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Smart & Stylish Kitchen Storage Solutions

Showroom Dispay traditional kitchen

Smart DIY Solutions

I am so in love with this new site that I found today – and I think you guys will love it too. It’s called Houzz.come, and it’s all about home remodels and cool DIY projects. You can browse by room, and find some totally amazing ideas. I’m cooking up some plans for a kitchen makeover –  {a remodel isn’t in the budget, but a reorganization and spruce up is!} –  and I got a ton of amazing ideas.

Oak Park Kitchen III traditional kitchen

How awesome would this pantry cupboard be?

I have a big blended household, as I’ve mentioned before, and it can be hard to keep things organized with such a big family. I have a pantry cupboard that’s just empty shelves, really deep – I’m wondering if we could convert them to cool storage doors like these above? Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Divine Kitchens LLC contemporary kitchen

What an awesome use of drawer space!

Love this – I hate counter-clutter. But there are so many things in the kitchen that you need easy access to. This is a very cool solution, and totally do-able in my house. I started meal-planning, two weeks at a time, to help keep dinnertime chaos to a minimum, and now it’s time to get the whole kitchen better organized so that I can make those meals without digging through jumbled up drawers and cupboards.

Painted kitchen with walnut contemporary kitchen

The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home – Make it Rock!

For more cool home ideas, follow me on Pinterest! {Love these ideas? Pin ’em to your own boards too!}

 

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Posted by on January 20, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 10 Comments

Social Media Boost – Cash Giveaway

Social Media Boost Cash Giveaway

New Cash Giveaway!

I’ve partnered with a bunch of great ladies for a a new weekly event – Each week, we’ll introduce you to a different one of our social media pages – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ – you get the idea. And one lucky fan each week will take home a cash prize. Good times, right?

Enter to WIN!

Use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form below to get your entries – and if you’re feeling lucky, check out my list of open giveaways there in the sidebar too!

Good Luck!

[Read more…]

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Posted by on January 20, 2012 Filed Under: Giveaways | 1 Comment

How To: Get 33 Fun New Freebies Today

How to Get Free Samples

Who Loves Free Stuff?

Would you love to open your mailbox each day, and see it stuffed full of cool free stuff like this? Of course you would – It’s much better than bills, right? So – Here’s your weekly list of cool free stuff. If you’ve found a great freebie today, share a link in the comments. And feel free to share this post with your freebie lovin’ friends too – The easy peasy share buttons for Facebook and Twitter are right up top. Have a great weekend!

Beauty Freebies

  • Smashbox: Get $10 free credit on your purchase of $50 or more – use code SWEETDEAL at checkout to save at Smashbox.
  • MySavings: Get the newest new free samples today – Free Trial Size Bath & Body Works, free copy of Martha Stewart Magazine, and lots more.
  • Fragrance: Get a free sample of the new Tropical Breeze fragrance spray.

Tech & Finance Freebies

Health & Weight Loss Freebies

Pet Freebies:

Fun Freebies:

  • Under One Roof: New community combining HGTV, Food Network, and Travel Channel, where you can share your experiences in home improvement, decorating, cooking, shopping. Super fun. And – by signing up and confirming, you’re automatically entered to win a $250 Amazon Gift Card!
  • Bake Pops: Buy one Bake Pops set, get one totally FREE! This is my favorite invention of all time :)
  • Family Memories: Our old VHS family movies begin degrading after only 10 years. My childhood videos are over 20 years old now! Sign up for a free account at iMemories, {choose ‘ship it myself’ to make the account free} and check out the amazing tools they give you to create cool family movie DVD’s!
  • Coloring Book: Get a free educational coloring book for your child, ages 5-8. I’ve requested stuff from them many times, always good quality.
  • House Party: Apply to host an HGTV House Hunters House Party event. They’ll send you out a party pack filled with everything you need for a fun night.
  • Free Movies: Watch independent films for free on Fandor – very cool site.
  • Snapily: Set up a quick account, get a FREE $3 credit! Very cool photo products.
  • Free Card: Join Thankster, and get a free thank you card as a gift for joining!
  • Food on the Table: Free Menu Plannning service that matches your favorite recipes to local store sales – so cool, and saves me TONS of time!

Travel Freebies

Baby Freebies

  • Magazine: Get your FREE Subscription to American Baby Magazine. Click Here.
  • Pampers: Sign up for the Gifts to Grow program, and use the codes on every Pampers product to get free stuff – I use mine for free Shutterfly photo packages!
  • Planning Family: You can find advice, free samples, programs to join, and my favorite – printable diaper coupons!

Share the fun!

If you have freebie lovin’ friends, feel free to share this list with them. And if you have a cool free offer you’ve found today, take a minute to leave a link in the comments – I’m sure we’d all love to go and check it out too! Have a great weekend….
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Posted by on January 20, 2012 Filed Under: Freebies | 3 Comments

How to Get Daily Worth to Pay Off Your Holiday Spending

Frugal Living Made Fun

Did you know – The average family spent an extra $704 bucks over the holidays? Crazy, right? Most of us are tightening up our budgets this year, and can always use some new tips to make a frugal lifestyle more fun. Which is why you will LOVE Daily Worth. It’s an awesome daily personal finance email just for women, and it’s totally free. Sign up today, you’ll love it.

And, there’s more…

Daily Worth is giving THREE new sign-ups a cash prize of $704 – to help patch up your family budget! Love it. Enter today –

Holiday Payout with Daily Worth

And if you’re feeling lucky today, check out my list of giveaways over in the sidebar too! The more you enter, the more chances you have to win! Good luck!

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Posted by on January 19, 2012 Filed Under: Contests | No Comments

A Toddler’s Rules of Possession – #Humor

Funny Toddler Rules

So true, right?

I love number 5 – my little girl is at that stage right now. Not sure where this came from originally, but I found it today on Text Funny Pictures on Facebook. Feel free to share this around – It’s too funny not to, right?

Mr. Food

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Posted by on January 19, 2012 Filed Under: Fun Stuff | 6 Comments

Largest Online Protest in History: Why SOPA & PIPA Matter to You

Web Blackout SOPA and PIPA

Want to know why some of your favorite websites suddenly went black?

If you haven’t heard of SOPA or PIPA yet, I’m really not all that surprised. Mainstream media has done a great job of keeping this issue out of sight, and many people have no idea that the freedom that they now enjoy when using the internet is seriously threatened by these two bills that our government has been putting together to “protect us”. That’s why some of your favorite sites will be blacked out today – to make you aware of what’s going on, before it’s too late.

SOPA, PIPA, WTH?

Confused already? SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA stands for Protect Intellectual Property Act. Those sound like good things right? The problem is, the names of these bills are quite deceiving. What these bills will do is give anyone the right to shut down any website at any time. Seriously. And they would make many of us criminals.

Why this Matters to You

SOPA would give the Department of Justice the authority to shut down any website that hosts copyrighted material – Meaning, not just those sites you go to when you want to illegally download movies or music. Sites like eBay, Craigslist, Wikipeida, and my beloved Pinterest could be shut down simply because their USERS uploaded material that they didn’t own. Right now those sites are protected by “Safe Harbor” laws – but if SOPA were to pass, those sites could be deemed “enablers”, and have their entire website shut down. And there is almost nothing that a site owner can do once this happens to them.

This is Serious Stuff

There are a lot of theories about the motives behind this – But most people agree that if either of these bills were to pass, it will lead to a major censorship of the internet. Sites like Facebook won’t want to risk being shut down – so instead, they’ll have to censor their users strongly to ensure that they are in compliance with the new bills. And I don’t know about you – But I do NOT like being censored.

Who is Protesting?

This is such an incredibly big threat to the internet that we know now, that website owners are going so far as to black out their sites as a show of protest. Who is blacked out? Well, if you haven’t already noticed them, here are a few:

  • Google.com – You’ll see the black bar over their logo.
  • Wikipedia – Directs you to contact info for your representatives.
  • Craigslist – Black site, with a SOPA opposition message.
  • Reddit.com – Goes down in a few hours, you can read more on their site.
  • Mozilla.com – Goes black at 8am Eastern Time, read more.

Visit SOPAStrike.com to learn what other sites are protesting, how you can join the protest by blacking out your own site for 12 hours, how to join the movement on Twitter, and more.

Wasn’t the vote canceled?

Yes, due to the growing pressure from so many influential people on the web, they’ve temporarily delayed the vote on SOPA. But PIPA is still on track to be voted on, and SOPA is far from defeated. If you want to learn more about these bills, these sites explain it all much better than I can:

If you aren’t feeling angry, frustrated, disgusted, or a wee bit scared after reading all of those – then you didn’t read them right. JK – but seriously. I debated joining this strike, since I am EXTREMELY opposed to these bills. But – I have sponsors and media partners that I have obligations with, and since I couldn’t reach agreements with all of them on going black for a day, I’ll be staying live. I hope to black out my site for at least part of the day, this afternoon. But I wanted to do my part to spread the word about this – and encourage YOU to take action. Whether it’s writing to your congressman or simply sending out a tweet. Visit SOPASTIKE.com for more info.

What do YOU think?

Share your thoughts on SOPA and PIPA in the comments…. If you disagree with someone, be respectful. Discussion is encouraged, disrespect is not. But I would love to hear your views on this…

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Posted by on January 17, 2012 Filed Under: Blogging Resources | 9 Comments

Stumble Tumble Tuesday

StumbleUpon for Bloggers

Welcome to Stumble Tumble Tuesday hosted by Acting Balanced, Sunshine and Sippy Cups and Wyoming Girl Turned Coastie Wife! The goal of this hop is to use Stumble Upon to help you promote your blog posts and get more traffic.

Even if you think you are stumbling correctly, please read this post on how to check and see if your stumble was successful. Some stumbles aren’t showing up, thanks!

 To take part is simple

  1. Add a link to a blog post that you would like people to stumble to the linky below. It *must* be a link to an actual post and NOT your main site. Please do not list giveaways.
  2. Stumble as many other posts as you care to, check to make sure that your stumble went through by clicking on the “Info” icon. If you’d like to, you can leave a comment on their post saying something like, “I’m stopping by from Stumble Tumble Tuesday and just stumbled you – great post! My post is _____(add link)”. That makes it easier for them to return the love! The great thing about Stumble Upon is that it is fast and easy to do with the Stumble Upon toolbar. PLEASE DO NOT ADD YOUR LINK IF YOU AREN’T GOING TO STUMBLE ANY POSTS.
  3. Remember LINK TO AN ACTUAL POST, NOT YOUR MAIN SITE.
  4. PLEASE DON’T LIST ANY GIVEAWAYS.
  5. PLEASE ONLY ONE LINK PER BLOG.

Feel free to post about Stumble Tumble Tuesday on your blog and help us spread the word – The more people are stumbling, the more traffic we’ll all get, and, hey – the more, the merrier, right?

Have fun with it and let’s discover and stumble some posts!

The first person to “like” a post on StumbleUpon assigns it a category. If your post has not been discovered yet, please leave the category you would like, in your link to help the discoverer assign it correctly. Example: Strawberry Shortcake Recipe (food).

If you have ANY questions on how this works – remember to read the post above, which covers some great basics. If that doesn’t answer it, leave me a comment here or on my Facebook wall – and I’ll get back to your right away. StumbleUpon can be an uh-MAY-zing new way to increase traffic to your site – and this is a fun way to use it!

Stumble Tumble Tuesday Linky

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Posted by on January 17, 2012 Filed Under: Blog Hops | 1 Comment
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