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!


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(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.