I'm now selling incredible make-up, and you can get points for buying!

Motives - Incredible Cosmetics

In this economy (which I don't have to explain to anyone), it seems that finally some of the big companies are figuring out that what we want is something we can afford . . . we want discounts, we want money back, we want rewards programs that actually mean something - such as, giving us points for things we actually plan to buy, therefore, getting something for free that we would have spent money on anyway.

I became a Market America Distributor last March, and I love the company. The products and systems have helped me lose 40 pounds and keep it off, have helped me GAIN BACK HEALTH in so many ways (more on all this later), and now they've energized their rewards program across the board so that when you go online to buy ANYTHING through my web portal you get points that you can turn into real merchandise. The stores you can purchase from to get these points run from Best Buy to Barnes and Noble to baby clothing stores, Travelocity, and much, much much much more. I love it! They've introduced a price comparison feature, customer reviews, and coming soon is the "unicart," a single shopping cart and one-time check-out that will handle your stuff from over 1,000 stores in ONE CART with one payment - and you can ship it to multiple addresses.

As of this posting, the products you can get for free for shopping in a variety of stores all come from the FEATURED BRANDS section of this page. Over the next few months, the products you can get will also come from the 1000+ Partner Stores, which are linked from the same page. The featured brands include some totally awesome health products that really work, such as the world-class OPC-3, an incredibly effective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. I'll be talking about more supplements and products later, because they've helped me and people close to me so much. Since taking OPC-3, I no longer have the symptoms of fibromyalgia that plagued my life for maybe 20 years. If you think that doesn't make a huge difference in my life, just ask me! There are also anti-aging products, car care, pet care, and the wonderful high-quality Motives brand of make-up linked at the top of this page on my Motives Mini Web Site. Or you can see the Motives makeup display on my regular web portal.

If you find all of this intriguing and want a bigger piece of the action, just give me a call. Or if I've been obtuse and you'd like a better explanation of how to use the web site, I'd love to talk to you! I'm in Oregon: (503) 338-8646.

~ Sheryl

The wreck of the Peter Iredale on the beach in Warrenton, Oregon

I took this photo on July 23, although I'll use it for today's post. It's a nice one! I didn't mess with the color or any of the settings in photoshop. All I did was re-size it. It's been a cool year at the beach - cool as in almost cold. My Astoria dress code this year is a jacket and shorts.

I've been working a lot on our new web site. It has the awkward name of TPF's Animal Jewelry ~ Hand-Painted Animal Pins, at least for now. I launched it last week and I'm trying to raise its rank in the searches. Actually, for certain targeted searches, it's already coming up very well. It's been fun to do. It's a new format for me, with a data-driven system which makes uploading products a lot faster than in the existing gift shop. We have so many of these beautiful pins that I wanted to get them ALL online, not just a fraction of the inventory, and this is working. I still have a couple hundred (?) to do, and it's going well. I bought the site from myself in my new Market America venture, so it was also inexpensive - a big plus!

It seems there's been a lot of time spent on the phone with technical support and big companies for various reasons lately, and it's eaten up the time that I usually spend working on the web sites and blogs. I've been taking a lot of photos, as always, but not posting them. The great thing about digital photos is, I can store them on my hard drive and go back and find the date of the ones I want to post. I still intend to keep this particular blog as my journal, and I'll continue to update and back date as I can. Along with my my web site, it's becoming my home on the web. The blog is faster and more spontaneous. I still love the web site and feel that I have about the right balance between that and the blogs. Of course, I have the tapirs and gift shop on the web site, but I'll keep developing pages such as my photos section. Regarding blogs, I started too many of them when I was getting started, and pared them down in number with experience. I think it's about right now.

Yesterday I started something new. I had not wanted to take the time to get into social networking, although I knew it would be fun, but when my friend and tapir colleague, Sergio, invited me into Facebook, I got hooked. I found more tapir friends and colleagues there, and a few of non-tapir friends. I can see where this could take up a lot of time, but it's fun. I just took a movie quiz. Wish they would list more that I was interested in!

And one more thing. Soon the Transitions class that Sue and I are teaching will be completed. It's our first and we're looking forward to starting our next. We're just getting the flyers together and will start planning the class. It's been rewarding for sure, both taking and teaching, watching ourselves and other people begin to feel better than we have in years! I'll try to keep updating here!

One MORE thing. I finally downloaded IE 7 and am getting used to it. So, why am I not using Firefox? I can't seem to integrate Notepad for editing HTML for one thing, and for another thing, QuickBooks has to have IE in order to work. Who knew??? So that's more of my techno-time taken up this week. IE 6 finally crashed and I couldn't bring it all the way back up to speed. The blog spacing works differently in IE7, so let's see what I have to do to fix it.

Climate change - losing polar ice cap?

It seems my blogs have mainly consisted of links recently. I've been busy with my existing business and a new one. I wanted to share one more link. It's depressing, but should also be a call to action in one way or another:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080627/sc_livescience/northpolecouldbeicefreethissummer

My own efforts go into two main areas at the moment:

1. Helping save the health of the rainforests by focusing on saving one of the largest mammals you'll find there, tapirs

and

2. Helping people get their health back by addressing lifestyles through diet, exercise, and very effective health-promoting supplements. Maybe I'll get brave and tell my own story sometime. After all, this is a personal blog!

That's all for the moment. I'll be posting some photos again soon. That's my favorite part of blogging . . . the pictures!

Sheryl
(503) 338-8646

Transitions Lifestyle Systems for weight loss and improved health

Click the link below for a

Downloadable Transitions Powerpoint Presentation

Call toll-free for info: (888) 325-3179
Ask for Sue or Sheryl

Once the PowerPoint downloads to your computer, just double-click the file and you can page through the presentation. It's fascinating and loaded with interesting info.

This powerpoint presentation explains the program and why it works where diets often fail, especially as we get older and become "metabolically challenged." The file is large, so please allow several minutes for download. The wait will be worth it! Find out why "diets aren't the solution - they are part of the problem!"

This program was created by Dr. Shari Lieberman. I didn't create this powerpoint, but I did lose 40 pounds using the Transitions system. It was a lot easier than I could have imagined, and it happened when I thought I simply could not lose the extra weight I'd gained no matter what I did! Transitions classes are highly recommended to learn and apply the system in a supportive environment. The accountability of being in a group is also very helpful. I took the class twice, and now Sue and I are teaching Transitions classes in Astoria.

If you have any questions, please send e-mail. No, I'm not ready to put my "before" pix online yet, but if you really want to see them, let me know. Maybe someday I'll have the courage. For now, I'm enjoying the results! Actually, my "part way through the class" "before" picture is in the powerpoint presentation along with an "after" photo. You'll have to download the powerpoint to see it! You can see how much my attitude about my looks changed as well.

I've also made a blog with some recipes you can use on this eating plan.

One of the biggest challenges for me with this system was not losing the 40 pounds, but parting with some of my favorite BIG t-shirts!

I was so affected by the Transitions system and the supplements available from Market America, that I am now a Market America Independent Distributor. Here's a link to my Market America web portal:

Accrue credits for shopping online!

Buy just about anything you need or want and get money back when you shop again. When you buy, you become a "preferred customer." The number of partner stores is mind-boggling. Check it out!

FREE Transitions Seminar in Astoria, April 30, 2008

Read or download flyer

Why diets don't work! Please see the flyer above and be sure to call (503) 338-8646, (503) 325-3179, or send e-mail to sign up for the free seminar.

Space is limited!

This is an exciting event . . . the FREE Transitions seminar I attended in 2007 changed my life. I lost 40 very stubborn pounds and achieved additional health goals.

Resveratrol Supplement Available Now

There has been a lot of talk in the news and online about the value of resveratrol, a potent anti-oxidant. You can see the Barbara Walters interview on YouTube. It's called Live longer with this new breakthrough. They talk about a pill they may have five years in the future, but resveratrol for human consumption is here now! I am a Market America Independent Distributor, and you can get Isotonix Resveratrol here on my web portal. I've just started taking it myself, and I'll report my personal experience here on the blog.

Get Isotonix Resveratrol here

Reseveratrol absorbs easily and quickly into your body in this unique isotonic formula. It tastes really great and can be mixed with other Isotinic antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

I've had very good results with other Isotonix and other Market America products, including the Transitions Lifestyle system. I lost 40 pounds, feel so much better, and soon Sue and I will begin teaching a Transitions class here in Astoria. I'm very excited about it! In the classes I took last year, I saw so many people change their lives and begin to feel better after many years of distress. I can now say I'm one of those people. When you find something that makes you feel that good, you want to spread the news!

Free T-shirt. Ouch! I can't believe I'm doing this.

Free t-shirt. What's the catch? There are two:

1. It's used (by me) (no stains or holes, looks pretty good)
2. You pay shipping (to anywhere)

Why am I doing this? It's size XL. I've lost 40 pounds this year and I've kept it off. As it turned out, the program I was on was pretty easy, and I don't see gaining the weight back. What was I thinking??? I forgot that I'd have to part with some of my favorite possessions! I don't buy a lot of clothing, and the t-shirts I do have usually mean something to me. I have about a dozen that I really love, but they have to go. I just don't have the space. Who knew that losing the weight would be the easy part? Most of these shirts have very good memories attached to them. Either Lee gave it to me, or we got it someplace where we had a good time, and/or it's just a cool shirt. I've taken lots of wonderful hikes and trips in this one. If it was only one t-shirt that was too big, I'd keep it and use it for a sleep shirt, frame it, make it part of a quilt, or just keep it and look at it. I thought, "Oh yeah, when I lose the weight, I'll just take my XL clothing to the thrift store for a good cause." I took some, but I had no idea it would be so hard to part with the last T-SHIRTS. This probably sounds horribly neurotic unless maybe you have something you feel the same way about. I don't usually have this much separation anxiety about THINGS (I don't think so, anyway). What is a t-shirt? Is it art? Identity? I'm not that philosophical a person, but I'm finding out that a t-shirt must have a whole world of symbolism I haven't bothered to think about.

Breathe.

About the shirt, it has American Indian rock art designs on it and it came from New Mexico. Lee got it for me on a skiing trip to Taos. It's 100% cotton. Made by Oneita. It's soft. The color in the photo is pretty true to life. It's light gray-green (is that called "heather"?) with black designs. The back is also covered with black rock art, slightly different symbols, but the same style. There are some goats and a turtle-kokopelli-looking thing, and a swirling sun. If you're interested, send me e-mail.

I have some other size XL t-shirts I'll put on the blog when I decide which one I can deal with next.

POST UPDATE: My friend Kate saw the shirt and wants it. I am thrilled. I guess I had to feel it was going to a good home. Now it is. Stay tuned for next shirt event.