Wahm Blog Review

Cathy’s Creations-Great for Handcrafted Jewlery and Ornaments

Christmas time is always a hard time for me to figure out what to buy those hard to shop for relatives! You know who they are the ones that have everything what else could they possibly need? Well my Mom will not tell you what she wants and she tends to be picky! So this year I knew I was going to hit it out of the ballpark because the one she loves is PERSONLIZED ornaments that mean something personal to our family! Now enter my good friend Cathy from Cathy’s Creations! Now Cathy and I have been friends for awhile and she is Co-Host on my Radio Show Frugal WAHMs Talk Radio and I knew she made handmade ornaments amongest other things! So feeling confident I headed on over to Cathy’s site!

Oh my gosh was I surprised at the wide variety she had to offer. Not only did she have Christmas ornaments but she had ornaments for dog and cat lovers, special occasions, handcrafted whimiscal jewlery, custom name tags, sports and professions ornaments and more! How in the world was I going to chooose! Then I found a perfect Christmas ornament that allowed me to add all of my Mom’s grandchildren’s name on it.

The ornaments came in a big box stuffed with pink raffia all over, on top was a ziploc baggie with pink candies inside. She knew the way into my heart just add candy lol. Then under the candy and beautiful pink raffia was all my ornaments I ordered each carefully packaged. The ornaments were so much beautiful than I had ever anticapated and her website does do them justice. Cathy is truly a gifted artists each ornaments was unique, beautifully crafted, handpainted and simply just breath taking.

The care she took from making the ornaments and painting them to shipping and packing them really showed from the moment we opened the box. Now on Christmas morning I couldnt wait and made Mom open up my package first! Inside was TWO personlized ornaments from Cathy’s Creations! The first ornaments depcited all of her children’s names! The second depicted all of her grandchildren’s names! And here it came the flood gates opened and Mom was bawling! SCORE I hit that one out of the ballpark all thanks to Cathy!

So if you are looking for affordable and handcrafted one of kind jewlery or ornaments I highly suggest stoppping by Cathy’s Creations today!

Site Review:Shweet Potato Designs

My WAHM Spotlight this week is my good friend and our NEW Editor Carmen! Or as I like to call her “Carm” lol She has been a good friend and fellow graphics designer for years! Carmen owns a very popular site called Shweet Potato Designs where she offers the most unique, creative and beautiful graphics! Her speciality is dealing with Primitive and Country based graphics with her most popular graphics being her “Raggedies”

NO ONE and I mean NO ONE on the internet makes such unique and beautiful raggedies as Carm! What I personally love about her raggedies is simply they are unique! You have raggedies in cars, and some of the cars are animated! You have raggedy ballerinas, raggedy witches, raggedy santas and elves and so much more! Each one of her designs is unique and like nothing you will find elsewhere! Now I know the first question I will get from readers is why am I reviewing my competitions site since we both sell graphics? SIMPLE I don’t consider Carm my competition but my friend! It is simple and something Dianne and I have preached about for over a year! NETWORKING! If I have a client that needs something I know Carm creates I refer them to her! We make diffrent graphics and both of our styles are unique and diffrent!

Now on her graphic sites she offers a WIDE array of graphics to choose from here is a list from her menu:

• Plugs
• Etsy Headers
• Freebies
• Blog Headers
• Singles and Misc
• Ad Buttons
• Collections
• Super Saver Websets
• Websets
• Commercial License for her graphics
• Banners
• Logos
• SIggys
• Backgrounds
• Avatars
• Dividers and more!

On top of owning a great site for small business owners, scrapbookers, and web designers to shop from, Carm also owns two awesome blogs! The first is called Frugal Favorites! This of course is one of favorites lol On her blog Carm shares her lates frugal tips and ideas she comes across on world wide web along with a few coupons!

Carm others great blog another favorite of mine is Chubba Girl this is a great blog because she features recipes she has either made, tried or come across on the internet! What I love about the blog is that all the recipes are WAHM friendly! Meaning great for us busy WAHMs who simply just don’t have alot time our hands! We are pleased and proud to announce that we are adding Carm to our Family here  at Frugal WAHMs Talk Radio! Carm will be sharing some yummy recipes and maybe some frugal tips along the way! And maybe we can hoodwink her into appearing on a future show! Please help support a fellow WAHM and stop by her sites especially if you are looking for ONE OF KIND great graphics!

Angie

http://www.shweetpotatodesigns.com

Site Review: WAHM Confessions

Came across a wonderful site yesterday that I just had to share with our readers and listners of the show! It is called WAHM Confessions! This site is simply AWESOME for us Work At Home Moms! The purpose of this site it allow you a SAFE place to vent your frustrations that we all have at being a WAHM or maybe a HUGE triumph! And the great thing is it is all done anonymous so you can feel free to say what is on your mind without anyone knowing it is you!! So Stop by WAHM Confessions today and Confess your hearts out!!

Here is more about How it works from their site:

Everyone has something to confess. This is the place for Work At Home Moms to make their confessions.

To confess, click on Confess above and type out your work at home confession. Once completed and submitted it’ll automatically post to our home page. Remember, this is anonymous so don’t sign your confession or use any identifying information in your confession.

Confessions on the home page are for you to understand, sympathize, or laugh with. If you feel like you understand the confession, from any angle, click on the “I Get It” link. Your click will be counted and is anonymous.

By clicking “I Get It” you’re telling the person who made the confession that they’re not alone. You don’t have to get all the confessions but the ones that you do get, let the world know about.

We all have something to confess and we’d all confess a lot more if we knew that no one would know it’s us . . . here, you can have both!

So, what are you waiting for? Confess your WAHM secrets now!

Great Alternative To Ebay!

If you are anything like me, I am always looking for great ways to network with other Work At Home Moms! And I have to say I have joined a wonderful community I just had to SHOUT about! This site is called the Blue Fuzzy Slippers, now what is the Blue Fuzzy Slippers you might ask? Well it is a great place to open a storefront and to sell your wares from, but there is soo much more to this wonderful site then just selling your items!

Fuzzy Blue Slippers is part of the Divapreneur organization I mentioned on the air on Tuesday! They will be launching their first Magazine issue in January and yours truly is delighted to be an editor this great new Magazine for Wahm’s! Their other networking site Fuzzy Blue Slippers offers storefronts similia

r to Ebay for only $20 a year! And if you would like to take a test drive of a storefront to see if it something you would like they offer a two month FREE trial! Now it does not get much better than that! You can list as many products as you want and try it out for FREE!

FuzzB is a networking community, and online marketplace offering FREE and affordable advertising, marketing and networking! Some of the great options of your store fronts is that you have the options of using a BUY IT NOW service for FREE or their latest great thing  is you can add SWAP link to your auctions meaning you are willing to swap products with other WAHM’s! Now Ebay doesnt even do this! And all this for $20 a year when Ebay charges you $15 per ebay store per month!

Some of the other great features is they have a coupon section where you can offer members of FuzzyB a special discount coupon especially to your site which in return means FREE advertising for you! They are also going to be adding diffrent groups you can join to network with and a forum to meet other WAHM’s! So if you are looking for an affordable to make some extra Christmas spending cash this year I highly suggest you look into to the FuzzyB site where you will meet some wonderful WAHM’s just like yourself!

Angie

Featured Blogger:Coupon Cravings

Can
you tell us a little bit about yourself and family and how you go into couponing?

I’m a working mom of three little girls living just outside Washington, DC. I’ve
clipped coupons on and off for several years but I really got serious in March
as I was working to launch a free paperless online coupon service called
Shortcuts.com as part of my job as a Communications Director at AOL.

As part of my publicity efforts I was interacting quite a bit with money-saving
mom bloggers and seeing all the deals these amazing ladies were getting using
coupons and I knew I had to get serious. I’ve always been one for saving money
but I realized I’d been using coupons all wrong before and learned so many new
tips and strategies. I’m saving so much more now than I ever did in the past
when I dabbled in coupons.

Can you tell us what were some of the mistakes or
pitfalls you had when you were first learning to coupon?

I used to make so many mistakes using coupons. I didn’t wait until an item went
on sale to use a coupon. I didn’t even save coupons if I didn’t use them the
weekend they came out. I can’t even imagine doing that today! I also didn’t
realize there were so many places to get coupons – online coupon services like
Coupons.com, and even brand sites like Colgate.com. I always hit these sites now
before I go shopping!

How much time a week do you take to clip and
organize your coupons for your weekly shopping trips?

It’s hard to say. An hour? Throughout the week I’m writing about grocery deals I
plan to take advantage of and checking out other blogs and seeing the deals I
want that weekend. Usually on Friday nights I go start my list with my weekly
ads to see if what I need is on sale anywhere. Then I hit the computer to find
as many coupons as possible.

Some people clip all their coupons and put them in a binder, but I file my
coupons by week. Then I hit a site like CouponMom.com or AFullCup.com and search
their coupon databases to see if coupons exist for what I want. They always list
out coupons with the date they appeared in the weekly coupon inserts so then I
go back to my folders and cut them out then.

Can you tell us a little bit about your blog?

I started Coupon Cravings in May as a way to share grocery deals and freebies
with fellow deal-seekers. I’m constantly on the hunt for deals where you can get
stuff for free using coupons. I recently started posting deals at regional
grocery stores so that readers in these local areas can get free toothpaste,
toothbrushes, vegetables, etc. at the stores close to their homes. I also am a
big CVS fan and post all the CVS deals each week too.

What is your favorite part of having a coupon blog?

My favorite part is all the thanks I get from readers who were able to take
advantage of some of my deals to get groceries for free or cheap. I also love
doing interviews and being used as a resource to help others save money and even
share the items they’ve gotten for cheap or for free with local charities. I’ve
donated so much toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, etc. to the local homeless
shelter, and I was able to get all of it for free with my coupons!

Do you have some good tips or tricks you would like to share with our listeners
on how they can save money in this tough economy we are in?

Everyone talks about stocking up when an item goes on sale, but it’s so
worthwhile. If you have the space, you should definitely buy more when the
prices are low. I bought a shelving unit for my basement and have filled it with
Kraft macaroni & cheese, Cheerios, Heinz ketchup and more. I bought 36 boxes of
the Kraft macaroni & cheese when it was on sale 3 for $1. You’ll never beat that
price!

I also hear a lot of talk about buying store brands as a way to save money but
to be honest, by using coupons, I get groceries for so much less than the store
brand. A good example is Fruity Cheerios. It was on sale at Harris Teeter
buy-one-get-one-free, so you could get two boxes for $3.49. Well, I had a $.75/1
coupon for each box, both of which doubled. So I ended up paying just $.49 for
both boxes. Can you get store brand Cheerios for less than $.25 a box? No way!

Do you make money blogging? And if so what have you
found to be the best resources for WAHM’s to make money off their blogging?

I do make some money blogging, but not enough to quit my day job! I’m still
pretty new to blogging so the only ads I have on my site are
cost-per-acquisition. So I get paid anywhere from $.10 to $2.00 when a visitor
signs up for free samples via one of my banners or clicks to print coupons from
my site via the Coupons.com banner. For these ads, I’ve signed up with Logical
Media, CPA Storm and MySavings Media. I’ve found these to be the best and
easiest to use. They make it really easy to grab their codes and add them to
your site. I’m sure I could do so much more but I’m still just learning the
ropes too!

Featured Blogger: Freebies4Mom

Do you loving getting gifts? I know I do! Lately my mail box has been filled with them and it’s all thanks to today’s featured blogger. She has provided me with the excitement of freebies in my mailbox at least a couple times a week, sometimes several a day. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to one of my favorite frugal bloggers, Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom.

Freebies 4 Mom is an awesome website with lots of helpful freebies and tips to offer. I have been following Heather’s blog for approximately 4 months now and the freebies she has shared with me and other moms have been wonderful blessings!

Heather was a stay-at-home mom of two boys living in Houston who entered the world of working-at-home a little less than a year ago. In the beginning she would write freebie emails to a few friends. She was excited when she found blogging because her email readership was growing quickly. Approaching her one year blogiversary on the 21st of this month, she has reached an outstanding 4000 plus subscribers to her blog!

“I became a freebie finder after my second son was born because we had a need to cut expenses as a growing family on a single income. I learned how to use coupons to get the deepest discounts at the grocery store, and even to buy stuff for free. It was so exciting to save money on everyday purchases and get free samples in my mailbox that I just couldn’t keep all the good finds to myself.”

Heather offers her readers daily features which include Freebies in my Mailbox, Money 4 Mom, 4 Giveaways, Walmart Freebies, Freebie Friday and Sweeps 4 Mom. On top of her daily posts she also fills you in on how to spoil yourself on your birthday and announces free events in which you and your family can participate.

If you want to know if you can find something for free look no further than Freebies 4 Mom for coupons and rebates, magazines, beauty and frugalness in general. No matter what your age or your kids ages, Heather features freebies for you!

Heather enjoys blogging because she loves helping others. “When I hear from a reader who saved money on their groceries by using coupons for the first time or from a reader who won a fabulous prize in a sweepstakes it makes me smile to know I’ve had a positive effect on their life.”

Heather should be a great inspiration to all of us work at home moms because she has taken her blog and turned it into a money making adventure.

“When I started my blog I knew that there was the potential it could someday generate revenue through advertising. It felt like it took a long time before I had that first penny in my hand, but my readership continued to grow at a fast pace and more pennies followed. I know how challenging it is to monetize your blog, and that’s why I share resources with my fellow bloggers in my weekly “Money 4 Mom” series. Since I’m fairly new to being self-employed, I’m learning as I go and I love to share as I learn. I want to help other bloggers find their dream jobs too. It’s not easy to make money blogging, but investing in yourself will pay off in ways you never imagined.”

The overall theme of her blog is how to save money and to have fun while doing it. She blogs about the lighter side of personal finance, teaching us that being frugal can be fun. “You can afford to spoil yourself with freebies!”

With the increasing number of freebie sites available and the increasing number of scams out there we need to be careful who and what we invite into our homes. To put it in her own words: “Why is my blog different than all of those “free sample” websites you find across the web? Because I focus on the best of the offers available, those things that I am interested in and that I think other moms would be interested in too. I try to weed through the offers for you.”

At Frugal WAHMs Talk Radio we offer our readership the best information available. Occasionally I would like to write a post featuring extraordinary frugal work at home moms. If you wish to be consider for one of these write ups please send me an email at . If you are interested in advertising with us
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