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Aug
16
Chefdruck Musings is giving away 6 months free Sittercity membership. What a great idea, and if you can’t use a sitter for yourself that would be a much appreciated gift for someone who can. Enter by August 22.
Island Life is giving away a Clothespins! game. My kids always loved family game time, this one looks fun. Enter by August 22.
dkMommy Spot is giving away a $25 Whole Foods gift card. Enter by August 22.
5 Minutes for Mom is giving away 2 grocery cards, 1 for Stop and Shop and 1 for Giant. What a great prize, we could all use a little extra grocery money right now! Enter by August 29.
Lisa Reviews is giving away a Sony Digital Photo Frame. Enter by August 24.
Scribbit is having 2 giveaways. One is for a Crazy Creek portable chair, and the second giveaway is for a Wupzey highchair food catcher along with a Prima Princessa dvd. I just want to know, where were those highchair food catchers when my kids were babies? What a neat idea. Enter for both giveaways before 12am August 18.
You still have time to enter for a $50 Amazon gift card from Robyn’s Online World. Enter before August 29.
Robyn has also started a blog network for parents of teens. As the mom of a teenager, I’m starting to realize that it’s a whole new world, and that I can use all help I can get. I look forward to sharing experiences and getting advice from other parents of teens. Visit We Have Teens and start sharing your stories today.
Enjoy the weekend!
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Aug
9
I found some great giveaways to enter.
Design Mom is giving away Blue Poppy jewelry. This is such lovely jewelry. Enter by midnight on Tuesday August 12.
Cars for Girls is giving away 3 iTunes gift cards. Enter before Friday August 15.
Check out 5 Minutes for Mom for several back to school giveaways. One of the great prizes is a $100 online shopping spree at Hanes for Kids. Enter by Tuesday 12.
Robyn at Robyn’s Online World is having another great giveaway, for a $50 Amazon.com gift card. Enter by August 29.
I recently posted about Blogging the Recession, to encourage readers to click through feeds and to click around on your favorite blogs. I want to encourage you to check out the blogs listed under Inspiration on my sidebar. Just a few of my favorites right now:
If you have never visited 37 days, please do. Patti’s book, Life is a Verb, is now available at bookstores and Amazon. To celebrate the book she’s asked her readers to share their “37 days” story. What would you do if you only had 37 days to live? Beautiful, thought provoking reading. Definitely something for all of us to think about.
If you enjoy beautiful photography, visit Chookooloonks photo blog. Just lovely. She also posts at Shutter Sisters. I really enjoy photography, I wish I actually took good pictures but I’ll settle for looking. If you’re an aspiring photographer these are great places for encouragement and tips.
I also love the beautiful, simple photographs at South End Blend. Her blog just makes you feel like kicking off your shoes, grabbing a glass of lemonade and staying awhile.
I’ve already expressed my love for Christine Kane’s music, but I also love reading her blog. She’s a very wise woman, and many of her posts just instantly resonate with me and things I’m struggling with.
And for a really great read, visit Derfwad Manor. I was hooked after the first visit, she’s just hysterically funny.
If you’ve got some shopping to do, gifts to buy, I can help. (Yes, these are all things I would love to have someone give me, if they were so inclined). Here are some great gift ideas:
Superhero Jewelry. I.Love.This.Jewelry. I’m not a jewelry wearing girl, but this is just lovely and I would wear any of it. I’m partial to the seaglass Superhero necklace, it’s got my favorite colors. I also love the bullseye pendant.
Kelly Rae Roberts etsy shop. I love her artwork, obviously, because I gave one of her prints away a couple weeks ago. She also has a book coming out, Taking Flight: Inspiration and Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings.
Christine Mason Miller also has beautiful, inspirational artwork in her etsy shop, as well as a book coming out soon, Ordinary Sparkling Moments.
That should give you plenty to do. Enter giveaways, shop, check out those great blogs, and have a wonderful weekend.
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Aug
3
Kristen from Motherhood Uncensored has come up with a great way to help other bloggers in these difficult times. It’s really simple, if you’re reading your favorite blogs through a feed reader, click through to the actual blog. Leave a comment or 2 if you want, those are always appreciated. And click around to older posts.
See, easy and painless. Click around here a bit, then check out the lovely blogs listed on my sidebar.
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Jul
27
When I first started reading blogs I had no clue what an RSS Feed was. Now I can’t live without it. It’s an easy way to get updates from your favorite blogs and news sites without visiting the actual website. For those unfamiliar with an RSS Feed and how it works, Simple Mom has a great post explaining it, in a lot more detail.
You can subscribe via a feed reader such as Google Reader, which is what I use. You can also receive updates from my blog to your email address. When I first started subscribing to blogs I did that but I found I prefer to get all my updates in a reader for quick access. Either way you subscribe it is free.
Click here if you’d like to subscribe to my site. That link will give you the option of selecting a reader, or the option to receive email updates.
If you would like to recieve updates via email, you can also enter your email address in the box at the top of the left sidebar, where it says “Subscribe to my blog via email”. No spam, just blog updates.
You can also click on the little orange feedburner icon after each post, where it says “New here? Subscribe to Unexpected Bliss or have it delivered via email”.
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Jul
18
I’m deeply engrossed in our annual family garage sale this weekend - I know, you’re overcome with jealousy at the thought of that. My life is just overflowing with excitement. Since I’m planning on being too wiped out tomorrow to get much of anything done, I thought I’d post some giveaways and links for you a day early. Happy weekend!
An Island Life reviewed and is giving away Radius Toothbrushes. These sound great, my family could certainly use these after my sons dentist fiasco a few weeks ago. Enter before midnight July 22.
Seven Dogs and a Baby is having a printer giveaway. What a great prize! Enter by July 31 to win an HP 526 photo printer.
Robyn at Robyn’s Online World is having her very first giveaway, for a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate. Now that is a prize I would love, since reading is one of my favorite things to do. Enter by August 1.
5 Minutes for Mom is also giving away an HP Photosmart A630 Photo Printer. Enter by August 12.
If you’re a newer blogger - like me - you have to check out 5 Minutes for Mom. It’s a great resource for bloggers and moms, and they’ve recently expanded the site by adding several sister sites. I personally am working my way through their Reader Blogs section and have already found several great blogs to read. The two moms that run the site are Susan and Janice and they are work at home moms who also run two toy stores: A Rocking Horse To Love and Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles.
There ya go, now get busy entering to win those incredible prizes and check out some other great blogs while you’re at it.
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Jun
6
I have 2 sons. But you might not be able to tell that if you’re just looking at the pictures on this blog.
So far I’ve only posted pictures of my youngest son, Nolan. Not because his older brother isn’t the most handsome, loving 12 year old (almost 13!) I know. Because he most certainly is all that and more.
But he has asked me to not put his picture on my blog, and of course I’ll respect that. I would never write or show anything that would make either of them uncomfortable. He’s at an age where he doesn’t even want his picture taken, must less on the internet, and I understand that.
So, as much as I would love to show you both of my good looking boys, you’ll only be seeing one of them for awhile.
This is all you’ll get from the other one:
Isn’t that the most handsome hand you’ve ever seen?!
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May
8
I just watched the video of Dooce on the Today show. That was the first blog I ever read. Instantly, I had two thoughts. One, I would love to do that! And two, no way could I ever do that. She’s brilliant and hysterically funny, so one look at her writing was enough to convince me that bloggers were out of my league. Plus, she has a dog that behaves and does tricks - how do you compete with all that??
Of course, it didn’t help that the second blog I read was hers. Great, another outrageously funny blogger. The odds of me fitting in with this group didn’t look good.
See, the truth is that I’m a bit of recluse. I don’t mind meeting other people, but I don’t go out of my way to do that. I still want the connection though, not just with moms but with anyone. Not just people going through the exact same things I’m going through, but people living more extroverted lives than me. Living vicariously through other people is much less stressful that trying to upset my little quiet life.
I found great inspiration in the blogosphere, bloggers that have inspired me to try to move outside of my little circle, for a greater good. Finding Jen’s blog was truly a gift, a blessing. Talk about moving outside of your circle, she truly embodies the spirit of giving.
hopeREVO is another inspiration. Once my kids are out of school for the summer we’re going to make this a family project, to make and take hope notes to all the little places we visit. This is such exciting work, people making a difference.
Another personal favorite is Jessica’s homeschooling blog. I first discovered her personal blog, but what impressed me the most is that she made a huge life change in order to homeschool her kids. She took a break from her personal blog, gave up other things that took up chunks of her time, in order to make room to homeschool. I’m not a homeschooler but I have such great admiration for them, and I admire anyone who can make those big changes, take those big risks. Cause most of the time, I take the easy way out. I’m a scaredy cat that way.
It’s probably obvious that my favorite blogs are really the blogs by women who are so much braver than me. Movers and shakers, making things happen. I love to read about them, I aspire to be a little more like them. Like Scribbit, who cooks, sews, and makes awesome crafts. Her blog is also a great resource for new bloggers, a wealth of helpful information.
I first started thinking about blogging in November 2007. I know how I am, mainly a procrastinator afraid of any slight change, so I gave myself a deadline of January 1 to have started a blog. Ha! As you can see, I put it off til mid April, which is right on schedule for me. What was I afraid of? I don’t really know, maybe that no one would read my blog, or worse, that someone might. I have a great fear of the unknown, which is a great way to never have to leave your comfort zone.
The internet always amazes me. It’s never ending. Until recently I didn’t know anything about blogging, so it’s like moving to a whole new neighborhood. Which is scary, but I’m finding out that the neighbors are incredible, brilliant, kind people. And I’m starting to move past scared to excited. Baby steps all the way.
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