Maternity Health Insurance

When my cousin was having her first baby, she was newly married and living in Missouri. As a Canadian citizen, she did not have health insurance in the US, and really didn't think about it until it was too late.

The poor thing gave birth to her son in the morning, and was out of the hospital a few hours later. She knew she had no choice, as a longer stay would mean higher hospital bills. Luckily, both she and the baby were fine and able to go home early.

With her second babe, she had learned her lesson and had applied for Maternity Health Insurance before she ever became pregnant. She said it was a godsend, as this insurance covered a large portion of the costs associated with being pregnant, delivering the baby and the aftercare.

If you are planning to have a baby, or are already pregnant with no insurance, please check out MaternitySavings.com and apply for some peace of mind!

How cute are these?

Homemade hot dog or marshmallow sticks!

What a cute idea - make them at home and then take them out camping or to your backyard bonfire! No more arguing over which stick belongs to who - it's personalized with the child's name.

Heck - I'm sure Mom and Dad would want one too!

Fabulous idea - full instructions can be found here. :-)

Get Published!

There are a lot of bloggers out there who are very talented in the writing department. I am often amazed and entranced by their writing style, and have even commented to quite a few that they should think about getting published.

Well, now I know where I can refer them to start them on their way!

AuthorHouse.com offers authors a free Self Publishing guide! Whether it's your first book or your twenty-first, Author House will help guide you through the process of publishing, and all the while YOU still maintain control of every aspect of your book.

Check them out today - a fabulous resource whether you write steamy romances or children's books!

Not a lot of crafting going on!

Well, crafting of a different sort, I suppose.

We are being transferred to a new community, and must sell our house first. When we bought it, the walls were 'hospital white' from top to bottom. Except for the two girls rooms, which are blue. For the past two weeks, I've been painting from dawn till dusk! It was frustrating at first, since I've never done much interior painting before (read: none), but I soon got the hang of it, and got to the point where I didn't even have to tape anymore - I just got a good quality brush and did it by hand. (I still taped the ceilings however)

I had trouble trying to find examples on the net (real examples on walls) for the colours I was using, so thought I would put up some of my pictures along with the colour, in case other's are looking :-)

These are all Benjamin Moore colours:

I did the main living room in Stanley Park Green. (CC-602) It's a beautiful colour - very soft and warm.

The majority of the house (family room, kitchen, entrance, and upstairs landing) were done in Brandon Beige. (CC-530) I wasn't sure about it at first - sometimes it looks greenish, and at other times it's a rich beige. But I'm now really glad I chose it.

The master bedroom, master bath and the bonus room were done in Bleeker Beige. The same colours go in to mix this one as the Brandon, but just not as much. I love this one (sorry, I know it's a terrible picture), it's softer than the Brandon Beige, and goes will with everything!

Meet friends online

The internet has opened up a whole new world for many of us. Some have found magical romantic relationships, and other have found longtime friends, or groups that get together for coffee in big cities.

A friend of mine, and her now husband, met online years ago, when the internet and internet dating was just young. She used a type of FriendFinder, that put her in touch with like minded people who lived in her area. Because as we all know, it's hard to connect with someone, only to find out they live thousand of miles away! FriendFinder.com, is a very easy to use, well laid out site. What stuck me as soon as I visited was that the people on the front page were from my area! A nice touch to be sure! Usually, especially those of us from Canada, spend hours sifting through hundreds of profiles only to find a small handful that are Canadian, and even less that are in our local area.

A standard membership with FriendFinder.com is absolutely free - you have access to the chat feature, you can send instant messages and browse through thousands of profiles in the worldwide database. As an added bonus, you will also have access to their interactive Magazine which allows you to post or answer advice questions or post your own poetry or article. Check it out for yourself and find new friends today!

Homemade Playdough

So much better than the store bought stuff!

This recipe is from an old Church fundraiser cookbook I was given years ago. I made this constantly when my girls were little. (They still ask for it now and then!) I've always doubled it as it gave both of them a good amount to play with.

Homemade Playdough:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 pkg Kool-Aid (added to water)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix all ingredients together and cook on low heat until solid, stirring frequently. Completely safe for small children, even if eaten. Keep in plastic container when not in use.

(If you do double the recipe, there is no need to add two packages of Kool-Aid - it's fine with just one.)

My girls loved getting it right out of the pot when it was still really warm - they would stand at the counter and jump up and down. They also loved picking new flavours of Kool-Aid for the next batch. Be warned if you have little ones - the Kool-Aid makes it smell much more appetizing than it actually is!

Enjoy!

(Note: You'll be amazed at how quiet your house becomes when you whip up a batch :-)

Thirty years and still going strong

One of the world's most famous bands, The Police are still going strong and more popular than ever with fans all around the world. To celebrate their 30th anniversary, The Police released a double disc CD earlier this month. This fabulous Police CD has hit music stores and the Internet by storm!

It is creating a whole new generation of Police fans and bringing back great memories for us old fans as well :-) I remember doing one particular road trip in high school with all my girlfriends, and the only tape (it was tapes back then) we had in the car was Synchronicity, which The Police released in 1983. We played that one tape over and over again, and by the end of the trip there were four girls who knew every word to every song on that album! Just hearing one of The Police's songs immediately takes me right back to that trip long ago!

Their new 30th anniversary CD contains many of those songs that I still know by heart, along with many other amazing Police tracks. It's a two CD, 30 track set which also includes a really cool vintage The Police poster. Don't miss out - this is the collector set of the year!

And if you're not already grabbing your car keys ready to head to the music store by now, here's a little video to get you in the mood:

Tempting Tuesday!

I probably shouldn't be telling you this as it will lesson my chances of winning, but the very talented Quilt Nut is having her usual contest at the end of the month. The last Tuesday of every month, all you have to do is leave her a comment on her Tempting Tuesday post. She will be drawing a winner later this evening, and if you're the lucky one, she'll send you your choice of any card which she has posted in the past month!

The basics of stamping

I've been cruising around the net trying to find what supplies I would need to purchase to begin basic stamping. Here are a few of the main materials that seem to come up in supply lists again and again:

Paper and scratch paper
Cutting utensils: Xacto type knife and straight edge or scissors and paper cutter
Quality stamps of your choice (start with ones with just a simple design)
Dye or pigment pad(s)
Coloured pencils, watercolors or ink pens of your choice
Glue or double-stick tape
Stamp cleaning material (stamp cleaner, stamp scrubber, cleaning cloth)





The Oriental Trading Company has quite a few sets of stamps at very reasonable prices. There are some nice basic sets like this summer BBQ set that don't look too complicated - good for beginners I think!

Get your daily celebrity news & gossip!

Did you know that Julia Roberts just had her third child - a new baby boy? That David Hasselhoff was given custody of his kids? How about that Lindsay Lohan cancelled her 21st birthday bash? No? Me neither!

If you're as out of the loop as I am, you should take a look at a fantastic new celebrity gossip website. It's a brand new site which aggregates all the latest celebrity news and gossip and allows users to vote on the stories. The new site is eye catching, well laid out and easily navigable with the tabs at the top. You can click to find the latest breaking celebrity news, and also the news stories with the highest number of votes. The feature I like is the ability to search by individual celebrity and see all the gossip and news relating to them. Registration is free, and you have the ability to earn bonus points which you can use for magazine subscriptions! The more friends you refer, the more points you earn - how cool is that! A great site for all your daily celebrity gossip!

Stamping on rainy days...

We are having a very rainy spring in our neck of the woods, which makes me wish more than ever that I had a girlfriend nearby who could teach me stamping and card making. It would certainly help to pass the time on rainy weekends like these!

My online buddy QuiltNut makes the most amazing cards - on top of having four boys, working outside the home AND doing all her gorgeous quilting! She has promised to do a 'Stamping 101' post for me, and list the basic materials I need to buy to get started and a few quick tips on what to do.

She has quite a lot of the Bella stamps (like the one on the left) which I just love! The cards she creates with these stamps are nothing short of adorable!



I'm hoping she'll post her 'how to' for me soon, as I really think the girls and I would have fun making cards like these:

There's never been a better time to join PayPerPost!

I'm sure you've seen PayPerPost ads by now on your favourite blogs. PayPerPost is a blog advertising network where advertisers pay a fee to advertise on blogs. Their site, service or product gets exposure, and the blogger is paid in return.

You might have thought, "What the heck is all this? I don't want to look at a bunch of ads!" Well, don't forget that most (not all mind you) but many, blogs and other sites have taken advantage of some sort of monetization. Google ads, text ads and other ad networks are found on thousands of blogs. With many of these programs, the site owner is paid per click, and also per page load - so they are getting paid as soon as you visit their site! These types of ads don't allow the blog owner much control over the type of content displayed in the ads. With PayPerPost, the blogger can choose to take which ad they would like to write about. It's flexible, it's fun and YOU have control over what appears on your site!

The PayPerPost company is almost one year old now, and has enjoyed unbelievable success in it's first year. In fact, Ted Murphy, President of PayPerPost, has just announced the receipt of 7 million dollars in new funding and investments! Here is today's official press release:

The PayPerPost Revolution Accelerates, Sponsored
Blogging Marketplace Secures $7 Million Series B

Draper Fisher Jurvetson leads round and joins Board of Directors

ORLANDO, FL – (June 12, 2007) – PayPerPost, the leading marketplace for advertisers to reach bloggers and other consumer content creators, today announced it has completed a $7 million second round investment led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, an investor in the company's Series A and one of the world’s leading high-technology venture capital firms. The financing brings the total amount of capital raised by PayPerPost to over $10 million, giving the company considerable resources for further development as the industry’s leading Consumer Generated Advertising marketplace. Additional participants in the round include existing investors Inflexion Partners and Village Ventures as well as new investor DFJ Gotham. With this investment, DFJ Managing Director Josh Stein also joins PayPerPost’s Board of Directors.

“PayPerPost created this exciting new advertising space and has established itself as the industry leader,” said Ted Murphy, chief executive officer of PayPerPost. “Although we’ve only used a portion of our first round capital, this added support from investors unlocks significant growth potential. Our content creator and advertiser ROI metrics clearly demonstrate the upside for PayPerPost’s model. We intend to use this capital to build the infrastructure, visibility and professional expertise necessary to reach and retain a greater network of advertisers and content creators than ever before.”

Since its founding in June of 2006, PayPerPost has signed more than 6,500 advertisers to its groundbreaking service, which has enabled Consumer Content Creators to be compensated for their efforts discussing specific companies, products or services via blogs, videos or other media. The content creators are required to disclose relationships with advertisers on their blog, providing transparency for the end reader. Over 125,000 Internet postings, most in the form of blogs, have already earned money for their creators through PayPerPost’s innovative marketplace. PayPerPost recently released PayPerPost Direct, a disruptive new service that allows advertisers to contract and negotiate directly with individual bloggers they identify through a safe, managed system.

“PayPerPost has laid a strong foundation for the future,” noted Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. “It continues to attract a critical mass of participants from both the advertising and blogging communities. Analogous to Overture’s sponsored search model, we believe PayPerPost’s business model holds disruptive potential and will enable the company to thrive in the evolving paid-content arena.”

To mark the $7 million dollar funding, PayPerPost has launched a new website detailing the company’s service offering at http://www.payperpost.com. Bloggers and advertisers can easily sign up at the site and begin leveraging the self service marketplace.

And of course, the celebration is always extended to the bloggers! Over the next week, PayPerPost is releasing seven thousand dollars of fun opportunities for their blogger employees! Some posts will pay $10.77, some $70, and even big ones of $700!

It is truly a pleasure to be involved with a company where you feel appreciated and recognized! If you'd like to make money blogging, check out the brand new PayPerPost site and sign up today!

Bring the sunshine inside

Ahhh... I think it's finally decided to behave like Summer weather around here. Not too terribly hot, mind you, but the low to mid 20's is just perfect for me! We've been out in the garden and the yard working, planting, weeding and enjoying the feel of the sun on our faces! (faces covered in sun screen, of course!) Here are a few ideas to bring the sunshine into your house!

Click on the pictures for the instructions.

Make a sun mobile! I remember making this same type of thing with my Grandma when I was young!


Here's a pretty watermelon napkin holder for your picnic table in the backyard - better yet, take it along on a camping trip!

Why not celebrate windy summer days with this easy to make wind sock!


All of these are great crafts for a camping trip as well. The materials list is not very long, so bringing the needed items along on your trip is easy. The kids can keep busy and decorate the campsite!

Struggling with debt?

Are you struggling with the huge amount of money you owe and are looking for some debt help? Many of us are in the same boat these days it seems - increasing debt and ever increasing interest rates. Many people fall victim to debt consolidation options, without first realizing what this can end up costing them in the long run. We are such a materialistic and spend crazy society, and need to take a step back and learn how to manage our money more effectively to avoid being caught under mounds of debt. We go into debt for outlandish reasons, over spend at Christmas and even borrow money for plastic surgery! Check out The Thrifty Scot for great money saving and debt management advice, and get on the path to financial freedom and a debt free life!

A planter character for your garden

I've seen things similar to this in one of the big garden stores we've been too lately, but the price tag was WAY out of my range, so I thought I'd see if I could find instructions online.

I think this would look so adorable in any garden, and while there's not a heck of a lot in the way of instructions, it sounds much like how you would do beading.... just substitute various sized pots for the beads! And of course much stronger wire. Terra-cotta pots are everywhere, and you can usually pick them up at a decent price. Add your own flowers and plants tucked in here and there and you're done! I have a ton of hen & chicks (succulents) growing everywhere, so this guy would be a perfect spot for them.

Instructions for the garden character and also a garden watchdog can be found here.