Lifes Like That

When I went to purchase some gas yesterday at our local gas station, I was amazed at how high the cost of fuel is now. I got gas a couple of weeks ago and since then the price has jumped up over $0.05 a liter. Now I know this doesn’t sound like much, but now we are paying $1.28 a liter for gas. I honestly don’t know how people are paying for this gas if they run their car a lot. I don’t so I only have to poke some gas in my car every couple of weeks. And I feel the pinch so I’m sure they do to.

Not only does the cost of fuel just affect our gas prices, but products that we need to purchase on a regular basis have gone up as well due to the high cost of transporting them to the stores. And trying to find some cheap flights has become a lot trickier in recent years. They have to make up the cost of gas someplace don’t they. But it doesn’t look like there is going to be any relief in site. The gas prices are predicted to go well over $1.50 a liter before they start to bottom out. So I guess we are going to have to deal with it or start driving less. I honestly don’t see a solution to this “rising” problem.

Lately all it feels like I have been doing is making jewelry and knitting my daughter’s afghan. Well I have gotten bored with these particular crafts so started looking for something that I could do instead for a little while. Well I’m happy to report that I found something.

Years ago I used to make things out of plastic canvas. But with raising three kids and working full time, I packed up my supplies, put them away and kind of forgot about them. The other day I was cleaning my room and stumbled across my plastic canvas supplies and got it into my head that this is something that I would like to take up again. So yesterday afternoon I dug out the supplies (as you can see below) and started measuring and cutting. I had such a good time, I honestly don’t know why I stopped doing it.

And this is such an easy craft to get involved with that I just might be able to teach my daughter how to make stuff. So it’s a win win situation all the way around. I can leave my other projects for a while, create a few items and then go back to the other stuff without being bored.

Now who doesn’t love ice cream?? I know I do! But sometimes when you go to choose a flavor you can’t make up your mind and would possibly love to try something different. Well what if that something different was something you created?! Wouldn’t that be so cool?? Now you have the chance to do just that. All you need to do to is create a flavor of ice cream that you think would knock the socks off your family and friends. Then enter the Awesome Coldstone Contest over at iMix America Contest and get set to win.

There are a few rules that you must follow with one being you must be between the ages of 13 and 19 to enter. Sorry mom and dad, but you don’t qualify and you must reside in the United States. Then after you pick all the ingredients you want to put into your ice cream creation, give your creation a real funky name. Then get your friends and family to test this out and vote on your creation. The more votes you get, the better your chances of winning $30,000+ in prizes.

So if your between the ages of 13 and 19 and would love to see a creation of your own win this awesome contest, then pop on over to their site and enroll today. You have until December 31, 2008 to get as many votes as you can and the winners will be announced in January 2009. Good luck and have fun!

Spring is definitely one of my most favorite seasons with summer following at a close second.  I have only one complaint about the spring season and that would be it’s also the allergy season.  Now I don’t have a whole lot of allergies (expect for a lot of medication allergies), but I do have one annoying one that visits me every year.  I am allergic to the pollen that comes with freshly mowed grass.  If I drive by your house with my car windows opened and you are mowing your lawn, you can bet that the next morning I will be in agony.

And it’s already happened.  My neighbor mowed his lawn yesterday and because I had to go pick up the kids at the bus stop, I was outside when he was mowing.  So this morning I am dealing with swollen and painful sinuses.  Unfortunately mowing the grass is a normal fact of life so every year I have to suffer through it.  Other than this pesky little problem, Spring is my favorite time of year.

As you all know, I have been slowly trying to get my home crafting business off the ground. The first thing I needed to do is to create some crafts so I would have something to sell. I have done that so my next course of action seems to be to start doing some advertising. I have tried the traditional ways of advertising through word of mouth and setting up a website over at Simply Crafting, I but these two ways don’t seem to bring in the traffic or the sales that I want. So I have decided to advertise my business through the use of business cards.

I have found a great site over at logo design where I can customize my own business card logo with the name of my site and the look that I want to portray. I gave this site a try and as you can see in the picture, it looks pretty darn good. For a person who has absolutely no clue as to what they are doing on the Internet, I was amazed at how easily I created and designed my own business card through this site. Not only do they give you the opportunity to brand your own company, but with the wide variety of logos available to choose from, you can easily create a unique business card for your company. The quality of the finished product is undoubtedly one of the best features on this site.

So as you can see by the screenshot of my very own business card, you can too create a one of a kind unique business card to advertise your business. Once your customers see your professional cards, you are bound to increase your sales as well as your profits.

The kids were a little disappointed because last weekend we were unable to go camping due to crappy weather.  But the great news is, is that the weather for this weekend is supposed to be warm and sunny so first thing tomorrow morning we will be headed out to the campsite.  We will only end up spending one night there this time, but at least we will be able to go for the first time this season.  Although it’s still too cold to go swimming, the  kids will still be able to play at the park, go to the drive-in movies and have their campfire.

So if you don’t see me around this weekend, now you know why.  Have a great weekend guys and I’ll see you all again on Monday morning.  I’ll let you know how our first camping trip turned out.

When I first started working from home on the Internet a little over a year ago, I was amazed at how much I didn’t know. A lot has changed with computers and Internet services since I was last in school and I couldn’t believe how much I had to learn. But with sites such as webhostingrating.com I have been able to learn and implement a lot of different activities with regards to the Internet.

Not only have I been able to compare different web hosting companies and packages, but I have also been able to learn how to set up several sites through the use of the linux web hosting services. Because I was so unfamiliar with web hosting I spent a great deal of time reading through all the articles found on their site. They explain web hosting in great detail and all their information on the site is extremely user friendly. Seriously if you have any questions regarding web hosting, then this is a site that your really going to want to visit as well as bookmark.

For years now I have been quite anxious to get into the art of tole painting.  If your a regular reader here, then you know all about my obsessions with crafting and crafts of any kind.  And if your just tuning in, let’s just say that I am obsessed with crafting, but I get bored quite quickly with the crafts that I start and am always looking for new crafts to learn and create.

But..back to the tole painting.  Although I have always wanted to try my hand at this craft, I never have.  The main reason why I have been putting this off is because of the cost.  It costs quite a bit to get yourself all set up.  Once you have all your supplies purchased, then the cost of keeping this craft alive isn’t that bad.  But you need  lot of money to get started.

I have finally took the plunge and started making my purchases.  I purchased a couple of beginner books to see what supplies I need and with the help of these books I’m hoping that I can get started on this craft quite soon.  I keep checking the fliers at different stores to see when their paints go on sale and then when I get enough materials I am going to teach myself how to do this.  I’ll let you all know how I make out and if the end results are worth the initial costs.

If you scroll down on the right sidebar of this blog, you will see a paypal widget displaying some of my handcrafted jewelry that I have for sale. I have tried several methods of selling my jewelry, but so far I haven’t been having too much success. So instead of giving up, I have decided to try something different. Hopefully I will see a few sales through this method. But since it doesn’t cost anything for me to display this widget, it certainly won’t hurt anything if it doesn’t work out.

But having said this, I am optimistic that this just may work. So scroll on down and see what I have to offer and if anything peeks your interest, just let me know and I’m pretty sure that we can do business together.

I honestly can’t believe how fast time flies. Last year on this exact date I finished my very last shift at my job where I had been employed for nearly seven years. The main reason (there were minor ones) why I left my job in the first place was because in June I was losing my babysitter. My babysitter was my oldest son and he was planning on moving out after he graduated (which he did). Then with summer fast approaching, I decided that I wouldn’t look really hard for a new sitter at that time.

Not a whole lot has happened during the past year, but I can tell you that my kids are happier, my husband is happier and so am I. This past year I have gotten to do so much with the kids that I would have otherwise missed had I still been employed. I have thought about going back to work but right now I am content with my life at home. I may think a little harder about looking for a job when September rolls around, but…maybe not. So far things are working out great in our home life and I would like to keep it that way for a little while longer.