BlogDay 2007

Posted by: gretchen on August 31, 2007 | 1 Comment |

Today is the third annual BlogDay 2007 which I didn’t even know about until last night when reader KayKayZowie emailed me to say that she was linking to Girls Can’t WHAT? as one of her favorite blogs.

What is BlogDay, you ask?

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.

I can’t pass up this opportunity to give some shout-outs to five of my favorite blogs:

  • SoapboxFive - My best friend Kelli’s blog, which highlights social issues.
  • Lifehacker - This is sort of a hodgepodge block from many authors that offer cool tips and tricks about all kinds of stuff relevant to our daily lives.
  • Kelly Forrester - If you’re into GTD (if you have no idea what GTD even stands for, then you most definitely aren’t), Kelly has lots of insights about personal productivity.
  • OpenSourceCommunity.org - being a total geek, I love this community blog which covers all things open source
  • Bittbox - I just found this one last week and it’s full of fantastic photoshop and illustrator tutorials. I don’t even know the author’s name, but it’s a great resource.

And those are just a few of the places you will find me on the net. What are your top five? Post ‘em here. ;)

Strong Women Supporting Strong Girls

Posted by: strongwomen on August 29, 2007 | 1 Comment |

My name is Lindsay Hyde; I’m the Executive Director of Strong Women, Strong Girls (www.swsg.org), a not-for-profit organization that fosters high aspirations among at-risk girls in grades 3-5 and helps them to develop the skills they need to succeed! I wanted to share a note with this blog community because Strong Women, Strong Girls has taken on a challenge and we could really use your help!

 Hanes and SixDegrees.org have offered up a challenge. They are giving a $10,000 matching grants to the six organizations nationwide that have the highest number of individual donations through their “Charity Badges” program. (To learn more about the Charity Badges program visit www.sixdegrees.org).

 We know we can win the challenge–but we need your help! We are working to rally 500 individuals to contribute $10.00 each to help us win!

I know that the folks who read Girls Can’t WHAT know how important the work of Strong Women, Strong Girls is for girls. I want to ask this group to join us in taking on this challenge and helping us to win $10,000 to support the more than 400 girls who benefit from SWSG programming each year.

To help us win, please visit our Charity Badge at: http://www.networkforgood.org/pca/Badge.aspx?BadgeId=106524 

We only have until September 16th! 

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at lhyde@swsg.org .

Thank you!

Put Your Records On ~ Corrine Bailey Rae

Posted by: gretchen on August 27, 2007 | 37 Comments |

Here’s another gem of a tune from Corrine Bailey Rae for your Monday morning…

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Women’s Equality Day is August 26th

Posted by: gretchen on August 23, 2007 | 1 Comment |

After a 72-year campaign, women in the United States won the right to vote on August 26, 1920.

Mark your calendars. Sunday, August 26th is officially known as “Women’s Equality Day.”  This was declared by George W. Bush in 2006.  Any plans to celebrate?

Book Review: What Happy Women Know

Posted by: gretchen on August 22, 2007 | 1 Comment |

Being as fanatic about books as I am, it is always exciting when someone asks me to review their latest work. It is even more fun when it is a subject that interests me. The latest resident of my book bag has been none other than What Happy Women Know: How New Findings in Positive Psychology Can Change Women’s Lives for the Better by Dan Baker, PhD and Cathy Greenberg, PhD.

My first thought when asked to review another psychology book for women is that this was going to be “just another psychology book for women”. Trust me, I have read a LOT of Psychology books for women and most of them are good. Very few of them have been deemed worthy of my limited shelf space nor worthy of my time to read again. Having said all that, What Happy Women Know was a fresh change of pace from the usual confront-your-past-and-move-on kind of advice. Read more

Remember Your Sisters

Posted by: gretchen on August 22, 2007 | 1 Comment |

I have no idea who the original author might be, but my good friend Cindy sent me this and it’s too good not to share with anyone else…

A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking iced tea and visiting with her Mother. As they talked about life, about marriage, about the responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance upon her daughter.

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Girls Can’t Shoot

Posted by: gretchen on August 21, 2007 | 4 Comments |

I just finished this design as a request and can’t resist the opportunity to show it off… Something about girls with guns is very popular. I sell a LOT of police officer and hunter designs. The Sharpshooter design is now available in the Girls Can’t WHAT? Shop.

Sharpshooter Design

And this post just wouldn’t be complete without a quote from the most famous female sharpshooter of them all:

“Aim at a high mark and you will hit it. No, not the first time, not the second time and maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect. Finally you’ll hit the bull’s-eye of success.” ~ Annie Oakley

friends

Posted by: chica linda on August 21, 2007 | 3 Comments |

I have to awesome friends they are so cool but we all fight over each other so shuold I pick my friend who I can talk to about anything and every thing or should I go with the friend who makes me forget my thoghts and have fun??? I agree with gretchen I do have a bunch of friends but these are my closest girls we have been together foreverand nothing could ever split us up it’s just that one min. we are auditionig for the talent show -then the next we cancel the act!! or say we are at the beach and me and one of my friends want to lay and tan and then my other friend convises me to go swiming she won’t let my other friend come to the pool with us I just wish my step-mom were here to give me here advice on this situation

Nicole Lapin CAN!

Posted by: newsasmylife on August 21, 2007 | 4 Comments |

Nicole Lapin

Who said you can’t be a young, gorgeous and successful woman and still be classy at the same time? Nicole Lapin is 23-years-old. She’s the same age as Paris, Britney and the rest of the bunch. In fact, she looks a lot like Lindsay Lohan…but she doesn’t act like her. Here’s an example of a girl who’s made it as an anchor on CNN without partying, doing drugs and taking off her clothes.

Nicole Lapin is a girl who CAN make a difference. She’s pictured in her series “Young People Who Rock”– where she talks to respectable young men and women about making a difference in the world. Lord knows, seeing the “Girls Gone Wild” depiction of Hollywood– we all need a little bit of that. Nicole Lapin is the girl who CAN bring it to us!!!

The Nerve of Some People

Posted by: gretchen on August 21, 2007 | 8 Comments |

This will be quite the rant by the time I am done, but I am absolutely amazed by the nerve of some people. As you may have read, I posted a few days ago on my experience with getting tickets to see Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana and how the tickets were sold out to scalpers before the public ever had a chance to buy them.

Imagine my surprise when I find a link in my statistics to this site, where they use MY post and QUOTE ME DIRECTLY, acting as if they sympathize with the outrageous prices I have discovered,. Then, IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH, they post a referral link to buy the tickets at a minimum of FIVE TIMES the price as if it is some kind of bargain. The entire blog is nothing but a scalper’s site, setup to make money off of selling tickets to see Hannah Montana at every location possible.

Naturally there is no option to contact anyone or post a comment. The hacker in me is sorely tempted to do something very mean and evil, but I shall refrain. At least for now…

Belated Birthday Contest Begins

Posted by: gretchen on August 20, 2007 | 6 Comments |

I wanted to kick off a new contest last month to help celebrate Girls Can’t WHAT? turning two, but my life has been so crazy that I just didn’t get it squeezed in. I figure “better late than never”, so here is it is… the Belated Birthday Contest. There will be FIVE winners selected for this contest, each receiving a t-shirt of their choice from the GCW shop.

How to Play Read more

Ticket Scalpers Should Be Shot

Posted by: gretchen on August 18, 2007 | 194 Comments |

My daughters have had their heart set on seeing Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana in concert for several weeks now. Being a responsible parent, I made a note on my calendar and set an alarm so that I could get 4 tickets for our family to see the concert in St. Louis, MO on October 18th. Tickets went on sale at 10:00am this morning. I logged into my computer at 9:41am, pulled up the Ticketmaster web site and clicked on the Hannah Montana banner ad taking me straight to the ticket page where I was greeted with a message that tickets were not yet available for this event.

At precisely 10:00am, I refreshed the page and entered my order for 4 tickets. After a 5-minute wait, I was told none were available in that price range. I reset my options to see all available tickets and after about a 2-minute wait I was again told none were available. I tried several more times, even calling ticketmaster numbers in my area only to get a busy signal. I also tried other venues within a reasonable driving distance, but no dice. It was evident that Hannah Montana was sold out everywhere. So I did what any parent would do when their kids are desperate to see Miley Cyrus, I went to ebay.

What an eye-opener. Not only could I get the tickets, but I could pay 10 TIMES the amount for them. Nosebleed seats were going for $250.00 a piece. A spot on the floor in the second row would cost me $1500.00 for ONE ticket. Unbelievable. Needless to say, at those outrageous prices, my kids will not be seeing Miley on this tour and I am ticked! My family didn’t even have a chance to get the tickets at the NORMAL price before scalpers swept in and bought them all in order to line their pockets. Would any of you scalpers care to spare a dollar so I can use it to wipe up my kids’ tears? x(

Not to mention the tears of thousands of other little girls whose parents can’t afford to pay those prices either. Ticket scalpers should be shot!

Joke of the Day

Posted by: gretchen on August 16, 2007 | 1 Comment |

My friend and bandmate, Lindsay, gave me a really funny daily calendar as a bridesmaid’s gift this summer when she got married.  Thought I’d share today’s entry:

A guy was telling his friend that he and his wife had a serious argument the night before.

“But it ended,” he said, “when she came crawling to me on her hands and knees.”

“What did she say?” asked the friend.

The husband replied, “She said, ‘Come out from under that bed, you coward!’”

A Girls Can’t WHAT? Supermodel

Posted by: gretchen on August 16, 2007 | 1 Comment |

Back in May of this year, I featured a photo of “Little Cat” wearing a Girls Can’t WHAT? Astronaut T-shirt. It looked as if Little Cat was gazing into the stars and the photo was SO cute. This morning, Little Cat’s mom emailed me to say that the picture just won first place in a photo contest on Votigo! Congratulations on winning. That is a wonderful snapshot and well worth posting here again. :)

Astronaut

The Unglamorous Lori McKenna

Posted by: gretchen on August 15, 2007 | 3 Comments |

I just happened to catch an interview with Lori McKenna on ABC News Nightline. What an amazing story she had to tell! She is a mother of five from Stoughton, Massachussetts who was discovered by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Lori has written several hit songs for Faith Hill and has just released her first album called “Unglamorous.” Her songs are mostly about family life and women’s struggles such as marriage and growing older. A couple of Lori’s biggest hits to date are “Fireflies” and “Stealing Kisses” which were recorded by Faith Hill in 2005.

I have been a big fan of her music since her debut on Oprah well over a year ago. The interview was fantastic, portraying Lori as a down-to-earth mom who still lives in her home town with her high school sweetheart and drives a mini-van. In fact, she says she LOVES her mini-van. (Hmm, not so sure about that, Lori, but I guess with that many kids you need one.) ;)

Here is another great interview of Lori McKenna (with some tidbits of “Unglamorous” mixed in): Read more

Roz Savage

Posted by: kel1 on August 15, 2007 | 2 Comments |

I just read an article about Roz Savage, a woman who has already rowed her boat across the Atlantic, and now plans to row across the Pacific Ocean. Alone. WOW! Check out her blog: http://rozsavage.com/

She’s Not Just A Pretty Face Video

Posted by: gretchen on August 15, 2007 | 5 Comments |

Although I posted the lyrics to Shania Twain’s “She’s not just a pretty face” last year, reader Janice sent me a link to really nice youtube clip of the song and said “It’s a perfect Girls Can’t What? theme song!”

Love it. Thanks Janice! :x

Girls Can’t WHAT? Turns 2

Posted by: gretchen on August 14, 2007 | 6 Comments |

It was two years ago this week that I came up with the concept for Girls Can’t WHAT? in the middle of the night. I decided to treat myself to an early anniversary gift, so I redesigned the site from scratch, combining several ideas I have been wanting to implement for a long time. The design is now up, but there are a few glitches I am still hammering out. For starters, the forums are down. :( There is a conflict in the code and I will have to hack a few plugins to make it work, but I’ll get to that soon. I have tested in every browser I have access to, but I’m sure there will be an occasional anomaly, so please let me know.

I will post more later, but right now it is 2:17am and I am toast… @-)

Like A Surgeon

Posted by: gretchen on August 9, 2007 | 2 Comments |

Surgeon DesignSorry about the title, but the first thing I thought about when posting this design was Weird Al’s parody “Like A Surgeon”. Yes - I grew up in the 80’s. ;)

Anyway - I have just completed the surgeon design for the Girls Can’t WHAT? Shop. This design was not actually on my (really long) list of characters to create, but as I was starting to morph one character into another, I applied the green color to her shirt and jeans and -well- it just looked like scrubs. So I decided to create a surgeon. Why not? Girls can be surgeons, too!

This design is now available in the Girls Can’t WHAT? Shop!

Surgeon Design

Blog Challenge: Classic TV Featuring Women

Posted by: gretchen on August 8, 2007 | 5 Comments |

Having just subscribed to cable for the first time ever in our lives (no - I’m not kidding), I thought it might be a good time to introduce my kids to some classic television. You know - back when tv was a little more wholesome and innocent? I recall discovering some of my first strong female role-models from some of these shows, many of which had female leads who showed independence and grace. Off the top of my head, my favorites were probably “Laverne & Shirley”, “Facts of Life” and “Designing Women”. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good shows for kids on right now, but I can only take so much of “Hannah Montana” and “That’s So Raven” before I shuffle the kids outdoors to play. (Fortunately my kids are not showing signs of becoming couch potatoes since we had cable installed.)

So I’m hoping some of you cable veterans can help me out by letting me know what cable shows are good influences for women and which ones deserve to be eliminated from my remote. I’m looking more for classic tv, but I won’t impose any limitations. Is there an episode that inspired you or helped you learn a lesson? Did you identify with a particular character or situation?

I have a couple of articles in the works about my favorite shows, but I’m short on time today so I’ll post them soon. Feel free to login and post your own. Or if blogging’s not your thing, you can always leave a comment. Oh and hurry - I hear Disney’s having another “Hannah Montana” marathon!

That Kind of Day

Posted by: gretchen on August 6, 2007 | 2 Comments |

I found another great Monday morning song. Youtube has a lot of homemade versions of this tune, but the one I selected below had the best audio track. This is a great song! Sarah Buxton is an amazing songwriter. In case you didn’t know, Sarah is also the writer of Stupid Boy which was a number one hit for country superstar Keith Urban earlier this year. Although Sarah’s vocal style is easy on the ear, the lyrics are posted below. ;)

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Sign the Petition for the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act

Posted by: gretchen on August 3, 2007 | 4 Comments |

I received the following email from a friend and I think this one is important enough to pass around:

From a nurse:

I’ll never forget the look in my patients eyes when I had to tell them they had to go home with the drains, new exercises and no breast. I remember begging the Doctors to keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would, but their hands were tied by the insurance companies.
So there I sat with my patients, giving them the instructions they needed to take care of themselves, knowing full well they didn’t grasp half of what I was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than the quiet ‘Thank You’ they muttered.

A mastectomy is when a woman’s breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If you know anyone who has had a Mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let’s give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.

There’s a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require Insurance Companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It’s about eliminating the ‘drive-through mastectomy’ where women are force to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their Web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the Web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code number.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/signpetition.php

Don’t forget to pass it on!

Announcing Girls Can’t WHAT? Design

Posted by: gretchen on August 2, 2007 | 2 Comments |

As I confessed in Monday’s post, I have been a bit distracted lately and haven’t had much time to devote to this site.  Now, as promised, I will reveal where my time has been going…

I get a lot of requests from people at random to design a web site, a custom t-shirt or a logo.  Any opportunity to create something new is always welcomed and I enjoy every second of it.  As the projects and requests got bigger and bigger, I decided to team up with a couple of friends and setup a design shop.  In the last few months, we have been secretly working to build our design shop’s web site, set pricing and handle all of the administrative tasks that come with starting a new venture.  In the midst of all of that, the requests kept pouring in and we have had our hands full with new web designs, logos, print media and memory video requests.  In fact, I have several more completed projects that haven’t even been added to our portfolio yet!

So it is with much pleasure I invite you to the grand opening of Girls Can’t WHAT? Design.  Take a tour, enjoy the free eye candy and spread the word.  ;)

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