Topic for discussion...

Yesterday I shared a great band with you and it made me think about the legalities of music. Particularly the copying and sharing of cds.

Now I have never had a problem with copying music from my friends iTunes onto a cd. And i would never have a problem with doing the same for my friends. However, about a month ago, one of my friends kindly pointed out that he thought that was a form of stealing. I really never thought of it that way, but he does bring up a good point. If we did not pay for that cd, it is technically stealing. He suggest letting people borrow the cd and if they like it they can buy their own copy. It makes sense and it supports the musicians financially so they can continue to provide good music. And i definitely want to support the people who make the music i love so very much.

I have decided here on out that i would gladly borrow a cd, but will not upload it to my itunes to keep for myself and if i really want it, i will save money to purchase it. I have not made up my mind about giving burnt cds to others. The reason being is I like to make random cd mixes for people that include significant and meaningful songs. I don't think I will make a full cd for someone just because they like the cd and want it though.

So i wanted to hear your take on this subject. How do you feel about copying music?

Awesome band!

My sister in law, crystal recently exposed me to the amazingness called The Civil Wars. Now, i don't know how long they have been around or if they are on the radio all the time or if everyone knows about them already, ( it could be like that time I had just heard of Mumford and Sons and some how everyone else on the planet already knew of them they had been popular for 3 years by then) but i wanted to share them in case you haven't heard... 

If you go here, there official website is offering a free download version of a live album.

You can purchase all of there albums here. Or you can find them on itunes.

Hope you love them as much as I do. btw, I have been REALLY into Folk Country music lately.

Tradeshow time

I am currently in orlando for a business trip. I will be here all week and will try to update and read blogs while i can.

This trip is the first of 4 trips that i have pretty much back to back. I come home and then leave a week later for each trip. It will be super hard because this will be the longest time that i have been away from chloe. And i will continuously leave for about a month. And i'm leaving during the time she is learning to walk :(

So i am super bummed

Bright side is that i get to travel for free and we get some leisure time. So i get to check out all these different places.

Anyone know of something cool to check out or a good restaraunt to eat at?

Edit: just finished first day of show. I stood on my pregnant feet in heels for 8 hrs straight. I never want to wear heels again! Definitely running to the store to buy flats to wear tomorrow!

Sponsor my blog!

So this is something NEW to my blog. I have never had sponsors before on here, but I think it might be time to offer up some prime real estate on my blog. Normally I wouldn't do this because I am all about spreading the love for free. However, with money being tight due to taxes that will be due, a baby on the way and a big move, it was about time I started making my blog a little more useful around here. Which means I will also be spending more time on here spiffying it up and writing more posts. (yay!) I can feel less guilty spending lots of more time blogging if it is helping our family financially as well.

 Anyway, I am throwing this opportunity out there for any of you who want to get more exposure for you blog or Etsy shop (or whatever else you want to showcase).

What you will get: 

-You will get a 150 x150 pixel space to put a button up on the right hand column ---->

- You will get a post featuring your blog/shop with whatever you want to say to my readers. This post will include a picture and links to your blog/shop/twitter/facebook/website

-Your add will be up for a full month (beginning to end) and will be rotated regularly so everyone gets a change to be on top!

My Blog Stats:

- My blog was started in May 2009

- I have almost 200 readers

- My average page views: 160/day, 4800/month

- I have mainly female viewers and many of them are moms

- I blog about daily life and whatever suits my fancy. DIY projects, home, fashion, family, and mommy blogging

These Sponserships will start on February 1st- February 29, 2012

I have never done this before so if there is any information that I am leaving out that you may need to know or any Questions you may have, let me know!

If you are interested in Sponsoring my blog, contact me at  SHESAIDBLOG(AT)GMAIL.COM

Baby E... He or She?

Before and after

So here are the before and after pics of our headboards.

I think the new one is fun! now we need to buy some new solid colored bedding.

I am thinking mustard yellow! Or Turquoise with Red.

(geeze I need to start taking better pictures, and take them during the day)

Chloe is learning to walk!

James and i are trying to get chloe to walk. We sit across from each other and coax her to go back and forth. Sorry for the blurry video, but I couldn't get my phone to focus in time to capture her walking to me.

I Got an Award! And now 5 others do too!

Sweet Jaime from Spunky Sister kindly awarded me with an Leibster Award.

So kind of her to think that my little ol' blog deserved some type of recognition.  You should definitely check out Jaime's blog. She is sweet, funny, down to earth and adorable!

So, here's how it works:

This award is given to blogs with less then 200 followers that you think deserve a little bit more recognition.

Here are the rules:

1) Show your thanks by linking the sweet person who nominated you.

2) Leave links to 5 of your top blogs and leave a comment letting them know!

3) Post the award on your blog.

4) Enjoy the Love :)

There are so many amazing blogs out there, here are just 5 of the many I LOVE. Seriously, These ladies and there blogs are such an inspiration to me. They are just the sweetest people who have kindly opened up about there lives and fun adventures along the way. It makes me smile to read their post. You should definitely check these ladies blogs out, you will not be disappointed!

Crystal from These Happy Michie's

Breanne from My World Resting On Your Love

Haley from For Everything There Is a Season

Rebecca from Even If, No Matter What

Betsy from Three.20

and I wanted to mention another friend of my Sandee from Her and the Boys who just started blogging this week! Yay Sandee! Go over to her blog and show her some love!

Thank you Jaime again and hope you find some new blogs to subscribe too!

10 more facts

This is going to take me a while to think of 100 facts about me, so these will be slow coming.I am really hoping I don't have any repeats.


51. I don't like to drink water. I could go days without drinking water. I think it just taste funny. I know water taste different from wherever its from, but I haven't really had any great tasting water that has stood out to me. It is bad now because I really need to get to drinking more water for the pregnancy.


52. I want to skydive. Even though I am deathly afraid of heights, I want to skydive so badly! I think it would be fun and exhilarating. That is definitely on my bucket list.


53. I love Birds, Owls especially. I have an owl tattoo and I have tons of them in our home. And I have tons of owl necklaces too. I don't know why I love them, I just do. Which is special because my grandmother loves them too. It's so sweet because people will randomly see something owl and get it for me because it reminds them of me.

54. I would love to be a cosmetologist. I would like to know how to do hair and make up on myself and to do on my family and friends. I think I would love the job. I would totally go for that as my career  if only I didn't have to work nights or weekends (which is highly unlikely).

55. I love cream cheese. I could eat it on anything. Seriously. The more the better. Oh and James' family makes a  fruit dip that is made of cream cheese and marshmallow cream is the best EVER.

56. My favorite season is Fall. Even though San Diego really doesn't have a fall here, I love what fall is supposed to be. The red, orange and yellow leaves. The cold brisk air. The warmer seasonal drinks. The warmer clothes and layers to wear. I can't wait to live in a place that actually has a fall.

57. I was the token white girl for many years with my friends. I grew up and went to school with mostly people of Mexican, Philippino and African American decent and Caucasian was a minority. My best friends were always Mexican and I was very immersed in there culture.  That could be why I love Mexican food, was in Ballet Folklorico and took Spanish for so many years. I even had a teacher who would call me "guerra"  (pronounced Wedda, meaning white girl or blonde white girl) as my name. When I would go to other parts of San Diego where Caucasian was the majority, I felt so weird and it took me a long time to get use to it. 

58. I am thinking about being a CPA. I really love accounting and number pushing and finances. I even like doing our taxes. I think this would be a great fit for me... if only I could find the time and motivate myself to go back to school again.

59. I come from a small family. It was my sisters and Mom most of my life. I grew up with knowing 1 aunt, her 2 daughters, 1 uncle and my grandma. They all lived in Arizona and we didn't see them very much, So our family felt pretty small. Now that I have a relationship with my dad I have added on to that a little more, but we are still a relatively small family. Now James family, that is another story. His family is HUGE. 

60. I love to DIY everything. (see headboard below) James and I like to try re purposing furniture, home decor etc... I see something I like in a store and then tell myself "I can make that". I have the intentions to make it, but then I never get around to it.

$30 DIY headboard

James and I have been wanting a new headboard for a while now. However, the lack of funds has held us back. However, we got the brilliant idea to substitute some of the materials needed to make a headboard with things we already had.

List of materials we used: ($30 total)

- cardboard ($0)

- 2 yards of quilt batting ($8)

- tape, packing or duct

- staple gun

- 2 yards of fabric ($12)

So here is our process to our very low budget headboard:

1. Take huge pieces of cardboard. This was just lying around our warehouse at work.

2. Tape pieces of cardboard together. It would be best if you could find 1 piece of cardboard that was the right size instead of using 2 separate pieces like we had to.

3. Measure ideal size of headboard and cut cardboard to appropriate size.

4. Cut out a design or shape for top of headboard. James used different sized bowls to trace and make the round cuts. Using a box cutter would be best for this step.

5. Lay cardboard shape over quilt batting and cut a 2 inch perimeter around cardboard.

6. Fold batting around cardboard edge and Tape batting around the cardboard. Less tension means fluffier headboard.

7. Take your fabric and iron out any creases you may have in it. (I usually skip this step when using material and always regret it in the end.)

8. Then lay headboard on fabric and cut 2 inch perimeter of fabric around headboard.

9. Fold over fabric around edge of headboard. pulling tight and using a staple gun, staple fabric through batting and cardboard. The starting points would be the top and bottom centers and working outward. 

Then your done! Now, normally I would suggest using plywood instead of cardboard, but when that is all you have, you just have to improvise... :)  I will have to add a picture soon of it mounted behind our bed.

 

If you try this or if you have made a DIY headboard, I would love to see it! Post a link to share it!