Archives for 2009

Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash

**Please see my updated post with prize information.**
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Join us for a cup of good cheer December 14-18 at the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash! Simply Sweet Home along with 4 other amazing blogs will be hosting the event, and we’d love to see you there for all the fun and festivities!
Prizes: Everyone who participates in the week’s events will be elibible to win prizes! I’ll be announcing some of the prizes in the coming days leading up to the event! Also, I’m still looking for event sponsors. If anyone’s interested in being a sponsor, please send me an email, so we can get you lined up!
Now here’s the schedule of events for the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash:

Monday, Dec. 14 – Homemade Gifts – The best Christmas gifts come from the heart. Whether you sew, bake, paint, or glue, a homemade gift is always special and unique to those who recieve it. Come join us over at Tater Tots and Jello and share something that you’ve made, or share something that someone made for you.

Tuesday, Dec. 15 – Christmas Trees – It’s so amazing to see all the different decorating styles people have out there. And we can’t wait to see yours! Share some photos of your Christmas tree. Do you have a special theme? A favorite ornament? Post your link at A Baby Changes Everything.

Wednesday, Dec. 16 – Christmas Crafts – Christmas is a wonderful time for crafty people to show off their skills. Do you make your own Christmas decorations? Ornaments? Cards? Scrapbooks? Gingerbread Houses? Something else? Come on over to Blue Eyed Blessings and share your creations with us!

Thursday, Dec. 17 – Christmas Recipes – Food and the Holidays go hand in hand. Come and share your favorite Christmas recipes over at Simply Sweet Home. Whether it’s an appetizer, a dessert, a drink, a side, or the main course, I’m sure we’ll all be hungry for seconds!

Friday, Dec. 18 – Christmas Memories & Traditions – We all have our favorite Christmas stories, from the sweet and sentimental to the unforgettably funny. Tell us your favorite Christmas memory. Or tell us about a favorite Christmas Tradition that your family has. Then link up over at Tidy Mom.

Sounds fun, huh? I hope everyone will stop by and participate!

Grab a Button: Feel free to right click and save the graphic above if you’d like to post on the event, and/or use the code from one of the buttons below and place it in your sidebar and in your event posts if you wish. I’d really appreciate everyone’s help in promoting this event. And to say thanks, everyone who has the HBCB button in their sidebar will be eligible for additional entries in all of this month’s giveaways!

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-Jerri


Sweet Thursday: Family Favorites Edition

Welcome to another edition of Sweet Thursday, my monthly dessert round-up. I hope you enjoy all of this month’s entries! If you’d like to be a part of this round-up, just send an email to me at simplysweethome@hotmail.com and I’ll add your recipe to the post.

Next Round-up: My Next Round-up will be posted on December 24. That’s right–Christmas Eve! I was going to post it a week earlier, but I don’t want it to conflict with the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash, which will include a recipe link-up. Anyway the theme for the next round-up will be Christmas/Holiday Desserts. I’ll most likely post the round-up late on Wednesday night (the 23rd) so please get your submissions in by then. Just email me a picture and a link to your recipe post. Thanks!

Chocolate Mousse from Chaya’s Comfy Cook Blog

Cookie Dough Truffles from Millie’s Place

Ginger Whoopie Pies from Millie’s Place

Peanut Butter Fudge from Millie’s Place

Apple Pecan Cheesecake from Ninas Recipes
Chocolate Eclairs with Vanilla Orange Cream Filling from Nina’s Recipes

Rocky Road Chocolate Mousse Cake from Nina’s Recipes


Raw Date Truffles from Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free

Miss Bonnie’s Pound Cake from Simply Sweet Home

-Jerri


Collage Sheet Giveaway from Land of Enchantment

Just in time for the Christmas season, we have a great giveaway sponsored by Land of Enchantment. Land of Enchantment offers lovely digital designs that can be incorportated into your own art, scrapbooks, and craft projects. Use these for personal items or things that you sell.

There’s such a variety of images available at Land of Enchantment, it would be impossible to list them all, but here’s a short list: vintage Christmas holiday images, shabby chic roses, fairy dancers and ballerinas, fleur de lis, crowned birds, inspirational quotes, and so much more.

And here in this post, I’ve included a few images just to give you an idea of what’s in store for you over at the Land of Enchantment shop. (Also, check out the Land of Enchantment blog.)

Today I’m pleased to be giving away 5 collage sheets from Land of Enchantment. See details below!



The winner of this giveaway will receive 5 collage sheets of her choice from Land of Enchantment. To win, just visit Land of Enchantment and come back here and tell us your favorite item. Deadline to Enter: December 2 at 6:00PM

Additional Entries:
-Two entries for placing the Holly Bloggy Christmas Button on your blog.
-One entry for placing the Simply Sweet Home button on your blog.
-One entry for following me on blogger.
-One entry for subscribing to my feedblitz newsletter.
-One entry if you are subscribed to my mailing list prior to this giveaway.
-One entry for following me on
twitter.
-One entry for tweeting about the giveaway or posting about it on Facebook.
-One entry for becoming a fan of Simply Sweet Home on Facebook.
-Two entries for blogging about this giveaway.

Other Rules/Restrictions: Giveaway excludes bundle packs. The actual collage sheets you receive will be sent via email in jpeg files without the watermarks. The images/sheets themselves can not be sold or redistributed in ANY form as copyright remains with the artist.
Be sure to include your email address with your entry if it is not visible on your profile or blog. Also, please leave a link or user name so I can verify your additional entries.

-Jerri


MckLinky Blog Hop

Click here to see the entire Blog Hop List….

Easy Coconut Pie

In addition to the weekly events I participate in, I’m happy to be sharing my weekly recipe over at the Love the Pie Party hosted by Tidymom.

I’m accustomed to seeing coconut pies with a meringue, but I found this recipe over at the Bisquick website, and it sounded pretty good. It’s a very quick and easy recipe, so if you like coconut, you should give a try!


Recipe for Easy Coconut Pie:
1 cup flaked or shredded coconut
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Bisquick
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Directions:
Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease 9-inch pie plate with shortening or cooking spray.
In medium bowl, stir all ingredients until blended. Pour into pie plate.
Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until golden brown and knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cover and refrigerate any remaining pie.

-Jerri


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I’m posting a link to this post on the following sites:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday is hosted by
Blessed With Grace.
Homemaker Mondays is hosted by
11th Heaven’s Homemade Haven.
Tasty Tuesday is hosted by Balancing Beauty & Bedlam.
Ultimate Recipe is Swap is hosted by Life as Mom.
Friday Feasts is hosted by
Momtrends.
Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by
We Are THAT Family
Hooked on Fridays is hosted by Hooked on Houses

New Covergirl Products – Online Exclusive Offer

Would you like to own a few Covergirl products before they hit the store shelves?

I’m signed up as a BzzAgent . For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the site gives you opportunities to try new products. They send you product samples to review and tell your friends about, and they send you coupons and other offers.

Last Friday I got word about new products coming out from Covergirl. I buy Covergirl products myself, and so I thought this was an item worth sharing.

Visit this link to score new COVERGIRL Smoky ShadowBlast and ShineBlast lip gloss before it’s available in stores. Create a blast look on the site and discover how to get expert makeup results in minutes. And, it doesn’t stop there. Pick up new LashBlast Length mascara too and save $5. This online shopping exclusive is good through December 5!

-Jerri


SkinMD Natural Lotion Winner

Thanks again to SkinMD Natural for allowing me sponsoring the lotion giveaway. The winner is Jamerican Spice. Congratulations! Thanks to everyone who entered!

-Jerri

Oven Chicken

Here’s another great chicken recipe. Sorry I don’t have the original source for you. I had it bookmarked previously, but I’ve not been able to find it, so it must have gotten deleted. If this came from you, please let me know so I can give you credit.

Hubby loved this chicken. It’s the first time I’ve cooked something using onion soup mix, so it was a definitely a change from my usual recipes, and the flavor was just fantastic.


Recipe for Oven Chicken:


Ingredients:
4 pieces of chicken
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can water
1 pack onion soup mix

Directions: Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Tips & Suggestions: As you can tell from the photos, this recipe is rather “soupy.” So if you prefer a thick gravy, I would suggest leaving the water out of the recipe. Another alternative is to add 1/2 cup to 3/4 of rice to your soup mixture. I tried this and it was delicious!

-Jerri


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I’m posting a link to this post on the following sites:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday is hosted by
Blessed With Grace.
Homemaker Mondays is hosted by
11th Heaven’s Homemade Haven.
Tasty Tuesday is hosted by Balancing Beauty & Bedlam.
Ultimate Recipe is Swap is hosted by Life as Mom.
Friday Feasts is hosted by
Momtrends.
Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by
We Are THAT Family
Hooked on Fridays is hosted by Hooked on Houses

Happy Find Apron Winner

I want to take this time to thank everyone for helping me celebrate my blogiversary, and thanks for all the participation and enthusiasm about the giveaways.

And on behalf of all my blog readers, I want to say a special thank you to Venus at Happy Find for creating such a lovely apron for our giveaway.

And now it’s time for our winner announcement. The winner of the Hello Delilah Apron is Melanie from Whimsical Creations by Melanie Congratulations!

Please check out other custom, stylish creations at Happy Find.

-Jerri

Rock Candy Vintage

Who doesn’t love vintage? My newest sponsor, Candace, of Rock Candy Vintage offers vintage clothing, bags, supplies, jewelry, and accessories. She originally started Rock Candy as a vintage clothing store on Ebay, and now she’s opened up a shop on etsy.

The Must-See items at Rock Candy Vintage are in the Tree Candy jewelry line. Tree Candy is a variety of necklaces made from wood pieces. The wood pendants are so unique and whimsical! I know you will just love them!

The Joshua Tree Necklace is made from a piece of cherry wood and features a tea stained mod podged photo of a Joshua Tree printed on recycled paper, an antiqued copper plated twisted chain, and turquoise colored beads. The back of necklace has a tea stained saying which reads: A story of Survival, Resilience, and Beauty, printed on recycled paper.

Candace has several necklaces that feature birds. These are made in the same fashion as the Joshua Tree necklace, and Candace has put much care and detail into the above design, using a piece of wood found in the desert and two small pieces of an actual cresote bush, glued and sealed with clear acrylic, to make it look like the bird is perched on a branch. The back of necklace has the logo “Tree Candy” burned into wood. Very nice!

For those of you who like personalized items, here’s something especially for you. Your love carving necklace will display your initials burned inside of a heart, and a date can be burned into the back. This necklace is also sealed and preserved with mod podge.

There are so many beautiful necklaces to be had in this shop! You’ll find butterfly necklaces, a cherry necklace, a rabbit, lots of beautiful birds, and there’s even a couple of Alice in Wonderland necklaces that are just adorable!

Visit Rock Candy Vintage on Etsy today! Also check out the Rock Candy Vintage ebay store, and follow Rock Candy Vintage on twitter.

-Jerri

Big Blog Announcement



Hello Everyone! I’m happy to announce that the 2nd Annual Simply Sweet Home Christmas Festival is coming up December 1 through December 25. Throughout the month of December I’ll be hosting and participating in some really fun Christmas events, and I hope you’ll all come by to join in on the festivities. Here are some of the event’s highlights and features.

Highlight:

  • Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash – December 14-18. Simply Sweet Home and four other blogs will be hosting the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash. Each blog will be hosting a different themed party/meme, and everyone is welcome to participate with their own posts and link up. More details on this to come!

Other Features:

  • Christmas Recipes
  • Giveaways
  • Great Gift Ideas
  • Decorations
  • Crafts
  • Christmas Meme
  • Tour of Homes
  • Movies and Music
  • Holiday Traditons & Memories

Sponsor the Event:

I’m currently looking for shop owners to sponsor giveaways for the Christmas Festival. If you’re interested, send an email to simplysweethome@hotmail.com and we’ll work out the details. This is also a great time to purchase ad space on the blog because it’s the holiday shopping season and because the blog will see a surge of traffic in the coming months.

Spread The Word:

I’d love everyone’s help in promoting this event. If you’d like to do a post on the event, feel free to save my graphic and place it in your post. You can also place the Christmas Festival Button on your site. I’ll also be posting a graphic and button for the main event, which is the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash. Look for the in the coming weeks!

-Jerri