LINKY FOLLOWER PARTY HOP

You may recall I told you that Google friend connect will be going away on February 29th for anyone who isn't with blogspot. Rumor also is saying it may even go away all together in the future. For all of you who want to stay connected there is a new following tool called

 Linky Followers . 

If you haven't signed up you can do so for free.

There's a great blog hop party going on in celebration of this new tool.

RULES:

1. You must have the LINKY FOLLOWER TOOL on your sight to participate.
(You can have both the Linky Follower and GFC on your site but must have the Linky Follower tool to participate in this party hop.)

2. You must follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you. (Follow in Linky Follower)

3. Just add your blog button to the linky party below.

4. Grab the BLOG HOP code. You will find the cone under the Linky Party under it says: What is a BLOGHOP? GET THE CODE HERE
Click on get the code here and enter it into a post on your site.

5. Then follow other bloggers - as many as you want.
Leave each blog you follow a comment to let them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back.

If you want to add the BLOG HOP to your own site you will get lots of new followers–(see rule #2)
I'm planning to go Hopping from Blog to Blog and to follow everyone who follows me.  Come join the fun!

VALENTINES DECORATIONS ON A BUDGET

Valentines day is fast approaching, and you might say I  have a limited budget!  So how can I decorate?  I thought it was about time to show you my decorations, and what I've done on a very limited budget.  

If you follow this blog on a regular basis, then you know that I use thrift stores and garage sale finds along with clearance sale items to add decor to my home.  I also reuse items from year to year, but just in a different arrangement.  Like the fashions experts tell you.... you can use the same basic item, but by adding additional items you can change the "outfit" look entirely.   That's what I've done this year, and by adding only two "new" thrift store finds I've achieved an entirely new look.  

Here's what I came up with this year.

This display in our dinning room area sits on top of the cedar cabinet that my husband built for me.

Scrabble tiles spell out "Love"

Silk rose petals placed in an apothecary jar add a touch of color along with two small red candles.  The vase with the little red hearts is my "new" 99 cent find this year.  I just placed a faux green plant I already had inside it.

A lamp bought at an after Christmas clearance sale and thrift store plate are placed on the left side of the vignette.

Moving on to the kitchen...

a LOVE sign

(my "new" $1.99 thrift store find for this year) sit on top of our refrigerator among thrift store finds from previous years.

Have you done any decorating for Valentines Day?

RSS FEEDBURNER HELP

I'm not one to ask for help very often but I'm at my wits end!  My RSS feed on my Google home page has not updated since the first part of December 2011. Prior to that it was working fine. I subscribe to my own RSS feed to make sure things are posting properly.  I have tried many things to check it....feed validator, resyncing, feed medic and pinging. They have all come back as a healthy feed. I'm concerned that my posts are not getting out to my readers. Has anyone else had this problem?  Do you have any advise on what to try?  I would love to hear from any of you who can help me.

                                                            Thank you!

MINT/NUTCUP - DIPAERS {TUTORIAL}

In an earlier post I shared about the baby shower for my daughter and granddaughter. I promised to give you instructions on making cupcakes using coffee filters.  I already gave you the tutorial for the coffee filter cupcakes. 

Now today I'll complete my promise and give you the easy tutorial for making the diaper mint/nut cups.

 

What you will need -

1. Card stock or white paper of your choice.

2. Safety pins.

3. Glue

4. Mints and nuts

Begin by cutting your card stock into 3 or 4 inch squares.  (I used 3 inch squares). Cut each square in half to form

a triangle.

Take the corners of your triangle and glue the three

corners together.

Then glue a pin

on the top of where the corners meet together.

Wallah you have a diaper nut cup!

Finish the nut cup off by adding mints and nuts to each diaper.

This is such an easy DIY project for mere pennies. 

It's also is a cute 

decoration for a baby shower. 

BLOGGING NEWS - for friends and followers GFC

Have you heard the latest news that Google Friend Connect will be stopping as of March 1st?  This is effective for non-blogger platforms like WordPress, but the talk is that it may be phased out completely :( ! 

It's been in the news that Google is phasing it out. They may be providing a service ~ Google +, but it might not be what the GFC was.

Don't get to discouraged .... this morning I found out that there is a new FREE service for us.  Many of you may be familiar with  Linky Tools operated by owner/creator (Brent Riggs). He realized that we'd be in need of a “follower” system. So he created a tool that launched this week.

Linky Followers

You can sign up for free!

One question that I asked was can my Google friends connect be moved over automatically?  The answer is - no.

I love all my friends and followers and would love to keep you up to date on my blog. I would hate to have you miss out. To make sure you will not miss anything you can start following me using the Linky Followers Widget on this page.  You can see it in the side bar under follow me.  If you are one of my loyal followers please sign up to follow me using the Linky Widget before March 1st.

 Thanks!

BABY SHOWER COFFEE FILTER CUPCAKES {TUTORIAL}

In my last post, I promised to give you the tutorial for the cupcakes made with coffee filters.  Here is the tutorial on making these cupcakes.  These cupcakes work wonderfully as a baby gift along with baby shower decorations.  I gave mine as part of my gift.

In the cupcake above, a baby hat was used in place of the baby washcloth.  I like how the ruffled edge gave it a little different look than the washcloth.

Here are the things you will need, along with the instructions on how to make your own cupcakes.

I made my own burp clothes by sewing two pieces of flannel right sides together.  I then turned them right side out, and finished them off by top stitching 1/2" from the edge.  I also made one using the same technique substituting a cloth diaper for one of the flannel cloths.

My next post will include instructions for making the nut/mint cups.