general blogginess

I had no idea how much traffic StumbleUpon would drive to my blog! A while back, someone stumbled upon a certain recipe entry on my other blog and it’s worked as well as seo software to get people visiting me. Typically I get an AdSense check from Google once a year. I got my last check in September and another check will soon be heading my way. It’s not a tremendous about of money, true, but every little bit helps! It’s especially nice when the “work” is as effortless as placing a blog banner on your blog. Easy and not terribly intrusive. I know some people hate when blogs have ads, but I have never minded.

Search & Win

I’m super psyched because I just cashed in my first set of 45 Swagbucks for a $5 Amazon e-certificate. What’s Swagbucks you might ask? Only a super easy way to earn point for prizes just by searching! Whenever you want to search for something on the web, use your Swagbucks search instead. For example, if you wanted to look up “best weight loss supplement“, instead of going to Google, just go to Swagbucks and look it up there. You will randomly be awarded prizes of 1, 2 or even 5 “bucks”. Super easy! There are other prizes too, but the Amazon card is the best for me. It took me less than a month of searching to rack up the points. Give it a shot!

Speaking of Christmas Shopping

I am at a loss as to what to buy the adults in our family. Even my husband. The last two years I have rocked with the gifts. Last year I bought him a new MP3 player; the year before it was a DVD recorder. This year? I have no idea. If he was into jewelry I would consider a Ulysse Nardin watch. Aren’t they gorgeous? But he is a pretty casual guy and half the time doesn’t even wear a watch, so that is out. Any gift suggestions for guys?

Money Saving Mom

Just like most people, I try to scrimp and save however I can. I am lucky that I get paid to blog for a couple different sites and that helps contribute to our monthly income more than I could have imagined a year ago. I just happened to come across this blog called Money Saving Mom and wow — awesome tips on saving money. Crystal is like a money-saving genius. I kid you not. I love how she breaks down weekly flyers and shows you how to get the most out of them. I’m going to start using her tips for shopping at CVS — a place I never think of going to unless I need cough medicine! Anyway, I just wanted to pass that site along. Be sure to check it out!

Recipes from the Stars

Ever wonder what celebrities like to cook? (Because they do cook right? Tell me at least a few are capable human beings, LOL!) Well, I saw this article on CNN about celebrities’ favorite recipes. Here’s who cooks what:

• Chris Noth makes fish & chips
• Emily Deschanel makes vegan cookies
• Melina Kanakaredes makes stuffed grape leaves and avgolemono (YUM!)
• LeAnn Rimes makes Cabo chicken and sangria
• Sara Ramierez makes key lime pie and chai

I’ll give to give a few of these a try! They all sound so good.

Ravelry

Wahoo! I got my Ravelry invitation today and I am so excited to log in and explore. I’ve heard nothing but awesome things about the site. For the uninitiated, Ravelry is an online organizer/community for knitters. You can catalog your stash, post your projects, and view other projects and note the ones you would like to knit. Plus there is the whole community aspect too. It’s great! I’m “CarolB” over there so feel free to add me as a friend!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy July 4th! Is anyone doing anything exciting today? Fireworks, barbeques, etc? The weather here isn’t so great today so we’ll be grilling burgers and dogs and saving the fireworks for another day. Too bad because the boys were really excited about it. If you are stuck inside as well, check out all the craft ideas that you can do with your kids! There are some great ones here.

Creating a household organizer

A few years ago I was really on the FlyLady bandwagon. Since then my interest in it has ebbed and flowed, but I did get a few good ideas. One of the things that really helped me keep things together was putting together a household organizer. Mine is basically a three ring binder with seven page protectors (one for each day of the week), and inside those page protectors I’ve listed my daily routines – things I generally do on that day each week (for example, Sunday is “grocery shopping”; Tuesday is “garbage/recycling”; every day is “feed pets,” etc. I also have a folder for take out menus and a place to stash stamps and return address labels. It’s also a good idea to keep your address list here. Basically, the more information you keep organized in it, the more valuable it becomes. Here are a couple links to sites that describe how to put one together for yourself:

Making a household planner
Household notebook (with printables)
Lifesaver Lists (with printables)
Homemaking Journal

Hopefully you’ll get some ideas from these sites and be on your way to becoming more organized!