Thursday, June 19, 2008

Giveaway Results

1:52 PM 0 Comments
After a long and highly complicated process...ok, not really, I rolled a pair of dice and the number that came up was the number of the winner...hehe, anyway..we have a winner! *drum roll and other misc sound effects entered here* ....................

ladypawnbroker said...

The Tiger Striped Ecofriendly Paper is really cool and would work well for a number of craft projects!

Congrats to ladypawnbroker! I'll be emailing her shortly. If I don't hear back in 2 days, I'll roll for another winner! Thank you to all who entered. I was totally amazed at the number of people who stopped by. I hope everyone keeps stopping by. :) I'm working on another giveaway so hopefully I'll have something again soon.

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Wordless Wednesday - - Daisies

10:59 PM 3 Comments


I snapped this the other day while I was driving home from work. I was pulled up to a light and glanced over and saw these so carefree in the breeze. This was a totally unfocused snap and drive because the light changed colors just as I turned my camera on!



I just love coming across little things like this. There is a real beauty in the world around us if we just take the time to stop and see it. Sometimes, even quick snapshots like this can rival the beauty seen in the professionally done flowers. Don't get me wrong, places like Valentine's Day Flowers do an incredible job and I would never pass down a delivery from them but little surprises like this make the world a better place.

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Testing My Signature

2:50 PM 1 Comments
Yay! Look what I just figured out how to do! I've been seeing similar things on different blogs and finally, I figured how to do it too! Yay me! Yes, I know..I'm easily amused. I'm just so happy about this..lol! Now, if I could only figure out how everyone puts their cool buttons on the side with the code that links back....
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EuroGraduate.Com

11:01 AM 0 Comments
Do you live in Europe? Are you looking for Graduate opportunities? Then, check out EuroGraduate Live, a website devoted to helping Graduates find Graduate Careers and Job Information throughout Europe.

When you first access the site, you may be confused. I know that I was. The front page is filled with news stories. The top ones all seem to be random news of the strange type articles, but below are some sections that could be really useful for Graduates looking for information on different fields.

One thing that I really do like about this site is the different areas that it covers: Careers, Education, Working Abroad and Lifestyle.

Lifestyle is filled with news article on things like the entertainment industry. Working abroad has a map that you can click on that will take you to tips on presenting your CV and preparing for a job interview in the country that you’re interested in working in.

Now, if you want to further your education, the Education is where you should head. It has a searchable database of courses and research programs. All you have to do is click on the subject that you’re interested in and it will pull up what you’re interested in. For example, I clicked on linguists as a course and it pulled me up a list of courses located from South Africa to the United Kingdom.

Last, but certainly not least is the Career section. You can search by Organization, Industry, Occupation, Degree/Diploma or even Country. This is super quick and easy to use!

Amazingly enough, they also have a paper publication that they have taken the time to put up online, all 196 pages of it. I didn’t take the time to read this, but it looked to be chockfull of information on working abroad, starting your career and information on different areas of industry.

This site is easy to navigate and full of great information. I would seriously recommend it to anyone I knew who was looking for Graduate information for Europe.

Finish It Friday - Health Matters

1:19 AM 2 Comments

Sheesh. Technically, it's Tuesday and I just remembered that I had decided to write this. I think that's a side effect of two little boys who have been cranky and wanting a lot of attention. I love giving it to them, but sometimes it wipes things right out of my head. I know that you moms out there understand..and it explains why I have so many notes and lists lying about.

So what did I finish on Friday? I finally got the not sleeping part of my health problems wrapped up. Well, partially. Part of the reason that I wasn't sleeping was the depression. Now that I have my babies back with me, that's fairly better. I do have moderate sleep apnea though so this handy, dandy machine ought to help with that....if I could just not freak out (abused as a child) over having that darn mask on when I sleep. I may have to try something not full face.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Where are the crafts?

9:11 PM 0 Comments
That's what I'm starting to wonder myself. I seem to have stalled on my grand scheme of getting this place in order so that I could actually craft. I know that this is due to a combination of factors : working, kids, depression and just being tired. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. With the help of someone special, I've got a plan of action for reclaiming this apartment. It's started today and before I go to bed tonight, my bathroom will be halfway clean again. That's the easiest of my rooms, but I have to start somewhere, right? I know that I didn't post my Finish It Friday post this week, but I'm going to probably later on tonight. I wasn't sure if I wanted to post about it, but you know..why not? It's another thing in my life taken care of.

Carbon Neutral Search

2:36 PM 0 Comments
Ok, I just found this really cool new search tool. It’s called the Carbon Neutral Search Engine. What is this? It’s this very cool company that has figured out what the carbon emission is for each search that any of us do. Now that they’ve figured it out, they’ve taken that number and for every search you do using their search engine, they turn around and offset that emission (plus more!) with their offsetters Climate Care and Carbon Fund.

Why do they do this? Well, in their own words, "The Carbon Neutral Search Engine was developed to highlight the need to reduce our reliance on earth's natural resources and reduce our carbon footprint. Search makes up a small part of each individuals carbon footprint, but globally has a signifigant impact through energy use. The Carbon Neutral Search Engine offsets the emissions generated through search queries carried out on their site with a view to reducing global CO2 emissions, investing in energy efficiency, reforestation and renewable energy.”

Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Hmmm....

10:18 PM 0 Comments
I feel like I'm slacking here. I have all these great days of the week themes and I haven't been writing like I wanted to. It just seems that on the days I work, I'm brain scrambled by the time I get home. Time to clear out the head as well as the house, I guess. All I can do is to keep trying.

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Friday, June 13, 2008

Social Spark Continued

1:10 AM 1 Comments

For those of you who love getting paid to blog or those of you looking for those of us who love being paid, have you checked out SocialSpark, yet? In their words, Social Spark is “is a Social Marketing Network that connects advertisers and bloggers through an online advertising marketplace.” Perfect for those of us on both sides of the fence!

I know that all of you probably read my previous post about Social Spark, but guess what! I’m back with even more information for those of you who still may be on the fence.

Let me start with their code of ethics. It’s so nice to see a company out there that actually cares about ethics. Their code is so easy, just four simple points:

100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure - You guys trust me and I would hate to lost that trust, so Social Spark makes sure that I let all of you know what I’m being paid for one of my posts (like this one!).


100% Transparency – Every participant is viewable to you, the public! You can check and see which advertisers I’m working with and which opportunities.


100% Real Opinions – It’s up to me to pick the opportunities that I really want to write about. You’ll always get my opinion, not someone else’s that I’ve been told to copy and paste into my blog.


100% Search Engine Friendly – Each of the sponsored links that you’ll find in my posts carry the no-follow attribute which helps to protect this blog from being penalized for paid links.



Now, like I said before this was wonderfully easy to setup and one of the things I love the most? Unlike other paid blogging sites, the opportunities are so easy to find! If you find one that you’re interested in and it’s full, just put your name on the waiting list! No more checking a million times a day for an opportunity. If you haven’t checked out SocialSpark, let me encourage you to do it today!



Sponsored by SocialSpark

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Time for Me Thursday -- Review & Giveaway!

6:23 PM 69 Comments


Yes folks, it's true! I am a scrapbooking, craft supply hording junkie! I've often wondered if there's a 12 Step program for this, but I suspect that unless it was a new way to find fabulous craft finds, I'd fall off the wagon super quick!

Speaking of falling off the wagon, I got a small paycheck (clearing out my workstudy funds at school) and could not not not resist this Etsy shop! It's called Quality Craft Supplies and all it took was one look at their stock and I was hooked! I mean, who doesn't love a shop where the owner is super nice, the stock is fabulous (and green friendly!) and they do free shipping on any order that is $10 or more!

I have to show you the goodies that I bought! I just have to!

Up first, some gorgeous beads!

Square Beads

Aren't the colors on those gorgeous?!? Ok, my second item..I think I may have bought this for a few reasons:
1. The name...Blue Banana Paper.
2. It looks soooo pretty!
3. It's made from the waste bark of banana trees that are cut.


Which brings us to my very last item...and probably, possibly my absolute favorite! Ecofriendly Lokta Paper! It's sooo gorgeous and totally Ecofriendly which makes it an even bigger hit in this house!

Isn't it gorgeous? I think that may be my word of the day for this post! lol! Now, by now some of you may be asking what it is that I did for me today? I got to tear open this package and oooh and ahhh and touch and dream about what I'm going to use all these goodies for!

I totally wasn't expecting these to arrive in the mail yet. Jodi told me she was mailing them, but wow! Super fast shipping and yay for USPS for delivering something quickly for once.

Now, I just know that all of you are itching to get your fingers on some of these fantastic items (and trust me, there are even more great items over at the store!) so you're going to be doubly excited when I tell you that for my first ever giveaway here at Crafts By Katie, I'm going to give away a 10 sheet pack of Lokta Paper! There are 2 sheets of each of the colors shown in the above picture.

To earn entries:
1. Head on over to Quality Craft Supplies or their sister store, This Is It! Creations and then come back here and leave a comment letting me know what your favorite product is!
2. Add me to your blogroll. Make sure you leave a separate comment letting me know that you have. I don't have a picture link yet (still need to figure out how you all do that) but hopefully I will before the contest closes. Don't worry, a text link works just as nice!
3. Subscribe. That's right...find out what I'm doing every day via your inbox. Again, make sure you leave me a comment letting me know that you have.
4. Blog about my giveaway and leave me a comment here so I can check it out!

Also, if you are a non-blogger, please feel free to enter, but make sure you leave me an email address so that I can contact you!

This giveaway will stay open until June 18th. I will announce the lucky winner next Thursday in my Time For Me Thursday post. I'm sorry, but this giveaway is open to US residents only. (6/12/08 - 6:23pm)

Tackle It Tuesday - - On Thursday!

4:58 PM 3 Comments

Ok..I posted about this the other day, but finally after 2 days of cleaning, I have finished cleaning out that deep freeze. I sure hope I never have to do that again. Here's the pictures to show what I did!

The Top:
Freezer Top Before

The Inside (after hauling out 3 bags of rotten food):
After Hauling out 3 Trash Bags of Food

And now...all cleaned out:
Cleaned out

I have an open box of the fridge/freezer baking soda in there helping to absorb any remaining smell. Later on tonight, I'll plug it back in so that it's nice and cold when I go shopping again.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

My Tackle It Tuesday Post...

6:01 PM 2 Comments
It will be posted sometime tonight. My deep freeze got unplugged and everything..and I mean everything went bad. So far we've hauled out 3 trash bags full of chicken, turkey, hamburger, lean pockets...and more.. The whole apartment smells like bad chicken and I have no choice but to have the freezer off and open while the liquid (and there's pry 3 inches of it) re thaws in the bottom so that I can somehow clean it out...there are 2 pies half frozen to the bottom...their packaging disintegrates every time I touch them...Needless to say, this is my Tackle It Tuesday but I need to let my stomach settle before I go back to tackle anymore of it.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Rant: Rude People Suck

2:01 PM 1 Comments
Ok, I am having one of those days and I need to get it out of my system. I woke up about 10 minutes late today and still would have been fine, but I ate a banana and my stomach revolted. Then, I couldn't find my purse.

Made it to work just a couple of minutes late and did the usual stock the paper cabinet thing and got my desk set up (I have to lock the laptop and phone away every day when I leave). Then, Nancy gives me a job to redo all the tags on all the keys and reorganize the little cabinet where they're hung. Okie, no problem.

Then Rita..who is some big wig whatever...goes into Nancy's office which is like 3 or 4 feet from where I sit at my desk and tells her to tell the workstudy (that would be me) to do this task. She takes the time to explain it all to nancy and then goes back into her office. Excuse me?!? When the heck did I become this nameless slave to the office? Ever since I told her that I wanted them to replace my laptop battery (it got damaged while I was on the job due to no fault of my own), she suddenly can't remember my name or talk to me with any level of respect.

Later, I asked her if she knew what a key went to and she practically snapped my head off for asking her.

I left work at noon and then went to Walgreens. Right now, they're running a special (with coupon) to do a 8x10 photo enlargement for 99c. I made sure that I had 3 coupons for this and walked up to the counter. My photos were on a USB drive in a folder marked photos. The girl at the counter very rudely commented that the kiosk couldn't do folders and I would have to do it online. I asked her if I could use the 3 coupons online and she said, "It will but you know you should remember there is a reason it says Limit 1." Umm..excuse me? Then, I got halfway down the aisle before remembering that she hadn't given me my USB drive back. When I went back to get it she said, "You left this here." Umm...no, it was in your hand when I walked off. Nice try though.

So, I found everything and checked out. Just to find out that because I used coupons on the register reward items, I don't get register rewards. *sighs* The total was more than i wanted to spend but I'll be figuring out how much I saved in a bit to see if it was worth me going there special today.

Then, I make it home, get everything in the house and go to check my email. I had posted up my Sunday newspaper on Freecycle to see if anyone wanted to read it or take the ads from it. I got a very rude email from the group owner telling me that I should reread the rules because that's not allowed. It's not considered something that takes up a lot of room in the landfills. Geez. There's no need or reason to be rude. I've had things denied before and seen the same things passed through when other people offered them. I think the local group needs a serious check on who is running it.

*sighs* Anyway, now I'm finally home and I'm gonna close my eyes and just breathe for a few minutes...

Sunday, June 8, 2008

This is a test...

7:50 PM 0 Comments
Ok, Edie is having photo issues so I'm gonna test this for her...

Adding Photos:

Step 1: Cursor where I want the photo.
Step 2: Push the photo button.
Step 3: Browse to photo on laptop.
Step 4: Choose photo and click Open.
Step 5: Make sure layout is set to none, image size to medium.
Step 6: Click upload image.
Step 7: Click Done.

In theory, my photo should go below this...and it didn't. Hrm...this is new..what the heck...oh yeah, this is why I like doing it in edit html, I think. Let's try it over there...

Ok, obviously blogger doesn't like doing it the way it is s'posed to. That reminds me..cept for the ones I want at the top, I've always put them in my flickr account and copied the html into here. Well shoot...sorry, Eddie. But, for a smile, here's the pic I was trying to get to work...

Edie's Blog

6:37 PM 1 Comments
Yay! Edie has a blog! Oh my goodness folks..this girl is so talented. Her layouts are so sweet and her photographs are amazing! She is one of my super cool friends from our yahoo group and I adore her. She's so willing to share her work with us and I'm always like wow..

So check out her blog and leave her some love, just like y'all have been doing for me.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Whew - Summer is Tiring

10:18 PM 1 Comments
This year, I wanted my kids and I to really enjoy the time that we get together, so I decided that when I could, we would go out and do things. Last weekend, it was garage saling...5 garage sales on Friday and 22 on Saturday. I still haven't gotten the back of the van unloaded from the goodies we found plus the stuff that my ex-husband threw in there.

This weekend, it was Surprise Saturday..or that's what I'm gonna call it now. lol! Last night, while checking out some of my favorite frugal blogs, I noticed a few things that we could do together that would only cost me a tiny bit of gas to get to the places. So, here was our day:

Stop 1 : Neighbor's Garage Sale. I've lived here a year and never met them so I thought I would say hi. Darned if I can remember her name though..man, I'm bad with names. Picked up a few things including a like new small samsonite suitcase for $10. She was going to hold it for me since I didn't have the cash on me. Note to self : Stop by tomorrow's sale and pick that up from her.

Stop 2 : Our local library. The boys and I didn't have library cards yet and I was sure that they would be doing a summer reading program. So, we stopped and got our cards and the boys each picked out 4 books as well as some cds to check out. I got a nice stack of 5 books, as well. I did snap some pictures here, but I left my camera in the van tonight...oops. Oh, and no summer program like I thought. I'm used to the read so many books, get a prize kind of thing. Instead, they have a program every Monday that you go to where they do crafts and reading and such. I took a brochure and signed them up, so I'm sure we'll check it out.

Stop 3 : Walmart. Yes, we had to mix errands in today to make this work for us. Got the boys an icee as a treat because it was so hot and sticky today. Managed to get out of there for under $40 and got everything we needed. I was hoping to pick up a 2nd small dehumidifier for the kitchen, but at $70, I can't afford it. Note to self : Put extra bread in the deep freeze since the humidity will mildew it in 2 days if I don't.

Stop 4 : Michael's. Today they were doing free crafts for kids day! Yay! My youngest loves crafting so he loved making pipe cleaner caterpillars and butterflies and then making paper flowers to tuck into a paper "vase." Of course, mommy watched closely so that we can duplicate this project since they didn't give out instructions. Ben wasn't at all interested and more tried to drag on me and act silly, but we still had fun. Money spent : $0 on the projects, $30 on ribbons and color books and a couple other odds and ends.

Stop 5 : Post Office. I needed a few stamps so I ran in real quick. I think I spent $1.78 here.

Stop 6 : Friendly's for our free one scoop icecream cone. Our local R & B station was also there and the kids and I won 3 free cds. I'll be honest and say I have no idea if they're good, but hey..music is always good, right?

Stop 7 : Pizza Hut. The boys had good report cards and our Pizza Hut in Michigan rewarded good report cards with a free personal pan pizza and a drink. Turns out that our one here in New York doesn't. They don't even deliver. I do all my ordering from little local places..which is good because I like supporting the little stores.

Stop 8 : McDonalds. Because they do reward kids. The boys each got a free happy meal for their report cards. It turns out that locally, the stores give coupons to the schools to hand out but because I had their report cards, the manager was more than happy to give us the deal. Only downside? The place needed a serious clean up. I know they'd been swamped but there wasn't a single clean table.

Stop 9 : Grocery Store. Nothing too exciting here other than as usual, I spent too much on groceries. Now, due to circumstances, I don't need to worry about my grocery budget, but still..I think it's time to spend a couple of weeks eating out of the cupboards and such. See how far we can go with it. I'm picking up a couple of boxes of food at the end of the month, so I think July will work great for starting that project.

Stop 10 : Back at the apartment. My annoying upstairs neighbor yet again parked in the driveway so I pulled in behind her long enough for us to unload everything down into our place. Then, I moved the van back to the road. Roger was a trooper and helped carry things down. Ben did as much as he could. Then, on commercials, Roger helped me find all the perishables and put them away.

Now, I am a tiiiiiired mama. But, I am so thankful for all the wonderful women who blog about living frugal and how to find some great deals. I need to remember to ask them..or ask all of you...Do you know if Rite Aid has anything like CVS and Walgreens does? Our Walgreens (almost literally across the street from my place) got bought out by Rite Aid and it seems like a waste of gas to try to find a CVS or one of the few remaining Walgreens stores.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Social Spark

4:28 PM 1 Comments
For those of you who love getting paid to blog or those of you looking for those of us who love being paid, have you checked out SocialSpark, yet? In their words, Social Spark is “is a Social Marketing Network that connects advertisers and bloggers through an online advertising marketplace.” Perfect for those of us on both sides of the fence!

Now, since I’m being paid to write this and I get to choose any Social Spark profile, I want…How about mine? On first glance, your eye is drawn to my profile picture. Hmm, that one didn’t work. I’ll have to change it to something much less pixilated. Actually, after trying multiple images, I haven't been successful with this. Maybe it would be easier if they allowed you to just upload an icon sized file.

Once you get past my profile picture issues, you start to notice all the cool details about me. You can see where I live, my college education, the fact that I’m a proud parent and more! This is such a great way for advertisers to see me and for others to check me out. If you want, you can even leave me a comment to say hi or to give me some suggestions on sprucing up the place.

What I love so far about this is that it was sooo easy to setup! In no time at all, I had my profile up and running. I can’t wait to see if this helps me bring in even more money towards my goals for this year. If you haven’t yet, go check them out and see if it would work for you.

Finish It Friday

4:00 PM 0 Comments


In my world, Friday's are almost the end of the week. After today, it's the weekend and reserved for basically what we want to do, rarely what we *have* to do. In honor of that, I've created Finish It Friday..the day of the week to wrap up all those loose ends so that you can enjoy your weekend.

Since I stayed home today because my drink poisoning (Thanks Graham for correcting me..hehe) wasn't totally gone, I decided to wrap up some stuff. So here's what I got done:

1. Called my doctor's office to see what was happening with the last sleep study I had done. Turns out they thought I'd been taken care of. Sheesh.
2. Called to find out about ordering new insurance cards for the boys. Go down and request and have temp cards then and there and new in 2 weeks or do it over the phone and have new in 6 weeks.
3. Called on another problem I was having and got that sorted out.

I also decided I was sick of the mess in my purse and cleaned that out. How does so much get shoved in there? And because I'm a scrapbooker at heart, you just know there has to be pictures!

Before:
Messy Purse

All the stuff I pulled out :
Ick! That was all in my purse!

After :
Tidy Purse

And just because I wanted to show the girls that I really did have as many cds as I claimed to be ripping last weekend....
Completed CDS

LA Police Gear

2:45 AM 1 Comments
LA Police Gear offers the largest in stock inventory of 5.11 Shorts. Don’t know what that is? Click here and check out their wide range of products. They carry not only the 5.11 Tactical shorts, but a wide range of security technology!
Did I mention that right now they’re offering free shipping both ways and a free hat with the purchase of any two 5.11 clothing items? Plus, if you purchase over $125 of 5.11 items, you’ll also get a free travel mug. Plus, their prices are often below retail! Don’t delay, check them out today! Just in case you forgot, here’s the link again.


Thursday, June 5, 2008

Time For Me Thursday - Nap Time

10:10 PM 0 Comments


I had good intentions for today, until I gave myself a mild case of food poisoning. Oops! I grabbed a quick drink out of a bottle of juice water that should have been refridgerated but instead had been in my van. Sheesh...think before you drink, huh?

So needless to say, when I got home from work (only 3 weeks left for this part time'er) I felt absolutely rotten. So, my time for me was spent taking a needed nap. Hope yours was fun too!

ScrapScene & Me!

12:45 PM 0 Comments
ooooh...I was mentioned on ScrapScene today! This is so exciting! I feel almost as famous as Famous Klo and Nearly Famous Jill!

*grins* Seriously, check this site out. Even if it's not to see my blog in "print". hehe...

Autographs will be $5 and payable to my paypal account.. *giggles*

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

My Prom Story

11:07 PM 2 Comments
Prom 1994


Over on Mommy's Martini, she's asked her readers to share their stories of Prom. I wasn't going to do this, but since someone special asked me to...here goes:

I wasn't going to go to my Senior Prom. People started arranging their dates months in advance and like most of my time in high school, I was single. Since there was no way that I was going alone, I just wasn't going to go. I was disappointed, but not heartbroken. The truth is that I had this huge crush on a guy who had graduated a few years before me and he saw me like a kid sister.

Anyway, this friend from church told me that I shouldn't miss it, I would regret it for the rest of my life, etc etc. He said he would take me and that way I could go. Well, what girl wouldn't jump at the chance to go, so I said yes. Fast forward a couple of months...suddenly, I have a boyfriend. Oops! He'd graduated a year ahead of me from my high school. I didn't know what to do! Luckily, he was a great guy and said that Rob (guy 1) had already rented his tux, etc so to go with him and we'd hang out after prom.

Fast forward to the day of Prom. My paternal grandfather had died and they decided to hold his funeral on Prom Saturday. Now, I wasn't (& still aren't close) to that side of the family but I thought that I should go..maybe heal some old wounds. Before the funeral, my friend Kim (*waves in case she reads this) and I met up at another friend from church's house to have our makeup done. I can't recall her name, but I know that she sold Mary Kay, I think it was. She showed us how to get all glammed up..the difference between day makeup and night makeup. She even gave us some samples to tuck into our purses for that night.

Then, I, wearing my prom makeup, went to the funeral. Let's not get into how much I regret doing that and the lies that I heard told there. Then, I raced home to have my mom and grandmother do my hair and to get dressed. I think I had 45 minutes to get ready before my dates showed up.

Yep, I said dates! Somehow it got decided that we (Rob, Russ (boyfriend) and myself) would meet at my house and all 3 of us would go out for dinner. Russ bought a new suit. Rob wore his rented tux. I had corsages for both of them. Rob was supposed to bring me a corsage made out of roses, but as you can pry see in the picture, he messed that up.

Anyway, we went off to dinner and it was yummy. It's the only time I've eaten at the Heritage House. Afterwards, I dropped Russ off at my place to pick up his car and Rob and I went on to Prom. We had our pictures taken and then I didn't see him for most of the rest of the night. Turns out he'd only used me to get into our Prom. I danced one dance that night...with my next door neighbor because he felt so bad for me.

Then, we went off to post-prom which wasn't much different. I had a good time with the girls, but Rob was nowhere to be seen. Jerk. We left there early because I was supposed to pick up Russ and we were going to watch movies. Except, he didn't come to the door when we showed up. It was the middle of the night and his mother hated me so I gave up after a few minutes. Man, I remember being pretty unhappy.

In the end, I drove Rob the 45 minutes home and drove back totally on autopilot. I didn't remember anything between leaving his driveway and pulling into the edge of town where I lived. Oh, did I mention..the necklace in the pictures? It belonged to Rob who insisted that I wear it. I still don't know why.

PayPerPost - I've Taken The Plunge

1:36 PM 5 Comments
So, I did it. I signed up for payperpost. I had seen this on a lot of blogs, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to do this. Somehow it seemed like selling out. That was before I saw that my new friend at All Things Frugal had done it and made almost $600 in 3 months, I couldn't say no. After all, every penny sure helps in any household and with gas prices the way they are...whew! The boys and I need all the income we can get this summer and this is something I can do from home. I don't want anyone to worry though, I'm not selling out. This blog will still include all our favorite things..like my crafting and cleaning and organizing...and the list goes on. I started this blog to share those things and I'll keep on sharing them. Besides, all your comments sure do make me feel good about my projects!

If all goes well, the boys and I will have some extra money to do some fun things this summer and to go towards getting some stuff that we need. We all need new summer clothes. Extra money for normal household things sure wouldn't hurt either.


Tackle It Tuesday - Jars

12:43 AM 0 Comments



This isn't a huge tackle like last week. The difference is that this week, I've been sick. My oldest son brought a cold from his dad's house and guess who caught it. Yep! Me. So, while in bed, I tacked some of my jar projects. I'm far from done, but i's progress. My shelf supports also arrived (yay!) so I can get those up and run to Home Depot to pick up the shelves. Then, I can put my jars out so I can smile when I see them. I also finished putting the outer paper on the pencil holders that I'm making. They're not done, but who knows..maybe when they are, I'll do a giveaway with one or sell them on Etsy.


Button JarsJar of Letters

Lineup of JarsPencil Holders


Did I mention that I got 8 wire sided jars for $1.50 at a garage sale this past weekend? Major find! I love these old jars.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

I'm Surrounded

11:25 PM 0 Comments
It's true. I'm surrounded by famous people. If you've checked out my blogroll, you've seen them. First, there is Famous Klo. For those of you who don't know Klo, I'm shocked. It really seems like she knows everyone and everyone knows her. If you don't, take the time to get to know her. She's fabulous!

Speaking of fabulous, the whole point of this post is my friend Jilly...or as I have taken to calling her Nearly Famous Jill. It is just a matter of time before this girl is as popular as Klo, I swear! I got the total joy of meeting her and working with her at the Mega Meet in Novi and watched her in action. She is not shy, that's for sure! I mean, I'll talk to anyone about anything, but I have a shy streak. I'm really scared that I'll be seen as pushy so I tend to fade into the background. Not Jill! She's incredible! She gets right into the middle of things and doesn't hesitate to put herself out there. It's something I really admire in her. And now..now, she's getting even more famous! She's become the featured artist on another blog. Wow! I can seriously only dream of that kind of honor. If you'd like to check out her featured artist post, click here. Otherwise, be sure to check out her blog. It's right over there -----> in my blogroll. :)

Thank You

2:42 PM 1 Comments
I want to say a big thank you to Jim, Justin and my Mom for all signing up with Money Exchange. It means a lot to me that they would support me in my attempts at making a better life for me and for my children. The emails that came in saying that someone had signed up and that Money Exchange had put $10 into my account for each of them put huge smiles on my face. It's hard being a single mom to two boys and these three people made it just a little bit easier.

If you'd like to help out, please don't hesitate! *grins* I'm in a position where every penny helps. I never thought I'd end up being where I am, having to live on less than $500/month and having to pay out more than half of that for my rent. But, here I am and it's thanks to my wonderful friends, in real life and in blogland that we're doing as well as we are.


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