Happily Blended Blog | Positive Lifestyle | NH Mom Blog

Project Giving Back 2009 Forms Ready

Published on August 11, 2009 by brandyellen in children, Featured, giving back

As stated I would update when I had all the forms ready for donating items, funds and nominating families. Please complete the appropriate form below if you are interested in donating a gift, money or nominating a NH family or NH organization that you feel could use some assistance this holiday season with gifts for children.

Donate a Gift – click here and complete the form.

Donate Money – click here and complete form.

Nominate a NH family or Organization – click here and complete the form.

Thank you for reading this and I hope we can all work together in one way or another to make a child smile this holiday season! This project will be an annual project hosted by Happily Blended every year in hopes to make the project go USA wide. Please subscribe to Happily Blended by email here or RSS feed here to keep up to date with the latest project giving back updates.

Tags: Child, Children Youth and Family, Donation, family, Free Donations, money, organization, Philanthropy

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Family Memories – What A Vacation

Published on August 10, 2009 by brandyellen in Brandy's Life, children, Featured, parenting

Now I head back into reality this week, so much to do since I took a semi-week off from the Internet world. You probably did see me on Twitter tweeting almost everyday and occasionally I was on Facebook not to mention I had some scheduled blog posts here at Happily Blended and a little bit of client work to do at Brandy Ellen’s Business Solutions, but where you did not see me was celebrating the 9 days of great times with my family which included my husband.

Vacation went by fast but it was fun. My family visited my mother in law on the first Sunday in Milford, MA where we ate a BBQ dinner, YUMMY! I can’t recall exactly what days we did what but one day we went to Maine where we walked around Old Orchard Beach and York Beach. Enjoyed a nice lunch at Surfside by the York Beach, ME area and purchased some buckets for the kids to play on the beach while Mommy tried finding sea shells all by herself. We also spent an afternoon at my Dad’s house where we enjoyed some fresh veggies at his farm stand and a nice swim in the pool with all three kids. Hubby did a cannon ball off the diving board and all the kids screamed with laughter while clapping their hands.

We took the kids to Lincoln, NH where we spent a couple hours at The Whales Tale Waterpark and we are hoping to go up to spend a weekend in that area at a cottage in the next month or so. It was a beautiful area and so much to do! After Whales Tale we took the kids to Friendly’s for dinner where we enjoyed some great food with sundaes for dessert! The kids had fun singing that “I wanna go to Friendly’s” song while we drove there.

I have some video coverage as well as pictures we took, but since we are still unable to find our digital camera Mister AJ hid in our home we used a disposable camera with 27 pictures taken during our day trip in Maine. As soon as I get the videos uploaded to my computer and edited down I will share and I am going to most certainly share some photos. Curious to see how well Miss Ki did taking a few pictures of Justin and I near the ocean – hopefully we have heads in the pictures

Looking forward to another successful week in blogging and tweeting! I am working on an exciting project that I can not wait to unveil to you all as well!!

Tags: Digital camera, facebook, family, family fun, life, Lincoln NH, love, Maine, Old Orchard Beach, Old Orchard Beach Maine, On the Web, Online Communities, travel, twitter, United States, vacation, virtual Assistant, Whales Tale Waterpark

6 Comments

Blog With Integrity

Published on August 9, 2009 by brandyellen in Brandy's Life, giveaways, Product Reviews

I had stumbled upon Blog With Integrity before but finally had the time to sit down, review it and sign up as well as place a button to their site on my blog sidebar.

I feel I have been blogging with integrity, my disclosure policy clearly states that I do receive products for review but I am giving my honest opinion about any products I review. I also may receive cash for advertising on my blog, and I may at times receive cash for blog posts, although that is not something I have yet to actually do.

My mission is simple, to blog about what I am passionate about and that may include product reviews if they pertain to my current topic. I am a very honest person and so it’s only natural for my blog to be an open and honest place. Will I accept cash for ads on my sidebar? Of course. Will I accept cash to write a review of a product I have never tried? Not so sure I would do that but again my disclosure states I may do that. Will I write a positive review for a product I don’t feel is great quality? No way. I would prefer to pay to ship the item back than to write a positive review if I feel the product is not something I would recommend to my close friends.

I am honest, approachable and yes I am a blog with integrity. I invite you all to join the Blog with Integrity pledge, let’s keep it honest, open and fun!

Tags: advertising, blog, blog with integrity, business, Disclaimer, FAQs Help and Tutorials, On the Web, Plugin, Weblogs

3 Comments

Want or Need a New Laptop?

Published on August 9, 2009 by brandyellen in giveaways

Image via Wikipedia

Is your current computer stalling and giving you the blue screen of death, as my husband refers to it? Would you love to be able to have one that the kids could use (alas, staying off of yours)?

Maybe you are just ready to give your husband a laptop as a way to encourage him to be online ALL the time with you? (now that’s my kind of laptop contest)

CookiesKids.com feels your pain, hears your concerns and has come to your rescue!

CookiesKids.com is giving away FOUR brand new laptops to four lucky newsletter subscribers!

Sign up to receive the Cookies Kids Newsletter via e-mail and you’re automatically entered to win one of 4 brand new laptops!!

Simply fill out the form below to be entered into the Laptop Giveaway Sweepstakes. Please be sure to read the Giveaway Sweepstakes “Terms and Conditions” before entering your information.

Entry Form: http://cli.gs/6dGhsh

Thanks to Momfluence for sharing this wonderful contest with my readers and me. 050000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Contest ends 9/30/09 at 11:59 AM ET.

Tags: Blue Screen of Death, Contests and Sweepstakes, Gambling, Games, Hardware, Laptop, Notebooks and Laptops, Sweepstakes

8 Comments

First Annual Project Giving Back

Published on August 8, 2009 by brandyellen in Brandy's Life, children, Featured, giving back

giving back to community

I announced this late last night on Facebook and wanted to share on Happily Blended as well …

Announcing the first annual Happily Blended’s Project Giving Back. This is my personal way to give back to my community. My wish is to make someone smile everyday and now I am in a position where I can use my connections for good. I have met so many wonderful, supportive men and women through blogging and now I hope to share some good through Happily Blended by giving back.

This year I hope to connect with businesses and people by raising funds and gifts for children in need. I hope to have enough gifts to deliver to families who can not afford presents this holiday season. First I want to fully disclose that I am a firm believer that holidays are about connecting with family and making memories but I also believe every child deserves a present.

My story is simple, when my first born was 4 months old I became a single mother with no income and had to move back into my Mom’s house before finding a low income housing unit to live in. I must admit I hated living in that place but was thankful that there are such places for people like I was, no income on assistance with a child who needed a place to live. Do not get me wrong my Mom’s home was great, but I am independent and no matter how much I love my Mom, she is my Mom and I didn’t want to live with her forever just as I am certain she didn’t want me to live with her forever either. While being a single mom I worked myself up at an administrative assistant position that finally was enough income to allow me to stay in the low income housing but to no longer need state assistance. The day I finally could get off state assistance was the day my smile appeared. I am not one to live on other people’s money, I prefer to make it on my own. I did, however, take advantage of programs offered in my community that allowed my daughter a Christmas with gifts. After my boss signed me up for this program I couldn’t believe the amount of gifts that were brought for my daughter and me. I remember thinking that “I” didn’t need any gifts, all I wanted was my daughter to have something to open on Christmas morning. I must admit I was and still am grateful for the support I found while being a single mother, and now it’s my turn to try to give back to children whose parents can not afford gifts. This is my way to give back in the only way I know how – through fundraising.

Happily Blended’s Project Giving Back hopes to raise funds and collect children’s items that my family and I will deliver to families in need or organizations who give to families in need that do not have the funds this year to collect what they normally collect. Still in the planning stages, Happily Blended’s Giving Back is seeking sponsorship from businesses and people to donate gifts or funds. There will be a form created where you can request to donate a gift or money and have the choice to remain anonymous or have your name or business publicized at Happily Blended and in Happily Blended’s newsletter.

The funds that are raised will be listed on Happily Blended as a total minus any merchant account fees and once we are done collecting funds (December 1, 2009) my oldest and I will actually go out shopping together so that she can take part in giving back. All items purchased will be itemized at Happily Blended so if you do donate any money you can see what this money went towards. I am doing this as a way to give back and instill the process of giving back in my children. Our children are our future and what better way to teach them about the importance of making another person smile than by giving back to local children in need?!

This is an honest way for me to do some good in this world and I hope many of you will be on board with this. If you or someone you know is interested in being part of this event in anyway please contact me . I am looking for families to be nominated, businesses to donate children’s products and people to donate products. If you are unable to purchase children’s items but wish to donate please let me know as well.

More about Happily Blended’s 1st Annual Project Giving Back will be listed at www.happilyblended.com you may subscribe via email orRSS feed to keep up to date with the latest.

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Fitness Friday: Did She Stick to Her Goal?

Published on August 7, 2009 by brandyellen in Brandy's Life, Featured, fitness, Memes

First question that needs to be answered is, “Did Miss @brandyellen stick to her goal set last Friday for 20 minutes a day on the Wii Fit?” Quite honestly the answer is, “No I didn’t stick to my goal of getting on my Wii fit for 20 minutes a day.” Although not sticking to the goal I had set may seem bad, I did exercise all week long in other ways, which I feel makes up for not getting on the Wii Fit:

Sunday – went to Milford, MA to visit my Mother in Law and ran around with the kids inside & outside.
Monday – went to the park after dinner and ran around having fun with the kids at the playground and the huge field at our park.
Tuesday – went to Old Orchard Beach and York Beach in Maine where we walked both beaches up and down, jumped the waves and just had a blast on our feet all day walking around the two towns.
Wednesday – visited my father where the kids and I ran around the farm and even played in the pool.
Thursday – visited a water park about 2 hours away in Lincoln, NH called The Whales Tale where we again were on our feet all day walking around and enjoying family fun.

You see even though I did not get on my Wii Fit for 20 minutes a day I most certainly got more than 20 minutes a day of exercise. My husband is on vacation and I completely forgot about that when I set my goal to get on the Wii Fit, this week is a first that we can actually get out and enjoy family time which reduces stress and increases my mouths smile muscles. The kids had a blast, I had a blast and my husband had a blast, so yeah it’s hard to admit I didn’t stick to my goal but it’s even better because I got quality family time while exercising with my kids in the fresh air. What can be better than that?

Please link up below so I can read all of your Fitness Friday posts and to view more participants and see how they are achieving their fitness goals please visit Wii Mommies.