Hey teacher, what can you teach me?

I've been being told for awhile that I should be teaching or coaching people in some way. I've considered getting certified to teach clock hour courses to real estate agents since I made a connection with the owner of a local clock hours school this fall. And as a real estate agent I know most of the material.

One area I have really been learning the past year that has made me attractive as a possible instructor for clock hours for agents is Social Media Marketing. It is something I have been experimenting with for my own real estate business, doing video tours of my listings and other short educational pieces, usually around the environment.

So I was given the opportunity to try my hand at teaching/presenting when I was asked by a colleague to come to her weekend marketing class at Antioch University to talk about social media marketing.

I managed to sleep the night before just fine amazingly enough - I must finally be getting used to being in front of people after the speeches and presentations I have made in front of various groups over the last few years.

After a siccessful hour of presenting, I take a moment to share what I've been reading to learn and understand the art and business of "social media marketing".

The Salmon Dance

This song popped up on my iPod the other morning, and it made me smile. Wanted to pass it on.



See the original video by The Chemical Brothers

@home: a fresh look

We seriously rearranged the furniture for the first time since moving to our townhome in August 2007. This is the front room, which we use as the formal dining room (the table for 7 is inside the hutch on the far left). The love seat is on sliders so can be easily moved for dinners or meetings.



We use the "family/dining room" as one large living room. There's more furniture here now but since it's not positioned as "square" it seems cozier. And I finally got to use the pine sofa table I got on CL for staging a house in 2008, giving the lucky bamboo better morning sun.



And this is a picture of Sophia, taken by Ron Jelen, my father-in-law, while we visited family in Oregon over New Year weekend. He has great camera equipment, and does fabulous wildlife photos in Alaska every summer. Sophia's breed, Italian greyhound, has a need to "burrow", and one of our IG friends makes these SnuggleSax for all size dogs (and cats).

The "most divine" condos I have ever seen

Yesterday my company had its bi-weekly team meeting at The Sanctuary on Capitol Hill, and then took a tour of this historic landmark church-turned-condo. The model is now open, and the 4 and 5 story homes all have striking architectural features - many of them have the dome of the church as the ceiling in the individual homes.

Salvage and restoration was the primary goal of the new owners/builders, and he told us of the "Seattle seagrass" insulation that they found in the floor (albeit it was from NY), that they moved to the attic. It was impressive!

Most of the homes have private garages within the common garage, and two units also have private elevators. Most of the homes have some stained glass windows, and the sculpute work is just amazing. Oh, so are the bathrooms!!

For more information or a private tour, send me an email! I can't wait to show this building to to my husband...I think we are going to go over there this weekend.

Photo: See photo gallery and read "Capitol Hill church now 12 new homes"

The Santuary's web site has several other articles linked to it in addition to some artsy photos, but nothing can do it justice other than a real-life viewing.

Celebrating 12th and 13th anniversaries at the same time

Just a quick note that Steve and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on December 31st, and the 13th anniversary or our meeting on January 1st. We met sitting outside of a Starbucks in Southcenter, drinking coffee and smoking. If it were today we would never have met since they don't allow smoking within 25 feet of the door.

We went and saw the movie "Nine", which we loved, followed by decaf coffees at Starbucks, where we also picked up the movie soundtrack to "Nine". We ran a few other errands and then had a steak dinner at home, followed by watching the ball drop in Times Square live on one of the cable channels (just like we did when we actually visited NYC for our 10th anniversary - Steve couldn't stand the thought of being in that crowd), then watching the fireworks at the Space Needle (also on TV - we have a 50" plasma so it's almost better than being there, which we also did one year).

Over the weekend we went to Warren, Oregon for a family gathering. I posted some cute pictures via mobile upload.

Happy new year to all! 2010 is going to rock!

Merry Christmas every one

Merry Christmas to everyone - thank you for being a part of my life this past year. My husband Steve and I enjoy the company of all we cross paths with. Best wishes for a wonderful day!

Blogging finally pays off - over on my green blog

I have to thank the hummingbirds - last year we posted hummingbirds in the snow and ice photos and blog posts and because of it I was contacted by a couple on the Oregon coast who needed help selling their home - that was on the hummingbird migratory route from Mexico to the Northwest. I am not licensed to sell real estate in Oregon (only Washington), but I put together a team of professional agents Joanna Flippin and Joni Biron with regional leader Emerald Coast Realty. And these ladies got the job done. The sale of the home closed last week and I received a paycheck for 33 months of blogging by way of a referral fee.

I am referring to Green Spaces Real Estate, which I intend as a resource and educational tool but I do want people to know I am in the real estate business and am looking for new clients. I am a cutting-edge marketing agent in addition to an experienced professional who looks out for my clients interests by watching for weird little things that might pop up and cause a snag.

Special thanks to Jorrie and Ken, Joanna and Jori (my 'J' team), and of course the hummingbirds, for making this post possible.

And here is a new entry in the hummingbird category - now that I am vlogging you can expect to see hummers in flight - I will set up the video camera outside on a tripod and just leave it running and put together some interesting footage!

It's All About Avatar Today

Must-read from TreeHugger:

Avatar: Big Movie with Big Environmental Themes

Image: 20th Century Fox

Good article and lots of links to reviews and scientific information.

This is a Must-See Movie.

Holiday Decorating and Greetings from the Hughes-Jelen Household

2009 was a scaled back year all around. Here is our scaled back holiday decorating. Christmas greetings to friends and family far and near.

An Evening on the Water with Friends

Here is today's post from my husband Stephen's blog - since he already wrote it up I just asked if I could steal it and he said sure!

An Evening on the Water with Friends

Last night Wendy and I were fortunate enough to be able to take a tour of Lake Washington on The Way Home, a 42 foot cabin cruiser that belongs to Laurie Way. Wendy met Laurie at RE Bar Camp earlier this year, and after the Bar Camp Laurie took us for a short cruise around Lake Union. I offered to help decorate her ship for the holidays, and that’s how we ended up there last night.

We brought along the Hochalter family, and Misha St. Lorant, and were also joined by a couple that had just purchased a home here in Seattle through Laurie, as well as Laurie’s friend & First Mate Cary.

It was a fun cruise, the weather ended up perfect. Not too cold, and clear. Not windy. We headed through the Mountlake Cut along with a couple of other decorated boats, and then headed south to Leschi under the SR-520 bridge. There we met up with a larger group of Christmas Ships as well as the main Argosy Cruises Christmas Ship that has the carolers on board. Last night’s group was The Dickens Carolers.

I took some pictures, but with the boat moving and everything, my old camera just couldn’t really keep up… they are all a “little” blurry… If you’d like to see them, follow the link below…

http://pensandpixels.com/stephenhj/images/ChristmasShips1/index.htm