Hey guys! If you came by today expecting to see my usual Friday Favorites Party, you won’t find it.  But it will be back next week!  Till then I invite you to link up a recipe to the Christmas Recipe Party that I hosted on Thursday for the Holly Bloggy.  (If you link up, there are some super prizes involved!)

And you can also link up your posts to the final Holly Bloggy Christmas party!  Today we are joining Cheryl at Tidy Mom for a Christmas edition of her I’m Lovin’ It Event.  At this party you can pretty much link up any kind of Christmas-related post you like.  Plus, there’s three more great giveaways, including a set of items from my very own etsy shop!

By the way, I’ve put up a special coupon code in my shop today in honor of the Holly Bloggy.  The code will be up through the weekend, and it will get you 15% off your order at my shop, Simply Sweet Creations.  Just use the code HOLLYBLOGGY15 at checkout!

Now for my post! I already bombarded my blog with posts this week, but I wanted to be sure and do a unique post for each party, so for my I’m Lovin’ It post, I’ve decided to link back to my other posts from this week and some other Christmas posts of mine, just in case you missed it!

Each week I’m so excited to announce new giveaway winners. Today I’m pleased to announce that Jubilee from the blog Notes of Jubilee is the winner of our Vinyl Banner Giveaway from Uprinting. Congratulations Jubilee! Thanks to everyone for entering, and a special thanks to our wonderful sponsors at Uprinting! You guys are great!

Hello everyone. Today I’m seeking the advice of my fellow bloggers. I’m in the market for a new cell phone. Well, actually I just bought a cell phone through Sprint. I got the LG Rumor 2. And guess what? The features and the style of the phone are great, but I can’t use it in my own house!

We’ve had the phones for just a few days, and we’ve already had a ton of dropped calls and missed calls and bad reception. It’s completely ridiculous, and I looked on the Sprint website and found out that our good is in an area that gets “good coverage.” Um….Okay! Well, I suppose we should be in an area that gets good coverage. Our neighborhood is behind a Target Shopping Center and we’re only a block over from a medical center and other businesses. And of course as soon as you leave the house, we get great reception….of course!

Oddly enough, the other day my phone and my husband’s phone were sitting right by each other. Mine had five bars and his had one! How can that be? And we both got the same phone!

We actually don’t have a house phone, because we have no need for it, so we must have dependable cell phones for personal use and especially for business use. So we’ve decided we are going to cancel the contract that we just got, even if we have to pay a penalty, and we’re going to go with another company.

I know that they have “signal boosters.” But we’ve decided against that. It costs $100 for the equipment, and then you have to pay $20-$25 a month extra to use the signal booster. The bill is already $200. I don’t think we should have to pay an extra $20 to $25 a month just to use the phone in our own house!

So I’m currently researching phones. And I’m just wondering if anyone has any recommendations. I want something with a QUERTY keyboard that’s separate from the number pad. (No blackberrys for me…no offense to anyone that has them. They’re just not for me.) Currently I’m looking at the the Krave ZN4. I like it’s features a lot. I just wish I knew somebody that had one! I’ve read some reviews which were mostly good, and I’ve seen some videos on youtube. But you can never be 100% on these things.

So if anyone out there has used the Krave, do drop me a line and let me know how you like it. I’m also curious about the Motorola Rival A455. (It looks kind of neat, but I read that it drops calls too….on the other hand, I also read about how great the Rumor 2 was…so….not sure how much you can count on these reviews. )

So everybody out there, write in and tell me what kind of phone you have and how you like it, especially if you have a Verizon phone, because that’s the service we’re going with. Thanks!

Sorry I’m just now posting this! Hubby and I are getting our business cranked up, and things have been crazy! But now that I have a free moment, I have 2 winners to announce!

Kirsten of Dyed in the Wool is the winner of the $50 bundle of Not So Scary Halloween downloads from You Can Make This. Congratulations to Kirsten!

And Geri from Heart N Soul Cooking is the winner of our Tablespoon.com Pass the Inspiration giveaway. She has won two pot holders, a measuring cup, and a set of measuring spoons. Congratulations Geri!

Thanks to everyone else for entering, and don’t forget you still have a few days to get in on our apron giveaway from Happy Find and the Vinyl Banner Giveaway from Uprinting. And I also just launched a lotion giveaway. (All giveaway links can be found at the top.)

I have some winners to announce in a few of my blogiversary giveaways. All winners will be contacted by email in the next day or so.

First off, there was the Greeting Card Giveaway from Uprinting. Congratulations to Cindi from Tally’s Place. She has won 250 greeting cards!

Next we have a winner in the Nature Valley Granola Nut Cluster’s Giveaway. The prize pack included all four varieties of the Nut Cluster Snack, along with a water bottle, flashlight, binoculars, and backpack.

Our winner is JC at http://tcarolinep.blogspot.com/.

And we have four winners in our O’Charley’s Kids Giveaway. Each winner gets 5 Kids Eat Free passes to O’Charleys. The winners are:
Janet from The Money Jar and Life in Focus
Amy from Those Funny Little Girls
Christie from Divine Calling
Liz from The Halton Mom

Thanks to everyone for entering! And don’t forget to enter the other giveaways we have going on right now!

Congratulations to Trisha Burgess! She has won the 18×24″ Poster from Uprinting.

Thanks everyone for entering all of the current giveaways, and please keep returning to Simply Sweet Home, because there’s more to come, including a couple that all you Cooks and Kitchen Divas are going to love!

Also, I want to thank everyone for all your lovely comments. I read them all, and I appreciate them all! If you’ve commented and I haven’t replied or commented on your blog yet, please bare with me. I always try to respond to everyone if possible. I’m a little behind right now, but I will back to you shortly!

Thanks for reading!

-Jerri

Fall’s always been my favorite time of year. While the fall season is used as a symbol for old age in literature, I’ve always associated the season with new beginnings: new school years, new football seasons, a new harvest, etc.

And it’s a season filled with exciting events and traditions. I have so many fond memories from childhood and my teenage years of fall traditions, and each year I look forward to the season’s events and deciding which activities we’ll be participating in and which traditions we’ll share with our children in the future. Here are just a few:

Football games – There’s nothing like going to a hometown football game on Friday night: the home team marching on to the field, the spirit of the fans, the band playing, and familiar faces everywhere. And then of course, there’s college football on Saturdays when we watch The Tide Roll!

-Jerri

So what do you guys do to get ready for fall?

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be decorating my home. I just love pulling out my pumpkins, scarecrows, and fall leaves to place out on the front porch. Everything looks so fun and festive! In this post I’ve included some of my photos from last year, and in the spirit of fall and my blogiversary, I plan on posting some more fall decor ideas next week.

I also have a couple of things that I put up in the kitchen: a fall tablecloth, fall pot holders and towels, and some fall leaf window clings. It may not sound like much, but it does add some color and flare, and it really gets you in the spirit of the season.

Fall is also a time when I like to stock up on ingredients and get ready to cook. My husband’s life practically revolves around football, and I love making snacks and appetizers for us to eat during the games. I especially love making different kinds of dips to eat with chips, and I love making sausage balls. We’re also huge fans of buffalo chicken fingers and chili dogs.

And then I also have a few tasks that aren’t so much fun. There’s some general fall cleaning to do, and then one thing I must do is sort through all of our clothes. The closets in our house are very small, so we store a lot of clothing in drawers, and we’re forced to pack up some of our clothing to store in our outbuilding. So it’s getting about that time to do a survey of the closets and do a little re-arranging, organizing, and packing/unpacking. (I can’t wait!)