Friday Favorite

Vocal Point is a community for moms. They have a message board, surveys, articles, etc. The reason they are a favorite of mine is because they send samples and coupons. The coupons are usually for a free product. I've gotten Frosted Mini-Wheats before. It came with a sample box of cereal, a buy one, get one coupon, plus about 6 $1.50 coupons to share with friends and family. Yesterday in the mail I had a pack that was coupons for Rice Krispies: one coupon for a free box and 5 for $1 off, I think. I also received a coupon for Bounce's new dryer bar for free and several coupons to pass along. I can't remember what else I've gotten from them except for Kashi Waffle coupons. They also don't send out a lot of emails. Maybe once a week, I'll get one that serves as a remind to check the site and see if they have anything I'm interested in. If you have a minute, check it out.

Favorite Friday

Every since I was a little girl, I have loved to read. I used to spend weeks at a time with my grandma, and the first day I was there, she would take me to the store. I got to pick out 4 or 5 books to read while I was stay with her. I had a collection of Box Car Children, R.L. Stein, Baby Sitters' Club, Anne of Green Gables, you name it. Grandma always read romance novels and I read my pre-teen fiction. We had snacks and spent the days reading. I loved it. I still do. (And I've been know to pick up a romance novel of my own from time to time. Don't judge.)

Adult books are more expensive than children's books. I'm weird about going to the library. I don't like the time constraint hanging over me. I just like to have books lying around when I want to pick one up and read it. We go to the trade book store in our town every once in a while, but I like to have a bunch of books to take in to her. The solution: Paperbackswap.com.

Basically I list the books that I have to trade. When you first sign up and list 10 books, you get 2 credits, meaning you can order 2 books. Those 2 are sent to you. When someone requests one of your books, you pay to send the book to them (usually around $2.50). For every book you mail, you get another credit. When someone requests one of your books, all you have to do is print two pieces of regular paper from your printer which includes the mailing address and the recommended postage. For $0.25 you can buy the postage and save the trip to the post office!

I'm sure that you have some books on your shelves that you are never going to read again. List them on paperbackswap and get something new to read. I recommend:

anything by Jodi Picoult
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (really anything by her)
Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Marek Halter's series on Sarah, Ezra's sister and Zipporah, wife of Moses

Coupons...Where are you?

There are coupons hiding all over the internet. Today you can request a booklet from Home Made Simple. I've gotten this one before and it usually has lots of good coupons in it. There is usually a coupon for something free in it as well. Last time my booklet was missing the pages. I think the mailman must have taken them!

Favorite Friday

I've been feeling quite crafty lately. I think it has to partly do with the half finished desk that's currently living in my kitchen. I'm refinishing and painting it. Hopefully this weekend. I'm on the hunt for the perfect knobs for it, but I'm not having much luck. Maybe I'll just make my own.

There are two great sites for getting ideas for your own crafty inspirations. The first one is Craftster. You can see all of the different stuff people have made and posted. Lots of them have tutorials to show you how do to it yourself. If you have a question about a project you're already working on, you can find the answer on here as well. The best thing I've seen was a little kid's play kitchen made out of an old entertainment center.

The other site I like to look at is etsy. Not only can you look at things people have made, but you can just buy them and save your time! I've ordered several things from different sellers. You can also find vintage items on the site. It's great for handmade gifts you didn't make yourself. I always get inspired to make things when I shop here.

Go to one of the sites and find something to express your creativity this weekend. I'd love to see something you were inspired to make!

Harvesting

When we got back from our mini-vacation, this was what was waiting for us. We had fajitas that night using the Mexibell pepper and the green Bell Pepper. Delicious!

Favorite Friday

This Friday I would like to tell you about 2 sites that are both postcard related. The first one I've been reading for about a year, I think. PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where peoplemail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. New secrets are posted every Sunday. I love to read them first thing Monday morning. It's amazing to see that so many people are afraid of or worried about the same things. There are several PostSecret books. My hubby bought me one for Christmas this year and I really liked it.

The second site I want to share is Postcrossing. Basically you send postcards to people and people send postcards to you. I think it will be neat to get them from people around the world. I made a photo collage using Picasa and ordered the postcards from Vistaprint. I'm going on a trip this weekend so I'm pretty excited about picking up fun postcards along the way to send around the world.

It's always exciting to get real mail. Maybe you should pick up some postcards and share something with the world, whether it be a secret or just a view from your window.

Tomatoes!

We've gotten a few things from our garden...a couple of tomatoes, a handful of peas, 2 or 2 radishes. We're going out of town so last night I picked most everything that would be too ripe when we got home. I have some beans that were ready, but they are the first so there were about 5 green beans. I'm going to have to work on the amount of things I plant next year (more peas and beans, probably less tomatoes and zucchini). Here are all of the tomatoes:




There are 3 Roma's and 2 Bonnie's Best, I think.


I imagine that the plants are going to be full when we get home!

I'm working on a post about what I like and don't like about what I've done so far. Look for it soon!