Anita Cochran

Yep, that’s someone else’s tag line, and I quit caring enough when greeting cards started costing like $5 bucks a piece! So I gave up Christmas Cards this year, I don’t include birthday cards, or actually, any cards on the gifts I give…..but some times you NEED a card. So I decided to personalize a Thank You recently and I did it on Shutterfly. Made my own card, had them address and mail it for me, for $3.67. Now that my friends is priceless. Want to check it out?

5×7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Facebook, twitter, Anitacochran.tv…..seems like every time I turn around I am trying to spew information about myself all over the internet.  Oops, I did it again.  Yep, I’m starting my 90-day Challenge on Body by Vi.  Why you ask….well you can check out the scary pictures over here.  I really don’t feel like typing the same sad story more than once.  XXOO but here’s a sneak peak of my problem.

    Do you see what I see?

I’d like to say I had been looking for a home-based business opportunity for years, but that would be a big fat hairy lie.  I actually became a Vault Denim Fashion Consultant (I love that title) because I needed new jeans, my daughters needed new jeans, and my Miss Me’s are now missing THREE blingies, only one of which I found on my closet room floor. I thought buying designer denim at discount prices made a lot of sense, I just didn’t know where you could do that.  Imagine my surprise  when  a friend of mine, (Thanks Melva) took me into  her bedroom and whispered, “Look at this.”

Okay, if you were thinking anything besides a pair of jeans, shame on you!!  She pulled out a pair of jeans she bought at a Vault Denim party for 60 bucks and I said, dang, they look like the pair I bought for more than $100.  I was hooked.  I looked up the company online and decided I’d go to the party Melva was having and if I bought a pair, I might even THINK about selling them.  After all, I have a little time on my hands and two teen or almost teenage daughters who will be requiring me to BUY jeans for them for a long long time.

I signed up two days after I got those jeans home, and have since bought myself four more pairs.  I’m HOOKED.  Typically Vault Denim is sold at home parties, like Tupperware, or Silpada or Cookie Lee.  Pretty soon, I’m going to quit buying and start selling them.  Actually I have started selling them, but my first “party” isn’t until November 3rd.

Today I ran a little test “Sale”…. I snagged part of the inventory and drove around with denim in the trunk of my car.  Yes, I felt like a drug dealer, but watching women try on jeans has to be the funniest job on earth.  Not one woman, size three to size 20 felt good about herself.   Each pointed to her problem area.      I decided right then if I was going to go from “News Lady” to “Jeans Lady” I’d better take an oath of office for this Fashion Consultant position.  I, Anita Cochran, hereby promise not to divulge your “Problem Area” to anyone else and will not acknowledge it except to say, “ARE YOU CRAZY!?”….because ladies until you pointed it out (and typically even after you did) I…..the Jeans Lady, didn’t even notice!!    So come on pretty ladies, if you want to save some money, who can you trust with your tush?   The same one you used to trust for your news (okay, unless you watched the other channels) because until further notice, the News Lady, is now the Jeans Lady. www.vaultdenim/anitacochran

So what if the song goes, “I just CALLED to say I love you.”   I just had to write this.  Sometimes I LOVE something so much I want to tell someone.  That’s where I’m at with just weird stuff that doesn’t really go together at all.  So I’m writing about it, so they all have something in common.  ME!  Enjoy.  If you have something better, feel free to comment, the more we learn from each other the smarter we all will be. XXOO Anita

Best little Cookies EVER.  (Target) Goes to show, those taster people work.  Yep, the sample got us.  Hate that I’m that easy, but hey, I’m that easy.

On to the latest hair

products I can’t get enough of.  I ran out of Morroccan Oil and the lady who helped me at the beauty supply store PROMISED I’d like Alterna’s Kendi Oil.  Lord was she right.  If you ever see me with hair that looks like it’s really wet or really greasy, it’s cause I’ve smeared this all over it, just cause I LOVE the smell.  It’s great.

So is, Pureology’s Antisplit Blowdry.  It’s made for colored hair.  I could tell you I’m a natural blonde, I am…but anyone over the age of four gets help from the color fairy….so this stuff helps keep my processed hair from looking OVER processed.  It’s one of those leave in deals, and again, if smell sells…..this alone would have it flying off shelves.  The cool thing use them together and my hair is so darn shiny I’d swear it was healthy!!

Now this next little duo, makes me look like the SuperMom I am.  I finally have a laundry duo I LOVE.

  Actually there’s two parts to this laundry love affair.  I stacked my washer and dryer…..and it makes that small room, PERFECT sized.  I also managed to put a piece of furniture I had stored in the garage back into service.

The other duo is the only laundry soap I’ll use.  Yep, that’s Gain POWDER.  I used to think one of my friends who used powder was nuts, I mean what a MESS.  Turns out, the darn stuff is cheaper and seems to last longer, and dare I mention, it smells BETTER than the liquid kind.  Don’t ask why, it just does.

The other part of that duo, the Downy Unstopables, is a scent booster. (Can you say just another marketing tool to separate you from your money?) It again smells good enough to eat and it works.  I love it, but  I hate to say this it’s a splurge in this household, it’s expensive and not a necessity.  However, I’m thinking I like it enough to include it on my Christmas Wish list so if Santa doesn’t bring any, I may move into the must have column come the New Year.

So looking at the Want Ads the other day…….I know, between that and  reading the obituaries I have totally dated myself!!   Anyway, I found this prayer that I had never seen.  So I’ve been saying it, and then at the end it said PUBLISH it.  I think in this day and age, my BLOG counts.  So Good Luck to you, I’ll let you know if it works, and if it doesn’t at least it gives one hope.  It did me.

Prayer of the Blessed Virgin.

Oh, most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity, oh, Star of the Sea, help me and show me here you are my mother.  Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to hear me in my necessity.  ”Make Request”.  There are none that can withstand your power.  Oh, Mary, conceived without sin, prayer for us who have recourse to thee, “Request 3 times”.  Say this prayer three consecutive days.  Publish and it will be granted.  Never known to fail.  Thank You, C.A.  (I think we should change that to Thank You.  A.C., since it’s now my prayer

Had Chipotle for lunch and some website said I could add my nutrition label to my website …..thought I’d test her out.  I mean really doesn’t the world need to know what I like in my burrito bowl?

–>

Now that’s Cool

I’m getting ready to speak in New York City about what else, TWITTER, and Facebook and social media.   It’s Jeff Pulver‘s latest venture, and if you turned up or tuned into  the #140 Conf/Small Town in Hutchinson last fall you know how much fun it will be.   It’s all about how the real time web has changed our lives (in small towns in Kansas and ACROSS the GLOBE).   The funny thing is, the reason I’m speaking has left me almost speechless again.

In Kansas, my name was associated with local news for 20 years.  Two years ago, I left the anchor desk and relied on my family, friends and yes, my social media presence to remake my life.  Now, as a somewhat social media “insider” I’m finding that what I experienced in real life as a local “TV Celebrity” is exactly what you need to be aware of here on the web!!  ”What, I’M a BRAND?”

This #140 Conference New York City is all about Branding.  For 20 years I was branded as the face of the TV Station I worked for.  I was paid, to be their face.  It came at a cost, a local  News Anchor represents her station first, her self LAST.   Needless to say, when I no longer had to worry about how someone else wanted my hair to look, or what I could or couldn’t say, I felt FREE.  That freedom was first realized here on the internet.  I wrote about whatever I wanted, I posted pictures that station management might have cringed at, (have you seen my facebook??), and I became a person instead of a company figure-head.  I thought.

Today as I was about to blog about a not so perfect experience with a cruise line staffer, I thought, “Really, is that what I want people who first come to my blog to know about me? That I’m a whiner?”   It turns out that even though I became more real as a person here on the internet,  Anita Cochran became a BRAND in the process.  If you blog, facebook, twitter or even post reviews on the internet YOU are a Brand too.   “What, I’m a Brand?” takes me to New York next week where I’ll share what I’ve learned spending 20 years as someone else’s brand, and spending the last few as my own.  Some is exactly the same, some is NOT.

You can watch the speech live right here……I’m on at 10:50 on June 16th.  Also, check out the other speakers, WOW, how did I make it on that list??  I think it’s either Good Branding….or Unintentional Branding, watch and you can decide for yourself which it really is.

I meant, run your fingers through my hair, and feel my feathers while you’re there!  Yep, I know I’m not 14 but I thought I’d be trendy and add the hottest hair accessory to my golden locks.  FEATHERS.  (Makes me want to make clucking sounds, but I’ve found I’m better at pig noises than bird sounds.)

I noticed some twittering about where to get them in Wichita, and while they are readily available here in town, apparently that still isn’t the norm across the country. Today at Salon Knotty, owner Pam Cutler, attached a little color to my normally butter colored locks and told me Wichita is finally on the cutting edge of hair fashion with all these little extensions.

Salon Knotty has a GREAT selection of unusual feathers and you can put them in any combination of your choosing.  (The cost runs 8 bucks a feather, or five for 37……I have three in mine!)

I was instantly drawn to the lime green one, but I think that one has an age limit, so we chose the blue/purple one to accent my eyes.  Trust me, it gets you noticed, my 10 year old almost flipped because the feather she got a while back fell out two days later.       ( Note from Pam, if that happens the salon will be happy to put it back in – at least Salon Knotty would be).

One advantage to selecting Salon Knotty, those girls know their extensions.  For six years, they’ve been putting long locks on short and thin haired heads all over Wichita.  The feathers use the exact same locking system they use to hook on plain ole hair so they know what they are doing.

What I learned today.  You can wash, curl, straighten these little feathers just like real hair, so the options are endless even if you are stuck with the color for awhile.  I’m thinking Pam picked the right shade for me, of course, I’m so matchy-matchy, I’m probably going to be wearing a lot of blue/purple in the days ahead……go ahead run your fingers through my hair, and admire my feather while you’re there!!

I’m working on a new little project with my friends at Salon Knotty.  First step getting to know the staff……Here they are, as I get to know them, I’ll share details (cause I’ve got a big mouth like that!)  Aren’t they pretty?

When I wonder, “How do I get myself into these things?” the answer almost always comes back to,  ”Well, I just said, YES!” So when you see Cochran & Rogers hosting an estate sale this weekend in East Wichita, look no further than the dorky blonde sitting at the register, when you wonder how we got there!!  A friend said do you guys do that kind of thing, and I, the dorky blonde  who will be at the register said, “YES! Yes we do.”

Actually, my business partner Sally (The Rogers of Cochran & Rogers) and I have thrown lots of garage sales over the years, including one I wrote about here on www.anitacochran.tv so we do have some experience, it’s just that I forgot how much work they are to put on.   Since we’re going to all this trouble anyway, you might as well stop by and say Hi!  W ho knows maybe you’ll find a bargain, and come on we all love to snoop through other people’s stuff!!

The sale is listed on Wichita Craigslist.  It’s this weekend (yes, we know it’s Easter- April 21,22,23) Some of the other pictures of cool stuff I couldn’t fit on there are right here….. If you see anything you have to have, let me know, I’ll put your name on it.

It’s funny, Cochran & Rogers (which specializes in home decor with custom bedding/curtains) uses the mantra, “Putting Your Home Together.”  In this case, we’re also up for “Taking Your Home Apart !!”