My Patio & Backyard: Needs some Pier 1 Love

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pier 1 for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

We are still experiencing chilly temperatures here in southeast Wisconsin. Last weekend we had a short break in the weather and I was able to get outside and work a little in the yard. I burned some leaves, picked up sticks and surveyed the pitiful furniture situation that lay before me.

Quick Decor Items on a Budget

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Family Dollar. All opinions are 100% mine.

I'm pretty crafty. :) But you all know that already! So I have the ability to crank out some fun decorative items for my home. Not everyone can do that though, and my mother in law is no exception. Not only is she not crafty, but she also lives on a very fixed income. She receives her social security and that's it. So any type of decorating has to fall within a very tight budget. Recently, she lost pretty much everything she had, meager as it may have been.

Winner of the $25 gift card and Nakano seasoned rice vinegar!

Thanks to everyone who entered! According to Random.org the winner is....

Comment #112, "ohstac" - Congratulations!

Stacy has already claimed her prize so no need to draw an alternate. Congratulations!

Silhouette Winner Announcement!

Yay! Time to announce the winner of the Silhouette giveaway! The randomly drawn winner was comment #1,022, Miranda from Hart of Stone Crafts. Miranda will have 72 hours to respond to my email or another winner will be drawn!

Just an update that I did hear from the winner, so congratulations!

On another note, when entering giveaways guys, you have to remember to include contact information! Miranda was actually the THIRD person chosen, the first two were 1) Anonymous poster did not provide email address and 2) someone with a blogger profile I was unable to access (closed to the public).

Also, don't fret if you didn't win the Silhouette. There are two really awesome offers still on the table. The "Awesome Promo" ends tonight at midnight and will save you almost $140.00!! If you miss out on that, you can still save almost $80.00 by taking advantage of the "Good Promo" so don't miss out! Details on these deals below:

HERE ARE THOSE GREAT DEALS!

Since we can only give away ONE of these machines, Silhouette has been gracious enough to provide some very generous discounts for readers of Crafts by Amanda. Here are the details:

Here is the discount code for Crafts by Amanda readers: AMANDA

After you put in the code, all the discounts and freebies will show up in the basket

1) AWESOME PROMO (running from September 23rd through September 30th at midnight)

Buy a machine and receive the following:
 - $50 off the Silhouette Craft Cutter
-fuzzy white vinyl (Valued at $7.99)
-light blue smooth heat transfer (Valued at 14.99)
yellow flocked heat transfer (Valued at $14.99)
- Home Décor CD (Valued at $50)
- $10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store (Comes in the box)
- Cutting Blade (Comes in the box)
- 2 Cutting Mats (Comes in the box)

All for $249.99
A Savings of $137.97


Just think of how much you’ll save on gift giving this year!


2) GOOD PROMO (running from October 1st through 4th at midnight)

Buy a machine and receive the following:

 $50 off (receive for $249.99)
2 rolls of Heat transfer ($29.89 value)
$10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store(Comes in the Box)
Cutting Blade (Comes in the Box)
2 Cutting Mats(Comes in the Box)

All for $249.99
A savings of $79.98


Thanks for your entries everyone!

$300 Silhouette Giveaway!!

Remember when I said there was an exciting giveaway coming?? Well I wasn't kidding! Back in August I was asked if I wanted to not only try out the uber cool Silhouette cutting machine, but also if I wanted to give one away to one of my readers. Hmmm, let me think... umm, YEAH! It was hard not saying anything to you guys as I was really excited to be able to participate in this giveaway, and even more excited to try this fun tool out for myself. So I opened my Silhouette box of awesomeness, pulled out all the goodies, then realized the software was made for a PC. :-/ Well, I'm a Mac user, not a PC user so I was a bit bummed out thinking this might not work out after all.

Menu Planning

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Samsung.

Do you plan your meals? Over the years I have gone on and off the menu planning band wagon. When I plan my menu, my grocery shopping is more organized, I make less mid-week trips to the grocer, and best of all, I always know the answer to that question.. "Mom! What's for dinner?"

Over the summer my menu planning practices fell by the way side. Teenagers that sleep in until 1:00 PM are generally not interested in eating dinner at 6:00, especially since they just ate breakfast at 2:00! As my kids have grown into teens, they are home less, always out with their friends and running here and there. However, the school year is upon us once again and next week they'll all be back to school. That also means back to routine and dinner with the family.

Win a $25 gift card and Nakano seasoned rice vinegar!

This is a compensated review, Nakano provided me with a $50 and a free bottle of seasoned vinegar for this campaign. Now they want to give some away to one of my lucky viewers! To see the recipe I made using this vinegar, go to Slow Cooker Pulled Pork on Amanda's Cookin'.

THE PRIZE
This prize package includes a bottle of NAKANO^® Seasoned Rice Vinegar, a $25 Visa Giftcard and a coupon/recipe booklet with ideas using this wonderful rice vinegar.