Farewell

Hey guys,

Sad to say, this will be my final post! I have been maintaining my blog for an assignment and this week will be the last time that I post for it. I will miss you guys, and I hope you all enjoyed the awesome DIYs and interviews and different things I posted for you guys. I really enjoyed all the feedback and likes that I received while maintaining my blog. I hope you all keep doing DIYs and keep posting them (for those of you post them). Keep smiles and love yourselves. That’s all the advice I have.

There is a chance that I continue these posts in the near future or make a new blog all together depending on if I have the time. Enjoy your holiday season, and always remember, you CAN do it yourself.

Happy holidays! ❤ ❤

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (LiveBlogging)

Hey guys! For this post I decided to live blog the Macy’s 89th Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade in spirit of the holiday…

I was excited to see this event, and I also felt that this would be an appropriate way to show appreciation to the DIY artists who performed in this event and also made the floats themselves! Three and a half Billion people attended the event this year, which is located in New York City. The event was referred to as Thanksgiving’s Biggest event!

11:58 am- Santa Claus!: Santa Clause came down  the street in his sleigh accompanied Mrs. Clause and by his reindeer and children waving and dancing in excitement with confetti everywhere as the hosts wrap up the parade.

11:40 am- Train Performs: The Singing group Train performs a Christmas tune alongside a large Turkey float that turns its head from side to side.

11:36 am- The Aflac Duck: A large float of the Aflac duck came appeared with a blue scarf. Interestingly enough, the Aflac Float’s beak is actually 55 feet longer than a real duck’s beak.

11:31 am-Mount Rushmore Float: A beautiful Mount Rushmore Float came riding down the street. It took 14 years and hundreds of men and women for the actual carving to be completed.

11:26 am-School of Rock performs: Broadway Musical actors of the hit School of Rock perform on set while playing guitars and singing.

11:17 am- “Toothless” makes an appearance: Floating at more than 70 feet long, the dragon named “Toothless” from the Disney movie How To Train Your Dragon makes an appearance in float form.

11:11 am-Big Apple Circus: The Big Apple Circus makes an appearance doing acrobatic tricks in purple pants while a float follows behind, they also have an upcoming show of their own on television!

11:06 am- Paddington bear makes an appearance: A Paddington bear Float comes down the street with a suitcase the size of a garage!

10:58 am- Thomas the Tank Engine: Engineered to be exactly 450 pounds, Thomas the tank engine comes floating down the street with his theme song following along.

10:54 am-Angry Bird Float: Floating very angrily at seven feet wide, the Angry bird float came down following the Colonel.

10:50 am-Colonel Sanders float: Celebrity actor who plays Colonel Sanders in KFC commercials makes an appearance on a float in a Cadillac and a white suit waving to the crowd

10:43 am- Cirque Du Soleil Performs: The act performs a song while one of the performers is swinging on a swing that hangs along the float while other performers set the stage on a pirates boat jumping off of trampolines and play-fighting each other in an intense battle.

10:35 am- Plain White T’s Perform: Plain while T’s perform “American Nights” on a large stage with a turning set at the very top of the stage while performers stand on each set that turns periodically to reveal a new one.

10:29 am- Panic! At the Disco Performs: Panic! At the Disco performs their hit “Victorious” while the teenage mutant ninja turtles dance heroically on the same float as the crowd goes wild.

10:16 am-Trey Songz Sings his hit “About you”: Trey performs his hit while cheerleaders dance below his float to the tune.

10:09 am-The Cast of Sesame Street: Elmo performs Smarter stronger kinder” along with Big Bird and the rest of the gang and also some children who joined in by doing a practiced dance performance along with their peers on stage!

10:05 am-Jordin Sparks Performs: Jordin Sparks is performing “Right Here Right Now”, a hit from her most recent album which is also called “Right Here Right Now” as she stands on a beautiful colorful float while children and adults wearing colorful clothing dance on the float to her tune.

9:52 am- The Rockettes perform “We wish you a ‘Rockettes’ Christmas”: Rockettes are performing beautifully on the stage through dancing inspired by their famous kicks!

9:47 am- Preview of NBC’s the Wiz Live!: The cast is singing “brand new day” while performing on the Macy’s Day Platform! The wiz is a production of the Wizard of Oz but with a twist of African American Culture, it is one of the best movies I have seen. In the actual film, Michael Jackson plays the tin-man so I wonder how this will turn out. It premiers next week!

Video Interview

Greetings,

For this DIY post, I actually went in another route and decided to shed a little light on the art industry with one artist in particular. The artist that I chose to take a look at goes by the name of Doretha Murray. She is a recent college graduate of Alfred University in New York, and was recently given the opportunity to display some of her artwork at a well-known gallery in Pittsburgh, PA.

Check out her story below:

Interview: Bakery Stand Owner

Hey guys! ❤

This week, I decided to show appreciation for a small business owner who truly does it all herself. Mildred Williams owns her own bakery stand in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood area where she makes all of her desserts completely from scratch and sells them to her customers with the help of a few family members, and sometimes, all on her own.

She has maintained her bakery stand for about a year now. I interviewed Mildred along with Vanessa Murray, an employee who has stood by Mildred’s side from the very beginning when her business began. After conducting the interview, I gained a better perspective on what the management of a start-up business is like and all that it entails. I hope you guys enjoy the interview!

Check it out below:

Time Toast: Influential Artists

Hey guys!

I know it’s been a while but for this post I decided to make a timeline of some real DIY veterans. Not only do I consider art a DIY but I also consider it to be a wonderful profession. Artists have worked hard over the centuries to bring us beautiful sculptures, paintings and much more. That being said, I wanted to dedicate this post to some very influential artists in our history. I used an awesome website called Time Toast to make a timeline of these artists. Check it out!

DIY Survey Results!

Hello all, after tabulating the results from my previously posted survey about DIYs, I wanted to share with you what I found! Now, I am a Marketing/PR major so survey distribution is right in my field, and in other words, I really enjoyed viewing all of your results. These surveys were provided for me by an awesome website called “Survey Monkey”. Check it out here.

I found a particular interest in the results that I am going to talk about in this post. Some results were pretty surprising while others, not so much. So, without further ado, here are your results…

One of the questions in my survey asked what gender the survey takers were. To me, these results were not very shocking. As you can see, the majority of people who took my survey were females, which is the area depicted in red, as the blue area represents the males who took my survey which are nowhere near the amount of females. A part of me assumed that the majority of people who took this would be females even though I did read an article that explained how the gender division amongst those who do DIY projects is evening out in the recent day and age and is now split about fifty-fifty. The reason I am bringing this up is that my survey results in a way contradict this recent observation. If the majority of people who clicked on a DIY survey are still mostly females, than this observation presumes that the majority of people who like DIYs are women. Now, there can be other factors that play into why the results turned out this way and it may not be because of women being more interested in DIYs, that is why I this survey result caught my eye.

With this survey result, I found that the majority of people who took my survey felt that they do DIY projects even when they don’t really have the time to do them, and also, they do them when they don’t want to spend money on the real thing. I actually can relate entirely with both of these results, and also, it shows me that DIYs are useful in a sense that they can save you a lot of money, and people like that. It also shows that not only are they useful but they are also well worth your time whether that’s because they are that enjoyable, or, because as earlier stated, they are useful. Above all, one of my favorite observations was the fact that people do DIYs even when they don’t necessarily have the time to do them. The result shows a deep appreciation amongst people those do DIYs.

I loved tabulating all the answers you guys gave me for this question. It speaks for itself. The majority of people who do DIYs do them simply because they are FUN! Being a DIY warrior myself, I was curious to see how people actually felt about DIYs and how many people actually do them just for the fun of it, and I am pleased to know that most people do them for that reason. Lastly, I noticed that everyone who took this survey completely disagreed with the statement that they don’t do DIY projects. I kind of expected this to be the case amongst most of the survey takers.

As you can see in these three depictions, the majority of people who took this survey enjoy making DIY foods/desserts as opposed to crafting and pop-up cards. I thought this was interesting because I thought before tabulating the results that crafting would possibly be the most popular answer, but instead, it was the second most popular choice, with 30% just under the 60% of people who like DIY foods/desserts.

The last result that I wanted to share with you guys is the fact that when asked during this survey, when people started doing DIY projects, most people answered that they began when they were either a child or a teenager. I didn’t expect this answer to be as prominent as it was, but I still find it to be sensible. I also found that the other two answers were both evenly split, with some saying that they started DIYs after they discovered Pinterest, and the other people stating that they just recently started doing DIY projects in the past few years.

Overall, I still am interested in knowing more about the fact that more women took this survey. Why was this the case? Does it disprove the observation that the genders are evening out in the world of DIYs? I would love to find out more about this survey result along with finding out exactly why so many people do DIYs just for fun, and what possesses them to do them even when they don’t have time. I think that says a lot about people in our society. I am glad that I did this survey and I appreciate all of you who took time out of your day to give me some information to tabulate for this survey.

Tune in for my next post! ❤

Post of Appreciation

Hey guys,

I recently received the opportunity to meet an awesome person named Danielle Smerecky. I know, my blog is about DIY projects. One might ask, what does photography have to do with DIY projects? Well, EVERYTHING! If it weren’t for photography, how would our awesome projects be seen? How would we be able to share the special moments we have making these projects? Photography is important, and so are the people who take the photographs. Therefore I will dedicate this post to photographers, because it isn’t always easy to capture an image the right way. So I wanted to share Danielle’s background with you guys and hopefully you will check out her website after reading a little about her!

Image of Danielle Smerecky

Danielle Smerecky is from McKeesport, Pennsylvania and attended Point Park University. Her company, called DAS photography, is based in Allegheny County where she currently lives. She is 22 years old and does her own freelance photography for weddings/engagements, senior photos, as well as family portraits.

Smerecky’s photography isn’t exactly like everyone else’s. She feels that she is set apart from other photographers, because she photographs real people. Her clients are happy, silly and fun. She said that the best part about taking these photographs is the fact that her clients will ALWAYS be able to see the way they felt that day; even 20 years down the road, unlike with traditional/average photography. “I won’t be just “a photographer,” by the end, my clients and I are more like friends. I am not just doing this for the money, I am doing it for my clients so they can cherish their real, happy, memories with each other. And that is what makes me different from everyone else.”

Smerecky chose freelance photography as a profession as a result of something she realized in high school after she was asked to be lead photographer for the senior superlatives. She explained, “After taking all of those and publishing them in the yearbook everyone was so happy with the way that I posed them and made them look. After that, I did one of my best friend’s senior portraits and then decided that I would love to do this as a living. So, now I am a photographer!” This moment for Smerecky was life-changing. It prompted her to take action and create what is now her own business.

Image by Danielle Smerecky

Smerecky’s advice to future photographers is to take a lot of business and marking courses in school. She stated that 90% of a photography business is marketing, editing, book keeping, etc. and only 10% is actually taking the photographs. This was interesting because most people who are not in the photographing business may assume that the majority of the job is just taking the photo itself.

When taking photos, surprisingly, Smerecky stated that the element she puts the most focus on is making the model feel very comfortable. The reason she focuses on this is because she feels that if the client is not comfortable then their photos will turn out feeling stiff, distant and awkward. Smerecky also focuses on the client’s body and making sure they are posed in a way that compliments their body type. This gives her that perfect touch of character and professionalism in each photo she takes. Despite this strong talent that Smerecky portrays, she says that the most challenging part of what she does is marketing and getting her name out there.

Image taken by Danielle Smerecky

There you have it. Smerecky’s work is done with personality, care, and talent. For those of you who are not photographers, you can also relate to this article by acknowledging her inspiration, and the action that she took based on that small but significant experience that she had in her life. So to those of you reading, never give up on what you believe in and you, too, can end up where you want to be.

Check out her website!

Thanks for tuning in guys, look out for my next post!