Misc.

Welcome to my Huge Birthday Giveaway Celebration!!

Instead of receiving gifts this year, I’ve decided to give YOU an opportunity to win a bunch of awesome products I currently use and love.  I’ve partnered with 26 amazing companies to offer 26 different giveaways for my 26th birthday. There will be multiple giveaways every day from June 13-18 — so make sure you come back!

You will be able to find all 26 Birthday Week Giveaways here — just keep scrolling down to view them all.

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Giveaway #19: Create Beauty Daily Custom Jewelry $50 Shop Credit

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I’m not a HUGE jewelry person — but when I wear jewelry, I want it to be unique. Not crazy, huge, bright, and flashy unique; but simple, elegant, no-one-else-has-this unique. So I’m often on the look-out for unique jewelry at affordable prices.

Enter: Create Beauty Daily custom jewelry Etsy shop!

I was actually referred to Cameron and her gorgeous jewelry shop via another reader — and seriously, her work is amazing. Every single piece in her shop is so unique, yet so simple and elegant.

Some of my favorites are pictured above:

1. Little Hearts Necklace

2. Hope Floats Necklace

3. Christ at the Center Necklace

And since it would be absolutely impossible for me to choose ONE item from her shop, Cameron has decided to offer a $50 shop credit to one lucky reader so you can pick your own favorite!

 

Enter to Win!

Simply answer the question below by leaving a comment on this post. You can even gain bonus entries for doing each additional item listed below (just make sure that you leave a comment for each one).

REQUIRED ENTRY:

• Visit the Create Beauty Daily Etsy shop and tell me — What do you have your eye on?

BONUS ENTRIES:

• Subscribe to Simple Organized Living via email or RSS

• Follow Simple Organized Living on Facebook or Twitter

• Follow Create Beauty Daily on Facebook

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Just a reminder that any comments left on Facebook or Twitter will not count for my birthday giveaways, and you must provide a valid email address to be considered.

All giveaways during my birthday giveaway week will close on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 10:00 EST. The winners will be selected at random and announced via a full blog post on Tuesday, June 21. I will also notify all winners via email.

 

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One month from today is my 26th birthday!!

No, I’m not telling you this so you can send me cards, gifts, or well wishes. I’m telling you this because one month from now — during my birthday week — I’ll be giving away over $2000 worth of products to Simple Organized Living readers for my HUGE Birthday Giveaway Celebration!

That’s right, I’ve partnered with 26 different companies to offer 26 different giveaways for my 26th birthday — and I thought it might be fun to whet your appetite for some of the amazing products you will have a chance to win.

Here are SOME of the participating companies:

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Aladdin Lunch and Storage Products

Baby Bear Shop

Caldrea Natural Cleaning Products

Cora Anne Designs

Gussy Sews

Hoover

Mimi’s Baby Esty Shop

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Products

Plan to Eat

Prairieland Herbs Organic Toiletries

Rachel Ray Products

Red Letter Words

Simplify 101 Organizing Workshop

Tastefully Simple

Thirty-One Organizing Bags

The Poppy Bag Company

Ultimate Christmas Storage Products

Wall Worthy Vinyl Lettering

 

And there are MORE!!!

Feel free to check out all of these amazing companies and products and get ready to win during my Birthday Giveaway Celebration — June 13-18.

Aren’t you excited?

 

Unfortunately, I recently had 2 companies back out due to personal {and totally legit} reasons. And even though I could easily find 2 additional giveaways, I thought it might be fun to see if there are any products that you would love to win.

Do you have a favorite Etsy shop that you would like me to contact?

Is there a specific product you’ve been dying to try?

Do you personally have a product you would like to giveaway or an Etsy shop to promote?

If so — PLEASE leave those ideas, websites, products, and suggestions in the comment section below, or email me aldekker @ gmail.com.

If I can’t use the products for my birthday week, I will still most definitely use them for other giveaways during the summer months {you do like giveaways don’t you?}

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Since we’re moving…and I’m just a little bit busy, I have a handful of amazing guest bloggers lined up for the next two weeks. They have tons of great information to share with you so read carefully!!

Today, Keri Middaugh of My Kitchen My Vice is sharing her advice to preserve her limited time, money, and sanity!

Honesly, I LOVE this article and how she breaks everything down into bite-size pieces. Even if you can’t do everything on her list, pick ONE idea and start simplifying your life today!

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Recently, I got tired of hearing myself complain about my “disorder disorder” so I decided to do something about it…and here’s what I did! (Hint: if your time is limited, scroll down to tip #12 … it’s my favorite!)

Photo: Paul Forman

1.I started folding the laundry on my bed.

I used to fold my laundry in my living room and subsequently displayed it to all my friends and neighbors who decided to pop by on laundry day {which is every day!} So folding the laundry on my bed gives the illusion that I have it under control — I like illusions!

2. I cancelled my magazine subscriptions.

Well, I didn’t renew them and the final issues are trickling in. But, after the New Year, no more magazines. How freeing! And a little sad.

3. I started seeking help from books.

But not just any books…I’ve been reading book written by people who are actually organized, streamlined, and efficient. I’ve gleaned some simple, but helpful, tips from these professionals, like…

• Get rid of stuff; lots of stuff!
• Hang kids’ umbrellas on the inside of the coat closet door.
• It usually takes less time to straighten up a problem area than to fret about it.

4) I renamed my junk drawer.

I did myself a huge psychological favor and renamed it the ‘utility drawer’.  Then I got rid of all the actual junk, leaving only the stuff that my family utilizes.  I sorted, purged, and gave my daughter the task of sharpening all the pencils {which she still considers a treat.}  That 15-minute task did wonders for my kitchen’s self-esteem and we can now find our chip clips again.

5. I’m using voicemail.

Yup, I sometimes don’t pick up the phone. Especially when the dog is barking, the children are crying, the pot is boiling over… you get the idea!  It was my mother who told me, “Keri, the telephone is supposed to be convenient.” So I hope she doesn’t mind if her call goes to voicemail!

6. I’m tying to keep the foyer straightened all the time.

Or as much as possible when I’m sharing my home with 3 other people and a dog.  I abhor the feeling when a cheerful neighbor comes to the door, then apologizes for taking me (and my messy foyer) by surprise.  I’ve got a surprise for you, neighbor, my foyer is consistently tidy now!

7. I do daily tasks at the same time every day.

How does the saying go?  ”A time for every thing and every thing in its time” or something like that.  That way, those little jobs (and fretting about them) don’t suck a lot of unexpected time. Biggest culprits for me: laundry, email, letting the dog out, reading the mail.

8. I give my kids “Cinderella jobs.”

Recently my 4 year old helped me sort dozens of jars and find the matching lids, all while pretending to be an oppressed princess. Seriously…this works!

9. I use the Master Notebook.

I stock up on the 10-cent spiral notebooks during the back-to-school sales and use them throughout the year.  Mostly I fill them with my weekly To-Do lists, but other fun uses are brainstorming projects, price-comparing for home improvements, party-planning, etc.  I love my notebook and get very protective of it when someone asks to “borrow a page.”

10. I got real about coupons.

I was all excited about CVS and all the free products I could get using the Extra Bucks and within a week I had acquired a 3 year supply of panty liners.  Who cares that it only cost me 99 cents?  Now I have all these packages of panty liners to store. I now realize that CVS and all its Bucks are for people who go through a lot of products. Not me.

11. I say “No, thanks.”

Suggest an event, project, exotic recipe to me, and I will think it is fun.  I’ll want to participate.  I’ll put it on the calendar.  The date will come, then I’ll be grumpy that my time is being taken by some silly event, project, or exotic recipe.

Now when I’m confronted by one of these opportunities, I anticipate how I’ll feel when I see it written on my calendar.  If I’m looking forward to it, then I write it down — in red.  If I can see myself dreading the task, then I politely say “I’m unavailable” and look forward to my uncluttered calendar for that day.

12. I practice “Project Snowball.”

I absolutely LOVE “Project Snowball” and have been using it to reign in my tendency to spread my energy across too many projects.  The idea is based on the Debt Snowball as explained by Dave Ramsey in The Total Money Makeover.

With the Project Snowball, you make a list of all your unfinished projects, in order from least time/energy needed to most.  Then you knock them out.  One by one you finish each project, building on the momentum and satisfaction from just finishing something.  With the Project Snowball, I Get Stuff Done. And it’s wonderful!

I realize that any one of these items doesn’t seem like much, but when I put then all together, I feel like many areas of my life are quite streamlined.

And just so you know, the limited time, money, and sanity I mentioned earlier is still (mostly) intact.

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Keri Middaugh is an artisan, wife, mother, disciple, who blogs over at My Kitchen, My Vice.  A former math teacher, she stays at home with her two daughters, surviving and often thriving on her husband’s music teacher income.  Her favorite room of the house is the kitchen and she sees it as the heart of the family.  If you can’t find her there, she may be checking out her garden, checking out way too many books at the library, or checking out in front of a movie.

Follow Keri on Facebook

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Thanks Keri — I know we can ALL benefit from your time-saving, money-saving, simple-living tips; especially this time of year! And I am definitely using your “Project Snowball” theory for our big move!

What are you doing to simplify, organize, de-clutter, or de-stress your life?

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I can’t believe it’s August. Did I miss something — like half the summer?

By now, you are probably stocking up on school supplies and gearing up for the start of a new school year! However, you know that once the kids go back to school, the holidays {and holiday shopping} are right around the corner.

I’ll admit, I already have a few gifts stashed away; but this year, I’m planning to do a good amount of holiday shopping with gift cards I “win” from Swagbuck.com.

What is this Swagbucks?

If you haven’t heard of Swagbucks yet, you can read more about the program here. And if you’d like to earn a few extra dollars towards your holiday shopping {or any shopping}, you might want to get started now.

Here are just a few of the great rewards you can earn!

• $50 gift card to Lowes — my personal favorite!
• $5 e-gift card to Amazon.com
• $5 PayPal cash
• $10 e-gift card to Barnes N Noble
• $10 gift card to Starbucks

There’s tons more merchandise and  gift cards available…but only if you sign up!

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Do you use Swagbucks?

If not, you should be!

I set up my account in June of 2010 — even though I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  I was skeptical to say the least.

However, since it’s free to sign up, I figured I didn’t have anything to lose.

How it works:

Swagbucks.com is an online search engine (like Google) dedicated to helping you earn digital dollars called “Swag Bucks”, which can be redeemed for cash, prizes, and merchandise.

Swag Bucks is basically “free money” because you essentially get paid for searching the internet…which you do anyway.

There are several other ways to earn Swag Bucks (I’ll talk about these later) and they accumulate pretty quickly. {I earned over 400 Swag Bucks in my first month!}

Depending on the number of Swag Bucks you have, you can redeem them for all sorts of prizes — including gift cards to Gap, Amazon, Starbucks, etc.  Here is a list of more rewards.

How to earn Swag Bucks:

1. Searching: This is the easiest way to earn Swag Bucks.  Instead of “googling” something just “swagbucks” it.
2. Daily Polls: Get at east one free Swagbuck for voting on their daily poll — silly but simple!
3. Surveys: The feture allows you to take short survey for Swag Bucks (usually 100-500 SB) It tells you how many surveys are available, how long it should take you & how many Swagbucks you’ll earn.
4. Shop: Several online stores have partnered with Swagbucks…and you can earn 2 Swagbucks for every $1 you spend at these stores.
5. Trade-In Program: Trade in old cell phones, MP3 Players, Video Games & Consoles and earn more rewards.
6. Birthday Bucks: Make sure you enter your birthday into your account (this is a new feature) and you’ll receive 50 Swagbucks as a birthday gift!!
7. Mega Swagbucks Day: Every Friday is Mega Swagbucks Day, which means there’s a greater chance of winning big bucks — so make sure to make lots of searches on Friday!
8. Referrals – Share the wealth with your friends and you’ll both win!
9. And there are even more ways to win!

So what you waiting for –  Join Swagbucks Now

Still not convinced?? Check out their FAQ’s.

Already using Swagbucks? What’s your favorite way to earn?

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We are fully into summer. Have you started enjoying it yet?

I don’t know about you, but my summer always seems to fly by way too quickly. I love thinking about lazy summer days, even though in reality, life happens, and I feel so busy.

Since we are already 2 weeks into July (and I suddenly realized that stores are stocking back-to-school supplies), I decided to make a short list of memories I want to make yet this summer.

I always enjoy making lists so I can clearly see where to start and how to finish whatever it is that I want to do. (By-the-ways, this really does work!)

With that in mind, I have made my end-of-summer to-do list.

1. Eat breakfast outside.
2. Bring flowers from my garden inside.
3. Go on a few more bike rides.
4. Pack a picnic lunch and eat it in the park.
5. Drink strawberry lemonade.
6. Eat vegetables straight from the garden.
7. Make s’mores.
8. Walk along the beach (Michigan has a few of them to choose from!)
9. Go out for ice-cream…again
10. Let a lot of fresh air into our house.

So what about you — what’s on your summer list?

This post is linked to Finer Things Fridays over at The Finer Things In Life.

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