Coskrey Biz Business -- 9/8/14

Websites in the Making

Button on NetworkShrub
Visit the website.

This week saw the completion of the website for a local business, English Garden Florist & Boutique, which is in Brazoria, TX. Check it out and shop this local business for gifts and flowers!

I am consulting with Vic Penuel of Jeter's Old World Antiques & Gifts in Angleton, TX, on the website he is building and posting for free to a closed Facebook group of local antique dealers and vintage resale merchants. Vic's goal is to bring more business into our area south of Houston. The website will feature all local antique and vintage resale merchants in the group. Flyers for the merchants are planned that will feature member merchants, too.

The site should be posted by 9/30/14.  Local merchants of antiques and vintage resale should email Vic and ask to be included in the Facebook group. Those who join after the webpage due date can be added to the website after its launch.

For beach goers, there is plenty to see, do, and buy on your way down Hwy's 6, 288, 35 and neighboring roads south. The website's focus is on Brazoria County, which ends with Surfside, Bryan and Quintana beaches. Let Antiquing be a part of your activity list. Plan to visit the website for information on where to shop or browse and visit.

Sketch of website design for sale at Coskrey Biz

I designed a webpage based on 6-7 images I found in Fotolia and just had to use. So far the design is simply a jpeg layout. I wrote text reflective of someone who upcycles and repurposes vintage and resale items. The original text uses plenty of "magically transforms" and other flowery phrases, but hey...it's a rough draft. If interested, let me know. I will develop the template for a website if purchased. For more details, visit Coskrey Biz.

I also managed to get a few pages about teaching with science fiction added to the Valerie Coskrey's Classroom Tools and Ideas website that I am rewriting.

Posting in Blogs 

Have you visited the Discovery Garden pages yet? Sam, my partner in these pages, has started a blog, Friends of the West Columbia Discovery Garden. We invite your participation.

Today in Valerie's Soapbox, I posted a teachable moment essay about reading with young children. Here I described an experience with a first grade girl I tutor as she read No. David! to me.

I wrote another poem that I am debating posting in my blog Valerie's Soapbox. Might do that this week. It is called Homage to Bt-corn. Look for information about it in the next memo.

On 9/1/14 I posted an article about cooking with crock pots in Talking about This and That.

Tutoring Continues

Know anyone near Sweeny, TX, who needs a tutor or homeschool academic coach? Visit Coskrey Biz for information. I still have a couple of open time spans.


That's all for now. 'Til next time. ~Valerie

Coskrey Biz Business -- 8/21/75

NetworkShrub

 News from the NetworkShrub Members and Me

What a busy time these past few weeks have been.

Mertie's This and That

Mertie and I are busy networking with local antique dealers. Vic Penuel is coordinating the efforts. More on this later.

Meanwhile, Mertie has "new" items in her inventory. Check out the July and August postings I wrote for her blog and use its links to visit her Facebook page. It is like visiting the store--almost.

English Garden
Florist & Boutique
button in the
NetworkShrub
directory.
Links to website.

I have been blogging and developing webpages. Good thing, too, because my tutoring students have all taken summer breaks, although my network of tutor friends is growing.

The creative here is the Button for the English Garden Florist & Boutique in Brazoria, TX. This website should be completed by the middle of next week. It currently has 2 pages of the 4 loaded.

With school starting, my schedule is again undergoing drastic change. I still read a bit, do computer work at night, and manage to keep up with friends sporadically.

Gifts & Gadgets

The Gifts & Gadgets website is up and functioning. Cindy has a new student worker who will be taking over the blog, if she decides to continue it.  My best to her and my thanks for allowing me to assist her in adding to her online presence. I went shopping there last week. She has a new inventory of clothing in fall colors and plenty of scarves by Sarah's Smiles Shop.

Firebush at West Columbia Discovery Garden, TX,8/21/14
Photo ©Sam Stamport

Volunteering with the Discovery Garden

Sam Stamport and I, with the help of City Manager Debra Sutherland, completed the pages on the West Columbia city website for the Discovery Garden. I wrote 2 poems for it, which I put in Valerie's Soapbox, and Sam has now started a blog for the West Columbia Discovery Garden. I volunteered to do an online pamphlet for West Columbia. I will keep you posted.

 Taking care of Business--My own Websites

I am slowly adding pages to my own websites Coskrey Biz and Valerie Coskrey's Classroom Tools and Ideas. The latest set of pages added to VCCTI deal with using science fiction in the classroom.

Speaking of science fiction and the young reader, I have reactivated the RFF Reflections blog.

'Til next time. ~Valerie

Coskrey Biz Bizness 1/19/14

Keeping Busy at Coskrey Biz

Computer Classes and Web Pages

I am teaching computer classes at the local library at 2:30 on Tuesday afternoons. About 9 students are taking the classes, so far. Lessons from past classes are posted on Coskrey Biz. Just follow the links from the library page.

Information for the Computer Class

This week's class will focus on using the file management system

Explorer to locate, open, save and organize files. Portable drives for transporting information will be discussed. To have files to play with, we will put an image in a word file and manipulate it. Then we will save it to a thumb drive and locate it; save it to documents and locate it there, etc. 

All students bringing their own laptops should come a few minutes early to get their internet log-on information from the librarians. Others should get their computer slips from me and be ready to use Word when we start class.

Valerie Coskrey's Classroom Tools and Ideas

I am in the process of updating my first website, nicknamed VCCTI or vforteachers. It should be up and running again soon. Let me know what you think of the new home page. It is up, solo, but up.

I am adding a series called Reading Kits.

My Apologies

For a while there the websites were a bit messed up. The problem was in the directory. My bad. I have fixed the problem now and the webpages are once more correctly accessible. For anyone who was exploring, 2 index pages got switched.

A Network of Shops

Besides webpages and blog management, I offer shop networks. Resale Shops near Brazoria to see the concept in action. Currently, I am building this network. The active member is Merties This and That.

A group of shops share an entry page linking to the webpages of each shop. It is an inexpensive way for a small business to get a webpage, share the expense of advertising locally, and build a network of like-minded business people. A ListLocal account is available for each network entry page.

Tutoring News

All students took a break over the Christmas holidays. Many took off the first week back to school since teachers started few new concepts that week. This gave me a mini-vacation that I enjoyed. I am glad to be seeing them again now. Currently, I have only a few slots open for new students.

About Wayne

Wayne is ready to process photos now. He has become quite expert at digital photo restoration.
He is still designing his webpages, but can be contacted at wayne @ coskrey-biz.com (close up the spaces, please. Spammer-prevention, you know.)

Coskrey Biz Bizness 11/5/13

What's New? Lots!

New Webpages

New webpages are posted.

Fluffy Cat ©2012
Read more below.

• Resale Shops in the Brazoria, TX, area 
•  Mertie's This and That

New Services

Photo albums are now available. I have added ZenPhoto to the Coskrey Biz website.

• Get your catalog of products posted with your webpage--or just get a photo album.
• I will be adding my templates for presentations (PowerPoint, etc.) to my photo album. It may take a few days/weeks, but it will soon be an example for you to consider.

Wayne is ready to take orders for digital photo restoration. Contact wayne@coskrey-biz.com.

Just Catching Up

Yes, I am still tutoring.

My new business cards will be here next week.

Don"t forget to read Mertie's blog Talking About This and That. The last posting was just before Halloween and the next one comes out next week.

The Dirt Poor Book blog has been reactivated for book reviews. Have you a book review to post there? Send it to me, along with some info to post about yourself as the reviewer. I will add the Amazon link to the book, if available. As a network, we can grow this additional outlet for our ideas, works and opinions.

Did you see the blog post this past week on Valerie's Soapbox that featured 2 local artists? Love their work. But they are both sooooooo different!

About Fluffy Cat

Begun as a painting by Wendy Sterling, Fluffy Cat had been rendered as a graphic image by me. Then Wayne (see above) got hold of it and made a few artistic adjustments on the lighting and color balance to the image I had processed from a photo. Voila, a clip art that I am so proud of. Thanks to Wendy and the other artists that have provided the original paintings and stained glass that I have photographed and turned into graphics for websites and template designs.

Coskrey Biz Bizness 10/15/13

Notes from Val

Ok, so the title is lame. I might be a step up from CB Bizness or Coskrey Biz Bizyness. Newsletter sounds so bland. Should I call it Leaves Falling from the NetworkShrub? Fruit of the Shrub? Falling Leaves? Branches of the Shrub? Any suggestions? Maybe those names should be column names. OK. Let's get this newsletter set up so it can be read...

Talking about This and That

In the last postings of Talking about This and That, I talked about re-purposing furniture. Also, I interviewed a local artisan, Donn Correll of Texas Attitudes, CR 316, Brazoria, TX, who refinishes furniture--so be sure to scroll all the way down to the last half of the post. I plan to write more about Mertie and Donn on Valerie's Soapbox. I will let you know when you can read it there.

At Coskrey Biz

The website for Coskrey Biz is up. There are still some pages not posted, so do not be alarmed if you get to an error page on a few of the links. Also, Wayne has still to put his pages up. You will just have to contact him through me. The services he will be offering are graphic arts, photo processing, art, photography and more. He used to fix computers, so if any of you in our network need advice, call.

For those of you considering a Button for the NetworkShrub℠, take a look at the home page and the NetworkShrub℠ Directory. For a description of how it works, read about it on Websites and Blogs. Remember that information displayed will be only what you ask me to display. Also, your Button will link to whatever page online or email that you want it to.
Wayne is busily restoring old photos as digital images with Adobe Cloud software and a Wacom tablet. He is now ready for orders. If you have old photos that you want stored on CD, if you want them touched-up or restored, call for Wayne, the other half of Coskrey Biz.
I am placing some items for sale at Mertie's This and That on FM 521 just southwest of Brazoria, TX. Next time you shop at Mertie's This and That, take a look at my section. I will be up and running by the end of this week. Mertie's items are so attractive, you just know she sets the bar for fine thrift shops in the area. I hope to learn lots from her while we "partner-up" in her store. She has graciously allowed me add a few comments about my stuff in her blog. Look for next week's posting to mention the types of stuff in Coskrey Corner.

Branches of the NetworkShrub℠

Jessie is the newest member of the network. She is an artist and a photographer. She has a sign company in Sweeny, TX, called Total Graphics.

Blog Memos as Newsletters

©2013 All Rights Reserved;
My logo at Coskrey Biz

It seems a bit redundant to send out emails to subscribers when rss feeds from a blog will work just as well. Or do we send emails to remind people to read blogs?  Are you subscribed to this blog?

Anyway, I plan to re-purpose this blog to include newsletter info for my new business activities. My business and its new website are called Coskrey Biz. I plan to continue freelance activities under this name.

If you want an email, use the "Follow by email" form at the bottom of this page, send info in the comment, visit Valerie Coskrey on Facebook and send a message, or send me an email.  I also have a google+ page.  Eventually I will determine who wants what and shape the newsletter plans accordingly.  If the newsletter idea doesn't fly, then I will make other plans for this blog.

Let me know if you like/don't like this idea.

At any rate, the original purpose for the blog is still viable, I have just been inactive for a bit.

By the way, we decided to change our business name when we moved to TX just over a year ago.  Since the site Valerie Coskrey's Classroom Tools and Ideas is being updated and will continue on, and since freelance work I do includes tutoring, the news in the memos will still apply to educational ideas.