Last week I was working very hard, and wanted to take a brief mental break throughout the day and night. I remembered someone saying, “Check out Mapcrunch. I’m so glad I did! Mapcrunch posts random street views anywhere in the world. Bonus: You can navigate them!
 
My first stop, a Japanese cemetery.
 

 
Then on to Cape Town, South Africa.
 

 
Mapcrunch even brings you inside places such as Saint Audoen’s Church in Dublin, Ireland.
 

 
What I like best about Mapcrunch is it’s ability to take me places I never knew existed.
 

 

 

 

 
So I highly recommend you try Mapcrunch to unwind and travel from your armchair.
 
Mapcrunch has another site called Instant Street View, perfect for visiting a specific destination! The kids and I have toured ….
 

 
Hint! Drop onto a blue dot to tour that area!
 

 

 

 

 
And even our own town!
 

 
I’ve started a Pinterest Board for our Mapquest and Instant Street View destinations, but we need your help! We’re running out of ideas!
 
• Where should the kids and I visit?
 
• Where will you visit?
 
Go, explore, enjoy, and share!

Tags: google, hard work, instant street view, map, mapcrunch, mental break, tour, tourist, travel

Day two assignment of Zero To Hero recommends fleshing out my name. I don’t foresee changing my blog’s name, but allow me to go into detail of how I chose the name, “Jean Has Been Shopping”. In 2006, my sister said, “Try MySpace. It’s fun and new.” I signed up, and waited for the fun to begin. It didn’t. Where was the fun? Took me a while to discover it, but I finally found fun in the blogging community. I thoroughly enjoyed reading blogs, and was inspired by the antics and honesty of my new-found friends. I felt that I could blog too!

Now on MySpace, we didn’t use our real names. Unlike FaceBook, I would never have spelled out my first, middle and last names. MySpace prompted you, when signing on, to share what you were doing or how you were feeling. I would fill in the status with, “… has been quadding”, “… has been napping”, “… has been SHOPPING”.  Nine times out of ten, my status had to do with shopping, so the status (and name) stuck!

On December 21, 2006, I published my first post simply titled, “Online Sales”. It read, “Napastyle is having their year end sale. They have such nice items.” Can you believe I hit publish on that drivel?! No links, no photos, just two sentences.

Although my blog used to be about shopping, it has evolved over the years into a feel-good site dedicated to humor, family, friends, travel, photography & videography.

Through this wordpress challenge, I’ve expanded my tagline from “wife, mom, business owner, blogger” (yawn!) to “40+ wife, mom, publisher wears rose-colored glasses in the Southwest” (perk!). I’ve also added the Tag Cloud widget so you can see at a glance the tags I use most.

• How did your blog get its name?

• Do you use a tagline?

• Tag Cloud widget – fan or foe?

Tags: about, assignment, challenge, improve my blog, jean, jean has been shopping, me, zero to hero, zerotoher

I thought I’d follow along with the Zero To Hero assignments to improve my site. The first challenge is to introduce myself.

Hello! I’m Jean, a 40-something woman making her way through life, trying to juggle family, business and everything in between. We live in Arizona although I hail from the Bay Area of California and spent my high school years in Reno, Nevada. I also did a short stint in Appleton, Wisconsin, and spent two summers in Sarasota, Florida.

My husband, Tom, and I have been together twelve years. We run our own business (celebrating its 25th anniversary this year!) publishing the local real estate guide. It is a full color, glossy magazine of which we are very proud. It is distributed in California, Nevada and Arizona.

We have two daughters, ages 11 and 9, who love school, dancing, drawing, acting, acrobatics, and animals. During the summer months, we travel to Anaheim as a family, and enjoy many of that area’s attractions. On shorter breaks, we visit local points of interest such as Grand Canyon Caverns, the Wild Animal Park in Valentine, or the old mining town of Oatman. We also enjoy boating on the Colorado River which is 3 miles from our house.

When I need to get away, I visit nearby Las Vegas, a 90-minute drive north, to shop at the various malls and enjoy a decadent meal. I always bring a treat home such as cupcakes, cheesecake, or fresh fruit from Trader Joe’s.

Before falling off to sleep at night, I watch recorded episodes of The Housewives of (name any city), Vanderpump Rules, The Shahs of Sunset – all things Bravo – or The Dead Files, Ghost Hunters, The Haunting Of – all things Travel Channel. I wake up to Headline News or Weekend Express every morning. I love to know what’s going on in the world.

I don’t exercise. I don’t eat right. But I think about both every day.

I’m not very crafty, but I will attempt crafts for the sake of my children.

I’m shy and reserved, but I won’t take crap.

I enjoy learning and sharing knowledge.

If there’s anything else you’d like to know, please ask.

Tags: about me, assignment, challenge, introduce, jean, jean has been shopping, who am I, Wordpress, zero to hero, zerotohero