I’ve been feeling the need to carry a frisbee in my mouth lately. I don’t really care for the taste of plastic but life has been a little too serious these days. Luckily my parents’ four-legged, fuzzy companion, Percy, wags wisdom. He gave me permission to share a few of his tips, highly recommending you put a frisbee in your mouth while reading.

Life Is Supposed To Be Fun!
I know we’ve all heard this before, but really, it is: Life is Supposed To Be Fun! If you’ve forgotten this, do a little wiggle right now! Wag your tail and chase the neighbours’ cat. Orbit around the room, frolic down the street and smile at strangers. Try eating spaghetti with your toes. Let me know how it goes.

Greet with Sincerity
We humans sometimes misplace this jewel of advice in the hustle and bustle of everyday living but Percy hasn’t. When you arrive at the door he’ll make you feel like a million bucks. He’ll greet you by wagging his tail with vigor and he’ll try to clamber on top of you like you’ve been gone 5 years and he’s thought about you every second of that time. Isn’t it nice to be greeted with kindness and love? Whether the greeting is a hug when we meet up with a friend, a smile when meeting someone new, a genuine ‘hello, how are you’ in an email, a sincere hand shake with eye contact, smelling another’s crotch when… (okay, maybe not).

Nap When You Need To
Relax into a soft pillow or blanket and try a little dog-nap for 10-15 minutes during your day. This short siesta pays big rewards. You’ll awaken refreshed with new clarity and energy to enjoy the rest of your glorious day.

Enjoy The Pats!
Soak up the love and affection! Hug a friend or find a furry companion to cuddle. Alone? Visualize yourself being embraced in the biggest most loving hug you can imagine. Give pats to others in the form of sincere compliments and kind words. Remember, a pat given is a pat received! And vice-versa too.

Stay Present
It’s all happening right now. There might be a crumb that falls off the kitchen table. There might be a squirrel at the window. Life is happening right now and the present moment is where all the opportunity, passion, and fun is! Go get ‘em you adorable cutie!!!

If you had a chance to reflect on the entirety of your life, and this window opened for one single instant, allowing you to digest everything – millions of images, feelings, thoughts, events, people, places, moments…. What would you find? Would you want to look?

I know it’s a bit large (well maybe more than just a ‘bit’) to even fathom, but just roll with this idea for a second and imagine seeing your entire past unscroll before you. Imagine seeing yourself moving backwards through the years, but still firmly planted here and now, ingesting it all.

Are there parts of your life you don’t want to look at? Are there moments you’re really proud of? What made you leap? What made you afraid? Can you see how far you’ve come? Can you see where you’re stalling? Do you know what you need to do to move forward? Do you know how you need to feel to move forward? Can you give this to yourself now? Do you know you deserve more than you think you do? Do you know you already have it all? Are you turning a blind heart to something you know you shouldn’t be? Are you working from love? That last one… did the choice you make come from love or something else… that’s a biggie…

Life has pushed me past my comfort zone lately. I’m in the process of finishing my first album and I’m beyond excited about it…and equally nervous about sharing it too. I’ve put so much of myself into these songs. I feel like I’m leaping and have no idea if I can fly, or even where the ground is.

When I was 16 I climbed up to the top of a 30 foot cliff and thought about jumping into the lake. It was a safe area. People had done it before. There was a lot of encouragement from the boaters below. Swimmers even climbed to the top and jumped, showing me it could be done without imminent death. But 30 feet is still VERY HIGH and my knees were shaking. After stalling, weighing the pros and cons, circling the rock, contemplating a way to climb down, sitting down, standing up and then sitting down again, about two hours had passed. Then I made a firm decision. I told myself I was going to do it. And then I jumped.

Here I am again, climbing to the top of the cliff with my dream, my soon-to-be-finished CD, in my hand. I’ve been getting ready to throw this CD off this cliff, figuratively speaking of course, for a lot longer than two hours (try years!!!)… I love the feeling of anticipation but wow…those butterflies! Now that I’m in the last part of the climb there have been so many little voices of self doubt rising up, making me a sink back and stall actions I know I need to be taking. I’ve been sitting down and standing up and weighing the pros and cons…. but I’m still climbing. I’m tweaking the tracks and getting ready to do the final vocals… (My good friend Heather Hill is launching her incredible album soon and can also relate to these butterflies. So nice to know I’m not alone! Check out her recent blog here.)

I know during my life review, if that does really happen according to the near death experiences I’ve read about (Side Note: The Holographic Universe is what I’m currently reading), I will be able to say that I did it. I created my music and I shared it. I did it from love – love for the joy of sharing music, and love for myself because I know this is what truly makes my soul sing. And just in case the angels are taking notes: this album is one thing I’m crazy proud of.

What about you? What are you proud of? Where have you been? What have you overcome? Where are you headed? It might not be tangible. It doesn’t matter. You know what you’ve done. You know where you are. You know if you’ve opened your heart. To yourself, to others. It’s love that matters doesn’t it? In the end (if there is one…but that’s another blog)…and right now too.

The altitude gave me vertigo in a few places but the view is beautiful right now because I’m celebrating my own, and my fellow songwriters’ many successes during The Canadian Songwriters Social Media Challenge! Look how far up the mountain we’ve climbed!

We started Week 1 by getting up close and personal with our goals and we committed to them in a way that packs a powerful punch – by writing them down in the present. We also implemented the daily “six action steps” exercise which has helped us feel like we’re progressing even when the mountain is steep! We then learned during Week 2 how to pitch ourselves in a way that won’t make people dash out of the elevator yawning. Then came designing, editing and tweaking our social media savvy artist websites during Week 3. In Week 4, we plunged into even more social media platforms, skyrocketing ourselves further into cyberspace, while maintaining a consistent look across all of them: think branding! Next we got hooked up on YouTube in Week 5 which was a first for me (check out my first Vlog!!) We then navigated the intensely large blogosphere in Week 6, aiming to stick like bubblegum to music bloggers. Week 7 guided us to get creatively serious about our newsletters and during Week 8 we planned strategic continuum programs to help us prosper as artists. Finally, we have now leaned into the last part of this climb….Week 9!

This week’s chapter in Music Success in Nine Weeks is entitled “The Real World”. Here we focus on networking and dealing with publicists. This week I worked on my one-page bio with a friend who’s written bios for bands in the past. It was great having outside perspective because wow, it’s tough to write about yourself! After my bio was written I put it up on my website (check it out if you like under the ABOUT section at www.AynsleySaxe.com). I also launched my first digital press kit in the drop down menu of the ABOUT section (thanks for making it easy Bandzoogle!). I will revise my press kit as my album is released – but for now, it’s up! My Bio and DPK were two items I’d been procrastinating doing for a while and it feels awesome having them done.

There were also three items that stood out for me in this chapter:

1. “Don’t read your press; weigh it.”
I love this Andy Warhol quote. I remember hearing a story about how Alice Cooper got signed. When he started performing in a club, a huge percentage of listeners immediately rushed out of the bar because they couldn’t stand his music. The label rep. said something along the lines of “since you had that big of a reaction, we’re signing you.” It didn’t matter that most of the bar loathed his music. He’d made an impact and I’m presuming the rep. thought that there would be a niche of people who would like his music. Needless to say he thought right!

2. Know your intention before starting out.
Ariel talks about this quote in terms of networking, but doesn’t it apply to everything in life? It seems like such simple advice but this statement is so powerful! It’s so easy to lose our lives to an unconscious default setting. For instance, how many of us get wrapped up in social media sites and there goes an hour or two of time? Yikes – so guilty here! I don’t usually consciously choose to browse my friends’ Facebook pages for 2 hours but it’s easy to get sucked into the vortex of energy that these sites are exuding. Knowing my intention before taking action helps me connect to what I want to do with my time. These intentions add up. Before long we’ll realize we are deeply rooted in the present, living consciously, filling our time with actions that we want to take. The opposite gives me a queasy stomach.

3. CD’s with Readable Backs Please
Knowing that publicists prefer CD’s with artwork and a readable spine is good to know! It’s easy to see how CD’s that are stacked would easily go amiss without a readable spine. There are actually 12 CD’s in this stack…!

The highlights of this challenge for me have been numerous. I’ve thought about my music (and myself really) as a business, and implemented many strategies I likely would have procrastinated doing without the time line of the challenge and the warm encouragement of the other participants. Being accountable to the deadlines has helped me stay focused and accomplish a lot more than I thought possible in a very short time period!

Another highlight has been connecting with other songwriters. I’ve been feeding off the positive vibes from all of the comments on everyone’s blogs and all of the golden nuggets of wisdom and advice that have been shared. Even though we each have a unique journey (like a “thumbprint” – according to Christie Grace’s beautiful Week 8 blog), all of us share the common thread of loving our music passionately and wanting to share it with the world. You have really inspired me! Thank you so much for sharing your journey with me and for being so enthusiastic, encouraging and supportive!

Let’s keep in touch. If you haven’t already, please sign up for my newsletter at www.aynsleysaxe.com or subscribe to my blog. Please send me your newsletter or blog subscription link too as I would love to continue to hear what you are up to.

Anyone for a group hug!?!?! Or maybe a group “WHOOOHOOOO!!!!”

Raise your hand if the first thing you think of when you hear the word “funnel” is the keg party you should have avoided during your 1st year of college or university. Raise your other hand if you think of the keg party AND decadent funnel cakes with vanilla ice cream on top. Raise your left foot if…well, never mind.

We have stepped into Week 8 of the Canadian Songwriters Social Media Challenge. This week we are thinking about funnels, not the keg party or dessert kind I’m afraid, but income funnels that stream continuing financial success for us, through our music, or through a multitude of other channels available to the imaginative songwriter, turned marketing genius.

I have a confession to make. For a long time I never wanted to mix my songwriting (a.k.a. my art, my craft, my passion, my love), with making money. When I write it down here it sounds absurd. Why wouldn’t I? Logically I know there’s absolutely nothing wrong, and actually, everything right about making money doing what you love. But it’s taken me a long time to reconcile this idea within myself.

Why? I’m not totally sure. Perhaps I adopted long-held beliefs that work isn’t supposed to be fun. Or maybe I believed that artists are not just hungry, they’re starving! (For funnel cakes maybe!?) Perhaps I thought money was an ugly topic that was better to avoid altogether. Maybe I never wanted to “taint” my art by feeling like I was trying to “get” anything from anyone…. The list goes on.

Thankfully I’m recognizing these beliefs aren’t serving me any longer and I’ve been coaching myself into better feeling thoughts about making money. It’s been a relief. I know that when I feel great about money, and know deep down that it’s GOOD for me to receive it, that’s when the abundance funnel will really start to flow.

Although this chapter focuses on creating a continuum plan for fans to hook into, so they will buy products and services from me over and over again, I’ve backed up a bit. I don’t believe we can genuinely receive much from the outside world before we’re willing to receive it within ourselves. Therefore I’ve started the continuum plan within myself first. Building this foundation, allowing abundance in, and truly believing I’m worthy of receiving it, is where I’m beginning. I’m calling this my inward continuum program.

I started with affirmations. I’ve learned that affirmations work when you really FEEL the essence behind the phrase. Rattling off the words unconsciously doesn’t work (trust me I’ve tried it). It’s also good to keep the affirmations positive and in the present, similar to how we wrote down our goals in Ariel’s Week 1 process. Some examples:

Repeating and soaking up the good vibes in these affirmations have been a little like positive-thought boot camp. I know it’s working because I’m feeling better and better about making money. Before Jim Carrey had ‘made it’ he carried around a $10 million dollar cheque in his pocket, hoping, or perhaps knowing, one day he would cash it. Don’t underestimate the power of thought, visualizing your goals and imagining them as if they’re really happening NOW.

(Side Note: I’ve been so inspired by Karyn Ellis’ blogs I’ve added a few colourful affirmations here.)

When I think about music, money and service as an exchange of energy, I know that everyone wins. Fans win when I sell my music (or other avenues to generate revenue that they want to buy). I win when they bless me with their cash. People will only pay for what they believe has value to them so my next step is to create my “outward” continuum program, alongside my continuing inward continuum program. Dare you to say that 5 times really fast.

A few ideas I have for future income streams are: Contests, STAGEIT (check it out – it’s an online platform for streaming live shows. Your fans can even tip you for a show you play online – kind of like Skype for your fans!), Handmade Songs & Song of the Month Club for special VIP fans.

To sum up, my Inward Continuum Program involves:

Daily affirmations and positive-thought boot camp
Writing down my financial goals each month and reviewing them (and keeping them positive and in the present)
Meditating on how I can best serve in a way that feels joyful & fantastic for me while keeping my ears peeled for what my fans crave

Ideas for my Outward Continuum Program:

Contests (at shows as well as through my newsletter)
StageIt Online Shows (4 times/year)
Handmade Songs
Song of the Month Club for VIP fans that are in the club!

See you soon for the final Chapter (but certainly not the final frontier!) – Week 9!!!

Before I start this blog, I have to say that with regards to Mr. Snowman on the left, I told you in Week 3 I couldn’t draw. Now do you believe me?

Week 7 is upon us, or maybe slightly behind some of the more active songwriters who are on top of the blogging game (Tom Shea & Siouxberry, congrats!) during the Songwriters Association of Canada’s Social Media Challenge based on Ariel Hyatt‘s book Music Success in Nine Weeks.

I’m pleased to say I’m still here. I’m pushing the social media snowball up the hill, gathering tons of advice, pondering brave ideas and even soaking up a few friendships as I go. It’s been an incredible journey and A LOT to digest so far. I feel a little saturated. But I guess that’s the point?

Week 7 is all about the (dreaded) newsletter. Okay, kidding about dreaded, at least in the “knotty hair” sense of the word. But I must admit I feel a little intimidated about the newsletter chapter.

The questions I’ve been pondering this week are:

What do I have to say that is entertaining, meaningful, creative, interesting and worth sharing?

How do I market myself without seeming to market myself (at least most of the time!)?

How often should I contact fans on my newsletter list?

How can I develop a community around myself and my music?

What questions should I ask fans when I send them a short survey about what they would like from me?

And this, the ultimate question….

How can I reach people in a way that is not, I hesitate to even say the word….(a hush fell over the crowd): S P A M.

I know how much I like getting emails that are all promotional – NOT. That’s the last thing I want to do to the people who like my music and who are giving me their precious time by opening my emails. I want my newsletters to be based on respect, love and genuine connection. And I want to also throw in a little bit of amusing fun in there too! Nobody wants to read a boring email right? No brussel sprouts emails please! Yuck!

Reaching out to my mailing list about once a month sounds about right to me. I want to be around often, but not too often.

To date, I’ve personally contacted approximately 475 people with personal, individual emails asking them if it would be okay to keep them posted on my music. I’m not kidding. FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE (give or take a few). I’ve got 150 people to go on my personal email list, that doesn’t count Facebook friends and all those business cards I’ve accumulated through the years. Phew, what a snowball!!

The really great thing about this whole process of reaching out is that I’ve been in touch with people I haven’t spoken to in years. It’s been awesome reconnecting and thinking about them and hearing what they’re up to. I received two warm & fuzzy responses this morning that are soooo nice I had to share:

“Congratulations. Let me know how I can support you.“

“…and to answer your quick question, I appreciate learning about your musical journey. Please keep me posted and it would be a pleasure if I could be of any help.“

The personal touch isn’t overrated. The golden rule never grows old. If someone took the time to actually sit down and think about me and write me a quick email, and not treat me like one of the masses, I would likely be eating their emails out of the palm of their hand.

The challenging part has been it’s been incredibly time consuming. I average about 2 hours of email writing for every 50 contacts. Even though I’m using a form email for part of the email as suggested, I’m also making the email personal to each person. This means going back through my emails and seeing where/when we connected last and writing a little about that. And that doesn’t count the time spent when I respond (because I always try to email them back right away to thank them for letting me keep them on my list if that’s what they’ve chosen to do). The actual act of writing and responding isn’t so bad – it’s actually been pretty fun. It’s just thinking about the snowball that I resist. Kind of like going to the gym. Once you’re actually lifting weights it usually feels pretty good.

I have 3 pages left (6 hours) and 150 people to contact personally (if you’re curious, it’s people with names starting with ‘P’ to ‘T’). I did the last page this morning just to change things up (Letters ‘V’ to ‘Z’). What category are you in? Did I miss you??

6 hours doesn’t seem like a long time really. But it feels like it’s really snowing on my snowball. And this last part of the hill feels daunting. Especially since I know winter never ends and it will always be snowing. Which is a very good thing because that will mean that I will be able to continually connect with people who might enjoy my music and want to be kept updated.

One of my goals during Week 1 was to keep up an ever-growing fantastic email list… And yes, to provide great newsletters too. So cheers to cold days and big snowballs!!!

One more thing, I think co-promoting with other artists (whom my fan base might like) is a fantastic idea. Once I get my album released I will definitely be reaching out to other songwriters about this idea. If you are an artist, do let me know if you’re interested in this idea too and you think our music might be enjoyed by a similar audience. I would love to announce you to my list in a beautiful way!

And finally, dear Blog Reader (that’s you!!!), I’d love to keep you up to speed on what I’m up to musically. If you sign up for my music updates I will also give you a free MP3 when my album is released. All Love – No Spam. Promise.

Honk and Sign up here because you Rock!

www.AynsleySaxe.com

Years ago, during a guided meditation, I sunk deep into my body’s awareness. I became conscious of my energy; where it was flowing well, and places where it was blocked. With eyes closed, breathing softly, I felt an impenetrable constriction around my throat. It felt like an iron vice.

At this point I’m sure I would have chosen to end the guided meditation and return to the room (and forgotten the exploration as though it was a bad dream) if I didn’t have a compassionate and trusted energy-counselor gently urging me on to deeper insight. Kids, you may not want to try this alone.

As I continued to ‘feel’ the vice, I began to shake with fear. I had an image of myself walking underground along a dark tunnel. It was as though I was in a dungeon or prison. I was being led by the throat, by the chain around my neck, and I knew I would be decapitated. As I watched myself being led, I knew in my heart that I had to speak. I had to express myself. I knew that I would die if I did, but this was what I needed to do.

I stayed trembling with the fear until it subsided slowly and I felt the vice disintegrating. I came back to the room feeling vulnerable and strong (yes, both at the same time) and gifted with insight from the deep. Whether these visuals came from the corners of my brain or my soul or were just imaginary thoughts makes no difference to me. The insight was what mattered: I must speak. I must sing. I must express myself. It is my air.

For Week 6 of the Canadian Songwriters Social Media Challenge, I want to send kudos to:

Writers who have the courage to express their truth

Artists who sing what is in their hearts

Bloggers who push into deeper communication

Putting yourself out there for the world to see, critique, judge, embrace or condemn is for the brave.

To all of you with the urge to share and connect, thank you for unleashing your 5th Chakra. Thanks for weaving your truth into the fabric of the world.

You inspire me.

xo Aynsley

P.S. A little more about Chapter 6 – I had a whirl of a time searching through blogs that might eventually want to write about my music (there are a lot of blogs and bloggers out there!!!). I’ve got my eye on a few that I hope may potentially cover me down the road. Some were Toronto based and cover the local music scene. I also started a blog roll and RSS feed this week. I liked, subscribed to, commented on and sent kudos out to them. I have a feeling this week’s work will never end but hopefully in time I will get better at finding those bloggers that resonate with my sound. The way to embark on a long journey is one breath at a time, right?

Remember when “You Tube?” used to be a question you would ask a pal at the top of a snow covered hill? When your buddy nodded, you would both jump on a big inner tube and race down the hill, avoiding trees, children and small dogs. At the bottom, freshly exhilarated and wind burned, you’d grin at each other and say “Once more!?” Then you’d climb to the top panting, and do it all again.

Thanks to Week 5 in Music Success in Nine Weeks, I’m tubing. I’m sliding. I’m racing. I’m now whirling on the YouTube hill with all the other tubers. We’ve come a long way young grasshoppers.

My first Vlog is a behind the scenes peak at the making of my first album. It’s very serious (yeah right). Hope you enjoy!!

Click here to view my vlog.

This past month a thought has been circling my mind.  I’ve been afraid to let it touch down because I’m not sure what I will find. But often I think what we fear writing about, is exactly what we should be writing about.

The thought is this:  Can everything be held in the space of love?
 
And I mean, one gigantic EVERYTHING.  Everything you resist.  Everything you despise.  Everything includes sickness and murderers and the job you don’t like and your bills and your worries and the rude driver who cut you off on the way home and the biting snow and the part of your body you wish you could change and that mean kid in Grade 3 who hurt your feelings and algebra and bad breath and that sinking feeling like it’s all going to end and you didn’t do everything you wish you’d done….  Can you roll it all up into a glowing ball, place it in your heart and surround it with love?

My immediate gut reaction is an emphatic “NO!”  Followed by my mind shrieking:  “Ayns, why did you let that thought touch down!?!  You know it wasn’t good for us!!!”

But if I sit with the question a little longer, the possibility of something a little deeper ripples out.

Usually this will only happen in a space of meditation or deep reflection where I’ve let my ego subside and there sits inside me a space that is calm and clear.  The space where I’ve become the pebble floating to the bottom of the lake.   Then it seems like I can allow more into my heart.  The parts that are scary or angry or sad.

I would like to become the pebble more.   I need to embrace the space (Hey cool rhyme, embrace the space baby!).   I’m going to start small with the little things that are easier to love (like spilled tea on my new shirt for instance), and then slowly test the water to see what else my heart can hold.   I have a feeling it can stretch pretty big but I won’t know until I try.

The thing is, this love is not for them.  It’s not for the rude people or the sickness or the bills.  It’s for me. Loving them feels better than resisting.   Granted, that doesn’t mean I want to have a picnic with them, but when I sit quietly with love for them, somehow they change, or I change. Either way, I feel better.

Go free little thought.  Soar again because I’ve remembered, at least for tonight:  love is a choice.

Application:

Start with something small that you resist.  Close your eyes and breathe deeply.  Feel that place of pure love inside yourself.  When you’re ready, slowly imagine your heart opening up and embracing what you resist.  Sit with this feeling as long as you like. 

Find out more about the Thought of the Month.

If he had known what it looked like he probably wouldn’t have pulled me over.

This is my cell phone:

Yup. Vintage.

This little cell phone has served me well over the (many) years and as you can see, it’s been well loved. But now, I fear, the end is drawing near. It is time to cell its soul and seal its fate with the other jumbo mobile phones in cell phone heaven. Remember them? You didn’t have to go to the gym for a week after talking on them. Plus they came with the bonus feature of being able to poke someone’s eye out with an antenna the size of a ski pole. My parents had a “car phone” that had to be charged for a week and then the battery would last about an hour in good weather. It sat on the floor of the passenger side taking up as much room as a small dog. Less furry though. Usually.

This week exploring a new cell phone was just the tip of the iceberg. Week 4 of our Music Success in Nine Weeks Songwriters Challenge urges us to plunge into Social Media. I decided to start by navigating through my current social media sites (that I remember the password for!), adding Wild Blue Yonder (see Week 3) to the background as I surfed:

Official Music Website || FaceBook Fan Page || Twitter || MySpace

Reverbnation || WordPress

I also splashed for the first time into:

FanBridge || Klout || YouTube || Linked In

How do I feel now? A little blurry. Like I have saltwater in my eyes and it’s time for a pina colada.

Last week @ the Songwriters Association of Canada’s Songposium Brian Thompson (Digital Strategist) spoke of the 80/20 rule. He encouraged us to create great content with our tweets or posts 80% of the time, and pitch/market ourselves only 20% of the time. That means that if you are sending out 10 tweets a week, only 2 of them should be to market/promote yourself. Granted, you’re marketing yourself all the time with awesome content, but keep the pitching on the down low.

This makes a lot of sense to me. The tweets I pass over with glazed eyes are those that are all pitch and no fun. Those that keep me coming back for more are colourful, interesting, funny, heartwarming or relevant to me (i.e., a direct message). They have that special little something that makes me smile or gives me energy. Some tweets make you feel like you just stepped into a pair of warm and fuzzy socks and there’s a blizzard outside.

The icebergs aren’t melting. We are flowing in a wild and rapidly changing, cyber ocean. I must go now. I have to find my flippers, update my sidestroke and sidebar and anchor a cell phone data plan – sans-vintage.

Hugs,
Ayns

P.S. I feel like a kid in the schoolyard asking you to Like Me on Facebook but I will smile all through recess if you do.

Well, here we are. We’ve made it to Week Numéro Trois of the 9-Week Social Media Challenge. This week’s challenge was to put our sights on our websites. Ariel Hyatt urged us to make our websites functional – to not only make them inviting to the eye, but to ensure we embrace the social media world and engage our visitors with them. To stay afloat in this social media music pond, this is what we songwriters must do.

Let me preface this blog by saying art is not my forté, at least not the kind of art that requires logos, fancy fonts, graphics, crayons, finger-paints or markers. For me, photoshopping is browsing Blacks. You might as well ask me to reproduce the Mona Lisa if you want me to draw stick-men. I clashed at a young age – see Comments in Week 1’s blog. I’ve buried (but not far enough apparently) a traumatic childhood memory of being laughed at for drawing a cow and putting the udders in the wrong place. Don’t ask where.

Needless to say this week’s challenge wasn’t my favourite. Luckily, the test for our websites wasn’t in graphic design.

I must have tried at least a dozen background colours but I finally settled on a shade of blue. Which shade is debatable. Did you know there are shades called “duke blue” and “majorelle blue”? Gotta love Google. My favourite name for blue is now “wild blue yonder”. However smoky blue sounds dramatic and intriguing doesn’t it? I’d rather my website be smoky blue than putrid pink. But I digress. I uploaded photos and show posters. I listed show dates and upcoming events and I will even gift my newsletter followers with a free download if they sign up for my Monthly Music Updates – hint hint dear blog reader… I even tweaked my Twitter & Blog pages and they now match the wild blue yonder too they do! Dr. Zeus anyone?

This shade, whatever it is, will do until my upcoming photo shoot is completed for my soon-to-be-released album (whoooohoooo!!!). Oh no, “whoohoo” rhymes with “blue” too! This is getting absurd lol. But seriously, after the photo shoot is done, I will then track down a talented artistic friend or web designer to recreate this website into a pretty little page that is more pleasing to the eye, and not just purely functional. But don’t worry Ariel, it will still remain functional and easy to navigate too.

Who knows, maybe this talented friend can also show me how to draw a cow!

Oh yes, and if you’re curious, here it is…for now.