. If that's not motivation to keep writing, I don't know what is.



Are you smelling pizza yet?



How about now? I thought so.

What exactly is my goal with CompletelyPizza.com?

To earn some passive income through Google Ads and to eventually launch a pizza directory which would list ma and pa pizza joints in cities around the country. That's the master plan. If nothing else, it's fun to write about pizza.

If I could spend my days writing about pizza, I would wake up happy to go to work every day.

I attached a blog to it as well, but haven't had time to keep it updated daily. I want that blog to focus on my own recipes, pictures, and other fun pizza things. But...time has been limited, so that has to be on the back burner this week.

But don't you worry. I will eventually keep it updated. Pizza blogging must be yet another title on my business card...

AFTER I sell 4698 golf journals.

The Magic of 4700

Why in the world do I have 4700 golf journals? Why not 1000 or 100 or 5000?

I've been asking myself the "why not 100" question for about a year now.



But seriously, why 4700? The number of journals in my inventory started at 5000. Or 5040 to be exact. Five thousand was the minimum order at the factory in China where my babies were born. The extra 40 - well, I can't really explain those. Somehow they crept into the shipment so I kept them. At the time I thought 5000 seemed like a small number compared to the millions of people in the world.

Yes, 5000 is a small number compared to the billions of people on planet earth.

It's a much bigger number when they are stacked in my garage taking up the space where my car usually lives.



So how did I go from 5040 journals to 4700?

Two big reasons.

I did manage to sell about 150 of my treasures through an interview I had on the local NBC affiliate here in Denver, 9News. Susie Wargin, the local Sports Woman newscaster extraordinaire, was gracious enough to have me on her morning segment to talk about the journals.

God bless Susie.

She is the sweetest woman, always inspired by us lonely entrepreneurs trying to make it big. But thanks to her, the journals received great press followed by a couple of days worth of orders. Never mind that she had me on at 6:20am in the morning. I still had sleep in my eyes when I arrived at the studio. I did manage to get there on time though. I wasn't going to miss my 15 minutes of fame (or in this case, about 7 minutes). I'll take what I can get.

Click here to see the 9News video.

The other 150-200 journals I donated to various causes. The biggest donation I made was to the LPGA Golf Clinics For Women, which benefits Komen for The Cure. I sent them 76 journals in exchange for some press in their monthly e-newsletter.

I also sent samples to lot's of women involved with the EWGA (Executive Women's Golf Association). A great organization for golfer gals.

None of the donations led to big sales, mainly because I don't think they reached a big enough audience. But that's okay. I was and still am happy to send journals to people who want to promote them on my behalf. Giving product away is usually never a waste, unless you send them to certain blog editors who act like they're going to write about them (I'll rant about that on another day).

So there you go. The magic of 4700. Or should I now say, the magic of 4698 (thank you Letta!).

I can't wait to get to the magic of 100. Or...the magic of zero!

My Pet Project #2 - Ladies Golf Central

I spent the little free time I had over the weekend updating Ladies-Golf-Central.com, one of my other pet projects.

LGC was created last Spring after I started selling the golf journals. I was inspired by other entrepreneurs producing fun golf-related projects for women, such as Tracey Blake from Tracey Lynn Golf clothing, Madcapz,
Qglove, and Bling Your Swing, so I was inspired to create a website that would showcase those products.

I signed up with SiteSell (if you're looking to start a website business, this is a great service) and Ladies Golf Central was born. I wrote around 66 pages in a matter of three weeks. It's amazing what one can do when one puts their mind to it. Of course, at that time I was still able to stay up past 9pm.

That's not the case lately as I'm usually asleep in front of the TV by 9pm.

I always think about how much work I would get done from 9pm-11pm after the baby boy goes to bed. I would be much further on that site and my other project, CompletelyPizza.com.

Yes, a pizza site.

Because I don't have enough to do with a full time job, a toddler, a husband, friends, 4699 golf journals to sell by end of the year and Ladies-Golf-Central.com. Seriously, I need another project. The more I have to do the more I get done. Are most people that way or is it just me?

I'll fill you in on CompletelyPizza.com tomorrow. I must go to bed now. Reading that last paragraph made me tired.

Thank You Letta!

I would like to send a big thank you to Letta Meinen, a wonderful lady from Texas. Letta just ordered two golf journals.

Now I don't have 4700 golf journals in inventory. I have 4698. I know that sounds small, but really, it's the first step towards a big dream.

Thank you Letta!

More on Letta later tonight. You'll want to check back!

Baking for Dollars

So one of my wacky ideas to sell the golf journals for Mother's Day was to bake some sort of cute golf cupcakes and include them with the each journal sold.

I get so inspired to bake when I read blogs like Bakerella.com. If you haven't visited Bakerella, you must do so. It's eye candy.

After seeing what Bakerella does, just think of the magic I could do with a women's golf theme. Little cookies shaped like golf clubs, cupcakes shaped like a pink golf balls, mini tees made of chocolate. The possibilities are endless.

But then I realized, as I most always do, that my idea was near impossible to do. One, I probably can't sell baked goods without some sort of license which I'm not willing to get. And secondly, I work full time. I have a toddler. When would I find time to bake 4700 packages of cookies? Yes, once again, reality slapped me in the face and I had to come back to earth.

This thought process did put me in a baking mood though, so I made these peanut butter blossom cookies. Typically they are a fall cookie for me, but I through the rules out the window and made them anyway. Here's the recipe below.

And sorry, these don't come with the golf journal.

Peanut Blossom Cookies

48 HERSHEY'S KISSES
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar for rolling cookie in

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Enjoy!

How Small Creatures Rule My World

It occurred to me the other day that my life is ruled by four creatures - tiny little beings that each weigh under 25 pounds.

The first one, my son Jake, has been ruling my world for about 23 months now.



He says jump, or milk, or apple, or NO!, and I say how high, how much, let me peel that for you, "No? Then what do you want"? He points are I move in that direction. He's King Jake, ruler of my universe.

Children really do rule the world. And they should. They are honest, happy most of the time, live in the moment, and never worry about what the future holds. And some, like my Jake, will bust a groove at the sound of any music. Doesn't matter where he is or who's watching. That's my kid.

The other bossy creatures in my life? These furry rugrats:



Lucy is above. She my oldest, my first born and probably my smartest (except for Jake of course).



Charlie - my whiniest, my naughtiest, my biggest pain in the ass. But I love him. He has the sweetest eyes a dog could ever have. If only he would not lift his leg on Jake's toys.



And last but not least, Linus. My sweet little guy. He's timid, he's sweet, he's scared of his shadow, he eats his poop. But he's a love bug.

You may notice a trend in the names. Yes, if I got another dog, it would be Snoopy or Peppermint Patty. I love the Peanuts. They make me happy. At almost 40 years old I still watch each and every Peanut special around the holidays. I hope Jake loves them as much as I do.

My little creatures all demand alot of time, love, tears and energy. But I love them and wouldn't trade them for the world.

Yes, they are four more reasons why the golf journals were born. They were created out of the desire to be with my babies (human and furry) more every day. I know they'll come through for me.

I hope you all have creatures that rule your world (human and/or furry). They are the best.

The People Behind The Dreamers

I'm pretty sure my husband thinks I'm crazy.



I really can't blame him. I am a little crazy. Since we've been together I have had at least ten different business ideas, several of which I spent money pursuing. Money that went down the drain.

Yes, he still encourages me. Still cheers me on and believes in me. He's a good husband. He's not entrepreneurial minded like me, but he certainly supports me in my quest to be successful at my own thing.

That really does keep me going. If I married someone who got mad at every little setback and discouraged me from following my dreams, I would have given up a long time ago.

I also must credit my my parents, step-parents, siblings and my closest friends who support me emotionally and financially. They are my reason for keeping the dreams alive. No matter how crazy my ideas my be, they are there cheering me on.

Thank goodness for them. People like me need people like them.

Ah, it's Monday again.

I'm heading into work today at a TV production company. TV production has been my career for most of my adult life. It's in my blood. My dad, who is a director on a popular soap opera, used to take me to work as a child and I'd sit and watch the glamourous actors and actresses perform in front of the cameras.

When I wasn't dreaming of being an entrepreneur, I dreamt of being an actress. I decided to move to Los Angeles with my dad after college. Thanks to Dad's connections, I got a gig as a body makeup artist on 'Bold & The Beautiful'. It was an amazing experience for a 22-year old.

Especially the time I drank 5 cups of coffee and then had to put body makeup on an actor wearing a speedo. And I had to cover his whole body. Try putting makeup around the crotch of a good looking actor after that much caffeine. It ain't easy. My hand was shaking so much I'm sure I was touching things I should not have been touching.

After a few months, I decided body makeup wasn't a longterm career, so I signed up for an acting class thinking I would be the next Julia Roberts. Part of the $200 tuition included a headshot to get you started on auditions. Here's my fancy headshot.


I never made it to any auditions.

I realized maybe constant rejection/acting wasn't for me, so I packed up and headed back to Denver looking for something different.

Today, seventeen years later, I still work in TV production.

But something different is coming any day.

An Idea Was Born

You may (or may not) be wondering how I came up with the idea for a women's golf journal. Let me tell you a story.

It all began on a warm, summer afternoon in June 2008. I was laying on my couch trying to nap while my newborn, Jacob, was sleeping. He was born in May so I was still a little dazed, confused and overwhelmed from lack of sleep and caring for a newborn. I was working for a video production company at the time. I had worked for this company for a number of years and considered my boss and co-workers almost like family. But, that didn't make me want to go back to work any sooner. I didn't love my job. It was a job.

I was dreaming of a way to make money from home. I was dreading the day when my maternity leave ended and I would have to drop my bundle of joy into the arms of a stranger while I fought traffic to get downtown to a job I really didn't care about. But that was my reality and it was quickly approaching.

I laid on the couch thinking of fun business ideas (in hindsight, I should have been sleeping since my brain was mush at that point). I needed ideas that would make me rich in a matter of months. Bam! The idea hit me. A journal. I had been journaling in Jake's baby book for a month - every sound he made, every move. Why not create a journal to record fun memories on the golf course? And, not only is it good for journaling memories, but it could used as a tool to improve one's game.

Now, keep in mind I'm not an expert golfer. I am the perfect candidate for this journal. I play golf with friends and my husband for fun, but I'd love to play more and become a better golfer. Brilliant! I had the idea that I needed to get me out of my job. Now the fun begins.

I immediately called my husband at work and my mom and ran the idea past them. They thought it was a good idea (they are incredibly supportive of every idea that runs past my brain God Bless them!), and encouraged me to research it more.

Over the next couple weeks I researched and planned. I hired a friend to sketch the artwork and another friend to do the page layouts. I was well on my way to being a mom-preneurer!

I was going to be rich by the end of the year.

Anatomy of an Entrepreneur

There are a few things one should know about entrepreneurs.

Whether you are one, you aspire to be one, or want nothing to do with it or them, you should know one thing.

We are nuts.

But in a good way. For me, I've been an entrepreneur-minded individual since I was born. Even as a kid I dreamed of owning my own business and ruling the world. It's just something God put in my heart. I am an entrepreneur. I'm just not making a living as one yet.

So why are we nuts? Or maybe I should speak for myself. Why am I nuts? Here's just a few of the reasons:

*I once flew to New York on a red eye just to meet with a potential business partner, who, 30 minutes after I arrived, said he had a hair appointment and then showed up two hours later with a cut and a dye job. Waste of time and money.

*I once paid $800 for an industrial sewing machine (and made my husband move it up a flight of stairs) because I thought I'd be able to have a million dollar handbag business with me sewing each and every bag. Nuts.


(I hand sewed each of these bags)

*I paid for an attorney to trademark my last name. Huh?

*I once stayed up all night long sewing handbags for a women's golf tournament and then went to my day job at 8am. And I don't sew! Just plain nuts.

I could go on, and on, but I won't. While these things are crazy and in hindsight, worse then crazy, I have to give myself credit for trying. I'll do just about anything to be an entrepreneur. I'm not afraid of risk. That's part of my problem. One day is will be the reason for success. I just need to learn to pick my risks.

Selling 4700 golf journals is not going to make me rich, but the learning experience will be priceless. Selling 4700 golf journals is going to show me that I can succeed at ONE of my ideas. I don't even know if succeed is the right word. I don't plan to make more of them, so it's not a longterm business...

But I do need to prove to myself that I can finish what I...

The Day They Arrived

Is was November 2008. I was excited like a little school girl.

The day had come when the beloved golf journals would arrive at my house. It had been about six months since I started this journey and I finally was going to see my babies.

In hindsight, it was the day I lost my garage and the start of my decent into insanity.

The truck backed into the driveway and the tired driver unloaded about 105 boxes of cute, adorable, golf journals. They were stacked high on pallets. One even wobbled like that big stack of presents The Grinch had after ripping off all those little kids. Remember when the huge bag was on the sled and The Grinch's poor dog had to pull it? The truck driver had the same sad look as that poor dog. I gave him a bottle of water because he was tired and I was giddy.



I wonder how many other naive 30-something's he had delivered product to?

Didn't matter. I was going to have a successful business. And this was just the start.

How It All Started

Welcome to 4700 Golf Journals. I'm so glad you stopped by.

You're probably wondering why this blog is titled "4700 Golf Journals". No, this isn't a blog about cute ladies golf shoes or golf bags. Looking to improve your swing? Nope. Not here. Visit ladies-golf-central.com for that kind of reading pleasure.

This blog exists because of 4700 golf journals. What does that mean exactly?

It means I have 4700 golf journals in my garage. Cute, fun, functional, golf journals. You're probably wondering why anybody would have that many golf journals sitting in their garage, regardless of how cute they are.

I'm kind of wondering the same thing.

There was a method to my madness, really. Trust me, you'll hear the story. You'll laugh, you'll cry.

Just know and trust me when I say that these journals have a purpose. They have meaning. They will not be the bane of my existence. They are my friends. Weird, I know, but they really have become friends. I talk to them, I complain to them, I cuss them out on occasion. I smile at them because of the hope they give me. They have been here for me for 18 long months.

Now they must go.

The time has come. The clock is ticking. It's 2010 and I'm ready to have my garage space back. I'm ready to pay off the debt I incurred in creating my new friends. I'm ready for others to enjoy the magic of these journals. Most of all, I'm ready to say I succeeded at something.

So, the challenge has begun. I must sell these 4700 golf journals by December 2010. No more messing around. I can't scrape the ice off my windshield for another winter. That is why I bought a house with a nice garage attached.

How did this all begin? Oh, my friend, you will hear the story.

But let's start slow.