Hello Everyone! Starting June 10, I’ll be hosting a Bridal Shower Event here at Simply Sweet Home. This will be a series of posts pertaining to bridal showers and weddings. It will include a whole host of ideas to help you plan showers, weddings, and other parties.

I’ll be featuring some lovely party foods, invitations, tables, decor, and cakes from around the internet, as well as providing you with lots of information, inspiration, and resources.

Hope you’ll stop by for the event, as we will have a lot of ideas and features that could help you to plan and organize other types of parties as well.

Unfortunately I planned all of this at the last moment, so I didn’t set up any giveaways to host during this event; however, I will be looking around the internet for some giveaways to share with you that may pertain to this event.

By the way, if you’ve recently hosted a shower and posted about it, I’d love to share your photos and ideas with everyone during this event. Just send me an email. (You’ll find the link on the right hand side of my blog.)

Thanks for reading. Hope to “see” you at the shower!

-Jerri

I’m passing these along to the following blogs:

My Art and the Mom in Me

It’s All in My Head

The Open Pantry

Baking Cakes Galore

Snooky Doodle Cakes & more

Always Tie Your Apron Strings

Keep up the good work, Ladies!

-Jerri

Here are the rules of the award: Choose at least 8 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Show the 8 winners names and links on your blog, then leave them a comment that they too have been given the Honest Scrap award. Then everyone must list at least 10 honest things about themselves.

So here we go…10 Honest Things About Me

1. My husband and I first met in Dramatic literature class. It was love at first sight for both of us, though it took several months before we ever went on our first date. We’ve been inseparable ever since, and I’m thankful for every day that we share together.
2. I’m a very shy and quiet person (except around my husband and good friends).
3. I love singing. In high school my favorite activity was chorus.
4. I’m a big country music fan. My favorite artists are Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, and Rascal Flatts.
5. I’m a big Care Bears fan….the 80s and 90s version, not necessarily the new show.
6. I have a growing obsession with cupcake stuff.
7. I love shopping for clothes, especially new tops, and I also love pajama pants with cute colors and designs. (And I confess, I have way more clothes than I need.)
8. I’ve just started making my own bracelets and earrings—I’ll let you know if I’m going to sell these on etsy.
9. Despite all these *bubbly* facts, I’m actually a very serious person. I follow politics and current events very closely (….in fact, the news is on right now as I type), and I’m very passionate about my beliefs.
10. …And I love my cats!

Now I have to Nominate 8 Blogs for this Award. Here are my choices:

Ruby Lane

Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures

Inside the White Picket Fence

The Cozy Country Home

This Southern Girls Nest

Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers

Jean Stockdale, Standing Near the Cross Ministries

The Adventures of Miss V

Congrats! Keep up the great work you guys!

-Jerri

Hello, and welcome to my party post for the Ultimate Blog Party 2009. Please sit down and make yourself at home. While you’re here, you should enter our Lavender Cottage Jewelry Giveaway. I also invite to check out my fabulous sponsors and vote in our latest poll.

And I hope you’ll consider subscribing to my RSS feeds and newsletters, and come back each week to check out my featured recipes, my monthly dessert carnival, and other great features. And don’t forget to drop me a line, so I can come to your party too!

For those of you who are new to my site, let me introduce myself. My name is Jerri. I’m from the great state of Alabama, and I’ve been married to my college sweetheart and best friend for 2 years. We just moved into our first house last fall and are making plans to start a family in the near future.

My blog is called Simply Sweet Home, and I write on a variety of topics for housewives and moms. My most popular feature is my Recipe of the Week, which I submit to several great carnivals each week. I also post a lot of housekeeping and organizing tips, as well as craft and decor ideas, money saving tips, and product reviews. And I participate in Menu Plan Monday over at Org Junkie each week.

Each month I host my own dessert carnival called Sweet Thursday . And I’d love for you to join me. To participate all you have to do is send in a photo of a dessert you’ve made, and I’ll include your photo and link in my round-up post. My next carnival is April 9, and I’ll be featuring Easter & Spring desserts. If you’d like to participate, come check out the details.

And speaking of desserts, let’s get back to our party by “having” a little food.

You can start off with our special appetizer: Black Bean Spirals:

Or go straight to our main course: We have Easy Chicken & Dumplins:

Or Chicken Cordon Bleu this evening:

And of course, you have to save room for dessert! We have a lovely Coconut Cream Cake.

And Pistachio Dessert Salad …it’s an old family recipe!

And if you’re still hungry, check out some of the items in our left sidebar!

Now for the UBP prizes…If I should be so lucky as to win a UBP prize my favorites are the Kitchen Aid Mixer from Moms Who Think (USC 28), a $100 gift certificate to Pedal Cards & Retro (USC 1), or a $50 gift certificate to Target, being offered by more than one blog, but I’ll link to Agoosa (USC 21).

Thank you so much for partying with me. Don’t forget to leave a comment, and please consider becoming a follower or subscribing to my newsletter and RSS feed. And on your way out, be sure to take a balloon for the kids!

-Jerri

Although I follow politics and current events very closely, I choose not blog on these and other serious issues. I thought long and hard about posting on this program, because I hate to go to a recipe blog or an organzing blog, only to find articles on global warming or some other political issue. But since this is an independent/nonpolitical project, I’ve decided to promote it, so please indulge me for a moment.

I’ve been concerned about the direction things are going in, and I’m happy that Glenn Beck is trying to bring together people that are feeling alone, people that are concerned about the country, and people that feel that the government no longer represents the will of the people.

Glenn Beck is a talk radio and television host who is politically independent with conservative leanings. His You Are Not Alone project is encouraging people who believe in the same basic principles (listed below) to come together and work together for the sake of the country and demand that government be accountable to the people again. He’s asked people that believe in at least 6 of the 9 principles below to send in their picture to the program at wesurroundthem@foxnews.com.

The Nine Principles
1. America is good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

The project also centers around 12 core values.

12 Values
Honesty
Reverence
Hope
Thrift
Humility
Charity
Sincerity
Moderation
Hard Work
Courage
Personal Responsibility
Friendship

If you believe in these principles and values, I encourage you to visit his website and tune in to the program Monday though Friday at 5 PM Eastern Time. Also, this Friday, March 13, he’s hosting a You Are Not Alone Special. I’m not sure what all the program will entail, but I’m sure it will be very interesting and worth watching, so if you believe in these principles and values I hope you’ll tune in and/or DVR it, and get your friends and family to watch too.

A lot of people are hosting viewing parties at their home, but instead of doing that I decided to spread the word through my blog. I figure we could have an “online viewing party.” So if you tune in to the program, I’d love for you to come back and tell me what you think, either by commenting on this post or sending an email.

For more information on this program, visit WE Surround Them.

-Jerri

We have a winner in our Love In Bloom All Four Seasons Greeting Card Template giveaway sponsored by little T studio. The winner is Angel from Angel’s Blog. Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who entered and made the giveaway a success. I hope you’ll come back to participate in future giveaways.

-Jerri