Cat’s Out Of The Bag: Vemayza Cosmetic Bag with Removable Soft Pearl Liner

Today Veronica Mayo of Vemayca posted a great article about using baskets to organize – be sure to read her post! AND she’s offering one Vemayca Cosmetic Bag as a giveaway!

It’s teddy-bear soft, luxurious, and pretty. And …it has a removable liner! It’s the cosmetic bag you’ve been waiting for. Veronica Mayo was determined that functional doesn’t have to mean ugly, so she designed a chic, sumptuous cosmetic bag that’s super easy to keep clean. The next time the inside of your cosmetic bag gets caked with grime, dirt, and makeup, change the recyclable Soft Pearl Liner and you are good to go.

What Can Go Inside

The possibilities are endless! The Vemayca cosmetic bag was designed to be used with or without the Soft Pearl Liner. Side pockets allow you to carry cell phones, eye glasses, and small cameras. And it’s not just for your makeup, you can use Vemayca bags to organize and carry electronic attachments, business supplies or jewelry. A must for travelers and every lady-on-the-go, the Vemayca is the last cosmetic bag you’ll ever need.

Enter to Win!

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents over 18. Here’s what you need to do to enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this blog (be sure to include your email when you submit the comment, so we know how to reach you).

• Extra Entry – mention this giveaway in a post or tweet with a link back and leave a comment letting us know you’ve done so.

• Extra Entry – sign up for Buttoned Up’s e-newsletter.

• Please post a separate comment for each extra entry so we know it’s been done!

• Entry period closes at midnight PST, Sunday, July11th, and the winner will be announced Monday, July 12th.

**Note winner will be picked at random using Random.org and announced in the newsletter on Monday, July 12th. Winners will be contacted by email. Winners will have seven (7) days to contact us and claim the prize before another winner is selected.

Organizing Your Cyber Life

Remember when we were promised that the digital world was going to turn our worlds upside down, making them so much more efficient and easy? Well, sometimes it can feel like we were all sold a bill of goods. From Blackberries that buzz at all times of the day to in-boxes crammed with messages we don’t even care to read (“Prescriptions from Canada!” “Find Singles in your Area!”), it can be enough to send us running and screaming back to the simple pen and paper. But don’t head for the hills just yet. Chances are that your computer use has made a huge impact on your life in many good ways too. You probably even had one of those “what did we all do before the Internet?” moments this week alone or maybe you’ve reconnected with someone from ten years ago thanks to the likes of Facebook. Rather than allowing frustration to build because of inefficiencies, you can employ a few, simple techniques for containing the cyber clutter.

Sarah on “Backing that thing up!”

“We’ve all heard those nightmare stories where a friend of a friend loses everything because of a hard drive failure (or an unfortunate coffee spill). Perhaps it has even happened to you. Backing up your hard drive has never been easier or less expensive. You can either buy an external hard drive (we like the LaCie Rugged 500 Gigabyte model that retails for $139 on NewEgg.com), or rent backup space virtually via companies like Dropbox.com, Mozy, and iDrive. I personally use Dropbox. Any file I create I save to a Dropbox folder on my computer. While I work away, all the document is being saved to a virtual server. The best part? I can access all the files on my computer from any machine, anywhere. One word of caution, be careful how you backup your email and contacts. I use the MobileMe service from Mac so that I could sync my desktop calendar with all of my other mobile devices easily. Unfortunately for me, the first time I synced it, I inadvertently pressed the wrong button and my entire directory of contacts and worse, my very detailed schedule went poof in a matter of minutes. Whenever you are syncing, be sure you select “merge information” rather than replace. Not only that, be sure you back up your email, contacts and calendars regularly. I had not, and it ended up taking me many hours to recreate that information from scratch. Now I back up that to my Dropbox folder as well.”

Alicia on “making it simple”

“According to the National Association of Professional Organizers, the average person wastes up to an hour each day trying to find something they know they have but can’t put their finger on, so you can only imagine how that extends to our digital world. In order to avoid wasting precious time, I try to make things as simple and straightforward as possible. I make liberal use of folders and save every file with the same naming convention Date_(Name)_version#, so I can easily find the latest version of the document I’m looking for. Nobody is looking at your files except for you, so make it something you’ll remember without having to open and close ten different documents to find the right one.”

Here are three other ways to help control the cyber clutter:

1. What’s in a name?

In this case, it’s the key to the contents. Nobody is judging your file names for the next Pulitzer prize, so make it something you’ll know and understand. Try employing a system that you use across all platforms, so your Excel files and Word documents are all saved as “date created, file name.” It doesn’t matter what your system is as long as you do it consistently.

2. Regular Clean-up Sessions.

Just like you schedule your time to clean the gutters or plant the bulbs, you need to set aside time to regularly clean out your files. Whether it’s five minutes on Friday afternoons or once a month, make sure you take the time to keep only the files you need and discard the rest. You’ll be surprised how much stuff you have saved on your computer — do you really need to save a copy of that kitten video from YouTube?

3. Save, Save, Save.

We don’t mean your pennies (though that’s good too). When you schedule your regular clean-up sessions, remember to back up what you do want to keep. It doesn’t matter whether you use a portable disk drive or use a web-based back-up system, but keeping yourself on a regular schedule will ensure that Murphy’s Law never comes your way.

Overwhelmed by paper?

From mail to the endless barrage of school communiques, requests for donations, receipts, and work related files, it’s easy to get buried in paper. In tonight’s bootcamp, Sarah walks busy people through some effective strategies for staying on top of the paper piles. Tune in and learn what rules and routines you can put in place today to keep the piles at bay.

Share your best shortcuts for dealing with paper clutter! Leave a comment with your top tactics.

Organizing a Job Hunt with Social Media Tools, Part Three: LinkedIn

By Alicia Wells, a public relations professional

This is the final installment of a three-part series on organizing a job hunt with social media tools. It can be said that looking for a job is a full-time job in itself. Searching the job boards, sending out resumes and networking can take up a lot of time and quickly overcome the job hunter. Social media tools are a great way to supplement a job search and grow one’s network, but even just maintaining these resources can become a burden. Instead of letting them get the best of you, this series will provide tips for organizing a job hunt with social media tools.

Most people are familiar with LinkedIn as a tool to grow their professional network and search its job board. But this is another tool that can either be completely ineffective or quickly get overwhelming if not used the right way. The following are a few tips for organizing your activities on this social network and making the most of it as a job search tool.

The first, and possibly most important step, is to make sure your profile reads like a resume and is clean, organized and free of typos. This will be the first impression people get of you, and you want it to be a good one. Fill in as many details as you can about your experience and expertise and make sure to proofread everything you write. LinkedIn will automatically organize your experience chronologically, making it easy for potential employers to get a sense of your background. You can also link to your own professional blog or website for those who would like to learn more about you.

A relatively new feature, LinkedIn now allows you to follow specific company profiles and keep track of developments such as company growth or job opportunities. This is an excellent way to organize a directory of companies that you’re interested in working for and stay on top of what’s going on within them. There are millions of company profiles on LinkedIn, but even just choosing ten key targets to follow will help you streamline and get a leg up in your job search.

You can also join industry relevant and alumni groups to start forming new connections. You can choose to receive updates via email from these groups as they happen, daily or weekly, depending on how frequently you’d like them. Groups are a great way to stay on top of trends and opinions within your industry, and also join conversations with professionals that you may not already have a connection to.

Whether you’ve already developed a network on LinkedIn or are just getting started, these few tips should help you to keep your activities on the site organized and effective.

Alicia Wells is a public relations professional and helps hire soon-to-be and recent graduates for a mid-sized PR agency. She writes a blog about entry-level PR and job hunting, and can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Organizing a Job Hunt with Social Media Tools, Part Two: Twitter

By Alicia Wells, a public relations professional

This is part two of a three-part series on organizing a job hunt with social media tools. It can be said that looking for a job is a full-time job in itself. Searching the job boards, sending out resumes and networking can take up a lot of time and quickly overcome the job hunter. Social media tools are a great way to supplement a job search and grow one’s network, but even just maintaining these resources can become a burden. Instead of letting them get the best of you, this series will provide tips for organizing a job hunt with social media tools.

Twitter is another great tool to grow your personal network during a job hunt, but can quickly get out of control and become ineffective if used the wrong way (i.e. just to follow celebrities and friends). To keep your activity on this network organized and effective, here are a few tips:

Find people to follow by looking at the “lists” of a few relevant Tweeters. Lists allow you to organize those that you follow into categories- for example friends, co-workers, and other individuals in your industry. If you find one person in your industry you’d like to follow, chances are their profile will have a list of other people they follow within that industry. You can also find people to follow through WeFollow.com- a free service that allows individuals to register in a categorized directory. Examples of categories on this site include technology, advertising, education and others.

Hiring managers, recruiters and HR professionals are on Twitter. They not only discuss the industries they work in and share job hunting tips, but oftentimes they will post job openings at their companies and others that they know are hiring. Do a Twitter Search for #HR, #Recruiting or #Jobs and you’ll see what I mean. This is a good list of Twitter accounts that share job openings, but I also recommend finding and connecting with hiring managers on your own organically (meaning, spending some time on Twitter and seeing who’s talking to whom about what).

As you start to follow people, separate them into categorized lists that will help you stay on top of who is who, for example: industry influentials, hiring managers/HR, job hunting experts, and current or former colleagues.

Start reading and sharing relevant news and opinions, and joining in on the conversations taking place on Twitter. While Twitter is not guaranteed to find you a job, it’s a great relationship building tool. If you interview with someone you’ve conversed with on Twitter, chances are you’ll stick out in their minds when it comes time to make a hiring decision.

Alicia Wells is a public relations professional and helps hire soon-to-be and recent graduates for a mid-sized PR agency. She writes a blog about entry-level PR and job hunting, and can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Organizing a Job Hunt with Social Media Tools, Part One: Netvibes.com

By Alicia Wells, a public relations professional

This is part one of a three-part series on organizing a job hunt with social media tools. It can be said that looking for a job is a full-time job in itself. Searching the job boards, sending out resumes and networking can take up a lot of time and quickly overcome the job hunter. Social media tools are a great way to supplement a job search and grow one’s network, but even just maintaining these resources can become a burden. Instead of letting them get the best of you, this series will provide tips for organizing a job hunt with social media tools.

NetVibes

Between searching a handful of job boards, reading up on industry relevant news and blogs, and logging into your various social networks, online job hunting can become cumbersome and overwhelming. Using an aggregator or “personal startpage” will help you to organize all of these tools into one easy-to-access spot. Netvibes.com is an example of one such online aggregator that allows you to set up a free, personalized account. By logging into your Netvibes dashboard, you can access your bookmarks, Twitter, Facebook, email and RSS feeds of job boards, blogs and news outlets you follow. It also allows you to create separate tabs and assign your own categories, such as personal, professional, etc.

To make the most of this tool, set up bookmarks of the job boards that you regularly search so that you have quick access to them upon logging in. If any of the job boards you use offer RSS feeds, save the feeds to your page and Netvibes will automatically update them when there are new listings. Instead of having to individually search each website, you will be able to see all of the new openings in one place.

Another key way to utilize Netvibes is to set up RSS feeds for professional blogs and publications within your industry to stay on top of trends and opinions of other industry professionals. This will help you to become familiar with influential professionals and start interacting with them in an easy, comfortable way. By sharing your thoughts and opinions in the comments of blogs and publications you follow, you will start to get your name out in a positive light (as long as your comments are well thought-out and inoffensive).

Staying up on the news and trends of your industry will also make you more knowledgeable in and prepared for job interviews. If you know what’s going on and can share your opinions and ask intelligent questions, you will form a positive impression of the interviewer.

Social media can quickly become overwhelming, but using this simple dashboard to gather everything in one place for quick access should allow you to keep your cool and organize these tools for a better job search.

Alicia Wells is a public relations professional and helps hire soon-to-be and recent graduates for a mid-sized PR agency. She writes a blog about entry-level PR and job hunting, and can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.