The Lucky One Giveaway

Would you like to be invited to my Nicholas Sparks House Party? I was one of the “lucky ones” (ha! Aren’t I clever?) to win the Nicholas Sparks Potluck House Party featuring the book “The Lucky One” (ok – do you get it now?) and would like to offer you the opportunity to join us. Alright, you aren’t actually going to receive an invitation to my house but I am offering you the opportunity to participate in my House Party by receiving a free copy of the book The Lucky One.


What is House Party? Let me tell you a little bit about it. House Party is a website that major companies use to promote new products. I was selected at Christmas time to host a Just Dance House Party. As part of my “party pack” I received a free copy of the Just Dance 3 game for Kinect. Since it was Belle’s birthday, we had our House Party coincide with her birthday party. Everyone had a great time and I was a ‘rock star’ mom. Parties that are currently accepting applications include Blue Bunny & Redbook. Check it out, you just may be the next House Party host or hostess.

For my Nicholas Sparks House Party I received 14 copies of the book The Lucky One, which will soon be released as a movie. Each attendee received a book to read before the party but I still have five books left over. I debated what to do with my leftover books and decided that they would make a great giveaway. Sooooo, I’d like to offer you a chance to get one of the books for free.

Here are the rules of entry. Each contestant can have up to five chances to enter. Completing each task gives you one opportunity to win

1. Leave a comment below making sure I know how to get in contact with you
2. For an additional entry, “like” me on Facebook
3. For an additional entry follow me on Pinterest
4. For an additional entry follow me on Twitter (@wonderwomanimno)
5. For an additional entry sign up to receive my posts via e-mail (right hand side of blog)
Five people will win one paperback copy of The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks and one bookmark. Winners will be notified by e-mail. The drawing will be held on April 27th.

I have to say that I flew through this book and loved it! Not all of Nicholas Sparks’ books appeal to me but this was definitely a good one. Whether you are a winner or not I would encourage you to read the book.

Good Luck!



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The Works for Me! giveaway which will end on April 20th.
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Frugal Gardening

Spring is in the air!

 

Who has spring fever? I can certainly say that I do! For me, spring fever comes with the desire to get out in the garden and start getting my hands dirty. Due to time constraints, I don’t do vegetable gardens but I do have flower beds coming out of my ears! Every year I seem to add a little bit more.

 

Flower gardening can be a very expensive hobby if you let it. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law actually take bus trips around the state buying different flowers for their beds. In the past my mother has spent hundreds of dollars at a time buying flowers. If I’m going to be honest, I do get a little crazy with my annuals as well.

 

Gardening doesn’t have to be expensive, especially if you are doing perennial gardening. There may be a few of you non-gardeners scratching your heads so let me back up a little bit. Annuals need to be planted every year (which is where the majority of my flower budget goes) while perennials come back year after year. Quite often, perennials will multiple in a way that in some cases leave you pulling your hair out!

 

That’s where flower gardening doesn’t have to cost you a lot of money. I’ll share a secret with you; no gardener wants to waste flowers. When it comes time to split our flowers we’re sometimes begging people to take them. I’m jumping up and down for joy this year because I have two people that want to take my ferns. Last year I couldn’t pay anyone to take them.

 

How can you start/maintain a garden with minimal investment?

 

1. Befriend a gardener. I’m going to venture a guess that there are very few gardeners out there who aren’t delighted to share some of their flowers. Personally, I’ve rarely come across a stingy gardener. However, there are a couple of rules.

• You can’t be overly picky. Remember, you aren’t going to a store buying what you need so don’t be offended if the gardener doesn’t want to split something. Not all plants split well, it may not be big enough to split or it may just be one of their favorite plants and they don’t want to share. If you don’t want what they are offering just say so.
• Don’t expect the gardener to do it when it’s convenient for you. I love sharing plants but only when it’s convenient for me. If I’m splitting this weekend, that’s when I’m splitting. If it doesn’t work out for you then don’t take them. Ok – I’m not always that tough but you get the picture
• Offer a small thank you gesture. Most of us don’t want money, but a home baked treat or a $5 gift certificate to Starbucks is always appreciated.

2.  Let everyone know you’re looking for flowers. I got a call one day from a friend who had a friend who had a friend that bought a house with beautiful flower beds that they didn’t want. They were calling people to come dig them out and take them home. I ended up with some fun flowers that I would have never bought on my own.

 

3. Ask for gift certificates. I have a $50 gift certificate for a local nursery that I got for Christmas. That will certainly help out when I go to plant my annuals this year. Letting the people who buy you presents know that you want money for a garden can help offset your investment.

 

4. Take advantage of garden club memberships. One of our local nurseries offers gift certificates when you spend X amount of dollars. Every little bit helps!

 

5. Get a buddy. Sometimes you just want to break down and buy some plants. My mom and I will sometimes go shopping; pick out a couple large plants that we like and split the cost as well as the plant. We each end up with the flowers we want but at half the price.

 

6. Buy off season. I always check out the clearance bins at the end of summer. Some of the flowers look pretty scraggly but if they are cheap enough I’ll take a chance. Most of them come back the following year.

 

7. Pay it forward. I’ve built most of my flower beds with help from other gardeners so I like to be generous and help others. I’ve been pleasantly surprised when I make a general offer (I’ll sometimes tack a note up on the board) for some of my plants to have other gardeners offer different plants back to me.

 

I hope these tips are helpful as you plan your spring plantings.  I'd love to hear your ideas for frugal gardening.  Feel free to leave a comment or link back to your gardening post. 

I’ll be posting this at We are THAT Family and Life as Mom

 

That Works for Me!

Being an amateur blogger can be a little weird and unsettling. Every few days you sit down to write out what’s on your mind. Sometimes you may share a recipe, a tip that helps bring some order into the chaos you call life or you just might share what’s going on with your family.

There are no hard and fast rules to becoming a successful blogger so we come to rely on others as we find our way. We look for blogs and writers we like to follow, trying to either emulate them or learn from their successes and failures. Using tools like comments and analytics we try to determine our reach. Are we actually reaching people who care what we think? Is it possible we are standing on a stage giving a speech, only to realize we’ve been talking to ourselves for the last hour?

As a blogger who doesn’t make any money at this point (it’s a good thing I’m doing it for love isn’t it?) it can be difficult to measure my success. If I was making a lot of money I would be successful, right? Maybe, maybe not. Money is nice and certainly helps pay the bills, but as an amateur blogger recognition means more. Having a well respected blogger take a little notice of you and actually tell you that she likes some of your posts can be more thrilling than money.

A few months ago I received an e-mail from Kristen Welch at We are THAT Family. For those of you who may not know Kristen, she runs (with the help of her friend Maureen) a maternity house over in Africa. Mercy House is a safe haven for young, potentially abused, pregnant women who have nowhere to turn. All proceeds from her blog go to support Mercy House. In her e-mail to me she asked if she could use three of my posts that I had submitted to her “Works for Me Wednesday” link party in her new e-book.

Hmmmm, let me think about this. A well respected author in the blogging community wants me to be involved with her new e-book. A book, whose proceeds go to support a home for unwed mothers which is a charity that is near and dear to my heart. It took me all of about five seconds before I accepted. I did wait the full five seconds because how uncool would it be to respond immediately?

I felt a little like Sally Field accepting the Oscar “you like me, you really like me!” Ok, those weren’t the exact words that Sally used and I don’t know that I could go so far as to say everyone likes me. However, it is an honor to be included in a book with some truly gifted bloggers. I’m truly very grateful and honored to have been chosen to participate in this project.

With that being said the book That Works for Me! went on sale yesterday for $8. As a contributor Kristen has graciously supplied me with a coupon offering you a dollar off the sale price making your price $7. Outside of my small contribution, there are some great ideas and I would encourage you to check it out. You just never know what life altering tips or other interesting blogs you may find that can help simplify your life a little bit. Who knows, you may be able to maintain the illusion that you really are Wonder Woman just a little longer!

To purchase a copy of the e-book, Click here to visit wearethatfamily. and use the code SAVE1.  I purchased my copy this morning.  Over the next few days I'll be reading all the different tips and sharing some of my favorites with you.

To kick off the sale of her book, Kristen is also running a contest where she is giving away a certificate for $150 in house cleaning. To enter, all you need to do is click here  and enter a tip. I don’t know about all of you but I’ll take $150 in free house cleaning!

As if it can't get any better, Kristen has also given me a copy for me to give away.  There are several ways to enter, up to five entries per person.

1. Leave a comment below making sure I know how to get in contact with you
2. For an additional entry, “like” me on Facebook
3. For an additional entry follow me on Pinterest
4. For an additional entry follow me on Twitter (@wonderwomanimno)
5. For an additional entry sign up to receive my posts via e-mail (right hand side of blog)
The drawing will be held on April 20th, the winner will be notified by e-mail.

Good luck!

You might also like:

The Lucky One Giveaway
Master Bedroom Decorating Project
Frugal Gardening
Note:  An affiliate link is included above

12 Decorating Projects for 2012

At the beginning of the year I decided that this would be the year that I did something about those decorating projects that I always "meant to get to" and never did.  I created a list of 12 items to accomplish and have been working my way through them.

The one I recently finished was the wall in my bedroom.  This wall has stood empty since our room was re-done about 4 - 5 years ago.  I never quite knew what to put on the wall and it quickly moved to the bottom of my priority list.

When it comes to decorating, my biggest issue is what to put on the wall.  Should I hang a print?  If so, what kind of print?  Would family pictures be better?  How about a shelf?  If I hang a shelf what would I put on it?  I'm sure I'm not the only one out there with that dilemma.

The decision to hang family photos came mostly from the decision I made regarding the connecting wall between the living room and the kitchen (you can read about that here.)  The frame that I took down was one of my favorites and I wanted to make sure I re-hung it where I could appreciate it.  I then decided that if one side of the window was going to have a family picture the other side should also.

I bought some wall words at Hobby Lobby (note:  they usually have coupons on their website, if you have Internet on your phone you can pull up a coupon at check out saving about 40%.  How cool is that?!)  I printed out some pictures from our recent trip and picked up a collage frame to put them in.  The whole thing took me about two hours (including shopping time) to finish.

Voila, a project to cross off my list that didn't cost me a lot of time or money. 

Have you recently completed a decorating project?  Feel free to share it in the comment section.

I'll be linking this up at Organizing Home Life

Weekly Goals

One of the blogs that I read daily is Michael Hyatt.  The other day he had a guest poster who wrote a post entitled What I Learned About To-Do Lists From My Eight Year Old Son.  Nothing in the post was earth shattering or an "ah ha" moment but it was a good reminder to think about what was truly important and make sure those are what's on your to-do list.

Here is what was on my list from last week:

1. Finish decorating project for our bedroom - Not only did I finish this project but I also knocked out another project off of my 12 projects of 2012 list

2. Re-straighten the girls' bathroom cupboard (you can read about the original organization here)
3. Re-write the "About Me" section of my blog and finally add a family picture
4. Finish and order a photo album on Mix Book that I created as a gift but never finished
5. Start a vacation album on Mix Book
6. Make an appointment with an attorney to prepare a will and power of attorney  - I did some research and have narrowed down which attorney we're going to use but I haven't made the appointment yet.
7. Make an appointment with the personal trainer at the gym and exercise three times
8. Finalize one of the serial posts that I've been working on for the blog. 

I was a little disappointed in myself that I didn't get more done but without making a lot of excuses, there were some extenuating circumstances.  There were quite a few things accomplished that weren't on the list, plus I had some unexpected time suckers that didn't help.  I spent an hour and a half last Saturday trying to get some pictures printed at Wal-mart before going home empty handed.  Mike was sick so I had a bunch of stuff to take care of that was on his list.  Plus it's been pretty crazy at work and I've come home exhausted every night. 

Here is my list for this week.  While it may not seem like a lot to get done, these are all things I need to accomplish and I'm trying to be realistic.  Knowing what is on my plate this week, I'll be feeling pretty good if I get this all done.

1.  Make an appointment with an attorney to prepare a will and power of attorney
2.  Exercise three times and make an appointment with the personal trainer at the gym.
3.  Do some work on the blog (new about page, writing additional posts, etc)
4.  Finalize volunteer dates (I've offered to prepare some lunches for a couple of Habitat for Humanity builds)

I'll let you know how it goes.  What are you hoping to accomplish this week?  Feel free to either share or link to your post in the comment section.

I'll be linking this to Money Saving Mom

Weekly Menu

I hope everyone had a nice Easter.  Mike was sick so I ended up going to two family dinners by myself.  I got home a little late so I didn't have a chance to post my menu until this evening.  Since my menu is a little skimpy, I thought I'd share a recipe with you my mom threw together.  I'll be posting it separately later this week so I can add it to my menu tab.

I ended up taking strawberry shortcake to my mother in law's.  As I was rooting around the freezer for the last of my strawberries I came across some more applesauce and cranberries.  The family was quite excited since I thought I had already used them all.  Of course I also found a lot of apples that hadn't been used so I felt guilted into making some apple crisp.  I may use my frozen apples to make another batch or two of applesauce as well.

 

Here's our plan for the week

• Easter dinner with family
• Leftovers
• Hamburgers, tomato salad, cranberry relish, salad, apple crisp
• Brats, roasted potatoes, applesauce, salad, corn,
• Work dinner (Mike will probably pick something up for him and the kids)
• Charity dinner for Mike and I (kids will fend for themselves)
• Dinner out

 As you can tell, grilling is the theme of the week.  I like the grilling theme since it means that I do very little cooking! 

Here's the recipe I promised you.

Cheesy Potatoes


1 box potatoes Au gratin
1 heaping tablespoon (more or less to taste) of Lia Marie's Original Garlic Spread
1 heaping tablespoon (more or less to taste) of sour cream
1 wedge Laughing Cow Light French Onion

Prepare potatoes as directed. Once potatoes are done cooking, add garlic spread, sour cream and cheese. Cook over low heat until everything is melted together.

I'll be linking this up at Money Saving Mom, I'm an Organizing Junkie and Good Cheap Eats

If you would like, feel free to leave a link to you post or share what you're eating this week in comments.

Hope you have a nice week!

 

 

 

Weekly Menu

Last week we didn't do such a great job following our menu.  We had the spaghetti but that was the only meal that we were actually able to eat as a family.  I had an unplanned business dinner pop up, plus my husband's new (to us) motorcycle was finally ready to be picked up.  Between those two events, two of our free nights became unavailable.  I'm not sure what happened to the other night.  I've had a headache for the last week and I probably just didn't feel like cooking.  The chickens that I had planned on serving had been thawed so I did go ahead and cook them, the family just ate them as left overs.

While the kids were at their grandparent's on Friday night, Mike and I went to Outback for dinner.  Outback is one of our favorite favorite restaurants, we go there about twice a month.  I especially like going there on Friday nights during happy hour.  What's better than a White Zin Sangria from Outback?  Two for the price of one!!  Unfortunately they lost our food ticket and it took them almost an hour before they came out and told us why we hadn't received our food.  Luckily for them I had a massage Friday afternoon and had plenty of time to drink my sangria's :) Unfortunately for them my husband gets crabby when he's hungry :(  The owner was nice enough to comp our meal for us which was a nice surprise.  I can also say that my New York Strip was the best that I've ever had, well worth the wait!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to tell you that I've barely thought at planning dinner.  My son did my grocery shopping for me today with a half-baked shopping list.  As we were putting away the groceries I realized I didn't have anything for a full meal, he's at the store right now picking up some of the items that we missed.

Here is what I'm planning on whipping together.  I know it's not overly impressive but with this migraine I've been fighting it's about the best I'm going to muster this week.  The kids are not going to be happy with another night of spaghetti - oh well!

Taco Buffet
Spaghetti and Meatballs, glazed carrots, garlic bread, strawberry salad
Brats, roasted potatoes, corn, Homemade applesauce, Quick Apple Crisp
Leftovers
Fend for yourself/take out

That's it for me.  What's on your menu?  Feel free to post a link to your menu in the comments.

I'll be linking this up at Money Saving Mom, Life as Mom, I'm an Organizing Junkie.