The Aftermath of the Bead Soup Blog Party Sign-ups

There once was a girl who liked to bead.  And she was happy.

Then she found the Internet and discovered an entire new world called "blogs".

"I must have one of these "blogs" for my own," she mused.

And she made it so.

Then the girl decided there had to be a way to meet new people on the Internet, and after some thought, she decided to have a blog hop.

"This should be simple," she thought as she sipped her Starbucks Mocha.  "Not that many people have heard of me.  I'll get a few people, I'll pair them up, we'll swap beads, it'll be fun!"

And she made it so.

The blog party ended up being a little larger than she thought, but it was fun, so she decided to do it again in the summer. 

"It can't be that much bigger, or that much harder," she thought, sipping her Starbucks Mocha with an extra shot of espresso.

And this wasn't quite the case, but it was still fun, and she planned to do it again next year.

January 2011 arrived and the girl opened up sign-ups for the Blog Party.  She thought she might get 100 people this time.  

The first day she nearly got 100.  "Well, that's cool.  Surely it will taper down in a couple of days," she said over her Red Bull.

For the next two days, the girl never left her computer.  Just as she entered a name on the blog, hyperlinked it to the participant's blog, entered their name into the spreadsheet, entered their email into a distribution list, and sent them a "Welcome, you're in!" email, ten other emails would make that annoying freaking Microsoft ping.

The girl turned the volume off her laptop, took time out for an Etsy shopping break, broke out the chocolate, and shook uncontrollably for a few minutes.

On Wednesday, the girl sent a mass email to all the current participants.

They all bounced.  "You're a spammer," her ISP said.

The girl started over with MailChimp, having to enter each and every one of the emails into the program (once again!) by hand.  A few bad words were slung around the room.  The laptop got slammed shut once.

The girl started eying the Scotch.

On Thursday, all emails were fixed, so the girl started working on the spreadsheet.  She noticed a problem -- there were three more people on the spreadsheet than were listed on her blog.

"*&$%^" she said under her breath, then looked around.  Everyone else was in bed, so she said it a little louder and felt a tiny bit better.  Not much.  But a little. 

The girl started comparing the names on the blog (NOT in alphabetical order) with the names on the spreadsheet (which WERE in alphabetical order).  Three tidy cut-and-pastes removed the mistakes..... but also totally hosed the spreadsheet after she sorted a column without accounting for all the OTHER columns.  The girl had to start all over again, visiting all the blogs once again to match the name with the blog.

The girl poured herself a double Scotch.

 

On Friday at noon, 210 people had signed up for the blog party.  The girl nearly cried with amazement and happiness.  All the hard work thus far was worth it.  Now comes the pairing of the partners, which normally -- usually -- is fairly easy.  

Then the girl's husband said, "Girl, you haven't opened your mail for a week.  Come, look at this."

My hallway -- boxes of jewelry boxes waiting to have stickers put on them

Packages of beads waiting on my bead cabinet.

But the girl just shrugged and said, "I was at a party."

However, after a Mocha with an extra shot, a Red Bull, a heck-ton of chocolate, and a healthy dose of single-malt Scotch, the girl is now eying an entire coconut pie.

Just in case.

(But seriously, folks.  You honor and humble me in your willingness to come to my party.  It's going to ROCK.  Stick around, mark me in your bookmarks, or friend me, or put me in your Google reader, because over the next month there are going to be give-aways, tips, tricks, and lots of great stuff!)

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrtoe the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She's also a contributor to Art Bead Scene.