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Ads for sale on my food blog!

June 28, 2010 · by · 4 Comments
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The domain name registration for my food blog expired. Somehow I missed the 10 million emails telling me I needed to renew it.  I can either wait 80 days to see if someone else buys it first and then offers to sell it back to me at an outrageous price, or I can pay the domain name company a $70 penalty fee.  Plus $15.00 to transfer the domain to Hostgator, I assume that’s for one year’s registration.

So, I posted all of this on Facebook, and proposed a fundraiser of sorts to help me get MomCooks back up and running.  I’m offering sidebar ads for $10 per month, and I’ve sold three so far plus received a donation from the wonderful Anne of The Megalomanic Mommy, who also posted about my plight on her blog and put up a donation button for me!  Don’t tell me Mommy bloggers aren’t supportive of each other, I’ve got proof they are right here :)

I can’t direct you over to MomCooks to take a look yourself and decide if you’d like to run an ad there, but I can show you a cached page and give you my Google Analytics stats. Click that cached page link, the ads will run on the left sidebar directly under the “Kiss the Cook” section.

MomCooks Stats:  Last month’s traffic – 11, 387   Traffic this month so far – 8,201

So, if you’d like to purchase a sidebar ad on MomCooks.net for the bargain price of $10 per month, please use this PayPal donation button.





I promise, next year I’ll have the renewal date on my calendar and I won’t forget :)

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Friendly Friday 6-25-10

June 25, 2010 · by · 9 Comments
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Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.

Friendly Friday is powered by Google Friend Connect, which is a fun way to social-network with other Google Users. Link up your blogs, add your photo, write a short bio, and add the code to your sidebar.

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your link in the list below and  then click over to the 3 hostess blogs. The hostess blogs are the three blogs linked in the first paragraph of this post as well as the first three links in the list below! From there, visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other!

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. Don’t forget to leave ME a comment and follow me through Google Friend Connect too!  Have a great Friday and have fun blog hopping!

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Friendly Friday 6-18-10

June 18, 2010 · by · 8 Comments
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Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.

Friendly Friday is powered by Google Friend Connect, which is a fun way to social-network with other Google Users. Link up your blogs, add your photo, write a short bio, and add the code to your sidebar.

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your link in the list below and  then click over to the 3 hostess blogs. The hostess blogs are the three blogs linked in the first paragraph of this post as well as the first three links in the list below! From there, visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other!

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. Don’t forget to leave ME a comment and follow me through Google Friend Connect too!  Have a great Friday and have fun blog hopping!

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Wordless Wednesday – Adidas Originals Star Wars Cantina Video

June 16, 2010 · by · 14 Comments
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I have a million Healthy Recipes cookbooks. And still don’t know what to make for lunch.

June 13, 2010 · by · 20 Comments
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I have a serious weakness. I can’t walk by one in a bookstore without stopping to take a peek inside. What is it? Cookbooks. If the title of a cookbook has the words Healthy Recipes in it, and especially if the words “QUICK” or “EASY” are prominently featured, those are my weakness.

But the thing is, although I like to READ cookbooks, I rarely COOK anything in the ones I buy! If a cookbook promises me that it will provide me with recipes that take 30 minutes or less to prepare and are made with non-gourmet ingredients that I think my family will eat, you can bet I will buy it. But it’s like in my head, if I bought the cookbook, I’ve somehow transformed the meals I serve my family into healthier ones. I’m delusional, I know.

And now that it’s summer, I’m thinking about breakfast and lunch for all three kids every day. I want them to eat something else for breakfast besides cold cereal, and something else for lunch besides ham and cheese sandwiches. So, I started flipping through my bazillions of cookbooks, and you know what I didn’t find? Breakfast and lunch! Why can’t someone publish a cookbook with healthy recipes for breakfast and lunch? All the ones on my bookshelves are just appetizers, entrees, side dishes, and desserts. Sure, if I dig deep enough into Taste of Home Quick Cooking, I might find some egg dishes or muffin recipes, but they aren’t all in one convenient place.

So, in the comments, please post your favorite healthy, easy recipes for breakfast and lunches for your kids! Mine will eat pretty much anything, no food allergies or anything, so the sky’s the limit here. I’ll put my favorite ones together in a post on MomCooks, which you can access from the MomCooks link at the top of the page. Think of it as us making our own cookbook!

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Friendly Friday 6-11-10

June 10, 2010 · by · 9 Comments
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Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.

Friendly Friday is powered by Google Friend Connect, which is a fun way to social-network with other Google Users. Link up your blogs, add your photo, write a short bio, and add the code to your sidebar.

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your link in the list below and  then click over to the 3 hostess blogs. From there, visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other!

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. Don’t forget to leave ME a comment and follow me through Google Friend Connect too!  Have a great Friday and have fun blog hopping!

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Wordless Wednesday – Ryan’s sketches

June 9, 2010 · by · 14 Comments
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Photobucket

Photobucket

I’m trying out something new this week! Linky Tools has an option called thumbnails. Instead of showing a link to your Wordless Wednesday post, it will show a thumbnail image of the photo you posted. I’m hoping it will encourage everyone to click and visit each other’s WW posts. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll be visiting everyone who leaves a link!

See more great Wordless Wednesday photos at Wordless Wednesday.com and at 5 Minutes for Mom.

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Freschetta Pizza Review and $1 Off Coupon Link

June 8, 2010 · by · 7 Comments
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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Freschetta. All opinions are 100% mine.

We eat pizza nearly every Friday night for dinner. Sometimes we have delivery, and sometimes I buy frozen pizza when our budget is tight. I learned of an opportunity through SocialSpark to review Freschetta FlatBread Pizza, said yes to it, and was thrilled when the review kit came in the mail. I love that the box says “Savor. Blog. Repeat.” Inside was a branded pizza cutter, oven mitt and pizza stone.

I headed to Kroger to pick up the pizza (I’m receiving compensation from Freschetta that will cover my purchase), but much to my dismay, couldn’t find Freschetta FlatBread pizza! I even looked behind other boxes to see if it was hiding, but I could not find any. So I crossed my fingers that Freschetta wouldn’t mind a post about another of their pizzas, and picked up Freschetta PizzAmore Pepperoni Duo using the $1.00 off coupon I printed from the Freschetta website. Make sure to click over and print yours!

The amount of toppings on the pizza didn’t exactly match the picture on the box, but I did some pepperoni rearranging to better cover the whole pizza. The round pepperoni pieces were the spicy ones, not too spicy but with a little kick, and the triangles were regular pepperoni. There was an excellent amount of cheese, and, like all frozen pizzas in my opinion, not enough sauce. What I DO like about this pizza is the baking tray it comes on. I don’t have to dirty a pizza pan, and the tray helps the crust brown evenly. Although I didn’t get a photo of the bottom crust, I did check and it was evenly browned as promised.

I like my pizza to have “well done” cheese so I bake it for the maximum time and then a few minutes more if necessary until the cheese is nice and brown, so in these photos, keep that in mind. Here’s before and after:

Freschetta beforeFreschetta pizza cutter

My kids were the very willing taste-testers, and I heard  lots of “yums” and “can I have another piece”.  Ryan was the photo model this time:

I still want to try the FlatBread pizza, especially the Zesty Italian with pepperoni, sausage, genoa salami and a zesty red sauce. Yum! Grab the coupon from the link posted above and try it for yourself!

Visit my sponsor: Freschetta Pizza

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Read Farredeh Baughcum’s inspiring weight loss story in this month’s Good Housekeeping

June 8, 2010 · by · 9 Comments
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When an assault left her mother paralyzed from the chest down, Farredeh Baughcum turned to food for comfort. She had two daughters, and her weight reached 187 pounds by January 2008. Her best friend invited her to attend Weight Watchers, and Farredeh threw herself into the program as well as a gym membership, losing 43 pounds in eight months!

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a story about Baughcum’s success in March of 2009, and Good Housekeeping was so inspired by her story that they put her on the cover of the June 2010 issue!

Good Housekeeping magazine

With the help of her Weight Watchers meeting leader, Farredeh was able to incorporate a healthy new diet along with adding in physical activity to reshape her lifestyle. Her renewed way of living has also positively impacted her family and friends, making her a role model for her daughters – one of whom shares the magazine cover with her! Lately, instead of watching TV together, she and her husband take their daughters out for hikes and exercise together at home with dance music. Read Farredeh Baughcum’s inspiring weight loss story in this month’s Good Housekeeping!

disclosure: while the information in this post came from a press release, I received no compensation for posting it.

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Send Table for Five to the Type-A Mom Conference and Promote Your Site!

June 6, 2010 · by · 8 Comments
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Type A Mom logo

I want to go to the Type-A Mom Conference! Held in Asheville, NC the last weekend of September, Type-A Mom Conference is a unique mom blogging conference featuring some of the most influential, admired and insightful mom bloggers talking about topics like power social networking, branding, blogging, finding your voice, and turning your passion for blogging into a real paycheck.

Type-A Mom Conference has a unique policy on personal sponsorship that I think is brilliant. Attendees are not allowed to hand out products, brochures, “swag”, or any item branded with the name of their sponsor. Instead, the conference has guidelines for what attendees CAN do on behalf of their sponsors, AND has an incentive that benefits the sponsors for helping people get to the conference!

Here’s what I can offer you in exchange for help getting to the Type-A Mom Conference, based on donation level:

  • Premium ad space in the left sidebar, under “About the Author”. I’ll be creating a Type-A Mom Conference Sponsors section and will post either your text link ad or a small (125×125 px) button with your logo that links to your site, whichever you prefer.
  • Your name and URL mentioned at the bottom of all posts about the conference.
  • Blog posts that you write for the company or individual, either here on Table for Five or to publish on your site.
  • Your name and URL on my business cards that I will hand out at the conference identifying you as a sponsor.
  • Wearing of clothing or carrying tote bags branded to your company.
  • My ability to network at the conference and talk in a non-aggressive manner about you as my personal sponsor – and believe me, I talk to EVERYONE at blog conferences!

What is Type-A Mom Conference offering you as my sponsor?

In their words:

We will create a page on the official site with the list of personal sponsors, featuring their logo, a link to their site and the name of the blogger or bloggers they are sponsoring, as well as a link to the blogger’s site (or permalink to the post where the blogger describes the sponsorship).

How much is a Table for Five Type-A Mom Conference Sponsorship?

The conference pass, if I collect enough to get it before the tickets run out, is $199.00 plus a $5.97 fee. The hotel is $129 a night if I book before August and assuming all the reserved rooms don’t sell out. I’ll need three nights (Thurs., Fri. and Sat.) which equals $387.00. According to Delta.com, a round-trip flight to Asheville, if I booked today, is $460.80 for the ticket plus fees.   That makes a total of $1,052.77.

All donations will be gratefully accepted! These are the sponsorship levels and what you will get:

LEVEL 1: $25.00 donation – Your text link or button posted on Table for Five from the date of your donation until the end of September and your name and URL mentioned in blog posts about the conference.

LEVEL 2: $50.00 donation – Your text link or button ad posted here until Sept. 30th and your name and URL mentioned in posts about the conference, and a blog post written about your site including your choice of text links and keywords.

LEVEL 3: $100.00 donation – Your text link or button ad posted here until Sept. 30th, your name and URL mentioned in posts about the conference, a blog post written about your site including your choice of text links and keywords, and your URL printed on the back of my conference business cards.

LEVEL 4: $250.00 donation – Your text link or button ad posted here until Sept. 30th, your name and URL mentioned in posts about the conference, a blog post about your site, your URL printed on my business cards, AND your text link or button ad posted on MomReviews (a PR 5 site!) until Sept. 30th.

What Will I Get Out of Going to Type-A Mom Conference?

At blog conferences, I get a chance to meet old blogging friends and make new ones. I attract new readers to Table for Five which means more people seeing your ad in my sidebar and seeing you mentioned on my Facebook and Twitter updates. Even after five years of blogging, there’s always more to learn, and I always come home from blog conferences with fresh ideas for how to improve not only this blog but my other blogs as well.  Sponsoring my trip to this conference could potentially mean we develop a long-term partnership that benefits us both!

How Can You Become A Sponsor?

All donations will be gratefully accepted.  Please see the above suggested donation levels for suggested donation amounts. Use the PayPal donation button below to make your payment using either your PayPal account or a credit or debit card. Payments will then be transferred to my savings account at Bank of America until I have enough to buy the conference pass, book the hotel room, and/or reserve the flight.  I will provide frequent updates on the progress of the donations, and if the dollar amount I receive exceeds $1,052.77, I will make a donation to Feeding America with whatever I receive above that amount.


When you make your donation, please include a message with the name and URL  you would like me to use when acknowledging you as a sponsor. If you want me to post a small button with your logo, email me at table4five @ gmail dot com with your image link.

Thank you very much for reading this post and considering a donation to help me attend the Type-A Mom Conference in Asheville this September. I look forward to helping promote YOUR site as my personal sponsor!

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