i should be mopping the floor: March 2013
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Friday's Freebie: Spring Has Sprung Chalkboard Printable

I am {still} obsessed with a fun chalkboard printable. I was needing something to transition my decor out of Easter to just plain springy-goodness. This spring printable is perfect for the next few months. Time to BLOOM {and grow}!

This chalkboard printable is designed to be printed on a letter-sized paper and trimmed to 8x10 for framing purposes {or whatever else you'd like to use it for}.

Click on the image below to download. 
Kindly give a FACEBOOK LIKE before downloading any free printables. 
Please and thank you.


Some of my other favorite printables include:










Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:



A DIY #NinjaParty {or #NinjagoParty}

My youngest son is in love with the Lego series, Ninjago. When he asked for his sixth birthday party to be a Ninja themed birthday party, I was all over it. Here's some easy tips and tricks to do a budget-friendly, DIY Ninja birthday party that won't disappoint your little Spinjitsu master.

A Budget-friendly DIY Ninja party or #Ninjago party.
I love a good, home-based DIY birthday party. I did this one on a budget and without pulling my hair out over the details. I seriously did not sweat the small stuff {for, like, the first time ever}. I think the trick was keeping it super small and only inviting the besties.

Most of the ideas I implemented for this party were found on Pinterest from other bloggers. For the complete source list, see the bottom of this post.


PLEASE CLICK THROUGH TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST 
WITH FUN PARTY PICS! >>>

Mega Swag Give Away

Y'all, a week ago, I didn't know what swag was. And now, I'm loving the fun of it all. If you didn't make it to Blissdom this year, here's your chance to get all the goodies we were showered with. Vendors are crazy generous. We tried some AMAZING products and fell in love with them!


Included in this swag grab are: {my kids' FAVE} LOTS of GoGoSqueez Applesauces, Johnson & Johnson baby and kids' products, LOTS of Pedia Care {including a digital thermometer}, LOTS of Cutter's Skinsations Insect Repellent, VO5 Haircare items, Seattle's Best five-pack tasting kit, mini Duck tape, Martha Stewart flower collar for doggies from Petsmart, a red faux croc-skin handbag from Famous Footwear, insulated cup from the Suburgatory show, Carnival goodies {including beach towel} and more!

-- When I mentioned to vendors that I thought it would be fun to extend the swag to a reader, they were all over it. They sent all of these goodies just for YOU! Be sure to stop by their pages and say hi if you get a chance! :)

We'll be drawing on Tuesday, April 2nd. Enter below through Rafflecopter to win:








Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:



Six Easy Steps to Create a Blog #BusinessCard that Totally Rocks


Want to create a business card design that won't soon be forgotten? Here are six easy steps to ensure that your blog's business card will stand out from the pack. 

I just got in from the Blissdom conference yesterday...and I'm still spinning from the AMAZINGNESS of it all. One HUGE underlying aspect of any conference is the constant exchange of business cards. 

I want to point out what Scott Stratten told us in his opening keynote address..."you aren't there to collect, you're there to connect". There's definitely a fine etiquette balance to the business card exchange...and blog conference newbies like myself often teetered on the wrong side of that line. But, that's okay. It's a learning process. 

Not everyone wants your card. Did you really make a connection or do you just feel the need to get your card in their hand? 98% of those cards up there were indeed connections. A couple were just handed to me {and I did that once, too, and am quite embarrassed about it now}. 
These were my cards that I brought. I'm soooo wishing I could go back and have a bit of a do-over with the way I laid out the design on them. Yeah...they're fun and all. And the shape of them helped them stand out. And I got a lot of "oh...cuuuuute!" But, man, that ridiculously oversized QR code on the back is taking up serious real-estate that I should have used for more important things {more on that below}. Like, really. Sometimes I'm a bit form over function. It's been my achilles' heal for over ten years.  People who have worked with me are nodding at this in complete agreement. When will I learn?

To give credit where credit is due: my original idea for the square card came from my bloggy friend, Mandy, over at Sugar Bee Crafts. She has some AWESOME card tips, too!

That's a bunch of fabulous bloggers' cards right there. 
I made some amazing connections and lifelong friendships as well.

The three cards above nailed it. And I mean NAILED IT. It took both sides of the cards, but they brought it on home. They have {what I consider to be} the six things every well-designed business card really needs:

1. PHOTO
This seems so obvious, but I totally missed the boat on this one. I can glance at these cards and remember these ladies {poor Kim Janocko up there was cursed with the seat next to me at the "Rock Your Camera" session...she probably thinks I'm a complete moron...I didn't have a clue about the Nikon I've owned for almost four years now. Thanks for your grace and patience with me, Kim.} Having a photo on your card at these mega conferences is so helpful. The cards without photos {mine included here} make me really have to think about where I met the card owners at. Some I really don't remember as well since I can't place a name with who it belongs to. I am actually going through the cards and finding people's sites and then saying "ohhhh, yeah...that's who that is". But that's a lot of work {I'm certainly guilty of it, too}. Take the work out of it for your card recipient...put your photo on it so it's an instant "A-HA" moment when they're reviewing cards at the end of a conference. And try to be consistent and use the same photo everywhere {on your blog, on your card, on your Twitter, FB, etc.}.

2. BLOG NAME{S}. 
Again, another seemingly obvious one. But it's actually so easy to get caught up in the fun time of designing a card that you may forget your blog name. If you have more than one blog, list them. That's the main way to find you...your blog!

3. NAME OF AUTHOR. 
I have several cards that have a blog name, but not the name of the person who the card belonged to. It's not that big of a deal, but this is a personal connection that we're making. Matt Lauer doesn't just hand out "Today Show" cards {does someone that significant really need/have cards?}...no, he has "Today Show" cards that also say his name and info in the corner. It's a self-promotion thing, but so important. It's a connection we're making between people, not just companies.

4. BLURB ABOUT THE BLOG or AUTHOR:
What's your blog about? My tag line is "a creative lifestyle blog worth neglecting your chores for". It's a summation that I can throw on a business card or give in my "elevator schpeel" {the one where you have 10 seconds to tell the person next to you in the elevator what it is that you do...not always easy in our line of work...can I get an amen?}. Some blog names {mine included} don't make it blatantly obvious what the blog is about. "Fabulously Felula" is a presh name for a blog...but if it's a blog about homeschooling or fashion or whatevs, you're going to have to spell it out. And there's not a darn thing wrong with that. 

5. QR CODE
This isn't a requirement, but it sure is helpful. During breaks between sessions, I often went through and scanned QR codes on business cards to see those people's blogs. Sometimes I did it within moments of meeting someone and getting their card. And I certainly wasn't the only conference attendee doing it. A lot of cards are looked at so briefly and then put in a pile...if someone can instantly be taken to your site, give them the opportunity. And don't be like me and make yours enormous and obnoxious. It will still scan on a much smaller scale. What was I thinking? 
You can make your own free QR code at qrstuff.com

6. ALL SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES AND SITE LINKS {and email, too}. 
I failed miserably at this one. Miserably. I put my site and email on my card and thought..."they'll find me", {again, after some work of going to my site and locating my social media links, they will find me...but will they even take the time to do all of that before saying "to heck with it"?}. This morning, I've been going through cards and following people's twitter handles, etc. Which ones am I doing first? The ones who put it all on their card and made it super easy. I will certainly do the others...but it may be a while before I make the time to go to sites and find social media buttons to follow. And I was warned about this one, too...and I still did my own thing {seriously, sometimes I am just a stubborn mule}. Don't be like me. Don't make people work to follow you. A lot of those who had all of their handles on their cards made it easy to just instantly follow at the conference...I've been tweeting with some of them for several days now. I'm wondering how many friends I haven't interacted with yet since I didn't have my info on my card? Bleh.

The above were the super unique cards that really stood out to me. How fun are these? They each added elements to their cards to make them super memorable and way cool. 

From the bottom of my heart, I hope I didn't step on any toes with this post. I wanted it to be informative and helpful to those of you thinking about making cards for your site {especially if you're attending a conference in the near future}. As you can blatantly see, I followed about half of my own suggestions {if that}. This is just my lil' disclaimer to say I'm not trying to slam people who didn't do these things...I'm just trying to put out there what I looked for in a card. After three days of the conference, I realized the cards that really made a successful impact on me. 

Happy card making!



Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:



Catch Y'all on the Flip Flop #blissdom

Heading to the Big D for the Big B... #Blissdom, that is. I'm hitting I-35 at the crack of dawn and I just can't wait {I'm lucky in that it's only three hours from my door}. 

This will be my first blogging conference. I'm super giddy. And nervous. And excited. And fah-reaking out about it all. 

It's overwhelming, but kind of awesome at the same time.

I have no idea what kind of screen time I'll get in the next few days. But follow my Instagram feed for the visual of it all. I plan to resume the festivities here on Sunday with Mop It Up Monday!

If you're at Blissdom, I really want to meet you. If you're not, pray that I take it one minute at a time and soak in as much bliss as possible.






Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:



Wall-to-Wall DIY Hook Board

A custom hook board can help control clutter that comes with everyday life. This one we put together for our laundry room makeover has helped our jacket/backpack/hat/anything-that-hangs-mess tremendously.

I wanted a board with hooks that spanned the entire blank wall in our laundry room. Our previous hooks were on a one foot board with only four hooks...it was always overloaded.

This new one has more hooks than we'll probably ever use...but I'm soooo okay with that. I even have a hook for the little wall pocket I keep my plastic bags in.

The other day my dad was over and he referred to it as a hooker board. Three times. Without batting an eye. Bless him, Lord. He's too pure of heart to even know the humor the rest of us gutter-minds find in that term. I snicker every time I think of it. 

This hooker board started out as a 1x4 piece of pine {cut to size} that I slapped some of my blue oops paint on. I like to work with pine since it's a bit softer and easier to distress.

 I distressed it with my palm sander.

Used some stain with an old kitchen sponge I had laying around in the garage. It's laziness at its finest. I couldn't even take the time to find the proper tool.

I let the stain sit for a couple of minutes and then wiped it down to remove the bulk of it. 

Then the men hung it. It was a three person job. Apparently.
We managed to get it in studs so we didn't have to use wall anchors 
{the bain of my existence}.  

And you'd think, between the two of us, doing math to hang hooks to put on the board wouldn't have been as time consuming as it was. But, this was seriously the hardest part. We had charts and graphing calculators {that hadn't been used since college} and rulers and phone apps and everything under the sun. I have no idea how we finally got them up there in some semblance of even spacing. At one point, I walked away in frustration and said "call me on hook seven so I can take a picture". My husband really puts up with a lot from me sometimes.  

But I think it turned out great, in spite of our poor math skills. We got the hooks at Lowes...they were the cheaper ones that are toward the bottom of the display.

We're still a considerable way from calling this room done.
If you remember, this room-redo was a product of a broken washer that our warranty replaced for us. The issue that washer had left a streaky mess {from humidity and leaking} all over the walls.

This is the other hook board in the room...it was a HobLob find. I considered duplicating its pattern on the larger board...and then said nahhhh. 

Above the hook board, Board Dudes from RoseArt is sponsoring my new command center that I'll be putting in {hopefully next week}. Can't wait to show you everything when it arrives.

Annnnd...on my top shelf {which I now can't reach since my new machines are taller}, I splurged on the vintage metal letters from HobLob. I can't wait to show you guys the entire room when it's all done! 

This was where this room started...almost six years ago when we moved in.

Shortly after moving in, my dad helped me redo the room and add the shelving {and remove the cabinetry}. This was a great set up for us, and would've still been had we not encountered washer issues. But, stay tuned...more laundry room adventures to come!









Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:



Iron Chef Mom | Battle: Carrots

ironchefmom2013_200
 This week’s featured ingredient is CARROTS!
I know you've all got some AMAZING carrot recipes out there...
from sweets to savory items.
I can't wait to see them all!

Before we get started it’s time to announce the winner of Iron Chef Mom Lemons
{hosted last week by Tanya at Lemons for Lulu}
You voted and we tallied…

the winner is Confessions of a Baking Queen with these delicious 
Congratulations, Baking Queen! Feel free to display a winner's badge,
because you're an Iron Chef Mom!


iron chef mom


Last week's Host Choice was Sparkling Raspberry and Blackberry Lemonade
from Hot Eats and Cool Reads:

And the Runner Up was Lemon Cream Bars from Flavors by Four:




Get ready for next week’s party by looking at the schedule below:


Weekly Linkup Guidelines:

1. Follow the weekly host {ishouldbemoppingthefloor} on FacebookTwitter, or Pinterest.
2. Link up only recipes that include CARROTS! Any carrot recipes you have: past or present! (Carrots do not have to be the main ingredient!)
3.  Vote! This week you can vote by LIKING the three entries of your choice. You're welcome to vote when you link up, however, it would be even more fun if you wait until the weekend when all of the recipes are linked up to the party! We'll be using the honor system in voting...only three votes maximum per person. Please and thank you! ;)


BRING ON:
BATTLE CARROTS