Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop 08.21.11

I'm so happy you're here! Welcome to our 21st week of CBPH! It was a great and fun experience for me and my family this week because we got to have visitors from Canada. My aunt and my cousin arrived last Saturday and stayed with us for a week, and friends, I tell you, they're one-of-a-kind visitors. Normally, our visitors from foreign lands would wanna visit Disneyland, or Universal Studios, or Legoland, Seaworld, or San Diego Zoo, or Knott's Berry, or any other theme park that SoCal is famous for, but no! We took them to JCPenney and they're already ecstatic. Not only that, they're idea of fun... hm, let me take that back, my aunt's idea of fun is a visit to Target, Kmart, Walmart, Stater Brothers...you get the idea, and indeed, I took them all to these places. My aunt's another idea of fun is cooking and baking for us, with lots of stories-exchange, and I love it! She taught me blog-worthy recipes and other tricks of the cooking trade, which I admit, is the skill that I lack. My husband, bless his heart, did an amazing feat by taking off from work last Friday - amazing because he has this big project that needs his supervision while the deadline is looming, but since he already worked long hours during the previous days, he was able to take them to somewhere special. When they came back home last Friday, my cousin and Princess One were grinning from ear to ear because they got to ride the Jurassic Park, The Simpsons, and Revenge of the Mummy, see Terminator 2, Shrek, and many others. Most of all, they've got souvenir pictures from Universal Studios :)

Before I finish this story, just a warning to those planning to go to Universal Studios, who just like me, were AWOL for many years. E.T. is gone, there's no more parting sea like in the Ten Commandments, Back to The Future is kapish, and a few more I can't recall right now. Bummer, I love those 3 deleted features the most :(

Co-host
My co-host this week is Rachel from Pleased as Punch. She chose this blog name because that's her expression whenever she's happy for what she has accomplished. And oh, my! Her blog is full of crafty and DIY tutorials.

Blog Tip
I'm still on that elusive quest to have knockout photos so I'm sharing with you my latest resource about this topic. Darcy from Life with My 3 Boybarians has a series on 31 Days to a Better Photo. Worth the time, my friends.

Favorite Blog
You clicked, inlinkz tallied. The readers' favorite blog post this past week out of 267 links, being the most viewed post, is...it's a tie!

These beautiful planters from My Covered Bridge were just a dollar each and brought beautiful statement to an empty table.



The Creative Imperative repurposed an IKEA wine bottle rack into dishtowels rack in her kitchen.



Our Party
To the main course of this post.
For those of you joining us for the first time, we only have 2 easy, simple rules:

1) Link up your creative post - can be a DIY project, decor, photography, crafts, recipes, poem, thrift finds, link party, or that informative syndicated post that can make us laugh, or cry - in short, whatever you're proud of! And if you like to link more creative posts, go for it! We'd love to see them :) (No links to businesses or giveaways. We have another party for these exclusively every Tuesday called Market Your Biz & Giveaways at 5 pm, PST.)

2) Follow as many blogs as you desire, preferably starting first with the one who linked before you and after you, before branching out, and let them know by leaving a comment. (Following me and the co-host will be very much appreciated, and we definitely follow back. Just let us know you're following.)

Displaying the party button on your blog, while optional, is very much appreciated :) It will help you remember to come back and link up to the the happiest blog party on the block (ahem!). It will also help others find their way to the party which we all love because the more the merrier :)

Link opens up every Sunday at 5:00 pm, PST and ends Friday at 11:59 pm.

Because I like something different, I'm using the reverse entry for inlinkz - so the most recent participant will show up as number 1, thus giving everybody a chance to have the #1 spot.


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Friends, go ahead and get to know each :) One followed blogger is one gained friend. And please, don't forget to join my Market Your Biz and Giveaways blog party every Tuesday at 5 pm, PST. It's your chance for free promotion of your family-friendly business and giveaways.





Burning question: What's your most memorable experience with a visitor in your home?