CBPH #52 Features

Hello, bloggy friends! Welcome to another episode of the best crafts from this week's Creative Bloggers' Party Hop. Allow me to continue with the Easter treats and goodies.

Jellyfish Jelly lets us enjoy chocolates with these Easter Egg Hot Choco Dipping Spoons. Oh so sweet!



Delight your kids with these Easter Bunny Cupcakes by Carolyn of Desire Empire.



Andrea of My Cake Corner shares her yummy Easter Egg Cookies. Your kids will surely be loving them because they could see their names on their cookies.



Here are some inspiring Easter Table style tips and valuable ideas by Lynda of NYCLQ.



In addition to the Tablescape tips, Danielle of Blissful and Domestic shares 30 fabulous Spring projects. Fill your eyes with these colorful wonders by paying a visit to her site.



Discover an inexpensive way to organize your tiny accessories such as earrings. Mimi of Living in France used pill boxes and labeled each square to keep her valuables.



Karah of The Space Between shares some cool ideas to add in your artsy fartsy gallery wall.



Thank you very much for linking up and sharing your awesome and wonderful crafts.

 

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Easter Baskets

Thanks for the Easter, reflections by Cori

Nothing makes me more aware of my new found adulthood than reflecting on the things I took for granted as a child. When I think about holidays, and how much I expected as a child without any thought to how it came to fruition I realize how completely silly and, sadly, ungrateful I really was.

With Easter just around the corner and my five adorable nieces and nephews to spoil, I have been thinking a lot about the traditions we used to have as kids.

On Easter morning my sisters and I would pop out of bed and begin the hunt for our Easter baskets and random scattered eggs. I remember how exciting it was to find your basket and tear through it checking out each yummy piece of candy or small, colorful toy.

I never stopped to think about the kind of effort that was put into making each one of these custom baskets for each of us. As I am gathering items to fill the baskets for my 5 cuties, I have realized what a huge undertaking this really is.

Putting together the perfect basket full of tasty treats and appropriate toys, puzzles, books, etc, can be really time consuming (not to mention EXPENSIVE). Every once in a while you see those pre-made baskets in a food store or pharmacy, but inevitably they are full of just generally crappy items and there is little room for customization.

While looking through the disappointing selection at my local grocery store I was suddenly struck with the idea that I had never really used the internet to try to find Easter accoutrement before (though I have done plenty of online shopping to cover almost any other holiday!)

What I discovered was a whole world of pre-made gift baskets that met my standards for Easter fun without all the work of putting it together. You can find cute, cuddly stuffed
bunnies accompanied by full-size candy favorites like skittles, twizzlers, and M&M’s.

There are even adult Easter gift baskets that I am secretly hoping someone out there gets the hint and sends me! Red wine and Dark Chocolate? In an Easter Basket? Yes, please!!

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Market Your Biz & Giveaways #42

Happy Business Tuesday, everyone! Welcome to Market Your Biz and Giveaways :)

Our Party

NO RULES! Just link up your etsy and/or family-friendly business, browse other businesses before you and after you. It's a great way to network with other business owners. For the giveaways, same thing. Just link up your giveaways and join the other giveaways that catch your eye. If you have a creative post and you want to increase your followers, the appropriate blog party for that is called Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop.

Link opens every Tuesday, 5:00 pm, PST and ends Saturday, 11:59 pm.

Here's the party button. Displaying the party button on your blog, while optional, is very much appreciated! For one, it will help you to remember to come back here next week. Secondly, we want to spread the word about businesses and giveaways so many can join in. Mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook will also make you totally awesome :)


<center><a href="http://www.homemakeronadime.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae194/homemakeronadime/MYBG1-3-2-1.jpg" /></a></center>

PS: I'm not a blog police but in the name of order and organization, you'll be my bloggy BFF if you link up in the appropriate links :D Please note that there are two links. Here's the link for your businesses. There's a second link below specifically for giveaways so how about linking up your giveaways in there? Besides, it's easier to find and join your giveaways if they're in the appropriate link. If you accidentally linked up in the wrong spot, don't fret. Just click the red x before your link to delete it, then link up in the correct spot.

Link Up Your Family-friendly Businesses Here

Link Up Your Giveaways Here
To bring maximum exposure for your giveaways, I'm collaborating with Brynn from MommyDigger so please feel free to link up your giveaways, too, in her party every Wednesday.

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Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop #52

Yay! You're here, my friends! Thanks for consistently sharing all your fabulous projects.

I just can't resist sharing you this story. Princess One has an independent study due for submission this June during their school's open house. Ever since she reached 3rd grade, she and her classmates have been hammered with writing reports that require research. This year, she decided to write a research paper on Victoria Justice, you know that actress in the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101 and Victorious. Oh, my goodness! My daughter is so star-struck that she went to the extent of sending Victoria Justice a letter to ask her questions for her report.

I remember following my favorite celebrity when I was young, but only secretly, through the news and shows she starred in. When I saw her do a movie shoot in the college I attended to, I even played it cool by surreptitiously looking at her, and never intended to ask an autograph. I guess because my friends then eschewed the idea of following celebrities that I vowed never to ask for anything from any celebrity - not a picture, nor an autograph, nor anything at all. Well, I accepted the fact that times have changed, so when Princess One finished the letter, I mailed it in for her, with the warning that Victoria Justice is always busy so she might, or she might not respond to her. If Victoria responds, I'll let you know, my friends. If not, then that means she didn't. How about you, did you or your kid contact a celebrity? What was the outcome?

Blog Tip
Photoshop.com mobile is a good app to edit pictures for you moms that use your phones in taking photos. This is a video tutorial that you might find useful.

Favorite Blog
You clicked, inlinkz tallied. The readers' favorite blog post this past week, being the most viewed post, is Design Dreams By Anne's easy peasy mason jar project. These jars are truly versatile!

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, either via Google Friend Connect or Linky Followers, 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 will be very much appreciated, and I definitely follow back. Just let me 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.


<center><a href="http://www.homemakeronadime.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae194/homemakeronadime/creativeblogbuttonjpg.jpg" /></a></center>
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.

Now, let's party like no other!

Burning question: In your entire life, have you contacted a celebrity? What was the outcome?

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CBPH #51 Features

It's another relaxing weekend, ladies. The atmosphere of Easter Season is already here. What are you planning to spend memories with your loved ones? Here is another list of the wonderful crafts from this week's Creative Bloggers' Party Hop links.

Create Easter eggs from colorful punched papers by Sarah of Alderberry Hill.

Bring out your crocheting talents in creating crocheted Easter eggs as Trish of Mom on Timeout shares us how.

Check Angie's blog, Knick of Time, and see how she managed to convert her old drawers to display shelves.

Maximize your bedroom space by placing under-the-bed-storage for your clothes and other stuffs. Priscilla of Thrifty Crafty Girl used three drawers of her dresser for this project. 

Carolyn of Carolyn's Homework shares her spring paper flower centerpiece in which her colorful flowers were made of cheap napkins.

Rachel of Thrifty Inspirations shows her adorable dining room makeover which costs her $40 only.

A cute ruffled spring wreath, perfect for this season, was shared by Jennifer of Delightfully Noted.

Thank you very much for linking up. May you continue sharing your tutorials, projects, and beautiful crafts.

  

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Market Your Biz & Giveaways #41

Happy Business Tuesday, everyone! Welcome to Market Your Biz and Giveaways :)

Business owners, we wanna see your products. Giveaways are good because they create a buzz about your business. Giveaway hosts, we wanna join! Readers, here's your chance to win fabulous freebies. So come on in and participate in this virtual marketplace.

Featured Biz

Our featured biz today is Posh Patina, who has variety of items including hand-made clay knobs, painted wood knobs, home decor and flour sack kitchen towels with added accents.

Calling all jewelry-lovers! This pair of Bird - Blue/Green Tie Dye Lace and White Dove Hand Painted Filigree Earrings is really a stunner.

If you're looking for one-of-a-kind pair of earrings, check out her Bahama Mama - Handpainted Lace Filigree Earrings.

Our Party

NO RULES! Just link up your etsy and/or family-friendly business, browse other businesses before you and after you. It's a great way to network with other business owners. For the giveaways, same thing. Just link up your giveaways and join the other giveaways that catch your eye. If you have a creative post and you want to increase your followers, the appropriate blog party for that is called Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop.

Link opens every Tuesday, 5:00 pm, PST and ends Saturday, 11:59 pm.

Here's the party button. Displaying the party button on your blog, while optional, is very much appreciated! For one, it will help you to remember to come back here next week. Secondly, we want to spread the word about businesses and giveaways so many can join in. Mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook will also make you totally awesome :)


<center><a href="http://www.homemakeronadime.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae194/homemakeronadime/MYBG1-3-2-1.jpg" /></a></center>

PS: I'm not a blog police but in the name of order and organization, you'll be my bloggy BFF if you link up in the appropriate links :D Please note that there are two links. Here's the link for your businesses. There's a second link below specifically for giveaways so how about linking up your giveaways in there? Besides, it's easier to find and join your giveaways if they're in the appropriate link. If you accidentally linked up in the wrong spot, don't fret. Just click the red x before your link to delete it, then link up in the correct spot.

Link Up Your Family-friendly Businesses Here

Link Up Your Giveaways Here
To bring maximum exposure for your giveaways, I'm collaborating with Brynn from MommyDigger so please feel free to link up your giveaways, too, in her party every Wednesday.

Get more Traffic

Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop 03.18.12

Happy Sunday, everyone! Thanks for coming to our weekly date :)

This past week was parent-teacher conference in our school district so I got the chance to meet with Princess One's homeroom teacher. I was already happy that she got A's and Outstanding in all but 2 areas - Science and Social Science; however, that was short-lived when the teacher expressed that Princess One has to be challenged and pushed more because she can do more. My goodness, this teacher is looking for perfection! He said that if Princess One will go to college, she should be groomed as early as now because it's very competitive to enter, even to the average universities. "They even look as far back as the kids' sophomore year, not just the senior year!" he exclaimed. I asked him, "If we push her right now to read books at the 7th grade level (she's just 10), or do those research papers like a pro, or keep on challenging her to do things beyond her grade level, isn't that stripping her of childhood enjoyment?" My biggest concern is if Princess One burns out very early on instead of having the joy of learning. He agreed that I have a point and that whatever Princess One chooses, he'll still think highly of her. I can see his point that if the child can handle it, then push her to more challenging academic endeavors. Now here's my question to you, my friends. Do you agree with the teacher? Why or why not?

Now let's get back to our party.

Blog Tip
Most of the time, for simple and cheap projects, we buy from the Dollar Store but here's a good post on what not to buy at a Dollar Store from Holy Craft. Sound advice!

Favorite Blog
You clicked, inlinkz tallied. The readers' favorite blog post this past week, being the most viewed post, is Lindsay's burlap book wreath tutorial. It's a fun way to dress up your door this spring :)

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, either via Google Friend Connect or Linky Followers, 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 will be very much appreciated, and I definitely follow back. Just let me 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.


<center><a href="http://www.homemakeronadime.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae194/homemakeronadime/creativeblogbuttonjpg.jpg" /></a></center>
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.

Now, let's party like no other!

Burning question: Based from my experience above, would you push your child to undertake more challenging academic endeavors? Why or why not?

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CBPH #50 Features

Welcome to another parade of blog features, bloggy friends! You are all amazing with all the creative projects you linked up. Check out what caught my eye in this week's Creative Bloggers' Party Hop.

Mural, mural on the wall, who's the swirliest of them all? Jamie's magic swirls them all. Find out more of her astonishing wall designs in The Creative Imperative.



Create a 3D Garden and bring your colorful bugs and flowers to life. Learn the easy tricks from Miya of Jellyfish Jelly.



Recreating a $308 Sunburst Mirror with an $8 budget? That would mean great savings. Jacky of Small Home Love shows you how.



Read some tips on setting up an inviting table for spring in Shari's blog, Turnstyle Vogue.



Cozy Home Scenes welcomes the season of spring by decorating a vignette knockoff. That lovely and blooming flowers, it's springtime at last!



Need an idea to fill up huge but lifeless walls in your living room? Try hanging medallions like these with the instructions of Hollie at I'm Busy Procrastinating.



Craft your own dashing jewel earrings as Christine of The DIY Dreamer teaches you how. You can even sell some.



And those are my latest best picks for this week. To my beloved linkers, thank you very much for sharing your amazing talents. See you again this Sunday in our Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop.

Market Your Biz & Giveaways #40

Come on in and link up your family-friendly online businesses and giveaways. It has been long said that businesses are the lifeblood of the economy. Not only that, businesses really fuel the economy. This blog party, solely dedicated to promoting businesses and giveaways, is my way of giving back to the community so welcome to Market Your Biz & Giveaways!

Gina (who, by the way, already guest posted in my Blogging for Dollars Series) from the Shabby Creek Cottage said it best, "You may not get a sale directly from that site every single day – but you are building brand recognition. Pepsi does not advertise so that you stop what you’re doing and go directly to buy a drink – but when you do need to quench your thirst and you are shopping for a drink, Pepsi is going to be recognizable to you. Bottom line, you need to build your brand!" This blog party helps you accomplish build your brand.

Business owners, we wanna see your products. Giveaways are good because they create a buzz about your business. Giveaway hosts, we wanna join! Readers, here's your chance to win fabulous freebies. So come on in and participate in this virtual marketplace.

Featured Biz

Our featured biz today is Simple Home Life Studio, who has variety of items including hand-made clay knobs, painted wood knobs, home decor and flour sack kitchen towels with added accents.

Her made to order Open Road Clay Knob Collection is such a rarity

and her made-to-order White Rose Clay Knobs collection is such a beauty.

Our Party

NO RULES! Just link up your etsy and/or family-friendly business, browse other businesses before you and after you. It's a great way to network with other business owners. For the giveaways, same thing. Just link up your giveaways and join the other giveaways that catch your eye. If you have a creative post and you want to increase your followers, the appropriate blog party for that is called Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop.

Link opens every Tuesday, 5:00 pm, PST and ends Saturday, 11:59 pm.

Here's the party button. Displaying the party button on your blog, while optional, is very much appreciated! For one, it will help you to remember to come back here next week. Secondly, we want to spread the word about businesses and giveaways so many can join in. Mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook will also make you totally awesome :)


<center><a href="http://www.homemakeronadime.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae194/homemakeronadime/MYBG1-3-2-1.jpg" /></a></center>

PS: I'm not a blog police but in the name of order and organization, you'll be my bloggy BFF if you link up in the appropriate links :D Please note that there are two links. Here's the link for your businesses. There's a second link below specifically for giveaways so how about linking up your giveaways in there? Besides, it's easier to find and join your giveaways if they're in the appropriate link. If you accidentally linked up in the wrong spot, don't fret. Just click the red x before your link to delete it, then link up in the correct spot.

Link Up Your Family-friendly Businesses Here

Link Up Your Giveaways Here
To bring maximum exposure for your giveaways, I'm collaborating with Brynn from MommyDigger so please feel free to link up your giveaways, too, in her party every Wednesday.

Get more Traffic