Black Friday Survival Guide: This is Not a Drill

There are numerous guides on the interwebs about Black Friday shopping. Some tell you were to find deal upon deal and others provide a rudimentary "guide" for navigating your big day. Rubbish, all of them. These sites, as useful as they appear to be, do not convey the life or death seriousness of Black Friday. It's real in these here streets, and you need to come out of this as king of the mountain. Luckily for you, I've prepared the definitive guide on making it out alive.

1. Bring a Bodyguard


Do you know anyone that will take a bullet for you? Anyone who would be willing to be trampled for you? Over a $39 digital camera? Can you easily maneuver so that if it comes down to you or them it's you? There's your bodyguard.

2. Learn Karate



If you are serious about Black Friday, you started this months ago. But don't worry if you're a new convert, it's not too late to learn the basics. Okay, forget the basics. All you need to know is how to do a roundhouse kick. Chuck Norris the sh*t out of everyone. Hand out one or two of these and the other shoppers will present their goods to you along with their daughters' hands in marriage and huge tracts of land.

3. Carry a Concealed Weapon


That seasonally-appropriate-festive-red sweater selling for an unheard of $19.99 at Kohls? It's yours. Yours. "No" is a foreign language to you today, and as a foreigner, you have diplomatic immunity. Brandish that gun with abandon and pistol whip those sales associates like they owe you money.

4. Get a Decoy


It's 2011. Everyone wants to be famous. You've got to know at least one stage mom with a cute-ish kid she'll let you borrow for a song. While little Suzy creates a diversion, singing and tap-dancing in aisle 6, you sneak off and gather your treasures. Make two trips if you have to and jet off in your car while your little star closes with the big number (jazz hands!). Suzy's fine, she'll find a ride home.


These fail-safe precautions will ensure that you, your new TomTom GPS and and your dignity make it out of the supermart in one piece. You will return home a hero, a ballad will be composed in your honour and generations of your people will sing it with gusto, heart over hand. Black Friday. The day you shopped. And lived.

I'm Having a Black Friday Sale

This year, I will be offering Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday deals. From the 25th to the 28th, every item will be on sale for 15% off, including Art Deco and Pinstripe Flowers.
Happy Shopping.

Looking for Product Testers!

I'm looking for a few good women to test out some new accessories. I need eight total of varying hair types (2 per category). Four of the eight will serve as alternates in case someone is unable to comply. Posted above is an image with the general hair type categories (click picture to increase size). I need two people from each category. Your hair in it's natural state must fit the category you apply for.

To apply:

Send an email to info@ododooriginals.com.
The subject line should read "Product Test + [your hair type: 1, 2, 3, OR 4]".
In the body of your email please include your name and address where products can be sent.

What's expected of you:

Answer a few surveys and respond to questions regarding the Ododo Originals products you will receive.

Discretion. As the products you will receive are in the testing phase, your discretion regarding their performance is appreciated.

What you will get:

Compensation includes any and all products you receive for testing, plus a thank you gift at the end of the testing period.

Restrictions:

US residents only.

UPDATE: All filled up! Thank you!

Game of Thrones!!!!!!!!

So I finally started watching this and caught up with season one yesterday. OMG! You HAVE to see this if you haven't. I've always been a huge fantasy fan so this was totally up my ally, but I swear, even if you aren't into fantasy you will "get" this series because HBO did a fantastic job with it.

I had the books on my list of books to read (over 500+ books long ack!) but after watching Season 1, I bumped it up because I had to know what happened to these characters I'm coming to love (almost posted a spoiler here, but I wont!). I will say that the HBO series is more friendly to the non-fantasy fan than the books, so even if you tried but couldn't get into the books, WATCH THIS. For serious. I'm now on book 2, Clash of Kings, getting my questions answered and finding even more mystery. Join me.

New Stuff

So one of the items I've been working on is a new line of headbands for my store. Here are a few that are currently listed:








I'm really excited about this new venture and encouraged by all the support I've gotten over the years. I remember when this was just a hobby, and now it's what I do all day (well, plus writing. Oh, and watching Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones). I'm working on more headbands and love mixing colours (as you can see). Be on the lookout for some interesting fare.

Cheers.

Update: Summer 2011

Let's see:
I moved to Minneapolis (yay!)
I temporarily relocated to Louisiana to help my sister after a surgery(I'm back).
I started a set of locs (eek!)
I've done 3 shows, including the very awesome Creative Connection Event (see image above).
I've created 2 new lines of flowers.
And, most importantly, there's lots more on the way!

Cheers!!!

M.I.A.

Hello, internet. I've all but disappeared the last few weeks but I'm slowly getting more of my time back. I was in an accident mid-February that destroyed my vehicle, but thankfully left me physically unscathed. Dealing with the aftermath of that has been a full-time job and I barely had time to breath.

(This is not my car. Just how my car must have felt.)

In other, funner news, I've come closer to completing the new line of bridal/evening flowers! I've been experimenting with different designs and I'm currently almost happy with the fifth prototype. I'm aiming for a May debut, so fingers crossed.

If you follow me on twitter (@OdodoOriginals) you may have seen the preview of the multi-layered showpiece flower that I posted way back when in January. It took more than 15 hrs(!!) to construct and I've been working on getting that time down. I love the idea of losing a day just beading and relaxing, but it's not very practical, no? More on that lovely piece soon.

Cheers!