They wait silently, colorful paw printed capes fluttering in the breeze, masked glass eyes intently watching over you, keeping you company, eager to play and amuse at your beck and call, always at the ready to valiantly save you…faster than you can say “Treat?”, cuter than a monkey’s butt, able to leap small bushes in a single bound — “Look, up in the trees! It’s a polish sausage! It’s a squirrel! No, it’s an Itty Bitty Superhero pup!”

Aren’t these superhero Golden Retrievers just the cutest? They were a special custom order handmade by the terrific and super talented Polymer Clay Artist, Jennifer, of Itty Bitties For You. Jennifer has been making Polymer Clay creations for about 11 years and her passion for this medium shows! She makes a wide variety of items from whimsical animals, fun n’ colorful robots, to pretty pendants. Not only has her talent impressed me, but her friendly, easygoing customer service skills and meticulous attention to details rates this one of the best buying experiences I’ve had anywhere.

Check out all her wonderful pieces at her Etsy store, Itty Bitties For You. But before you go, take a look at all the fabulous photos she snapped of these two pieces she made for me. Click the thumbnails for a closer look. They make me grin everytime I look at them. So fun and so clever!
WOOF!

If you’ve ever scrolled down to the bottom of my sidebars, you’ll notice a little blue box with a number. I was quite surprised when this number jumped from 13 to 54 not too long ago. Someone’s been busy, I see. As of this post, Akismet, my spam zapping widget, has prevented 56 spam comments from posting on my blog, saving me much time and aggravation.

I was rather curious to see what these spam comments actually looked like as most of them were just automatically erased. The other day, to my glee, 5 landed in the Comments section of my dashboard, waiting for approval or deletion.

Here’s an edited sample of a couple:

“Midnight Bed” wrote:

You’ll notice that Nancy Reagan never drinks water when Ronnie speaks — Robin Williams

“Master Foreigner” writes:

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas I’ve only ever had one — Albert Einstein

Not what I expected. A bazillion links pointing to the usual organ enhancing, miracle drugs for less, or whatever else they’re selling websites. The funny thing is, these two posts both came from the same IP address, and the website they listed weren’t actually websites but other types of files. I suspect this is the reason they were marked as “possible spam”.

If you have a blog and don’t allow comments for fear of spam, give Akismet a try. It’s easy to install and a breeze to use. Personally, I like it when I’m able to post comments on websites or blogs I visit. Comments allows your voice to be heard, allows interaction between the reader and writer, and encourages repeat visits.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, I’m trying something new that CHESSNOID told me about. It’s a viral link. No worry -there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s not a virus or anything malicious like that. It works on the same concept as you telling two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on. It’s supposed to increase your Technorati Authority rating. If that’s something you’re interested in boosting, and you run a blog or multiple blogs, just copy and paste the tag below and add yourself to the end.

Host Tag: ALilSumptinSumptin - Original + Unique Handmade Blings

Internet Marketing Mind - CHESSNOID - Escape Job Hell - A camera and a mac - Offbeat Auction -Chicken’s Life -Any Apples - Ryan Shamus - Terence Chang - Rich Minx - Slyvisions - E-Revenue Select - Misdo Club - Digital Lost Boys - CyberSurge - Technically Easy - The Dragon Project - I Am Facing Millions - E-World Vu - Hiding-N-Public - Webd360 - Techie Zone - The Insane Writer - Olympic Blogger - Norwegian Photo Blog - The King Kong Blog - Bamboo Nation - Mobile Phone Geek - Boogie Mum - Miri Guy - Everything Finance Blog - Net Monetization - Groovy Vegetarian - Etienne Teo - Omicra - Komirad - Pro Blog Design - Fashion Style Trend - Marketing Land - Marketing Deviant - Blogging Tips - Rammel Firdaus - Don Biz Blogger - Groovy Entrepreneur - Mr. Baconpants - The Daily Fuzz - Forex Trading Blog - Zr5 - Cariboo Ponderer - Utah SEO - Queen City Hoops - Demp.se/y - Scraps of Mind - High Fivez - Poewar - Blogging Expertise - Oil Offshore Marine - Smart Not Cheap - I Hate Your Job - Vegan Momma - Lillie Ammann - Life Snippets - My New Hustle - Mouseki - Chill Technology - Blogging Mix - A Blog About Nothing - Untwisted Vortex - Jaycees Desires - Muffin 53 - Skittles’ Place - The Buzz Queen - A Little Piece Of Me - Comedy Plus - Adsense Tips - SEO: Project - The Money Blog - Blog About Interesting Stuff - Internet Blog Branding - Blogspot - Search Engine Optimization - Blogging Tips, SEO Guide : Blog Instructor - Blog, Blogger and Blogging - Blog About Networking - Blog Monetization - Blogspot - Blogger, Blog and Blogging - Blogging and Marketing - Blog For Bloggers - The Blogger’s Haven - Business Logic - Content, Connection, Continuity - One Man’s Goal - Mottekaero Mister Donuts - Maiylah’s Snippets - I Do Things so you don’t have to - Boston Brat - The Coffee House - DCR Blogs - The Last Page On The Net - The Tech Record - I Should Have Bred Iguanas… - How I Will Be Rich - Mother’s Home! - Stopover - Your Website Profit -The Zen Art of Software Build & Release - It’s Write Now - staticthinkbox - Crisp Networks - Derrich.com - Environmental Economics - Flowers Blog - Graphic Identity - Healthia Cynthia - Instructor Blog - Jonathan Phillips - King’s Blog - Lady’s Confessions - Missylicious - One Dollar Man - Quest For Fair Trial - Rob Sellen - Scribble On The Wall - Western Standard Blog - Youth Blog - Zealous Blog - Internet Marketing Mind : Money Making Scoop - SiteFever - Home with Heather - Why Money Matters - Grow Rich Along With Me - A Lil Sumptin Sumptin — Viral Tag - Viral Tag - Viral Tag

Don’t you just LOVE gettin’ goodies in the mail? Especially when they’re a fun batch like these Firefly Lampwork Beads handcrafted by one of my favorite peeps, Janet Crosby. Please don’t hate me cuz I’m so lucky. Want your own? Click the faux polaroids above, or her chicken bead link on the sidebar to find out how and where. And make sure you sign up for her newsletter to be notified when she lists in her Etsy store cuz these babies are HOTTTT!!! They get snapped up so fast you won’t even have a chance to blink!

Spotted in the New York Times…Etsy.com founder Rob Kalin with his own handmade version of a table made from repurposed Ikea chairs and a surfboard. This article was originally published on Sept 6, but well…that’s me - always the last to know! Click the image to read the complete article and make sure to view the slide show for some fun, funky n’ innovative ideas!