Go Now. Save the World.

Have you ever read a fabulous book and wanted to talk to someone about it? Wanted to tell the world about it's awesomeness?

I was thinking, we should all go spread the love this week! Spread the book loving, author greatness, love!

Here's your challenge (to win a free book!).

Go write a review!

For a long time I was worried about writing reviews. Worried that I wasn't getting my feelings across or that others might not agree with me. Dont worry about it being eloquent or fabulous. Just be honest and actually do it!

A few places to write:*
Amazon
Shelfair
Goodreads
Barnes and Noble
Borders

*It's also helpful to 'Like' the comments that you think are good reviews.

How to enter:

Comment after doing any of the following and tell me what you did/how many entries you have.

1-3 reviews=1 entry
4-6 reviews=2 entries
6+ reviews=4 entries
Twitter about this post=1 entry
Facebook or Blog about this post=3 entries


Details:
~Contest will remain open until March 4th.
~A winner will be chosen randomly.
~Lets play nice folks ok? Please be honest and when you've written your review(s) come back and tell me how many reviews/entries you have. Please only count reviews you write from today until March 4th, 2010.
~Winner can choose from my stash of books. Including titles: Airhead by Meg Cabot, Ruined by Paula Morris, The Dark Divine (ARC) by Bree Despain, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Candy Shop Wars by Brandon Mull, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull


*Top photo courtesy of Goodreads review by my book loving friend Jenni Elyse.

Wordless Wednesday: Rachel was right

(Photo taken by me, February 2010)

Tell Me: Old Television

So if you know me, you might know that my favorite old show is hands down Boy Meets World. Although last time I talked about it was quite a while ago so if you're new around here this may be news.

There is a special place in my heart for this show. Seriously the other day my hubby put this in the DVD player and I just got the biggest smile on my face. Fun cast, cute story line, plus the characters were my age so I sorta felt like I was growing up along side them. Good times.


Tell Me: What's your favorite old (as in when you were growing up) television show?

I don't have a house, but at least my kids will.

I had one of these cute little houses growing up and thought it'd be a fun, inexpensive gift for Christmas, so I convinced my mom it'd be a fun project to work on with me. (I only had to buy 5 yards of fabric for the walls and ceiling. We used scraps for the rest of the decorations.) No really, it was fun though!

I made this for my in-laws, who have three little girls. It ended up taking us a few days of all day cutting and sewing, since we were basically just figuring it out as we went looking at the one my mom had as a model.

We had fun doing it and decided it wouldn't be that bad to make them in 'bulk' so now we're making one for me and my two sisters. They're looking so great and we're adding other things to make them personal. Like a train track instead of a road or a princess castle instead of a mushroom house. (I'll post pictures of that one when it's done.)

Wordless Wednesday: Title me, mine.

(Photo taken by me in February 2010)

What would you title my photo?

Tell Me: Your Happy Job?

I've been applying for more jobs (like crazy!) again today. Took a break for about two weeks banking on the idea that a job I interviewed for, and who called all my references was going to offer me a shiny, sparkly new job. I called to check in today and they said they aren't deciding for another two weeks. So back to applying and filling out papers and all that good stuff. So I got to wondering,


Did you ever have a job you loved?


I've had some fun ones! Some really good ones.

When I was 15 I worked housekeeping at Snowbird Ski Resort. We only went up the canyon on Saturdays. We'd be put into groups of 4-5. My first pay check, getting to hang out with other kids. Good job!

When I was 16 I got a job at a local skating rink. This wasn't just an ordinary one though. They had waterslides, laser tag and a skateboarding park too. Loud music, fun atmosphere. It felt like a party all the time.

Then when I went off to college I got my first 'grown up' job. A receptionist at an office that catered mostly to faculty. It was a lot of fun and as a little girl I had always dreamed of working as a receptionist.

Tell me: What was your most favorite (paid) job you had?

(Photo borrowed from eHow.com)

Linger ARC giveaway (links)

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.

Let Them Eat Cake (Winners Announced)

Check out the fabulous ladies behind the cakes. :) Below are the beautiful cakes with links to the lovely ladies who created these marvelous images.

Entry #1 The Walnut Tree by Kayla (shown here in the front left)

Entry #2 The Memorial Garden by Nikki

Entry #3 Special Box by me, Debbie

Entry #4 Stained Glass Window by Heather

Entry #5 Dark Divine Chocolate Surprise by Olivia

***

The public vote winner:
Heather!

Heather told me if you go visit her blog (around Monday) she'll even post about how she made her masterpiece!

The authors choice winner:
Kayla!
Kayla is a fantastic face painter by trade and mentioned that frosting was nothing like face painting. However as you can see many a folk were impressed!
Bree Despain said she loved them all and that this one stood out the most.

***

Congratulations to the winners! I'll be notifying you so you can pick your prize. The other cakes were super fabulous and I love the creations that everyone came up with so I'm getting consolation prizes together for the other entries as a big THANK YOU for participating in my contest.

A big shout out to all of you who stopped by to vote for the cakes! You're wonderful!
I loved this idea so much I already have a plan brewing for the next one that I'll do, which should be in a few weeks. If you're interested in making sure you hear about it, follow my blog, or facebook or twitter and you'll be sure to hear when I mention the next one.

Valentine Swap with Mind Games

I signed up to participate in The Mommy-Files Valentines Swap and got partnered up with Mama Games from the Mind Games.

Her blog is Uh-MAY-ZING! I'm telling you. She has the most creative, cute, fabulous ways to teach such fun ideas. You gotta go check it out. Besides that she's got adorable kids. She also participates in Muffin Tin Mondays which is the cutest idea it makes me want to go get some muffin tins for my kiddos!

Mama Games sent me a super fun package for Valentines Day! A fabulous new book to read, Letters to My Daughter by Maya Angelou (since she knew I did/am doing a 50 book challange). A bunch of yummy chocolate. A giant sucker. Starters for some pretty flowers. Butterfly scrapbooking stickers. AND an assortment of adorable Valentine socks. Thanks Mama Games for such a fun package.

You can see everyone else who participated by checking them out here! I've done about 3 swaps now with The Mommy Files and they've all been alot of fun! There will be an Easter swap coming up soon. I'll post it on here when I hear about it.

Cake Eaters: Voting Now Closed

This was a lot of fun! I'm so grateful to those gals who entered and I was really impressed with all the different ideas everyone had. Take a gander at what everyone came up with and please vote (details below). The more the merrier!

Entry #1 The Walnut Tree

Entry #2 The Memorial Garden

Entry #3 Special Box

Entry #4 Stained Glass Window

Entry #5 Dark Divine Chocolate Surprise

To Vote:
Leave a comment stating which cake you like the best (either by entry number or description).

Fine print:
Voting will be open to the everyone until Saturday at 2pm MST.
All cakes will remain anonymous until the winners are announced Saturday Feb 13th 2009.

Voting Coming Soon

The cake entries from my Create a Masterpiece and Win post will be up later this afternoon so we can open it to public voting. I'll also be having my guest judges pick their favorites and the winner(s) will be announced this weekend!

I had so much fun with it I'm already contemplating what book to do next!

Wordless Wednesday: Entwined

(Photo taken by me in Capitol Reef National Park in June 2008)

Tell Me Tuesday: Mornings or Nights

Tell Me: Do you stay up late or wake up early? Or are you crazy enough to do both?

It's much easier for me to stay up late. The kids go to bed, and mommy plays! :) Thats when I pull out my projects. Or read. Or catch up on a movie I've been wanting to see. Usually no matter what it is I'm doing I wind it up around midnight. I try to go bed earlier. I just can't do it captain.

I wish I was more of a morning person. I love getting a handful of chores done in the morning and still having the entire rest of my day. Alas I usually wake up like 30 minutes before my 1st grader has to go to school.

There are some things I have to do in the morning though. Like if I dont make it to the grocery store before 10am I'll wait and go the next day (collegetown gets busy around these parts and I try to avoid the crowds as much as possible). Or doctors appointments. I hate waiting in the waiting room for two hours. Those morning appointments are all I ever do.

What about you, are you a morning person or night owl?

Question 14: Why I Started

Asked by Sell party of (who is fun, silly, sincere and kind!)

Why did you start blogging?
----

I originally started blogging back in 2005 to share pics of my kids with my family and friends. I also wanted to print off my blog into a book to give a copy to my mom and keep one for myself. Over a year ago my husband was looking into some police jobs and I figured it would be best if I made my blog private. Like everyone knows, once your blog goes private your comments get cut off. People just forget to check.

I realized then, that I really craved that interaction and socialization, and quite frankly I was at a point where I was excited to start making new friends and decided to start up a blog where it was about anything I wanted to talk about, instead of like my other one that is mostly just updates on the family. So thats why I started and ...kept going I guess. :)


**Want to play along? Do you have any questions for me? Go ahead and ask me here!


******
(Oh yeah, and don't forget about my cake decorating contest. In case you can't get your hands on a book but you still want to participate you can find the first six chapters of The Dark Divine online at The Romantic Times (Ch 1 starts almost at the bottom of the page) and possibly pick something out of that to decorate with!)

Create a Masterpiece & Win a Prize!

I'd like to see who can create a fun decorated cake using ideas/scenes from The Dark Divine (by Bree Despain).



I had the idea a few weeks ago, that, lets face it, happened because I LOVED this idea from Esplin and I need some motivation to bring it to fruition (cause I for one am going to participate). Seriously you gotta go check out the creations these guys came up with! Fantastic!

Prize: Your choice of book from my grab bag including those pictured below:

~Ruined by Paula Morris
~The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
~Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
~Airhead by Meg Cabot
~The Dark Divine by Bree Despain (signed ARC)
~Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (signed)
~Miss Delacourt Speaks Her Mind by Heidi Ashworth (signed)
~The Actor and The Housewife by Shannon hale (signed)

Rules:
-Anyone can enter! I'd love to have a lot of fabulous ideas/creations to choose from!
-Feel free to use whatever you'd like. This isn't a taste test, so go crazy!
-All photo submissions need to be emailed to me at cranberryfries[at]gmail[dot]com by Frebruary 10th, 2010. (Feel free to email a few different angles of your cake.)
-You can submit as many creations as you'd like.
-Depending on what I get, I reserve the right to create two categories of winners. (For example, One *non spoiler design and one *spoiler design.)

**Special Guest Judge, the author herself, miss Bree Despain will be among our panel of judges!!

Extras:
-Winner(s) will be notified via email so please be sure I know how to contact you.
-Winner(s) will be chosen by combination of a) a panel of judges b) votes from viewers
-Winner(s) will be chosen based on how cool your cake is. Have fun! Be creative!
-I reserve the right to add more prizes to the grab bag as I see fit, and allow the winner(s) to choose from such prizes.