Fabulous Weekend

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend...we sure did. Our anniversary is tomorrow, so we spent the weekend in Pigeon Forge and made our way up to The Biltmore in Asheville, N.C. The weather was perfect! And the company wasn't all that bad either;o) We were definitely inspired by all of the beautiful gardens, even though most of the plants and trees were dormant. 

The hubs is ready for spring to get here b/c we have a massive back yard that needs some attention.

We stayed at the Inn at Christmas Place. It was reeeeally nice:o)

We definitely want to take the kids there. They have milk and cookies with Santa every night, and on Saturday nights Santa performs:o) So cute!

On our way back home, we stopped by the knife shop. The hubs has to stop by there every time we go up there. While he was perusing the knife cases, I headed to a small little corner where they were selling dulcimers.

Just so you know...I am going to be purchasing one of these in the VERY near future. The little man who was behind the counter was so sweet and he played for me:o) I love the sound that a dulcimer makes. He said that they harmonize beautifully with a guitar. It just so happens that my handsome hubby plays the guitar:o)

Ebay, here I come!!

So anyway, today will be a day of recovery from the long weekend. Doing a little laundry using my NEW washer and dryer..WUURD! And then just sitting in front of the tv with my babies. I'm so glad that E has pre-school on Tuesdays:o)

*****

Make sure to head over to SEW DANG CUTE for round 2 of Crafting with the Stars. This round's challenge is Decoupage.  Vote for your FAVORITE 3!

Happy Monday!!! 

How To Improve your ALEXA

How can you increase your Alexa rank? Alexa is a ranking system based on the level of traffic a website receives from people with the Alexa toolbar installed.And here's the tips for you.

You may want to increase your Alexa rank because advertisers, ad networker's use it as a gauge to determine the popularity of your blog. So if you are someone who is making money from advertising, you would definitely want to increase your alexa rank as it helps you bargain for an ad price. Sites like reviewme.com determines review price based on your Technorati rank and Alexa rank.

Increase Alexa Ranking

1. Download Alexa toolbar free. If you are using Firefox, I recommend you to use another plug-in called Search Status which not only displays the Alexa rank but it also shows page rank details, no follow links, meta tags, keyword density of a page etc. in this category you'll find more intuitive toolbar,you can manage your blog/site with this tool.also you can find some social media link button so you will helpfull if you are social community lovers such as Facebook or yahoo groups, this will manage your time than you must write any social address link in your search bar.

2. Put an Alexa rank widget on your blog. Each click will be counted as a visitor.

In this category Alexa will help to increase your rank in every single click to your blog will be counted as a visitor.Even your not opening your blog in full mode this will count as a visitor too. e.g your opened your blog in just 10 second this will counted.

3. Encourage your friends or colleagues to use Alexa toolbar. 

 Explain them to put the tracking system of the toolbar.Ask them to rate your Alexa website profile.with this tricks your site or blog will have a personality and trusted.This helpfull to promote your site and have colleague feedback. More readers will come if they seen you have trusted site with others.Good rating will increase you siterank easily

4. Try to get digg or stumbled. 

 This will bring massive amount of traffic to your site and contributes a lot to your Alexa rank. Traffic absolutely pointed to make your site popular and visible.More traffic more rank so get digg , stumble, social media, news site, groups and forum will brings you more traffic don't forget their popularity, they have thousand visitors daily.

5. Write content related to webmasters. This is because most of the webmasters use Alexa toolbar.

You may write and post articles related to SEO, webmaster tools. Webmasters always look for new tools and may revisit your website to gain access to the tools. Promote your articles on webmaster forums and social networking sites. Just keep in mind great article will bring more readers to your site, so making a good quality content is a must.

if you have trouble on how to writing article content,this small tips maybe helpfull.Do what you can do,if you love in gardening and know_how_to_do something about it, this "how_to" idea is your goldmine.

6. Buy links and banners from webmaster forums. A well displayed ad can bring lots of webmaster traffic to your site and boost your rank. But you need to have unique and good content on your blog to attract more and more visitors.

This cost not cheap! some easy tricks if your'e not yet using Google Adsense in your site, you can make your own banner to promote it in traffic media. you can signing as an free member on Trafficswarm, Easy Hits4u or another PTC Site.

Generate your credit by doing the job and convert it with your banner site or your link site this will brings you traffic. Trust me ,with this small tips you will have skill and experience to manage your site,it simply worth it when you spent 1 hour to go deeper in trafficswarm or Easyhits4u .This will blown your mind on marketing strategy,i know the marketers who failed and spend $100 daily to bought traffic and he got nothing, just traffic it self and no experience.

7. Write about Alexa and post in your blog.

Bloggers love to know about different ways of increasing their Alexa rank.This may eventually increase traffic and your rank. Just like what i say on top,Trusted site will brings more quality and loyal readers to your site.

8. You may try Alexa autosurfs for a new site or blog. They may work for new sites having almost zero Alexa rank. But they are not a long term solution.

In any conditions forums like Yahoogroups will helpfull to find more source about traffic,you can adding any questions too this will help .Using some old trick like put your linksite in your body email everytime you sent to your partner or friend will works. All you do is making a point that your link site is not an affiliate link, trust me they will open it!!

And that's how to improve your Alexa, any new tricks? come on, let me know it from you....

Tips for creating a free business listing in Google Places: Adding useful descriptions and relevant categories

(Cross-posted from LatLong)

With this blog post, we’re concluding our three part series about the Google Places quality guidelines. Today, we’ll discuss how to choose the best fitting categories for your business listing as well as how to provide a useful description. In case you missed the first two blog posts, you can find here the first post about business titles and here the second part about business types.

Adding useful descriptions

As a business owner, we encourage you to add a specific description of your business in the “description” field. This gives potential clients more information to understand what your business is about and see if your business matches what they are seeking. You can also use this field to provide further guidance about the location of your business which might be useful in some cases where it is hard to find, e.g. if the entrance of your business is only accessible via the rear.

Keep the description clean and concise, so it is helpful to users and catches their attention. A series of repeated keywords or categories may turn off potential customers, but a crisp and catchy summary of the services you offer help users determine if your business is right for them.

Choosing relevant categories

If you provide appropriate and accurate categories, we can better match your business listing to relevant user searches. We recommend choosing specific categories that describe the core of your business well instead of broad ones. A good way to find representative categories for your business is asking yourself the question “What is my business?” Be sure to capture what your business is as opposed to what it offers or sells - in that sense, “bakery” would be a good category as opposed to “cakes” or “bread”.

Also, do not include location information in the categories field. If you would like to provide such additional information about your business, you can use the description field and, if appropriate, the service areas feature.

You will be asked to choose at least one category from our standard list - just start typing in the categories field to see what is available via the auto-suggestions.

We recommend always choosing the best matching and most specific category for your business - for any specific category, Google will be able to automatically determine the more generic category as well. That means, if you are a Mexican restaurant, you should go for ‘Mexican Restaurant’ and not ‘Restaurant’ - Google then automatically knows that if you are a Mexican restaurant, you are also a restaurant.

You can provide up to five categories for your business listing. After picking a standard category, you can add up to four customized categories. To add another category, just click on ‘Add another category’ and an additional field will be triggered. Put only one category per entry field. Entering more than one category into a category field is not compliant with our quality guidelines and could result in your listing being suspended and not appearing in Google Places. In case you find it difficult to find an appropriate standard category to start with, just pick a category that fits best and add more specific custom categories. If you are uncertain about categorizing your business, you can also ask for advice in the Google Places help forum and discuss with other business owners.

We hope that this information helps you add a concise description and accurate categories to your business listing in Google Places. This gives potential clients more information to determine if your business matches what they are seeking. For further questions you can visit our Google Places help forum.

Posted by Sabine Borsay, Consumer Operations

Gray Hutch Makeover

I made it through to the next round! Woo-hoo!!! 

even though it was by the skin of my teeth:o)

A Big Thank you to those of you who showed your support and voted. There were some GREAT entries out there!

My favorite was the Pottery Barn Inspired Mirror. I have that on my to do list. 

The next round is Decoupage, and I have already started on that project.

I am beginning to learn that I don't know as much as I thought I knew when it comes to crafting. This has definitely been a humbling experience.

So anywho, here is the before picture of the hutch that I transformed. It's seen better days don't ya think?

 I purchased some "oops" paint for $3 at Lowes. This was the most frustrating paint. It took 3 full days to dry. I have had problems with this brand before, but at the time of purchase, I was only paying attention to the price tag and the color. 

 Here is the contrast between the old color and the new.

 The doors are my favorite part of this piece. The tree branch silhouette is just some swirly brush strokes. Very easy. The bird took a little more concentration. I was terrified that this poor little bird would be disproportionate and that I would have to repaint the door with the base color that wouldn't dry. THANKFULLY, I got it right the first time:o)

 I purchased this stencil from Hobby Lobby for around $1. I closed the store down that night. I had just finished a client's hair(7:30 p.m.) and raced out my driveway to get to H.L. before they closed which is at 8 p.m. 

Stenciling is time consuming, but I think adds a little something.

 I really like how it turned out. Thankfully there were enough of you voters out there who felt the same way, lol.

Now, to finish my next 2 projects. One will be for the competition and one is a "just because" project. I think you'll like it;o)

Have a great Wednesday!!

Google Boost: Now Appearing On Mobile Phones

(Cross-posted from LatLong)

Back in October we announced Google Boost, a new advertising solution to help local businesses connect with potential customers in their area. Today we are excited to announce that Boost ads can appear on Google Search results pages on Android and iPhone devices.

Consumers increasingly use mobile devices to search for products and services, and Boost will give advertisers the opportunity to reach these customers exactly when they are looking for local businesses on their phones. This feature will automatically take effect for current and future Boost advertisers.

In case you aren’t familiar with Boost, it’s Google's new advertising product that helps business owners quickly create an online advertising campaign that targets local customers. Using information from the business’s free Google Places listing, Boost automatically suggests and creates text ads that appear on Google Search and Google Maps results pages.

Google Boost is now available in all U.S. cities to select business types. To find out if your business is eligible, sign in to your Places account (or create a free one if you haven’t yet) and visit the Dashboard. If Boost is not currently available to your business, fill out this short form and we’ll notify you when it is.

Posted by Kiley McEvoy, Product Manager

Barbie Birthday Party Inspiration

S.R.'s 3rd Birthday is quickly approaching, early March to be exact. I started planning her party as soon as Christmas said AMEN:o) 

S.R. loves Barbie. So do I for that matter, what girl doesn't??

Anywho, she is finally grasping the concept of birthday parties and is super psyched about this year. I LOVE IT! 

For those of you who know me, birthdays and party planning are a big to-do in our household. The hubs is never that pumped about it, but I L-O-V-E to plan parties.

I started searching for Barbie themed parties and ran across 

 THIS over at The Party Dress.

This site has TONS of fabulous ideas for any kind of party. This is definitely the "go-to" place for party ideas.

 This is exactly what I was looking for. More of a vintage theme than a modern day Barbie. I have already started buying some great decorations and such for this party and there are going to be  A LOT of similarities.

Why mess with perfect?:o) 

I found Barbies on sale at Walmart the other day for $5.50 each. They came with tons of accessories. Those will be some of the party favors. 

I am really excited about it if you can't tell;o)

****

Make sure to cast your vote HERE for Crafting with the Stars. Voting ends tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed that I move on to the next round!!

Happy Tuesday!

Google Apps for Business now available for Verizon customers

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor's Note: We're excited that beginning today Google Apps for Business is available through Verizon. We've asked Monte Beck, Vice President of Small Business Marketing for Verizon to share more details.

At Verizon we make it easy for companies to get online and be productive in the office or while on the move. We do this by offering business owners a bundled solution of essential services to fit their particular needs.

Beginning today, our small- and medium-sized business customers will also be able to access the same applications that come with Google Apps for Business: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Video, and more.

Most of Verizon’s service offerings are in the cloud and delivered to any business connected to the Internet with a click of the mouse. So it makes sense for us to offer Google Apps for Verizon to allow businesses to communicate and collaborate in the office or on the go.

Google Apps for Verizon – with three free user accounts – is available to business customers that subscribe to a bundle consisting of Verizon Internet service and either Verizon voice or TV service or both. Customers have the option to buy additional accounts. Also included is a domain name free for one year (i.e. yourbusiness.com).

Other small business essentials provided in Verizon’s bundled solutions include an easy do-it-yourself “kit” to develop your business’ professional website, Internet security, online backup, and more. Most importantly, we offer WiFi access – a necessity today to quickly respond to customers and access programs and files while out of the office.

Verizon’s business bundled solutions are available in parts of 12 states (CA, CT, DE, FL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, PA, RI, TX, and VA) and Washington, D.C. Those who just need Apps can subscribe to Google Apps for Verizon for $3.99/user/month.

To better help and inform small businesses, my team also developed the Verizon Small Business Center, a one-stop online portal with free resources, industry news, expert advice delivered through free webinars, networking opportunities, discounts, and much more. In combining these free resources with cloud products and services, we’re helping small businesses gain a competitive edge. Even the smallest companies now have access to technology that’s being used by larger businesses at minimal cost.

Google Apps for Verizon helps Verizon’s business customers harness the power of the web in new and exciting ways.

Posted by Monte Beck, Vice President of Small Business Marketing, Verizon

Time to Vote!!

It's time to vote! I have had the jitters all weekend waiting for today to get here. Now that it's here, I am a nervous wreck! I have already seen everyone's entries, and there are some AWESOME  projects! Please head over to Sew Dang Cute and vote for your THREE favorite projects. I'm hoping that mine fits into your three faves;o) But I can't tell you which one is mine until the voting has closed:o)

I couldn't have been paired with a better "Star" for this competition. Beckie from Infarrantly Creative is my star. She has been GREAT to work with. If you haven't visited her site, you need to do so. She has so many great ideas. VERY inspiring.

Today, I get a special delivery. A new washer and dryer!! Yeah baby!!  I am off to do some cleaning before the guys from Lowes show up:o) Happy (Voting) Monday!!

What you should not do in self marketing with blogs

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Our big gift for small businesses

To kick off 2011, we wanted to thank a few small businesses for taking the first step toward enhancing their online presence—and to provide additional resources for achieving this goal. So over the holiday season, we paid a surprise visit to five small businesses who recently started advertising their businesses online: Create A Cook and Twinkle Star in Massachusetts, Ramy’s Garage and Atlas Flooring in Texas, and Cloud 9 Frozen Yogurt in Georgia. These small businesses span several industries, but their founders share one common goal: to expand beyond their brick-and-mortar storefronts and into the world of e-commerce.

To help, we gave them each of them $100,000 in AdWords spend for 2011 as well as free consultations with AdWords representatives. Because we know online presence means more than just AdWords, we’ll also be providing them with web consultations, wireless service for the year as well as a few other little surprises. See footage from our surprise visit below:

We’re looking forward to making big investments in small businesses far beyond these lucky five. Small businesses have long benefited from Google products and services; now our hope is that all small business owners can have greater access to the tools and training they need to develop a cohesive strategy for doing more business online. We started last year by creating the Google Small Business Center and asking small business owners about their biggest wishes for 2011. We received an overwhelming response from business owners who, like the owners of these shops, want to do more business online in 2011.

The Google Small Business Team surprises Atlas Flooring in Texas.

We’re thrilled to help these five small business owners find online success in 2011 and we think we have a lot to learn from their experiences. We’ll check in on them from time to time and report on their successes as well as their growing pains.

In the meantime, check the Google Small Business Blog for updates, and if you’re a business owner, visit the Google Small Business Center for information on how you can bring your business online in 2011.

Posted by James Croom, Product Marketing Manager, Google Small Business Team

I'M A CONTESTANT ON CRAFTING WITH THE STARS!!

Yes, you read the title correctly....I am one of 12 contestants participating in Crafting With the Stars over at Sew Dang Cute.

I entered the Nesting Tables (that were inspired by a set from Ballard Designs) and thought I had absolutely no chance of winning a spot as one of the contestants. I mean, did you see the other entries?? There were so many great projects that were entered.

 There are some awesome crafters I am going up against, but it's going to be so much fun!!

I'm a little overwhelmed right now...well A LOT overwhelmed, can you tell I'm a little scatterbrained?
The star that I am paired up with is Beckie over at Infarrantly Creative. You really need to check out her site. There are some B-Awesome crafts on her site.
(A little "Bolt" Humor for you Disney fans out there)

January 24th(that's Monday...ahhh!) is when the competition will start, and you can vote for your fave project. 

Thank You to the judges for picking me! I feel so honored! 

*********

On a much more serious note, I want to solicit your prayers for some dear friends of mine. Just mention "Crystal's friends" to Him, and He'll know who you are speaking of. They need the kind of comfort that only He can give. Thank you so much!

Ballard Inspired Nesting Tables

I hope that you all are staying warm in this frigid weather. We have had so much fun in the snow! Living in the moment, we are:o)

 I told you guys that I had started on some projects before the snow hit, and that I had one more to complete.

Well it is finished...YAY!! And I LOVE how it turned out.

Here is the inspiration for my project today.

Courtesy of Ballard Designs  

These tables are from Ballard Designs and run about $250 for the set. They are beautiful, but are waaaay out of my price range. I have wanted some sort of game table to go in front of the window by the fireplace for quite a while now, but had never found exactly what I was looking for. After seeing Ballard's nesting tables, I knew that those were IT. I had a vision and a mission to find similar tables. 

And here we have them. Given to us. The hubs helped a sweet woman move into her new house and she had these tables that wouldn't fit into her new home. I was very, very excited about these. They just needed a good sanding was all.

And here is my version of the nesting game tables.

They are more cottage-y and fit my decor better.

The taping of the two smaller pieces was very labor intensive, but well worth the effort put into it, I believe.

Are you feelin' it? 

I am really happy with how these turned out and the total cost for me was $7(spray paint and primer)

Now I just need some checkers and chess pieces and we will be set. 

Thanks for stopping by!
Participating in these parties:

Oh yeah, and I entered this:

crazy, I know;o)

Participating in these parties:

Now available: Google Places with Hotpot for iPhone

[Cross-posted from the Hotpot Community blog]

We recently released Google Places with Hotpot in Google Maps for Android, and starting now, you can have that same great experience as an iPhone app. We realize the importance of finding places you’ll love while you’re out and about, no matter what mobile device you use. And Places with Hotpot not only helps you find places near where you are, it gives you the best places to go for you by personalizing your search results.

In case you aren’t familiar with Google Places, it lets you quickly search for places nearby and personalizes the results based on places you’ve rated. We get you started with a few popular search categories, but you can also tailor the list by adding your own favorite searches. This makes it fast and easy to find the best places for you with little fuss.

Use a default search category, save your own, or rate the nearest place quickly.

It can be pretty rewarding to discover a new place you love, but we also realize that there are some experiences you just can’t wait to share. So Places makes it super simple to rate a place with your iPhone while you’re there. Just fire up the app and hit “Rate now.” It will use your location to guess your current place and let you post a Hotpot review right from your phone. But it’s not just about getting to say what you think—the more you rate places, the more you’re sharing about your tastes and the more we can give you personally tailored recommendations.

Give your star rating and add optional details or a review so Hotpot knows your taste.

If you want to make things even tastier, just visit google.com/hotpot from your desktop computer. Here you can add friends to the mix and quickly rate all the places you already know. Once you’ve added friends, you’ll find your results seasoned not just with reviews from around the web and recommendations based on your own personal taste, but also with your friends’ opinions too.

Once you start rating and add friends, Places can give you personalized recommendations.

Get the Places app on your iPhone now by searching for Google Places in the App Store or going here.

This first version of Places is available for all iOS devices in English only. However, expect more features and improvements to roll out soon, including localization in many new languages. We’re hard at work to make Places with Hotpot more and more delicious.

Posted by Greg Blevins, Software Engineer, Google Hotpot team

Introducing Google Engage for Agencies in US and UK

[Cross-posted from the Agency Ad Solutions Blog]

Are you a US or UK based Webmaster? WebDesigner? SEO? Marketing Consultant? Freelancer? or offering web related services to Small Medium Businesses? then keep on reading...

At Google, we’re committed to the success of the digital economy and we believe that helping small business get online and thrive is fundamental to that success.

We recognize that many SMBs rely on freelancers and small agencies to create and manage their online presence as well as help them with their online marketing. To make the jobs of these agencies easier, we’ve launched a new training and incentives program called Google Engage for Agencies.



Google Engage participants will receive free access to educational resources dedicated for them and more incentives to grow their own and their clients’ businesses.

We hope Engage will help businesses that offer web services in attracting new clients and in adding value to existing clients. Check out Google Engage today and learn about the benefits the program can offer your business and the SMBs you support.

If you’re a webmaster, web-designer, digital agency, freelancer, SEO, IT consultant, or provide any other web services to US or UK based small businesses, you can apply to join the program starting today.

Please see links below for information on participation for US and UK-based agencies:
Google Engage for US Businesses
Google Engage for UK Businesses

Posted by: Alon Chen & Esra Guler, Product Marketing

More Snow and a New Addition to the Office

This is what we woke up to this morning...another gorgeous snowy morning. Ya'll we live in the deep South, and this is just unheard of....and I LOVE IT!!

 We took the kids sledding with some others in the neighborhood. Just so you guys know, we have the best neighbors....EV-UH! They are so much fun!!

 This right here was hysterical. Here in the South, we don't own sleds...what's the point? We won't see another snow like this for 15 more years:o) So we use what we have...in our case, we have laundry baskets. 

Watch our little dare devil:

 Weeeeeeeeee.....

 Ker-plunk!

And yes, I waited to pick her up AFTER I took the picture:o)

 We have had a blast today. I even made snow cream, which is so yummy!! A big shout out goes to the mom-in-law for providing her recipe. Definitely a keeper(mom-in-law and recipe;o)HA!)

Anyway, we knew that this line of snow was coming, so I made sure to knock out a few projects that required working outdoors before the really cold air hit.

The one I am sharing with you today started out like this:

Well, actually, this is after sanding...with our NEW orbital sander!!

(It's totally awesome!!!)

 This was another roadside find that my friend Sharon found while walking her dog. She is the one who found S.R.'s chair on the side of the road. 

You guys keep her in your prayers right now. 

She just had knee surgery and recovery is really painful. I know she would appreciate them!!!

 There were a few things that needed to be fixed with this find.

1)Remove the icky gunk that was on the top of the table

Goo Gone works wonders!!

2)Sand the devil out of it...the poor thing had been varnished to death

3)Tighten up all the loose boards. 

Once all of that was done, it was ready for spray paint. 

It's kind of tricky in cold weather, but I got it done. I made sure the paint was warm and that the table was warm. Then I would run out to the garage with the door slightly open for ventilation purposes, spray really quickly and then run the table back inside to dry. It actually worked really well. 

And this is how it turned out.

 Nothing too spectacular, but it looks so much better and serves a great purpose. It's like it was made for this spot:o) We already had the little basket and it's perfect for holding the extra printer paper.

Here's a peek at what I am currently working on.

I can't wait to reveal what I am doing with them!! 

Have a great rest of the day!!