go fer it!

what's going on over here?

this is better than reality tv!

can you see what i'm focused on?

now can you see what's going on?  gopher! gopher! gopher!

i could watch all day! (photo courtesy of PR/social media guru, richard morales of blueprintbrands)

ted's a thinker, he is- when he spotted movement in the brush at runyon, he just had to sit down and observe... and observe, and observe, completely rapt for several minutes as little mister gopher enlarged his home. he didn't lunge like the other doggies, and he didn't try to dig up lil mr. gopher's hole, he just sat, and watched, and contemplated his next move. he might still be sitting there thinking about his options if we didn't remind him that dinner was waiting for him at home.

good boy, ted.
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elle decor & design*sponge on why twitter matters (and how to use it)

there is a reason why social media is the topic du jour- it works, and like it or not, we all have to embrace it-  if you don't, the train is going to pass you by. at our panel last week (oy- again with the panel, m21!) we were all in agreement- you have to use the big three platforms of social media to get your brand out there: blogs, facebook pages, and twitter. you can't just blog any longer, all three need to be used in conjunction. personally, i know lots of design people who have embraced the former two, and ignored the latter (the twitters), and to do so is at your own peril, as twitter is where the conversation amongst your audience is truly happening. so wholeheartedly embracing all three platforms is simply the inarguable fact of doing business in 2011. (tip- there are social media experts who can help you with all this if it seems overwhelming).

today, elle decor.com interviewed grace bonney of design*sponge on the how's and why's of twitter, and it was a eye-opening piece. y'all should read it- go here to become enlightened...

seriously, if elle decor and design*sponge think we need to tweet, who are we mere mortals to resist? so, i'll see you on the twitters, right?

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just because all the other kids are doing it, m21, it doesn't mean *you* have to as well...

so when one has problems finding time to post to one's blog, what should one do? why start a second blog of course! *sound of needle scratching across a record*

i know, crazy, nutty right? but after taking part in the avenues' blogging panel last week, the cool kids on the panel (ashlina from the decorista and gregory from apartment therapy unplggd) both said tumblr was a great resource, and good way to keep readers involved in between blog posts, as it is fast and easy to post to, and since m21 doesn't want to be the last old man screaming "get offa my lawn, you damn kids!", he has decided to put his misgivings aside, and get with the in crowd. after all, we hated facebook at first, and we swore we'd never, ever use the twitters under pain of death, and now, of course, they both are as natural (and necessary) as breathing to us.

and speaking of the twitters, for those of you who don't know already,  tumblr is sort of the visual version of twitter, but instead of 140 characters or less, you post in short, one picture (or video, or whatever) bursts to create a sort of visual mood board. don't worry- we'll still be posting here at maison21: decorative but not serious, as our tumblr is definitely an "addition to", rather than an "in place of" (just a place to park some images and links we like- this blog remains our first love) but if you find you can't wait until the next post here, maybe our tumblr will keep you satisfied with an image or two in the meantime. we'd love it if y'all visited (and we'll totally make out with you after class if you subscribe), and should any of my fellow bloggers want to add our tumblr to your blog roll, we'd be ever so appreciative as well (for that, we'll let you get to second base).

so why the picture of boy george at the top of the post? well, we named this blog, after an adam and the ants song, desperate but not serious, so we thought we'd continue the 80's tradition, and invite y'all to visit maison21: i'll tumblr for ya  ;-)




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apocalypse m21

don't worry- nothing bad or remotely apocalyptic has happened, just thought this image we snapped this weekend while ted and i were on our hike, looked a lot like the imagery from apocalypse now:

all of a sudden a police helicopter appeared out of nowhere, buzzing runyon canyon, and at times it seemed so close that i could have grabbed on to the runners and gone for a ride. don't know how in the heck the picture turned out so moody either- it was near sunset but still plenty bright out- nothing like the picture implies.

see why m21 was reminded of apocalypse now?

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cheat sheet

as y'all know, m21 was part of a design blogging panel last week sponsored by the avenues west hollywood (along with the decorista,  apartment therapy unplggd,  my LA lifestyle & multibrain) and one of the things the panel stressed was the importance of blogging every single day, if not multiple times a day. as the lone dissenting voice, i confessed to not being able to blog with that kind of frequency due to the demands of running a busy design business, as well as personally handling my own social media, but i said i tried to make up for it by tweeting or facebooking with my social media friends every day. i also confessed to "cheating" by throwing up a cute picture of my pets when i just too busy to come up with a more time consuming design related post. thankfully, some other members of the panel shared that they had used the same cheat, and that those were some of their most popular posts. whew! glad to know i wasn't the only one resorting to pimping out my pets.

oh- and btw, i'm busy...  ;-)

i call richard the maison21 quality control inspector because every item that comes into the house must be thoroughly sniffed, tasted and if possible, reclined upon, before passing his rigorous quality testing.  i just pulled off the price tag of this canvas belt and threw it on the bed just long enough to pull on my jeans when richard launched himself on it.

"inspection passed! i've claimed it for mine, and will now relax on it for a while!"

hope y'all had a swell weekend! if we can rustle up some photos, we'll share some bits of the events of westweek & the avenues next week (sadly, we were so busy having such a great time, our camera stayed firmly lodged in our pocket so we'll have to see what we can steal  from others ;-).
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