Some News To Share and an Award

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will remember my post about the neighbor from hell and if you didn't read it, it's worth a quick peruse here. Well, back when we moved to this new unit we signed a new lease that was for 6 months. That would be the end of October. Since I'm still not working and our hole is getting deeper we are not renewing the lease. So after Sunday I will be back on dial-up unless I can get to the library and use their wi-fi. This means that I will most likely not be able to do as many Entrecard drops as usual and I may be a bit sparse on the posts too.

I also wanted to add that despite this I will be glad to not be near the nut and his nutty mother. The way our complex is set up you come in the gate and the drive is a U shape. We still have to drive by the old unit and theirs to get to the new one. Last week the husband was coming in from work and nutty mom was standing at the door and when she saw my husband she proceeded to flip him the bird. Often when I see a nutty family like this I wonder why Eugenics never caught on (JOKE..sort of). The idea of just being in the same complex as these people has never really sat well with me and so I will be glad to be anywhere that isn't near them. As my husband says, the best revenge on people like that is to live well.

My next bit of news is that on November 15th I will be putting all my online shops into "Vacation" mode. I'm not closing them for good, I just need to take some time away from the fees at Etsy and the stress of all of that when I'm still sitting here without a job. I realize it probably is a silly time to do such a thing since it is getting near the Holidays and people may be looking for gifts but to retain my sanity and hopefully have a decent nights sleep...I gotta do it. I'll still be blogging but as I say it may be less frequently.



Now to this absolutely wonderful award I received from Dori over at From A Yellow House In England. In Dori's words about this award, "I like this award because to me, reaching out to new friends is one of the best things about blogging" and I couldn't agree more. If you have never been to Dori's blog you should stop by. I enjoy it because I totally relate to her being an American living in England...well, I'm not right now but I was. So now I want to bestow this award on a few of my new friends. Here is my list though I'm sure I'll leave someone off.

Ann's Snap Edit & Scrap
Beaded Tail
Lenox Knits
Nfall2rt Design Studio
PJ's Prose
The Beadings and Buttonings of Random Creative
AskCherLock

Thanks again to Dori and all my new blogging friends that I've made since the beginning of the year when I started on this adventure. It makes it all worth it!

Favorites For Friday

BEADS!! I'm drooling just writing this post....all the pretty beads!! Thought this week I'd share a few lovely beads. The first set is from Deborah at Sweetwater Designs who is also an Entrecard dropper. The rest are just some of my favorites over on Etsy and I own a few too (not these particular ones).

Sweetwater Designs

Spawn of Flame

Mandella Glass

Charleston Beadworks

BeadyGirl Beads

I guess you can tell that, on the whole, I love color. Oh and the EJDSS Team is having another giveaway for September so stop by and get your entry in at our team blog here. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Top EC Droppers and a Milestone!

Boy, time sure flies, especially the older you get! It's already September 1st which means time to list my top Entrecard droppers for August.

PJ's Prose
My Gypsygoods
WillOaks Studio
Split Rock Ranch
Buy-Tees.net
Computer Aid
Frugal Healthy Choices
Beaded Tail
Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice
Go Las Vegas Baby!

Thanks again to everyone who drops by. As for my milestone, I now have 102 Followers of my blog, so thanks to all of you too. Never even thought I'd get to 50...lol.

Top Droppers for July....and....

MY 50TH POST!!!
Wow where does the time go? First my top Entrecard Droppers for July are:

Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice
PJ's Prose
Computer Aid
WillOaks Studio
Split Rock Ranch
Frugal Healthy Choices
My Gypsygoods
A Rose By Name
Silver Sachet
Yarn Hall


Thanks to all that drop by! To celebrate my 50th post I am sharing a few of the photos I took while walking back from the post office last week. The first one is the Encore Hotel and Casino which is the one I took while lying on the ground in a church parking lot. That was interesting!


This next one is the top of the Wynn Hotel and Casino with the Encore's parking garage in front of it. Again this was taken in the church parking lot. About this church too, while it isn't technically "on" Las Vegas Boulevard AKA The Strip it is a stones throw from there so is considered the only church on The Strip and boy is it busy on Sundays. I still haven't been inside the Encore but would like to since the "theme" there is butterflies. When I do, I'll make sure to have the camera with me and share the photos.



Lastly, is Trump Tower....yes as in Donald Trump. Now I don't think this has a casino attached to it so is just a hotel. It's on Fashion Show Drive which is next to the Fashion Show Mall. We go to the food court there occasionally as they have some pretty good selections. The Greek place is my husbands favorite since they have Moussaka which he loves. Just in case you were wondering, yes those are clouds in the sky. We had just been having some rain since it's Monsoon Season here though when we moved here 15 years ago there was no such thing. In fact, we used to comment to each other how cloudless the sky was in June, July and August.


Hope you enjoy these new photos. We are driving up to San Francisco on Saturday morning. Starting early, about 7am so we get there in time for the baseball game which starts at 6.05pm. We'll drive back on Sunday so just a quick trip but need to get away from the heat. Will be bringing my thermal underwear and heavy jacket since, in the words of Mark Twain "The coldest winter I spent, was a Summer in San Francisco". The San Francisco Giants are playing the Philadelphia Phillies and it is the Dog Days of Summer at the park. I'm hoping I get some good shots of the dogs in their Giant's gear and the park which I will share later. Have a great weekend everyone!

Top Entrecard Droppers for June

Wow can you believe the year is already half over?!!? Where the heck does the time go and why does it go so quick the older you get? Ahhh the questions of life. Now to the important stuff, these are my top droppers from Entrecard for the month of June. Sorry I missed out posting these stats for the last 2 months.

1. Free Stuff in Las Vegas Baby
2. Split Rock Ranch
3. PJ's Prose
4. Go Las Vegas Baby!
5. My Gypsygoods
6. The Beadings and Buttons of Randomcreative
7. Juliana's Lair
8. Stuff and Nonsense
9. Frugal Healthy Choices
10. Pat's Encaustics - Art in the Wax

Thanks to everyone who stops by, I hope you enjoy what I have to say as much as I enjoy what you do. If you haven't been to any of these blogs, then you should check them out as they are certainly ones that I enjoy too.

Just A Few Things....

Firstly...Thank You's


I wanted to take a moment to say a big thank you to all who stop by and take the time to read my blog as well as all the comments. If you never read my first post here, then you should just so you understand why it is I'm so grateful for everyone who stops by. I would also like to send a big thanks to FishHawk over at As The Crackerhead Crumbles for including me in his list of blogs to check out, it was quite an honor. So, I'd like to return the favor and tell everyone you need to stop by and read his blog. It is definitely worth the time.



Now......The Other

It took me a while to come to this decision but I have decided to no longer accept paid ads through Entrecard. I will also be canceling all current paid ads. This was a decision I thought long and hard over and I kept trying to justify some of the ads but I have to say it just wasn't working out. Many of the blogs I visit and subsequently buy advertising with my credits do not accept paid ads and I felt I was doing them a disservice by accepting their EC credit paid ads and not giving it the 100% exposure they were giving mine. When Entrecard started the paid ads I was not happy about it but I accepted them to at least be able to say "OK, I tried it". Now I can safely say, I've tried it and I don't like it. So, I apologize to any and all over this but I felt it had to be done on my part.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed a few fun Vegas photos I took when my mother-in-law was visiting. The second one is from the top of the Stratosphere Tower looking along the Strip. If you ever visit Vegas, it is definitely one spot you need to go to as the views are brilliant.

Top Dropper For March

Thanks to all my top Entrecard Droppers for March. There are a few blogs we will now lose as far as drops but I have bookmarked the ones that I will continue to visit despite not being on Entrecard because of the new set-up.

Here's the list and thanks to everyone, not just my top Droppers, for stopping by.

Dropper	# of drops
Youniquely Chic	31
Pat's Encaustics - Art in the Wax	31
Las Vegas Baby	30
Three Fates Design - Beaded Jewelry	30
My gypsygoods	30
Split Rock Ranch	29
Stuff and Nonsense	26
Alterity Art	26
John Wright Art	25
Art Joolree	25

Blog Re-Design Giveaway

I was doing my Entrecard drops the other day and was fortunate to find Punky Monkeys blog. Of course the best thing about finding her blog is this great giveaway she is having here. The giveaway is for a complete blog re-design by Subjective Beauty who also has a great blog and has some cool blog designs which you can check out here. Sara at Subjective Beauty just did the design on Punky Monkeys blog and it is perfect. There are so many ways to enter and they are all very easy. Stop by and leave a comment on the post or follow her blog, follow Subjective Beauty's blog, follow both on Twitter and of course, write a blog post about it.

I have to say that would be so cool since I really am not very impressed with Blogger's free templates and I know if I attempt to change anything than it will all go up in smoke. This is what comes in the winning package:

Custom Template (2 or 3 columns)Custom Header (the sky is the limit)Custom backgroundNavigation image (umlimited links)Unlimited sidebar imagesSocial buttons (Twitter, Facebook, BlogHer, Feed, etc.)Hosting space via my serverButton for linking (150x150)Post signatureEmail imagePost dividerFavicon (bookmark icon)Flash animated greeting messageInstallation*Rollover effects per request.

Not too shabby eh? That would all normally cost $60! What is even better is even if you don't win the full package just for doing everything to enter you will get 50% off a blog design, that is only $30 for all that and I have to say some of those designs that Sara at Subjective Beauty has done are amazing. So what are you waiting for, get those entries in!

Blog Love

This week I'm sending out some Blog Love to Plow and Pony. I found this wonderful blog through Entrecard and well, I just love the name as well as the blog. I'm just like Plow and Pony, I drop as much as I can and love to read all the blogs. Now, I was using Internet Explorer and so Sunday when I was doing my drops and stopped by and read this blog post, I Love Entrecard! I had been debating adding Firefox onto my computer for ages but this blog post convinced me to get up early Monday morning and get it on my computer. Now I have Firefox AND the Entrecard toolbar. Wow what a difference! Before in IE my computer either froze up or else after about 20 drops I would have to go and clear my cache. None of that now, just smooth dropping and I can actually enjoy reading all the great blogs out there. Don't forget to check out her shop on Etsy too http://PlowandPony.etsy.com. I have my eye on that Hemp Oil Soap. Nothing better than handmade soap! So thanks Plow and Pony for that great information and a great blog.