::Hearts & Chances:: guest post

Woot, woot!  I have my first Guest Post and couldn't be more ecstatic to introduce a sweet, local blogger.  Alicia is down-to-earth and has such a fun personality. Read on to find out more about her! 

Remember: Anybody that is interested in doing a future Guest Post please email me for further information. Ehermesch@gmail.com

Well hello there!

My name is Alicia and I blog over at heartsandchances.blogspot.com. I am so excited to be writing this guest post for Elizabeth! Here are a couple facts about me because I know you all are dying to know.

1.  I am very sarcastic. See above sentence. 

  

2. I own an English Bulldog named Harley. She’s way more awesome than your dog. Sorry, but it’s true.

3.  I grew up in a very small town. I mean population 3500 on a good day.  I graduated from high school with a class of 66 kids. Yeah, Saint Johns, Arizona is barely on the map.

4.  I moved to the bustling Phoenix Metropolitan area as soon as I graduated. Not that I didn’t love my small town, but I needed a job and Saint Johns doesn’t have too much to offer in that department.

5.  I hate dating. It’s so awkward and weird. But I’m also trying to find a sugar daddy (kidding, kind of) and dating is required for that sort of thing.

And with that introduction, here’s a little story to demonstrate why dating is so horrendous. I was at a young single adult event put on by my church a few weeks ago. We took a test and learned all about our personalities. Sounds innocent enough, but alas, it wasn’t. You see, every activity is just another ploy to get married. After being marked with a tag that says “Hello, my name is: ISFJ PERSONALITY”, they proceeded to tell us the personalities that would be our natural partners and then turned the wolves loose to find a mate. Now I don’t know about you, but that’s not my idea of a good time so I high-tailed it out of there and found the refreshments. Cue cookie chow down. I thought I was in the clear. I would enjoy a few cookies and then get myself home, scotch free of any potential suitors. But I was cornered at the refreshment table by some old(er) guy. I avoided his advances and made my way towards the exit until I was cornered by another guy. This one then proceeded to tell me that all his other matches were super weird and that I was the first one he felt “a connection” with. And then he grabbed my hand. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling the same “connection” so I made an excuse that I was trying to find my friend and had to go. As I was trying to find this “friend”, I ran into another guy who thought he should tell me all about his polygamist colony he ran away from. Umm what? I mean to each their own, but how did this even get brought up? As I was desperately trying to change that topic, another guy approached our conversation. I think guys can sense when a girl is floundering and find it as a perfect opportunity to pounce. He was a dentist. I sarcastically told him that I hadn’t seen a dentist in almost five years and that I never got my wisdom teeth out because I’m a rebel. His reply? “Can I see them? Will you just open up so I can check out your wisdom teeth?” Thanks, but no.  And at that I sprinted for the door.

Awkward socializing isn’t all that I’m good at. I also enjoy graphic design and I recently opened an Etsy shop (www.etsy.com/shop/ohlovelydaydesign) to sell some of my prints.

 Because I’m so nice, here’s a special coupon code just for you. Use AWESOME30 to get 30% off your purchase. Yeah, you’re welcome.

Five Things

Brie from Sophistifunk posted about this idea. I will share 5 things about myself and will tag 5 others to do the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1.  I love asparagus. As a teen, eating a whole can of asparagus was my go-to snack. Now I have upgraded to a more sophisticated way: baking it in the oven. Haha 

2.  Traveling the world has been some of my fondest memories.  My hubby and I have been to Italy, Amsterdam, Switzerland (my favorite place!), and Greece. 

3.  I deliberately named my son after Superman ;)

4.  Love photography! You can call me a Photo-Wannabe. The darkroom in high school was my hangout.  

5.  Skittles, Skittles, Skittles! I love me some Skittles! 

Peace Out!

Elizabeth

 

Guest Post

Would YOU like to have a guest post on my blog? 

Looking for bloggers, small businesses, someone with info about a great cause, etc. 

I'm in the process of coming up with wonderful ideas for my revamped blog, but need some guest post fillers. 

If you are interested, please email me at ehermesch@gmail.com (write "Guest Post" in the subject line). I will need a blog link, business fb page link/website link, and/or information about the certain event you want to promote.

Thank you!

-Elizabeth Hermesch ("Get Busy Living" blogger)

 

Pin Pal Exchange Rules

April Pals:
Layne/Michelle G.
Michelle S./Angie Brewer
Kelly/Amy
Lindsay/Ashley
Revised:  Cassie/Melinda
Stephanie/Elizabeth







Rules:

1.  When you receive the email about who your pal is make sure to email them right away.  If you do not hear from them by Friday, April 5th please contact me and I will pair you with someone else.

2.  Snail mail/email your Pal during the month so you can get to know each other. The main purpose of this exchange is to make new friends and become familiar with one another.

3.  Items need to be no more than $20

4.  If I hear that a partner did not send any items or decided not to participate without notifying me first, they will not be able to participate in future exchanges. This is to ensure that it is fair to everyone.

5. Facebook and myself, Elizabeth Hermesch, will not be held responsible for damaged items or disputes.  I'm sure there won't be any issues, but lets keep it friendly and drama-free.

6.  If you decide to post about the exchange on your blog, I would love to link up.  It's a great way to see what goodies we received.  Linking up also will help this exchange be even bigger and better for next month.  If you do not have a blog but could kindly take a photo of your items and email it to me, I would be more than happy to show it on the blog :)

7. All exchanges need to be mailed out by Wed.  April 24th! 

Have Fun. Be creative. Make New Friends :)

Money Makeover

Been debating writing on this subject for awhile because we all know money issues tend to be a hush-hush topic. Also do not want people to feel judged in their situation or for me to feel like I am being judged.  So I am taking the plunge anyways and going to share my ongoing battle with this thing we call money.

A few months ago, I decided to read Dave Ramsey's book Total Money Makeover after hearing about it for months and months. Seriously, if you have never picked up this book you have got to read it!  Even if you aren't in debt it is so helpful!  It provides a clear and organized plan to get your budget on track and to really analyze where your money is going to every day, every week, and every month.  It's shocking what I used to waste my money on before I jumped into the program.

I need to give a little background information on what led me to where I am:

When I gave birth to our son 2 years ago our insurance turned out to be poop (lack of a better word). We walked out of there with $15,000 we owed. Mainly from having an emergency C-section and staying in the hospital for 4 days really racks up the cost. I don't regret it because my son is worth even more than that amount. But this is where the money pit started. 2 years and we finally paid that cost off. Hooray.

Then my first year as a brand new teacher, my  husband was admitted to the hospital.  Dale was in there for a week before doctors could figure out what was wrong with him. In the end, it was nothing too serious but a bad case of mono.  We walked out of there with $40,000 of medical debt. That's when our debt started to snowball out of control.  There was no end in sight.  

For many years, our money was used as a way to buy myself temporary happiness or just when I was bored. There was really no rhyme or reason to the mess I got myself in.  Target was my biggest weakness... I could go there for 2 hours at a time and buy $100-300 worth of stuff nobody really needs.  Just a way for me to get out of the house, pass the time, and then come home like I accomplished something.  So along with medical debt, I charged up the credit card a bit.

Also, my best friend and I would always find our way to a store and she became my shopping buddy. That's all we ever did when we got together.  Needless to say, when I quit teaching to stay home with our son last year my behaviors and way of living had to stop. We did not have the extra money for me to blow anymore. Last May I had to part ways with my best friend. Partly due to our shopping addiction and of course other reasons.  That was very hard to deal with since she was the only friend I hung out with ever.  But I guess that's the price you pay when you are serious about changing for the better. Sometimes you have to lose in order to get yourself back on track...

Starting Ramsey's program 3 months ago was the start to getting us back on track. The book says that step 1 is to get your savings account to $1000 and to not use any more credit cards. We did that. Then we were ready to start Step 2 and tackle the snowball of debt. The book does state that when you think you're on a roll, that Murphy's Laws seem to show up, and IT HAS--Big time! This month we were ready to focus on paying off debt and then our car needed lots of maintanence, our garbage disposal broke, my hubby had 3 dentist appointments, our A/C went out, and we owed a big chunk for taxes.  Great timing. We were able to pay for those things but it wiped our savings bone dry.  When that happens, the program says to jump back to step 1 until you have your $1000 emergency savings back.  That is where we are at. Probably God's way of seeing if we are really serious about staying on track with the program or not. HA

So we are following the steps and we use the envelope system.  Love it because it helps me resist those urges to splurge on stuff we don't need. It's so easy to swipe that debit card without thinking. With the envelope system, it only uses cash and really makes me double think if what I am purchasing is worth it.

I am eager to hear if anybody else is doing the Dave Ramsey program?  My reason for posting this is to share that I am not flawless and am sure others are in the same boat too. Along the way, I want to write some updates to encourage others and get feedback too.

Pinterest Pal Exchange!

Oh my goodness!  Today I was in the middle of coming up with ideas on how to get together with some girlfriends.  And I had the brilliant idea of a Pinterest Party.  But then came another, even more brilliant idea... a Pinterest Pal Exchange!

Whose ready to get crafty and creative? 

Whose ready to make some new friends?

Here's the deal:

I have come across some amazing women that live out of state and would love to start a penpal/Pinterest Exchange through snail mail!

Every month, you will get paired up with a new Pinterest Pal. You will create a Pinterest-inspired craft or Pinterest-inspired recipe to send to her.  The ideas for this are endless!

The item you mail to your Pinterest Pal should be $20 or less.  Once I get the ball rolling, I will tell everyone a deadline date to mail out your Pinterest Pal box.  That way everyone knows an estimation date of when they should be receiving their package.

If you want to participate:

Since this is the first time trying this, I want to try to  hear from anybody who wants to participate by April 1st (no, this is not an April Fool's joke ;).  Then I will match you with a Pal.

If you want to participate, leave a comment with your name, email address, and state you live in.  If you don't want that made public then email me the info at ehermesch@gmail.com.


I hope this turns out to be a fun experience for everyone! Any feedback about this would be awesome since I'm still working out the kinks of this idea :) Thanks!

-Elizabeth Hermesch

Update:
Here are a few examples I got from Pinterest. Lets say I got paired up with someone and I make her some of these. You can put a few little items in the box or something like the bottom 2. Ideas are endless. Think outside the box
:

Simply Sandrolini

 These Bouquets Say A Thousand Words....

Something purely unique,

Something borrowed,

Something cherished...

A family heirloom

   When I came across Brooch Bouquets by Simply Sandrolini I fell in love!  I knew this would have to be the very first small business I would review on my blog. It is a fairly new business that was established last year in 2012.

In 2007 I got married to my best friend. My bouquet had beautiful, luscious, pink and purple flowers. The flower stems were wrapped with my Granny's handkerchief, with a brooch that my mother-in-law had given me.  If only I had come across Simply Sandrolini sooner... my bouquet would have been ALL brooches.

Every bouquet that is made by Simply Sandrolini is unique and special to the bride.  The bride-to-be can pick out her special items to put on her bouquet--it can be jewelry and brooches from her family, items she finds around town, or she can have Simply Sandrolini supply the items. Each bouquet can hold 50-80 pieces.

If you know someone who is a bride-to-be or you are getting married, check out Simply Sandrolini's website and consider this as an option for your wedding.  This is a wonderful way to preserve your wedding memories and be able to pass it down for generations to come.


To Contact:

Carolee Sandrolini (Designer and owner of Simply Sandrolini)
Carolee@SimplySandrolini.com

You can also reach her directly at 480.241.3310

Website: http://www.simplysandrolini.com/index.html