randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

Writing has always been a passion of mine, everything from short stories to poetry to recipes. It’s just something I’ve always enjoyed, and I’ve always dreamed of having something printed. It doesn’t deem so to most people, but the writing industry is so competitive, and of the millions of manuscripts submitted every year, very few actually get picked up. Which is why there’s a certain beauty to Self Publishing. If you can promote your own work, and don’t have a problem with the idea, a site like WordClay.com is a great resource. You fill in the details about your book, upload the manuscript, design the cover, set the cost, compose marketing info and then you’re good to go. The only thing left is to approve and publish. All done, and you don’t have to pay an agent to do all that work for you.

I remember very vividly, going through my mothers albums as a child and pulling out this album. This was many moons ago, I must confess. I was fascinated with the image on the cover, the intensity of the eyes and the blackness of the hair. Maybe it was because at the time my mother’s black hair was very long and very straight, to say nothing of the fact that apart from height, my mom had a very similar body type to Cher. But I’ve always loved her. She’s not just an intriguing person, she’s and amazing performer. I love her voice, the power and the richness of it just makes me tingle.

She’s going to be doing 200 shows over 3 years at Caesars Palace, and I’m hoping that I can see it just once. Cher and Las Vegas just fit like a glove. Vegas is perfectly over the top, and so is Cher. It’s a perfect match — you could call it a marriage made in heaven. I would kill for Cher tickets at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas. The closest to seeing Cher live that I have ever been was watching whatever televised performances I could. Let me just say that even if you’re not a fan of the woman, the showmanship would be worth the price of admission. She’s a spectacular showman, knows how to work the crowd and make you want to sing along.  It would be even better if I could take my mom.  After all, if it weren’t for her I might not have ever become a Cher fan.  I’d also love to take my little sister, who is as big a Cher fan as I am.

It’s no secret, I love coupons. No, that’s an understatement, I love coupons with a passion. I know, I’m weird, but I get so excited when I can save some money on something that I need (or want) to buy. Which is why I really dig getting free coupons online whenever I can. BuyWithCoupons.com is a great new site for getting free online coupons, including several sites that are perfect for buying those Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts that you keep putting off.

It’s coming up on us, mothers day is about 2 months away. Sounds like a long time, but in a blink of an eye it’ll be here. Maybe you’ll be prepared with a special something for mom, maybe not. You can, of course, be prepared and pre-order something for mother’s day delivery now. That’s always a good thing, isn’t it? 1800flowers.com has some coupon codes you can use to get $10, $15 or $25 off your purchase. These are limited time offers, so definitely check them out and place your order as soon as possible. Then you can surprise mom with something beautiful and thoughtful, and be a smart consumer on top of it.

Mar26 - Save $10 no minimum
Mar15 - Save $15 w/min $74.99 purchase
Mar25 - Save $25 w/min $99.99 purchase

I plan on having a look at what they’ve got and collaborating with Sisser tomorrow night so we can have something pretty delivered to Mom for mother’s day. Perhaps some orchids, those are her favorite — though I don’t know if anyone besides me actually remembers that, she’s never actually received any orchids as far as I know of.

A few days ago, I got a sample of Naked Naturals’ awapuhi and lavender natural shampoo and conditioner for color treated hair. I thought it appropriate since I just re-dyed my hair last weekend. I have to say, naked naturals makes a mighty fine product. First off, this sample was no bigger than the normal shampoo/conditioner samples, but I used it twice. My hair’s not that short, I did have it cut a couple of months ago, but it’s a few inches past my shoulders. So a little bit goes a long way, that’s always a good thing in my opinion. 

I love the way this stuff makes my hair smell.  The first time I used the conditioner, while I massaged it through my hair I kept thinking “god this smells great!”  The natural aspect is something that also appeals to me.  No chemicals, so it’s not drying out my scalp — which means that kids can probably use it without it drying out their skin as well.  Another appealing aspect to this particular product is that it’s not tested on animals and doesn’t use animal by-product.  My hair feels thicker, and I like that.  While my hair’s never been what you’d call fine, it’s never had a lot of thickness or body to it.  It feels like the strands are actually thicker.  I pull my hair into a tight pony tail 5 days a week when I go to work, which results in a lot of breakage.  The Naked Naturals is supposed to make your hair 7x stronger.  I don’t know if only 2 applications will do that, but I’m willing to buy a bottle and give it a shot.  It’d be nice not to have anymore new breakage when I get home from work.

One more thing, and maybe it’s low on other people’s list of “good things,” but it’s rather high on mine, my sample came with a coupon for $1 off a Naked Naturals product.  I think that’s incredibly awesome and thank the company for that.  The coupon tells me “here, if you like this, we want you to save some money on your first purchase.”

I love to keep a few good, unique gift ideas in my back pocket for when I have a really hard person to buy for, or when someone asks for a gift idea for their wife’s brother-in-law, that neither of them really knows. Things like the Flying Alarm Clock at Vat19.com, for example. I mean, even if it was never used by the recipient, who wouldn’t at least get a good laugh out of something like that? You know everyone you showed that to would ask for a demonstration. It would, of course, lead to other people getting one if they seemed particularly amused or interested in it. Or you could be bold and get one to actually use.

I’ve always wanted to take a cruise. I went on one once, sort of. It was a day cruise, so we left from some port in Florida at 7am or so and came back at like 8am. There were no stops, no ports of call, and not much fun. We swam in the pool for an hour or so and wandered around. At one point I recall standing outside the casino for a little while while my father went in and played a few slots. That was it. I’d like to go, someday, on a real cruise. The kind that takes awhile, visits nice places and is all around fun. Sometimes, when I’m in the mood for a little fantasy vacation planning, I check out the cruise specials at CruiseLocators.com. I think I’d most like to take a cruise to Alaska or somewhere in Europe. There are some very interesting sounding European cruises that aren’t to the standards like the Mediteranean — Baltic cruises, for example. Hawaii would also be nice, of course. There are some cruises to the Orient that would probably be a lot of fun. Cruiselocators.com even has specialty cruises, like a Lord of the Rings tour — which sounds really interesting.

Being one of those gals who is “well endowed” to put it politely, I often have a hard time finding bras and bathing suits that fit. Especially since the rest of me doesn’t really “fit” that particular proportion. I have a pool party for my nieces birthday to go to next month, and being able to find a Full Busted Bra to go with the bathing suit bottom I already have would be wonderful. The top I have now is ok, but it doesn’t fit my chest quite right. As a matter of fact, the fit is quite wrong — the top is stretched so much when I wear it that you can see white lines where the fabric is stretched to the near breaking point. It’s not attractive, and everytime I wear it I’m afraid that I’m going to end up doing some R-rated variation on the chest burster scene from Alien. Biggerbras.com has a huge selection of bathing suits and bras that come in appropriate sizes for me — I’m seriously in heaven browsing this site. Now I just need to find one that matches the bottom I already have.

I’ve always been a big fan of natural medicine. In my experience there are fewer side effects and bad flavors from natural or alternative medicine. Personally, I’ve used it to treat bronchial issues, colds, and stuff like that. But it can be used to treat more serious conditions – I know people who use natural medicine to help control their diabetes or to help ensure that they’re getting good nutrition. Natmedtalk.com is a nice place for those who are fond of natural medicine – it’s an alternative medicine forum where you can discuss alternative medicine options and information. There are a number of forums on the site, categorized by whatever it is that you want to discuss on the subject. A good set up for finding the information you want or getting advice from people who have tried and true natural medicine remedies and techniques. Checking out the site, I found a lot of good information that I didn’t know before, I even think that some of the stuff on the forum could help me control my hypoglycemia. So if you’re interested in learning more or giving natural medicine a try, it’s worth the time to check out the forum and asking a few questions.

I keep seeing the commercials for the Dyson vacuum cleaner and other Dyson products. I have to say, I’m taken with them. I’ve never tried one, but would love to be able to do a test run and see if they are as good as I hope they are. I love bagless vacuums, and wouldn’t go back to a vacuum that uses a bag if you paid me. Their website is great, too. I especially like that you can get parts and accessories on their website. So many companies do the accessories, but not the parts. If I break a piece or lose an attachment, it’s nice to know that those items are easy to find. They also have a section on the site to help you choose the perfect Dyson for your family. Apparently, the best model for me is the Stowaway Animal. That’s looking for a vacuum that is lightweight, good for multiple floor surfaces, stows easily and good for getting up pet hair. Sounds good to me.

It’s certainly important to do a little research when you’re doing anything involving money. Choosing an Online Casino is no different. You’re giving them money and hoping to make money yourself. There’s a lot of room for error. It’s a good idea to look into the top USA casinos online and see what others have to say about them, what other peoples experiences have been and what kind of benefits each site offers. That’s where topusaonlinecasinos.com comes into play. Instead of searching everywhere for information, they’ve got it all — including what kind of bonuses the sites offer, what games and how fast the payout is.  The only complaint that I have about the site is that there are only 10 sites listed, the top 10 sites, and there’s a possibility that people are looking for information on other less popular sites. Other than that, the site is really impressive and offers a lot of really great information.

I’ve known a couple of people who actually earn their living, or a good portion of their living by way of online gambling. It’s an interesting vocation, to be sure, but they did pretty well. Managed to work part time and then come home and make money doing something they enjoyed. The bills all got paid, there was food on the table and they usually had money left over to go to the movies or go out to eat every now and then. The biggest problem they ever had was deciding which online casino best suited their needs. Of course, now there’s TopUSAOnlineCasinos.com to help with that. The site has information on the top online casinos in a quick-reference format. So it’s easy to see which site(s) are best for what you want to do. The site offers reviews and information as far as payouts, bonuses and whether you have to download anything. It’s not all Texas Hold ‘Em either. The site shows which casinos have slots, blackjack and other games as well. All the information you could possibly want when you’re deciding where to do your internet gambling.

At one point Woody and I talked about setting up an e-Shop selling sterling silver jewelry and a few hand made jewelry items (customizable). We browsed a few sites to set up the shop on, to get an idea of how much we’d need to make each month to cover expenses and such. But the thing that always gave me pause was the setting up of the shopping cart. At the time there wasn’t any shopping cart software that I could find. So I would have had to set it up myself. I’m good, but I’m not that good. Now that there’s software available maybe I can work on setting up an e-Shop in the near future. I used to be pretty good at making various wedding items, photo albums and brooms especially.  It would be nice to eventually be able to set up an e-Shop selling custom/personalized wedding items to brides to be.  The perfect wedding album or broom or shower favors to the maid of honor.  With the help of AshopCommerce.com to set things up, of course.

Most people enjoy gambling to some degree, whether they dig the occasional trip to the local casinos or they’re online casino fanatics. There are even people out there who make their living by way of gambling, in person or online, and they do pretty well. I knew someone years ago who paid a $500 credit card bill with 1 good hand of online poker. For those who aren’t very familiar with online casinos and which ones are the best for what they want to do, there’s onlinecasinobluebook.com. Not sure what that is? Online Casino Bluebook is a site that gives you information on the best online casinos out there. You can even email them for more info if you’re not sure which casino is best for you. Now that’s what I call service. They have reviews of the casinos to help you along the way, and let you know which ones don’t require downloads, how much they offer in sign up bonus money and even lets you know what devices you can play on (PC, MAC, PDA, mobile, etc). If you’re interesting in online gambling, you would do well to check them out before you get started.

There have been a few times when it was necessary to get a cash advance to make ends meet when a paycheck came up short or something happened that required money we didn’t have. It can be very helpful, if you’re smart about it of course. It’s incredibly helpful if, for example, your car needs repair immediately and you don’t have the money on hand or a credit card you can put it on. It also occurred to me a couple of years ago that it could be a very good thing for vacations. What I’d thought about was that most people book their vacations in advance and pay for their airfare, hotel, etc in advance. So you get a cash advance for spending money and you pay it back when the allotted time comes — or extend the advance and pay it over a couple of weeks.  It’s my experience that these sites are very secure and the money is deposited right into your bank account.