Rambling On

Joining forums

When I first started working on the Internet a little over two years ago, someone told me that one of the best ways to get myself and my sites known was to join a few forums and to try to post in them regularly.  I have joined a lot of forums over the past couple of years, but I haven’t really found them to be an effective means of generating traffic.  I don’t know if this is because I don’t post a great deal in any one of them or if it’s because other people have no real interest in what I do or am trying to accomplish.

So that’s why I am posting this post.  I am wondering what all of you guys think about forums and if you find them to be an effective means of generating traffic or if you find them to be a waste of time.  Honestly, I would like to know your thought on this matter.

Direct selling

I’ve been doing a lot of jewelry making these past couple of weeks.  Not a lot of selling mind you, just a lot of making.  So I’ve come to a couple of decisions.  I’m going to try to sell my crafts directly to interested parties.  I am going to take down my crafting website and I am also going to take down my etsy account when it finally expires.  I have found that these two methods don’t benefit me in the least when trying to sell my crafts.

So within the next few days I will be making a few changes to all my blogs as far as the way that I list my jewelry that is for sale.  But before I will be able to find the time to do all this re-arranging, I thought I would give you all a peek at some of the items that I do have for sale.

The necklaces are all $12.00 and the bracelets are all $7.00.  The shipping is included in these prices for all of Canada and the US.  If you don’t live in either of these countries and would like to make a purchase, just let me know and I’m sure we can work something out.  If you would like to make a purchase you can contact me directly at kdarrell21(at)hotmail(dot)com.  I look forward to hearing from you.  And… I hope you all enjoy the pictures.

Money, money, money

If your a parent with kids that are in school, then your totally going to understand where this rant is coming from.  Man oh man it costs a lot to put kids through school.  At the first of the year you have to pay student fees and agenda fees.  You think at this time that all your fees are covered for the year right?  Wrong!  This week alone it has cost us a fortune.  There were some book orders that came home at the first of the week.  Then lunch orders and of course popcorn orders.  Plus the regular lunches for the current week.

Of course we don’t have to purchase all these little “extras” for the kids, but what kid wants to go to school and not be included in on the extras.  I don’t think it would make them feel very good if all the “other” kids were getting all this and not them.  So, my question to you all is when and where does it stop? 

Helping the “old lady”

My youngest son has got to be the sweetest little boy that I know.  He is so kind, caring and compassionate, that I thank god every day that he is MY son.  He has gotten into a very sweet habit lately that I just had to share this with you.

Currently we have a lot of snow and ice in our driveway.  So, every time we are either going to the car or coming from the car he makes sure that he goes ahead of me to take my hand and walk me through the ice.  This is so I don’t fall.  I don’t really think he understands that if I fall I’m going to end up taking his little 50 pound body down with me.  But it’s so cute and he is trying to be so helpful that I take his hand and walk a little more carefully.  I would hate to fall and then end up hurting him in the process.

I find this so sweet because I know as he gets older things like this could change.  I really hope he doesn’t change the way he is, but when he becomes a teenager, you never know.  So, I tend to enjoy and cherish these little gestures all that much more knowing that in the future I may not get this attention quite so much.

Thank you Entrecarders!

I have been with the Entrecard program now for a little over two months I have to tell you all that I’m still loving it. I have seen some tremendous growth in my traffic stats and I have to say that it in part because of these top droppers that come to my site on a daily basis. So, in this post I would just like to say thank you to all my top droppers for your continued drops. It is because of you guys that have found this program to be so rewarding.

1. 60 Were Enough
2. Down On Our Luck
3. Asian Hot Beauty
4. Fatherlyours.com
5. El Gigante Verdoso
6. All In A Day
7. Blog-4-Cash.com
8. Cromely’s World
9. Monkeychapps.com
10. Blogging MoRe

Thanks guys!! See you next week.

The Scrapbooking fairy arrived

One of my friends sent me an e-mail the other day about a lady who was getting rid of some of her scrapbooking supplies and she wanted to know if I would be interested in getting them from her for free.  Of course I said yes.  So she gave me her phone number and e-mail address and I contacted this lady. 

Well today she dropped by with the stuff and I have to tell you that I was surprised at all the stuff that she was giving away.  Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciated all that she gave and it will all go to good use, but I was really surprised at her generosity.  I have to say that purchasing this amount of supplies would have cost me a fortune so I am extremely grateful to her.  I am also extremely grateful to my friend for hooking me up with this lady.

Another long weekend just ahead

This Sunday is Easter Sunday so you all know what that means right??  Yes, it means another long weekend home with the kids and the husband.  They all get to be home from school and work from Friday straight to Monday.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love my family dearly and really do enjoy spending this extra time with them, but…they do get underfoot.  I can’t follow my little routine that I have set for myself and I usually don’t get very much accomplished when they are all home.

But, it is Easter so I guess I can suck it up for one weekend and then get back on track the first of next week.  Do you have any special plans to do with your family this weekend? 

Another week…another list

Well another week has come and gone.   So this is a post to thank all the droppers who have continued to drop their cards from Entrecard this past week.  So if your on the list, thank you very much for your continued drops, and..if your not, but would like to be, all you need to do is “drop your card”.

1. Down On Our Luck
2. El Gigante Verdoso
3. 60 Were Enough
4. Asian Hot Beauty
5. Fatherlyours.com
6. Blogging MorRe
7. Monkeychapps.com
8. All In A Day
9. 100% Batangueno
10. Jenn Cooks

Thanks again guys! I really appreciate it!

I have a lot of work ahead of me!

Last night my husband came home from work with a very special surprise for me.  He bought me a brand new laptop.  I was so….surprised and happy.  But now I have a ton of work ahead of me.  I have to transfer all my programs and files from my old unit to my new laptop.  That’s a couple of years worth of work ahead of me.  Then I need to transfer all my pictures and downloads.

I told my two younger kids that one I get everything transferred, they will then be able to share my old one.  So they have been bugging me ever since they got home from school about transferring files.  They don’t quite understand the amount of work that is going to go into all this.  They think I can just push a button and that’s that.  I do have about half of the files transferred and I have all my blog URLs transferred so I think I’m going to take a break from it now.  I’ll finish up tomorrow and hopefully by Sunday they can have my old computer.

But…extra work or not, I love my new laptop and all the extra work is so…worth it!!

My not so little helpers

I do love my children dearly, but sometimes their more of a hindrance than they are a help.  Around this time of year every year I start to do my spring cleaning.  So yesterday I started on my youngest son’s room.  I usually start on the worst room in the house and this year he won the trophy!  The only way I can find to get his room clean is to take everything out of the room and just leave the main big furniture in there.  Then all I need to do is clean the room, go through the stuff and get rid of what is broken or no good any more.

So I started by taking everything out of his room and putting it in the hall.  Then I started cleaning it.  Well when it was time to go pick him up at the bus stop all his toys were still out of his room and I didn’t have them sorted yet.  So when he got home he decided to help me.  He started going through the toys, but was making an even bigger mess.  So I stopped!  I just let him play with his toys and after he went to bed I finished doing what I was doing.

I appreciated the help, but I sure wish they wouldn’t offer. lol