Google Analytics

My favorite new toy is Google Analytics, a free tool that allows small business to accurately track the who, what, when, where, why, and how of all visits to whichever web presence you ask them to track.

While I look forward to making practical use of this information, I am most delighted by the map overlay which shows me where in the world my site visits are coming from. To see that I am drawing visitors from Latvia, Russia, and South Africa as well as the continents where I know people is exciting to me.

It is just one of the many ways in which the world is being made smaller by the wacky world of the internet...I would love to figure out a way to make each connection count in a fundamental manner.

Earth Path Artisans Stree Team Gypsy Design Challenge!!!

The EarthPath Artisans Street Team (EAST) is having a Gypsy Design Challenge! Team members have taken their interpretation of what the word "Gypsy" conjures up for them, and created new pieces in a variety of media.The purpose of this challenge is not to win prizes or compete with each other; rather, it's a way to build team camaraderie and inspire us to explore new themes and stretch our creative muscles. And for the winner, it means a little extra attention from an adoring public! Winners will be posted on the blog and on Etsy.So stop by the EAST Challenge page on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/earthpathchallengeto see pictures of the entries, and then go vote at the EAST bloghttp://earthpathartisans.blogspot.com/You can also see many of the entries in the members' shops by visiting the team shop's favorite items page.http://earthpathartisans.etsy.com/

Sadly I joined after the Gypsy Design Challenge was announced..though perhaps it is a good things ince the word 'gypsy' evokes so many different types of images in my head. There is the semi-wild nomadic, brightly colored woman with exotic aspects, and then there are the gypsy/travelling people that are throughout Ireland and Europe who loathe those whom they call 'settled people'.

At any rate - I voted, though it was difficult for me to choose what said 'gypsy' to me most. Freedom, beauty - the ability to take my few precious things on the road....

Baobab Love - What's that about?

I am a BIG fan of trees. I'm actually a big fan of a lot of things but trees are one of my mainstays, they help keep me rooted and as I go about my day and their whispering leaves help me sleep at night. One of my favorite stories growing up was Enid Blighton's "The Faraway Tree" and I am -of course- a completely adoring fan of Tolkein. I think that trees speak slowly and with deep thoughts.

The baobab with it's unusual shapes and multiplicity of uses to the creatures surrounding it is one of my favorite trees. To quote Thomas Pakenham from his The Remarkable Baobab:

"The African Baobab, Adansonia digitat, was the first to be discovered and is by far the commonest. It is found in 31 African countries - in fact in every part of the African savannah where the climate is hot and dry and most other plants (and people) find it difficult to live. This is the miracle that the baobab performs, It's like the salamander that revels in the fire. THe baobab puffs itself up to a gigantic size to become one of the largest living things in the world, where other plants would wither and die. (p9)"

"The seeds are like small black beans and ar delicious if first roasted. The white pulp which protects the seeds and can be made into a sherbert-like drink rich in vitamin C. And the outer shell, hard and waterproof, made all kinds of domestic articles from castanets to calabashes. The tree, too, was a godsend to the poor. If you needed fresh salad, you could eat both th elegant white flowers and the pale green foliage, five-lobe like a hand (hence the specific name digitata). It is true that, rated as ordinary timber, the tree is useless. The wood is so fibrous and spongy - more like balsa than hardwood - that you can drive in a nail without a hammer. Yet the bark can be stripped from the trunk, harvested like cork from cork trees in Portugal, without killing the tree. Pound the bark and you have made a rope; weave it and you have barkcloth to wear; flatten it and you have tiles for your roof." (13)

Amazing.

Not a Web Log as such - OK Captain?

While I may well be inclined some days to -diary fashion- tell all, I generally use other outlets for that kind of creativity - normally beading. I love keeping up with others through the internet and the access that I have to so many different types of people. It seems that almost every time that I turn on the computer I come across another new and amazing human; particularly now that I have become more involved with etsy.com. I feel really blessed to have the opportunity to come across so may talented beings.

The two Etsy 'street teams' that I participate in are ETSY NJ and Earth Path Artistans Street Team or EAST.