Shine on Fridays with One Artsy Mama and Happy Go Lucky

Hello and Happy Friday!

Today I am co-hosting the Shine on Fridays Link Party with Amy from One Artsy Mama and Kara from Happy Go Lucky!

Show off your fabulous creations with us and be inspired by what others have created! Please link up crafts, recipes, home decor, etc.

We can't wait to see what you've been up to lately!!

If you're going to play along with us, pretty please:
- follow all co-hosts

- grab a party button and put it somewhere on your blog (the button can be found here)


- have fun and visit some other friends
- no commercial sites

- send us Starbucks gift cards {just kidding...kind of!}

Linking up your photos gives us permission to use them in features on our blogs and Facebook pages.

As your co-host, I am sponsoring a giveaway today.   I love planning and decorating for parties and have turned that love into a new business opportunity.  I am very close to opening my Etsy Shop with printable party decor.  Here is an example of the types of products that my shop will contain:

One lucky reader will win a 

Customized Printable Party Invitation 

($10 value).  

You pick a theme that you want and I will customize it for you!

Enter via Rafflecopter, below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

AND NOW LET'S PARTY!!

Pinterest Power Party

Happy Thursday everyone!  Today I am co-hosting the Pinterest Power Party with my friend Chrissy from The Taylor House. 

Welcome Back to our weekly Pinterest Party! Every Thursday we will be hosting a linky party that focuses on YOU, the readers! Do you have an amazing DIY project, a frugal gift idea, or even a delicious recipe that you want to share? Well, we want to see them and share on our Pinterest Board’s too!

How do I participate?

Easy!

First, Be sure you are a Pinterest Follower of the Hosts as well as the co-hosts!

Living On Love and Cents

The Taylor House

Sew Much Crafting

This Week’s Co-Host’s! Be sure to stop by and say hello!

Here Comes The Sun {Follow On Pinterest}

Blog: Here Comes The Sun

Lemon Tree Dwelling {Follow on Pinterest}

Blog: Lemon Tree Dwelling

Let’s Party!!

Help us spread the word and share the Party button above on your blogs too! Then link up your favorite projects below, also, pin the two before yours! Or, keep going and Pin as many as you would like!

But, Wait! There’s More!

Be sure to stop back every Thursday to see the featured Pin’s from the week prior! We will be sharing the top five most viewed projects from the week prior! If you were featured be sure to grab a badge and wear it proudly on your blog!

<a href="http://livingonloveandcents.com/category/pinterest"/ target="_blank"><img src="http://livingonloveandcents.com/?attachment_id=13201" /></a><text></text>

Would you like to co-host with us? We have openings in some of our upcoming parties for people who would like to join us! Just send an email to cmaetaylor@yahoo.com to find out which dates are available!

Are you ready to party and get your Pin on?

Here are the features from last week!

1. Menu Planning for Baby from And Away We Go.

2. DIY Sunburst Mirror from Second Chance To Dream.

3. Chalkboard Chore Chart from I Dig Pinterest and I Did it Too.

4. Egg Hunt Pennant from Alderberry Hill.

5. Starbucks Caramel Macchiato Recipe from Will Cook For Cupcakes.

6. Healthy Breakfast Cookies from Half Baked Harvest.

7. Sriracha Tuna Pretzel Bowls from Lemon Tree Dwelling.

8. Homemade Nutella from de John Dream House.

Grow and Monetize Your Blog with Six Sisters' Stuff Ebook Giveaway!

Are you interested in growing and monetizing your blog?  I sure am. 

 That's why I was so excited to read these ebooks from Six Sisters' Stuff .

  

First let me tell you that these ladies are amazing! If you don't know of their blog, you need to check it out. They genuinely care about their readers.  I've sent them a few emails with questions about blogging.  I was hesitant at first knowing that they are "big bloggers" and well,  I am not.  They responded to all my emails with such positive advice and I am forever grateful to them for their words of encouragement.

These two books lead you on the path to to grow and monetize your blog.  I've been following the recommendations that they lay out and have seen tremendous growth here at Here Comes the Sun. In their "10 Ways to Grow Your Blog" ebook, they focus on topics such as social media, blogger connections,  and site design.  The "10 Ways to Make Money Blogging" will explain how to monetize your blog through ad providers, affiliate programs, ebooks, sponsored posts and much more!

These two ebooks have helped me so much as a blogger that I signed up to be an affiliate of the Six Sisters' Stuff ebook program.  If you would like to purchase these books, all you need to do is click on the links over in my sidebar and it will take you to Six Sisters' Stuff site to order the books. And let your readers know that I am an affiliate for these ebooks!

But it gets better! The talented ladies at Six Sisters' Stuff are offering a copy of each of these books to THREE of my lucky readers!  Are you ready to take your blog to the next level? Enter today!

Enter via Rafflecopter, below.  Good luck. a Rafflecopter giveaway



Giveaway is open to US residents ages 18 and over and ends at 11:59pm EST on April 1, 2013. Approximate retail value $8.00. Number of entries received determines the odds of winning. Three winners will be selected.   Winner will drawn by random.org from all verified entries, contacted by the email provided when entering, and announced on this page at the end of the contest. Winner has 48 hours to respond or prize will be redrawn. Entrant is responsible for the email address they provide, whether through typing it directly or through the Facebook entry method. Here Comes the Sun and Six Sisters' Stuff are not responsible for lost, misdirected, or undeliverable emails. All prizes will be awarded, no prize substitutions allowed. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Facebook and we hereby release Facebook of any liability. Information is provided to Six Sisters' Stuff, not to Facebook, and your information is never sold or shared. Facebook is not a sponsor of this giveaway. Prize is mailed or emailed directly by Six Sisters' Stuff. Protected tweets do not count as an entry method for tweeting; tweets must come from a public account.  No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.

Blogging Tips: Prevent Your Photos from Being Pinned

I know what you are probably asking. As a blogger, WHY would you NOT want your photos to be pinnable?  I don't mind if most of my project photos are pinned.  I encourage pinning of any of my project photos. However, I have limited the number of photos of my kids on the blog because I'm not very fond of these getting plastered all over Pinterest. With this quick fix, I can now add as many photos of my kids as I please and not have to worry.

To Prevent an Image from being Pinned to Pinterest

Add this bit of code into the html of the image that you don't want pinned:

no pin ="no-pin"

You will need to add it before the closing bracket of your image like so: 

 <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E8rgT9TQeZI/UTT1LfiX9jI/AAAAAAAAEls/6raFIo2ovqc/s1600/Social+Media+Share+Buttons.jpg" no pin ="no-pin"/>      

After adding this code, your image will not pop up as an option to pin when a reader hits the "pin it" button. And while we're on the topic of pinning, please always pin from the original source so correct credit is given.

If you don't have a "Pin It" button in your blog posts, check out some of my other tutorials:

How to Add Social Media Share Buttons to Each Post

How to Add a Pin It Button to the Bottom of Every Post


Speaking of Pinterest, have you checked out the Pin It to Win It

contest I have going on?  You can win up to $500 worth of craft supplies from Consumer Crafts.  Enter here.

Mealtime with ConAgra Foods

What are meals like in your family?  

I try my best to buy fresh fruits and vegetables that are local and/or in season.  But sometimes that just isn't possible especially during the cold winter months. Mealtime gets boring and blah with the same foods over and over again as I long for the fresh fruit and veggies of summer. I used to think that frozen foods weren't as healthy as fresh foods.  That is until I learned the nutritional facts about ConAgra Foods, specifically Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's frozen foods. 

I think many people have the same thoughts about frozen food that I did.  You may think that they are heavily processed, made with artificial ingredients, taste like cardboard, and are fattening and unhealthy. Did you know Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's are made with fresh chef-inspired ingredients? The vegetables in Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's frozen foods are picked at the peak of freshness and are frozen within 24 hours which means you can have access to high quality ingredients year round.  

If you're watching your weight, there are more than 80 meals in the Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's line that have 400 calories or less.  These meals also have built-in portion control, making staying healthy even easier. 

The other day, I tried out Healthy Choice's Cafe Steamer Margherita Chicken with Balsamic. 

To be honest, I have not eaten frozen foods much since my days of working in an office. I don't know why I gave them up.  Maybe because I thought as a stay-at-home mom that I'd have more time at home to prepare lunch.  But my prepared lunch soon sunk into a rut of deli meat sandwiches. Every.day. UGH.  I'm so glad I gave this Healthy Choice meal a try. It was TASTY!  Does this look like frozen food to you? I was pleasantly surprised.

It's the perfect alternative when you don't have time (or energy) to cook. Now that I know how nutritious frozen foods can be, I feel better about feeding them to my family and will definitely be implementing them into my future meal planning.

March is National Frozen Food Month. Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's created this video which follows two women during their daily lives showing how new technologies could impact their routines, especially in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store.  Consumers want to know where their food comes from and new resources make this easier than ever. The landscape of shopping is changing and these brands are helping shoppers predict the future of shopping for frozen food.

Take a look at the possibilities!

ConAgra Foods frozen meals give families access to real ingredients like crunchy, freshly cut vegetables, homemade pasta and ripe fruit year-round. Just like most people blanch veggies before freezing them – ConAgra Foods does too – to help preserve color, texture and keep them fresh!

Give it a try sometime! Marie Callender’s hearty pot pies are filled with tender meat, freshly cut vegetables and Marie’s authentic golden, flaky crust. And Healthy Choice recipes use chef-inspired ingredients like, apples instead of sugar for tart sweetness and a splash of red wine for a punch of flavor instead of added salt. 

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of ConAgra Foods

Peep Push Pops

What's your favorite Easter candy?  

Jellybeans?  Cadbury Cream Eggs?  Chocolate? Behold...the mother of all Easter Candy..the PEEP.  They are just so darn cute and versatile.  I've seen everything from Peep Cakes to Peep S'Mores to dipped tuxedo Peeps.  Yes, people dress up their Peeps!

So I have for you...Peep Push Pops.  Try saying THAT 5 times fast!  These are sure to be a hit at your Easter party.  However, you may want to let the kiddos out to play after they eat these.  They will have LOTS of energy :)

It was my daughter's idea to put the chick in the picture.  When I told her that we were going to make an Easter treat, she went straight to her room, got some stuffed animals and said "here mommy..you can use these in your pictures".  You know you're a blogger when.... :)

So you want to know how to make them, right?  It's pretty straightforward but I've got one little twist...

Bake you cake per the directions on the box.  Use whatever flavor you want.  I used a basic yellow cake.  After your cake has cooled, cut the top off so that it is flat. Use the push pop tube to cut circles from the cake.  My circles were a bit thick so I cut them in half.

Push one cake circle into the bottom of the push pop tube.

Now here is the twist...I don't use frosting.  I use Cool Whip.  I couldn't get the frosting the right consistency and I had Cool Whip on hand so I decided to give it a try and it worked perfectly.  First I tinted it with Wilton gel coloring in Aqua and then I used a regular plastic bag and a star shaped tip to pipe the frosting onto the cake.  It's a little bit white in the picture below because I didn't mix it enough.  Use a styrofoam block to hold your push pop in place while you pipe your frosting.

Place another layer of cake on top and then another layer of Cool Whip.  You will be able to get about 2 or three layers of cake in each tube depending on how thick your cake layers are.

And then the adorable little Peep sits right on top!

Too cute to eat I tell you!  Too cute.

Will Peeps be in your Easter baskets this year?

Kid's Bookshelf Makeover with Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan

How many of you have tried Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan? Are you as in love with it as I am? I'm going to show you how I used Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan to makeover a beat up bookshelf from this:

into this gorgeous kid's bookshelf:

Amazing, right?

I purchased this bookshelf about a year ago at a flea market and it has just been sitting in or garage since then screaming for a makeover.  I have somewhat of a problem when purchasing beat up junk.  I buy with the intent of doing something with it and then it just sits. And sits. That is until someone like Annie Sloan Unfolded contacts me about trying out their product.  Yay! I immediately knew that it was THIS piece that was going to get a makeover. 

One of the things that I love about Chalk Paint ® decorative paint by Annie Sloan is that you don't need to sand or prime the surface that you will be working on. SCORE!  The paint sticks to practically anything. I'm very impatient with painting and tend to skip important steps just to get to the finished product. So this paint and I really got along well! 

To begin, I wiped down the bookcase so it was free of all the dust that it had collected over the past year in the garage. Once it was clean, I used a sponge brush to apply the color Duck Egg Blue from the Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan collection.  

The paint went on so smooth and I was very happy with the way it covered.  I only had to give it one coat.  There were areas where the brown still showed through a bit but that was the look I was going for so I only used one coat.

Nice, right?

I have used homemade chalk paint on previous projects but my homemade version always turned out gritty and left chunks in the paint and on the surface of my furniture.  The Chalk Paint®  decorative paint by Annie Sloan has no chunks and is very smooth.

Next, I distressed it with a medium grit sanding block.  I couldn't sand too hard or the white would show through which is not the look I was going for.  So the distressing is minor but I really like the way it turned out.

After distressing, I applied a thin coat of paste finishing wax to the entire surface to seal the paint and prevent further chipping.  After leaving the wax on for approximately 10 minutes, I buffed it.  The wax makes the finish a bit darker which I love.  And since this piece will be used as storage, it will be plenty durable.

I could have stopped there but I thought this piece needed something else.  That's when I broke out the chalkboard paint to create a surface for my son to create masterpieces.  I used blue painters tape to create an even border around the side of the bookshelf and sprayed the surface with chalkboard spray paint. Instant surface for my little guy to create!

What was once a beat up bookshelf is now a unique piece for my son's room that can fit books, baskets and toys.

Let's look at the before and after again, shall we?

BEFORE

AFTER

PERFECTION

I'm so thrilled with the results and would recommend Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan to anyone looking to create a one-of-a-kind piece. They offer a huge array of colors to choose from and also offer other painting supplies as well.  Annie Sloan Unfolded is the North American, Australian and New Zealand distributor of Chalk Paint® decorative paint. To find a retailer or stocklist, click here.

You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

* This is a sponsored post.  I was compensated with  Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan.  The opinions are 100% my own.

Blogging Tips: Optimize Your Photos for Pinterest

Are your blog photos optimized for Pinterest? Pinterest is the top referral site to my blog and I want to do everything possible to make sure that my photos will attract interest on Pinterest.

Here is what you need to know to optimize your photos for Pinterest.  

1. A photo that is in focus and properly exposed is crucial.  

2. Vertical pictures do better than horizontal. If at all possible, take vertical photos

3. Add a title to your photos in your photo editing program so people know exactly what they are looking at.  When it gets pinned, there will be question what it is and it will be more likely to get repinned.

4. When you save your photos, make sure to rename them. Using  keywords when naming your photos will increase your SEO. The more likely people are to find your photos through a Google search, the more likely they are to pin them.

5. When you upload your photos to your blog, be sure to fill in the "Text" and "Alt text" fields.  In Blogger, you can do this by uploading your photo and inserting it into your blog post.  Once it is inserted, click the photo and click on "Properties".  I put the title of my post into both the "Text" and "Alt Text" fields.  I also add my blog name before the title. For example, the text that I entered for the image above is "Here Comes the Sun: Optimize Your Photos for Pinterest". This is what will pop up as the description in Pinterest when people pin your photos.  

6. Watermark your photos!  After all your hard work, you do not want people to steal your work and pass it off as their own.  Use your logo, blog name or URL... just make sure you put something on there so people know it's YOURS! If by chance your photo leads to the wrong link on Pinterest, people will still be able to find your blog if you have watermarked your photo.

Hope these tips help you optimize your photos and drive traffic to your blog. If you are looking to increase your photography skills, take a look at this this post.

        Do you have any other tips on optimizing your photos?

Silhouette CAMEO - Giveaway!!!

I feel the Luck O' the Irish shining down on me today and I want to share that luck with one of YOU. I've teamed up with my friend Amy from One Artsy Mama and a bunch of other talented bloggers to offer one lucky winner a Silhouette Cameo!

This machine is a crafter's dream!   Look at all these amazing projects you can make.

*All photos are from the Silhouette website Here are a few projects that I have made with mine:

Love Letter Glass Block

Monogrammed Stool with Vinyl
The amazing bloggers sponsoring this giveaway are:

Enter via Rafflecopter, below and GOOD LUCK!
a Rafflecopter giveaway Giveaway is open to US residents ages 18 and over and ends at 11:59pm EST on March 24, 2013. Approximate retail value $299.99. Number of entries received determines the odds of winning. One winner will be selected. This is a giveaway sponsored as a group buy, which means the bloggers pooled their money together to purchase this product for you. All liabilities and responsibilities with the product itself is directly responsible by Silhouette America. Winner will drawn by random.org from all verified entries, contacted by the email provided when entering, and announced on this page at the end of the contest. Winner has 48 hours to respond or prize will be redrawn. Entrant is responsible for the email address they provide, whether through typing it directly or through the Facebook entry method. Here Comes the Sun and One Artsy Mama are not responsible for lost, misdirected, or undeliverable emails. All prizes will be awarded, no prize substitutions allowed. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Facebook and we hereby release Facebook of any liability. Information is provided to One Artsy Mama, not to Facebook, and your information is never sold or shared. Facebook and Silhouette America are not a sponsor of this giveaway. Prize is mailed or emailed directly by Amy of One Artsy Mama. Protected tweets do not count as an entry method for tweeting; tweets must come from a public account. Bloggers in this group giveaway and their immediate family members in their household cannot enter or win the giveaway. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.