Sueze/Sandra’s Neighborhood

Not much to say today.  I've been spending many hours out in the studio, but for all the time, it seems like I'm not coming up with much I like.  I know, I know, we are our own worst critics...

Any way, some pics of some May beads....

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Tonight, starting at 6:00 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (that's 1:00 A.M. UTC/GMT), we'll be taking Vox offline for a bit in order to move the service to a brand new home in some bright, shiny new server racks. We don't expect to be offline for more than an hour or two, but we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to invest in Vox's infrastructure!

Update: we've postponed tonight's maintenance, and will let you know when we reschedule.  Thanks for your patience!

Last week, we announced the winners of the HP "What Do You Have to Say? Theme Design Contest and promised you we'd make the winning themes available on Vox in the coming weeks. After a little more thought, we decided you shouldn't have to wait a second longer to use these creative and inspiring designs on your blogs, so we made them available for you today. Who says good things only come to those who wait?

Winning Themes

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It's so nice to see that spring is really here.  The grass is beginning to get green and the flowers are starting to pop up.  I've been organizing the studio and I'm not sure that I will ever get it done.  But it works...I have a section for the torch and a space for the fusing. 

I've started a newsletter...or rather am trying one.  I can't add any more widgets here so if you are interested you'll have to check out my etsy blog   http://derondadesigns.blogspot.com  and click on the feedblitz signup. 

Straight to Video
Now you can share your Flickr videos on your Vox blog!

A few weeks ago, Flickr announced that pro members are now able to share videos of up to 90 seconds in their photostream. Many of you already post photos to your Vox blog directly from your Flickr account, and now we’ve made it so you can do the same with your Flickr videos.

To post a Flickr video to your Vox blog, just follow the same steps you would if you were posting a Flickr photo. (Yes, that means you’ll find your Flickr videos in “Photos,” not “Videos.”)

Not using Flickr to add photos to Vox? Find out how to connect your Flickr account to your Vox account. Plus, using Flickr means you’ll never have to upload a photo twice, or waste valuable storage space!

Around the World with Vox and CupCate
A little over a year ago, we announced that CupCate was one of the Grand Prize winners of the Vox World Tour. A month ago, Cate and her husband, Iain, packed their bags and flew to San Francisco, the first stop of a three-cities-in-fourteen-days vacation.

While they were in SF, Team Vox was lucky enough to have a yummy lunch with Cate and Iain and some of us even made it out for a late night karaoke session at The Mint.

CupCate and Lisa

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We were also happy to hear, however, that she took some time to enjoy a glass of wine, a roaring fire, and the luxury of utter relaxation.

Then it was off to Tokyo where she saw gorgeous cherry blossoms, the Tokyo Tower and the Sensoji Temple, and even got a special tour around Tokyo with Ayako from Six Apart’s Japan office!

Cherry Blossoms

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And it wouldn't be a Vox World Tour without Paris in the spring time, decadent French meals, and, of course, the Eiffel Tower.

CupCate in Paris

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It sounds like an amazing adventure. Congratulations again to CupCate. We had so much fun with you while you were in SF and we can't wait until your next visit!

It was hard to choose from the 355 entries, but the judges have announced the winners of our month-long "What Do You Have to Say?" theme design contest, sponsored by HP. And the winners are....

First Place: "River at Night," by Teresa Jones

First Place

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Second Place: "Live and Learn," by Li Kim Goh

Second Place

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Third Place: "Vectori Drips," by Terri

Third Place

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People's Choice Award: "Shiny," by Noah

People's Choice

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The First Place theme, “River at Night,” was designed by Teresa Jones who told us that nature plays a big part in many of her designs. “I love nature and really love combining nature themes with a touch of whimsy,” Jones said. The inspiration behind her winning design? A childhood memory of sitting on the dock on summer nights.

And while we know it's not polite to brag, you'll forgive us for a moment while we gush about the fact that the 2nd and 3rd prize winners are both Voxers!

The Second Place theme, “Live and Learn” was submitted by Li Kim Goh, or as you may know her: gollykim. We thought it was pretty cool to hear that Li, “didn't really think about winning, but mainly [entered] just for fun [while also] creating a few new banners for [her] own Vox blog.

When asked why blog design was so important to her, Li answered, ““because it draws readers' attention and makes your blog stand out from the millions of other blogs.” With such a great design, we think Li did just that.

The Third Place winner, Terri, showed off her “funky-fresh style” with her theme, “Vector Drips.” Terri said that having her theme picked made her day. You know what Terri? It made our day too!

The best part of the contest? In the coming weeks, we’ll make all the winning themes available on Vox, TypePad and LiveJournal so that you can use them on your blog!

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest and CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners!

40+ designers at up to 80% off!

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Are you going to be in New York City this weekend? If so, you won't want to miss the Billion Dollar Babes Spring Sale! We told you all about our favorite nationwide sample sale a few weeks ago, but we wanted to send out a quick reminder that this Friday, April 25th and Saturday, April 26th, you can save up to 80% on over 40 amazing designers at the NYC Spring Sale. This is a shopping experience you do not want to miss. Trust us.

Plus, the fabulous ladies at Billion Dollar Babes have a very special offer exclusively for Vox shop-a-holics. Visit http://www.bdbinvite.com/ and enter voxvip in the promo code box to receive an early start time and first look at the sale!

Not going to be in NYC? Don't worry... You can still make the L.A. sale (May 30th - 31st) or the S.F. sale (June 6th - June 7th)!

The Creative Glass Guild of Etsy (CGGE) and the etsyBEAD Street Team have joined forces for a creative collaboration challenge. CGGE members will create gorgeous glass cabs, beads, and pendants for etsyBEAD members to turn into beautiful pieces of finished jewelry. These pieces will then be donated to the Helping Others Street Team (HOST) in order to raise money for those fellow Etsyians in need.

Check out the pictures of finished pieces as well the one day poll!   http://creativemindsforcharity.wordpress.com/

More pictures here  http://flickr.com/groups/cmcchallenge/pool/

The pieces are now being sold in the HOST shop on Etsy   http://host.etsy.com/

We've been up to some pretty amazing stuff at Six Apart, and our latest launch is one of the most exciting yet. Yesterday, Six Apart announced we are adding a host of social media services for paying customers, including helping customers monetize their blogs, design and template assistance, and helping VIP bloggers build their audience and visibility.

As anyone who surfs the web knows, blogging has erupted into a mainstream communications technology, and at Six Apart we want to provide our customers with everything they need to ensure their blog is a success. This means offering complete solutions and services that complement the outstanding technology on which we pride ourselves.

You're probably wondering what this means for Voxers. Since Vox is a free, advertising-supported service, the program isn't available on Vox. However, if you've ever thought about starting a blog on which you could potentially make money, now is definitely the time! Find out more about how to sign up for a TypePad account and take part in our advertising program tailor made for bloggers. And since you can cross-post directly from Vox to TypePad, you can keep your Vox blog (and all of your neighbors), and still participate in the program!

Map

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Six Apart is a company full of bloggers who are passionate about making blogging better for everyone, which puts us in a unique, and pretty cool position to actually dig in and do so. Think you'd like to work at a place like this? You're in luck. We're now hiring in New York City and San Francisco.

The things I have been learning about the computer....I am going to try this and see how it looks.  Hmmm, this is sooo much fun.